How many volumes of decline and fall?

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, sometimes shortened to Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, is a six-volume work by the English historian Edward Gibbon.

Is the decline and fall of the Roman Empire still accurate?

It's not the worst, but it is generally considered outdated in its scholarship . If you choose to read it, do so because it's an interesting look into 18th century historical method and views on the fall of the Roman Empire, not because it's a particularly accurate source.

What is the book The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire about?

The history of The Decline and Fall, set out in Gibbon's first three volumes, was the story of Rome's progressive loss of civic and military capacity, until the western empire was taken over by the barbarian mercenaries recruited to fill the vacuum left by the failure of Rome to defend itself.

Why did Gibbon write the decline and fall of the Roman Empire?

Gibbon viewed the Roman Empire as a single entity in undeviating decline from the ideals of political and intellectual freedom that characterized the classical literature he had read. For him, the material decay of Rome was the effect and symbol of moral decadence.

Is The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire a good read?

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is probably the best written work of non-fiction in the English language , so if you like beautiful, sonorous and occasionally hilarious prose, read it. I have read it at least five times, and it doesn't get stale.

How many volumes of the fall of Roman Empire are there?

His most important work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788.

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Our rough guess is there are 308000 words in this book. At a pace averaging 250 words per minute, this book will take 20 hours and 32 minutes to read.

Did the Roman Empire fall because of Christianity?

7. Christianity and the loss of traditional values. The decline of Rome dovetailed with the spread of Christianity , and some have argued that the rise of a new faith helped contribute to the empire's fall. The Edict of Milan legalized Christianity in 313, and it later became the state religion in 380.

Who was the last Roman emperor?

Romulus Augustus , the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, is deposed by Odoacer, a German barbarian who proclaims himself king of Italy. Odoacer was a mercenary leader in the Roman imperial army when he launched his mutiny against the young emperor.

What is the best book of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire?

The History of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire Edward Gibbon's six-volume “History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88)” is widely considered the most definitive and ambitious narratives about the ancient European civilization.

What were the 3 reasons for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire?

What caused the fall of Rome? Corruption, the division of the empire, and invasion by Germanic tribes were the three main causes of the fall of Rome.

Who defeated the Roman Empire?

The fall of Rome was completed in 476, when the German chieftain Odoacer deposed the last Roman emperor of the West, Romulus Augustulus. The East, always richer and stronger, continued as the Byzantine Empire through the European Middle Ages.

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (vol. 2) (2024)

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{{Template}}Volume 2 of The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–1789), published in six volumes, is a book by Edward Gibbon.

Chapter XVI--Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero ToConstantine.--Part I.

 The Conduct Of The Roman Government Towards The Christians, From The Reign Of Nero To That Of Constantine.

If we seriously consider the purity of the Christian religion, thesanctity of its moral precepts, and the innocent as well as austerelives of the greater number of those who during the first ages embracedthe faith of the gospel, we should naturally suppose, that so benevolenta doctrine would have been received with due reverence, even by theunbelieving world; that the learned and the polite, however they mayderide the miracles, would have esteemed the virtues, of the new sect;and that the magistrates, instead of persecuting, would have protectedan order of men who yielded the most passive obedience to the laws,though they declined the active cares of war and government. If, on theother hand, we recollect the universal toleration of Polytheism, as itwas invariably maintained by the faith of the people, the incredulity ofphilosophers, and the policy of the Roman senate and emperors, we are ata loss to discover what new offence the Christians had committed, whatnew provocation could exasperate the mild indifference of antiquity,and what new motives could urge the Roman princes, who beheld withoutconcern a thousand forms of religion subsisting in peace under theirgentle sway, to inflict a severe punishment on any part of theirsubjects, who had chosen for themselves a singular but an inoffensivemode of faith and worship.

The religious policy of the ancient world seems to have assumed a morestern and intolerant character, to oppose the progress of Christianity.About fourscore years after the death of Christ, his innocent discipleswere punished with death by the sentence of a proconsul of the mostamiable and philosophic character, and according to the laws ofan emperor distinguished by the wisdom and justice of his generaladministration. The apologies which were repeatedly addressed to thesuccessors of Trajan are filled with the most pathetic complaints, thatthe Christians, who obeyed the dictates, and solicited the liberty,of conscience, were alone, among all the subjects of the Roman empire,excluded from the common benefits of their auspicious government. Thedeaths of a few eminent martyrs have been recorded with care; and fromthe time that Christianity was invested with the supreme power, thegovernors of the church have been no less diligently employed indisplaying the cruelty, than in imitating the conduct, of their Paganadversaries. To separate (if it be possible) a few authentic as well asinteresting facts from an undigested mass of fiction and error, andto relate, in a clear and rational manner, the causes, the extent, theduration, and the most important circ*mstances of the persecutions towhich the first Christians were exposed, is the design of the presentchapter. *

The sectaries of a persecuted religion, depressed by fear animated withresentment, and perhaps heated by enthusiasm, are seldom in a propertemper of mind calmly to investigate, or candidly to appreciate,the motives of their enemies, which often escape the impartial anddiscerning view even of those who are placed at a secure distance fromthe flames of persecution. A reason has been assigned for the conduct ofthe emperors towards the primitive Christians, which may appear the morespecious and probable as it is drawn from the acknowledged genius ofPolytheism. It has already been observed, that the religious concord ofthe world was principally supported by the implicit assent and reverencewhich the nations of antiquity expressed for their respective traditionsand ceremonies. It might therefore be expected, that they would unitewith indignation against any sect or people which should separate itselffrom the communion of mankind, and claiming the exclusive possession ofdivine knowledge, should disdain every form of worship, except its own,as impious and idolatrous. The rights of toleration were held by mutualindulgence: they were justly forfeited by a refusal of the accustomedtribute. As the payment of this tribute was inflexibly refused by theJews, and by them alone, the consideration of the treatment which theyexperienced from the Roman magistrates, will serve to explain how farthese speculations are justified by facts, and will lead us to discoverthe true causes of the persecution of Christianity.

Without repeating what has already been mentioned of the reverence ofthe Roman princes and governors for the temple of Jerusalem, weshall only observe, that the destruction of the temple and city wasaccompanied and followed by every circ*mstance that could exasperate theminds of the conquerors, and authorize religious persecution by the mostspecious arguments of political justice and the public safety. From thereign of Nero to that of Antoninus Pius, the Jews discovered a fierceimpatience of the dominion of Rome, which repeatedly broke out in themost furious massacres and insurrections. Humanity is shocked at therecital of the horrid cruelties which they committed in the citiesof Egypt, of Cyprus, and of Cyrene, where they dwelt in treacherousfriendship with the unsuspecting natives; and we are tempted to applaudthe severe retaliation which was exercised by the arms of the legionsagainst a race of fanatics, whose dire and credulous superstition seemedto render them the implacable enemies not only of the Roman government,but of human kind. The enthusiasm of the Jews was supported by theopinion, that it was unlawful for them to pay taxes to an idolatrousmaster; and by the flattering promise which they derived from theirancient oracles, that a conquering Messiah would soon arise, destinedto break their fetters, and to invest the favorites of heaven with theempire of the earth. It was by announcing himself as their long-expecteddeliverer, and by calling on all the descendants of Abraham to assertthe hope of IsrÊl, that the famous Barchochebas collected a formidablearmy, with which he resisted during two years the power of the emperorHadrian.

Notwithstanding these repeated provocations, the resentment of theRoman princes expired after the victory; nor were their apprehensionscontinued beyond the period of war and danger. By the general indulgenceof polytheism, and by the mild temper of Antoninus Pius, the Jewswere restored to their ancient privileges, and once more obtained thepermission of circumcising their children, with the easy restraint, thatthey should never confer on any foreign proselyte that distinguishingmark of the Hebrew race. The numerous remains of that people, thoughthey were still excluded from the precincts of Jerusalem, were permittedto form and to maintain considerable establishments both in Italy andin the provinces, to acquire the freedom of Rome, to enjoy municipalhonors, and to obtain at the same time an exemption from the burdensomeand expensive offices of society. The moderation or the contempt of theRomans gave a legal sanction to the form of ecclesiastical police whichwas instituted by the vanquished sect. The patriarch, who had fixedhis residence at Tiberias, was empowered to appoint his subordinateministers and apostles, to exercise a domestic jurisdiction, andto receive from his dispersed brethren an annual contribution. Newsynagogues were frequently erected in the principal cities of theempire; and the sabbaths, the fasts, and the festivals, which wereeither commanded by the Mosaic law, or enjoined by the traditions ofthe Rabbis, were celebrated in the most solemn and public manner. Suchgentle treatment insensibly assuaged the stern temper of the Jews.Awakened from their dream of prophecy and conquest, they assumed thebehavior of peaceable and industrious subjects. Their irreconcilablehatred of mankind, instead of flaming out in acts of blood and violence,evaporated in less dangerous gratifications. They embraced everyopportunity of overreaching the idolaters in trade; and they pronouncedsecret and ambiguous imprecations against the haughty kingdom of Edom.

Since the Jews, who rejected with abhorrence the deities adored bytheir sovereign and by their fellow-subjects, enjoyed, however, the freeexercise of their unsocial religion, there must have existed some othercause, which exposed the disciples of Christ to those severities fromwhich the posterity of Abraham was exempt. The difference between themis simple and obvious; but, according to the sentiments of antiquity,it was of the highest importance. The Jews were a nation; the Christianswere a sect: and if it was natural for every community to respect thesacred institutions of their neighbors, it was incumbent on themto persevere in those of their ancestors. The voice of oracles, theprecepts of philosophers, and the authority of the laws, unanimouslyenforced this national obligation. By their lofty claim of superiorsanctity the Jews might provoke the Polytheists to consider them as anodious and impure race. By disdaining the intercourse of other nations,they might deserve their contempt. The laws of Moses might be for themost part frivolous or absurd; yet, since they had been received duringmany ages by a large society, his followers were justified by theexample of mankind; and it was universally acknowledged, that they hada right to practise what it would have been criminal in them to neglect.But this principle, which protected the Jewish synagogue, afforded notany favor or security to the primitive church. By embracing the faith ofthe gospel, the Christians incurred the supposed guilt of an unnaturaland unpardonable offence. They dissolved the sacred ties of custom andeducation, violated the religious institutions of their country, andpresumptuously despised whatever their fathers had believed as true,or had reverenced as sacred. Nor was this apostasy (if we may use theexpression) merely of a partial or local kind; since the pious deserterwho withdrew himself from the temples of Egypt or Syria, would equallydisdain to seek an asylum in those of Athens or Carthage. EveryChristian rejected with contempt the superstitions of his family, hiscity, and his province. The whole body of Christians unanimously refusedto hold any communion with the gods of Rome, of the empire, and ofmankind. It was in vain that the oppressed believer asserted theinalienable rights of conscience and private judgment. Though hissituation might excite the pity, his arguments could never reach theunderstanding, either of the philosophic or of the believing part ofthe Pagan world. To their apprehensions, it was no less a matterof surprise, that any individuals should entertain scruples againstcomplying with the established mode of worship, than if they hadconceived a sudden abhorrence to the manners, the dress, or the languageof their native country. *

The surprise of the Pagans was soon succeeded by resentment; and themost pious of men were exposed to the unjust but dangerous imputation ofimpiety. Malice and prejudice concurred in representing the Christiansas a society of atheists, who, by the most daring attack on thereligious constitution of the empire, had merited the severestanimadversion of the civil magistrate. They had separated themselves(they gloried in the confession) from every mode of superstitionwhich was received in any part of the globe by the various temper ofpolytheism: but it was not altogether so evident what deity, or whatform of worship, they had substituted to the gods and temples ofantiquity. The pure and sublime idea which they entertained of theSupreme Being escaped the gross conception of the Pagan multitude,who were at a loss to discover a spiritual and solitary God, that wasneither represented under any corporeal figure or visible symbol, norwas adored with the accustomed pomp of libations and festivals, ofaltars and sacrifices. The sages of Greece and Rome, who had elevatedtheir minds to the contemplation of the existence and attributes ofthe First Cause, were induced by reason or by vanity to reservefor themselves and their chosen disciples the privilege of thisphilosophical devotion. They were far from admitting the prejudices ofmankind as the standard of truth, but they considered them as flowingfrom the original disposition of human nature; and they supposed thatany popular mode of faith and worship which presumed to disclaim theassistance of the senses, would, in proportion as it receded fromsuperstition, find itself incapable of restraining the wanderings of thefancy, and the visions of fanaticism. The careless glance which menof wit and learning condescended to cast on the Christian revelation,served only to confirm their hasty opinion, and to persuade them thatthe principle, which they might have revered, of the Divine Unity,was defaced by the wild enthusiasm, and annihilated by the airyspeculations, of the new sectaries. The author of a celebrated dialogue,which has been attributed to Lucian, whilst he affects to treat themysterious subject of the Trinity in a style of ridicule and contempt,betrays his own ignorance of the weakness of human reason, and of theinscrutable nature of the divine perfections.

It might appear less surprising, that the founder of Christianity shouldnot only be revered by his disciples as a sage and a prophet, but thathe should be adored as a God. The Polytheists were disposed to adoptevery article of faith, which seemed to offer any resemblance, howeverdistant or imperfect, with the popular mythology; and the legends ofBacchus, of Hercules, and of ∆sculapius, had, in some measure, preparedtheir imagination for the appearance of the Son of God under a humanform. But they were astonished that the Christians should abandon thetemples of those ancient heroes, who, in the infancy of the world, hadinvented arts, instituted laws, and vanquished the tyrants or monsterswho infested the earth, in order to choose for the exclusive object oftheir religious worship an obscure teacher, who, in a recent age, andamong a barbarous people, had fallen a sacrifice either to the maliceof his own countrymen, or to the jealousy of the Roman government. ThePagan multitude, reserving their gratitude for temporal benefits alone,rejected the inestimable present of life and immortality, which wasoffered to mankind by Jesus of Nazareth. His mild constancy in the midstof cruel and voluntary sufferings, his universal benevolence, and thesublime simplicity of his actions and character, were insufficient, inthe opinion of those carnal men, to compensate for the want of fame,of empire, and of success; and whilst they refused to acknowledge hisstupendous triumph over the powers of darkness and of the grave, theymisrepresented, or they insulted, the equivocal birth, wandering life,and ignominious death, of the divine Author of Christianity.

The personal guilt which every Christian had contracted, in thuspreferring his private sentiment to the national religion, wasaggravated in a very high degree by the number and union of thecriminals. It is well known, and has been already observed, that Romanpolicy viewed with the utmost jealousy and distrust any associationamong its subjects; and that the privileges of private corporations,though formed for the most harmless or beneficial purposes, werebestowed with a very sparing hand. The religious assemblies of theChristians who had separated themselves from the public worship,appeared of a much less innocent nature; they were illegal in theirprinciple, and in their consequences might become dangerous; nor werethe emperors conscious that they violated the laws of justice, when,for the peace of society, they prohibited those secret and sometimesnocturnal meetings. The pious disobedience of the Christians made theirconduct, or perhaps their designs, appear in a much more serious andcriminal light; and the Roman princes, who might perhaps have sufferedthemselves to be disarmed by a ready submission, deeming their honorconcerned in the execution of their commands, sometimes attempted, byrigorous punishments, to subdue this independent spirit, which boldlyacknowledged an authority superior to that of the magistrate. The extentand duration of this spiritual conspiracy seemed to render it everydaymore deserving of his animadversion. We have already seen that theactive and successful zeal of the Christians had insensibly diffusedthem through every province and almost every city of the empire. The newconverts seemed to renounce their family and country, that they mightconnect themselves in an indissoluble band of union with a peculiarsociety, which every where assumed a different character from the restof mankind. Their gloomy and austere aspect, their abhorrence of thecommon business and pleasures of life, and their frequent predictions ofimpending calamities, inspired the Pagans with the apprehension of somedanger, which would arise from the new sect, the more alarming as it wasthe more obscure. "Whatever," says Pliny, "may be the principle of theirconduct, their inflexible obstinacy appeared deserving of punishment."

The precautions with which the disciples of Christ performed the officesof religion were at first dictated by fear and necessity; but they werecontinued from choice. By imitating the awful secrecy which reigned inthe Eleusinian mysteries, the Christians had flattered themselves thatthey should render their sacred institutions more respectable in theeyes of the Pagan world. But the event, as it often happens tothe operations of subtile policy, deceived their wishes and theirexpectations. It was concluded, that they only concealed what theywould have blushed to disclose. Their mistaken prudence afforded anopportunity for malice to invent, and for suspicious credulity tobelieve, the horrid tales which described the Christians as the mostwicked of human kind, who practised in their dark recesses everyabomination that a depraved fancy could suggest, and who solicited thefavor of their unknown God by the sacrifice of every moral virtue. Therewere many who pretended to confess or to relate the ceremonies of thisabhorred society. It was asserted, "that a new-born infant, entirelycovered over with flour, was presented, like some mystic symbol ofinitiation, to the knife of the proselyte, who unknowingly inflictedmany a secret and mortal wound on the innocent victim of his error; thatas soon as the cruel deed was perpetrated, the sectaries drank upthe blood, greedily tore asunder the quivering members, and pledgedthemselves to eternal secrecy, by a mutual consciousness of guilt. Itwas as confidently affirmed, that this inhuman sacrifice was succeededby a suitable entertainment, in which intemperance served as aprovocative to brutal lust; till, at the appointed moment, the lightswere suddenly extinguished, shame was banished, nature was forgotten;and, as accident might direct, the darkness of the night was pollutedby the incestuous commerce of sisters and brothers, of sons and ofmothers."

But the perusal of the ancient apologies was sufficient to removeeven the slightest suspicion from the mind of a candid adversary. TheChristians, with the intrepid security of innocence, appeal from thevoice of rumor to the equity of the magistrates. They acknowledge, thatif any proof can be produced of the crimes which calumny has imputed tothem, they are worthy of the most severe punishment. They provoke thepunishment, and they challenge the proof. At the same time they urge,with equal truth and propriety, that the charge is not less devoid ofprobability, than it is destitute of evidence; they ask, whether anyone can seriously believe that the pure and holy precepts of the gospel,which so frequently restrain the use of the most lawful enjoyments,should inculcate the practice of the most abominable crimes; that alarge society should resolve to dishonor itself in the eyes of its ownmembers; and that a great number of persons of either sex, and every ageand character, insensible to the fear of death or infamy, should consentto violate those principles which nature and education had imprintedmost deeply in their minds. Nothing, it should seem, could weaken theforce or destroy the effect of so unanswerable a justification, unlessit were the injudicious conduct of the apologists themselves, whobetrayed the common cause of religion, to gratify their devout hatred tothe domestic enemies of the church. It was sometimes faintly insinuated,and sometimes boldly asserted, that the same bloody sacrifices, andthe same incestuous festivals, which were so falsely ascribed to theorthodox believers, were in reality celebrated by the Marcionites, bythe Carpocratians, and by several other sects of the Gnostics, who,notwithstanding they might deviate into the paths of heresy, were stillactuated by the sentiments of men, and still governed by the preceptsof Christianity. Accusations of a similar kind were retorted upon thechurch by the schismatics who had departed from its communion, and itwas confessed on all sides, that the most scandalous licentiousness ofmanners prevailed among great numbers of those who affected the nameof Christians. A Pagan magistrate, who possessed neither leisure norabilities to discern the almost imperceptible line which divides theorthodox faith from heretical pravity, might easily have imagined thattheir mutual animosity had extorted the discovery of their common guilt.It was fortunate for the repose, or at least for the reputation, of thefirst Christians, that the magistrates sometimes proceeded with moretemper and moderation than is usually consistent with religious zeal,and that they reported, as the impartial result of their judicialinquiry, that the sectaries, who had deserted the established worship,appeared to them sincere in their professions, and blameless in theirmanners; however they might incur, by their absurd and excessivesuperstition, the censure of the laws.

Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero ToConstantine.--Part II.

History, which undertakes to record the transactions of the past, forthe instruction of future ages, would ill deserve that honorable office,if she condescended to plead the cause of tyrants, or to justify themaxims of persecution. It must, however, be acknowledged, that theconduct of the emperors who appeared the least favorable to theprimitive church, is by no means so criminal as that of modernsovereigns, who have employed the arm of violence and terror againstthe religious opinions of any part of their subjects. From theirreflections, or even from their own feelings, a Charles V. or a LewisXIV. might have acquired a just knowledge of the rights of conscience,of the obligation of faith, and of the innocence of error. But theprinces and magistrates of ancient Rome were strangers to thoseprinciples which inspired and authorized the inflexible obstinacy of theChristians in the cause of truth, nor could they themselves discover intheir own breasts any motive which would have prompted them to refuse alegal, and as it were a natural, submission to the sacred institutionsof their country. The same reason which contributes to alleviate theguilt, must have tended to abate the vigor, of their persecutions.As they were actuated, not by the furious zeal of bigots, but by thetemperate policy of legislators, contempt must often have relaxed, andhumanity must frequently have suspended, the execution of those lawswhich they enacted against the humble and obscure followers of Christ.From the general view of their character and motives we might naturallyconclude: I. That a considerable time elapsed before they considered thenew sectaries as an object deserving of the attention of government. II.That in the conviction of any of their subjects who were accused of sovery singular a crime, they proceeded with caution and reluctance. III.That they were moderate in the use of punishments; and, IV. That theafflicted church enjoyed many intervals of peace and tranquility.Notwithstanding the careless indifference which the most copious andthe most minute of the Pagan writers have shown to the affairs ofthe Christians, it may still be in our power to confirm each of theseprobable suppositions, by the evidence of authentic facts.

1. By the wise dispensation of Providence, a mysterious veil was castover the infancy of the church, which, till the faith of the Christianswas matured, and their numbers were multiplied, served to protect themnot only from the malice but even from the knowledge of the Pagan world.The slow and gradual abolition of the Mosaic ceremonies afforded a safeand innocent disguise to the more early proselytes of the gospel. Asthey were, for the greater part, of the race of Abraham, they weredistinguished by the peculiar mark of circumcision, offered up theirdevotions in the Temple of Jerusalem till its final destruction, andreceived both the Law and the Prophets as the genuine inspirations ofthe Deity. The Gentile converts, who by a spiritual adoption had beenassociated to the hope of IsrÊl, were likewise confounded under thegarb and appearance of Jews, and as the Polytheists paid less regardto articles of faith than to the external worship, the new sect, whichcarefully concealed, or faintly announced, its future greatness andambition, was permitted to shelter itself under the general tolerationwhich was granted to an ancient and celebrated people in the Romanempire. It was not long, perhaps, before the Jews themselves, animatedwith a fiercer zeal and a more jealous faith, perceived the gradualseparation of their Nazarene brethren from the doctrine of thesynagogue; and they would gladly have extinguished the dangerous heresyin the blood of its adherents. But the decrees of Heaven had alreadydisarmed their malice; and though they might sometimes exert thelicentious privilege of sedition, they no longer possessed theadministration of criminal justice; nor did they find it easy to infuseinto the calm breast of a Roman magistrate the rancor of their own zealand prejudice. The provincial governors declared themselves ready tolisten to any accusation that might affect the public safety; but assoon as they were informed that it was a question not of facts but ofwords, a dispute relating only to the interpretation of the Jewish lawsand prophecies, they deemed it unworthy of the majesty of Rome seriouslyto discuss the obscure differences which might arise among a barbarousand superstitious people. The innocence of the first Christians wasprotected by ignorance and contempt; and the tribunal of the Paganmagistrate often proved their most assured refuge against the fury ofthe synagogue. If indeed we were disposed to adopt the traditions of atoo credulous antiquity, we might relate the distant peregrinations, thewonderful achievements, and the various deaths of the twelve apostles:but a more accurate inquiry will induce us to doubt, whether any ofthose persons who had been witnesses to the miracles of Christ werepermitted, beyond the limits of Palestine, to seal with their blood thetruth of their testimony. From the ordinary term of human life, it mayvery naturally be presumed that most of them were deceased beforethe discontent of the Jews broke out into that furious war, which wasterminated only by the ruin of Jerusalem. During a long period, fromthe death of Christ to that memorable rebellion, we cannot discover anytraces of Roman intolerance, unless they are to be found in the sudden,the transient, but the cruel persecution, which was exercised by Neroagainst the Christians of the capital, thirty-five years after theformer, and only two years before the latter, of those great events.The character of the philosophic historian, to whom we are principallyindebted for the knowledge of this singular transaction, would alone besufficient to recommend it to our most attentive consideration.

In the tenth year of the reign of Nero, the capital of the empire wasafflicted by a fire which raged beyond the memory or example of formerages. The monuments of Grecian art and of Roman virtue, the trophies ofthe Punic and Gallic wars, the most holy temples, and the most splendidpalaces, were involved in one common destruction. Of the fourteenregions or quarters into which Rome was divided, four only subsistedentire, three were levelled with the ground, and the remaining seven,which had experienced the fury of the flames, displayed a melancholyprospect of ruin and desolation. The vigilance of government appears notto have neglected any of the precautions which might alleviate the senseof so dreadful a calamity. The Imperial gardens were thrown open tothe distressed multitude, temporary buildings were erected for theiraccommodation, and a plentiful supply of corn and provisions wasdistributed at a very moderate price. The most generous policy seemed tohave dictated the edicts which regulated the disposition of the streetsand the construction of private houses; and as it usually happens, inan age of prosperity, the conflagration of Rome, in the course of a fewyears, produced a new city, more regular and more beautiful than theformer. But all the prudence and humanity affected by Nero on thisoccasion were insufficient to preserve him from the popular suspicion.Every crime might be imputed to the assassin of his wife and mother; norcould the prince who prostituted his person and dignity on the theatrebe deemed incapable of the most extravagant folly. The voice of rumoraccused the emperor as the incendiary of his own capital; and as themost incredible stories are the best adapted to the genius of anenraged people, it was gravely reported, and firmly believed, thatNero, enjoying the calamity which he had occasioned, amused himselfwith singing to his lyre the destruction of ancient Troy. To diverta suspicion, which the power of despotism was unable to suppress,the emperor resolved to substitute in his own place some fictitiouscriminals. "With this view," continues Tacitus, "he inflicted the mostexquisite tortures on those men, who, under the vulgar appellation ofChristians, were already branded with deserved infamy. They derivedtheir name and origin from Christ, who in the reign of Tiberius hadsuffered death by the sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate. For awhile this dire superstition was checked; but it again burst forth;

and not only spread itself over JudÊa, the first seat of this

mischievous sect, but was even introduced into Rome, the common asylumwhich receives and protects whatever is impure, whatever is atrocious.The confessions of those who were seized discovered a great multitudeof their accomplices, and they were all convicted, not so much for thecrime of setting fire to the city, as for their hatred of human kind.They died in torments, and their torments were imbittered by insult andderision. Some were nailed on crosses; others sewn up in the skins ofwild beasts, and exposed to the fury of dogs; others again, smearedover with combustible materials, were used as torches to illuminatethe darkness of the night. The gardens of Nero were destined for themelancholy spectacle, which was accompanied with a horse-race andhonored with the presence of the emperor, who mingled with the populacein the dress and attitude of a charioteer. The guilt of the Christiansdeserved indeed the most exemplary punishment, but the public abhorrencewas changed into commiseration, from the opinion that those unhappywretches were sacrificed, not so much to the public welfare, as to thecruelty of a jealous tyrant." Those who survey with a curious eye therevolutions of mankind, may observe, that the gardens and circus ofNero on the Vatican, which were polluted with the blood of the firstChristians, have been rendered still more famous by the triumph and bythe abuse of the persecuted religion. On the same spot, a temple, whichfar surpasses the ancient glories of the Capitol, has been since erectedby the Christian Pontiffs, who, deriving their claim of universaldominion from an humble fisherman of Galilee, have succeeded to thethrone of the CÊsars, given laws to the barbarian conquerors of Rome,and extended their spiritual jurisdiction from the coast of the Balticto the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

But it would be improper to dismiss this account of Nero's persecution,till we have made some observations that may serve to remove thedifficulties with which it is perplexed, and to throw some light on thesubsequent history of the church.

1. The most sceptical criticism is obliged to respect the truth of thisextraordinary fact, and the integrity of this celebrated passage ofTacitus. The former is confirmed by the diligent and accurate Suetonius,who mentions the punishment which Nero inflicted on the Christians, asect of men who had embraced a new and criminal superstition. The lattermay be proved by the consent of the most ancient manuscripts; by theinimitable character of the style of Tacitus by his reputation, whichguarded his text from the interpolations of pious fraud; and by thepurport of his narration, which accused the first Christians of the mostatrocious crimes, without insinuating that they possessed any miraculousor even magical powers above the rest of mankind. 2. Notwithstanding itis probable that Tacitus was born some years before the fire of Rome,he could derive only from reading and conversation the knowledge of anevent which happened during his infancy. Before he gave himself to thepublic, he calmly waited till his genius had attained its full maturity,and he was more than forty years of age, when a grateful regard forthe memory of the virtuous Agricola extorted from him the most early ofthose historical compositions which will delight and instruct the mostdistant posterity. After making a trial of his strength in the life ofa*gricola and the description of Germany, he conceived, and at lengthexecuted, a more arduous work; the history of Rome, in thirty books,from the fall of Nero to the accession of Nerva. The administrationof Nerva introduced an age of justice and propriety, which Tacitus haddestined for the occupation of his old age; but when he took a nearerview of his subject, judging, perhaps, that it was a more honorable ora less invidious office to record the vices of past tyrants, than tocelebrate the virtues of a reigning monarch, he chose rather to relate,under the form of annals, the actions of the four immediate successorsof Augustus. To collect, to dispose, and to adorn a series of fourscoreyears, in an immortal work, every sentence of which is pregnant withthe deepest observations and the most lively images, was an undertakingsufficient to exercise the genius of Tacitus himself during the greatestpart of his life. In the last years of the reign of Trajan, whilst thevictorious monarch extended the power of Rome beyond its ancient limits,the historian was describing, in the second and fourth books of hisannals, the tyranny of Tiberius; and the emperor Hadrian must havesucceeded to the throne, before Tacitus, in the regular prosecution ofhis work, could relate the fire of the capital, and the cruelty of Nerotowards the unfortunate Christians. At the distance of sixty years, itwas the duty of the annalist to adopt the narratives of contemporaries;but it was natural for the philosopher to indulge himself in thedescription of the origin, the progress, and the character of the newsect, not so much according to the knowledge or prejudices of the ageof Nero, as according to those of the time of Hadrian. 3 Tacitus veryfrequently trusts to the curiosity or reflection of his readers tosupply those intermediate circ*mstances and ideas, which, in his extremeconciseness, he has thought proper to suppress. We may therefore presumeto imagine some probable cause which could direct the cruelty of Neroagainst the Christians of Rome, whose obscurity, as well as innocence,should have shielded them from his indignation, and even from hisnotice. The Jews, who were numerous in the capital, and oppressed intheir own country, were a much fitter object for the suspicions of theemperor and of the people: nor did it seem unlikely that a vanquishednation, who already discovered their abhorrence of the Roman yoke, mighthave recourse to the most atrocious means of gratifying their implacablerevenge. But the Jews possessed very powerful advocates in the palace,and even in the heart of the tyrant; his wife and mistress, thebeautiful PoppÊa, and a favorite player of the race of Abraham, who hadalready employed their intercession in behalf of the obnoxious people.In their room it was necessary to offer some other victims, and it mighteasily be suggested that, although the genuine followers of Moses wereinnocent of the fire of Rome, there had arisen among them a new andpernicious sect of GalilÊans, which was capable of the most horridcrimes. Under the appellation of GalilÊans, two distinctions of menwere confounded, the most opposite to each other in their mannersand principles; the disciples who had embraced the faith of Jesus ofNazareth, and the zealots who had followed the standard of Judas theGaulonite. The former were the friends, the latter were the enemies, ofhuman kind; and the only resemblance between them consisted in the sameinflexible constancy, which, in the defence of their cause, renderedthem insensible of death and tortures. The followers of Judas, whoimpelled their countrymen into rebellion, were soon buried under theruins of Jerusalem; whilst those of Jesus, known by the more celebratedname of Christians, diffused themselves over the Roman empire. Hownatural was it for Tacitus, in the time of Hadrian, to appropriate tothe Christians the guilt and the sufferings, * which he might, with fargreater truth and justice, have attributed to a sect whose odious memorywas almost extinguished! 4. Whatever opinion may be entertained of thisconjecture, (for it is no more than a conjecture,) it is evident thatthe effect, as well as the cause, of Nero's persecution, was confinedto the walls of Rome, that the religious tenets of the GalilÊans orChristians, were never made a subject of punishment, or even of inquiry;and that, as the idea of their sufferings was for a long time connectedwith the idea of cruelty and injustice, the moderation of succeedingprinces inclined them to spare a sect, oppressed by a tyrant, whose ragehad been usually directed against virtue and innocence.

It is somewhat remarkable that the flames of war consumed, almost atthe same time, the temple of Jerusalem and the Capitol of Rome; and itappears no less singular, that the tribute which devotion had destinedto the former, should have been converted by the power of an assaultingvictor to restore and adorn the splendor of the latter. The emperorslevied a general capitation tax on the Jewish people; and although thesum assessed on the head of each individual was inconsiderable, the usefor which it was designed, and the severity with which it was exacted,were considered as an intolerable grievance. Since the officers of therevenue extended their unjust claim to many persons who were strangersto the blood or religion of the Jews, it was impossible that theChristians, who had so often sheltered themselves under the shade of thesynagogue, should now escape this rapacious persecution. Anxious asthey were to avoid the slightest infection of idolatry, their conscienceforbade them to contribute to the honor of that dÊmon who had assumedthe character of the Capitoline Jupiter. As a very numerous thoughdeclining party among the Christians still adhered to the law of Moses,their efforts to dissemble their Jewish origin were detected by thedecisive test of circumcision; nor were the Roman magistrates at leisureto inquire into the difference of their religious tenets. Among theChristians who were brought before the tribunal of the emperor, or,as it seems more probable, before that of the procurator of JudÊa, twopersons are said to have appeared, distinguished by their extraction,which was more truly noble than that of the greatest monarchs. Thesewere the grandsons of St. Jude the apostle, who himself was the brotherof Jesus Christ. Their natural pretensions to the throne of David mightperhaps attract the respect of the people, and excite the jealousy ofthe governor; but the meanness of their garb, and the simplicity oftheir answers, soon convinced him that they were neither desirousnor capable of disturbing the peace of the Roman empire. They franklyconfessed their royal origin, and their near relation to the Messiah;but they disclaimed any temporal views, and professed that his kingdom,which they devoutly expected, was purely of a spiritual and angelicnature. When they were examined concerning their fortune and occupation,they showed their hands, hardened with daily labor, and declared thatthey derived their whole subsistence from the cultivation of a farm nearthe village of Cocaba, of the extent of about twenty-four English acres,and of the value of nine thousand drachms, or three hundred poundssterling. The grandsons of St. Jude were dismissed with compassion andcontempt.

But although the obscurity of the house of David might protect themfrom the suspicions of a tyrant, the present greatness of his ownfamily alarmed the pusillanimous temper of Domitian, which could only beappeased by the blood of those Romans whom he either feared, or hated,or esteemed. Of the two sons of his uncle Flavius Sabinus, the elder wassoon convicted of treasonable intentions, and the younger, who borethe name of Flavius Clemens, was indebted for his safety to his wantof courage and ability. The emperor for a long time, distinguished soharmless a kinsman by his favor and protection, bestowed on him his ownniece Domitilla, adopted the children of that marriage to the hopeof the succession, and invested their father with the honors of theconsulship.

But he had scarcely finished the term of his annual magistracy, when, ona slight pretence, he was condemned and executed; Domitilla was banishedto a desolate island on the coast of Campania; and sentences either ofdeath or of confiscation were pronounced against a great number of whowere involved in the same accusation. The guilt imputed to their chargewas that of Atheism and Jewish manners; a singular association of ideas,which cannot with any propriety be applied except to the Christians, asthey were obscurely and imperfectly viewed by the magistrates and bythe writers of that period. On the strength of so probable aninterpretation, and too eagerly admitting the suspicions of a tyrant asan evidence of their honorable crime, the church has placed both Clemensand Domitilla among its first martyrs, and has branded the cruelty ofDomitian with the name of the second persecution. But this persecution(if it deserves that epithet) was of no long duration. A few monthsafter the death of Clemens, and the banishment of Domitilla, Stephen, afreedman belonging to the latter, who had enjoyed the favor, but whohad not surely embraced the faith, of his mistress, * assassinatedthe emperor in his palace. The memory of Domitian was condemned by thesenate; his acts were rescinded; his exiles recalled; and under thegentle administration of Nerva, while the innocent were restored totheir rank and fortunes, even the most guilty either obtained pardon orescaped punishment.

II. About ten years afterwards, under the reign of Trajan, the youngerPliny was intrusted by his friend and master with the government ofBithynia and Pontus. He soon found himself at a loss to determine bywhat rule of justice or of law he should direct his conduct in theexecution of an office the most repugnant to his humanity. Pliny hadnever assisted at any judicial proceedings against the Christians,with whose lame alone he seems to be acquainted; and he was totallyuninformed with regard to the nature of their guilt, the method of theirconviction, and the degree of their punishment. In this perplexity hehad recourse to his usual expedient, of submitting to the wisdom ofTrajan an impartial, and, in some respects, a favorable account of thenew superstition, requesting the emperor, that he would condescend toresolve his doubts, and to instruct his ignorance. The life of Pliny hadbeen employed in the acquisition of learning, and in the business of theworld. Since the age of nineteen he had pleaded with distinction in thetribunals of Rome, filled a place in the senate, had been invested withthe honors of the consulship, and had formed very numerous connectionswith every order of men, both in Italy and in the provinces. From hisignorance therefore we may derive some useful information. We may assureourselves, that when he accepted the government of Bithynia, therewere no general laws or decrees of the senate in force against theChristians; that neither Trajan nor any of his virtuous predecessors,whose edicts were received into the civil and criminal jurisprudence,had publicly declared their intentions concerning the new sect; and thatwhatever proceedings had been carried on against the Christians, therewere none of sufficient weight and authority to establish a precedentfor the conduct of a Roman magistrate.

Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero ToConstantine.--Part III.

The answer of Trajan, to which the Christians of the succeeding age havefrequently appealed, discovers as much regard for justice and humanityas could be reconciled with his mistaken notions of religious policy.Instead of displaying the implacable zeal of an inquisitor, anxious todiscover the most minute particles of heresy, and exulting in the numberof his victims, the emperor expresses much more solicitude to protectthe security of the innocent, than to prevent the escape of the guilty.He acknowledged the difficulty of fixing any general plan; but he laysdown two salutary rules, which often afforded relief and support to thedistressed Christians. Though he directs the magistrates to punish suchpersons as are legally convicted, he prohibits them, with a veryhumane inconsistency, from making any inquiries concerning the supposedcriminals. Nor was the magistrate allowed to proceed on every kind ofinformation. Anonymous charges the emperor rejects, as too repugnantto the equity of his government; and he strictly requires, for theconviction of those to whom the guilt of Christianity is imputed, thepositive evidence of a fair and open accuser. It is likewise probable,that the persons who assumed so invidiuous an office, were obliged todeclare the grounds of their suspicions, to specify (both in respect totime and place) the secret assemblies, which their Christian adversaryhad frequented, and to disclose a great number of circ*mstances, whichwere concealed with the most vigilant jealousy from the eye of theprofane. If they succeeded in their prosecution, they were exposed tothe resentment of a considerable and active party, to the censure of themore liberal portion of mankind, and to the ignominy which, in everyage and country, has attended the character of an informer. If, on thecontrary, they failed in their proofs, they incurred the severe andperhaps capital penalty, which, according to a law published by theemperor Hadrian, was inflicted on those who falsely attributed to theirfellow-citizens the crime of Christianity. The violence of personal orsuperstitious animosity might sometimes prevail over the most naturalapprehensions of disgrace and danger but it cannot surely be imagined,that accusations of so unpromising an appearance were either lightly orfrequently undertaken by the Pagan subjects of the Roman empire. *

The expedient which was employed to elude the prudence of the laws,affords a sufficient proof how effectually they disappointed themischievous designs of private malice or superstitious zeal. In a largeand tumultuous assembly, the restraints of fear and shame, so forcibleon the minds of individuals, are deprived of the greatest part of theirinfluence. The pious Christian, as he was desirous to obtain, or toescape, the glory of martyrdom, expected, either with impatience or withterror, the stated returns of the public games and festivals. Onthose occasions the inhabitants of the great cities of the empire werecollected in the circus or the theatre, where every circ*mstance of theplace, as well as of the ceremony, contributed to kindle their devotion,and to extinguish their humanity. Whilst the numerous spectators,crowned with garlands, perfumed with incense, purified with the bloodof victims, and surrounded with the altars and statues of their tutelardeities, resigned themselves to the enjoyment of pleasures, whichthey considered as an essential part of their religious worship, theyrecollected, that the Christians alone abhorred the gods of mankind,and by their absence and melancholy on these solemn festivals, seemedto insult or to lament the public felicity. If the empire had beenafflicted by any recent calamity, by a plague, a famine, or anunsuccessful war; if the Tyber had, or if the Nile had not, risen beyondits banks; if the earth had shaken, or if the temperate order of theseasons had been interrupted, the superstitious Pagans were convincedthat the crimes and the impiety of the Christians, who were sparedby the excessive lenity of the government, had at length provoked thedivine justice. It was not among a licentious and exasperated populace,that the forms of legal proceedings could be observed; it was not in anamphitheatre, stained with the blood of wild beasts and gladiators, thatthe voice of compassion could be heard. The impatient clamors of themultitude denounced the Christians as the enemies of gods and men,doomed them to the severest tortures, and venturing to accuse by namesome of the most distinguished of the new sectaries, required withirresistible vehemence that they should be instantly apprehended andcast to the lions. The provincial governors and magistrates whopresided in the public spectacles were usually inclined to gratify theinclinations, and to appease the rage, of the people, by the sacrificeof a few obnoxious victims. But the wisdom of the emperors protectedthe church from the danger of these tumultuous clamors and irregularaccusations, which they justly censured as repugnant both to thefirmness and to the equity of their administration. The edicts ofHadrian and of Antoninus Pius expressly declared, that the voice of themultitude should never be admitted as legal evidence to convict or topunish those unfortunate persons who had embraced the enthusiasm of theChristians.

III. Punishment was not the inevitable consequence of conviction, andthe Christians, whose guilt was the most clearly proved by the testimonyof witnesses, or even by their voluntary confession, still retained intheir own power the alternative of life or death. It was not so much thepast offence, as the actual resistance, which excited the indignationof the magistrate. He was persuaded that he offered them an easy pardon,since, if they consented to cast a few grains of incense upon the altar,they were dismissed from the tribunal in safety and with applause. Itwas esteemed the duty of a humane judge to endeavor to reclaim, ratherthan to punish, those deluded enthusiasts. Varying his tone accordingto the age, the sex, or the situation of the prisoners, he frequentlycondescended to set before their eyes every circ*mstance which couldrender life more pleasing, or death more terrible; and to solicit, nay,to entreat, them, that they would show some compassion to themselves, totheir families, and to their friends. If threats and persuasions provedineffectual, he had often recourse to violence; the scourge and the rackwere called in to supply the deficiency of argument, and every art ofcruelty was employed to subdue such inflexible, and, as it appearedto the Pagans, such criminal, obstinacy. The ancient apologists ofChristianity have censured, with equal truth and severity, the irregularconduct of their persecutors who, contrary to every principle ofjudicial proceeding, admitted the use of torture, in order to obtain,not a confession, but a denial, of the crime which was the object oftheir inquiry. The monks of succeeding ages, who, in their peacefulsolitudes, entertained themselves with diversifying the deaths andsufferings of the primitive martyrs, have frequently invented tormentsof a much more refined and ingenious nature. In particular, it haspleased them to suppose, that the zeal of the Roman magistrates,disdaining every consideration of moral virtue or public decency,endeavored to seduce those whom they were unable to vanquish, and thatby their orders the most brutal violence was offered to those whom theyfound it impossible to seduce. It is related, that females, who wereprepared to despise death, were sometimes condemned to a more severetrial, and called upon to determine whether they set a higher valueon their religion or on their chastity. The youths to whose licentiousembraces they were abandoned, received a solemn exhortation from thejudge, to exert their most strenuous efforts to maintain the honor ofVenus against the impious virgin who refused to burn incense on heraltars. Their violence, however, was commonly disappointed, and theseasonable interposition of some miraculous power preserved the chastespouses of Christ from the dishonor even of an involuntary defeat. Weshould not indeed neglect to remark, that the more ancient as wellas authentic memorials of the church are seldom polluted with theseextravagant and indecent fictions.

The total disregard of truth and probability in the representation ofthese primitive martyrdoms was occasioned by a very natural mistake. Theecclesiastical writers of the fourth or fifth centuries ascribed to themagistrates of Rome the same degree of implacable and unrelenting zealwhich filled their own breasts against the heretics or the idolatersof their own times. It is not improbable that some of those personswho were raised to the dignities of the empire, might have imbibed theprejudices of the populace, and that the cruel disposition of othersmight occasionally be stimulated by motives of avarice or of personalresentment. But it is certain, and we may appeal to the gratefulconfessions of the first Christians, that the greatest part of thosemagistrates who exercised in the provinces the authority of the emperor,or of the senate, and to whose hands alone the jurisdiction of life anddeath was intrusted, behaved like men of polished manners and liberaleducation, who respected the rules of justice, and who were conversantwith the precepts of philosophy. They frequently declined the odioustask of persecution, dismissed the charge with contempt, or suggestedto the accused Christian some legal evasion, by which he might elude theseverity of the laws. Whenever they were invested with a discretionarypower, they used it much less for the oppression, than for the reliefand benefit of the afflicted church. They were far from condemning allthe Christians who were accused before their tribunal, and very farfrom punishing with death all those who were convicted of an obstinateadherence to the new superstition. Contenting themselves, for the mostpart, with the milder chastisem*nts of imprisonment, exile, or slaveryin the mines, they left the unhappy victims of their justice some reasonto hope, that a prosperous event, the accession, the marriage, or thetriumph of an emperor, might speedily restore them, by a general pardon,to their former state. The martyrs, devoted to immediate executionby the Roman magistrates, appear to have been selected from the mostopposite extremes. They were either bishops and presbyters, the personsthe most distinguished among the Christians by their rank and influence,and whose example might strike terror into the whole sect; or else theywere the meanest and most abject among them, particularly those of theservile condition, whose lives were esteemed of little value, andwhose sufferings were viewed by the ancients with too careless anindifference. The learned Origen, who, from his experience as well asreading, was intimately acquainted with the history of the Christians,declares, in the most express terms, that the number of martyrs was veryinconsiderable. His authority would alone be sufficient to annihilatethat formidable army of martyrs, whose relics, drawn for the most partfrom the catacombs of Rome, have replenished so many churches, and whosemarvellous achievements have been the subject of so many volumes ofHoly Romance. But the general assertion of Origen may be explained andconfirmed by the particular testimony of his friend Dionysius, who, inthe immense city of Alexandria, and under the rigorous persecutionof Decius, reckons only ten men and seven women who suffered for theprofession of the Christian name.

During the same period of persecution, the zealous, the eloquent, theambitious Cyprian governed the church, not only of Carthage, but even ofAfrica. He possessed every quality which could engage the reverenceof the faithful, or provoke the suspicions and resentment of the Paganmagistrates. His character as well as his station seemed to mark outthat holy prelate as the most distinguished object of envy and danger.The experience, however, of the life of Cyprian, is sufficient to provethat our fancy has exaggerated the perilous situation of a Christianbishop; and the dangers to which he was exposed were less imminent thanthose which temporal ambition is always prepared to encounter in thepursuit of honors. Four Roman emperors, with their families, theirfavorites, and their adherents, perished by the sword in the space often years, during which the bishop of Carthage guided by his authorityand eloquence the councils of the African church. It was only in thethird year of his administration, that he had reason, during a fewmonths, to apprehend the severe edicts of Decius, the vigilance of themagistrate and the clamors of the multitude, who loudly demanded, thatCyprian, the leader of the Christians, should be thrown to the lions.Prudence suggested the necessity of a temporary retreat, and the voiceof prudence was obeyed. He withdrew himself into an obscure solitude,from whence he could maintain a constant correspondence with the clergyand people of Carthage; and, concealing himself till the tempest waspast, he preserved his life, without relinquishing either his power orhis reputation. His extreme caution did not, however, escape the censureof the more rigid Christians, who lamented, or the reproaches of hispersonal enemies, who insulted, a conduct which they considered asa pusillanimous and criminal desertion of the most sacred duty. Thepropriety of reserving himself for the future exigencies of the church,the example of several holy bishops, and the divine admonitions, which,as he declares himself, he frequently received in visions and ecstacies,were the reasons alleged in his justification. But his best apologymay be found in the cheerful resolution, with which, about eight yearsafterwards, he suffered death in the cause of religion. The authentichistory of his martyrdom has been recorded with unusual candor andimpartiality. A short abstract, therefore, of its most importantcirc*mstances, will convey the clearest information of the spirit, andof the forms, of the Roman persecutions.

Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero ToConstantine.--Part IV.

When Valerian was consul for the third, and Gallienus for the fourthtime, Paternus, proconsul of Africa, summoned Cyprian to appear inhis private council-chamber. He there acquainted him with the Imperialmandate which he had just received, that those who had abandonedthe Roman religion should immediately return to the practice of theceremonies of their ancestors. Cyprian replied without hesitation, thathe was a Christian and a bishop, devoted to the worship of the true andonly Deity, to whom he offered up his daily supplications for the safetyand prosperity of the two emperors, his lawful sovereigns. With modestconfidence he pleaded the privilege of a citizen, in refusing to giveany answer to some invidious and indeed illegal questions which theproconsul had proposed. A sentence of banishment was pronounced as thepenalty of Cyprian's disobedience; and he was conducted without delayto Curubis, a free and maritime city of Zeugitania, in a pleasantsituation, a fertile territory, and at the distance of about forty milesfrom Carthage. The exiled bishop enjoyed the conveniences of life andthe consciousness of virtue. His reputation was diffused over Africa andItaly; an account of his behavior was published for the edification ofthe Christian world; and his solitude was frequently interrupted by theletters, the visits, and the congratulations of the faithful. On thearrival of a new proconsul in the province the fortune of Cyprianappeared for some time to wear a still more favorable aspect. He wasrecalled from banishment; and though not yet permitted to return toCarthage, his own gardens in the neighborhood of the capital wereassigned for the place of his residence.

At length, exactly one year after Cyprian was first apprehended,Galerius Maximus, proconsul of Africa, received the Imperial warrantfor the execution of the Christian teachers. The bishop of Carthage wassensible that he should be singled out for one of the first victims;and the frailty of nature tempted him to withdraw himself, by asecret flight, from the danger and the honor of martyrdom; * but soonrecovering that fortitude which his character required, he returned tohis gardens, and patiently expected the ministers of death. Two officersof rank, who were intrusted with that commission, placed Cyprian betweenthem in a chariot, and as the proconsul was not then at leisure, theyconducted him, not to a prison, but to a private house in Carthage,which belonged to one of them. An elegant supper was provided for theentertainment of the bishop, and his Christian friends were permittedfor the last time to enjoy his society, whilst the streets were filledwith a multitude of the faithful, anxious and alarmed at the approachingfate of their spiritual father. In the morning he appeared before thetribunal of the proconsul, who, after informing himself of the name andsituation of Cyprian, commanded him to offer sacrifice, and pressedhim to reflect on the consequences of his disobedience. The refusal ofCyprian was firm and decisive; and the magistrate, when he had taken theopinion of his council, pronounced with some reluctance the sentence ofdeath. It was conceived in the following terms: "That Thascius Cyprianusshould be immediately beheaded, as the enemy of the gods of Rome, and asthe chief and ringleader of a criminal association, which he had seducedinto an impious resistance against the laws of the most holy emperors,Valerian and Gallienus." The manner of his execution was the mildestand least painful that could be inflicted on a person convicted of anycapital offence; nor was the use of torture admitted to obtain fromthe bishop of Carthage either the recantation of his principles or thediscovery of his accomplices.

As soon as the sentence was proclaimed, a general cry of "We will diewith him," arose at once among the listening multitude of Christians whowaited before the palace gates. The generous effusions of their zealand their affection were neither serviceable to Cyprian nor dangerousto themselves. He was led away under a guard of tribunes and centurions,without resistance and without insult, to the place of his execution,a spacious and level plain near the city, which was already filled withgreat numbers of spectators. His faithful presbyters and deacons werepermitted to accompany their holy bishop. * They assisted him inlaying aside his upper garment, spread linen on the ground to catchthe precious relics of his blood, and received his orders to bestowfive-and-twenty pieces of gold on the executioner. The martyr thencovered his face with his hands, and at one blow his head was separatedfrom his body. His corpse remained during some hours exposed tothe curiosity of the Gentiles: but in the night it was removed, andtransported in a triumphal procession, and with a splendid illumination,to the burial-place of the Christians. The funeral of Cyprian waspublicly celebrated without receiving any interruption from the Romanmagistrates; and those among the faithful, who had performed the lastoffices to his person and his memory, were secure from the danger ofinquiry or of punishment. It is remarkable, that of so great a multitudeof bishops in the province of Africa, Cyprian was the first who wasesteemed worthy to obtain the crown of martyrdom.

It was in the choice of Cyprian, either to die a martyr, or to live anapostate; but on the choice depended the alternative of honor or infamy.Could we suppose that the bishop of Carthage had employed the professionof the Christian faith only as the instrument of his avarice orambition, it was still incumbent on him to support the character he hadassumed; and if he possessed the smallest degree of manly fortitude,rather to expose himself to the most cruel tortures, than by a singleact to exchange the reputation of a whole life, for the abhorrence ofhis Christian brethren, and the contempt of the Gentile world. But ifthe zeal of Cyprian was supported by the sincere conviction of the truthof those doctrines which he preached, the crown of martyrdom must haveappeared to him as an object of desire rather than of terror. It isnot easy to extract any distinct ideas from the vague though eloquentdeclamations of the Fathers, or to ascertain the degree of immortalglory and happiness which they confidently promised to those who wereso fortunate as to shed their blood in the cause of religion. Theyinculcated with becoming diligence, that the fire of martyrdom suppliedevery defect and expiated every sin; that while the souls of ordinaryChristians were obliged to pass through a slow and painful purification,the triumphant sufferers entered into the immediate fruition of eternalbliss, where, in the society of the patriarchs, the apostles, and theprophets, they reigned with Christ, and acted as his assessors in theuniversal judgment of mankind. The assurance of a lasting reputationupon earth, a motive so congenial to the vanity of human nature, oftenserved to animate the courage of the martyrs. The honors which Rome orAthens bestowed on those citizens who had fallen in the cause oftheir country, were cold and unmeaning demonstrations of respect, whencompared with the ardent gratitude and devotion which the primitivechurch expressed towards the victorious champions of the faith. Theannual commemoration of their virtues and sufferings was observed as asacred ceremony, and at length terminated in religious worship. Amongthe Christians who had publicly confessed their religious principles,those who (as it very frequently happened) had been dismissed from thetribunal or the prisons of the Pagan magistrates, obtained such honorsas were justly due to their imperfect martyrdom and their generousresolution. The most pious females courted the permission of imprintingkisses on the fetters which they had worn, and on the wounds which theyhad received. Their persons were esteemed holy, their decisions wereadmitted with deference, and they too often abused, by their spiritualpride and licentious manners, the preeminence which their zeal andintrepidity had acquired. Distinctions like these, whilst they displaythe exalted merit, betray the inconsiderable number of those whosuffered, and of those who died, for the profession of Christianity.

The sober discretion of the present age will more readily censure thanadmire, but can more easily admire than imitate, the fervor of thefirst Christians, who, according to the lively expressions ofSulpicius Severus, desired martyrdom with more eagerness than hisown contemporaries solicited a bishopric. The epistles which Ignatiuscomposed as he was carried in chains through the cities of Asia, breathesentiments the most repugnant to the ordinary feelings of human nature.He earnestly beseeches the Romans, that when he should be exposed inthe amphitheatre, they would not, by their kind but unseasonableintercession, deprive him of the crown of glory; and he declares hisresolution to provoke and irritate the wild beasts which might beemployed as the instruments of his death. Some stories are relatedof the courage of martyrs, who actually performed what Ignatius hadintended; who exasperated the fury of the lions, pressed the executionerto hasten his office, cheerfully leaped into the fires which werekindled to consume them, and discovered a sensation of joy and pleasurein the midst of the most exquisite tortures. Several examples have beenpreserved of a zeal impatient of those restraints which the emperorshad provided for the security of the church. The Christians sometimessupplied by their voluntary declaration the want of an accuser, rudelydisturbed the public service of paganism, and rushing in crowds roundthe tribunal of the magistrates, called upon them to pronounce and toinflict the sentence of the law. The behavior of the Christians was tooremarkable to escape the notice of the ancient philosophers; but theyseem to have considered it with much less admiration than astonishment.Incapable of conceiving the motives which sometimes transported thefortitude of believers beyond the bounds of prudence or reason, theytreated such an eagerness to die as the strange result of obstinatedespair, of stupid insensibility, or of superstitious frenzy. "Unhappymen!" exclaimed the proconsul Antoninus to the Christians of Asia;"unhappy men! if you are thus weary of your lives, is it so difficultfor you to find ropes and precipices?" He was extremely cautious (as itis observed by a learned and pious historian) of punishing men who hadfound no accusers but themselves, the Imperial laws not having madeany provision for so unexpected a case: condemning therefore a few as awarning to their brethren, he dismissed the multitude with indignationand contempt. Notwithstanding this real or affected disdain, theintrepid constancy of the faithful was productive of more salutaryeffects on those minds which nature or grace had disposed for the easyreception of religious truth. On these melancholy occasions, there weremany among the Gentiles who pitied, who admired, and who were converted.The generous enthusiasm was communicated from the sufferer to thespectators; and the blood of martyrs, according to a well-knownobservation, became the seed of the church.

But although devotion had raised, and eloquence continued to inflame,this fever of the mind, it insensibly gave way to the more natural hopesand fears of the human heart, to the love of life, the apprehensionof pain, and the horror of dissolution. The more prudent rulers of thechurch found themselves obliged to restrain the indiscreet ardor oftheir followers, and to distrust a constancy which too often abandonedthem in the hour of trial. As the lives of the faithful became lessmortified and austere, they were every day less ambitious of the honorsof martyrdom; and the soldiers of Christ, instead of distinguishingthemselves by voluntary deeds of heroism, frequently deserted theirpost, and fled in confusion before the enemy whom it was their duty toresist. There were three methods, however, of escaping the flames ofpersecution, which were not attended with an equal degree of guilt:first, indeed, was generally allowed to be innocent; the second was ofa doubtful, or at least of a venial, nature; but the third implied adirect and criminal apostasy from the Christian faith.

I. A modern inquisitor would hear with surprise, that whenever aninformation was given to a Roman magistrate of any person within hisjurisdiction who had embraced the sect of the Christians, the chargewas communicated to the party accused, and that a convenient time wasallowed him to settle his domestic concerns, and to prepare an answer tothe crime which was imputed to him. If he entertained any doubt of hisown constancy, such a delay afforded him the opportunity of preservinghis life and honor by flight, of withdrawing himself into some obscureretirement or some distant province, and of patiently expecting thereturn of peace and security. A measure so consonant to reason was soonauthorized by the advice and example of the most holy prelates; andseems to have been censured by few except by the Montanists, whodeviated into heresy by their strict and obstinate adherence to therigor of ancient discipline. II. The provincial governors, whose zealwas less prevalent than their avarice, had countenanced the practice ofselling certificates, (or libels, as they were called,) which attested,that the persons therein mentioned had complied with the laws, andsacrificed to the Roman deities. By producing these false declarations,the opulent and timid Christians were enabled to silence the malice ofan informer, and to reconcile in some measure their safety with theirreligion. A slight penance atoned for this profane dissimulation. * III.In every persecution there were great numbers of unworthy Christians whopublicly disowned or renounced the faith which they had professed; andwho confirmed the sincerity of their abjuration, by the legal acts ofburning incense or of offering sacrifices. Some of these apostates hadyielded on the first menace or exhortation of the magistrate; whilstthe patience of others had been subdued by the length and repetitionof tortures. The affrighted countenances of some betrayed their inwardremorse, while others advanced with confidence and alacrity to thealtars of the gods. But the disguise which fear had imposed, subsistedno longer than the present danger. As soon as the severity of thepersecution was abated, the doors of the churches were assailed bythe returning multitude of penitents who detested their idolatroussubmission, and who solicited with equal ardor, but with varioussuccess, their readmission into the society of Christians.

IV. Notwithstanding the general rules established for the convictionand punishment of the Christians, the fate of those sectaries, in anextensive and arbitrary government, must still in a great measure, havedepended on their own behavior, the circ*mstances of the times, andthe temper of their supreme as well as subordinate rulers. Zeal mightsometimes provoke, and prudence might sometimes avert or assuage, thesuperstitious fury of the Pagans. A variety of motives might dispose theprovincial governors either to enforce or to relax the execution of thelaws; and of these motives the most forcible was their regard not onlyfor the public edicts, but for the secret intentions of the emperor,a glance from whose eye was sufficient to kindle or to extinguishthe flames of persecution. As often as any occasional severities wereexercised in the different parts of the empire, the primitive Christianslamented and perhaps magnified their own sufferings; but the celebratednumber of ten persecutions has been determined by the ecclesiasticalwriters of the fifth century, who possessed a more distinct view of theprosperous or adverse fortunes of the church, from the age of Nero tothat of Diocletian. The ingenious parallels of the ten plagues of Egypt,and of the ten horns of the Apocalypse, first suggested this calculationto their minds; and in their application of the faith of prophecy to thetruth of history, they were careful to select those reigns which wereindeed the most hostile to the Christian cause. But these transientpersecutions served only to revive the zeal and to restore thediscipline of the faithful; and the moments of extraordinary rigorwere compensated by much longer intervals of peace and security. Theindifference of some princes, and the indulgence of others, permittedthe Christians to enjoy, though not perhaps a legal, yet an actual andpublic, toleration of their religion.

Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero ToConstantine.--Part V.

The apology of Tertullian contains two very ancient, very singular, butat the same time very suspicious, instances of Imperial clemency; theedicts published by Tiberius, and by Marcus Antoninus, and designed notonly to protect the innocence of the Christians, but even to proclaimthose stupendous miracles which had attested the truth of theirdoctrine. The first of these examples is attended with some difficultieswhich might perplex a sceptical mind. We are required to believe, thatPontius Pilate informed the emperor of the unjust sentence of deathwhich he had pronounced against an innocent, and, as it appeared,a divine, person; and that, without acquiring the merit, he exposedhimself to the danger of martyrdom; that Tiberius, who avowed hiscontempt for all religion, immediately conceived the design of placingthe Jewish Messiah among the gods of Rome; that his servile senateventured to disobey the commands of their master; that Tiberius, insteadof resenting their refusal, contented himself with protecting theChristians from the severity of the laws, many years before such lawswere enacted, or before the church had assumed any distinct name orexistence; and lastly, that the memory of this extraordinary transactionwas preserved in the most public and authentic records, which escapedthe knowledge of the historians of Greece and Rome, and were onlyvisible to the eyes of an African Christian, who composed his apologyone hundred and sixty years after the death of Tiberius. The edict ofMarcus Antoninus is supposed to have been the effect of his devotion andgratitude for the miraculous deliverance which he had obtained in theMarcomannic war. The distress of the legions, the seasonable tempest ofrain and hail, of thunder and of lightning, and the dismay and defeat ofthe barbarians, have been celebrated by the eloquence of several Paganwriters. If there were any Christians in that army, it was natural thatthey should ascribe some merit to the fervent prayers, which, in themoment of danger, they had offered up for their own and the publicsafety. But we are still assured by monuments of brass and marble, bythe Imperial medals, and by the Antonine column, that neither the princenor the people entertained any sense of this signal obligation, sincethey unanimously attribute their deliverance to the providence ofJupiter, and to the interposition of Mercury. During the whole course ofhis reign, Marcus despised the Christians as a philosopher, and punishedthem as a sovereign. *

By a singular fatality, the hardships which they had endured under thegovernment of a virtuous prince, immediately ceased on the accession ofa tyrant; and as none except themselves had experienced the injusticeof Marcus, so they alone were protected by the lenity of Commodus. Thecelebrated Marcia, the most favored of his concubines, and who at lengthcontrived the murder of her Imperial lover, entertained a singularaffection for the oppressed church; and though it was impossible thatshe could reconcile the practice of vice with the precepts of thegospel, she might hope to atone for the frailties of her sex andprofession by declaring herself the patroness of the Christians. Underthe gracious protection of Marcia, they passed in safety the thirteenyears of a cruel tyranny; and when the empire was established in thehouse of Severus, they formed a domestic but more honorable connectionwith the new court. The emperor was persuaded, that in a dangeroussickness, he had derived some benefit, either spiritual or physical,from the holy oil, with which one of his slaves had anointed him. Healways treated with peculiar distinction several persons of both sexeswho had embraced the new religion. The nurse as well as the preceptorof Caracalla were Christians; * and if that young prince ever betrayed asentiment of humanity, it was occasioned by an incident, which, howevertrifling, bore some relation to the cause of Christianity. Under thereign of Severus, the fury of the populace was checked; the rigor ofancient laws was for some time suspended; and the provincial governorswere satisfied with receiving an annual present from the churches withintheir jurisdiction, as the price, or as the reward, of their moderation.The controversy concerning the precise time of the celebration ofEaster, armed the bishops of Asia and Italy against each other, and wasconsidered as the most important business of this period of leisureand tranquillity. Nor was the peace of the church interrupted, till theincreasing numbers of proselytes seem at length to have attracted theattention, and to have alienated the mind of Severus. With the design ofrestraining the progress of Christianity, he published an edict, which,though it was designed to affect only the new converts, could not becarried into strict execution, without exposing to danger and punishmentthe most zealous of their teachers and missionaries. In this mitigatedpersecution we may still discover the indulgent spirit of Rome and ofPolytheism, which so readily admitted every excuse in favor of those whopractised the religious ceremonies of their fathers.

But the laws which Severus had enacted soon expired with the authorityof that emperor; and the Christians, after this accidental tempest,enjoyed a calm of thirty-eight years. Till this period they had usuallyheld their assemblies in private houses and sequestered places. Theywere now permitted to erect and consecrate convenient edifices for thepurpose of religious worship; to purchase lands, even at Rome itself,for the use of the community; and to conduct the elections of theirecclesiastical ministers in so public, but at the same time in soexemplary a manner, as to deserve the respectful attention of theGentiles. This long repose of the church was accompanied with dignity.The reigns of those princes who derived their extraction from theAsiatic provinces, proved the most favorable to the Christians; theeminent persons of the sect, instead of being reduced to implore theprotection of a slave or concubine, were admitted into the palace in thehonorable characters of priests and philosophers; and their mysteriousdoctrines, which were already diffused among the people, insensiblyattracted the curiosity of their sovereign. When the empress MammÊapassed through Antioch, she expressed a desire of conversing with thecelebrated Origen, the fame of whose piety and learning was spread overthe East. Origen obeyed so flattering an invitation, and though hecould not expect to succeed in the conversion of an artful and ambitiouswoman, she listened with pleasure to his eloquent exhortations, andhonorably dismissed him to his retirement in Palestine. The sentimentsof MammÊa were adopted by her son Alexander, and the philosophicdevotion of that emperor was marked by a singular but injudicious regardfor the Christian religion. In his domestic chapel he placed the statuesof Abraham, of Orpheus, of Apollonius, and of Christ, as an honor justlydue to those respectable sages who had instructed mankind in the variousmodes of addressing their homage to the supreme and universal Deity.A purer faith, as well as worship, was openly professed and practisedamong his household. Bishops, perhaps for the first time, were seenat court; and, after the death of Alexander, when the inhuman Maximindischarged his fury on the favorites and servants of his unfortunatebenefactor, a great number of Christians of every rank and of bothsexes, were involved the promiscuous massacre, which, on their account,has improperly received the name of Persecution. *

Notwithstanding the cruel disposition of Maximin, the effects of hisresentment against the Christians were of a very local and temporarynature, and the pious Origen, who had been proscribed as a devotedvictim, was still reserved to convey the truths of the gospel to theear of monarchs. He addressed several edifying letters to the emperorPhilip, to his wife, and to his mother; and as soon as that prince,who was born in the neighborhood of Palestine, had usurped the Imperialsceptre, the Christians acquired a friend and a protector. The publicand even partial favor of Philip towards the sectaries of the newreligion, and his constant reverence for the ministers of the church,gave some color to the suspicion, which prevailed in his own times, thatthe emperor himself was become a convert to the faith; and affordedsome grounds for a fable which was afterwards invented, that he hadbeen purified by confession and penance from the guilt contracted by themurder of his innocent predecessor. The fall of Philip introduced, withthe change of masters, a new system of government, so oppressive tothe Christians, that their former condition, ever since the time ofDomitian, was represented as a state of perfect freedom and security,if compared with the rigorous treatment which they experienced under theshort reign of Decius. The virtues of that prince will scarcely allowus to suspect that he was actuated by a mean resentment against thefavorites of his predecessor; and it is more reasonable to believe, thatin the prosecution of his general design to restore the purity of Romanmanners, he was desirous of delivering the empire from what hecondemned as a recent and criminal superstition. The bishops of the mostconsiderable cities were removed by exile or death: the vigilance ofthe magistrates prevented the clergy of Rome during sixteen months fromproceeding to a new election; and it was the opinion of the Christians,that the emperor would more patiently endure a competitor for thepurple, than a bishop in the capital. Were it possible to suppose thatthe penetration of Decius had discovered pride under the disguise ofhumility, or that he could foresee the temporal dominion which mightinsensibly arise from the claims of spiritual authority, we might beless surprised, that he should consider the successors of St. Peter, asthe most formidable rivals to those of Augustus.

The administration of Valerian was distinguished by a levity andinconstancy ill suited to the gravity of the Roman Censor. In the firstpart of his reign, he surpassed in clemency those princes who had beensuspected of an attachment to the Christian faith. In the last threeyears and a half, listening to the insinuations of a minister addictedto the superstitions of Egypt, he adopted the maxims, and imitated theseverity, of his predecessor Decius. The accession of Gallienus, whichincreased the calamities of the empire, restored peace to the church;and the Christians obtained the free exercise of their religion by anedict addressed to the bishops, and conceived in such terms as seemed toacknowledge their office and public character. The ancient laws, withoutbeing formally repealed, were suffered to sink into oblivion; and(excepting only some hostile intentions which are attributed to theemperor Aurelian ) the disciples of Christ passed above forty years ina state of prosperity, far more dangerous to their virtue than theseverest trials of persecution.

The story of Paul of Samosata, who filled the metropolitan see ofAntioch, while the East was in the hands of Odenathus and Zenobia, mayserve to illustrate the condition and character of the times. The wealthof that prelate was a sufficient evidence of his guilt, since it wasneither derived from the inheritance of his fathers, nor acquired by thearts of honest industry. But Paul considered the service of the churchas a very lucrative profession. His ecclesiastical jurisdiction wasvenal and rapacious; he extorted frequent contributions from the mostopulent of the faithful, and converted to his own use a considerablepart of the public revenue. By his pride and luxury, the Christianreligion was rendered odious in the eyes of the Gentiles. His councilchamber and his throne, the splendor with which he appeared in public,the suppliant crowd who solicited his attention, the multitude ofletters and petitions to which he dictated his answers, and theperpetual hurry of business in which he was involved, were circ*mstancesmuch better suited to the state of a civil magistrate, than to thehumility of a primitive bishop. When he harangued his people from thepulpit, Paul affected the figurative style and the theatrical gesturesof an Asiatic sophist, while the cathedral resounded with the loudestand most extravagant acclamations in the praise of his divine eloquence.Against those who resisted his power, or refused to flatter his vanity,the prelate of Antioch was arrogant, rigid, and inexorable; but herelaxed the discipline, and lavished the treasures of the church onhis dependent clergy, who were permitted to imitate their master in thegratification of every sensual appetite. For Paul indulged himselfvery freely in the pleasures of the table, and he had received intothe episcopal palace two young and beautiful women as the constantcompanions of his leisure moments.

Notwithstanding these scandalous vices, if Paul of Samosata hadpreserved the purity of the orthodox faith, his reign over the capitalof Syria would have ended only with his life; and had a seasonablepersecution intervened, an effort of courage might perhaps have placedhim in the rank of saints and martyrs. * Some nice and subtle errors,which he imprudently adopted and obstinately maintained, concerning thedoctrine of the Trinity, excited the zeal and indignation of the Easternchurches. From Egypt to the Euxine Sea, the bishops were in arms andin motion. Several councils were held, confutations were published,excommunications were pronounced, ambiguous explanations were by turnsaccepted and refused, treaties were concluded and violated, and atlength Paul of Samosata was degraded from his episcopal character,by the sentence of seventy or eighty bishops, who assembled for thatpurpose at Antioch, and who, without consulting the rights of the clergyor people, appointed a successor by their own authority. Themanifest irregularity of this proceeding increased the numbers of thediscontented faction; and as Paul, who was no stranger to the arts ofcourts, had insinuated himself into the favor of Zenobia, he maintainedabove four years the possession of the episcopal house and office. * Thevictory of Aurelian changed the face of the East, and the two contendingparties, who applied to each other the epithets of schism and heresy,were either commanded or permitted to plead their cause before thetribunal of the conqueror. This public and very singular trial affordsa convincing proof that the existence, the property, the privileges, andthe internal policy of the Christians, were acknowledged, if not by thelaws, at least by the magistrates, of the empire. As a Pagan and as asoldier, it could scarcely be expected that Aurelian should enterinto the discussion, whether the sentiments of Paul or those of hisadversaries were most agreeable to the true standard of the orthodoxfaith. His determination, however, was founded on the general principlesof equity and reason. He considered the bishops of Italy as the mostimpartial and respectable judges among the Christians, and as soon ashe was informed that they had unanimously approved the sentence of thecouncil, he acquiesced in their opinion, and immediately gave ordersthat Paul should be compelled to relinquish the temporal possessionsbelonging to an office, of which, in the judgment of his brethren, hehad been regularly deprived. But while we applaud the justice, we shouldnot overlook the policy, of Aurelian, who was desirous of restoring andcementing the dependence of the provinces on the capital, by every meanswhich could bind the interest or prejudices of any part of his subjects.

Amidst the frequent revolutions of the empire, the Christians stillflourished in peace and prosperity; and notwithstanding a celebrated Êraof martyrs has been deduced from the accession of Diocletian, thenew system of policy, introduced and maintained by the wisdom of thatprince, continued, during more than eighteen years, to breathe themildest and most liberal spirit of religious toleration. The mind ofDiocletian himself was less adapted indeed to speculative inquiries,than to the active labors of war and government. His prudence renderedhim averse to any great innovation, and though his temper was not verysusceptible of zeal or enthusiasm, he always maintained an habitualregard for the ancient deities of the empire. But the leisure of the twoempresses, of his wife Prisca, and of Valeria, his daughter, permittedthem to listen with more attention and respect to the truths ofChristianity, which in every age has acknowledged its importantobligations to female devotion. The principal eunuchs, Lucian andDorotheus, Gorgonius and Andrew, who attended the person, possessedthe favor, and governed the household of Diocletian, protected by theirpowerful influence the faith which they had embraced. Their example wasimitated by many of the most considerable officers of the palace, who,in their respective stations, had the care of the Imperial ornaments,of the robes, of the furniture, of the jewels, and even of the privatetreasury; and, though it might sometimes be incumbent on them toaccompany the emperor when he sacrificed in the temple, they enjoyed,with their wives, their children, and their slaves, the free exerciseof the Christian religion. Diocletian and his colleagues frequentlyconferred the most important offices on those persons who avowed theirabhorrence for the worship of the gods, but who had displayed abilitiesproper for the service of the state. The bishops held an honorable rankin their respective provinces, and were treated with distinction andrespect, not only by the people, but by the magistrates themselves.Almost in every city, the ancient churches were found insufficient tocontain the increasing multitude of proselytes; and in their place morestately and capacious edifices were erected for the public worship ofthe faithful. The corruption of manners and principles, so forciblylamented by Eusebius, may be considered, not only as a consequence, butas a proof, of the liberty which the Christians enjoyed and abusedunder the reign of Diocletian. Prosperity had relaxed the nerves ofdiscipline. Fraud, envy, and malice prevailed in every congregation. Thepresbyters aspired to the episcopal office, which every day became anobject more worthy of their ambition. The bishops, who contended witheach other for ecclesiastical preeminence, appeared by their conduct toclaim a secular and tyrannical power in the church; and the lively faithwhich still distinguished the Christians from the Gentiles, was shownmuch less in their lives, than in their controversial writings.

Notwithstanding this seeming security, an attentive observer mightdiscern some symptoms that threatened the church with a more violentpersecution than any which she had yet endured. The zeal and rapidprogress of the Christians awakened the Polytheists from their supineindifference in the cause of those deities, whom custom and educationhad taught them to revere. The mutual provocations of a religious war,which had already continued above two hundred years, exasperated theanimosity of the contending parties. The Pagans were incensed at therashness of a recent and obscure sect, which presumed to accuse theircountrymen of error, and to devote their ancestors to eternal misery.The habits of justifying the popular mythology against the invectivesof an implacable enemy, produced in their minds some sentiments of faithand reverence for a system which they had been accustomed to considerwith the most careless levity. The supernatural powers assumed by thechurch inspired at the same time terror and emulation. The followersof the established religion intrenched themselves behind a similarfortification of prodigies; invented new modes of sacrifice, ofexpiation, and of initiation; attempted to revive the credit of theirexpiring oracles; and listened with eager credulity to every impostor,who flattered their prejudices by a tale of wonders. Both parties seemedto acknowledge the truth of those miracles which were claimed by theiradversaries; and while they were contented with ascribing them to thearts of magic, and to the power of dÊmons, they mutually concurred inrestoring and establishing the reign of superstition. Philosophy, hermost dangerous enemy, was now converted into her most useful ally. Thegroves of the academy, the gardens of Epicurus, and even the porticoof the Stoics, were almost deserted, as so many different schools ofscepticism or impiety; and many among the Romans were desirous that thewritings of Cicero should be condemned and suppressed by the authorityof the senate. The prevailing sect of the new Platonicians judgedit prudent to connect themselves with the priests, whom perhaps theydespised, against the Christians, whom they had reason to fear. Thesefashionable Philosophers prosecuted the design of extracting allegoricalwisdom from the fictions of the Greek poets; instituted mysteriousrites of devotion for the use of their chosen disciples; recommended theworship of the ancient gods as the emblems or ministers of the SupremeDeity, and composed against the faith of the gospel many elaboratetreatises, which have since been committed to the flames by the prudenceof orthodox emperors.

Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero ToConstantine.--Part VI.

Although the policy of Diocletian and the humanity of Constantiusinclined them to preserve inviolate the maxims of toleration, it wassoon discovered that their two associates, Maximian and Galerius,entertained the most implacable aversion for the name and religion ofthe Christians. The minds of those princes had never been enlightenedby science; education had never softened their temper. They owed theirgreatness to their swords, and in their most elevated fortune they stillretained their superstitious prejudices of soldiers and peasants. In thegeneral administration of the provinces they obeyed the laws whichtheir benefactor had established; but they frequently found occasions ofexercising within their camp and palaces a secret persecution, for whichthe imprudent zeal of the Christians sometimes offered the most speciouspretences. A sentence of death was executed upon Maximilianus, anAfrican youth, who had been produced by his own father *before themagistrate as a sufficient and legal recruit, but who obstinatelypersisted in declaring, that his conscience would not permit him toembrace the profession of a soldier. It could scarcely be expected thatany government should suffer the action of Marcellus the Centurion topass with impunity. On the day of a public festival, that officer threwaway his belt, his arms, and the ensigns of his office, and exclaimedwith a loud voice, that he would obey none but Jesus Christ the eternalKing, and that he renounced forever the use of carnal weapons, and theservice of an idolatrous master. The soldiers, as soon as they recoveredfrom their astonishment, secured the person of Marcellus. He wasexamined in the city of Tingi by the president of that part ofMauritania; and as he was convicted by his own confession, he wascondemned and beheaded for the crime of desertion. Examples of such anature savor much less of religious persecution than of martial or evencivil law; but they served to alienate the mind of the emperors, tojustify the severity of Galerius, who dismissed a great number ofChristian officers from their employments; and to authorize the opinion,that a sect of enthusiastics, which avowed principles so repugnant tothe public safety, must either remain useless, or would soon becomedangerous, subjects of the empire.

After the success of the Persian war had raised the hopes and thereputation of Galerius, he passed a winter with Diocletian in the palaceof Nicomedia; and the fate of Christianity became the object of theirsecret consultations. The experienced emperor was still inclined topursue measures of lenity; and though he readily consented to excludethe Christians from holding any employments in the household or thearmy, he urged in the strongest terms the danger as well as crueltyof shedding the blood of those deluded fanatics. Galerius at lengthextorted from him the permission of summoning a council, composed of afew persons the most distinguished in the civil and military departmentsof the state. The important question was agitated in their presence,and those ambitious courtiers easily discerned, that it was incumbenton them to second, by their eloquence, the importunate violence of theCÊsar. It may be presumed, that they insisted on every topic which mightinterest the pride, the piety, or the fears, of their sovereign in thedestruction of Christianity. Perhaps they represented, that the gloriouswork of the deliverance of the empire was left imperfect, as long as anindependent people was permitted to subsist and multiply in the heartof the provinces. The Christians, (it might specially be alleged,)renouncing the gods and the institutions of Rome, had constituted adistinct republic, which might yet be suppressed before it had acquiredany military force; but which was already governed by its own laws andmagistrates, was possessed of a public treasure, and was intimatelyconnected in all its parts by the frequent assemblies of the bishops,to whose decrees their numerous and opulent congregations yielded animplicit obedience. Arguments like these may seem to have determined thereluctant mind of Diocletian to embrace a new system of persecution;but though we may suspect, it is not in our power to relate, the secretintrigues of the palace, the private views and resentments, the jealousyof women or eunuchs, and all those trifling but decisive causes whichso often influence the fate of empires, and the councils of the wisestmonarchs.

The pleasure of the emperors was at length signified to the Christians,who, during the course of this melancholy winter, had expected, withanxiety, the result of so many secret consultations. The twenty-third ofFebruary, which coincided with the Roman festival of the Terminalia,was appointed (whether from accident or design) to set bounds to theprogress of Christianity. At the earliest dawn of day, the PrÊtorianprÊfect, accompanied by several generals, tribunes, and officers ofthe revenue, repaired to the principal church of Nicomedia, which wassituated on an eminence in the most populous and beautiful part ofthe city. The doors were instantly broke open; they rushed into thesanctuary; and as they searched in vain for some visible object ofworship, they were obliged to content themselves with committing to theflames the volumes of the holy Scripture. The ministers of Diocletianwere followed by a numerous body of guards and pioneers, who marched inorder of battle, and were provided with all the instruments used inthe destruction of fortified cities. By their incessant labor, a sacrededifice, which towered above the Imperial palace, and had long excitedthe indignation and envy of the Gentiles, was in a few hours levelledwith the ground.

The next day the general edict of persecution was published; and thoughDiocletian, still averse to the effusion of blood, had moderatedthe fury of Galerius, who proposed, that every one refusing to offersacrifice should immediately be burnt alive, the penalties inflicted onthe obstinacy of the Christians might be deemed sufficiently rigorousand effectual. It was enacted, that their churches, in all the provincesof the empire, should be demolished to their foundations; and thepunishment of death was denounced against all who should presume tohold any secret assemblies for the purpose of religious worship. Thephilosophers, who now assumed the unworthy office of directing the blindzeal of persecution, had diligently studied the nature and genius of theChristian religion; and as they were not ignorant that the speculativedoctrines of the faith were supposed to be contained in the writingsof the prophets, of the evangelists, and of the apostles, they mostprobably suggested the order, that the bishops and presbyters shoulddeliver all their sacred books into the hands of the magistrates; whowere commanded, under the severest penalties, to burn them in a publicand solemn manner. By the same edict, the property of the church was atonce confiscated; and the several parts of which it might consistwere either sold to the highest bidder, united to the Imperial domain,bestowed on the cities and corporations, or granted to the solicitationsof rapacious courtiers. After taking such effectual measures to abolishthe worship, and to dissolve the government of the Christians, it wasthought necessary to subject to the most intolerable hardships thecondition of those perverse individuals who should still reject thereligion of nature, of Rome, and of their ancestors. Persons ofa liberal birth were declared incapable of holding any honors oremployments; slaves were forever deprived of the hopes of freedom, andthe whole body of the people were put out of the protection of the law.The judges were authorized to hear and to determine every action thatwas brought against a Christian. But the Christians were not permittedto complain of any injury which they themselves had suffered; and thusthose unfortunate sectaries were exposed to the severity, while theywere excluded from the benefits, of public justice. This new species ofmartyrdom, so painful and lingering, so obscure and ignominious, was,perhaps, the most proper to weary the constancy of the faithful: nor canit be doubted that the passions and interest of mankind were disposed onthis occasion to second the designs of the emperors. But the policy of awell-ordered government must sometimes have interposed in behalf ofthe oppressed Christians; * nor was it possible for the Roman princesentirely to remove the apprehension of punishment, or to connive atevery act of fraud and violence, without exposing their own authorityand the rest of their subjects to the most alarming dangers.

This edict was scarcely exhibited to the public view, in the mostconspicuous place of Nicomedia, before it was torn down by the handsof a Christian, who expressed at the same time, by the bitterestinvectives, his contempt as well as abhorrence for such impious andtyrannical governors. His offence, according to the mildest laws,amounted to treason, and deserved death. And if it be true that he wasa person of rank and education, those circ*mstances could serve only toaggravate his guilt. He was burnt, or rather roasted, by a slow fire;and his executioners, zealous to revenge the personal insult which hadbeen offered to the emperors, exhausted every refinement of cruelty,without being able to subdue his patience, or to alter the steady andinsulting smile which in his dying agonies he still preserved in hiscountenance. The Christians, though they confessed that his conducthad not been strictly conformable to the laws of prudence, admired thedivine fervor of his zeal; and the excessive commendations which theylavished on the memory of their hero and martyr, contributed to fix adeep impression of terror and hatred in the mind of Diocletian.

His fears were soon alarmed by the view of a danger from which he verynarrowly escaped. Within fifteen days the palace of Nicomedia, and eventhe bed-chamber of Diocletian, were twice in flames; and though bothtimes they were extinguished without any material damage, the singularrepetition of the fire was justly considered as an evident proof that ithad not been the effect of chance or negligence. The suspicion naturallyfell on the Christians; and it was suggested, with some degree ofprobability, that those desperate fanatics, provoked by their presentsufferings, and apprehensive of impending calamities, had entered intoa conspiracy with their faithful brethren, the eunuchs of thepalace, against the lives of two emperors, whom they detested as theirreconcilable enemies of the church of God. Jealousy and resentmentprevailed in every breast, but especially in that of Diocletian. A greatnumber of persons, distinguished either by the offices which they hadfilled, or by the favor which they had enjoyed, were thrown into prison.Every mode of torture was put in practice, and the court, as well ascity, was polluted with many bloody executions. But as it was foundimpossible to extort any discovery of this mysterious transaction, itseems incumbent on us either to presume the innocence, or to admire theresolution, of the sufferers. A few days afterwards Galerius hastilywithdrew himself from Nicomedia, declaring, that if he delayed hisdeparture from that devoted palace, he should fall a sacrifice to therage of the Christians. The ecclesiastical historians, from whom alonewe derive a partial and imperfect knowledge of this persecution, are ata loss how to account for the fears and dangers of the emperors. Twoof these writers, a prince and a rhetorician, were eye-witnesses ofthe fire of Nicomedia. The one ascribes it to lightning, and the divinewrath; the other affirms, that it was kindled by the malice of Galeriushimself.

As the edict against the Christians was designed for a general law ofthe whole empire, and as Diocletian and Galerius, though they might notwait for the consent, were assured of the concurrence, of the Westernprinces, it would appear more consonant to our ideas of policy, that thegovernors of all the provinces should have received secret instructionsto publish, on one and the same day, this declaration of war withintheir respective departments. It was at least to be expected, that theconvenience of the public highways and established posts would haveenabled the emperors to transmit their orders with the utmost despatchfrom the palace of Nicomedia to the extremities of the Roman world; andthat they would not have suffered fifty days to elapse, before the edictwas published in Syria, and near four months before it was signified tothe cities of Africa. This delay may perhaps be imputed to the cautioustemper of Diocletian, who had yielded a reluctant consent to themeasures of persecution, and who was desirous of trying the experimentunder his more immediate eye, before he gave way to the disorders anddiscontent which it must inevitably occasion in the distant provinces.At first, indeed, the magistrates were restrained from the effusionof blood; but the use of every other severity was permitted, andeven recommended to their zeal; nor could the Christians, thoughthey cheerfully resigned the ornaments of their churches, resolve tointerrupt their religious assemblies, or to deliver their sacred booksto the flames. The pious obstinacy of Felix, an African bishop, appearsto have embarrassed the subordinate ministers of the government. Thecurator of his city sent him in chains to the proconsul. The proconsultransmitted him to the PrÊtorian prÊfect of Italy; and Felix, whodisdained even to give an evasive answer, was at length beheaded atVenusia, in Lucania, a place on which the birth of Horace has conferredfame. This precedent, and perhaps some Imperial rescript, which wasissued in consequence of it, appeared to authorize the governors ofprovinces, in punishing with death the refusal of the Christians todeliver up their sacred books. There were undoubtedly many persons whoembraced this opportunity of obtaining the crown of martyrdom; but therewere likewise too many who purchased an ignominious life, by discoveringand betraying the holy Scripture into the hands of infidels. A greatnumber even of bishops and presbyters acquired, by this criminalcompliance, the opprobrious epithet of Traditors; and their offence wasproductive of much present scandal and of much future discord in theAfrican church.

The copies as well as the versions of Scripture, were already somultiplied in the empire, that the most severe inquisition could nolonger be attended with any fatal consequences; and even the sacrificeof those volumes, which, in every congregation, were preserved forpublic use, required the consent of some treacherous and unworthyChristians. But the ruin of the churches was easily effected by theauthority of the government, and by the labor of the Pagans. In someprovinces, however, the magistrates contented themselves with shuttingup the places of religious worship. In others, they more literallycomplied with the terms of the edict; and after taking away the doors,the benches, and the pulpit, which they burnt as it were in a funeralpile, they completely demolished the remainder of the edifice. Itis perhaps to this melancholy occasion that we should apply a veryremarkable story, which is related with so many circ*mstances of varietyand improbability, that it serves rather to excite than to satisfyour curiosity. In a small town in Phrygia, of whose names as well assituation we are left ignorant, it should seem that the magistrates andthe body of the people had embraced the Christian faith; and as someresistance might be apprehended to the execution of the edict, thegovernor of the province was supported by a numerous detachment oflegionaries. On their approach the citizens threw themselves into thechurch, with the resolution either of defending by arms that sacrededifice, or of perishing in its ruins. They indignantly rejected thenotice and permission which was given them to retire, till the soldiers,provoked by their obstinate refusal, set fire to the building on allsides, and consumed, by this extraordinary kind of martyrdom, a greatnumber of Phrygians, with their wives and children.

Some slight disturbances, though they were suppressed almost as soon asexcited, in Syria and the frontiers of Armenia, afforded the enemies ofthe church a very plausible occasion to insinuate, that those troubleshad been secretly fomented by the intrigues of the bishops, whohad already forgotten their ostentatious professions of passive andunlimited obedience. The resentment, or the fears, of Diocletian, atlength transported him beyond the bounds of moderation, which he hadhitherto preserved, and he declared, in a series of cruel edicts,his intention of abolishing the Christian name. By the first of theseedicts, the governors of the provinces were directed to apprehend allpersons of the ecclesiastical order; and the prisons, destined forthe vilest criminals, were soon filled with a multitude of bishops,presbyters, deacons, readers, and exorcists. By a second edict, themagistrates were commanded to employ every method of severity, whichmight reclaim them from their odious superstition, and oblige them toreturn to the established worship of the gods. This rigorous order wasextended, by a subsequent edict, to the whole body of Christians, whowere exposed to a violent and general persecution. Instead of thosesalutary restraints, which had required the direct and solemn testimonyof an accuser, it became the duty as well as the interest of theImperial officers to discover, to pursue, and to torment the mostobnoxious among the faithful. Heavy penalties were denounced againstall who should presume to save a prescribed sectary from the justindignation of the gods, and of the emperors. Yet, notwithstanding theseverity of this law, the virtuous courage of many of the Pagans, inconcealing their friends or relations, affords an honorable proof,that the rage of superstition had not extinguished in their minds thesentiments of nature and humanity.

Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero ToConstantine.--Part VII.

Diocletian had no sooner published his edicts against the Christians,than, as if he had been desirous of committing to other hands thework of persecution, he divested himself of the Imperial purple. Thecharacter and situation of his colleagues and successors sometimes urgedthem to enforce and sometimes inclined them to suspend, the execution ofthese rigorous laws; nor can we acquire a just and distinct idea ofthis important period of ecclesiastical history, unless we separatelyconsider the state of Christianity, in the different parts of theempire, during the space of ten years, which elapsed between the firstedicts of Diocletian and the final peace of the church.

The mild and humane temper of Constantius was averse to the oppressionof any part of his subjects. The principal offices of his palacewere exercised by Christians. He loved their persons, esteemed theirfidelity, and entertained not any dislike to their religious principles.But as long as Constantius remained in the subordinate station of CÊsar,it was not in his power openly to reject the edicts of Diocletian, or todisobey the commands of Maximian. His authority contributed, however, toalleviate the sufferings which he pitied and abhorred. He consented withreluctance to the ruin of the churches; but he ventured to protect theChristians themselves from the fury of the populace, and from the rigorof the laws. The provinces of Gaul (under which we may probably includethose of Britain) were indebted for the singular tranquillity which theyenjoyed, to the gentle interposition of their sovereign. But Datianus,the president or governor of Spain, actuated either by zeal or policy,chose rather to execute the public edicts of the emperors, than tounderstand the secret intentions of Constantius; and it can scarcely bedoubted, that his provincial administration was stained with the bloodof a few martyrs. The elevation of Constantius to the supreme andindependent dignity of Augustus, gave a free scope to the exercise ofhis virtues, and the shortness of his reign did not prevent him fromestablishing a system of toleration, of which he left the precept andthe example to his son Constantine. His fortunate son, from the firstmoment of his accession, declaring himself the protector of the church,at length deserved the appellation of the first emperor who publiclyprofessed and established the Christian religion. The motives of hisconversion, as they may variously be deduced from benevolence, frompolicy, from conviction, or from remorse, and the progress of therevolution, which, under his powerful influence and that of his sons,rendered Christianity the reigning religion of the Roman empire, willform a very interesting and important chapter in the present volume ofthis history. At present it may be sufficient to observe, that everyvictory of Constantine was productive of some relief or benefit to thechurch.

The provinces of Italy and Africa experienced a short but violentpersecution. The rigorous edicts of Diocletian were strictly andcheerfully executed by his associate Maximian, who had long hated theChristians, and who delighted in acts of blood and violence. In theautumn of the first year of the persecution, the two emperors met atRome to celebrate their triumph; several oppressive laws appear tohave issued from their secret consultations, and the diligence of themagistrates was animated by the presence of their sovereigns., AfterDiocletian had divested himself of the purple, Italy and Africa wereadministered under the name of Severus, and were exposed, withoutdefence, to the implacable resentment of his master Galerius. Among themartyrs of Rome, Adauctus deserves the notice of posterity. He was ofa noble family in Italy, and had raised himself, through the successivehonors of the palace, to the important office of treasurer of theprivate Jemesnes. Adauctus is the more remarkable for being the onlyperson of rank and distinction who appears to have suffered death,during the whole course of this general persecution.

The revolt of Maxentius immediately restored peace to the churches ofItaly and Africa; and the same tyrant who oppressed every other class ofhis subjects, showed himself just, humane, and even partial, towards theafflicted Christians. He depended on their gratitude and affection, andvery naturally presumed, that the injuries which they had suffered, andthe dangers which they still apprehended from his most inveterate enemy,would secure the fidelity of a party already considerable by theirnumbers and opulence. Even the conduct of Maxentius towards the bishopsof Rome and Carthage may be considered as the proof of his toleration,since it is probable that the most orthodox princes would adopt the samemeasures with regard to their established clergy. Marcellus, the formerof these prelates, had thrown the capital into confusion, by the severepenance which he imposed on a great number of Christians, who, duringthe late persecution, had renounced or dissembled their religion. Therage of faction broke out in frequent and violent seditions; theblood of the faithful was shed by each other's hands, and the exile ofMarcellus, whose prudence seems to have been less eminent than hiszeal, was found to be the only measure capable of restoring peace tothe distracted church of Rome. The behavior of Mensurius, bishop ofCarthage, appears to have been still more reprehensible. A deacon ofthat city had published a libel against the emperor. The offender tookrefuge in the episcopal palace; and though it was somewhat early toadvance any claims of ecclesiastical immunities, the bishop refusedto deliver him up to the officers of justice. For this treasonableresistance, Mensurius was summoned to court, and instead of receiving alegal sentence of death or banishment, he was permitted, after a shortexamination, to return to his diocese. Such was the happy condition ofthe Christian subjects of Maxentius, that whenever they were desirous ofprocuring for their own use any bodies of martyrs, they were obliged topurchase them from the most distant provinces of the East. A story isrelated of AglÊ, a Roman lady, descended from a consular family, andpossessed of so ample an estate, that it required the management ofseventy-three stewards. Among these Boniface was the favorite of hismistress; and as AglÊ mixed love with devotion, it is reported that hewas admitted to share her bed. Her fortune enabled her to gratifythe pious desire of obtaining some sacred relics from the East. Sheintrusted Boniface with a considerable sum of gold, and a large quantityof aromatics; and her lover, attended by twelve horsem*n and threecovered chariots, undertook a remote pilgrimage, as far as Tarsus inCilicia.

The sanguinary temper of Galerius, the first and principal author of thepersecution, was formidable to those Christians whom their misfortuneshad placed within the limits of his dominions; and it may fairly bepresumed that many persons of a middle rank, who were not confined bythe chains either of wealth or of poverty, very frequently desertedtheir native country, and sought a refuge in the milder climate ofthe West. As long as he commanded only the armies and provinces ofIllyricum, he could with difficulty either find or make a considerablenumber of martyrs, in a warlike country, which had entertained themissionaries of the gospel with more coldness and reluctance than anyother part of the empire. But when Galerius had obtained the supremepower, and the government of the East, he indulged in their fullestextent his zeal and cruelty, not only in the provinces of Thrace andAsia, which acknowledged his immediate jurisdiction, but in thoseof Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, where Maximin gratified his owninclination, by yielding a rigorous obedience to the stern commands ofhis benefactor. The frequent disappointments of his ambitious views,the experience of six years of persecution, and the salutary reflectionswhich a lingering and painful distemper suggested to the mind ofGalerius, at length convinced him that the most violent efforts ofdespotism are insufficient to extirpate a whole people, or to subduetheir religious prejudices. Desirous of repairing the mischief that hehad occasioned, he published in his own name, and in those of Liciniusand Constantine, a general edict, which, after a pompous recital of theImperial titles, proceeded in the following manner:--

"Among the important cares which have occupied our mind for the utilityand preservation of the empire, it was our intention to correctand reestablish all things according to the ancient laws and publicdiscipline of the Romans. We were particularly desirous of reclaiminginto the way of reason and nature, the deluded Christians who hadrenounced the religion and ceremonies instituted by their fathers;and presumptuously despising the practice of antiquity, had inventedextravagant laws and opinions, according to the dictates of their fancy,and had collected a various society from the different provinces of ourempire. The edicts, which we have published to enforce the worship ofthe gods, having exposed many of the Christians to danger and distress,many having suffered death, and many more, who still persist in theirimpious folly, being left destitute of any public exercise of religion,we are disposed to extend to those unhappy men the effects of our wontedclemency. We permit them therefore freely to profess their privateopinions, and to assemble in their conventicles without fear ormolestation, provided always that they preserve a due respect to theestablished laws and government. By another rescript we shall signifyour intentions to the judges and magistrates; and we hope that ourindulgence will engage the Christians to offer up their prayers to theDeity whom they adore, for our safety and prosperity for their own, andfor that of the republic." It is not usually in the language of edictsand manifestos that we should search for the real character or thesecret motives of princes; but as these were the words of a dyingemperor, his situation, perhaps, may be admitted as a pledge of hissincerity.

When Galerius subscribed this edict of toleration, he was well assuredthat Licinius would readily comply with the inclinations of his friendand benefactor, and that any measures in favor of the Christians wouldobtain the approbation of Constantine. But the emperor would not ventureto insert in the preamble the name of Maximin, whose consent was ofthe greatest importance, and who succeeded a few days afterwards to theprovinces of Asia. In the first six months, however, of his new reign,Maximin affected to adopt the prudent counsels of his predecessor; andthough he never condescended to secure the tranquillity of the churchby a public edict, Sabinus, his PrÊtorian prÊfect, addressed acircular letter to all the governors and magistrates of the provinces,expatiating on the Imperial clemency, acknowledging the invincibleobstinacy of the Christians, and directing the officers of justiceto cease their ineffectual prosecutions, and to connive at the secretassemblies of those enthusiasts. In consequence of these orders, greatnumbers of Christians were released from prison, or delivered from themines. The confessors, singing hymns of triumph, returned into theirown countries; and those who had yielded to the violence of the tempest,solicited with tears of repentance their readmission into the bosom ofthe church.

But this treacherous calm was of short duration; nor could theChristians of the East place any confidence in the character of theirsovereign. Cruelty and superstition were the ruling passions of the soulof Maximin. The former suggested the means, the latter pointed out theobjects of persecution. The emperor was devoted to the worship of thegods, to the study of magic, and to the belief of oracles. The prophetsor philosophers, whom he revered as the favorites of Heaven, werefrequently raised to the government of provinces, and admitted into hismost secret councils. They easily convinced him that the Christians hadbeen indebted for their victories to their regular discipline, and thatthe weakness of polytheism had principally flowed from a want ofunion and subordination among the ministers of religion. A system ofgovernment was therefore instituted, which was evidently copied from thepolicy of the church. In all the great cities of the empire, thetemples were repaired and beautified by the order of Maximin, andthe officiating priests of the various deities were subjected to theauthority of a superior pontiff destined to oppose the bishop, and topromote the cause of paganism. These pontiffs acknowledged, in theirturn, the supreme jurisdiction of the metropolitans or high priestsof the province, who acted as the immediate vicegerents of the emperorhimself. A white robe was the ensign of their dignity; and thesenew prelates were carefully selected from the most noble and opulentfamilies. By the influence of the magistrates, and of the sacerdotalorder, a great number of dutiful addresses were obtained, particularlyfrom the cities of Nicomedia, Antioch, and Tyre, which artfullyrepresented the well-known intentions of the court as the general senseof the people; solicited the emperor to consult the laws of justicerather than the dictates of his clemency; expressed their abhorrence ofthe Christians, and humbly prayed that those impious sectaries might atleast be excluded from the limits of their respective territories. Theanswer of Maximin to the address which he obtained from the citizens ofTyre is still extant. He praises their zeal and devotion in terms ofthe highest satisfaction, descants on the obstinate impiety of theChristians, and betrays, by the readiness with which he consents totheir banishment, that he considered himself as receiving, rather thanas conferring, an obligation. The priests as well as the magistrateswere empowered to enforce the execution of his edicts, which wereengraved on tables of brass; and though it was recommended to them toavoid the effusion of blood, the most cruel and ignominious punishmentswere inflicted on the refractory Christians.

The Asiatic Christians had every thing to dread from the severity ofa bigoted monarch who prepared his measures of violence with suchdeliberate policy. But a few months had scarcely elapsed before theedicts published by the two Western emperors obliged Maximin to suspendthe prosecution of his designs: the civil war which he so rashlyundertook against Licinius employed all his attention; and the defeatand death of Maximin soon delivered the church from the last and mostimplacable of her enemies.

In this general view of the persecution, which was first authorized bythe edicts of Diocletian, I have purposely refrained from describing theparticular sufferings and deaths of the Christian martyrs. It would havebeen an easy task, from the history of Eusebius, from the declamationsof Lactantius, and from the most ancient acts, to collect a long seriesof horrid and disgustful pictures, and to fill many pages with racks andscourges, with iron hooks and red-hot beds, and with all the varietyof tortures which fire and steel, savage beasts, and more savageexecutioners, could inflict upon the human body. These melancholy scenesmight be enlivened by a crowd of visions and miracles destined either todelay the death, to celebrate the triumph, or to discover the relics ofthose canonized saints who suffered for the name of Christ. But I cannotdetermine what I ought to transcribe, till I am satisfied how much Iought to believe. The gravest of the ecclesiastical historians, Eusebiushimself, indirectly confesses, that he has related whatever mightredound to the glory, and that he has suppressed all that could tend tothe disgrace, of religion. Such an acknowledgment will naturallyexcite a suspicion that a writer who has so openly violated one of thefundamental laws of history, has not paid a very strict regard to theobservance of the other; and the suspicion will derive additionalcredit from the character of Eusebius, * which was less tinctured withcredulity, and more practised in the arts of courts, than that ofalmost any of his contemporaries. On some particular occasions, whenthe magistrates were exasperated by some personal motives of interest orresentment, the rules of prudence, and perhaps of decency, to overturnthe altars, to pour out imprecations against the emperors, or to strikethe judge as he sat on his tribunal, it may be presumed, that every modeof torture which cruelty could invent, or constancy could endure, wasexhausted on those devoted victims. Two circ*mstances, however, havebeen unwarily mentioned, which insinuate that the general treatment ofthe Christians, who had been apprehended by the officers of justice,was less intolerable than it is usually imagined to have been. 1. Theconfessors who were condemned to work in the mines were permitted by thehumanity or the negligence of their keepers to build chapels, and freelyto profess their religion in the midst of those dreary habitations. 2.The bishops were obliged to check and to censure the forward zeal ofthe Christians, who voluntarily threw themselves into the hands of themagistrates. Some of these were persons oppressed by poverty and debts,who blindly sought to terminate a miserable existence by a gloriousdeath. Others were allured by the hope that a short confinement wouldexpiate the sins of a whole life; and others again were actuated by theless honorable motive of deriving a plentiful subsistence, and perhapsa considerable profit, from the alms which the charity of the faithfulbestowed on the prisoners. After the church had triumphed over all herenemies, the interest as well as vanity of the captives prompted them tomagnify the merit of their respective sufferings. A convenient distanceof time or place gave an ample scope to the progress of fiction; and thefrequent instances which might be alleged of holy martyrs, whose woundshad been instantly healed, whose strength had been renewed, and whoselost members had miraculously been restored, were extremely convenientfor the purpose of removing every difficulty, and of silencing everyobjection. The most extravagant legends, as they conduced to the honorof the church, were applauded by the credulous multitude, countenancedby the power of the clergy, and attested by the suspicious evidence ofecclesiastical history.

Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero ToConstantine.--Part VIII.

The vague descriptions of exile and imprisonment, of pain and torture,are so easily exaggerated or softened by the pencil of an artfulorator, * that we are naturally induced to inquire into a fact of a moredistinct and stubborn kind; the number of persons who suffered death inconsequence of the edicts published by Diocletian, his associates, andhis successors. The recent legendaries record whole armies andcities, which were at once swept away by the undistinguishing rage ofpersecution. The more ancient writers content themselves with pouringout a liberal effusion of loose and tragical invectives, withoutcondescending to ascertain the precise number of those persons who werepermitted to seal with their blood their belief of the gospel. Fromthe history of Eusebius, it may, however, be collected, that only ninebishops were punished with death; and we are assured, by his particularenumeration of the martyrs of Palestine, that no more than ninety-twoChristians were entitled to that honorable appellation. As we areunacquainted with the degree of episcopal zeal and courage whichprevailed at that time, it is not in our power to draw any usefulinferences from the former of these facts: but the latter may serveto justify a very important and probable conclusion. According to thedistribution of Roman provinces, Palestine may be considered asthe sixteenth part of the Eastern empire: and since there were somegovernors, who from a real or affected clemency had preserved theirhands unstained with the blood of the faithful, it is reasonableto believe, that the country which had given birth to Christianity,produced at least the sixteenth part of the martyrs who suffereddeath within the dominions of Galerius and Maximin; the whole mightconsequently amount to about fifteen hundred, a number which, if it isequally divided between the ten years of the persecution, will allow anannual consumption of one hundred and fifty martyrs. Allotting the sameproportion to the provinces of Italy, Africa, and perhaps Spain, where,at the end of two or three years, the rigor of the penal laws was eithersuspended or abolished, the multitude of Christians in the Roman empire,on whom a capital punishment was inflicted by a judicial, sentence, willbe reduced to somewhat less than two thousand persons. Since it cannotbe doubted that the Christians were more numerous, and their enemiesmore exasperated, in the time of Diocletian, than they had ever been inany former persecution, this probable and moderate computation may teachus to estimate the number of primitive saints and martyrs who sacrificedtheir lives for the important purpose of introducing Christianity intothe world.

We shall conclude this chapter by a melancholy truth, which obtrudesitself on the reluctant mind; that even admitting, without hesitation orinquiry, all that history has recorded, or devotion has feigned, onthe subject of martyrdoms, it must still be acknowledged, that theChristians, in the course of their intestine dissensions, have inflictedfar greater severities on each other, than they had experienced fromthe zeal of infidels. During the ages of ignorance which followed thesubversion of the Roman empire in the West, the bishops of the Imperialcity extended their dominion over the laity as well as clergy of theLatin church. The fabric of superstition which they had erected, andwhich might long have defied the feeble efforts of reason, was at lengthassaulted by a crowd of daring fanatics, who from the twelfth to thesixteenth century assumed the popular character of reformers. The churchof Rome defended by violence the empire which she had acquired by fraud;a system of peace and benevolence was soon disgraced by proscriptions,war, massacres, and the institution of the holy office. And as thereformers were animated by the love of civil as well as of religiousfreedom, the Catholic princes connected their own interest with that ofthe clergy, and enforced by fire and the sword the terrors of spiritualcensures. In the Netherlands alone, more than one hundred thousand ofthe subjects of Charles V. are said to have suffered by the hand of theexecutioner; and this extraordinary number is attested by Grotius, a manof genius and learning, who preserved his moderation amidst the furyof contending sects, and who composed the annals of his own age andcountry, at a time when the invention of printing had facilitated themeans of intelligence, and increased the danger of detection. If we areobliged to submit our belief to the authority of Grotius, it must beallowed, that the number of Protestants, who were executed in a singleprovince and a single reign, far exceeded that of the primitive martyrsin the space of three centuries, and of the Roman empire. But if theimprobability of the fact itself should prevail over the weight ofevidence; if Grotius should be convicted of exaggerating the merit andsufferings of the Reformers; we shall be naturally led to inquire whatconfidence can be placed in the doubtful and imperfect monuments ofancient credulity; what degree of credit can be assigned to a courtlybishop, and a passionate declaimer, * who, under the protectionof Constantine, enjoyed the exclusive privilege of recording thepersecutions inflicted on the Christians by the vanquished rivals ordisregarded predecessors of their gracious sovereign.

Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.--Part I.

 Foundation Of Constantinople.--Political System Constantine, And His Successors.--Military Discipline.--The Palace.--The Finances.

The unfortunate Licinius was the last rival who opposed the greatness,and the last captive who adorned the triumph, of Constantine. After atranquil and prosperous reign, the conqueror bequeathed to his familythe inheritance of the Roman empire; a new capital, a new policy, anda new religion; and the innovations which he established have beenembraced and consecrated by succeeding generations. The age of thegreat Constantine and his sons is filled with important events; butthe historian must be oppressed by their number and variety, unless hediligently separates from each other the scenes which are connected onlyby the order of time. He will describe the political institutions thatgave strength and stability to the empire, before he proceeds to relatethe wars and revolutions which hastened its decline. He will adopt thedivision unknown to the ancients of civil and ecclesiastical affairs:the victory of the Christians, and their intestine discord, will supplycopious and distinct materials both for edification and for scandal.

After the defeat and abdication of Licinius, his victorious rivalproceeded to lay the foundations of a city destined to reign in futuretimes, the mistress of the East, and to survive the empire and religionof Constantine. The motives, whether of pride or of policy, whichfirst induced Diocletian to withdraw himself from the ancient seatof government, had acquired additional weight by the example ofhis successors, and the habits of forty years. Rome was insensiblyconfounded with the dependent kingdoms which had once acknowledgedher supremacy; and the country of the CÊsars was viewed with coldindifference by a martial prince, born in the neighborhood of theDanube, educated in the courts and armies of Asia, and invested withthe purple by the legions of Britain. The Italians, who had receivedConstantine as their deliverer, submissively obeyed the edicts which hesometimes condescended to address to the senate and people of Rome;but they were seldom honored with the presence of their new sovereign.During the vigor of his age, Constantine, according to the variousexigencies of peace and war, moved with slow dignity, or with activediligence, along the frontiers of his extensive dominions; and wasalways prepared to take the field either against a foreign or a domesticenemy. But as he gradually reached the summit of prosperity and thedecline of life, he began to meditate the design of fixing in a morepermanent station the strength as well as majesty of the throne. In thechoice of an advantageous situation, he preferred the confines of Europeand Asia; to curb with a powerful arm the barbarians who dwelt betweenthe Danube and the Tanais; to watch with an eye of jealousy the conductof the Persian monarch, who indignantly supported the yoke of anignominious treaty. With these views, Diocletian had selected andembellished the residence of Nicomedia: but the memory of Diocletian wasjustly abhorred by the protector of the church: and Constantine was notinsensible to the ambition of founding a city which might perpetuatethe glory of his own name. During the late operations of the war againstLicinius, he had sufficient opportunity to contemplate, both as asoldier and as a statesman, the incomparable position of Byzantium;and to observe how strongly it was guarded by nature against a hostileattack, whilst it was accessible on every side to the benefits ofcommercial intercourse. Many ages before Constantine, one of the mostjudicious historians of antiquity had described the advantages of asituation, from whence a feeble colony of Greeks derived the command ofthe sea, and the honors of a flourishing and independent republic.

If we survey Byzantium in the extent which it acquired with theaugust name of Constantinople, the figure of the Imperial city may berepresented under that of an unequal triangle. The obtuse point, whichadvances towards the east and the shores of Asia, meets and repelsthe waves of the Thracian Bosphorus. The northern side of the city isbounded by the harbor; and the southern is washed by the Propontis, orSea of Marmara. The basis of the triangle is opposed to the west, andterminates the continent of Europe. But the admirable form and divisionof the circumjacent land and water cannot, without a more ampleexplanation, be clearly or sufficiently understood.

The winding channel through which the waters of the Euxine flow witha rapid and incessant course towards the Mediterranean, received theappellation of Bosphorus, a name not less celebrated in the history,than in the fables, of antiquity. A crowd of temples and of votivealtars, profusely scattered along its steep and woody banks, attestedthe unskilfulness, the terrors, and the devotion of the Greciannavigators, who, after the example of the Argonauts, explored thedangers of the inhospitable Euxine. On these banks tradition longpreserved the memory of the palace of Phineus, infested by the obsceneharpies; and of the sylvan reign of Amycus, who defied the son of Ledato the combat of the cestus. The straits of the Bosphorus are terminatedby the Cyanean rocks, which, according to the description of the poets,had once floated on the face of the waters; and were destined by thegods to protect the entrance of the Euxine against the eye of profanecuriosity. From the Cyanean rocks to the point and harbor of Byzantium,the winding length of the Bosphorus extends about sixteen miles, and itsmost ordinary breadth may be computed at about one mile and a half. Thenew castles of Europe and Asia are constructed, on either continent,upon the foundations of two celebrated temples, of Serapis and ofJupiter Urius. The oldcastles, a work of the Greek emperors, commandthe narrowest part of the channel in a place where the opposite banksadvance within five hundred paces of each other. These fortresses weredestroyed and strengthened by Mahomet the Second, when he meditated thesiege of Constantinople: but the Turkish conqueror was most probablyignorant, that near two thousand years before his reign, continents bya bridge of boats. At a small distance from the old castles we discoverthe little town of Chrysopolis, or Scutari, which may almost beconsidered as the Asiatic suburb of Constantinople. The Bosphorus, asit begins to open into the Propontis, passes between Byzantium andChalcedon. The latter of those cities was built by the Greeks, afew years before the former; and the blindness of its founders, whooverlooked the superior advantages of the opposite coast, has beenstigmatized by a proverbial expression of contempt.

The harbor of Constantinople, which may be considered as an arm of theBosphorus, obtained, in a very remote period, the denomination of theGolden Horn. The curve which it describes might be compared to the hornof a stag, or as it should seem, with more propriety, to that of anox. The epithet of golden was expressive of the riches which every windwafted from the most distant countries into the secure and capaciousport of Constantinople. The River Lycus, formed by the conflux of twolittle streams, pours into the harbor a perpetual supply of fresh water,which serves to cleanse the bottom, and to invite the periodicalshoals of fish to seek their retreat in that convenient recess. As thevicissitudes of tides are scarcely felt in those seas, the constantdepth of the harbor allows goods to be landed on the quays without theassistance of boats; and it has been observed, that in many places thelargest vessels may rest their prows against the houses, while theirsterns are floating in the water. From the mouth of the Lycus to thatof the harbor, this arm of the Bosphorus is more than seven miles inlength. The entrance is about five hundred yards broad, and a strongchain could be occasionally drawn across it, to guard the port and cityfrom the attack of a hostile navy.

Between the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, the shores of Europe and Asia,receding on either side, enclose the sea of Marmara, which was known tothe ancients by the denomination of Propontis. The navigation from theissue of the Bosphorus to the entrance of the Hellespont is about onehundred and twenty miles. Those who steer their westward course throughthe middle of the Propontis, amt at once descry the high lands of Thraceand Bithynia, and never lose sight of the lofty summit of Mount Olympus,covered with eternal snows. They leave on the left a deep gulf, atthe bottom of which Nicomedia was seated, the Imperial residence ofDiocletian; and they pass the small islands of Cyzicus and Proconnesusbefore they cast anchor at Gallipoli; where the sea, which separatesAsia from Europe, is again contracted into a narrow channel.

The geographers who, with the most skilful accuracy, have surveyed theform and extent of the Hellespont, assign about sixty miles for thewinding course, and about three miles for the ordinary breadth of thosecelebrated straits. But the narrowest part of the channel is found tothe northward of the old Turkish castles between the cities of Sestusand Abydus. It was here that the adventurous Leander braved the passageof the flood for the possession of his mistress. It was here likewise,in a place where the distance between the opposite banks cannot exceedfive hundred paces, that Xerxes imposed a stupendous bridge of boats,for the purpose of transporting into Europe a hundred and seventymyriads of barbarians. A sea contracted within such narrow limits mayseem but ill to deserve the singular epithet of broad, which Homer, aswell as Orpheus, has frequently bestowed on the Hellespont. * Butour ideas of greatness are of a relative nature: the traveller, andespecially the poet, who sailed along the Hellespont, who pursuedthe windings of the stream, and contemplated the rural scenery, whichappeared on every side to terminate the prospect, insensibly lost theremembrance of the sea; and his fancy painted those celebrated straits,with all the attributes of a mighty river flowing with a swift current,in the midst of a woody and inland country, and at length, through awide mouth, discharging itself into the ∆gean or Archipelago. AncientTroy, seated on a an eminence at the foot of Mount Ida, overlooked themouth of the Hellespont, which scarcely received an accession of watersfrom the tribute of those immortal rivulets the Simois and Scamander.The Grecian camp had stretched twelve miles along the shore from theSigÊan to the RhÊtean promontory; and the flanks of the army wereguarded by the bravest chiefs who fought under the banners of Agamemnon.The first of those promontories was occupied by Achilles with hisinvincible myrmidons, and the dauntless Ajax pitched his tents on theother. After Ajax had fallen a sacrifice to his disappointed pride,and to the ingratitude of the Greeks, his sepulchre was erected on theground where he had defended the navy against the rage of Jove and ofHector; and the citizens of the rising town of RhÊteum celebrated hismemory with divine honors. Before Constantine gave a just preference tothe situation of Byzantium, he had conceived the design of erecting theseat of empire on this celebrated spot, from whence the Romans derivedtheir fabulous origin. The extensive plain which lies below ancientTroy, towards the RhÊtean promontory and the tomb of Ajax, was firstchosen for his new capital; and though the undertaking was soonrelinquished the stately remains of unfinished walls and towersattracted the notice of all who sailed through the straits of theHellespont.

We are at present qualified to view the advantageous position ofConstantinople; which appears to have been formed by nature for thecentre and capital of a great monarchy. Situated in the forty-firstdegree of latitude, the Imperial city commanded, from her seven hills,the opposite shores of Europe and Asia; the climate was healthy andtemperate, the soil fertile, the harbor secure and capacious; and theapproach on the side of the continent was of small extent and easydefence. The Bosphorus and the Hellespont may be considered as the twogates of Constantinople; and the prince who possessed those importantpassages could always shut them against a naval enemy, and open them tothe fleets of commerce. The preservation of the eastern provincesmay, in some degree, be ascribed to the policy of Constantine, as thebarbarians of the Euxine, who in the preceding age had poured theirarmaments into the heart of the Mediterranean, soon desisted fromthe exercise of piracy, and despaired of forcing this insurmountablebarrier. When the gates of the Hellespont and Bosphorus were shut, thecapital still enjoyed within their spacious enclosure every productionwhich could supply the wants, or gratify the luxury, of its numerousinhabitants. The sea-coasts of Thrace and Bithynia, which languishunder the weight of Turkish oppression, still exhibit a rich prospect ofvineyards, of gardens, and of plentiful harvests; and the Propontishas ever been renowned for an inexhaustible store of the most exquisitefish, that are taken in their stated seasons, without skill, and almostwithout labor. But when the passages of the straits were thrown open fortrade, they alternately admitted the natural and artificial riches ofthe north and south, of the Euxine, and of the Mediterranean. Whateverrude commodities were collected in the forests of Germany and Scythia,and far as the sources of the Tanais and the Borysthenes; whatsoever wasmanufactured by the skill of Europe or Asia; the corn of Egypt, and thegems and spices of the farthest India, were brought by the varyingwinds into the port of Constantinople, which for many ages attracted thecommerce of the ancient world.

[See Basilica Of Constantinople]

The prospect of beauty, of safety, and of wealth, united in a singlespot, was sufficient to justify the choice of Constantine. But as somedecent mixture of prodigy and fable has, in every age, been supposed toreflect a becoming majesty on the origin of great cities, the emperorwas desirous of ascribing his resolution, not so much to the uncertaincounsels of human policy, as to the infallible and eternal decreesof divine wisdom. In one of his laws he has been careful to instructposterity, that in obedience to the commands of God, he laid theeverlasting foundations of Constantinople: and though he has notcondescended to relate in what manner the celestial inspiration wascommunicated to his mind, the defect of his modest silence has beenliberally supplied by the ingenuity of succeeding writers; who describethe nocturnal vision which appeared to the fancy of Constantine, as heslept within the walls of Byzantium. The tutelar genius of the city, avenerable matron sinking under the weight of years and infirmities, wassuddenly transformed into a blooming maid, whom his own hands adornedwith all the symbols of Imperial greatness. The monarch awoke,interpreted the auspicious omen, and obeyed, without hesitation,the will of Heaven The day which gave birth to a city or colony wascelebrated by the Romans with such ceremonies as had been ordained bya generous superstition; and though Constantine might omit some riteswhich savored too strongly of their Pagan origin, yet he was anxiousto leave a deep impression of hope and respect on the minds of thespectators. On foot, with a lance in his hand, the emperor himself ledthe solemn procession; and directed the line, which was traced as theboundary of the destined capital: till the growing circumference wasobserved with astonishment by the assistants, who, at length, venturedto observe, that he had already exceeded the most ample measure of agreat city. "I shall still advance," replied Constantine, "till He, theinvisible guide who marches before me, thinks proper to stop." Withoutpresuming to investigate the nature or motives of this extraordinaryconductor, we shall content ourselves with the more humble task ofdescribing the extent and limits of Constantinople.

In the actual state of the city, the palace and gardens of the Seragliooccupy the eastern promontory, the first of the seven hills, and coverabout one hundred and fifty acres of our own measure. The seat ofTurkish jealousy and despotism is erected on the foundations of aGrecian republic; but it may be supposed that the Byzantines weretempted by the conveniency of the harbor to extend their habitationson that side beyond the modern limits of the Seraglio. The new walls ofConstantine stretched from the port to the Propontis across the enlargedbreadth of the triangle, at the distance of fifteen stadia from theancient fortification; and with the city of Byzantium they enclosedfive of the seven hills, which, to the eyes of those who approachConstantinople, appear to rise above each other in beautiful order.About a century after the death of the founder, the new buildings,extending on one side up the harbor, and on the other along thePropontis, already covered the narrow ridge of the sixth, and the broadsummit of the seventh hill. The necessity of protecting those suburbsfrom the incessant inroads of the barbarians engaged the youngerTheodosius to surround his capital with an adequate and permanentenclosure of walls. From the eastern promontory to the golden gate,the extreme length of Constantinople was about three Roman miles; thecircumference measured between ten and eleven; and the surface might becomputed as equal to about two thousand English acres. It is impossibleto justify the vain and credulous exaggerations of modern travellers,who have sometimes stretched the limits of Constantinople over theadjacent villages of the European, and even of the Asiatic coast. Butthe suburbs of Pera and Galata, though situate beyond the harbor, maydeserve to be considered as a part of the city; and this addition mayperhaps authorize the measure of a Byzantine historian, who assignssixteen Greek (about fourteen Roman) miles for the circumference ofhis native city. Such an extent may not seem unworthy of an Imperialresidence. Yet Constantinople must yield to Babylon and Thebes, toancient Rome, to London, and even to Paris.

Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.--Part II.

The master of the Roman world, who aspired to erect an eternal monumentof the glories of his reign could employ in the prosecution of thatgreat work, the wealth, the labor, and all that yet remained of thegenius of obedient millions. Some estimate may be formed of the expensebestowed with Imperial liberality on the foundation of Constantinople,by the allowance of about two millions five hundred thousand poundsfor the construction of the walls, the porticos, and the aqueducts. Theforests that overshadowed the shores of the Euxine, and the celebratedquarries of white marble in the little island of Proconnesus, suppliedan inexhaustible stock of materials, ready to be conveyed, by theconvenience of a short water carriage, to the harbor of Byzantium. Amultitude of laborers and artificers urged the conclusion of the workwith incessant toil: but the impatience of Constantine soon discovered,that, in the decline of the arts, the skill as well as numbers ofhis architects bore a very unequal proportion to the greatness of hisdesigns. The magistrates of the most distant provinces were thereforedirected to institute schools, to appoint professors, and by the hopesof rewards and privileges, to engage in the study and practice ofarchitecture a sufficient number of ingenious youths, who had receiveda liberal education. The buildings of the new city were executed bysuch artificers as the reign of Constantine could afford; but they weredecorated by the hands of the most celebrated masters of the age ofPericles and Alexander. To revive the genius of Phidias and Lysippus,surpassed indeed the power of a Roman emperor; but the immortalproductions which they had bequeathed to posterity were exposed withoutdefence to the rapacious vanity of a despot. By his commands the citiesof Greece and Asia were despoiled of their most valuable ornaments. Thetrophies of memorable wars, the objects of religious veneration, themost finished statues of the gods and heroes, of the sages and poets,of ancient times, contributed to the splendid triumph of Constantinople;and gave occasion to the remark of the historian Cedrenus, who observes,with some enthusiasm, that nothing seemed wanting except the souls ofthe illustrious men whom these admirable monuments were intendedto represent. But it is not in the city of Constantine, nor in thedeclining period of an empire, when the human mind was depressed bycivil and religious slavery, that we should seek for the souls of Homerand of Demosthenes.

During the siege of Byzantium, the conqueror had pitched his tent on thecommanding eminence of the second hill. To perpetuate the memory ofhis success, he chose the same advantageous position for the principalForum; which appears to have been of a circular, or rather ellipticalform. The two opposite entrances formed triumphal arches; the porticos,which enclosed it on every side, were filled with statues; and thecentre of the Forum was occupied by a lofty column, of which a mutilatedfragment is now degraded by the appellation of the burnt pillar. Thiscolumn was erected on a pedestal of white marble twenty feet high; andwas composed of ten pieces of porphyry, each of which measured about tenfeet in height, and about thirty-three in circumference. On the summitof the pillar, above one hundred and twenty feet from the ground, stoodthe colossal statue of Apollo. It was a bronze, had been transportedeither from Athens or from a town of Phrygia, and was supposed to be thework of Phidias. The artist had represented the god of day, or, as itwas afterwards interpreted, the emperor Constantine himself, with asceptre in his right hand, the globe of the world in his left, and acrown of rays glittering on his head. The Circus, or Hippodrome, was astately building about four hundred paces in length, and one hundred inbreadth. The space between the two met or goals were filled with statuesand obelisks; and we may still remark a very singular fragment ofantiquity; the bodies of three serpents, twisted into one pillar ofbrass. Their triple heads had once supported the golden tripod which,after the defeat of Xerxes, was consecrated in the temple of Delphi bythe victorious Greeks. The beauty of the Hippodrome has been long sincedefaced by the rude hands of the Turkish conquerors; but, under thesimilar appellation of Atmeidan, it still serves as a place of exercisefor their horses. From the throne, whence the emperor viewed theCircensian games, a winding staircase descended to the palace; amagnificent edifice, which scarcely yielded to the residence of Romeitself, and which, together with the dependent courts, gardens, andporticos, covered a considerable extent of ground upon the banks of thePropontis between the Hippodrome and the church of St. Sophia. Wemight likewise celebrate the baths, which still retained the nameof Zeuxippus, after they had been enriched, by the munificence ofConstantine, with lofty columns, various marbles, and above threescorestatues of bronze. But we should deviate from the design of thishistory, if we attempted minutely to describe the different buildingsor quarters of the city. It may be sufficient to observe, that whatevercould adorn the dignity of a great capital, or contribute to the benefitor pleasure of its numerous inhabitants, was contained within the wallsof Constantinople. A particular description, composed about a centuryafter its foundation, enumerates a capitol or school of learning, acircus, two theatres, eight public, and one hundred and fifty-threeprivate baths, fifty-two porticos, five granaries, eight aqueducts orreservoirs of water, four spacious halls for the meetings of the senateor courts of justice, fourteen churches, fourteen palaces, and fourthousand three hundred and eighty-eight houses, which, for their sizeor beauty, deserved to be distinguished from the multitude of plebeianinhabitants.

The populousness of his favored city was the next and most seriousobject of the attention of its founder. In the dark ages which succeededthe translation of the empire, the remote and the immediate consequencesof that memorable event were strangely confounded by the vanity of theGreeks and the credulity of the Latins. It was asserted, and believed,that all the noble families of Rome, the senate, and the equestrianorder, with their innumerable attendants, had followed their emperorto the banks of the Propontis; that a spurious race of strangers andplebeians was left to possess the solitude of the ancient capital; andthat the lands of Italy, long since converted into gardens, were at oncedeprived of cultivation and inhabitants. In the course of this history,such exaggerations will be reduced to their just value: yet, since thegrowth of Constantinople cannot be ascribed to the general increase ofmankind and of industry, it must be admitted that this artificial colonywas raised at the expense of the ancient cities of the empire. Manyopulent senators of Rome, and of the eastern provinces, were probablyinvited by Constantine to adopt for their country the fortunate spot,which he had chosen for his own residence. The invitations of a masterare scarcely to be distinguished from commands; and the liberality ofthe emperor obtained a ready and cheerful obedience. He bestowed on hisfavorites the palaces which he had built in the several quarters of thecity, assigned them lands and pensions for the support of their dignity,and alienated the demesnes of Pontus and Asia to grant hereditaryestates by the easy tenure of maintaining a house in the capital. Butthese encouragements and obligations soon became superfluous, andwere gradually abolished. Wherever the seat of government is fixed, aconsiderable part of the public revenue will be expended by the princehimself, by his ministers, by the officers of justice, and by thedomestics of the palace. The most wealthy of the provincials will beattracted by the powerful motives of interest and duty, of amusem*ntand curiosity. A third and more numerous class of inhabitants willinsensibly be formed, of servants, of artificers, and of merchants, whoderive their subsistence from their own labor, and from the wants orluxury of the superior ranks. In less than a century, Constantinopledisputed with Rome itself the preeminence of riches and numbers. Newpiles of buildings, crowded together with too little regard to healthor convenience, scarcely allowed the intervals of narrow streets for theperpetual throng of men, of horses, and of carriages. The allotted spaceof ground was insufficient to contain the increasing people; and theadditional foundations, which, on either side, were advanced into thesea, might alone have composed a very considerable city.

The frequent and regular distributions of wine and oil, of corn orbread, of money or provisions, had almost exempted the poorest citizensof Rome from the necessity of labor. The magnificence of the firstCÊsars was in some measure imitated by the founder of Constantinople:but his liberality, however it might excite the applause of the people,has in curred the censure of posterity. A nation of legislators andconquerors might assert their claim to the harvests of Africa, whichhad been purchased with their blood; and it was artfully contrived byAugustus, that, in the enjoyment of plenty, the Romans should losethe memory of freedom. But the prodigality of Constantine could not beexcused by any consideration either of public or private interest; andthe annual tribute of corn imposed upon Egypt for the benefit of hisnew capital, was applied to feed a lazy and insolent populace, at theexpense of the husbandmen of an industrious province. * Some otherregulations of this emperor are less liable to blame, but they are lessdeserving of notice. He divided Constantinople into fourteen regions orquarters, dignified the public council with the appellation of senate,communicated to the citizens the privileges of Italy, and bestowed onthe rising city the title of Colony, the first and most favored daughterof ancient Rome. The venerable parent still maintained the legal andacknowledged supremacy, which was due to her age, her dignity, and tothe remembrance of her former greatness.

As Constantine urged the progress of the work with the impatience ofa lover, the walls, the porticos, and the principal edifices werecompleted in a few years, or, according to another account, in afew months; but this extraordinary diligence should excite the lessadmiration, since many of the buildings were finished in so hasty andimperfect a manner, that under the succeeding reign, they were preservedwith difficulty from impending ruin. But while they displayed the vigorand freshness of youth, the founder prepared to celebrate the dedicationof his city. The games and largesses which crowned the pomp of thismemorable festival may easily be supposed; but there is one circ*mstanceof a more singular and permanent nature, which ought not entirely to beoverlooked. As often as the birthday of the city returned, the statuteof Constantine, framed by his order, of gilt wood, and bearing in hisright hand a small image of the genius of the place, was erected on atriumphal car. The guards, carrying white tapers, and clothed in theirrichest apparel, accompanied the solemn procession as it moved throughthe Hippodrome. When it was opposite to the throne of the reigningemperor, he rose from his seat, and with grateful reverence adored thememory of his predecessor. At the festival of the dedication, an edict,engraved on a column of marble, bestowed the title of Second or New Romeon the city of Constantine. But the name of Constantinople has prevailedover that honorable epithet; and after the revolution of fourteencenturies, still perpetuates the fame of its author.

The foundation of a new capital is naturally connected with theestablishment of a new form of civil and military administration.The distinct view of the complicated system of policy, introduced byDiocletian, improved by Constantine, and completed by his immediatesuccessors, may not only amuse the fancy by the singular picture of agreat empire, but will tend to illustrate the secret and internal causesof its rapid decay. In the pursuit of any remarkable institution, we maybe frequently led into the more early or the more recent times of theRoman history; but the proper limits of this inquiry will be includedwithin a period of about one hundred and thirty years, from theaccession of Constantine to the publication of the Theodosian code; fromwhich, as well as from the Notitia * of the East and West, we derive themost copious and authentic information of the state of the empire.This variety of objects will suspend, for some time, the course of thenarrative; but the interruption will be censured only by those readerswho are insensible to the importance of laws and manners, while theyperuse, with eager curiosity, the transient intrigues of a court, or theaccidental event of a battle.

Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.--Part III.

The manly pride of the Romans, content with substantial power, hadleft to the vanity of the East the forms and ceremonies of ostentatiousgreatness. But when they lost even the semblance of those virtues whichwere derived from their ancient freedom, the simplicity of Roman mannerswas insensibly corrupted by the stately affectation of the courts ofAsia. The distinctions of personal merit and influence, so conspicuousin a republic, so feeble and obscure under a monarchy, were abolishedby the despotism of the emperors; who substituted in their room a severesubordination of rank and office from the titled slaves who were seatedon the steps of the throne, to the meanest instruments of arbitrarypower. This multitude of abject dependants was interested in the supportof the actual government from the dread of a revolution, which might atonce confound their hopes and intercept the reward of their services. Inthis divine hierarchy (for such it is frequently styled) every rank wasmarked with the most scrupulous exactness, and its dignity was displayedin a variety of trifling and solemn ceremonies, which it was a study tolearn, and a sacrilege to neglect. The purity of the Latin languagewas debased, by adopting, in the intercourse of pride and flattery, aprofusion of epithets, which Tully would scarcely have understood,and which Augustus would have rejected with indignation. The principalofficers of the empire were saluted, even by the sovereign himself, withthe deceitful titles of your Sincerity, your Gravity, your Excellency,your Eminence, your sublime and wonderful Magnitude, your illustriousand magnificent Highness. The codicils or patents of their office werecuriously emblazoned with such emblems as were best adapted to explainits nature and high dignity; the image or portrait of the reigningemperors; a triumphal car; the book of mandates placed on a table,covered with a rich carpet, and illuminated by four tapers; theallegorical figures of the provinces which they governed; or theappellations and standards of the troops whom they commanded Some ofthese official ensigns were really exhibited in their hall of audience;others preceded their pompous march whenever they appeared in public;and every circ*mstance of their demeanor, their dress, their ornaments,and their train, was calculated to inspire a deep reverence for therepresentatives of supreme majesty. By a philosophic observer, thesystem of the Roman government might have been mistaken for a splendidtheatre, filled with players of every character and degree, who repeatedthe language, and imitated the passions, of their original model.

All the magistrates of sufficient importance to find a place in thegeneral state of the empire, were accurately divided into three classes.1. The Illustrious. 2. The Spectabiles, or Respectable. And, 3. theClarissimi; whom we may translate by the word Honorable. In the timesof Roman simplicity, the last-mentioned epithet was used only as avague expression of deference, till it became at length the peculiarand appropriated title of all who were members of the senate, andconsequently of all who, from that venerable body, were selected togovern the provinces. The vanity of those who, from their rank andoffice, might claim a superior distinction above the rest of thesenatorial order, was long afterwards indulged with the new appellationof Respectable; but the title of Illustrious was always reserved to someeminent personages who were obeyed or reverenced by the two subordinateclasses. It was communicated only, I. To the consuls and patricians; II.To the PrÊtorian prÊfects, with the prÊfects of Rome and Constantinople;III. To the masters-general of the cavalry and the infantry; and IV. Tothe seven ministers of the palace, who exercised their sacred functionsabout the person of the emperor. Among those illustrious magistrates whowere esteemed coordinate with each other, the seniority of appointmentgave place to the union of dignities. By the expedient of honorarycodicils, the emperors, who were fond of multiplying their favors, mightsometimes gratify the vanity, though not the ambition, of impatientcourtiers.

I. As long as the Roman consuls were the first magistrates of a freestate, they derived their right to power from the choice of the people.As long as the emperors condescended to disguise the servitude whichthey imposed, the consuls were still elected by the real or apparentsuffrage of the senate. From the reign of Diocletian, even thesevestiges of liberty were abolished, and the successful candidates whowere invested with the annual honors of the consulship, affected todeplore the humiliating condition of their predecessors. The Scipios andthe Catos had been reduced to solicit the votes of plebeians, to passthrough the tedious and expensive forms of a popular election, and toexpose their dignity to the shame of a public refusal; while their ownhappier fate had reserved them for an age and government in which therewards of virtue were assigned by the unerring wisdom of a gracioussovereign. In the epistles which the emperor addressed to the twoconsuls elect, it was declared, that they were created by his soleauthority. Their names and portraits, engraved on gilt tables of ivory,were dispersed over the empire as presents to the provinces, the cities,the magistrates, the senate, and the people. Their solemn inaugurationwas performed at the place of the Imperial residence; and during aperiod of one hundred and twenty years, Rome was constantly deprived ofthe presence of her ancient magistrates. On the morning of the first ofJanuary, the consuls assumed the ensigns of their dignity. Their dresswas a robe of purple, embroidered in silk and gold, and sometimesornamented with costly gems. On this solemn occasion they were attendedby the most eminent officers of the state and army, in the habit ofsenators; and the useless fasces, armed with the once formidable axes,were borne before them by the lictors. The procession moved from thepalace to the Forum or principal square of the city; where the consulsascended their tribunal, and seated themselves in the curule chairs,which were framed after the fashion of ancient times. They immediatelyexercised an act of jurisdiction, by the manumission of a slave, who wasbrought before them for that purpose; and the ceremony was intendedto represent the celebrated action of the elder Brutus, the authorof liberty and of the consulship, when he admitted among hisfellow-citizens the faithful Vindex, who had revealed the conspiracy ofthe Tarquins. The public festival was continued during several days inall the principal cities in Rome, from custom; in Constantinople,from imitation in Carthage, Antioch, and Alexandria, from the love ofpleasure, and the superfluity of wealth. In the two capitals ofthe empire the annual games of the theatre, the circus, and theamphitheatre, cost four thousand pounds of gold, (about) one hundred andsixty thousand pounds sterling: and if so heavy an expense surpassed thefaculties or the inclinations of the magistrates themselves, the sumwas supplied from the Imperial treasury. As soon as the consuls haddischarged these customary duties, they were at liberty to retire intothe shade of private life, and to enjoy, during the remainder of theyear, the undisturbed contemplation of their own greatness. They nolonger presided in the national councils; they no longer executed theresolutions of peace or war. Their abilities (unless they were employedin more effective offices) were of little moment; and their names servedonly as the legal date of the year in which they had filled the chairof Marius and of Cicero. Yet it was still felt and acknowledged, in thelast period of Roman servitude, that this empty name might be compared,and even preferred, to the possession of substantial power. The titleof consul was still the most splendid object of ambition, the noblestreward of virtue and loyalty. The emperors themselves, who disdainedthe faint shadow of the republic, were conscious that they acquiredan additional splendor and majesty as often as they assumed the annualhonors of the consular dignity.

The proudest and most perfect separation which can be found in any ageor country, between the nobles and the people, is perhaps that of thePatricians and the Plebeians, as it was established in the first age ofthe Roman republic. Wealth and honors, the offices of the state, and theceremonies of religion, were almost exclusively possessed by the formerwho, preserving the purity of their blood with the most insultingjealousy, held their clients in a condition of specious vassalage. Butthese distinctions, so incompatible with the spirit of a free people,were removed, after a long struggle, by the persevering efforts of theTribunes. The most active and successful of the Plebeians accumulatedwealth, aspired to honors, deserved triumphs, contracted alliances,and, after some generations, assumed the pride of ancient nobility. ThePatrician families, on the other hand, whose original number wasnever recruited till the end of the commonwealth, either failed in theordinary course of nature, or were extinguished in so many foreignand domestic wars, or, through a want of merit or fortune, insensiblymingled with the mass of the people. Very few remained who could derivetheir pure and genuine origin from the infancy of the city, or even fromthat of the republic, when CÊsar and Augustus, Claudius and Vespasian,created from the body of the senate a competent number of new Patricianfamilies, in the hope of perpetuating an order, which was stillconsidered as honorable and sacred. But these artificial supplies (inwhich the reigning house was always included) were rapidly swept away bythe rage of tyrants, by frequent revolutions, by the change ofmanners, and by the intermixture of nations. Little more was left whenConstantine ascended the throne, than a vague and imperfect tradition,that the Patricians had once been the first of the Romans. To forma body of nobles, whose influence may restrain, while it secures theauthority of the monarch, would have been very inconsistent with thecharacter and policy of Constantine; but had he seriously entertainedsuch a design, it might have exceeded the measure of his power toratify, by an arbitrary edict, an institution which must expect thesanction of time and of opinion. He revived, indeed, the title ofPatricians, but he revived it as a personal, not as an hereditarydistinction. They yielded only to the transient superiority of theannual consuls; but they enjoyed the pre-eminence over all the greatofficers of state, with the most familiar access to the person of theprince. This honorable rank was bestowed on them for life; and as theywere usually favorites, and ministers who had grown old in the Imperialcourt, the true etymology of the word was perverted by ignorance andflattery; and the Patricians of Constantine were reverenced as theadopted Fathers of the emperor and the republic.

II. The fortunes of the PrÊtorian prÊfects were essentially differentfrom those of the consuls and Patricians. The latter saw their ancientgreatness evaporate in a vain title. The former, rising by degrees fromthe most humble condition, were invested with the civil and militaryadministration of the Roman world. From the reign of Severus to that ofDiocletian, the guards and the palace, the laws and the finances, thearmies and the provinces, were intrusted to their superintending care;and, like the Viziers of the East, they held with one hand the seal,and with the other the standard, of the empire. The ambition of theprÊfects, always formidable, and sometimes fatal to the masters whomthey served, was supported by the strength of the PrÊtorian bands; butafter those haughty troops had been weakened by Diocletian, and finallysuppressed by Constantine, the prÊfects, who survived their fall,were reduced without difficulty to the station of useful and obedientministers. When they were no longer responsible for the safety of theemperor's person, they resigned the jurisdiction which they had hithertoclaimed and exercised over all the departments of the palace. They weredeprived by Constantine of all military command, as soon as they hadceased to lead into the field, under their immediate orders, the flowerof the Roman troops; and at length, by a singular revolution, thecaptains of the guards were transformed into the civil magistratesof the provinces. According to the plan of government instituted byDiocletian, the four princes had each their PrÊtorian prÊfect; and afterthe monarchy was once more united in the person of Constantine, he stillcontinued to create the same number of Four PrÊfects, and intrusted totheir care the same provinces which they already administered. 1. TheprÊfect of the East stretched his ample jurisdiction into the threeparts of the globe which were subject to the Romans, from the cataractsof the Nile to the banks of the Phasis, and from the mountains of Thraceto the frontiers of Persia. 2. The important provinces of Pannonia,Dacia, Macedonia, and Greece, once acknowledged the authority of theprÊfect of Illyricum. 3. The power of the prÊfect of Italy was notconfined to the country from whence he derived his title; it extendedover the additional territory of RhÊtia as far as the banks of theDanube, over the dependent islands of the Mediterranean, and over thatpart of the continent of Africa which lies between the confines ofCyrene and those of Tingitania. 4. The prÊfect of the Gauls comprehendedunder that plural denomination the kindred provinces of Britain andSpain, and his authority was obeyed from the wall of Antoninus to thefoot of Mount Atlas.

After the PrÊtorian prÊfects had been dismissed from all militarycommand, the civil functions which they were ordained to exercise overso many subject nations, were adequate to the ambition and abilities ofthe most consummate ministers. To their wisdom was committed the supremeadministration of justice and of the finances, the two objects which,in a state of peace, comprehend almost all the respective duties of thesovereign and of the people; of the former, to protect the citizenswho are obedient to the laws; of the latter, to contribute the shareof their property which is required for the expenses of the state. Thecoin, the highways, the posts, the granaries, the manufactures, whatevercould interest the public prosperity, was moderated by the authority ofthe PrÊtorian prÊfects. As the immediate representatives of the Imperialmajesty, they were empowered to explain, to enforce, and on someoccasions to modify, the general edicts by their discretionaryproclamations. They watched over the conduct of the provincialgovernors, removed the negligent, and inflicted punishments on theguilty. From all the inferior jurisdictions, an appeal in every matterof importance, either civil or criminal, might be brought before thetribunal of the prÊfect; but his sentence was final and absolute; andthe emperors themselves refused to admit any complaints against thejudgment or the integrity of a magistrate whom they honored with suchunbounded confidence. His appointments were suitable to his dignity; andif avarice was his ruling passion, he enjoyed frequent opportunitiesof collecting a rich harvest of fees, of presents, and of perquisites.Though the emperors no longer dreaded the ambition of their prÊfects,they were attentive to counterbalance the power of this great office bythe uncertainty and shortness of its duration.

From their superior importance and dignity, Rome and Constantinoplewere alone excepted from the jurisdiction of the PrÊtorian prÊfects. Theimmense size of the city, and the experience of the tardy, ineffectualoperation of the laws, had furnished the policy of Augustus with aspecious pretence for introducing a new magistrate, who alone couldrestrain a servile and turbulent populace by the strong arm of arbitrarypower. Valerius Messalla was appointed the first prÊfect of Rome, thathis reputation might countenance so invidious a measure; but, at the endof a few days, that accomplished citizen resigned his office, declaring,with a spirit worthy of the friend of Brutus, that he found himselfincapable of exercising a power incompatible with public freedom. Asthe sense of liberty became less exquisite, the advantages of orderwere more clearly understood; and the prÊfect, who seemed to have beendesigned as a terror only to slaves and vagrants, was permitted toextend his civil and criminal jurisdiction over the equestrian and noblefamilies of Rome. The prÊtors, annually created as the judges of lawand equity, could not long dispute the possession of the Forum with avigorous and permanent magistrate, who was usually admitted into theconfidence of the prince. Their courts were deserted, their number,which had once fluctuated between twelve and eighteen, was graduallyreduced to two or three, and their important functions were confined tothe expensive obligation of exhibiting games for the amusem*nt of thepeople. After the office of the Roman consuls had been changed into avain pageant, which was rarely displayed in the capital, the prÊfectsassumed their vacant place in the senate, and were soon acknowledgedas the ordinary presidents of that venerable assembly. They receivedappeals from the distance of one hundred miles; and it was allowed asa principle of jurisprudence, that all municipal authority was derivedfrom them alone. In the discharge of his laborious employment, thegovernor of Rome was assisted by fifteen officers, some of whom had beenoriginally his equals, or even his superiors. The principal departmentswere relative to the command of a numerous watch, established as asafeguard against fires, robberies, and nocturnal disorders; the custodyand distribution of the public allowance of corn and provisions; thecare of the port, of the aqueducts, of the common sewers, and of thenavigation and bed of the Tyber; the inspection of the markets,the theatres, and of the private as well as the public works. Theirvigilance insured the three principal objects of a regular police,safety, plenty, and cleanliness; and as a proof of the attention ofgovernment to preserve the splendor and ornaments of the capital, aparticular inspector was appointed for the statues; the guardian, asit were, of that inanimate people, which, according to the extravagantcomputation of an old writer, was scarcely inferior in number to theliving inhabitants of Rome. About thirty years after the foundationof Constantinople, a similar magistrate was created in that risingmetropolis, for the same uses and with the same powers. A perfectequality was established between the dignity of the two municipal, andthat of the four PrÊtorian prÊfects.

Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.--Part IV.

Those who, in the imperial hierarchy, were distinguished by the titleof Respectable, formed an intermediate class between the illustriousprÊfects, and the honorable magistrates of the provinces. In this classthe proconsuls of Asia, Achaia, and Africa, claimed a preÎminence, whichwas yielded to the remembrance of their ancient dignity; and the appealfrom their tribunal to that of the prÊfects was almost the only mark oftheir dependence. But the civil government of the empire was distributedinto thirteen great Dioceses, each of which equalled the just measureof a powerful kingdom. The first of these dioceses was subject to thejurisdiction of the count of the east; and we may convey some idea ofthe importance and variety of his functions, by observing, that sixhundred apparitors, who would be styled at present either secretaries,or clerks, or ushers, or messengers, were employed in his immediateoffice. The place of Augustal prefect of Egypt was no longer filled bya Roman knight; but the name was retained; and the extraordinary powerswhich the situation of the country, and the temper of the inhabitants,had once made indispensable, were still continued to the governor. Theeleven remaining dioceses, of Asiana, Pontica, and Thrace; of Macedonia,Dacia, and Pannonia, or Western Illyricum; of Italy and Africa; of Gaul,Spain, and Britain; were governed by twelve vicars or vice-prefects,whose name sufficiently explains the nature and dependence of theiroffice. It may be added, that the lieutenant-generals of the Romanarmies, the military counts and dukes, who will be hereafter mentioned,were allowed the rank and title of Respectable.

As the spirit of jealousy and ostentation prevailed in the councilsof the emperors, they proceeded with anxious diligence to divide thesubstance and to multiply the titles of power. The vast countrieswhich the Roman conquerors had united under the same simple form ofadministration, were imperceptibly crumbled into minute fragments; tillat length the whole empire was distributed into one hundred andsixteen provinces, each of which supported an expensive and splendidestablishment. Of these, three were governed by proconsuls, thirty-sevenby consulars, five by correctors, and seventy-one by presidents.The appellations of these magistrates were different; they ranked insuccessive order, the ensigns of and their situation, from accidentalcirc*mstances, might be more or less agreeable or advantageous. But theywere all (excepting only the pro-consuls) alike included in the class ofhonorable persons; and they were alike intrusted, during the pleasure ofthe prince, and under the authority of the prÊfects or their deputies,with the administration of justice and the finances in their respectivedistricts. The ponderous volumes of the Codes and Pandects would furnishample materials for a minute inquiry into the system of provincialgovernment, as in the space of six centuries it was approved by thewisdom of the Roman statesmen and lawyers. It may be sufficient for thehistorian to select two singular and salutary provisions, intended torestrain the abuse of authority. 1. For the preservation of peace andorder, the governors of the provinces were armed with the sword ofjustice. They inflicted corporal punishments, and they exercised,in capital offences, the power of life and death. But they were notauthorized to indulge the condemned criminal with the choice of his ownexecution, or to pronounce a sentence of the mildest and most honorablekind of exile. These prerogatives were reserved to the prÊfects,who alone could impose the heavy fine of fifty pounds of gold: theirvicegerents were confined to the trifling weight of a few ounces.This distinction, which seems to grant the larger, while it denies thesmaller degree of authority, was founded on a very rational motive. Thesmaller degree was infinitely more liable to abuse. The passions ofa provincial magistrate might frequently provoke him into acts ofoppression, which affected only the freedom or the fortunes of thesubject; though, from a principle of prudence, perhaps of humanity, hemight still be terrified by the guilt of innocent blood. It may likewisebe considered, that exile, considerable fines, or the choice of aneasy death, relate more particularly to the rich and the noble; and thepersons the most exposed to the avarice or resentment of a provincialmagistrate, were thus removed from his obscure persecution to the moreaugust and impartial tribunal of the PrÊtorian prÊfect. 2. As it wasreasonably apprehended that the integrity of the judge might be biased,if his interest was concerned, or his affections were engaged, thestrictest regulations were established, to exclude any person, withoutthe special dispensation of the emperor, from the government of theprovince where he was born; and to prohibit the governor or his son fromcontracting marriage with a native, or an inhabitant; or from purchasingslaves, lands, or houses, within the extent of his jurisdiction.Notwithstanding these rigorous precautions, the emperor Constantine,after a reign of twenty-five years, still deplores the venal andoppressive administration of justice, and expresses the warmestindignation that the audience of the judge, his despatch of business,his seasonable delays, and his final sentence, were publicly sold,either by himself or by the officers of his court. The continuance, andperhaps the impunity, of these crimes, is attested by the repetition ofimpotent laws and ineffectual menaces.

All the civil magistrates were drawn from the profession of the law.The celebrated Institutes of Justinian are addressed to the youth ofhis dominions, who had devoted themselves to the study of Romanjurisprudence; and the sovereign condescends to animate their diligence,by the assurance that their skill and ability would in time be rewardedby an adequate share in the government of the republic. The rudiments ofthis lucrative science were taught in all the considerable cities of theeast and west; but the most famous school was that of Berytus, on thecoast of Phnicia; which flourished above three centuries from thetime of Alexander Severus, the author perhaps of an institution soadvantageous to his native country. After a regular course of education,which lasted five years, the students dispersed themselves throughthe provinces, in search of fortune and honors; nor could they want aninexhaustible supply of business great empire, already corrupted by themultiplicity of laws, of arts, and of vices. The court of the PrÊtorianprÊfect of the east could alone furnish employment for one hundredand fifty advocates, sixty-four of whom were distinguished by peculiarprivileges, and two were annually chosen, with a salary of sixty poundsof gold, to defend the causes of the treasury. The first experiment wasmade of their judicial talents, by appointing them to act occasionallyas assessors to the magistrates; from thence they were often raised topreside in the tribunals before which they had pleaded. They obtainedthe government of a province; and, by the aid of merit, of reputation,or of favor, they ascended, by successive steps, to the illustriousdignities of the state. In the practice of the bar, these men hadconsidered reason as the instrument of dispute; they interpretedthe laws according to the dictates of private interest and the samepernicious habits might still adhere to their characters in the publicadministration of the state. The honor of a liberal profession hasindeed been vindicated by ancient and modern advocates, who have filledthe most important stations, with pure integrity and consummate wisdom:but in the decline of Roman jurisprudence, the ordinary promotion oflawyers was pregnant with mischief and disgrace. The noble art, whichhad once been preserved as the sacred inheritance of the patricians,was fallen into the hands of freedmen and plebeians, who, with cunningrather than with skill, exercised a sordid and pernicious trade. Someof them procured admittance into families for the purpose of fomentingdifferences, of encouraging suits, and of preparing a harvest of gainfor themselves or their brethren. Others, recluse in their chambers,maintained the dignity of legal professors, by furnishing a rich clientwith subtleties to confound the plainest truths, and with arguments tocolor the most unjustifiable pretensions. The splendid and popular classwas composed of the advocates, who filled the Forum with the sound oftheir turgid and loquacious rhetoric. Careless of fame and of justice,they are described, for the most part, as ignorant and rapacious guides,who conducted their clients through a maze of expense, of delay, and ofdisappointment; from whence, after a tedious series of years, theywere at length dismissed, when their patience and fortune were almostexhausted.

III. In the system of policy introduced by Augustus, the governors,those at least of the Imperial provinces, were invested with thefull powers of the sovereign himself. Ministers of peace and war, thedistribution of rewards and punishments depended on them alone, andthey successively appeared on their tribunal in the robes of civilmagistracy, and in complete armor at the head of the Roman legions. Theinfluence of the revenue, the authority of law, and the command of amilitary force, concurred to render their power supreme and absolute;and whenever they were tempted to violate their allegiance, the loyalprovince which they involved in their rebellion was scarcely sensibleof any change in its political state. From the time of Commodus to thereign of Constantine, near one hundred governors might be enumerated,who, with various success, erected the standard of revolt; and thoughthe innocent were too often sacrificed, the guilty might be sometimesprevented, by the suspicious cruelty of their master. To secure histhrone and the public tranquillity from these formidable servants,Constantine resolved to divide the military from the civiladministration, and to establish, as a permanent and professionaldistinction, a practice which had been adopted only as an occasionalexpedient. The supreme jurisdiction exercised by the PrÊtorianprÊfects over the armies of the empire, was transferred to the twomasters-general whom he instituted, the one for the cavalry, the otherfor the infantry; and though each of these illustrious officers was morepeculiarly responsible for the discipline of those troops which wereunder his immediate inspection, they both indifferently commanded in thefield the several bodies, whether of horse or foot, which were united inthe same army. Their number was soon doubled by the division of theeast and west; and as separate generals of the same rank and title wereappointed on the four important frontiers of the Rhine, of the Upper andthe Lower Danube, and of the Euphrates, the defence of the Roman empirewas at length committed to eight masters-general of the cavalry andinfantry. Under their orders, thirty-five military commanders werestationed in the provinces: three in Britain, six in Gaul, one in Spain,one in Italy, five on the Upper, and four on the Lower Danube; in Asia,eight, three in Egypt, and four in Africa. The titles of counts, anddukes, by which they were properly distinguished, have obtained inmodern languages so very different a sense, that the use of them mayoccasion some surprise. But it should be recollected, that the secondof those appellations is only a corruption of the Latin word, which wasindiscriminately applied to any military chief. All these provincialgenerals were therefore dukes; but no more than ten among them weredignified with the rank of counts or companions, a title of honor,or rather of favor, which had been recently invented in the court ofConstantine. A gold belt was the ensign which distinguished the officeof the counts and dukes; and besides their pay, they received a liberalallowance sufficient to maintain one hundred and ninety servants, andone hundred and fifty-eight horses. They were strictly prohibited frominterfering in any matter which related to the administration of justiceor the revenue; but the command which they exercised over the troops oftheir department, was independent of the authority of the magistrates.About the same time that Constantine gave a legal sanction to theecclesiastical order, he instituted in the Roman empire the nice balanceof the civil and the military powers. The emulation, and sometimes thediscord, which reigned between two professions of opposite interestsand incompatible manners, was productive of beneficial and of perniciousconsequences. It was seldom to be expected that the general and thecivil governor of a province should either conspire for the disturbance,or should unite for the service, of their country. While the one delayedto offer the assistance which the other disdained to solicit, the troopsvery frequently remained without orders or without supplies; the publicsafety was betrayed, and the defenceless subjects were left exposed tothe fury of the Barbarians. The divided administration which had beenformed by Constantine, relaxed the vigor of the state, while it securedthe tranquillity of the monarch.

The memory of Constantine has been deservedly censured for anotherinnovation, which corrupted military discipline and prepared the ruinof the empire. The nineteen years which preceded his final victory overLicinius, had been a period of license and intestine war. The rivalswho contended for the possession of the Roman world, had withdrawn thegreatest part of their forces from the guard of the general frontier;and the principal cities which formed the boundary of their respectivedominions were filled with soldiers, who considered their countrymen astheir most implacable enemies. After the use of these internal garrisonshad ceased with the civil war, the conqueror wanted either wisdom orfirmness to revive the severe discipline of Diocletian, and to suppressa fatal indulgence, which habit had endeared and almost confirmed to themilitary order. From the reign of Constantine, a popular and even legaldistinction was admitted between the Palatines and the Borderers; thetroops of the court, as they were improperly styled, and the troops ofthe frontier. The former, elevated by the superiority of their pay andprivileges, were permitted, except in the extraordinary emergencies ofwar, to occupy their tranquil stations in the heart of the provinces.The most flourishing cities were oppressed by the intolerable weightof quarters. The soldiers insensibly forgot the virtues of theirprofession, and contracted only the vices of civil life. They wereeither degraded by the industry of mechanic trades, or enervated by theluxury of baths and theatres. They soon became careless of their martialexercises, curious in their diet and apparel; and while they inspiredterror to the subjects of the empire, they trembled at the hostileapproach of the Barbarians. The chain of fortifications which Diocletianand his colleagues had extended along the banks of the great rivers,was no longer maintained with the same care, or defended with the samevigilance. The numbers which still remained under the name of the troopsof the frontier, might be sufficient for the ordinary defence; but theirspirit was degraded by the humiliating reflection, that they who wereexposed to the hardships and dangers of a perpetual warfare, wererewarded only with about two thirds of the pay and emoluments which werelavished on the troops of the court. Even the bands or legions that wereraised the nearest to the level of those unworthy favorites, were insome measure disgraced by the title of honor which they were allowedto assume. It was in vain that Constantine repeated the most dreadfulmenaces of fire and sword against the Borderers who should dare deserttheir colors, to connive at the inroads of the Barbarians, or toparticipate in the spoil. The mischiefs which flow from injudiciouscounsels are seldom removed by the application of partial severities;and though succeeding princes labored to restore the strength andnumbers of the frontier garrisons, the empire, till the last moment ofits dissolution, continued to languish under the mortal wound which hadbeen so rashly or so weakly inflicted by the hand of Constantine.

The same timid policy, of dividing whatever is united, of reducingwhatever is eminent, of dreading every active power, and of expectingthat the most feeble will prove the most obedient, seems to pervade theinstitutions of several princes, and particularly those of Constantine.The martial pride of the legions, whose victorious camps had so oftenbeen the scene of rebellion, was nourished by the memory of their pastexploits, and the consciousness of their actual strength. As long asthey maintained their ancient establishment of six thousand men, theysubsisted, under the reign of Diocletian, each of them singly, a visibleand important object in the military history of the Roman empire. A fewyears afterwards, these gigantic bodies were shrunk to a very diminutivesize; and when seven legions, with some auxiliaries, defended the cityof Amida against the Persians, the total garrison, with the inhabitantsof both sexes, and the peasants of the deserted country, did not exceedthe number of twenty thousand persons. From this fact, and from similarexamples, there is reason to believe, that the constitution of thelegionary troops, to which they partly owed their valor and discipline,was dissolved by Constantine; and that the bands of Roman infantry,which still assumed the same names and the same honors, consistedonly of one thousand or fifteen hundred men. The conspiracy of so manyseparate detachments, each of which was awed by the sense of its ownweakness, could easily be checked; and the successors of Constantinemight indulge their love of ostentation, by issuing their orders to onehundred and thirty-two legions, inscribed on the muster-roll of theirnumerous armies. The remainder of their troops was distributed intoseveral hundred cohorts of infantry, and squadrons of cavalry. Theirarms, and titles, and ensigns, were calculated to inspire terror, and todisplay the variety of nations who marched under the Imperial standard.And not a vestige was left of that severe simplicity, which, in the agesof freedom and victory, had distinguished the line of battle of a Romanarmy from the confused host of an Asiatic monarch. A more particularenumeration, drawn from the Notitia, might exercise the diligence of anantiquary; but the historian will content himself with observing,that the number of permanent stations or garrisons established on thefrontiers of the empire, amounted to five hundred and eighty-three; andthat, under the successors of Constantine, the complete force of themilitary establishment was computed at six hundred and forty-fivethousand soldiers. An effort so prodigious surpassed the wants of a moreancient, and the faculties of a later, period.

In the various states of society, armies are recruited from verydifferent motives. Barbarians are urged by the love of war; the citizensof a free republic may be prompted by a principle of duty; the subjects,or at least the nobles, of a monarchy, are animated by a sentiment ofhonor; but the timid and luxurious inhabitants of a declining empiremust be allured into the service by the hopes of profit, or compelledby the dread of punishment. The resources of the Roman treasury wereexhausted by the increase of pay, by the repetition of donatives, and bythe invention of new emolument and indulgences, which, in the opinionof the provincial youth might compensate the hardships and dangers of amilitary life. Yet, although the stature was lowered, although slaves,least by a tacit connivance, were indiscriminately received into theranks, the insurmountable difficulty of procuring a regular and adequatesupply of volunteers, obliged the emperors to adopt more effectual andcoercive methods. The lands bestowed on the veterans, as the free rewardof their valor were henceforward granted under a condition whichcontain the first rudiments of the feudal tenures; that their sons, whosucceeded to the inheritance, should devote themselves to the professionof arms, as soon as they attained the age of manhood; and their cowardlyrefusal was punished by the lose of honor, of fortune, or even of life.But as the annual growth of the sons of the veterans bore a very smallproportion to the demands of the service, levies of men were frequentlyrequired from the provinces, and every proprietor was obliged either totake up arms, or to procure a substitute, or to purchase his exemptionby the payment of a heavy fine. The sum of forty-two pieces of gold, towhich it was reduced, ascertains the exorbitant price of volunteers, andthe reluctance with which the government admitted of this alterative.Such was the horror for the profession of a soldier, which had affectedthe minds of the degenerate Romans, that many of the youth of Italyand the provinces chose to cut off the fingers of their right hand, toescape from being pressed into the service; and this strange expedientwas so commonly practised, as to deserve the severe animadversion of thelaws, and a peculiar name in the Latin language.

Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.--Part V.

The introduction of Barbarians into the Roman armies became every daymore universal, more necessary, and more fatal. The most daring of theScythians, of the Goths, and of the Germans, who delighted in war, andwho found it more profitable to defend than to ravage the provinces,were enrolled, not only in the auxiliaries of their respective nations,but in the legions themselves, and among the most distinguished of thePalatine troops. As they freely mingled with the subjects of the empire,they gradually learned to despise their manners, and to imitate theirarts. They abjured the implicit reverence which the pride of Rome hadexacted from their ignorance, while they acquired the knowledgeand possession of those advantages by which alone she supported herdeclining greatness. The Barbarian soldiers, who displayed any militarytalents, were advanced, without exception, to the most importantcommands; and the names of the tribunes, of the counts and dukes, and ofthe generals themselves, betray a foreign origin, which they no longercondescended to disguise. They were often intrusted with the conduct ofa war against their countrymen; and though most of them preferred theties of allegiance to those of blood, they did not always avoidthe guilt, or at least the suspicion, of holding a treasonablecorrespondence with the enemy, of inviting his invasion, or of sparinghis retreat. The camps and the palace of the son of Constantine weregoverned by the powerful faction of the Franks, who preserved thestrictest connection with each other, and with their country, and whor*sented every personal affront as a national indignity. When the tyrantCaligula was suspected of an intention to invest a very extraordinarycandidate with the consular robes, the sacrilegious profanation wouldhave scarcely excited less astonishment, if, instead of a horse, thenoblest chieftain of Germany or Britain had been the object of hischoice. The revolution of three centuries had produced so remarkablea change in the prejudices of the people, that, with the publicapprobation, Constantine showed his successors the example of bestowingthe honors of the consulship on the Barbarians, who, by their merit andservices, had deserved to be ranked among the first of the Romans.But as these hardy veterans, who had been educated in the ignorance orcontempt of the laws, were incapable of exercising any civil offices,the powers of the human mind were contracted by the irreconcilableseparation of talents as well as of professions. The accomplishedcitizens of the Greek and Roman republics, whose characters could adaptthemselves to the bar, the senate, the camp, or the schools, had learnedto write, to speak, and to act with the same spirit, and with equalabilities.

IV. Besides the magistrates and generals, who at a distance from thecourt diffused their delegated authority over the provinces and armies,the emperor conferred the rank of Illustrious on seven of his moreimmediate servants, to whose fidelity he intrusted his safety, or hiscounsels, or his treasures. 1. The private apartments of the palace weregoverned by a favorite eunuch, who, in the language of that age, wasstyled the propositus, or prÊfect of the sacred bed-chamber. Hisduty was to attend the emperor in his hours of state, or in those ofamusem*nt, and to perform about his person all those menial services,which can only derive their splendor from the influence of royalty.Under a prince who deserved to reign, the great chamberlain (for such wemay call him) was a useful and humble domestic; but an artful domestic,who improves every occasion of unguarded confidence, will insensiblyacquire over a feeble mind that ascendant which harsh wisdom anduncomplying virtue can seldom obtain. The degenerate grandsons ofTheodosius, who were invisible to their subjects, and contemptible totheir enemies, exalted the prÊfects of their bed-chamber above the headsof all the ministers of the palace; and even his deputy, the first ofthe splendid train of slaves who waited in the presence, was thoughtworthy to rank before the respectable proconsuls of Greece or Asia.The jurisdiction of the chamberlain was acknowledged by the counts,or superintendents, who regulated the two important provinces of themagnificence of the wardrobe, and of the luxury of the Imperial table.2. The principal administration of public affairs was committed to thediligence and abilities of the master of the offices. He was the suprememagistrate of the palace, inspected the discipline of the civil andmilitary schools, and received appeals from all parts of the empire, inthe causes which related to that numerous army of privileged persons,who, as the servants of the court, had obtained for themselves andfamilies a right to decline the authority of the ordinary judges. Thecorrespondence between the prince and his subjects was managed bythe four scrinia, or offices of this minister of state. The firstwas appropriated to memorials, the second to epistles, the third topetitions, and the fourth to papers and orders of a miscellaneous kind.Each of these was directed by an inferior master of respectable dignity,and the whole business was despatched by a hundred and forty-eightsecretaries, chosen for the most part from the profession of the law,on account of the variety of abstracts of reports and references whichfrequently occurred in the exercise of their several functions. From acondescension, which in former ages would have been esteemed unworthythe Roman majesty, a particular secretary was allowed for the Greeklanguage; and interpreters were appointed to receive the ambassadors ofthe Barbarians; but the department of foreign affairs, which constitutesso essential a part of modern policy, seldom diverted the attention ofthe master of the offices. His mind was more seriously engaged by thegeneral direction of the posts and arsenals of the empire. There werethirty-four cities, fifteen in the East, and nineteen in the West,in which regular companies of workmen were perpetually employed infabricating defensive armor, offensive weapons of all sorts, andmilitary engines, which were deposited in the arsenals, and occasionallydelivered for the service of the troops. 3. In the course of ninecenturies, the office of quÊstor had experienced a very singularrevolution. In the infancy of Rome, two inferior magistrates wereannually elected by the people, to relieve the consuls from theinvidious management of the public treasure; a similar assistantwas granted to every proconsul, and to every prÊtor, who exercised amilitary or provincial command; with the extent of conquest, the twoquÊstors were gradually multiplied to the number of four, of eight,of twenty, and, for a short time, perhaps, of forty; and the noblestcitizens ambitiously solicited an office which gave them a seat in thesenate, and a just hope of obtaining the honors of the republic. WhilstAugustus affected to maintain the freedom of election, he consentedto accept the annual privilege of recommending, or rather indeed ofnominating, a certain proportion of candidates; and it was his customto select one of these distinguished youths, to read his orations orepistles in the assemblies of the senate. The practice of Augustuswas imitated by succeeding princes; the occasional commission wasestablished as a permanent office; and the favored quÊstor, assuming anew and more illustrious character, alone survived the suppression ofhis ancient and useless colleagues. As the orations which he composed inthe name of the emperor, acquired the force, and, at length, the form,of absolute edicts, he was considered as the representative of thelegislative power, the oracle of the council, and the original sourceof the civil jurisprudence. He was sometimes invited to take his seatin the supreme judicature of the Imperial consistory, with the PrÊtorianprÊfects, and the master of the offices; and he was frequently requestedto resolve the doubts of inferior judges: but as he was not oppressedwith a variety of subordinate business, his leisure and talents wereemployed to cultivate that dignified style of eloquence, which, in thecorruption of taste and language, still preserves the majesty of theRoman laws. In some respects, the office of the Imperial quÊstor may becompared with that of a modern chancellor; but the use of a great seal,which seems to have been adopted by the illiterate barbarians, wasnever introduced to attest the public acts of the emperors. 4. Theextraordinary title of count of the sacred largesses was bestowed onthe treasurer-general of the revenue, with the intention perhaps ofinculcating, that every payment flowed from the voluntary bounty of themonarch. To conceive the almost infinite detail of the annual and dailyexpense of the civil and military administration in every part of agreat empire, would exceed the powers of the most vigorous imagination.The actual account employed several hundred persons, distributed intoeleven different offices, which were artfully contrived to examine andcontrol their respective operations. The multitude of these agents hada natural tendency to increase; and it was more than once thoughtexpedient to dismiss to their native homes the useless supernumeraries,who, deserting their honest labors, had pressed with too much eagernessinto the lucrative profession of the finances. Twenty-nine provincialreceivers, of whom eighteen were honored with the title of count,corresponded with the treasurer; and he extended his jurisdiction overthe mines from whence the precious metals were extracted, over themints, in which they were converted into the current coin, and overthe public treasuries of the most important cities, where they weredeposited for the service of the state. The foreign trade of the empirewas regulated by this minister, who directed likewise all the linen andwoollen manufactures, in which the successive operations of spinning,weaving, and dyeing were executed, chiefly by women of a servilecondition, for the use of the palace and army. Twenty-six of theseinstitutions are enumerated in the West, where the arts had been morerecently introduced, and a still larger proportion may be allowed forthe industrious provinces of the East. 5. Besides the public revenue,which an absolute monarch might levy and expend according to hispleasure, the emperors, in the capacity of opulent citizens, possesseda very extensive property, which was administered by the count ortreasurer of the private estate. Some part had perhaps been the ancientdemesnes of kings and republics; some accessions might be derived fromthe families which were successively invested with the purple; but themost considerable portion flowed from the impure source of confiscationsand forfeitures. The Imperial estates were scattered through theprovinces, from Mauritania to Britain; but the rich and fertile soil ofCappadocia tempted the monarch to acquire in that country his fairestpossessions, and either Constantine or his successors embraced theoccasion of justifying avarice by religious zeal. They suppressed therich temple of Comana, where the high priest of the goddess of warsupported the dignity of a sovereign prince; and they applied to theirprivate use the consecrated lands, which were inhabited by six thousandsubjects or slaves of the deity and her ministers. But these were notthe valuable inhabitants: the plains that stretch from the foot ofMount ArgÊus to the banks of the Sarus, bred a generous race of horses,renowned above all others in the ancient world for their majestic shapeand incomparable swiftness. These sacred animals, destined for theservice of the palace and the Imperial games, were protected by the lawsfrom the profanation of a vulgar master. The demesnes of Cappadocia wereimportant enough to require the inspection of a count; officers of aninferior rank were stationed in the other parts of the empire; and thedeputies of the private, as well as those of the public, treasurerwere maintained in the exercise of their independent functions, andencouraged to control the authority of the provincial magistrates. 6,7. The chosen bands of cavalry and infantry, which guarded the person ofthe emperor, were under the immediate command of the two counts of thedomestics. The whole number consisted of three thousand five hundredmen, divided into seven schools, or troops, of five hundred each; and inthe East, this honorable service was almost entirely appropriated tothe Armenians. Whenever, on public ceremonies, they were drawn up in thecourts and porticos of the palace, their lofty stature, silent order,and splendid arms of silver and gold, displayed a martial pomp notunworthy of the Roman majesty. From the seven schools two companiesof horse and foot were selected, of the protectors, whose advantageousstation was the hope and reward of the most deserving soldiers.They mounted guard in the interior apartments, and were occasionallydespatched into the provinces, to execute with celerity and vigor theorders of their master. The counts of the domestics had succeeded to theoffice of the PrÊtorian prÊfects; like the prÊfects, they aspired fromthe service of the palace to the command of armies.

The perpetual intercourse between the court and the provinces wasfacilitated by the construction of roads and the institution of posts.But these beneficial establishments were accidentally connected witha pernicious and intolerable abuse. Two or three hundred agents ormessengers were employed, under the jurisdiction of the master of theoffices, to announce the names of the annual consuls, and the edictsor victories of the emperors. They insensibly assumed the licenseof reporting whatever they could observe of the conduct either ofmagistrates or of private citizens; and were soon considered as the eyesof the monarch, and the scourge of the people. Under the warm influenceof a feeble reign, they multiplied to the incredible number of tenthousand, disdained the mild though frequent admonitions of the laws,and exercised in the profitable management of the posts a rapacious andinsolent oppression. These official spies, who regularly correspondedwith the palace, were encouraged by favor and reward, anxiously to watchthe progress of every treasonable design, from the faint and latentsymptoms of disaffection, to the actual preparation of an open revolt.Their careless or criminal violation of truth and justice was covered bythe consecrated mask of zeal; and they might securely aim their poisonedarrows at the breast either of the guilty or the innocent, who hadprovoked their resentment, or refused to purchase their silence. Afaithful subject, of Syria perhaps, or of Britain, was exposed to thedanger, or at least to the dread, of being dragged in chains to thecourt of Milan or Constantinople, to defend his life and fortuneagainst the malicious charge of these privileged informers. The ordinaryadministration was conducted by those methods which extreme necessitycan alone palliate; and the defects of evidence were diligently suppliedby the use of torture.

The deceitful and dangerous experiment of the criminal question, asit is emphatically styled, was admitted, rather than approved, inthe jurisprudence of the Romans. They applied this sanguinary mode ofexamination only to servile bodies, whose sufferings were seldom weighedby those haughty republicans in the scale of justice or humanity; butthey would never consent to violate the sacred person of a citizen,till they possessed the clearest evidence of his guilt. The annalsof tyranny, from the reign of Tiberius to that of Domitian,circ*mstantially relate the executions of many innocent victims; but, aslong as the faintest remembrance was kept alive of the national freedomand honor, the last hours of a Roman were secured from the danger ofignominious torture. The conduct of the provincial magistrates was not,however, regulated by the practice of the city, or the strict maxims ofthe civilians. They found the use of torture established not only amongthe slaves of oriental despotism, but among the Macedonians, who obeyeda limited monarch; among the Rhodians, who flourished by the libertyof commerce; and even among the sage Athenians, who had asserted andadorned the dignity of human kind. The acquiescence of the provincialsencouraged their governors to acquire, or perhaps to usurp, adiscretionary power of employing the rack, to extort from vagrants orplebeian criminals the confession of their guilt, till they insensiblyproceeded to confound the distinction of rank, and to disregard theprivileges of Roman citizens. The apprehensions of the subjects urgedthem to solicit, and the interest of the sovereign engaged him togrant, a variety of special exemptions, which tacitly allowed, and evenauthorized, the general use of torture. They protected all persons ofillustrious or honorable rank, bishops and their presbyters, professorsof the liberal arts, soldiers and their families, municipal officers,and their posterity to the third generation, and all children underthe age of puberty. But a fatal maxim was introduced into the newjurisprudence of the empire, that in the case of treason, which includedevery offence that the subtlety of lawyers could derive from a hostileintention towards the prince or republic, all privileges were suspended,and all conditions were reduced to the same ignominious level. As thesafety of the emperor was avowedly preferred to every consideration ofjustice or humanity, the dignity of age and the tenderness of youth werealike exposed to the most cruel tortures; and the terrors of a maliciousinformation, which might select them as the accomplices, or even as thewitnesses, perhaps, of an imaginary crime, perpetually hung over theheads of the principal citizens of the Roman world.

These evils, however terrible they may appear, were confined to thesmaller number of Roman subjects, whose dangerous situation was insome degree compensated by the enjoyment of those advantages, either ofnature or of fortune, which exposed them to the jealousy of the monarch.The obscure millions of a great empire have much less to dread fromthe cruelty than from the avarice of their masters, and their humblehappiness is principally affected by the grievance of excessive taxes,which, gently pressing on the wealthy, descend with accelerated weighton the meaner and more indigent classes of society. An ingeniousphilosopher has calculated the universal measure of the publicimpositions by the degrees of freedom and servitude; and ventures toassert, that, according to an invariable law of nature, it must alwaysincrease with the former, and diminish in a just proportion to thelatter. But this reflection, which would tend to alleviate the miseriesof despotism, is contradicted at least by the history of the Romanempire; which accuses the same princes of despoiling the senate of itsauthority, and the provinces of their wealth. Without abolishing allthe various customs and duties on merchandises, which are imperceptiblydischarged by the apparent choice of the purchaser, the policy ofConstantine and his successors preferred a simple and direct mode oftaxation, more congenial to the spirit of an arbitrary government.

Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.--Part VI.

The name and use of the indictions, which serve to ascertain thechronology of the middle ages, were derived from the regular practiceof the Roman tributes. The emperor subscribed with his own hand, and inpurple ink, the solemn edict, or indiction, which was fixed up in theprincipal city of each diocese, during two months previous to the firstday of September. And by a very easy connection of ideas, the wordindiction was transferred to the measure of tribute which it prescribed,and to the annual term which it allowed for the payment. This generalestimate of the supplies was proportioned to the real and imaginarywants of the state; but as often as the expense exceeded the revenue, orthe revenue fell short of the computation, an additional tax, under thename of superindiction, was imposed on the people, and the most valuableattribute of sovereignty was communicated to the PrÊtorian prÊfects,who, on some occasions, were permitted to provide for the unforeseen andextraordinary exigencies of the public service. The execution of theselaws (which it would be tedious to pursue in their minute and intricatedetail) consisted of two distinct operations: the resolving the generalimposition into its constituent parts, which were assessed on theprovinces, the cities, and the individuals of the Roman world; and thecollecting the separate contributions of the individuals, the cities,and the provinces, till the accumulated sums were poured into theImperial treasuries. But as the account between the monarch andthe subject was perpetually open, and as the renewal of the demandanticipated the perfect discharge of the preceding obligation, theweighty machine of the finances was moved by the same hands round thecircle of its yearly revolution. Whatever was honorable or important inthe administration of the revenue, was committed to the wisdom of theprÊfects, and their provincial representatives; the lucrative functionswere claimed by a crowd of subordinate officers, some of whom dependedon the treasurer, others on the governor of the province; and who,in the inevitable conflicts of a perplexed jurisdiction, had frequentopportunities of disputing with each other the spoils of the people. Thelaborious offices, which could be productive only of envy and reproach,of expense and danger, were imposed on the Decurions, who formed thecorporations of the cities, and whom the severity of the Imperial lawshad condemned to sustain the burdens of civil society. The whole landedproperty of the empire (without excepting the patrimonial estates of themonarch) was the object of ordinary taxation; and every new purchasercontracted the obligations of the former proprietor. An accurate census,or survey, was the only equitable mode of ascertaining the proportionwhich every citizen should be obliged to contribute for the publicservice; and from the well-known period of the indictions, there isreason to believe that this difficult and expensive operation wasrepeated at the regular distance of fifteen years. The lands weremeasured by surveyors, who were sent into the provinces; their nature,whether arable or pasture, or vineyards or woods, was distinctlyreported; and an estimate was made of their common value from theaverage produce of five years. The numbers of slaves and of cattleconstituted an essential part of the report; an oath was administeredto the proprietors, which bound them to disclose the true state of theiraffairs; and their attempts to prevaricate, or elude the intention ofthe legislator, were severely watched, and punished as a capital crime,which included the double guilt of treason and sacrilege. A largeportion of the tribute was paid in money; and of the current coin ofthe empire, gold alone could be legally accepted. The remainder of thetaxes, according to the proportions determined by the annual indiction,was furnished in a manner still more direct, and still more oppressive.According to the different nature of lands, their real produce in thevarious articles of wine or oil, corn or barley, wood or iron, wastransported by the labor or at the expense of the provincials * to theImperial magazines, from whence they were occasionally distributedfor the use of the court, of the army, and of two capitals, Rome andConstantinople. The commissioners of the revenue were so frequentlyobliged to make considerable purchases, that they were strictlyprohibited from allowing any compensation, or from receiving in moneythe value of those supplies which were exacted in kind. In the primitivesimplicity of small communities, this method may be well adapted tocollect the almost voluntary offerings of the people; but it is at oncesusceptible of the utmost latitude, and of the utmost strictness, whichin a corrupt and absolute monarchy must introduce a perpetual contestbetween the power of oppression and the arts of fraud. The agricultureof the Roman provinces was insensibly ruined, and, in the progress ofdespotism which tends to disappoint its own purpose, the emperors wereobliged to derive some merit from the forgiveness of debts, or theremission of tributes, which their subjects were utterly incapable ofpaying. According to the new division of Italy, the fertile and happyprovince of Campania, the scene of the early victories and of thedelicious retirements of the citizens of Rome, extended between thesea and the Apennine, from the Tiber to the Silarus. Within sixty yearsafter the death of Constantine, and on the evidence of an actual survey,an exemption was granted in favor of three hundred and thirty thousandEnglish acres of desert and uncultivated land; which amounted to oneeighth of the whole surface of the province. As the footsteps of theBarbarians had not yet been seen in Italy, the cause of this amazingdesolation, which is recorded in the laws, can be ascribed only to theadministration of the Roman emperors.

Either from design or from accident, the mode of assessment seemed tounite the substance of a land tax with the forms of a capitation. Thereturns which were sent of every province or district, expressed thenumber of tributary subjects, and the amount of the public impositions.The latter of these sums was divided by the former; and the estimate,that such a province contained so many capita, or heads of tribute; andthat each head was rated at such a price, was universally received, notonly in the popular, but even in the legal computation. The value ofa tributary head must have varied, according to many accidental, or atleast fluctuating circ*mstances; but some knowledge has been preservedof a very curious fact, the more important, since it relates to one ofthe richest provinces of the Roman empire, and which now flourishes asthe most splendid of the European kingdoms. The rapacious ministers ofConstantius had exhausted the wealth of Gaul, by exacting twenty-fivepieces of gold for the annual tribute of every head. The humane policyof his successor reduced the capitation to seven pieces. A moderateproportion between these opposite extremes of extraordinary oppressionand of transient indulgence, may therefore be fixed at sixteen piecesof gold, or about nine pounds sterling, the common standard, perhaps,of the impositions of Gaul. But this calculation, or rather, indeed,the facts from whence it is deduced, cannot fail of suggesting twodifficulties to a thinking mind, who will be at once surprised by theequality, and by the enormity, of the capitation. An attempt to explainthem may perhaps reflect some light on the interesting subject of thefinances of the declining empire.

I. It is obvious, that, as long as the immutable constitution of humannature produces and maintains so unequal a division of property,the most numerous part of the community would be deprived of theirsubsistence, by the equal assessment of a tax from which the sovereignwould derive a very trifling revenue. Such indeed might be the theory ofthe Roman capitation; but in the practice, this unjust equality was nolonger felt, as the tribute was collected on the principle of a real,not of a personal imposition. * Several indigent citizens contributedto compose a single head, or share of taxation; while the wealthyprovincial, in proportion to his fortune, alone represented several ofthose imaginary beings. In a poetical request, addressed to one ofthe last and most deserving of the Roman princes who reigned in Gaul,Sidonius Apollinaris personifies his tribute under the figure of atriple monster, the Geryon of the Grecian fables, and entreats the newHercules that he would most graciously be pleased to save his life bycutting off three of his heads. The fortune of Sidonius far exceeded thecustomary wealth of a poet; but if he had pursued the allusion, he mighthave painted many of the Gallic nobles with the hundred heads of thedeadly Hydra, spreading over the face of the country, and devouringthe substance of a hundred families. II. The difficulty of allowing anannual sum of about nine pounds sterling, even for the average of thecapitation of Gaul, may be rendered more evident by the comparison ofthe present state of the same country, as it is now governed by theabsolute monarch of an industrious, wealthy, and affectionate people.The taxes of France cannot be magnified, either by fear or by flattery,beyond the annual amount of eighteen millions sterling, which oughtperhaps to be shared among four and twenty millions of inhabitants.Seven millions of these, in the capacity of fathers, or brothers, orhusbands, may discharge the obligations of the remaining multitude ofwomen and children; yet the equal proportion of each tributary subjectwill scarcely rise above fifty shillings of our money, instead ofa proportion almost four times as considerable, which was regularlyimposed on their Gallic ancestors. The reason of this difference maybe found, not so much in the relative scarcity or plenty of gold andsilver, as in the different state of society, in ancient Gaul and inmodern France. In a country where personal freedom is the privilegeof every subject, the whole mass of taxes, whether they are levied onproperty or on consumption, may be fairly divided among the whole bodyof the nation. But the far greater part of the lands of ancient Gaul,as well as of the other provinces of the Roman world, were cultivatedby slaves, or by peasants, whose dependent condition was a less rigidservitude. In such a state the poor were maintained at the expense ofthe masters who enjoyed the fruits of their labor; and as the rolls oftribute were filled only with the names of those citizens who possessedthe means of an honorable, or at least of a decent subsistence, thecomparative smallness of their numbers explains and justifies the highrate of their capitation. The truth of this assertion may be illustratedby the following example: The ∆dui, one of the most powerful andcivilized tribes or cities of Gaul, occupied an extent of territory,which now contains about five hundred thousand inhabitants, in thetwo ecclesiastical dioceses of Autun and Nevers; and with the probableaccession of those of Chalons and Macon, the population would amount toeight hundred thousand souls. In the time of Constantine, the territoryof the ∆dui afforded no more than twenty-five thousand heads ofcapitation, of whom seven thousand were discharged by that princefrom the intolerable weight of tribute. A just analogy would seem tocountenance the opinion of an ingenious historian, that the free andtributary citizens did not surpass the number of half a million; and if,in the ordinary administration of government, their annual payments maybe computed at about four millions and a half of our money, it wouldappear, that although the share of each individual was four times asconsiderable, a fourth part only of the modern taxes of France waslevied on the Imperial province of Gaul. The exactions of Constantiusmay be calculated at seven millions sterling, which were reduced to twomillions by the humanity or the wisdom of Julian.

But this tax, or capitation, on the proprietors of land, would havesuffered a rich and numerous class of free citizens to escape. Withthe view of sharing that species of wealth which is derived from art orlabor, and which exists in money or in merchandise, the emperors imposeda distinct and personal tribute on the trading part of their subjects.Some exemptions, very strictly confined both in time and place, wereallowed to the proprietors who disposed of the produce of their ownestates. Some indulgence was granted to the profession of the liberalarts: but every other branch of commercial industry was affected by theseverity of the law. The honorable merchant of Alexandria, who importedthe gems and spices of India for the use of the western world; theusurer, who derived from the interest of money a silent and ignominiousprofit; the ingenious manufacturer, the diligent mechanic, and even themost obscure retailer of a sequestered village, were obliged to admitthe officers of the revenue into the partnership of their gain; and thesovereign of the Roman empire, who tolerated the profession, consentedto share the infamous salary, of public prostitutes. As this general taxupon industry was collected every fourth year, it was styled the LustralContribution: and the historian Zosimus laments that the approach of thefatal period was announced by the tears and terrors of the citizens,who were often compelled by the impending scourge to embrace the mostabhorred and unnatural methods of procuring the sum at which theirproperty had been assessed. The testimony of Zosimus cannot indeed bejustified from the charge of passion and prejudice; but, from the natureof this tribute it seems reasonable to conclude, that it was arbitraryin the distribution, and extremely rigorous in the mode of collecting.The secret wealth of commerce, and the precarious profits of art orlabor, are susceptible only of a discretionary valuation, which isseldom disadvantageous to the interest of the treasury; and as theperson of the trader supplies the want of a visible and permanentsecurity, the payment of the imposition, which, in the case of a landtax, may be obtained by the seizure of property, can rarely be extortedby any other means than those of corporal punishments. The crueltreatment of the insolvent debtors of the state, is attested, andwas perhaps mitigated by a very humane edict of Constantine, who,disclaiming the use of racks and of scourges, allots a spacious and airyprison for the place of their confinement.

These general taxes were imposed and levied by the absolute authorityof the monarch; but the occasional offerings of the coronary goldstillretained the name and semblance of popular consent. It was an ancientcustom that the allies of the republic, who ascribed their safety ordeliverance to the success of the Roman arms, and even the cities ofItaly, who admired the virtues of their victorious general, adorned thepomp of his triumph by their voluntary gifts of crowns of gold, whichafter the ceremony were consecrated in the temple of Jupiter, to remaina lasting monument of his glory to future ages. The progress of zeal andflattery soon multiplied the number, and increased the size, of thesepopular donations; and the triumph of CÊsar was enriched with twothousand eight hundred and twenty-two massy crowns, whose weightamounted to twenty thousand four hundred and fourteen pounds of gold.This treasure was immediately melted down by the prudent dictator, whowas satisfied that it would be more serviceable to his soldiers than tothe gods: his example was imitated by his successors; and the customwas introduced of exchanging these splendid ornaments for the moreacceptable present of the current gold coin of the empire. Thespontaneous offering was at length exacted as the debt of duty; andinstead of being confined to the occasion of a triumph, it was supposedto be granted by the several cities and provinces of the monarchy,as often as the emperor condescended to announce his accession, hisconsulship, the birth of a son, the creation of a CÊsar, a victory overthe Barbarians, or any other real or imaginary event which graced theannals of his reign. The peculiar free gift of the senate of Rome wasfixed by custom at sixteen hundred pounds of gold, or about sixty-fourthousand pounds sterling. The oppressed subjects celebrated their ownfelicity, that their sovereign should graciously consent to accept thisfeeble but voluntary testimony of their loyalty and gratitude.

A people elated by pride, or soured by discontent, are seldom qualifiedto form a just estimate of their actual situation. The subjects ofConstantine were incapable of discerning the decline of genius and manlyvirtue, which so far degraded them below the dignity of their ancestors;but they could feel and lament the rage of tyranny, the relaxation ofdiscipline, and the increase of taxes. The impartial historian,who acknowledges the justice of their complaints, will observe somefavorable circ*mstances which tended to alleviate the misery oftheir condition. The threatening tempest of Barbarians, which so soonsubverted the foundations of Roman greatness, was still repelled, orsuspended, on the frontiers. The arts of luxury and literature werecultivated, and the elegant pleasures of society were enjoyed, by theinhabitants of a considerable portion of the globe. The forms, the pomp,and the expense of the civil administration contributed to restrain theirregular license of the soldiers; and although the laws were violatedby power, or perverted by subtlety, the sage principles of the Romanjurisprudence preserved a sense of order and equity, unknown to thedespotic governments of the East. The rights of mankind might derivesome protection from religion and philosophy; and the name of freedom,which could no longer alarm, might sometimes admonish, the successors ofAugustus, that they did not reign over a nation of Slaves or Barbarians.

Chapter XVIII: Character Of Constantine And His Sons.--Part I.

 Character Of Constantine.--Gothic War.--Death Of Constantine.--Division Of The Empire Among His Three Sons.-- Persian War.--Tragic Deaths Of Constantine The Younger And Constans.--Usurpation Of Magnentius.--Civil War.--Victory Of Constantius.

The character of the prince who removed the seat of empire, andintroduced such important changes into the civil and religiousconstitution of his country, has fixed the attention, and dividedthe opinions, of mankind. By the grateful zeal of the Christians, thedeliverer of the church has been decorated with every attribute of ahero, and even of a saint; while the discontent of the vanquished partyhas compared Constantine to the most abhorred of those tyrants, who,by their vice and weakness, dishonored the Imperial purple. The samepassions have in some degree been perpetuated to succeeding generations,and the character of Constantine is considered, even in the present age,as an object either of satire or of panegyric. By the impartial union ofthose defects which are confessed by his warmest admirers, and of thosevirtues which are acknowledged by his most-implacable enemies, we mighthope to delineate a just portrait of that extraordinary man, which thetruth and candor of history should adopt without a blush. But it wouldsoon appear, that the vain attempt to blend such discordant colors,and to reconcile such inconsistent qualities, must produce a figuremonstrous rather than human, unless it is viewed in its proper anddistinct lights, by a careful separation of the different periods of thereign of Constantine.

The person, as well as the mind, of Constantine, had been enrichedby nature with her choices endowments. His stature was lofty, hiscountenance majestic, his deportment graceful; his strength and activitywere displayed in every manly exercise, and from his earliest youth,to a very advanced season of life, he preserved the vigor of hisconstitution by a strict adherence to the domestic virtues of chastityand temperance. He delighted in the social intercourse of familiarconversation; and though he might sometimes indulge his disposition toraillery with less reserve than was required by the severe dignityof his station, the courtesy and liberality of his manners gained thehearts of all who approached him. The sincerity of his friendshiphas been suspected; yet he showed, on some occasions, that he was notincapable of a warm and lasting attachment. The disadvantage of anilliterate education had not prevented him from forming a just estimateof the value of learning; and the arts and sciences derived someencouragement from the munificent protection of Constantine. In thedespatch of business, his diligence was indefatigable; and the activepowers of his mind were almost continually exercised in reading,writing, or meditating, in giving audiences to ambassadors, and inexamining the complaints of his subjects. Even those who censuredthe propriety of his measures were compelled to acknowledge, that hepossessed magnanimity to conceive, and patience to execute, the mostarduous designs, without being checked either by the prejudices ofeducation, or by the clamors of the multitude. In the field, he infusedhis own intrepid spirit into the troops, whom he conducted with thetalents of a consummate general; and to his abilities, rather than tohis fortune, we may ascribe the signal victories which he obtained overthe foreign and domestic foes of the republic. He loved glory as thereward, perhaps as the motive, of his labors. The boundless ambition,which, from the moment of his accepting the purple at York, appears asthe ruling passion of his soul, may be justified by the dangers of hisown situation, by the character of his rivals, by the consciousness ofsuperior merit, and by the prospect that his success would enable him torestore peace and order to tot the distracted empire. In his civilwars against Maxentius and Licinius, he had engaged on his side theinclinations of the people, who compared the undissembled vices of thosetyrants with the spirit of wisdom and justice which seemed to direct thegeneral tenor of the administration of Constantine.

Had Constantine fallen on the banks of the Tyber, or even in the plainsof Hadrianople, such is the character which, with a few exceptions, hemight have transmitted to posterity. But the conclusion of his reign(according to the moderate and indeed tender sentence of a writer ofthe same age) degraded him from the rank which he had acquired among themost deserving of the Roman princes. In the life of Augustus, we beholdthe tyrant of the republic, converted, almost by imperceptibledegrees, into the father of his country, and of human kind. In that ofConstantine, we may contemplate a hero, who had so long inspired hissubjects with love, and his enemies with terror, degenerating into acruel and dissolute monarch, corrupted by his fortune, or raised byconquest above the necessity of dissimulation. The general peace whichhe maintained during the last fourteen years of his reign, was a periodof apparent splendor rather than of real prosperity; and the old ageof Constantine was disgraced by the opposite yet reconcilable vices ofrapaciousness and prodigality. The accumulated treasures found in thepalaces of Maxentius and Licinius, were lavishly consumed; thevarious innovations introduced by the conqueror, were attended withan increasing expense; the cost of his buildings, his court, andhis festivals, required an immediate and plentiful supply; and theoppression of the people was the only fund which could support themagnificence of the sovereign. His unworthy favorites, enriched bythe boundless liberality of their master, usurped with impunity theprivilege of rapine and corruption. A secret but universal decaywas felt in every part of the public administration, and the emperorhimself, though he still retained the obedience, gradually lost theesteem, of his subjects. The dress and manners, which, towards thedecline of life, he chose to affect, served only to degrade him in theeyes of mankind. The Asiatic pomp, which had been adopted by the prideof Diocletian, assumed an air of softness and effeminacy in the personof Constantine. He is represented with false hair of various colors,laboriously arranged by the skilful artists to the times; a diadem ofa new and more expensive fashion; a profusion of gems and pearls, ofcollars and bracelets, and a variegated flowing robe of silk, mostcuriously embroidered with flowers of gold. In such apparel, scarcelyto be excused by the youth and folly of Elagabalus, we are at a loss todiscover the wisdom of an aged monarch, and the simplicity of a Romanveteran. A mind thus relaxed by prosperity and indulgence, was incapableof rising to that magnanimity which disdains suspicion, and dares toforgive. The deaths of Maximian and Licinius may perhaps be justified bythe maxims of policy, as they are taught in the schools of tyrants;but an impartial narrative of the executions, or rather murders, whichsullied the declining age of Constantine, will suggest to our mostcandid thoughts the idea of a prince who could sacrifice withoutreluctance the laws of justice, and the feelings of nature, to thedictates either of his passions or of his interest.

The same fortune which so invariably followed the standard ofConstantine, seemed to secure the hopes and comforts of his domesticlife. Those among his predecessors who had enjoyed the longest andmost prosperous reigns, Augustus Trajan, and Diocletian, had beendisappointed of posterity; and the frequent revolutions had neverallowed sufficient time for any Imperial family to grow up and multiplyunder the shade of the purple. But the royalty of the Flavian line,which had been first ennobled by the Gothic Claudius, descended throughseveral generations; and Constantine himself derived from his royalfather the hereditary honors which he transmitted to his children. Theemperor had been twice married. Minervina, the obscure but lawful objectof his youthful attachment, had left him only one son, who was calledCrispus. By Fausta, the daughter of Maximian, he had three daughters,and three sons known by the kindred names of Constantine, Constantius,and Constans. The unambitious brothers of the great Constantine, JuliusConstantius, Dalmatius, and Hannibalianus, were permitted to enjoythe most honorable rank, and the most affluent fortune, that couldbe consistent with a private station. The youngest of the three livedwithout a name, and died without posterity. His two elder brothersobtained in marriage the daughters of wealthy senators, and propagatednew branches of the Imperial race. Gallus and Julian afterwardsbecame the most illustrious of the children of Julius Constantius, thePatrician. The two sons of Dalmatius, who had been decorated with thevain title of Censor, were named Dalmatius and Hannibalianus. The twosisters of the great Constantine, Anastasia and Eutropia, were bestowedon Optatus and Nepotianus, two senators of noble birth and of consulardignity. His third sister, Constantia, was distinguished by herpreeminence of greatness and of misery. She remained the widow of thevanquished Licinius; and it was by her entreaties, that an innocent boy,the offspring of their marriage, preserved, for some time, his life,the title of CÊsar, and a precarious hope of the succession. Besides thefemales, and the allies of the Flavian house, ten or twelve males, towhom the language of modern courts would apply the title of princes ofthe blood, seemed, according to the order of their birth, to be destinedeither to inherit or to support the throne of Constantine. But in lessthan thirty years, this numerous and increasing family was reduced tothe persons of Constantius and Julian, who alone had survived a seriesof crimes and calamities, such as the tragic poets have deplored in thedevoted lines of Pelops and of Cadmus.

Crispus, the eldest son of Constantine, and the presumptive heir ofthe empire, is represented by impartial historians as an amiable andaccomplished youth. The care of his education, or at least of hisstudies, was intrusted to Lactantius, the most eloquent of theChristians; a preceptor admirably qualified to form the taste, andthe excite the virtues, of his illustrious disciple. At the age ofseventeen, Crispus was invested with the title of CÊsar, and theadministration of the Gallic provinces, where the inroads of the Germansgave him an early occasion of signalizing his military prowess. In thecivil war which broke out soon afterwards, the father and son dividedtheir powers; and this history has already celebrated the valor aswell as conduct displayed by the latter, in forcing the straits of theHellespont, so obstinately defended by the superior fleet of Licinius.This naval victory contributed to determine the event of the war;and the names of Constantine and of Crispus were united in the joyfulacclamations of their eastern subjects; who loudly proclaimed, that theworld had been subdued, and was now governed, by an emperor endowed withevery virtue; and by his illustrious son, a prince beloved of Heaven,and the lively image of his father's perfections. The public favor,which seldom accompanies old age, diffused its lustre over the youth ofCrispus. He deserved the esteem, and he engaged the affections, of thecourt, the army, and the people. The experienced merit of a reigningmonarch is acknowledged by his subjects with reluctance, and frequentlydenied with partial and discontented murmurs; while, from the openingvirtues of his successor, they fondly conceive the most unbounded hopesof private as well as public felicity.

This dangerous popularity soon excited the attention of Constantine,who, both as a father and as a king, was impatient of an equal. Insteadof attempting to secure the allegiance of his son by the generous tiesof confidence and gratitude, he resolved to prevent the mischiefs whichmight be apprehended from dissatisfied ambition. Crispus soon had reasonto complain, that while his infant brother Constantius was sent, withthe title of CÊsar, to reign over his peculiar department of the Gallicprovinces, he, a prince of mature years, who had performed such recentand signal services, instead of being raised to the superior rank ofAugustus, was confined almost a prisoner to his father's court; andexposed, without power or defence, to every calumny which the malice ofhis enemies could suggest. Under such painful circ*mstances, the royalyouth might not always be able to compose his behavior, or suppress hisdiscontent; and we may be assured, that he was encompassed by a train ofindiscreet or perfidious followers, who assiduously studied to inflame,and who were perhaps instructed to betray, the unguarded warmth ofhis resentment. An edict of Constantine, published about this time,manifestly indicates his real or affected suspicions, that a secretconspiracy had been formed against his person and government. By all theallurements of honors and rewards, he invites informers of every degreeto accuse without exception his magistrates or ministers, his friendsor his most intimate favorites, protesting, with a solemn asseveration,that he himself will listen to the charge, that he himself will revengehis injuries; and concluding with a prayer, which discovers someapprehension of danger, that the providence of the Supreme Being maystill continue to protect the safety of the emperor and of the empire.

The informers, who complied with so liberal an invitation, weresufficiently versed in the arts of courts to select the friends andadherents of Crispus as the guilty persons; nor is there any reason todistrust the veracity of the emperor, who had promised an ample measureof revenge and punishment. The policy of Constantine maintained,however, the same appearances of regard and confidence towards a son,whom he began to consider as his most irreconcilable enemy. Medals werestruck with the customary vows for the long and auspicious reign of theyoung CÊsar; and as the people, who were not admitted into the secretsof the palace, still loved his virtues, and respected his dignity, apoet who solicits his recall from exile, adores with equal devotion themajesty of the father and that of the son. The time was now arrived forcelebrating the august ceremony of the twentieth year of the reign ofConstantine; and the emperor, for that purpose, removed his court fromNicomedia to Rome, where the most splendid preparations had been madefor his reception. Every eye, and every tongue, affected to expresstheir sense of the general happiness, and the veil of ceremony anddissimulation was drawn for a while over the darkest designs of revengeand murder. In the midst of the festival, the unfortunate Crispus wasapprehended by order of the emperor, who laid aside the tenderness ofa father, without assuming the equity of a judge. The examination wasshort and private; and as it was thought decent to conceal the fate ofthe young prince from the eyes of the Roman people, he was sent under astrong guard to Pola, in Istria, where, soon afterwards, he was putto death, either by the hand of the executioner, or by the more gentleoperations of poison. The CÊsar Licinius, a youth of amiable manners,was involved in the ruin of Crispus: and the stern jealousy ofConstantine was unmoved by the prayers and tears of his favorite sister,pleading for the life of a son, whose rank was his only crime, and whoseloss she did not long survive. The story of these unhappy princes, thenature and evidence of their guilt, the forms of their trial, and thecirc*mstances of their death, were buried in mysterious obscurity; andthe courtly bishop, who has celebrated in an elaborate work the virtuesand piety of his hero, observes a prudent silence on the subject ofthese tragic events. Such haughty contempt for the opinion of mankind,whilst it imprints an indelible stain on the memory of Constantine, mustremind us of the very different behavior of one of the greatest monarchsof the present age. The Czar Peter, in the full possession of despoticpower, submitted to the judgment of Russia, of Europe, and of posterity,the reasons which had compelled him to subscribe the condemnation of acriminal, or at least of a degenerate son.

The innocence of Crispus was so universally acknowledged, that themodern Greeks, who adore the memory of their founder, are reduced topalliate the guilt of a parricide, which the common feelings of humannature forbade them to justify. They pretend, that as soon as theafflicted father discovered the falsehood of the accusation by whichhis credulity had been so fatally misled, he published to the worldhis repentance and remorse; that he mourned forty days, during whichhe abstained from the use of the bath, and all the ordinary comforts oflife; and that, for the lasting instruction of posterity, he erected agolden statue of Crispus, with this memorable inscription: To my son,whom I unjustly condemned. A tale so moral and so interesting woulddeserve to be supported by less exceptionable authority; but if weconsult the more ancient and authentic writers, they will inform us,that the repentance of Constantine was manifested only in acts of bloodand revenge; and that he atoned for the murder of an innocent son, bythe execution, perhaps, of a guilty wife. They ascribe the misfortunesof Crispus to the arts of his step-mother Fausta, whose implacablehatred, or whose disappointed love, renewed in the palace of Constantinethe ancient tragedy of Hippolitus and of PhÊdra. Like the daughter ofMinos, the daughter of Maximian accused her son-in-law of an incestuousattempt on the chastity of his father's wife; and easily obtained, fromthe jealousy of the emperor, a sentence of death against a young prince,whom she considered with reason as the most formidable rival of herown children. But Helena, the aged mother of Constantine, lamented andrevenged the untimely fate of her grandson Crispus; nor was it longbefore a real or pretended discovery was made, that Fausta herselfentertained a criminal connection with a slave belonging to the Imperialstables. Her condemnation and punishment were the instant consequencesof the charge; and the adulteress was suffocated by the steam of a bath,which, for that purpose, had been heated to an extraordinary degree.By some it will perhaps be thought, that the remembrance of a conjugalunion of twenty years, and the honor of their common offspring, thedestined heirs of the throne, might have softened the obdurate heart ofConstantine, and persuaded him to suffer his wife, however guilty shemight appear, to expiate her offences in a solitary prison. But it seemsa superfluous labor to weigh the propriety, unless we could ascertainthe truth, of this singular event, which is attended with somecirc*mstances of doubt and perplexity. Those who have attacked, andthose who have defended, the character of Constantine, have alikedisregarded two very remarkable passages of two orations pronouncedunder the succeeding reign. The former celebrates the virtues, thebeauty, and the fortune of the empress Fausta, the daughter, wife,sister, and mother of so many princes. The latter asserts, in explicitterms, that the mother of the younger Constantine, who was slain threeyears after his father's death, survived to weep over the fate of herson. Notwithstanding the positive testimony of several writers of thePagan as well as of the Christian religion, there may still remain somereason to believe, or at least to suspect, that Fausta escaped theblind and suspicious cruelty of her husband. * The deaths of a son and anephew, with the execution of a great number of respectable, and perhapsinnocent friends, who were involved in their fall, may be sufficient,however, to justify the discontent of the Roman people, and to explainthe satirical verses affixed to the palace gate, comparing the splendidand bloody reigns of Constantine and Nero.

Chapter XVIII: Character Of Constantine And His Sons.--Part II.

By the death of Crispus, the inheritance of the empire seemed to devolveon the three sons of Fausta, who have been already mentioned underthe names of Constantine, of Constantius, and of Constans. These youngprinces were successively invested with the title of CÊsar; and thedates of their promotion may be referred to the tenth, the twentieth,and the thirtieth years of the reign of their father. This conduct,though it tended to multiply the future masters of the Roman world,might be excused by the partiality of paternal affection; but it is notso easy to understand the motives of the emperor, when he endangeredthe safety both of his family and of his people, by the unnecessaryelevation of his two nephews, Dalmatius and Hannibalianus. The formerwas raised, by the title of CÊsar, to an equality with his cousins.In favor of the latter, Constantine invented the new and singularappellation of Nobilissimus; to which he annexed the flatteringdistinction of a robe of purple and gold. But of the whole seriesof Roman princes in any age of the empire, Hannibalianus alone wasdistinguished by the title of King; a name which the subjects ofTiberius would have detested, as the profane and cruel insult ofcapricious tyranny. The use of such a title, even as it appears underthe reign of Constantine, is a strange and unconnected fact, whichcan scarcely be admitted on the joint authority of Imperial medals andcontemporary writers.

The whole empire was deeply interested in the education of these fiveyouths, the acknowledged successors of Constantine. The exercise ofthe body prepared them for the fatigues of war and the duties ofactive life. Those who occasionally mention the education or talents ofConstantius, allow that he excelled in the gymnastic arts of leaping andrunning that he was a dexterous archer, a skilful horseman, and a masterof all the different weapons used in the service either of the cavalryor of the infantry. The same assiduous cultivation was bestowed, thoughnot perhaps with equal success, to improve the minds of the sons andnephews of Constantine. The most celebrated professors of the Christianfaith, of the Grecian philosophy, and of the Roman jurisprudence, wereinvited by the liberality of the emperor, who reserved for himselfthe important task of instructing the royal youths in the science ofgovernment, and the knowledge of mankind. But the genius of Constantinehimself had been formed by adversity and experience. In the freeintercourse of private life, and amidst the dangers of the court ofGalerius, he had learned to command his own passions, to encounter thoseof his equals, and to depend for his present safety and future greatnesson the prudence and firmness of his personal conduct. His destinedsuccessors had the misfortune of being born and educated in the imperialpurple. Incessantly surrounded with a train of flatterers, they passedtheir youth in the enjoyment of luxury, and the expectation of a throne;nor would the dignity of their rank permit them to descend from thatelevated station from whence the various characters of human natureappear to wear a smooth and uniform aspect. The indulgence ofConstantine admitted them, at a very tender age, to share theadministration of the empire; and they studied the art of reigning,at the expense of the people intrusted to their care. The youngerConstantine was appointed to hold his court in Gaul; and his brotherConstantius exchanged that department, the ancient patrimony of theirfather, for the more opulent, but less martial, countries of the East.Italy, the Western Illyricum, and Africa, were accustomed to revereConstans, the third of his sons, as the representative of the greatConstantine. He fixed Dalmatius on the Gothic frontier, to which heannexed the government of Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece. The city ofCÊsarea was chosen for the residence of Hannibalianus; and the provincesof Pontus, Cappadocia, and the Lesser Armenia, were destined to formthe extent of his new kingdom. For each of these princes a suitableestablishment was provided. A just proportion of guards, of legions, andof auxiliaries, was allotted for their respective dignity and defence.The ministers and generals, who were placed about their persons, weresuch as Constantine could trust to assist, and even to control, theseyouthful sovereigns in the exercise of their delegated power. As theyadvanced in years and experience, the limits of their authority wereinsensibly enlarged: but the emperor always reserved for himself thetitle of Augustus; and while he showed the CÊsars to the armies andprovinces, he maintained every part of the empire in equal obedienceto its supreme head. The tranquillity of the last fourteen years of hisreign was scarcely interrupted by the contemptible insurrection of acamel-driver in the Island of Cyprus, or by the active part which thepolicy of Constantine engaged him to assume in the wars of the Goths andSarmatians.

Among the different branches of the human race, the Sarmatians form avery remarkable shade; as they seem to unite the manners of the Asiaticbarbarians with the figure and complexion of the ancient inhabitants ofEurope. According to the various accidents of peace and war, of allianceor conquest, the Sarmatians were sometimes confined to the banks of theTanais; and they sometimes spread themselves over the immense plainswhich lie between the Vistula and the Volga. The care of their numerousflocks and herds, the pursuit of game, and the exercises of war, orrather of rapine, directed the vagrant motions of the Sarmatians. Themovable camps or cities, the ordinary residence of their wives andchildren, consisted only of large wagons drawn by oxen, and covered inthe form of tents. The military strength of the nation was composed ofcavalry; and the custom of their warriors, to lead in their hand one ortwo spare horses, enabled them to advance and to retreat with a rapiddiligence, which surprised the security, and eluded the pursuit, of adistant enemy. Their poverty of iron prompted their rude industry toinvent a sort of cuirass, which was capable of resisting a sword orjavelin, though it was formed only of horses' hoofs, cut into thin andpolished slices, carefully laid over each other in the manner of scalesor feathers, and strongly sewed upon an under garment of coarse linen.The offensive arms of the Sarmatians were short daggers, long lances,and a weighty bow vow with a quiver of arrows. They were reduced to thenecessity of employing fish-bones for the points of their weapons;but the custom of dipping them in a venomous liquor, that poisonedthe wounds which they inflicted, is alone sufficient to prove the mostsavage manners, since a people impressed with a sense of humanity wouldhave abhorred so cruel a practice, and a nation skilled in the artsof war would have disdained so impotent a resource. Whenever theseBarbarians issued from their deserts in quest of prey, their shaggybeards, uncombed locks, the furs with which they were covered from headto foot, and their fierce countenances, which seemed to express theinnate cruelty of their minds, inspired the more civilized provincialsof Rome with horror and dismay.

The tender Ovid, after a youth spent in the enjoyment of fame andluxury, was condemned to a hopeless exile on the frozen banks of theDanube, where he was exposed, almost without defence, to the fury ofthese monsters of the desert, with whose stern spirits he feared thathis gentle shade might hereafter be confounded. In his pathetic, butsometimes unmanly lamentations, he describes in the most lively colorsthe dress and manners, the arms and inroads, of the GetÊ and Sarmatians,who were associated for the purposes of destruction; and from theaccounts of history there is some reason to believe that theseSarmatians were the JazygÊ, one of the most numerous and warliketribes of the nation. The allurements of plenty engaged them to seek apermanent establishment on the frontiers of the empire. Soon after thereign of Augustus, they obliged the Dacians, who subsisted by fishingon the banks of the River Teyss or Tibiscus, to retire into the hillycountry, and to abandon to the victorious Sarmatians the fertile plainsof the Upper Hungary, which are bounded by the course of the Danubeand the semicircular enclosure of the Carpathian Mountains. In thisadvantageous position, they watched or suspended the moment of attack,as they were provoked by injuries or appeased by presents; theygradually acquired the skill of using more dangerous weapons, andalthough the Sarmatians did not illustrate their name by any memorableexploits, they occasionally assisted their eastern and westernneighbors, the Goths and the Germans, with a formidable body of cavalry.They lived under the irregular aristocracy of their chieftains: butafter they had received into their bosom the fugitive Vandals, whoyielded to the pressure of the Gothic power, they seem to have chosen aking from that nation, and from the illustrious race of the Astingi, whohad formerly dwelt on the shores of the northern ocean.

This motive of enmity must have inflamed the subjects of contention,which perpetually arise on the confines of warlike and independentnations. The Vandal princes were stimulated by fear and revenge; theGothic kings aspired to extend their dominion from the Euxine to thefrontiers of Germany; and the waters of the Maros, a small river whichfalls into the Teyss, were stained with the blood of the contendingBarbarians. After some experience of the superior strength and numbersof their adversaries, the Sarmatians implored the protection of theRoman monarch, who beheld with pleasure the discord of the nations, butwho was justly alarmed by the progress of the Gothic arms. As soonas Constantine had declared himself in favor of the weaker party, thehaughty Araric, king of the Goths, instead of expecting the attack ofthe legions, boldly passed the Danube, and spread terror and devastationthrough the province of MÊsia. To oppose the inroad of this destroyinghost, the aged emperor took the field in person; but on this occasioneither his conduct or his fortune betrayed the glory which he hadacquired in so many foreign and domestic wars. He had the mortificationof seeing his troops fly before an inconsiderable detachment of theBarbarians, who pursued them to the edge of their fortified camp, andobliged him to consult his safety by a precipitate and ignominiousretreat. * The event of a second and more successful action retrievedthe honor of the Roman name; and the powers of art and disciplineprevailed, after an obstinate contest, over the efforts of irregularvalor. The broken army of the Goths abandoned the field of battle, thewasted province, and the passage of the Danube: and although the eldestof the sons of Constantine was permitted to supply the place of hisfather, the merit of the victory, which diffused universal joy, wasascribed to the auspicious counsels of the emperor himself.

He contributed at least to improve this advantage, by his negotiationswith the free and warlike people of Chersonesus, whose capital, situateon the western coast of the Tauric or CrimÊan peninsula, still retainedsome vestiges of a Grecian colony, and was governed by a perpetualmagistrate, assisted by a council of senators, emphatically styled theFathers of the City. The Chersonites were animated against the Goths,by the memory of the wars, which, in the preceding century, they hadmaintained with unequal forces against the invaders of their country.They were connected with the Romans by the mutual benefits of commerce;as they were supplied from the provinces of Asia with corn andmanufactures, which they purchased with their only productions, salt,wax, and hides. Obedient to the requisition of Constantine, theyprepared, under the conduct of their magistrate Diogenes, a considerablearmy, of which the principal strength consisted in cross-bows andmilitary chariots. The speedy march and intrepid attack of theChersonites, by diverting the attention of the Goths, assisted theoperations of the Imperial generals. The Goths, vanquished on everyside, were driven into the mountains, where, in the course of a severecampaign, above a hundred thousand were computed to have perishedby cold and hunger Peace was at length granted to their humblesupplications; the eldest son of Araric was accepted as the mostvaluable hostage; and Constantine endeavored to convince their chiefs,by a liberal distribution of honors and rewards, how far the friendshipof the Romans was preferable to their enmity. In the expressions of hisgratitude towards the faithful Chersonites, the emperor was still moremagnificent. The pride of the nation was gratified by the splendidand almost royal decorations bestowed on their magistrate and hissuccessors. A perpetual exemption from all duties was stipulated fortheir vessels which traded to the ports of the Black Sea. A regularsubsidy was promised, of iron, corn, oil, and of every supply whichcould be useful either in peace or war. But it was thought thatthe Sarmatians were sufficiently rewarded by their deliverance fromimpending ruin; and the emperor, perhaps with too strict an economy,deducted some part of the expenses of the war from the customarygratifications which were allowed to that turbulent nation.

Exasperated by this apparent neglect, the Sarmatians soon forgot,with the levity of barbarians, the services which they had so latelyreceived, and the dangers which still threatened their safety. Theirinroads on the territory of the empire provoked the indignation ofConstantine to leave them to their fate; and he no longer opposed theambition of Geberic, a renowned warrior, who had recently ascended theGothic throne. Wisumar, the Vandal king, whilst alone, and unassisted,he defended his dominions with undaunted courage, was vanquished andslain in a decisive battle, which swept away the flower of the Sarmatianyouth. * The remainder of the nation embraced the desperate expedientof arming their slaves, a hardy race of hunters and herdsmen, by whosetumultuary aid they revenged their defeat, and expelled the invaderfrom their confines. But they soon discovered that they had exchangeda foreign for a domestic enemy, more dangerous and more implacable.Enraged by their former servitude, elated by their present glory, theslaves, under the name of Limigantes, claimed and usurped the possessionof the country which they had saved. Their masters, unable to withstandthe ungoverned fury of the populace, preferred the hardships of exile tothe tyranny of their servants. Some of the fugitive Sarmatians soliciteda less ignominious dependence, under the hostile standard of the Goths.A more numerous band retired beyond the Carpathian Mountains, amongthe Quadi, their German allies, and were easily admitted to share asuperfluous waste of uncultivated land. But the far greater part of thedistressed nation turned their eyes towards the fruitful provinces ofRome. Imploring the protection and forgiveness of the emperor, theysolemnly promised, as subjects in peace, and as soldiers in war, themost inviolable fidelity to the empire which should graciously receivethem into its bosom. According to the maxims adopted by Probus and hissuccessors, the offers of this barbarian colony were eagerly accepted;and a competent portion of lands in the provinces of Pannonia, Thrace,Macedonia, and Italy, were immediately assigned for the habitation andsubsistence of three hundred thousand Sarmatians.

By chastising the pride of the Goths, and by accepting the homage of asuppliant nation, Constantine asserted the majesty of the Roman empire;and the ambassadors of ∆thiopia, Persia, and the most remote countriesof India, congratulated the peace and prosperity of his government. Ifhe reckoned, among the favors of fortune, the death of his eldest son,of his nephew, and perhaps of his wife, he enjoyed an uninterrupted flowof private as well as public felicity, till the thirtieth year of hisreign; a period which none of his predecessors, since Augustus, had beenpermitted to celebrate. Constantine survived that solemn festival aboutten months; and at the mature age of sixty-four, after a short illness,he ended his memorable life at the palace of Aquyrion, in the suburbs ofNicomedia, whither he had retired for the benefit of the air, and withthe hope of recruiting his exhausted strength by the use of the warmbaths. The excessive demonstrations of grief, or at least of mourning,surpassed whatever had been practised on any former occasion.Notwithstanding the claims of the senate and people of ancient Rome,the corpse of the deceased emperor, according to his last request, wastransported to the city, which was destined to preserve the name andmemory of its founder. The body of Constantine adorned with the vainsymbols of greatness, the purple and diadem, was deposited on a goldenbed in one of the apartments of the palace, which for that purpose hadbeen splendidly furnished and illuminated. The forms of the court werestrictly maintained. Every day, at the appointed hours, the principalofficers of the state, the army, and the household, approaching theperson of their sovereign with bended knees and a composed countenance,offered their respectful homage as seriously as if he had been stillalive. From motives of policy, this theatrical representation was forsome time continued; nor could flattery neglect the opportunity ofremarking that Constantine alone, by the peculiar indulgence of Heaven,had reigned after his death.

But this reign could subsist only in empty pageantry; and it was soondiscovered that the will of the most absolute monarch is seldom obeyed,when his subjects have no longer anything to hope from his favor, or todread from his resentment. The same ministers and generals, who bowedwith such referential awe before the inanimate corpse of their deceasedsovereign, were engaged in secret consultations to exclude his twonephews, Dalmatius and Hannibalianus, from the share which he hadassigned them in the succession of the empire. We are too imperfectlyacquainted with the court of Constantine to form any judgment of thereal motives which influenced the leaders of the conspiracy; unlesswe should suppose that they were actuated by a spirit of jealousy andrevenge against the prÊfect Ablavius, a proud favorite, who had longdirected the counsels and abused the confidence of the late emperor. Thearguments, by which they solicited the concurrence of the soldiers andpeople, are of a more obvious nature; and they might with decency,as well as truth, insist on the superior rank of the children ofConstantine, the danger of multiplying the number of sovereigns, and theimpending mischiefs which threatened the republic, from the discord ofso many rival princes, who were not connected by the tender sympathy offraternal affection. The intrigue was conducted with zeal and secrecy,till a loud and unanimous declaration was procured from the troops,that they would suffer none except the sons of their lamented monarch toreign over the Roman empire. The younger Dalmatius, who was united withhis collateral relations by the ties of friendship and interest, isallowed to have inherited a considerable share of the abilities of thegreat Constantine; but, on this occasion, he does not appear to haveconcerted any measure for supporting, by arms, the just claims whichhimself and his royal brother derived from the liberality of theiruncle. Astonished and overwhelmed by the tide of popular fury, they seemto have remained, without the power of flight or of resistance, in thehands of their implacable enemies. Their fate was suspended till thearrival of Constantius, the second, and perhaps the most favored, of thesons of Constantine.

Chapter XVIII: Character Of Constantine And His Sons.--Part III.

The voice of the dying emperor had recommended the care of his funeralto the piety of Constantius; and that prince, by the vicinity of hiseastern station, could easily prevent the diligence of his brothers, whor*sided in their distant government of Italy and Gaul. As soon as he hadtaken possession of the palace of Constantinople, his first care wasto remove the apprehensions of his kinsmen, by a solemn oath whichhe pledged for their security. His next employment was to find somespecious pretence which might release his conscience from the obligationof an imprudent promise. The arts of fraud were made subservient to thedesigns of cruelty; and a manifest forgery was attested by a person ofthe most sacred character. From the hands of the Bishop of Nicomedia,Constantius received a fatal scroll, affirmed to be the genuinetestament of his father; in which the emperor expressed his suspicionsthat he had been poisoned by his brothers; and conjured his sons torevenge his death, and to consult their own safety, by the punishmentof the guilty. Whatever reasons might have been alleged by theseunfortunate princes to defend their life and honor against so incrediblean accusation, they were silenced by the furious clamors of thesoldiers, who declared themselves, at once, their enemies, theirjudges, and their executioners. The spirit, and even the forms of legalproceedings were repeatedly violated in a promiscuous massacre; whichinvolved the two uncles of Constantius, seven of his cousins, of whomDalmatius and Hannibalianus were the most illustrious, the PatricianOptatus, who had married a sister of the late emperor, and the PrÊfectAblavius, whose power and riches had inspired him with some hopes ofobtaining the purple. If it were necessary to aggravate the horrors ofthis bloody scene, we might add, that Constantius himself had espousedthe daughter of his uncle Julius, and that he had bestowed his sister inmarriage on his cousin Hannibalianus. These alliances, which the policyof Constantine, regardless of the public prejudice, had formed betweenthe several branches of the Imperial house, served only to convincemankind, that these princes were as cold to the endearments of conjugalaffection, as they were insensible to the ties of consanguinity, andthe moving entreaties of youth and innocence. Of so numerous afamily, Gallus and Julian alone, the two youngest children of JuliusConstantius, were saved from the hands of the assassins, till theirrage, satiated with slaughter, had in some measure subsided. The emperorConstantius, who, in the absence of his brothers, was the most obnoxiousto guilt and reproach, discovered, on some future occasions, a faint andtransient remorse for those cruelties which the perfidious counsels ofhis ministers, and the irresistible violence of the troops, had extortedfrom his unexperienced youth.

The massacre of the Flavian race was succeeded by a new division ofthe provinces; which was ratified in a personal interview of the threebrothers. Constantine, the eldest of the CÊsars, obtained, with acertain preeminence of rank, the possession of the new capital, whichbore his own name and that of his father. Thrace, and the countries ofthe East, were allotted for the patrimony of Constantius; and Constanswas acknowledged as the lawful sovereign of Italy, Africa, and theWestern Illyricum. The armies submitted to their hereditary right; andthey condescended, after some delay, to accept from the Roman senate thetitle of Augustus. When they first assumed the reins of government, theeldest of these princes was twenty-one, the second twenty, and the thirdonly seventeen, years of age.

While the martial nations of Europe followed the standards of hisbrothers, Constantius, at the head of the effeminate troops of Asia,was left to sustain the weight of the Persian war. At the decease ofConstantine, the throne of the East was filled by Sapor, son ofHormouz, or Hormisdas, and grandson of Narses, who, after the victoryof Galerius, had humbly confessed the superiority of the Roman power.Although Sapor was in the thirtieth year of his long reign, he was stillin the vigor of youth, as the date of his accession, by a very strangefatality, had preceded that of his birth. The wife of Hormouz remainedpregnant at the time of her husband's death; and the uncertainty of thesex, as well as of the event, excited the ambitious hopes of the princesof the house of Sassan. The apprehensions of civil war were at lengthremoved, by the positive assurance of the Magi, that the widow ofHormouz had conceived, and would safely produce a son. Obedient tothe voice of superstition, the Persians prepared, without delay, theceremony of his coronation. A royal bed, on which the queen lay instate, was exhibited in the midst of the palace; the diadem was placedon the spot, which might be supposed to conceal the future heir ofArtaxerxes, and the prostrate satraps adored the majesty of theirinvisible and insensible sovereign. If any credit can be given to thismarvellous tale, which seems, however, to be countenanced by the mannersof the people, and by the extraordinary duration of his reign, we mustadmire not only the fortune, but the genius, of Sapor. In the soft,sequestered education of a Persian harem, the royal youth could discoverthe importance of exercising the vigor of his mind and body; and, by hispersonal merit, deserved a throne, on which he had been seated, while hewas yet unconscious of the duties and temptations of absolute power.His minority was exposed to the almost inevitable calamities of domesticdiscord; his capital was surprised and plundered by Thair, a powerfulking of Yemen, or Arabia; and the majesty of the royal family wasdegraded by the captivity of a princess, the sister of the deceasedking. But as soon as Sapor attained the age of manhood, the presumptuousThair, his nation, and his country, fell beneath the first effort of theyoung warrior; who used his victory with so judicious a mixture of rigorand clemency, that he obtained from the fears and gratitude of the Arabsthe title of Dhoulacnaf, or protector of the nation.

The ambition of the Persian, to whom his enemies ascribe the virtues ofa soldier and a statesman, was animated by the desire of revenging thedisgrace of his fathers, and of wresting from the hands of the Romansthe five provinces beyond the Tigris. The military fame of Constantine,and the real or apparent strength of his government, suspended theattack; and while the hostile conduct of Sapor provoked the resentment,his artful negotiations amused the patience of the Imperial court. Thedeath of Constantine was the signal of war, and the actual condition ofthe Syrian and Armenian frontier seemed to encourage the Persians bythe prospect of a rich spoil and an easy conquest. The example of themassacres of the palace diffused a spirit of licentiousness and seditionamong the troops of the East, who were no longer restrained bytheir habits of obedience to a veteran commander. By the prudence ofConstantius, who, from the interview with his brothers in Pannonia,immediately hastened to the banks of the Euphrates, the legions weregradually restored to a sense of duty and discipline; but the season ofanarchy had permitted Sapor to form the siege of Nisibis, and to occupyseveral of the most important fortresses of Mesopotamia. In Armenia,the renowned Tiridates had long enjoyed the peace and glory whichhe deserved by his valor and fidelity to the cause of Rome. Thefirm alliance which he maintained with Constantine was productiveof spiritual as well as of temporal benefits; by the conversion ofTiridates, the character of a saint was applied to that of a hero, theChristian faith was preached and established from the Euphrates to theshores of the Caspian, and Armenia was attached to the empire by thedouble ties of policy and religion. But as many of the Armenian noblesstill refused to abandon the plurality of their gods and of their wives,the public tranquillity was disturbed by a discontented faction, whichinsulted the feeble age of their sovereign, and impatiently expected thehour of his death. He died at length after a reign of fifty-six years,and the fortune of the Armenian monarchy expired with Tiridates. Hislawful heir was driven into exile, the Christian priests were eithermurdered or expelled from their churches, the barbarous tribes ofAlbania were solicited to descend from their mountains; and two of themost powerful governors, usurping the ensigns or the powers of royalty,implored the assistance of Sapor, and opened the gates of their citiesto the Persian garrisons. The Christian party, under the guidance ofthe Archbishop of Artaxata, the immediate successor of St. Gregorythe Illuminator, had recourse to the piety of Constantius. After thetroubles had continued about three years, Antiochus, one of the officersof the household, executed with success the Imperial commission ofrestoring Chosroes, * the son of Tiridates, to the throne of hisfathers, of distributing honors and rewards among the faithful servantsof the house of Arsaces, and of proclaiming a general amnesty, which wasaccepted by the greater part of the rebellious satraps. But the Romansderived more honor than advantage from this revolution. Chosroes wasa prince of a puny stature and a pusillanimous spirit. Unequal to thefatigues of war, averse to the society of mankind, he withdrew from hiscapital to a retired palace, which he built on the banks of the RiverEleutherus, and in the centre of a shady grove; where he consumed hisvacant hours in the rural sports of hunting and hawking. To secure thisinglorious ease, he submitted to the conditions of peace which Saporcondescended to impose; the payment of an annual tribute, and therestitution of the fertile province of Atropatene, which the courageof Tiridates, and the victorious arms of Galerius, had annexed to theArmenian monarchy.

During the long period of the reign of Constantius, the provinces of theEast were afflicted by the calamities of the Persian war. The irregularincursions of the light troops alternately spread terror and devastationbeyond the Tigris and beyond the Euphrates, from the gates of Ctesiphonto those of Antioch; and this active service was performed by the Arabsof the desert, who were divided in their interest and affections; someof their independent chiefs being enlisted in the party of Sapor, whilstothers had engaged their doubtful fidelity to the emperor. The moregrave and important operations of the war were conducted with equalvigor; and the armies of Rome and Persia encountered each other in ninebloody fields, in two of which Constantius himself commanded in person.The event of the day was most commonly adverse to the Romans, but in thebattle of Singara, heir imprudent valor had almost achieved a signaland decisive victory. The stationary troops of Singara * retired onthe approach of Sapor, who passed the Tigris over three bridges, andoccupied near the village of Hilleh an advantageous camp, which, by thelabor of his numerous pioneers, he surrounded in one day with a deepditch and a lofty rampart. His formidable host, when it was drawn out inorder of battle, covered the banks of the river, the adjacent heights,and the whole extent of a plain of above twelve miles, which separatedthe two armies. Both were alike impatient to engage; but the Barbarians,after a slight resistance, fled in disorder; unable to resist, ordesirous to weary, the strength of the heavy legions, who, fainting withheat and thirst, pursued them across the plain, and cut in pieces a lineof cavalry, clothed in complete armor, which had been posted before thegates of the camp to protect their retreat. Constantius, who was hurriedalong in the pursuit, attempted, without effect, to restrain the ardorof his troops, by representing to them the dangers of the approachingnight, and the certainty of completing their success with the returnof day. As they depended much more on their own valor than on theexperience or the abilities of their chief, they silenced by theirclamors his timid remonstrances; and rushing with fury to the charge,filled up the ditch, broke down the rampart, and dispersed themselvesthrough the tents to recruit their exhausted strength, and to enjoythe rich harvest of their labors. But the prudent Sapor had watched themoment of victory. His army, of which the greater part, securely postedon the heights, had been spectators of the action, advanced in silence,and under the shadow of the night; and his Persian archers, guided bythe illumination of the camp, poured a shower of arrows on a disarmedand licentious crowd. The sincerity of history declares, that the Romanswere vanquished with a dreadful slaughter, and that the flying remnantof the legions was exposed to the most intolerable hardships. Even thetenderness of panegyric, confessing that the glory of the emperor wassullied by the disobedience of his soldiers, chooses to draw a veil overthe circ*mstances of this melancholy retreat. Yet one of those venalorators, so jealous of the fame of Constantius, relates, with amazingcoolness, an act of such incredible cruelty, as, in the judgment ofposterity, must imprint a far deeper stain on the honor of the Imperialname. The son of Sapor, the heir of his crown, had been made a captivein the Persian camp. The unhappy youth, who might have excited thecompassion of the most savage enemy, was scourged, tortured, andpublicly executed by the inhuman Romans.

Whatever advantages might attend the arms of Sapor in the field, thoughnine repeated victories diffused among the nations the fame of hisvalor and conduct, he could not hope to succeed in the execution of hisdesigns, while the fortified towns of Mesopotamia, and, above all, thestrong and ancient city of Nisibis, remained in the possession of theRomans. In the space of twelve years, Nisibis, which, since the timeof Lucullus, had been deservedly esteemed the bulwark of the East,sustained three memorable sieges against the power of Sapor; and thedisappointed monarch, after urging his attacks above sixty, eighty, anda hundred days, was thrice repulsed with loss and ignominy. This largeand populous city was situate about two days' journey from the Tigris,in the midst of a pleasant and fertile plain at the foot of MountMasius. A treble enclosure of brick walls was defended by a deep ditch;and the intrepid resistance of Count Lucilianus, and his garrison, wasseconded by the desperate courage of the people. The citizens of Nisibiswere animated by the exhortations of their bishop, inured to arms by thepresence of danger, and convinced of the intentions of Sapor to planta Persian colony in their room, and to lead them away into distant andbarbarous captivity. The event of the two former sieges elated theirconfidence, and exasperated the haughty spirit of the Great King, whoadvanced a third time towards Nisibis, at the head of the united forcesof Persia and India. The ordinary machines, invented to batter orundermine the walls, were rendered ineffectual by the superior skillof the Romans; and many days had vainly elapsed, when Sapor embraced aresolution worthy of an eastern monarch, who believed that the elementsthemselves were subject to his power. At the stated season of themelting of the snows in Armenia, the River Mygdonius, which divides theplain and the city of Nisibis, forms, like the Nile, an inundation overthe adjacent country. By the labor of the Persians, the course of theriver was stopped below the town, and the waters were confined on everyside by solid mounds of earth. On this artificial lake, a fleet of armedvessels filled with soldiers, and with engines which discharged stonesof five hundred pounds weight, advanced in order of battle, and engaged,almost upon a level, the troops which defended the ramparts. *Theirresistible force of the waters was alternately fatal to the contendingparties, till at length a portion of the walls, unable to sustain theaccumulated pressure, gave way at once, and exposed an ample breach ofone hundred and fifty feet. The Persians were instantly driven to theassault, and the fate of Nisibis depended on the event of the day. Theheavy-armed cavalry, who led the van of a deep column, were embarrassedin the mud, and great numbers were drowned in the unseen holes which hadbeen filled by the rushing waters. The elephants, made furious by theirwounds, increased the disorder, and trampled down thousands of thePersian archers. The Great King, who, from an exalted throne, beheld themisfortunes of his arms, sounded, with reluctant indignation, the signalof the retreat, and suspended for some hours the prosecution of theattack. But the vigilant citizens improved the opportunity of the night;and the return of day discovered a new wall of six feet inheight, rising every moment to fill up the interval of the breach.Notwithstanding the disappointment of his hopes, and the loss of morethan twenty thousand men, Sapor still pressed the reduction of Nisibis,with an obstinate firmness, which could have yielded only to thenecessity of defending the eastern provinces of Persia against aformidable invasion of the MassagetÊ. Alarmed by this intelligence, hehastily relinquished the siege, and marched with rapid diligencefrom the banks of the Tigris to those of the Oxus. The danger anddifficulties of the Scythian war engaged him soon afterwards toconclude, or at least to observe, a truce with the Roman emperor, whichwas equally grateful to both princes; as Constantius himself, after thedeath of his two brothers, was involved, by the revolutions of theWest, in a civil contest, which required and seemed to exceed the mostvigorous exertion of his undivided strength.

After the partition of the empire, three years had scarcely elapsedbefore the sons of Constantine seemed impatient to convince mankind thatthey were incapable of contenting themselves with the dominions whichthey were unqualified to govern. The eldest of those princes sooncomplained, that he was defrauded of his just proportion of the spoilsof their murdered kinsmen; and though he might yield to the superiorguilt and merit of Constantius, he exacted from Constans the cessionof the African provinces, as an equivalent for the rich countries ofMacedonia and Greece, which his brother had acquired by the death ofDalmatius. The want of sincerity, which Constantine experienced in atedious and fruitless negotiation, exasperated the fierceness of histemper; and he eagerly listened to those favorites, who suggested tohim that his honor, as well as his interest, was concerned in theprosecution of the quarrel. At the head of a tumultuary band, suited forrapine rather than for conquest, he suddenly broke onto the dominions ofConstans, by the way of the Julian Alps, and the country round Aquileiafelt the first effects of his resentment. The measures of Constans, whothen resided in Dacia, were directed with more prudence and ability. Onthe news of his brother's invasion, he detached a select and disciplinedbody of his Illyrian troops, proposing to follow them in person, withthe remainder of his forces. But the conduct of his lieutenants soonterminated the unnatural contest. By the artful appearances of flight,Constantine was betrayed into an ambuscade, which had been concealedin a wood, where the rash youth, with a few attendants, was surprised,surrounded, and slain. His body, after it had been found in the obscurestream of the Alsa, obtained the honors of an Imperial sepulchre;but his provinces transferred their allegiance to the conqueror, who,refusing to admit his elder brother Constantius to any share in thesenew acquisitions, maintained the undisputed possession of more than twothirds of the Roman empire.

Chapter XVIII: Character Of Constantine And His Sons.--Part IV.

The fate of Constans himself was delayed about ten years longer, and therevenge of his brother's death was reserved for the more ignoble hand ofa domestic traitor. The pernicious tendency of the system introduced byConstantine was displayed in the feeble administration of his sons;who, by their vices and weakness, soon lost the esteem and affections oftheir people. The pride assumed by Constans, from the unmerited successof his arms, was rendered more contemptible by his want of abilitiesand application. His fond partiality towards some German captives,distinguished only by the charms of youth, was an object of scandal tothe people; and Magnentius, an ambitious soldier, who was himself ofBarbarian extraction, was encouraged by the public discontent to assertthe honor of the Roman name. The chosen bands of Jovians and Herculians,who acknowledged Magnentius as their leader, maintained the mostrespectable and important station in the Imperial camp. The friendshipof Marcellinus, count of the sacred largesses, supplied with a liberalhand the means of seduction. The soldiers were convinced by the mostspecious arguments, that the republic summoned them to break the bondsof hereditary servitude; and, by the choice of an active and vigilantprince, to reward the same virtues which had raised the ancestors of thedegenerate Constans from a private condition to the throne of the world.As soon as the conspiracy was ripe for execution, Marcellinus, underthe pretence of celebrating his son's birthday, gave a splendidentertainment to the illustrious and honorable persons of the court ofGaul, which then resided in the city of Autun. The intemperance of thefeast was artfully protracted till a very late hour of the night;and the unsuspecting guests were tempted to indulge themselves in adangerous and guilty freedom of conversation. On a sudden the doors werethrown open, and Magnentius, who had retired for a few moments,returned into the apartment, invested with the diadem and purple. Theconspirators instantly saluted him with the titles of Augustus andEmperor. The surprise, the terror, the intoxication, the ambitioushopes, and the mutual ignorance of the rest of the assembly, promptedthem to join their voices to the general acclamation. The guardshastened to take the oath of fidelity; the gates of the town were shut;and before the dawn of day, Magnentius became master of the troops andtreasure of the palace and city of Autun. By his secrecy and diligencehe entertained some hopes of surprising the person of Constans, who waspursuing in the adjacent forest his favorite amusem*nt of hunting, orperhaps some pleasures of a more private and criminal nature. The rapidprogress of fame allowed him, however, an instant for flight, thoughthe desertion of his soldiers and subjects deprived him of the power ofresistance. Before he could reach a seaport in Spain, where he intendedto embark, he was overtaken near Helena, at the foot of the Pyrenees, bya party of light cavalry, whose chief, regardless of the sanctity of atemple, executed his commission by the murder of the son of Constantine.

As soon as the death of Constans had decided this easy but importantrevolution, the example of the court of Autun was imitated by theprovinces of the West. The authority of Magnentius was acknowledgedthrough the whole extent of the two great prÊfectures of Gaul and Italy;and the usurper prepared, by every act of oppression, to collect atreasure, which might discharge the obligation of an immense donative,and supply the expenses of a civil war. The martial countries ofIllyricum, from the Danube to the extremity of Greece, had long obeyedthe government of Vetranio, an aged general, beloved for the simplicityof his manners, and who had acquired some reputation by his experienceand services in war. Attached by habit, by duty, and by gratitude, tothe house of Constantine, he immediately gave the strongest assurancesto the only surviving son of his late master, that he would expose, withunshaken fidelity, his person and his troops, to inflict a just revengeon the traitors of Gaul. But the legions of Vetranio were seduced,rather than provoked, by the example of rebellion; their leader soonbetrayed a want of firmness, or a want of sincerity; and his ambitionderived a specious pretence from the approbation of the princessConstantina. That cruel and aspiring woman, who had obtained from thegreat Constantine, her father, the rank of Augusta, placed the diademwith her own hands on the head of the Illyrian general; and seemed toexpect from his victory the accomplishment of those unbounded hopes,of which she had been disappointed by the death of her husbandHannibalianus. Perhaps it was without the consent of Constantina, thatthe new emperor formed a necessary, though dishonorable, alliance withthe usurper of the West, whose purple was so recently stained with herbrother's blood.

The intelligence of these important events, which so deeply affected thehonor and safety of the Imperial house, recalled the arms of Constantiusfrom the inglorious prosecution of the Persian war. He recommendedthe care of the East to his lieutenants, and afterwards to his cousinGallus, whom he raised from a prison to a throne; and marched towardsEurope, with a mind agitated by the conflict of hope and fear, of griefand indignation. On his arrival at Heraclea in Thrace, the emperor gaveaudience to the ambassadors of Magnentius and Vetranio. The first authorof the conspiracy Marcellinus, who in some measure had bestowed thepurple on his new master, boldly accepted this dangerous commission; andhis three colleagues were selected from the illustrious personagesof the state and army. These deputies were instructed to soothe theresentment, and to alarm the fears, of Constantius. They were empoweredto offer him the friendship and alliance of the western princes,to cement their union by a double marriage; of Constantius with thedaughter of Magnentius, and of Magnentius himself with the ambitiousConstantina; and to acknowledge in the treaty the preeminence of rank,which might justly be claimed by the emperor of the East. Should prideand mistaken piety urge him to refuse these equitable conditions, theambassadors were ordered to expatiate on the inevitable ruin which mustattend his rashness, if he ventured to provoke the sovereigns of theWest to exert their superior strength; and to employ against himthat valor, those abilities, and those legions, to which the house ofConstantine had been indebted for so many triumphs. Such propositionsand such arguments appeared to deserve the most serious attention; theanswer of Constantius was deferred till the next day; and as he hadreflected on the importance of justifying a civil war in the opinionof the people, he thus addressed his council, who listened with real oraffected credulity: "Last night," said he, "after I retired to rest,the shade of the great Constantine, embracing the corpse of my murderedbrother, rose before my eyes; his well-known voice awakened me torevenge, forbade me to despair of the republic, and assured me of thesuccess and immortal glory which would crown the justice of my arms."The authority of such a vision, or rather of the prince who allegedit, silenced every doubt, and excluded all negotiation. The ignominiousterms of peace were rejected with disdain. One of the ambassadors ofthe tyrant was dismissed with the haughty answer of Constantius; hiscolleagues, as unworthy of the privileges of the law of nations, wereput in irons; and the contending powers prepared to wage an implacablewar.

Such was the conduct, and such perhaps was the duty, of the brotherof Constans towards the perfidious usurper of Gaul. The situation andcharacter of Vetranio admitted of milder measures; and the policy ofthe Eastern emperor was directed to disunite his antagonists, and toseparate the forces of Illyricum from the cause of rebellion. It wasan easy task to deceive the frankness and simplicity of Vetranio, who,fluctuating some time between the opposite views of honor and interest,displayed to the world the insincerity of his temper, and was insensiblyengaged in the snares of an artful negotiation. Constantius acknowledgedhim as a legitimate and equal colleague in the empire, on condition thathe would renounce his disgraceful alliance with Magnentius, and appointa place of interview on the frontiers of their respective provinces;where they might pledge their friendship by mutual vows of fidelity, andregulate by common consent the future operations of the civil war. Inconsequence of this agreement, Vetranio advanced to the city of Sardica,at the head of twenty thousand horse, and of a more numerous body ofinfantry; a power so far superior to the forces of Constantius, that theIllyrian emperor appeared to command the life and fortunes of his rival,who, depending on the success of his private negotiations, had seducedthe troops, and undermined the throne, of Vetranio. The chiefs, whohad secretly embraced the party of Constantius, prepared in his favor apublic spectacle, calculated to discover and inflame the passions of themultitude. The united armies were commanded to assemble in a largeplain near the city. In the centre, according to the rules of ancientdiscipline, a military tribunal, or rather scaffold, was erected, fromwhence the emperors were accustomed, on solemn and important occasions,to harangue the troops. The well-ordered ranks of Romans and Barbarians,with drawn swords, or with erected spears, the squadrons of cavalry, andthe cohorts of infantry, distinguished by the variety of their arms andensigns, formed an immense circle round the tribunal; and the attentivesilence which they preserved was sometimes interrupted by loud bursts ofclamor or of applause. In the presence of this formidable assembly,the two emperors were called upon to explain the situation of publicaffairs: the precedency of rank was yielded to the royal birth ofConstantius; and though he was indifferently skilled in the arts ofrhetoric, he acquitted himself, under these difficult circ*mstances,with firmness, dexterity, and eloquence. The first part of his orationseemed to be pointed only against the tyrant of Gaul; but while hetragically lamented the cruel murder of Constans, he insinuated, thatnone, except a brother, could claim a right to the succession ofhis brother. He displayed, with some complacency, the glories of hisImperial race; and recalled to the memory of the troops the valor, thetriumphs, the liberality of the great Constantine, to whose sonsthey had engaged their allegiance by an oath of fidelity, which theingratitude of his most favored servants had tempted them to violate.The officers, who surrounded the tribunal, and were instructed to acttheir part in this extraordinary scene, confessed the irresistible powerof reason and eloquence, by saluting the emperor Constantius astheir lawful sovereign. The contagion of loyalty and repentance wascommunicated from rank to rank; till the plain of Sardica resounded withthe universal acclamation of "Away with these upstart usurpers! Longlife and victory to the son of Constantine! Under his banners alonewe will fight and conquer." The shout of thousands, their menacinggestures, the fierce clashing of their arms, astonished and subdued thecourage of Vetranio, who stood, amidst the defection of his followers,in anxious and silent suspense. Instead of embracing the last refuge ofgenerous despair, he tamely submitted to his fate; and taking the diademfrom his head, in the view of both armies fell prostrate at the feetof his conqueror. Constantius used his victory with prudence andmoderation; and raising from the ground the aged suppliant, whom heaffected to style by the endearing name of Father, he gave him his handto descend from the throne. The city of Prusa was assigned for theexile or retirement of the abdicated monarch, who lived six years in theenjoyment of ease and affluence. He often expressed his grateful senseof the goodness of Constantius, and, with a very amiable simplicity,advised his benefactor to resign the sceptre of the world, and to seekfor content (where alone it could be found) in the peaceful obscurity ofa private condition.

The behavior of Constantius on this memorable occasion was celebratedwith some appearance of justice; and his courtiers compared the studiedorations which a Pericles or a Demosthenes addressed to the populaceof Athens, with the victorious eloquence which had persuaded an armedmultitude to desert and depose the object of their partial choice. Theapproaching contest with Magnentius was of a more serious and bloodykind. The tyrant advanced by rapid marches to encounter Constantius, atthe head of a numerous army, composed of Gauls and Spaniards, of Franksand Saxons; of those provincials who supplied the strength of thelegions, and of those barbarians who were dreaded as the most formidableenemies of the republic. The fertile plains of the Lower Pannonia,between the Drave, the Save, and the Danube, presented a spacioustheatre; and the operations of the civil war were protracted during thesummer months by the skill or timidity of the combatants. Constantiushad declared his intention of deciding the quarrel in the fields ofCibalis, a name that would animate his troops by the remembrance of thevictory, which, on the same auspicious ground, had been obtained by thearms of his father Constantine. Yet by the impregnable fortificationswith which the emperor encompassed his camp, he appeared to decline,rather than to invite, a general engagement. It was the object ofMagnentius to tempt or to compel his adversary to relinquish thisadvantageous position; and he employed, with that view, the variousmarches, evolutions, and stratagems, which the knowledge of the art ofwar could suggest to an experienced officer. He carried by assault theimportant town of Siscia; made an attack on the city of Sirmium, whichlay in the rear of the Imperial camp, attempted to force a passage overthe Save into the eastern provinces of Illyricum; and cut in piecesa numerous detachment, which he had allured into the narrow passes ofAdarne. During the greater part of the summer, the tyrant of Gaul showedhimself master of the field. The troops of Constantius were harassedand dispirited; his reputation declined in the eye of the world; andhis pride condescended to solicit a treaty of peace, which would haveresigned to the assassin of Constans the sovereignty of the provincesbeyond the Alps. These offers were enforced by the eloquence ofPhilip the Imperial ambassador; and the council as well as the armyof Magnentius were disposed to accept them. But the haughty usurper,careless of the remonstrances of his friends, gave orders that Philipshould be detained as a captive, or, at least, as a hostage; while hedespatched an officer to reproach Constantius with the weakness ofhis reign, and to insult him by the promise of a pardon if he wouldinstantly abdicate the purple. "That he should confide in the justice ofhis cause, and the protection of an avenging Deity," was the only answerwhich honor permitted the emperor to return. But he was so sensible ofthe difficulties of his situation, that he no longer dared to retaliatethe indignity which had been offered to his representative. Thenegotiation of Philip was not, however, ineffectual, since he determinedSylvanus the Frank, a general of merit and reputation, to desert with aconsiderable body of cavalry, a few days before the battle of Mursa.

The city of Mursa, or Essek, celebrated in modern times for a bridgeof boats, five miles in length, over the River Drave, and the adjacentmorasses, has been always considered as a place of importance in thewars of Hungary. Magnentius, directing his march towards Mursa, set fireto the gates, and, by a sudden assault, had almost scaled the walls ofthe town. The vigilance of the garrison extinguished the flames; theapproach of Constantius left him no time to continue the operations ofthe siege; and the emperor soon removed the only obstacle that couldembarrass his motions, by forcing a body of troops which had taken postin an adjoining amphitheatre. The field of battle round Mursa was anaked and level plain: on this ground the army of Constantius formed,with the Drave on their right; while their left, either from the natureof their disposition, or from the superiority of their cavalry, extendedfar beyond the right flank of Magnentius. The troops on both sidesremained under arms, in anxious expectation, during the greatest part ofthe morning; and the son of Constantine, after animating his soldiersby an eloquent speech, retired into a church at some distance fromthe field of battle, and committed to his generals the conduct of thisdecisive day. They deserved his confidence by the valor and militaryskill which they exerted. They wisely began the action upon the left;and advancing their whole wing of cavalry in an oblique line, theysuddenly wheeled it on the right flank of the enemy, which wasunprepared to resist the impetuosity of their charge. But the Romans ofthe West soon rallied, by the habits of discipline; and the Barbariansof Germany supported the renown of their national bravery. Theengagement soon became general; was maintained with various and singularturns of fortune; and scarcely ended with the darkness of the night. Thesignal victory which Constantius obtained is attributed to the arms ofhis cavalry. His cuirassiers are described as so many massy statuesof steel, glittering with their scaly armor, and breaking with theirponderous lances the firm array of the Gallic legions. As soon as thelegions gave way, the lighter and more active squadrons of the secondline rode sword in hand into the intervals, and completed the disorder.In the mean while, the huge bodies of the Germans were exposed almostnaked to the dexterity of the Oriental archers; and whole troops ofthose Barbarians were urged by anguish and despair to precipitatethemselves into the broad and rapid stream of the Drave. The number ofthe slain was computed at fifty-four thousand men, and the slaughterof the conquerors was more considerable than that of the vanquished; acirc*mstance which proves the obstinacy of the contest, and justifiesthe observation of an ancient writer, that the forces of the empire wereconsumed in the fatal battle of Mursa, by the loss of a veteran army,sufficient to defend the frontiers, or to add new triumphs to the gloryof Rome. Notwithstanding the invectives of a servile orator, thereis not the least reason to believe that the tyrant deserted his ownstandard in the beginning of the engagement. He seems to have displayedthe virtues of a general and of a soldier till the day was irrecoverablylost, and his camp in the possession of the enemy. Magnentius thenconsulted his safety, and throwing away the Imperial ornaments,escaped with some difficulty from the pursuit of the light horse, whoincessantly followed his rapid flight from the banks of the Drave to thefoot of the Julian Alps.

The approach of winter supplied the indolence of Constantius withspecious reasons for deferring the prosecution of the war till theensuing spring. Magnentius had fixed his residence in the city ofAquileia, and showed a seeming resolution to dispute the passage ofthe mountains and morasses which fortified the confines of the Venetianprovince. The surprisal of a castle in the Alps by the secret march ofthe Imperialists, could scarcely have determined him to relinquish thepossession of Italy, if the inclinations of the people had supported thecause of their tyrant. But the memory of the cruelties exercised by hisministers, after the unsuccessful revolt of Nepotian, had left a deepimpression of horror and resentment on the minds of the Romans.That rash youth, the son of the princess Eutropia, and the nephew ofConstantine, had seen with indignation the sceptre of the West usurpedby a perfidious barbarian. Arming a desperate troop of slaves andgladiators, he overpowered the feeble guard of the domestic tranquillityof Rome, received the homage of the senate, and assuming the title ofAugustus, precariously reigned during a tumult of twenty-eight days.The march of some regular forces put an end to his ambitious hopes:the rebellion was extinguished in the blood of Nepotian, of his motherEutropia, and of his adherents; and the proscription was extended toall who had contracted a fatal alliance with the name and family ofConstantine. But as soon as Constantius, after the battle of Mursa,became master of the sea-coast of Dalmatia, a band of noble exiles, whohad ventured to equip a fleet in some harbor of the Adriatic, soughtprotection and revenge in his victorious camp. By their secretintelligence with their countrymen, Rome and the Italian cities werepersuaded to display the banners of Constantius on their walls. Thegrateful veterans, enriched by the liberality of the father, signalizedtheir gratitude and loyalty to the son. The cavalry, the legions,and the auxiliaries of Italy, renewed their oath of allegiance toConstantius; and the usurper, alarmed by the general desertion, wascompelled, with the remains of his faithful troops, to retire beyond theAlps into the provinces of Gaul. The detachments, however, which wereordered either to press or to intercept the flight of Magnentius,conducted themselves with the usual imprudence of success; and allowedhim, in the plains of Pavia, an opportunity of turning on his pursuers,and of gratifying his despair by the carnage of a useless victory.

The pride of Magnentius was reduced, by repeated misfortunes, to sue,and to sue in vain, for peace. He first despatched a senator, in whoseabilities he confided, and afterwards several bishops, whose holycharacter might obtain a more favorable audience, with the offer ofresigning the purple, and the promise of devoting the remainder of hislife to the service of the emperor. But Constantius, though he grantedfair terms of pardon and reconciliation to all who abandoned thestandard of rebellion, avowed his inflexible resolution to inflicta just punishment on the crimes of an assassin, whom he preparedto overwhelm on every side by the effort of his victorious arms.An Imperial fleet acquired the easy possession of Africa and Spain,confirmed the wavering faith of the Moorish nations, and landed aconsiderable force, which passed the Pyrenees, and advanced towardsLyons, the last and fatal station of Magnentius. The temper of thetyrant, which was never inclined to clemency, was urged by distress toexercise every act of oppression which could extort an immediate supplyfrom the cities of Gaul. Their patience was at length exhausted; andTreves, the seat of PrÊtorian government, gave the signal of revolt, byshutting her gates against Decentius, who had been raised by his brotherto the rank either of CÊsar or of Augustus. From Treves, Decentius wasobliged to retire to Sens, where he was soon surrounded by an army ofGermans, whom the pernicious arts of Constantius had introduced into thecivil dissensions of Rome. In the mean time, the Imperial troops forcedthe passages of the Cottian Alps, and in the bloody combat of MountSeleucus irrevocably fixed the title of rebels on the party ofMagnentius. He was unable to bring another army into the field; thefidelity of his guards was corrupted; and when he appeared in public toanimate them by his exhortations, he was saluted with a unanimous shoutof "Long live the emperor Constantius!" The tyrant, who perceived thatthey were preparing to deserve pardon and rewards by the sacrifice ofthe most obnoxious criminal, prevented their design by falling on hissword; a death more easy and more honorable than he could hope to obtainfrom the hands of an enemy, whose revenge would have been colored withthe specious pretence of justice and fraternal piety. The example ofsuicide was imitated by Decentius, who strangled himself on the news ofhis brother's death. The author of the conspiracy, Marcellinus, had longsince disappeared in the battle of Mursa, and the public tranquillitywas confirmed by the execution of the surviving leaders of a guilty andunsuccessful faction. A severe inquisition was extended over all who,either from choice or from compulsion, had been involved in the cause ofrebellion. Paul, surnamed Catena from his superior skill in the judicialexercise of tyranny, * was sent to explore the latent remains of theconspiracy in the remote province of Britain. The honest indignationexpressed by Martin, vice-prÊfect of the island, was interpreted as anevidence of his own guilt; and the governor was urged to the necessityof turning against his breast the sword with which he had been provokedto wound the Imperial minister. The most innocent subjects of the Westwere exposed to exile and confiscation, to death and torture; and asthe timid are always cruel, the mind of Constantius was inaccessible tomercy.

Chapter XIX: Constantius Sole Emperor.--Part I.

 Constantius Sole Emperor.--Elevation And Death Of Gallus.-- Danger And Elevation Of Julian.--Sarmatian And Persian Wars.--Victories Of Julian In Gaul.

The divided provinces of the empire were again united by the victory ofConstantius; but as that feeble prince was destitute of personal merit,either in peace or war; as he feared his generals, and distrusted hisministers; the triumph of his arms served only to establish the reignof the eunuchs over the Roman world. Those unhappy beings, the ancientproduction of Oriental jealousy and despotism, were introduced intoGreece and Rome by the contagion of Asiatic luxury. Their progress wasrapid; and the eunuchs, who, in the time of Augustus, had been abhorred,as the monstrous retinue of an Egyptian queen, were gradually admittedinto the families of matrons, of senators, and of the emperorsthemselves. Restrained by the severe edicts of Domitian and Nerva,cherished by the pride of Diocletian, reduced to an humble stationby the prudence of Constantine, they multiplied in the palaces of hisdegenerate sons, and insensibly acquired the knowledge, and at lengththe direction, of the secret councils of Constantius. The aversion andcontempt which mankind had so uniformly entertained for that imperfectspecies, appears to have degraded their character, and to have renderedthem almost as incapable as they were supposed to be, of conceiving anygenerous sentiment, or of performing any worthy action. But the eunuchswere skilled in the arts of flattery and intrigue; and they alternatelygoverned the mind of Constantius by his fears, his indolence, and hisvanity. Whilst he viewed in a deceitful mirror the fair appearanceof public prosperity, he supinely permitted them to intercept thecomplaints of the injured provinces, to accumulate immense treasuresby the sale of justice and of honors; to disgrace the most importantdignities, by the promotion of those who had purchased at their handsthe powers of oppression, and to gratify their resentment againstthe few independent spirits, who arrogantly refused to solicit theprotection of slaves. Of these slaves the most distinguished was thechamberlain Eusebius, who ruled the monarch and the palace withsuch absolute sway, that Constantius, according to the sarcasm of animpartial historian, possessed some credit with this haughty favorite.By his artful suggestions, the emperor was persuaded to subscribe thecondemnation of the unfortunate Gallus, and to add a new crime to thelong list of unnatural murders which pollute the honor of the house ofConstantine.

When the two nephews of Constantine, Gallus and Julian, were saved fromthe fury of the soldiers, the former was about twelve, and the latterabout six, years of age; and, as the eldest was thought to be of asickly constitution, they obtained with the less difficulty a precariousand dependent life, from the affected pity of Constantius, who wassensible that the execution of these helpless orphans would have beenesteemed, by all mankind, an act of the most deliberate cruelty. *Different cities of Ionia and Bithynia were assigned for the places oftheir exile and education; but as soon as their growing years excitedthe jealousy of the emperor, he judged it more prudent to secure thoseunhappy youths in the strong castle of Macellum, near CÊsarea. Thetreatment which they experienced during a six years' confinement, waspartly such as they could hope from a careful guardian, and partlysuch as they might dread from a suspicious tyrant. Their prison was anancient palace, the residence of the kings of Cappadocia; the situationwas pleasant, the buildings of stately, the enclosure spacious. Theypursued their studies, and practised their exercises, under the tuitionof the most skilful masters; and the numerous household appointed toattend, or rather to guard, the nephews of Constantine, was not unworthyof the dignity of their birth. But they could not disguise to themselvesthat they were deprived of fortune, of freedom, and of safety; secludedfrom the society of all whom they could trust or esteem, and condemnedto pass their melancholy hours in the company of slaves devoted to thecommands of a tyrant who had already injured them beyond the hopeof reconciliation. At length, however, the emergencies of the statecompelled the emperor, or rather his eunuchs, to invest Gallus, in thetwenty-fifth year of his age, with the title of CÊsar, and to cementthis political connection by his marriage with the princess Constantina.After a formal interview, in which the two princes mutually engagedtheir faith never to undertake any thing to the prejudice of each other,they repaired without delay to their respective stations. Constantiuscontinued his march towards the West, and Gallus fixed his residence atAntioch; from whence, with a delegated authority, he administered thefive great dioceses of the eastern prÊfecture. In this fortunate change,the new CÊsar was not unmindful of his brother Julian, who obtained thehonors of his rank, the appearances of liberty, and the restitution ofan ample patrimony.

The writers the most indulgent to the memory of Gallus, and even Julianhimself, though he wished to cast a veil over the frailties of hisbrother, are obliged to confess that the CÊsar was incapable ofreigning. Transported from a prison to a throne, he possessed neithergenius nor application, nor docility to compensate for the want ofknowledge and experience. A temper naturally morose and violent,instead of being corrected, was soured by solitude and adversity; theremembrance of what he had endured disposed him to retaliation ratherthan to sympathy; and the ungoverned sallies of his rage were oftenfatal to those who approached his person, or were subject to his power.Constantina, his wife, is described, not as a woman, but as one ofthe infernal furies tormented with an insatiate thirst of human blood.Instead of employing her influence to insinuate the mild counselsof prudence and humanity, she exasperated the fierce passions of herhusband; and as she retained the vanity, though she had renounced, thegentleness of her sex, a pearl necklace was esteemed an equivalent pricefor the murder of an innocent and virtuous nobleman. The cruelty ofGallus was sometimes displayed in the undissembled violence of popularor military executions; and was sometimes disguised by the abuse of law,and the forms of judicial proceedings. The private houses of Antioch,and the places of public resort, were besieged by spies and informers;and the CÊsar himself, concealed in a plebeian habit, very frequentlycondescended to assume that odious character. Every apartment of thepalace was adorned with the instruments of death and torture, and ageneral consternation was diffused through the capital of Syria. Theprince of the East, as if he had been conscious how much he had to fear,and how little he deserved to reign, selected for the objects of hisresentment the provincials accused of some imaginary treason, and hisown courtiers, whom with more reason he suspected of incensing, by theirsecret correspondence, the timid and suspicious mind of Constantius.But he forgot that he was depriving himself of his only support, theaffection of the people; whilst he furnished the malice of his enemieswith the arms of truth, and afforded the emperor the fairest pretence ofexacting the forfeit of his purple, and of his life.

As long as the civil war suspended the fate of the Roman world,Constantius dissembled his knowledge of the weak and crueladministration to which his choice had subjected the East; and thediscovery of some assassins, secretly despatched to Antioch by thetyrant of Gaul, was employed to convince the public, that the emperorand the CÊsar were united by the same interest, and pursued by the sameenemies. But when the victory was decided in favor of Constantius,his dependent colleague became less useful and less formidable. Everycirc*mstance of his conduct was severely and suspiciously examined, andit was privately resolved, either to deprive Gallus of the purple, orat least to remove him from the indolent luxury of Asia to the hardshipsand dangers of a German war. The death of Theophilus, consular of theprovince of Syria, who in a time of scarcity had been massacred by thepeople of Antioch, with the connivance, and almost at the instigation,of Gallus, was justly resented, not only as an act of wanton cruelty,but as a dangerous insult on the supreme majesty of Constantius. Twoministers of illustrious rank, Domitian the Oriental prÊfect, andMontius, quÊstor of the palace, were empowered by a special commission

to visit and reform the state of the East. They were instructed to

behave towards Gallus with moderation and respect, and, by the gentlestarts of persuasion, to engage him to comply with the invitation of hisbrother and colleague. The rashness of the prÊfect disappointed theseprudent measures, and hastened his own ruin, as well as that of hisenemy. On his arrival at Antioch, Domitian passed disdainfullybefore the gates of the palace, and alleging a slight pretence ofindisposition, continued several days in sullen retirement, to preparean inflammatory memorial, which he transmitted to the Imperial court.Yielding at length to the pressing solicitations of Gallus, the prÊfectcondescended to take his seat in council; but his first step was tosignify a concise and haughty mandate, importing that the CÊsar shouldimmediately repair to Italy, and threatening that he himself wouldpunish his delay or hesitation, by suspending the usual allowance of hishousehold. The nephew and daughter of Constantine, who could ill brookthe insolence of a subject, expressed their resentment by instantlydelivering Domitian to the custody of a guard. The quarrel stilladmitted of some terms of accommodation. They were renderedimpracticable by the imprudent behavior of Montius, a statesman whosearts and experience were frequently betrayed by the levity of hisdisposition. The quÊstor reproached Gallus in a haughty language, thata prince who was scarcely authorized to remove a municipal magistrate,should presume to imprison a PrÊtorian prÊfect; convoked a meeting ofthe civil and military officers; and required them, in the name of theirsovereign, to defend the person and dignity of his representatives.By this rash declaration of war, the impatient temper of Gallus wasprovoked to embrace the most desperate counsels. He ordered hisguards to stand to their arms, assembled the populace of Antioch,and recommended to their zeal the care of his safety and revenge. Hiscommands were too fatally obeyed. They rudely seized the prÊfect andthe quÊstor, and tying their legs together with ropes, they draggedthem through the streets of the city, inflicted a thousand insults and athousand wounds on these unhappy victims, and at last precipitated theirmangled and lifeless bodies into the stream of the Orontes.

After such a deed, whatever might have been the designs of Gallus, itwas only in a field of battle that he could assert his innocence withany hope of success. But the mind of that prince was formed of an equalmixture of violence and weakness. Instead of assuming the title ofAugustus, instead of employing in his defence the troops and treasuresof the East, he suffered himself to be deceived by the affectedtranquillity of Constantius, who, leaving him the vain pageantry of acourt, imperceptibly recalled the veteran legions from the provincesof Asia. But as it still appeared dangerous to arrest Gallus in hiscapital, the slow and safer arts of dissimulation were practised withsuccess. The frequent and pressing epistles of Constantius were filledwith professions of confidence and friendship; exhorting the CÊsar todischarge the duties of his high station, to relieve his colleague froma part of the public cares, and to assist the West by his presence, hiscounsels, and his arms. After so many reciprocal injuries, Gallus hadreason to fear and to distrust. But he had neglected the opportunitiesof flight and of resistance; he was seduced by the flattering assurancesof the tribune Scudilo, who, under the semblance of a rough soldier,disguised the most artful insinuation; and he depended on the creditof his wife Constantina, till the unseasonable death of that princesscompleted the ruin in which he had been involved by her impetuouspassions.

Chapter XIX: Constantius Sole Emperor.--Part II.

After a long delay, the reluctant CÊsar set forwards on his journey tothe Imperial court. From Antioch to Hadrianople, he traversed the wideextent of his dominions with a numerous and stately train; and as helabored to conceal his apprehensions from the world, and perhaps fromhimself, he entertained the people of Constantinople with an exhibitionof the games of the circus. The progress of the journey might, however,have warned him of the impending danger. In all the principal cities hewas met by ministers of confidence, commissioned to seize the offices ofgovernment, to observe his motions, and to prevent the hasty salliesof his despair. The persons despatched to secure the provinces which heleft behind, passed him with cold salutations, or affected disdain; andthe troops, whose station lay along the public road, were studiouslyremoved on his approach, lest they might be tempted to offer theirswords for the service of a civil war. After Gallus had been permittedto repose himself a few days at Hadrianople, he received a mandate,expressed in the most haughty and absolute style, that his splendidretinue should halt in that city, while the CÊsar himself, with onlyten post-carriages, should hasten to the Imperial residence at Milan.In this rapid journey, the profound respect which was due to thebrother and colleague of Constantius, was insensibly changed into rudefamiliarity; and Gallus, who discovered in the countenances of theattendants that they already considered themselves as his guards, andmight soon be employed as his executioners, began to accuse his fatalrashness, and to recollect, with terror and remorse, the conduct bywhich he had provoked his fate. The dissimulation which had hithertobeen preserved, was laid aside at Petovio, * in Pannonia. He wasconducted to a palace in the suburbs, where the general Barbatio, witha select band of soldiers, who could neither be moved by pity, norcorrupted by rewards, expected the arrival of his illustrious victim. Inthe close of the evening he was arrested, ignominiously stripped of theensigns of CÊsar, and hurried away to Pola, in Istria, a sequesteredprison, which had been so recently polluted with royal blood. The horrorwhich he felt was soon increased by the appearance of his implacableenemy the eunuch Eusebius, who, with the assistance of a notary and atribune, proceeded to interrogate him concerning the administration ofthe East. The CÊsar sank under the weight of shame and guilt, confessedall the criminal actions and all the treasonable designs with which hewas charged; and by imputing them to the advice of his wife, exasperatedthe indignation of Constantius, who reviewed with partial prejudice theminutes of the examination. The emperor was easily convinced, that hisown safety was incompatible with the life of his cousin: the sentenceof death was signed, despatched, and executed; and the nephew ofConstantine, with his hands tied behind his back, was beheaded in prisonlike the vilest malefactor. Those who are inclined to palliate thecruelties of Constantius, assert that he soon relented, and endeavoredto recall the bloody mandate; but that the second messenger, intrustedwith the reprieve, was detained by the eunuchs, who dreaded theunforgiving temper of Gallus, and were desirous of reuniting to theirempire the wealthy provinces of the East.

Besides the reigning emperor, Julian alone survived, of all the numerousposterity of Constantius Chlorus. The misfortune of his royal birthinvolved him in the disgrace of Gallus. From his retirement in the happycountry of Ionia, he was conveyed under a strong guard to the courtof Milan; where he languished above seven months, in the continualapprehension of suffering the same ignominious death, which was dailyinflicted almost before his eyes, on the friends and adherents ofhis persecuted family. His looks, his gestures, his silence, werescrutinized with malignant curiosity, and he was perpetually assaultedby enemies whom he had never offended, and by arts to which he was astranger. But in the school of adversity, Julian insensibly acquired thevirtues of firmness and discretion. He defended his honor, as wellas his life, against the insnaring subtleties of the eunuchs, whoendeavored to extort some declaration of his sentiments; and whilst hecautiously suppressed his grief and resentment, he nobly disdained toflatter the tyrant, by any seeming approbation of his brother'smurder. Julian most devoutly ascribes his miraculous deliverance to theprotection of the gods, who had exempted his innocence from the sentenceof destruction pronounced by their justice against the impious house ofConstantine. As the most effectual instrument of their providence,he gratefully acknowledges the steady and generous friendship of theempress Eusebia, a woman of beauty and merit, who, by the ascendantwhich she had gained over the mind of her husband, counterbalanced,in some measure, the powerful conspiracy of the eunuchs. By theintercession of his patroness, Julian was admitted into the Imperialpresence: he pleaded his cause with a decent freedom, he was heard withfavor; and, notwithstanding the efforts of his enemies, who urgedthe danger of sparing an avenger of the blood of Gallus, the mildersentiment of Eusebia prevailed in the council. But the effects of asecond interview were dreaded by the eunuchs; and Julian was advised towithdraw for a while into the neighborhood of Milan, till the emperorthought proper to assign the city of Athens for the place of hishonorable exile. As he had discovered, from his earliest youth, apropensity, or rather passion, for the language, the manners, thelearning, and the religion of the Greeks, he obeyed with pleasure anorder so agreeable to his wishes. Far from the tumult of arms, andthe treachery of courts, he spent six months under the groves of theacademy, in a free intercourse with the philosophers of the age, whostudied to cultivate the genius, to encourage the vanity, and to inflamethe devotion of their royal pupil. Their labors were not unsuccessful;and Julian inviolably preserved for Athens that tender regard whichseldom fails to arise in a liberal mind, from the recollection of theplace where it has discovered and exercised its growing powers. Thegentleness and affability of manners, which his temper suggested and hissituation imposed, insensibly engaged the affections of the strangers,as well as citizens, with whom he conversed. Some of his fellow-studentsmight perhaps examine his behavior with an eye of prejudice andaversion; but Julian established, in the schools of Athens, a generalprepossession in favor of his virtues and talents, which was soondiffused over the Roman world.

Whilst his hours were passed in studious retirement, the empress,resolute to achieve the generous design which she had undertaken, wasnot unmindful of the care of his fortune. The death of the late CÊsarhad left Constantius invested with the sole command, and oppressed bythe accumulated weight, of a mighty empire. Before the wounds of civildiscord could be healed, the provinces of Gaul were overwhelmed by adeluge of Barbarians. The Sarmatians no longer respected the barrierof the Danube. The impunity of rapine had increased the boldness andnumbers of the wild Isaurians: those robbers descended from their craggymountains to ravage the adjacent country, and had even presumed, thoughwithout success, to besiege the important city of Seleucia, which wasdefended by a garrison of three Roman legions. Above all, the Persianmonarch, elated by victory, again threatened the peace of Asia, and thepresence of the emperor was indispensably required, both in the Westand in the East. For the first time, Constantius sincerely acknowledged,that his single strength was unequal to such an extent of care and ofdominion. Insensible to the voice of flattery, which assured him thathis all-powerful virtue, and celestial fortune, would still continue totriumph over every obstacle, he listened with complacency to theadvice of Eusebia, which gratified his indolence, without offending hissuspicious pride. As she perceived that the remembrance of Gallus dwelton the emperor's mind, she artfully turned his attention to the oppositecharacters of the two brothers, which from their infancy had beencompared to those of Domitian and of Titus. She accustomed her husbandto consider Julian as a youth of a mild, unambitious disposition, whoseallegiance and gratitude might be secured by the gift of the purple,and who was qualified to fill with honor a subordinate station, withoutaspiring to dispute the commands, or to shade the glories, of hissovereign and benefactor. After an obstinate, though secret struggle,the opposition of the favorite eunuchs submitted to the ascendency ofthe empress; and it was resolved that Julian, after celebrating hisnuptials with Helena, sister of Constantius, should be appointed, withthe title of CÊsar, to reign over the countries beyond the Alps.

Although the order which recalled him to court was probably accompaniedby some intimation of his approaching greatness, he appeals to thepeople of Athens to witness his tears of undissembled sorrow, when hewas reluctantly torn away from his beloved retirement. He trembled forhis life, for his fame, and even for his virtue; and his sole confidencewas derived from the persuasion, that Minerva inspired all his actions,and that he was protected by an invisible guard of angels, whom forthat purpose she had borrowed from the Sun and Moon. He approached, withhorror, the palace of Milan; nor could the ingenuous youth concealhis indignation, when he found himself accosted with false and servilerespect by the assassins of his family. Eusebia, rejoicing in thesuccess of her benevolent schemes, embraced him with the tenderness ofa sister; and endeavored, by the most soothing caresses, to dispel histerrors, and reconcile him to his fortune. But the ceremony of shavinghis beard, and his awkward demeanor, when he first exchanged the cloakof a Greek philosopher for the military habit of a Roman prince, amused,during a few days, the levity of the Imperial court.

The emperors of the age of Constantine no longer deigned to consultwith the senate in the choice of a colleague; but they were anxious thattheir nomination should be ratified by the consent of the army. On thissolemn occasion, the guards, with the other troops whose stations werein the neighborhood of Milan, appeared under arms; and Constantiusascended his lofty tribunal, holding by the hand his cousin Julian, whoentered the same day into the twenty-fifth year of his age. In a studiedspeech, conceived and delivered with dignity, the emperor representedthe various dangers which threatened the prosperity of the republic, thenecessity of naming a CÊsar for the administration of the West, and hisown intention, if it was agreeable to their wishes, of rewardingwith the honors of the purple the promising virtues of the nephewof Constantine. The approbation of the soldiers was testified by arespectful murmur; they gazed on the manly countenance of Julian, andobserved with pleasure, that the fire which sparkled in his eyes wastempered by a modest blush, on being thus exposed, for the firsttime, to the public view of mankind. As soon as the ceremony of hisinvestiture had been performed, Constantius addressed him with the toneof authority which his superior age and station permitted him to assume;and exhorting the new CÊsar to deserve, by heroic deeds, that sacred andimmortal name, the emperor gave his colleague the strongest assurancesof a friendship which should never be impaired by time, nor interruptedby their separation into the most distant climes. As soon as the speechwas ended, the troops, as a token of applause, clashed their shieldsagainst their knees; while the officers who surrounded the tribunalexpressed, with decent reserve, their sense of the merits of therepresentative of Constantius.

The two princes returned to the palace in the same chariot; and duringthe slow procession, Julian repeated to himself a verse of his favoriteHomer, which he might equally apply to his fortune and to his fears.The four-and-twenty days which the CÊsar spent at Milan after hisinvestiture, and the first months of his Gallic reign, were devoted toa splendid but severe captivity; nor could the acquisition of honorcompensate for the loss of freedom. His steps were watched, hiscorrespondence was intercepted; and he was obliged, by prudence,to decline the visits of his most intimate friends. Of his formerdomestics, four only were permitted to attend him; two pages, hisphysician, and his librarian; the last of whom was employed in the careof a valuable collection of books, the gift of the empress, who studiedthe inclinations as well as the interest of her friend. In the room ofthese faithful servants, a household was formed, such indeed as becamethe dignity of a CÊsar; but it was filled with a crowd of slaves,destitute, and perhaps incapable, of any attachment for their newmaster, to whom, for the most part, they were either unknown orsuspected. His want of experience might require the assistance of a wisecouncil; but the minute instructions which regulated the service of histable, and the distribution of his hours, were adapted to a youth stillunder the discipline of his preceptors, rather than to the situation ofa prince intrusted with the conduct of an important war. If he aspiredto deserve the esteem of his subjects, he was checked by the fear ofdispleasing his sovereign; and even the fruits of his marriage-bedwere blasted by the jealous artifices of Eusebia herself, who, on thisoccasion alone, seems to have been unmindful of the tenderness of hersex, and the generosity of her character. The memory of his father andof his brothers reminded Julian of his own danger, and his apprehensionswere increased by the recent and unworthy fate of Sylvanus. In thesummer which preceded his own elevation, that general had been chosento deliver Gaul from the tyranny of the Barbarians; but Sylvanus soondiscovered that he had left his most dangerous enemies in the Imperialcourt. A dexterous informer, countenanced by several of the principalministers, procured from him some recommendatory letters; and erasingthe whole of the contents, except the signature, filled up the vacantparchment with matters of high and treasonable import. By the industryand courage of his friends, the fraud was however detected, and in agreat council of the civil and military officers, held in the presenceof the emperor himself, the innocence of Sylvanus was publiclyacknowledged. But the discovery came too late; the report of thecalumny, and the hasty seizure of his estate, had already provoked theindignant chief to the rebellion of which he was so unjustly accused.He assumed the purple at his head-quarters of Cologne, and his activepowers appeared to menace Italy with an invasion, and Milan with asiege. In this emergency, Ursicinus, a general of equal rank, regained,by an act of treachery, the favor which he had lost by his eminentservices in the East. Exasperated, as he might speciously allege, by theinjuries of a similar nature, he hastened with a few followers to jointhe standard, and to betray the confidence, of his too credulous friend.After a reign of only twenty-eight days, Sylvanus was assassinated: thesoldiers who, without any criminal intention, had blindly followed theexample of their leader, immediately returned to their allegiance; andthe flatterers of Constantius celebrated the wisdom and felicity of themonarch who had extinguished a civil war without the hazard of a battle.

The protection of the RhÊtian frontier, and the persecution of theCatholic church, detained Constantius in Italy above eighteen monthsafter the departure of Julian. Before the emperor returned into theEast, he indulged his pride and curiosity in a visit to the ancientcapital. He proceeded from Milan to Rome along the ∆milian and Flaminianways, and as soon as he approached within forty miles of the city, themarch of a prince who had never vanquished a foreign enemy, assumed theappearance of a triumphal procession. His splendid train was composedof all the ministers of luxury; but in a time of profound peace, hewas encompassed by the glittering arms of the numerous squadrons of hisguards and cuirassiers. Their streaming banners of silk, embossed withgold, and shaped in the form of dragons, waved round the person of theemperor. Constantius sat alone in a lofty car, resplendent with goldand precious gems; and, except when he bowed his head to pass under thegates of the cities, he affected a stately demeanor of inflexible, and,as it might seem, of insensible gravity. The severe discipline of thePersian youth had been introduced by the eunuchs into the Imperialpalace; and such were the habits of patience which they had inculcated,that during a slow and sultry march, he was never seen to move his handtowards his face, or to turn his eyes either to the right or to theleft. He was received by the magistrates and senate of Rome; and theemperor surveyed, with attention, the civil honors of the republic, andthe consular images of the noble families. The streets were lined withan innumerable multitude. Their repeated acclamations expressed theirjoy at beholding, after an absence of thirty-two years, the sacredperson of their sovereign, and Constantius himself expressed, withsome pleasantry, he affected surprise that the human race should thussuddenly be collected on the same spot. The son of Constantine waslodged in the ancient palace of Augustus: he presided in the senate,harangued the people from the tribunal which Cicero had so oftenascended, assisted with unusual courtesy at the games of the Circus, andaccepted the crowns of gold, as well as the Panegyrics which had beenprepared for the ceremony by the deputies of the principal cities. Hisshort visit of thirty days was employed in viewing the monuments of artand power which were scattered over the seven hills and the interjacentvalleys. He admired the awful majesty of the Capitol, the vast extentof the baths of Caracalla and Diocletian, the severe simplicity of thePantheon, the massy greatness of the amphitheatre of Titus, the elegantarchitecture of the theatre of Pompey and the Temple of Peace, and,above all, the stately structure of the Forum and column of Trajan;acknowledging that the voice of fame, so prone to invent and to magnify,had made an inadequate report of the metropolis of the world. Thetraveller, who has contemplated the ruins of ancient Rome, may conceivesome imperfect idea of the sentiments which they must have inspired whenthey reared their heads in the splendor of unsullied beauty.

[See The Pantheon: The severe simplicity of the Pantheon]

The satisfaction which Constantius had received from this journeyexcited him to the generous emulation of bestowing on the Romans somememorial of his own gratitude and munificence. His first idea was toimitate the equestrian and colossal statue which he had seen in theForum of Trajan; but when he had maturely weighed the difficulties ofthe execution, he chose rather to embellish the capital by the gift ofan Egyptian obelisk. In a remote but polished age, which seems to havepreceded the invention of alphabetical writing, a great number of theseobelisks had been erected, in the cities of Thebes and Heliopolis,by the ancient sovereigns of Egypt, in a just confidence that thesimplicity of their form, and the hardness of their substance, wouldresist the injuries of time and violence. Several of these extraordinarycolumns had been transported to Rome by Augustus and his successors,as the most durable monuments of their power and victory; but thereremained one obelisk, which, from its size or sanctity, escaped for along time the rapacious vanity of the conquerors. It was designed byConstantine to adorn his new city; and, after being removed by hisorder from the pedestal where it stood before the Temple of the Sunat Heliopolis, was floated down the Nile to Alexandria. The death ofConstantine suspended the execution of his purpose, and this obelisk wasdestined by his son to the ancient capital of the empire. A vessel ofuncommon strength and capaciousness was provided to convey this enormousweight of granite, at least a hundred and fifteen feet in length, fromthe banks of the Nile to those of the Tyber. The obelisk of Constantiuswas landed about three miles from the city, and elevated, by the effortsof art and labor, in the great Circus of Rome.

The departure of Constantius from Rome was hastened by the alarmingintelligence of the distress and danger of the Illyrian provinces. Thedistractions of civil war, and the irreparable loss which the Romanlegions had sustained in the battle of Mursa, exposed those countries,almost without defence, to the light cavalry of the Barbarians; andparticularly to the inroads of the Quadi, a fierce and powerful nation,who seem to have exchanged the institutions of Germany for the arms andmilitary arts of their Sarmatian allies. The garrisons of the frontierswere insufficient to check their progress; and the indolent monarch wasat length compelled to assemble, from the extremities of his dominions,the flower of the Palatine troops, to take the field in person, andto employ a whole campaign, with the preceding autumn and the ensuingspring, in the serious prosecution of the war. The emperor passed theDanube on a bridge of boats, cut in pieces all that encountered hismarch, penetrated into the heart of the country of the Quadi, andseverely retaliated the calamities which they had inflicted on the Romanprovince. The dismayed Barbarians were soon reduced to sue for peace:they offered the restitution of his captive subjects as an atonement forthe past, and the noblest hostages as a pledge of their futureconduct. The generous courtesy which was shown to the first among theirchieftains who implored the clemency of Constantius, encouraged the moretimid, or the more obstinate, to imitate their example; and the Imperialcamp was crowded with the princes and ambassadors of the most distanttribes, who occupied the plains of the Lesser Poland, and who mighthave deemed themselves secure behind the lofty ridge of the CarpathianMountains. While Constantius gave laws to the Barbarians beyond theDanube, he distinguished, with specious compassion, the Sarmatianexiles, who had been expelled from their native country by the rebellionof their slaves, and who formed a very considerable accession to thepower of the Quadi. The emperor, embracing a generous but artful systemof policy, released the Sarmatians from the bands of this humiliatingdependence, and restored them, by a separate treaty, to the dignity of anation united under the government of a king, the friend and ally of therepublic. He declared his resolution of asserting the justice of theircause, and of securing the peace of the provinces by the extirpation,or at least the banishment, of the Limigantes, whose manners were stillinfected with the vices of their servile origin. The execution of thisdesign was attended with more difficulty than glory. The territory ofthe Limigantes was protected against the Romans by the Danube, againstthe hostile Barbarians by the Teyss. The marshy lands which lay betweenthose rivers, and were often covered by their inundations, formedan intricate wilderness, pervious only to the inhabitants, who wereacquainted with its secret paths and inaccessible fortresses. On theapproach of Constantius, the Limigantes tried the efficacy of prayers,of fraud, and of arms; but he sternly rejected their supplications,defeated their rude stratagems, and repelled with skill and firmnessthe efforts of their irregular valor. One of their most warlike tribes,established in a small island towards the conflux of the Teyss and theDanube, consented to pass the river with the intention of surprising theemperor during the security of an amicable conference. They soon becamethe victims of the perfidy which they meditated. Encompassed on everyside, trampled down by the cavalry, slaughtered by the swords ofthe legions, they disdained to ask for mercy; and with an undauntedcountenance, still grasped their weapons in the agonies of death. Afterthis victory, a considerable body of Romans was landed on the oppositebanks of the Danube; the TaifalÊ, a Gothic tribe engaged in the serviceof the empire, invaded the Limigantes on the side of the Teyss; andtheir former masters, the free Sarmatians, animated by hope and revenge,penetrated through the hilly country, into the heart of theirancient possessions. A general conflagration revealed the huts of theBarbarians, which were seated in the depth of the wilderness; and thesoldier fought with confidence on marshy ground, which it was dangerousfor him to tread. In this extremity, the bravest of the Limigantes wereresolved to die in arms, rather than to yield: but the milder sentiment,enforced by the authority of their elders, at length prevailed; and thesuppliant crowd, followed by their wives and children, repaired to theImperial camp, to learn their fate from the mouth of the conqueror.After celebrating his own clemency, which was still inclined to pardontheir repeated crimes, and to spare the remnant of a guilty nation,Constantius assigned for the place of their exile a remote country,where they might enjoy a safe and honorable repose. The Limigantesobeyed with reluctance; but before they could reach, at least beforethey could occupy, their destined habitations, they returned to thebanks of the Danube, exaggerating the hardships of their situation, andrequesting, with fervent professions of fidelity, that the emperor wouldgrant them an undisturbed settlement within the limits of the Romanprovinces. Instead of consulting his own experience of their incurableperfidy, Constantius listened to his flatterers, who were ready torepresent the honor and advantage of accepting a colony of soldiers,at a time when it was much easier to obtain the pecuniary contributionsthan the military service of the subjects of the empire. The Limiganteswere permitted to pass the Danube; and the emperor gave audience to themultitude in a large plain near the modern city of Buda. They surroundedthe tribunal, and seemed to hear with respect an oration full ofmildness and dignity when one of the Barbarians, casting his shoeinto the air, exclaimed with a loud voice, Marha! Marha! * a word ofdefiance, which was received as a signal of the tumult. They rushed withfury to seize the person of the emperor; his royal throne and goldencouch were pillaged by these rude hands; but the faithful defence ofhis guards, who died at his feet, allowed him a moment to mount a fleethorse, and to escape from the confusion. The disgrace which had beenincurred by a treacherous surprise was soon retrieved by the numbersand discipline of the Romans; and the combat was only terminated by theextinction of the name and nation of the Limigantes. The free Sarmatianswere reinstated in the possession of their ancient seats; and althoughConstantius distrusted the levity of their character, he entertainedsome hopes that a sense of gratitude might influence their futureconduct. He had remarked the lofty stature and obsequious demeanor ofZizais, one of the noblest of their chiefs. He conferred on him thetitle of King; and Zizais proved that he was not unworthy to reign, by asincere and lasting attachment to the interests of his benefactor, who,after this splendid success, received the name of Sarmaticus from theacclamations of his victorious army.

Chapter XIX: Constantius Sole Emperor.--Part III.

While the Roman emperor and the Persian monarch, at the distanceof three thousand miles, defended their extreme limits against theBarbarians of the Danube and of the Oxus, their intermediate frontierexperienced the vicissitudes of a languid war, and a precarious truce.Two of the eastern ministers of Constantius, the PrÊtorian prÊfectMusonian, whose abilities were disgraced by the want of truth andintegrity, and Cassian, duke of Mesopotamia, a hardy and veteransoldier, opened a secret negotiation with the satrap Tamsapor. Theseovertures of peace, translated into the servile and flattering languageof Asia, were transmitted to the camp of the Great King; who resolved tosignify, by an ambassador, the terms which he was inclined to grant tothe suppliant Romans. Narses, whom he invested with that character, washonorably received in his passage through Antioch and Constantinople:he reached Sirmium after a long journey, and, at his first audience,respectfully unfolded the silken veil which covered the haughty epistleof his sovereign. Sapor, King of Kings, and Brother of the Sun and Moon,(such were the lofty titles affected by Oriental vanity,) expressed hissatisfaction that his brother, Constantius CÊsar, had been taughtwisdom by adversity. As the lawful successor of Darius Hystaspes, Saporasserted, that the River Strymon, in Macedonia, was the true and ancientboundary of his empire; declaring, however, that as an evidence of hismoderation, he would content himself with the provinces of Armenia andMesopotamia, which had been fraudulently extorted from his ancestors. Healleged, that, without the restitution of these disputed countries, itwas impossible to establish any treaty on a solid and permanent basis;and he arrogantly threatened, that if his ambassador returned in vain,he was prepared to take the field in the spring, and to support thejustice of his cause by the strength of his invincible arms. Narses, whowas endowed with the most polite and amiable manners, endeavored, as faras was consistent with his duty, to soften the harshness of the message.Both the style and substance were maturely weighed in the Imperialcouncil, and he was dismissed with the following answer: "Constantiushad a right to disclaim the officiousness of his ministers, who hadacted without any specific orders from the throne: he was not, however,averse to an equal and honorable treaty; but it was highly indecent,as well as absurd, to propose to the sole and victorious emperor ofthe Roman world, the same conditions of peace which he had indignantlyrejected at the time when his power was contracted within the narrowlimits of the East: the chance of arms was uncertain; and Sapor shouldrecollect, that if the Romans had sometimes been vanquished in battle,they had almost always been successful in the event of the war." A fewdays after the departure of Narses, three ambassadors were sent to thecourt of Sapor, who was already returned from the Scythian expedition tohis ordinary residence of Ctesiphon. A count, a notary, and a sophist,had been selected for this important commission; and Constantius, whowas secretly anxious for the conclusion of the peace, entertained somehopes that the dignity of the first of these ministers, the dexterityof the second, and the rhetoric of the third, would persuade the Persianmonarch to abate of the rigor of his demands. But the progress of theirnegotiation was opposed and defeated by the hostile arts of Antoninus,a Roman subject of Syria, who had fled from oppression, and wasadmitted into the councils of Sapor, and even to the royal table, where,according to the custom of the Persians, the most important business wasfrequently discussed. The dexterous fugitive promoted his interest bythe same conduct which gratified his revenge. He incessantly urged theambition of his new master to embrace the favorable opportunity whenthe bravest of the Palatine troops were employed with the emperor in adistant war on the Danube. He pressed Sapor to invade the exhausted anddefenceless provinces of the East, with the numerous armies of Persia,now fortified by the alliance and accession of the fiercest Barbarians.The ambassadors of Rome retired without success, and a second embassy,of a still more honorable rank, was detained in strict confinement, andthreatened either with death or exile.

The military historian, who was himself despatched to observe the armyof the Persians, as they were preparing to construct a bridge of boatsover the Tigris, beheld from an eminence the plain of Assyria, as far asthe edge of the horizon, covered with men, with horses, and with arms.Sapor appeared in the front, conspicuous by the splendor of his purple.On his left hand, the place of honor among the Orientals, Grumbates,king of the Chionites, displayed the stern countenance of an aged andrenowned warrior. The monarch had reserved a similar place on his righthand for the king of the Albanians, who led his independent tribes fromthe shores of the Caspian. * The satraps and generals were distributedaccording to their several ranks, and the whole army, besides thenumerous train of Oriental luxury, consisted of more than one hundredthousand effective men, inured to fatigue, and selected from the bravestnations of Asia. The Roman deserter, who in some measure guided thecouncils of Sapor, had prudently advised, that, instead of wasting thesummer in tedious and difficult sieges, he should march directly tothe Euphrates, and press forwards without delay to seize the feeble andwealthy metropolis of Syria. But the Persians were no sooner advancedinto the plains of Mesopotamia, than they discovered that everyprecaution had been used which could retard their progress, or defeattheir design. The inhabitants, with their cattle, were secured in placesof strength, the green forage throughout the country was set on fire,the fords of the rivers were fortified by sharp stakes; military engineswere planted on the opposite banks, and a seasonable swell of the watersof the Euphrates deterred the Barbarians from attempting the ordinarypassage of the bridge of Thapsacus. Their skilful guide, changing hisplan of operations, then conducted the army by a longer circuit, butthrough a fertile territory, towards the head of the Euphrates, wherethe infant river is reduced to a shallow and accessible stream. Saporoverlooked, with prudent disdain, the strength of Nisibis; but as hepassed under the walls of Amida, he resolved to try whether the majestyof his presence would not awe the garrison into immediate submission.The sacrilegious insult of a random dart, which glanced against theroyal tiara, convinced him of his error; and the indignant monarchlistened with impatience to the advice of his ministers, who conjuredhim not to sacrifice the success of his ambition to the gratification ofhis resentment. The following day Grumbates advanced towards the gateswith a select body of troops, and required the instant surrender of thecity, as the only atonement which could be accepted for such an actof rashness and insolence. His proposals were answered by a generaldischarge, and his only son, a beautiful and valiant youth, was piercedthrough the heart by a javelin, shot from one of the balistÊ. Thefuneral of the prince of the Chionites was celebrated according to therites of the country; and the grief of his aged father was alleviated bythe solemn promise of Sapor, that the guilty city of Amida should serveas a funeral pile to expiate the death, and to perpetuate the memory, ofhis son.

The ancient city of Amid or Amida, which sometimes assumes theprovincial appellation of Diarbekir, is advantageously situate in afertile plain, watered by the natural and artificial channels of theTigris, of which the least inconsiderable stream bends in a semicircularform round the eastern part of the city. The emperor Constantiushad recently conferred on Amida the honor of his own name, and theadditional fortifications of strong walls and lofty towers. It wasprovided with an arsenal of military engines, and the ordinary garrisonhad been reenforced to the amount of seven legions, when the placewas invested by the arms of Sapor. His first and most sanguine hopesdepended on the success of a general assault. To the several nationswhich followed his standard, their respective posts were assigned;the south to the VertÊ; the north to the Albanians; the east tothe Chionites, inflamed with grief and indignation; the west to theSegestans, the bravest of his warriors, who covered their front witha formidable line of Indian elephants. The Persians, on every side,supported their efforts, and animated their courage; and the monarchhimself, careless of his rank and safety, displayed, in the prosecutionof the siege, the ardor of a youthful soldier. After an obstinatecombat, the Barbarians were repulsed; they incessantly returned to thecharge; they were again driven back with a dreadful slaughter, and tworebel legions of Gauls, who had been banished into the East, signalizedtheir undisciplined courage by a nocturnal sally into the heart of thePersian camp. In one of the fiercest of these repeated assaults, Amidawas betrayed by the treachery of a deserter, who indicated to theBarbarians a secret and neglected staircase, scooped out of the rockthat hangs over the stream of the Tigris. Seventy chosen archers of theroyal guard ascended in silence to the third story of a lofty tower,which commanded the precipice; they elevated on high the Persianbanner, the signal of confidence to the assailants, and of dismay to thebesieged; and if this devoted band could have maintained their post afew minutes longer, the reduction of the place might have been purchasedby the sacrifice of their lives. After Sapor had tried, without success,the efficacy of force and of stratagem, he had recourse to the slowerbut more certain operations of a regular siege, in the conduct of whichhe was instructed by the skill of the Roman deserters. The trencheswere opened at a convenient distance, and the troops destined for thatservice advanced under the portable cover of strong hurdles, to fillup the ditch, and undermine the foundations of the walls. Wooden towerswere at the same time constructed, and moved forwards on wheels, tillthe soldiers, who were provided with every species of missile weapons,could engage almost on level ground with the troops who defended therampart. Every mode of resistance which art could suggest, or couragecould execute, was employed in the defence of Amida, and the works ofSapor were more than once destroyed by the fire of the Romans. But theresources of a besieged city may be exhausted. The Persians repairedtheir losses, and pushed their approaches; a large preach was made bythe battering-ram, and the strength of the garrison, wasted by the swordand by disease, yielded to the fury of the assault. The soldiers, thecitizens, their wives, their children, all who had not time to escapethrough the opposite gate, were involved by the conquerors in apromiscuous massacre.

But the ruin of Amida was the safety of the Roman provinces. As soon asthe first transports of victory had subsided, Sapor was at leisure toreflect, that to chastise a disobedient city, he had lost the flower ofhis troops, and the most favorable season for conquest. Thirty thousandof his veterans had fallen under the walls of Amida, during thecontinuance of a siege, which lasted seventy-three days; and thedisappointed monarch returned to his capital with affected triumph andsecret mortification. It is more than probable, that the inconstancy ofhis Barbarian allies was tempted to relinquish a war in which they hadencountered such unexpected difficulties; and that the aged king of theChionites, satiated with revenge, turned away with horror from a sceneof action where he had been deprived of the hope of his family andnation. The strength as well as the spirit of the army with whichSapor took the field in the ensuing spring was no longer equal to theunbounded views of his ambition. Instead of aspiring to the conquest ofthe East, he was obliged to content himself with the reduction of twofortified cities of Mesopotamia, Singara and Bezabde; the one situate inthe midst of a sandy desert, the other in a small peninsula, surroundedalmost on every side by the deep and rapid stream of the Tigris. FiveRoman legions, of the diminutive size to which they had been reducedin the age of Constantine, were made prisoners, and sent into remotecaptivity on the extreme confines of Persia. After dismantling the wallsof Singara, the conqueror abandoned that solitary and sequestered place;but he carefully restored the fortifications of Bezabde, and fixed inthat important post a garrison or colony of veterans; amply suppliedwith every means of defence, and animated by high sentiments of honorand fidelity. Towards the close of the campaign, the arms of Saporincurred some disgrace by an unsuccessful enterprise against Virtha,or Tecrit, a strong, or, as it was universally esteemed till the age ofTamerlane, an impregnable fortress of the independent Arabs.

The defence of the East against the arms of Sapor required and wouldhave exercised, the abilities of the most consummate general; and itseemed fortunate for the state, that it was the actual province of thebrave Ursicinus, who alone deserved the confidence of the soldiers andpeople. In the hour of danger, Ursicinus was removed from his station bythe intrigues of the eunuchs; and the military command of the Eastwas bestowed, by the same influence, on Sabinian, a wealthy and subtleveteran, who had attained the infirmities, without acquiring theexperience, of age. By a second order, which issued from the samejealous and inconstant councils, Ursicinus was again despatched to thefrontier of Mesopotamia, and condemned to sustain the labors of a war,the honors of which had been transferred to his unworthy rival. Sabinianfixed his indolent station under the walls of Edessa; and while heamused himself with the idle parade of military exercise, and movedto the sound of flutes in the Pyrrhic dance, the public defence wasabandoned to the boldness and diligence of the former general ofthe East. But whenever Ursicinus recommended any vigorous plan ofoperations; when he proposed, at the head of a light and active army, towheel round the foot of the mountains, to intercept the convoys of theenemy, to harass the wide extent of the Persian lines, and to relievethe distress of Amida; the timid and envious commander alleged, that hewas restrained by his positive orders from endangering the safety ofthe troops. Amida was at length taken; its bravest defenders, who hadescaped the sword of the Barbarians, died in the Roman camp by the handof the executioner: and Ursicinus himself, after supporting the disgraceof a partial inquiry, was punished for the misconduct of Sabinian by theloss of his military rank. But Constantius soon experienced the truthof the prediction which honest indignation had extorted from his injuredlieutenant, that as long as such maxims of government were suffered toprevail, the emperor himself would find it is no easy task to defendhis eastern dominions from the invasion of a foreign enemy. When he hadsubdued or pacified the Barbarians of the Danube, Constantius proceededby slow marches into the East; and after he had wept over the smokingruins of Amida, he formed, with a powerful army, the siege of Bezabde.The walls were shaken by the reiterated efforts of the most enormous ofthe battering-rams; the town was reduced to the last extremity; but itwas still defended by the patient and intrepid valor of the garrison,till the approach of the rainy season obliged the emperor to raise thesiege, and ingloriously to retreat into his winter quarters at Antioch.The pride of Constantius, and the ingenuity of his courtiers, were ata loss to discover any materials for panegyric in the events of thePersian war; while the glory of his cousin Julian, to whose militarycommand he had intrusted the provinces of Gaul, was proclaimed to theworld in the simple and concise narrative of his exploits.

In the blind fury of civil discord, Constantius had abandoned to theBarbarians of Germany the countries of Gaul, which still acknowledgedthe authority of his rival. A numerous swarm of Franks and Alemanni wereinvited to cross the Rhine by presents and promises, by the hopes ofspoil, and by a perpetual grant of all the territories which they shouldbe able to subdue. But the emperor, who for a temporary service hadthus imprudently provoked the rapacious spirit of the Barbarians, soondiscovered and lamented the difficulty of dismissing these formidableallies, after they had tasted the richness of the Roman soil. Regardlessof the nice distinction of loyalty and rebellion, these undisciplinedrobbers treated as their natural enemies all the subjects of theempire, who possessed any property which they were desirous of acquiringForty-five flourishing cities, Tongres, Cologne, Treves, Worms, Spires,Strasburgh, &c., besides a far greater number of towns and villages,were pillaged, and for the most part reduced to ashes. The Barbarians ofGermany, still faithful to the maxims of their ancestors, abhorred theconfinement of walls, to which they applied the odious names of prisonsand sepulchres; and fixing their independent habitations on the banks ofrivers, the Rhine, the Moselle, and the Meuse, they secured themselvesagainst the danger of a surprise, by a rude and hasty fortification oflarge trees, which were felled and thrown across the roads. The Alemanniwere established in the modern countries of Alsace and Lorraine; theFranks occupied the island of the Batavians, together with an extensivedistrict of Brabant, which was then known by the appellation ofToxandria, and may deserve to be considered as the original seat oftheir Gallic monarchy. From the sources, to the mouth, of the Rhine, theconquests of the Germans extended above forty miles to the west of thatriver, over a country peopled by colonies of their own name and nation:and the scene of their devastations was three times more extensive thanthat of their conquests. At a still greater distance the open towns ofGaul were deserted, and the inhabitants of the fortified cities,who trusted to their strength and vigilance, were obliged to contentthemselves with such supplies of corn as they could raise on the vacantland within the enclosure of their walls. The diminished legions,destitute of pay and provisions, of arms and discipline, trembled at theapproach, and even at the name, of the Barbarians.

Chapter XIX: Constantius Sole Emperor.--Part IV.

Under these melancholy circ*mstances, an unexperienced youth wasappointed to save and to govern the provinces of Gaul, or rather, as heexpressed it himself, to exhibit the vain image of Imperial greatness.The retired scholastic education of Julian, in which he had been moreconversant with books than with arms, with the dead than with theliving, left him in profound ignorance of the practical arts of war andgovernment; and when he awkwardly repeated some military exercise whichit was necessary for him to learn, he exclaimed with a sigh, "O Plato,Plato, what a task for a philosopher!" Yet even this speculativephilosophy, which men of business are too apt to despise, had filled themind of Julian with the noblest precepts and the most shining examples;had animated him with the love of virtue, the desire of fame, and thecontempt of death. The habits of temperance recommended in the schools,are still more essential in the severe discipline of a camp. The simplewants of nature regulated the measure of his food and sleep. Rejectingwith disdain the delicacies provided for his table, he satisfied hisappetite with the coarse and common fare which was allotted to themeanest soldiers. During the rigor of a Gallic winter, he never suffereda fire in his bed-chamber; and after a short and interrupted slumber, hefrequently rose in the middle of the night from a carpet spread on thefloor, to despatch any urgent business, to visit his rounds, or to steala few moments for the prosecution of his favorite studies. The preceptsof eloquence, which he had hitherto practised on fancied topics ofdeclamation, were more usefully applied to excite or to assuage thepassions of an armed multitude: and although Julian, from his earlyhabits of conversation and literature, was more familiarly acquaintedwith the beauties of the Greek language, he had attained a competentknowledge of the Latin tongue. Since Julian was not originally designedfor the character of a legislator, or a judge, it is probable that thecivil jurisprudence of the Romans had not engaged any considerableshare of his attention: but he derived from his philosophic studies aninflexible regard for justice, tempered by a disposition to clemency;the knowledge of the general principles of equity and evidence, andthe faculty of patiently investigating the most intricate and tediousquestions which could be proposed for his discussion. The measures ofpolicy, and the operations of war, must submit to the various accidentsof circ*mstance and character, and the unpractised student will oftenbe perplexed in the application of the most perfect theory. But in theacquisition of this important science, Julian was assisted by the activevigor of his own genius, as well as by the wisdom and experience ofSallust, and officer of rank, who soon conceived a sincere attachmentfor a prince so worthy of his friendship; and whose incorruptibleintegrity was adorned by the talent of insinuating the harshest truthswithout wounding the delicacy of a royal ear.

Immediately after Julian had received the purple at Milan, he was sentinto Gaul with a feeble retinue of three hundred and sixty soldiers.At Vienna, where he passed a painful and anxious winter in the hands ofthose ministers to whom Constantius had intrusted the direction of hisconduct, the CÊsar was informed of the siege and deliverance of Autun.That large and ancient city, protected only by a ruined wall andpusillanimous garrison, was saved by the generous resolution of a fewveterans, who resumed their arms for the defence of their country. Inhis march from Autun, through the heart of the Gallic provinces, Julianembraced with ardor the earliest opportunity of signalizing his courage.At the head of a small body of archers and heavy cavalry, he preferredthe shorter but the more dangerous of two roads; * and sometimeseluding, and sometimes resisting, the attacks of the Barbarians, whowere masters of the field, he arrived with honor and safety at the campnear Rheims, where the Roman troops had been ordered to assemble.The aspect of their young prince revived the drooping spirits of thesoldiers, and they marched from Rheims in search of the enemy, witha confidence which had almost proved fatal to them. The Alemanni,familiarized to the knowledge of the country, secretly collected theirscattered forces, and seizing the opportunity of a dark and rainy day,poured with unexpected fury on the rear-guard of the Romans. Before theinevitable disorder could be remedied, two legions were destroyed; andJulian was taught by experience that caution and vigilance are the mostimportant lessons of the art of war. In a second and more successfulaction, * he recovered and established his military fame; but as theagility of the Barbarians saved them from the pursuit, his victory wasneither bloody nor decisive. He advanced, however, to the banks ofthe Rhine, surveyed the ruins of Cologne, convinced himself of thedifficulties of the war, and retreated on the approach of winter,discontented with the court, with his army, and with his own success.The power of the enemy was yet unbroken; and the CÊsar had no soonerseparated his troops, and fixed his own quarters at Sens, in the centreof Gaul, than he was surrounded and besieged, by a numerous host ofGermans. Reduced, in this extremity, to the resources of his own mind,he displayed a prudent intrepidity, which compensated for all thedeficiencies of the place and garrison; and the Barbarians, at the endof thirty days, were obliged to retire with disappointed rage.

The conscious pride of Julian, who was indebted only to his sword forthis signal deliverance, was imbittered by the reflection, that he wasabandoned, betrayed, and perhaps devoted to destruction, by those whowere bound to assist him, by every tie of honor and fidelity. Marcellus,master-general of the cavalry in Gaul, interpreting too strictlythe jealous orders of the court, beheld with supine indifference thedistress of Julian, and had restrained the troops under his command frommarching to the relief of Sens. If the CÊsar had dissembled in silenceso dangerous an insult, his person and authority would have been exposedto the contempt of the world; and if an action so criminal had beensuffered to pass with impunity, the emperor would have confirmed thesuspicions, which received a very specious color from his past conducttowards the princes of the Flavian family. Marcellus was recalled, andgently dismissed from his office. In his room Severus was appointedgeneral of the cavalry; an experienced soldier, of approved courage andfidelity, who could advise with respect, and execute with zeal; and whosubmitted, without reluctance to the supreme command which Julian,by the interest of his patroness Eusebia, at length obtained over thearmies of Gaul. A very judicious plan of operations was adopted for theapproaching campaign. Julian himself, at the head of the remains of theveteran bands, and of some new levies which he had been permitted toform, boldly penetrated into the centre of the German cantonments,and carefully reestablished the fortifications of Saverne, in anadvantageous post, which would either check the incursions, or interceptthe retreat, of the enemy. At the same time, Barbatio, general of theinfantry, advanced from Milan with an army of thirty thousand men, andpassing the mountains, prepared to throw a bridge over the Rhine, in theneighborhood of Basil. It was reasonable to expect that the Alemanni,pressed on either side by the Roman arms, would soon be forced toevacuate the provinces of Gaul, and to hasten to the defence of theirnative country. But the hopes of the campaign were defeated by theincapacity, or the envy, or the secret instructions, of Barbatio; whoacted as if he had been the enemy of the CÊsar, and the secret allyof the Barbarians. The negligence with which he permitted a troop ofpillagers freely to pass, and to return almost before the gates of hiscamp, may be imputed to his want of abilities; but the treasonable actof burning a number of boats, and a superfluous stock of provisions,which would have been of the most essential service to the army of Gaul,was an evidence of his hostile and criminal intentions. The Germansdespised an enemy who appeared destitute either of power or ofinclination to offend them; and the ignominious retreat of Barbatiodeprived Julian of the expected support; and left him to extricatehimself from a hazardous situation, where he could neither remain withsafety, nor retire with honor.

As soon as they were delivered from the fears of invasion, the Alemanniprepared to chastise the Roman youth, who presumed to dispute thepossession of that country, which they claimed as their own by theright of conquest and of treaties. They employed three days, and as manynights, in transporting over the Rhine their military powers. The fierceChnodomar, shaking the ponderous javelin which he had victoriouslywielded against the brother of Magnentius, led the van of theBarbarians, and moderated by his experience the martial ardor which hisexample inspired. He was followed by six other kings, by ten princesof regal extraction, by a long train of high-spirited nobles, and bythirty-five thousand of the bravest warriors of the tribes of Germany.The confidence derived from the view of their own strength, wasincreased by the intelligence which they received from a deserter, thatthe CÊsar, with a feeble army of thirteen thousand men, occupied a postabout one-and-twenty miles from their camp of Strasburgh. With thisinadequate force, Julian resolved to seek and to encounter the Barbarianhost; and the chance of a general action was preferred to the tediousand uncertain operation of separately engaging the dispersed parties ofthe Alemanni. The Romans marched in close order, and in two columns; thecavalry on the right, the infantry on the left; and the day was so farspent when they appeared in sight of the enemy, that Julian was desirousof deferring the battle till the next morning, and of allowing histroops to recruit their exhausted strength by the necessary refreshmentsof sleep and food. Yielding, however, with some reluctance, to theclamors of the soldiers, and even to the opinion of his council, heexhorted them to justify by their valor the eager impatience, which,in case of a defeat, would be universally branded with the epithets ofrashness and presumption. The trumpets sounded, the military shout washeard through the field, and the two armies rushed with equal fury tothe charge. The CÊsar, who conducted in person his right wing, dependedon the dexterity of his archers, and the weight of his cuirassiers. Buthis ranks were instantly broken by an irregular mixture of light horseand of light infantry, and he had the mortification of beholding theflight of six hundred of his most renowned cuirassiers. The fugitiveswere stopped and rallied by the presence and authority of Julian, who,careless of his own safety, threw himself before them, and urging everymotive of shame and honor, led them back against the victorious enemy.The conflict between the two lines of infantry was obstinate and bloody.The Germans possessed the superiority of strength and stature, theRomans that of discipline and temper; and as the Barbarians, who servedunder the standard of the empire, united the respective advantages ofboth parties, their strenuous efforts, guided by a skilful leader, atlength determined the event of the day. The Romans lost four tribunes,and two hundred and forty-three soldiers, in this memorable battle ofStrasburgh, so glorious to the CÊsar, and so salutary to the afflictedprovinces of Gaul. Six thousand of the Alemanni were slain in the field,without including those who were drowned in the Rhine, or transfixedwith darts while they attempted to swim across the river. Chnodomarhimself was surrounded and taken prisoner, with three of his bravecompanions, who had devoted themselves to follow in life or death thefate of their chieftain. Julian received him with military pomp in thecouncil of his officers; and expressing a generous pity for the fallenstate, dissembled his inward contempt for the abject humiliation, of hiscaptive. Instead of exhibiting the vanquished king of the Alemanni, asa grateful spectacle to the cities of Gaul, he respectfully laid atthe feet of the emperor this splendid trophy of his victory. Chnodomarexperienced an honorable treatment: but the impatient Barbarian couldnot long survive his defeat, his confinement, and his exile.

After Julian had repulsed the Alemanni from the provinces of the UpperRhine, he turned his arms against the Franks, who were seated nearerto the ocean, on the confines of Gaul and Germany; and who, fromtheir numbers, and still more from their intrepid valor, had ever beenesteemed the most formidable of the Barbarians. Although they werestrongly actuated by the allurements of rapine, they professed adisinterested love of war; which they considered as the supreme honorand felicity of human nature; and their minds and bodies were socompletely hardened by perpetual action, that, according to the livelyexpression of an orator, the snows of winter were as pleasant to themas the flowers of spring. In the month of December, which followed thebattle of Strasburgh, Julian attacked a body of six hundred Franks, whohad thrown themselves into two castles on the Meuse. In the midst ofthat severe season they sustained, with inflexible constancy, a siege offifty-four days; till at length, exhausted by hunger, and satisfied thatthe vigilance of the enemy, in breaking the ice of the river, leftthem no hopes of escape, the Franks consented, for the first time, todispense with the ancient law which commanded them to conquer or to die.The CÊsar immediately sent his captives to the court of Constantius,who, accepting them as a valuable present, rejoiced in the opportunityof adding so many heroes to the choicest troops of his domestic guards.The obstinate resistance of this handful of Franks apprised Julian ofthe difficulties of the expedition which he meditated for the ensuingspring, against the whole body of the nation. His rapid diligencesurprised and astonished the active Barbarians. Ordering his soldiers toprovide themselves with biscuit for twenty days, he suddenly pitchedhis camp near Tongres, while the enemy still supposed him in his winterquarters of Paris, expecting the slow arrival of his convoys fromAquitain. Without allowing the Franks to unite or deliberate, heskilfully spread his legions from Cologne to the ocean; and by theterror, as well as by the success, of his arms, soon reduced thesuppliant tribes to implore the clemency, and to obey the commands, oftheir conqueror. The Chamavians submissively retired to their formerhabitations beyond the Rhine; but the Salians were permitted to possesstheir new establishment of Toxandria, as the subjects and auxiliaries ofthe Roman empire. The treaty was ratified by solemn oaths; and perpetualinspectors were appointed to reside among the Franks, with the authorityof enforcing the strict observance of the conditions. An incident isrelated, interesting enough in itself, and by no means repugnant to thecharacter of Julian, who ingeniously contrived both the plot and thecatastrophe of the tragedy. When the Chamavians sued for peace, herequired the son of their king, as the only hostage on whom he couldrely. A mournful silence, interrupted by tears and groans, declaredthe sad perplexity of the Barbarians; and their aged chief lamented inpathetic language, that his private loss was now imbittered by a senseof public calamity. While the Chamavians lay prostrate at the foot ofhis throne, the royal captive, whom they believed to have been slain,unexpectedly appeared before their eyes; and as soon as the tumult ofjoy was hushed into attention, the CÊsar addressed the assembly in thefollowing terms: "Behold the son, the prince, whom you wept. You hadlost him by your fault. God and the Romans have restored him to you. Ishall still preserve and educate the youth, rather as a monument of myown virtue, than as a pledge of your sincerity. Should you presume toviolate the faith which you have sworn, the arms of the republicwill avenge the perfidy, not on the innocent, but on the guilty."The Barbarians withdrew from his presence, impressed with the warmestsentiments of gratitude and admiration.

It was not enough for Julian to have delivered the provinces of Gaulfrom the Barbarians of Germany. He aspired to emulate the glory of thefirst and most illustrious of the emperors; after whose example, hecomposed his own commentaries of the Gallic war. CÊsar has related, withconscious pride, the manner in which he twice passed the Rhine. Juliancould boast, that before he assumed the title of Augustus, he hadcarried the Roman eagles beyond that great river in three successfulexpeditions. The consternation of the Germans, after the battle ofStrasburgh, encouraged him to the first attempt; and the reluctance ofthe troops soon yielded to the persuasive eloquence of a leader, whoshared the fatigues and dangers which he imposed on the meanest ofthe soldiers. The villages on either side of the Meyn, which wereplentifully stored with corn and cattle, felt the ravages of an invadingarmy. The principal houses, constructed with some imitation of Romanelegance, were consumed by the flames; and the CÊsar boldly advancedabout ten miles, till his progress was stopped by a dark andimpenetrable forest, undermined by subterraneous passages, whichthreatened with secret snares and ambush every step of the assailants.The ground was already covered with snow; and Julian, after repairing anancient castle which had been erected by Trajan, granted a truce of tenmonths to the submissive Barbarians. At the expiration of the truce,Julian undertook a second expedition beyond the Rhine, to humble thepride of Surmar and Hortaire, two of the kings of the Alemanni, who hadbeen present at the battle of Strasburgh. They promised to restore allthe Roman captives who yet remained alive; and as the CÊsar hadprocured an exact account from the cities and villages of Gaul, of theinhabitants whom they had lost, he detected every attempt to deceivehim, with a degree of readiness and accuracy, which almost establishedthe belief of his supernatural knowledge. His third expedition wasstill more splendid and important than the two former. The Germans hadcollected their military powers, and moved along the opposite banks ofthe river, with a design of destroying the bridge, and of preventingthe passage of the Romans. But this judicious plan of defence wasdisconcerted by a skilful diversion. Three hundred light-armed andactive soldiers were detached in forty small boats, to fall down thestream in silence, and to land at some distance from the posts of theenemy. They executed their orders with so much boldness and celerity,that they had almost surprised the Barbarian chiefs, who returned inthe fearless confidence of intoxication from one of their nocturnalfestivals. Without repeating the uniform and disgusting tale ofslaughter and devastation, it is sufficient to observe, that Juliandictated his own conditions of peace to six of the haughtiest kings ofthe Alemanni, three of whom were permitted to view the severe disciplineand martial pomp of a Roman camp. Followed by twenty thousand captives,whom he had rescued from the chains of the Barbarians, the CÊsarrepassed the Rhine, after terminating a war, the success of which hasbeen compared to the ancient glories of the Punic and Cimbric victories.

As soon as the valor and conduct of Julian had secured an interval ofpeace, he applied himself to a work more congenial to his humane andphilosophic temper. The cities of Gaul, which had suffered from theinroads of the Barbarians, he diligently repaired; and seven importantposts, between Mentz and the mouth of the Rhine, are particularlymentioned, as having been rebuilt and fortified by the order of Julian.The vanquished Germans had submitted to the just but humiliatingcondition of preparing and conveying the necessary materials. The activezeal of Julian urged the prosecution of the work; and such was thespirit which he had diffused among the troops, that the auxiliariesthemselves, waiving their exemption from any duties of fatigue,contended in the most servile labors with the diligence of the Romansoldiers. It was incumbent on the CÊsar to provide for the subsistence,as well as for the safety, of the inhabitants and of the garrisons. Thedesertion of the former, and the mutiny of the latter, must have beenthe fatal and inevitable consequences of famine. The tillage of theprovinces of Gaul had been interrupted by the calamities of war; but thescanty harvests of the continent were supplied, by his paternal care,from the plenty of the adjacent island. Six hundred large barks, framedin the forest of the Ardennes, made several voyages to the coast ofBritain; and returning from thence, laden with corn, sailed up theRhine, and distributed their cargoes to the several towns and fortressesalong the banks of the river. The arms of Julian had restored a freeand secure navigation, which Constantius had offered to purchase atthe expense of his dignity, and of a tributary present of two thousandpounds of silver. The emperor parsimoniously refused to his soldiersthe sums which he granted with a lavish and trembling hand to theBarbarians. The dexterity, as well as the firmness, of Julian was put toa severe trial, when he took the field with a discontented army, whichhad already served two campaigns, without receiving any regular pay orany extraordinary donative.

A tender regard for the peace and happiness of his subjects was theruling principle which directed, or seemed to direct, the administrationof Julian. He devoted the leisure of his winter quarters to the officesof civil government; and affected to assume, with more pleasure, thecharacter of a magistrate than that of a general. Before he took thefield, he devolved on the provincial governors most of the public andprivate causes which had been referred to his tribunal; but, on hisreturn, he carefully revised their proceedings, mitigated the rigorof the law, and pronounced a second judgment on the judges themselves.Superior to the last temptation of virtuous minds, an indiscreet andintemperate zeal for justice, he restrained, with calmness and dignity,the warmth of an advocate, who prosecuted, for extortion, the presidentof the Narbonnese province. "Who will ever be found guilty," exclaimedthe vehement Delphidius, "if it be enough to deny?" "And who," repliedJulian, "will ever be innocent, if it be sufficient to affirm?" In thegeneral administration of peace and war, the interest of the sovereignis commonly the same as that of his people; but Constantius would havethought himself deeply injured, if the virtues of Julian had defraudedhim of any part of the tribute which he extorted from an oppressedand exhausted country. The prince who was invested with the ensigns ofroyalty, might sometimes presume to correct the rapacious insolence ofhis inferior agents, to expose their corrupt arts, and to introduce anequal and easier mode of collection. But the management of the financeswas more safely intrusted to Florentius, prÊtorian prÊfect of Gaul,an effeminate tyrant, incapable of pity or remorse: and the haughtyminister complained of the most decent and gentle opposition, whileJulian himself was rather inclined to censure the weakness of his ownbehavior. The CÊsar had rejected, with abhorrence, a mandate for thelevy of an extraordinary tax; a new superindiction, which the prÊfecthad offered for his signature; and the faithful picture of the publicmisery, by which he had been obliged to justify his refusal, offendedthe court of Constantius. We may enjoy the pleasure of reading thesentiments of Julian, as he expresses them with warmth and freedom ina letter to one of his most intimate friends. After stating his ownconduct, he proceeds in the following terms: "Was it possible for thedisciple of Plato and Aristotle to act otherwise than I have done? CouldI abandon the unhappy subjects intrusted to my care? Was I not calledupon to defend them from the repeated injuries of these unfeelingrobbers? A tribune who deserts his post is punished with death, anddeprived of the honors of burial. With what justice could I pronouncehis sentence, if, in the hour of danger, I myself neglected a duty farmore sacred and far more important? God has placed me in this elevatedpost; his providence will guard and support me. Should I be condemned tosuffer, I shall derive comfort from the testimony of a pure and uprightconscience. Would to Heaven that I still possessed a counsellor likeSallust! If they think proper to send me a successor, I shall submitwithout reluctance; and had much rather improve the short opportunityof doing good, than enjoy a long and lasting impunity of evil." Theprecarious and dependent situation of Julian displayed his virtues andconcealed his defects. The young hero who supported, in Gaul, the throneof Constantius, was not permitted to reform the vices of the government;but he had courage to alleviate or to pity the distress of the people.Unless he had been able to revive the martial spirit of the Romans,or to introduce the arts of industry and refinement among their savageenemies, he could not entertain any rational hopes of securing thepublic tranquillity, either by the peace or conquest of Germany. Yetthe victories of Julian suspended, for a short time, the inroads of theBarbarians, and delayed the ruin of the Western Empire.

His salutary influence restored the cities of Gaul, which had been solong exposed to the evils of civil discord, Barbarian war, and domestictyranny; and the spirit of industry was revived with the hopes ofenjoyment. Agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, again flourishedunder the protection of the laws; and the curi, or civil corporations,were again filled with useful and respectable members: the youth wereno longer apprehensive of marriage; and married persons were no longerapprehensive of posterity: the public and private festivals werecelebrated with customary pomp; and the frequent and secure intercourseof the provinces displayed the image of national prosperity. A mind likethat of Julian must have felt the general happiness of which he was theauthor; but he viewed, with particular satisfaction and complacency, thecity of Paris; the seat of his winter residence, and the object evenof his partial affection. That splendid capital, which now embraces anample territory on either side of the Seine, was originally confined tothe small island in the midst of the river, from whence the inhabitantsderived a supply of pure and salubrious water. The river bathed the footof the walls; and the town was accessible only by two wooden bridges. Aforest overspread the northern side of the Seine, but on the south,the ground, which now bears the name of the University, was insensiblycovered with houses, and adorned with a palace and amphitheatre, baths,an aqueduct, and a field of Mars for the exercise of the Roman troops.The severity of the climate was tempered by the neighborhood of theocean; and with some precautions, which experience had taught, the vineand fig-tree were successfully cultivated. But in remarkable winters,the Seine was deeply frozen; and the huge pieces of ice that floateddown the stream, might be compared, by an Asiatic, to the blocks ofwhite marble which were extracted from the quarries of Phrygia. Thelicentiousness and corruption of Antioch recalled to the memory ofJulian the severe and simple manners of his beloved Lutetia; wherethe amusem*nts of the theatre were unknown or despised. He indignantlycontrasted the effeminate Syrians with the brave and honest simplicityof the Gauls, and almost forgave the intemperance, which was the onlystain of the Celtic character. If Julian could now revisit the capitalof France, he might converse with men of science and genius, capableof understanding and of instructing a disciple of the Greeks; he mightexcuse the lively and graceful follies of a nation, whose martialspirit has never been enervated by the indulgence of luxury; and hemust applaud the perfection of that inestimable art, which softens andrefines and embellishes the intercourse of social life.

Chapter XX: Conversion Of Constantine.--Part I.

 The Motives, Progress, And Effects Of The Conversion Of Constantine.--Legal Establishment And Constitution Of The Christian Or Catholic Church.

The public establishment of Christianity may be considered as one ofthose important and domestic revolutions which excite the most livelycuriosity, and afford the most valuable instruction. The victories andthe civil policy of Constantine no longer influence the state of Europe;but a considerable portion of the globe still retains the impressionwhich it received from the conversion of that monarch; and theecclesiastical institutions of his reign are still connected, by anindissoluble chain, with the opinions, the passions, and the interestsof the present generation.

In the consideration of a subject which may be examined withimpartiality, but cannot be viewed with indifference, a difficultyimmediately arises of a very unexpected nature; that of ascertainingthe real and precise date of the conversion of Constantine. The eloquentLactantius, in the midst of his court, seems impatient to proclaim tothe world the glorious example of the sovereign of Gaul; who, in thefirst moments of his reign, acknowledged and adored the majesty ofthe true and only God. The learned Eusebius has ascribed the faith ofConstantine to the miraculous sign which was displayed in the heavenswhilst he meditated and prepared the Italian expedition. The historianZosimus maliciously asserts, that the emperor had imbrued his hands inthe blood of his eldest son, before he publicly renounced the gods ofRome and of his ancestors. The perplexity produced by these discordantauthorities is derived from the behavior of Constantine himself.According to the strictness of ecclesiastical language, the first ofthe Christian emperors was unworthy of that name, till the moment of hisdeath; since it was only during his last illness that he received, as acatechumen, the imposition of hands, and was afterwards admitted, bythe initiatory rites of baptism, into the number of the faithful. TheChristianity of Constantine must be allowed in a much more vague andqualified sense; and the nicest accuracy is required in tracing theslow and almost imperceptible gradations by which the monarch declaredhimself the protector, and at length the proselyte, of the church.It was an arduous task to eradicate the habits and prejudices of hiseducation, to acknowledge the divine power of Christ, and to understandthat the truth of his revelation was incompatible with the worship ofthe gods. The obstacles which he had probably experienced in his ownmind, instructed him to proceed with caution in the momentous change ofa national religion; and he insensibly discovered his new opinions, asfar as he could enforce them with safety and with effect. During thewhole course of his reign, the stream of Christianity flowed witha gentle, though accelerated, motion: but its general directionwas sometimes checked, and sometimes diverted, by the accidentalcirc*mstances of the times, and by the prudence, or possibly by thecaprice, of the monarch. His ministers were permitted to signify theintentions of their master in the various language which was bestadapted to their respective principles; and he artfully balanced thehopes and fears of his subjects, by publishing in the same year twoedicts; the first of which enjoined the solemn observance of Sunday,and the second directed the regular consultation of the Aruspices. Whilethis important revolution yet remained in suspense, the Christians andthe Pagans watched the conduct of their sovereign with the same anxiety,but with very opposite sentiments. The former were prompted by everymotive of zeal, as well as vanity, to exaggerate the marks of hisfavor, and the evidences of his faith. The latter, till their justapprehensions were changed into despair and resentment, attempted toconceal from the world, and from themselves, that the gods of Rome couldno longer reckon the emperor in the number of their votaries. The samepassions and prejudices have engaged the partial writers of the times toconnect the public profession of Christianity with the most glorious orthe most ignominious Êra of the reign of Constantine.

Whatever symptoms of Christian piety might transpire in the discoursesor actions of Constantine, he persevered till he was near forty yearsof age in the practice of the established religion; and the same conductwhich in the court of Nicomedia might be imputed to his fear, could beascribed only to the inclination or policy of the sovereign of Gaul.His liberality restored and enriched the temples of the gods; the medalswhich issued from his Imperial mint are impressed with the figures andattributes of Jupiter and Apollo, of Mars and Hercules; and his filialpiety increased the council of Olympus by the solemn apotheosis of hisfather Constantius. But the devotion of Constantine was more peculiarlydirected to the genius of the Sun, the Apollo of Greek and Romanmythology; and he was pleased to be represented with the symbols ofthe God of Light and Poetry. The unerring shafts of that deity, thebrightness of his eyes, his laurel wreath, immortal beauty, and elegantaccomplishments, seem to point him out as the patron of a younghero. The altars of Apollo were crowned with the votive offerings ofConstantine; and the credulous multitude were taught to believe, thatthe emperor was permitted to behold with mortal eyes the visible majestyof their tutelar deity; and that, either walking or in a vision, he wasblessed with the auspicious omens of a long and victorious reign. TheSun was universally celebrated as the invincible guide and protector ofConstantine; and the Pagans might reasonably expect that the insultedgod would pursue with unrelenting vengeance the impiety of hisungrateful favorite.

As long as Constantine exercised a limited sovereignty over theprovinces of Gaul, his Christian subjects were protected by theauthority, and perhaps by the laws, of a prince, who wisely left tothe gods the care of vindicating their own honor. If we may credit theassertion of Constantine himself, he had been an indignant spectatorof the savage cruelties which were inflicted, by the hands of Romansoldiers, on those citizens whose religion was their only crime. In theEast and in the West, he had seen the different effects of severityand indulgence; and as the former was rendered still more odious by theexample of Galerius, his implacable enemy, the latter was recommended tohis imitation by the authority and advice of a dying father. The son ofConstantius immediately suspended or repealed the edicts of persecution,and granted the free exercise of their religious ceremonies to all thosewho had already professed themselves members of the church. They weresoon encouraged to depend on the favor as well as on the justice oftheir sovereign, who had imbibed a secret and sincere reverence for thename of Christ, and for the God of the Christians.

About five months after the conquest of Italy, the emperor made a solemnand authentic declaration of his sentiments by the celebrated edictof Milan, which restored peace to the Catholic church. In the personalinterview of the two western princes, Constantine, by the ascendantof genius and power, obtained the ready concurrence of his colleague,Licinius; the union of their names and authority disarmed the fury ofMaximin; and after the death of the tyrant of the East, the edict ofMilan was received as a general and fundamental law of the Roman world.

The wisdom of the emperors provided for the restitution of all thecivil and religious rights of which the Christians had been so unjustlydeprived. It was enacted that the places of worship, and public lands,which had been confiscated, should be restored to the church, withoutdispute, without delay, and without expense; and this severe injunctionwas accompanied with a gracious promise, that if any of the purchasershad paid a fair and adequate price, they should be indemnified fromthe Imperial treasury. The salutary regulations which guard the futuretranquillity of the faithful are framed on the principles of enlargedand equal toleration; and such an equality must have been interpretedby a recent sect as an advantageous and honorable distinction. Thetwo emperors proclaim to the world, that they have granted a free andabsolute power to the Christians, and to all others, of following thereligion which each individual thinks proper to prefer, to which he hasaddicted his mind, and which he may deem the best adapted to hisown use. They carefully explain every ambiguous word, remove everyexception, and exact from the governors of the provinces a strictobedience to the true and simple meaning of an edict, which was designedto establish and secure, without any limitation, the claims of religiousliberty. They condescend to assign two weighty reasons which haveinduced them to allow this universal toleration: the humane intention ofconsulting the peace and happiness of their people; and the pious hope,that, by such a conduct, they shall appease and propitiate the Deity,whose seat is in heaven. They gratefully acknowledge the many signalproofs which they have received of the divine favor; and they trust thatthe same Providence will forever continue to protect the prosperity ofthe prince and people. From these vague and indefinite expressions ofpiety, three suppositions may be deduced, of a different, but not of anincompatible nature. The mind of Constantine might fluctuate between thePagan and the Christian religions. According to the loose and complyingnotions of Polytheism, he might acknowledge the God of the Christians asone of the many deities who compose the hierarchy of heaven. Orperhaps he might embrace the philosophic and pleasing idea, that,notwithstanding the variety of names, of rites, and of opinions, all thesects, and all the nations of mankind, are united in the worship of thecommon Father and Creator of the universe.

But the counsels of princes are more frequently influenced by views oftemporal advantage, than by considerations of abstract and speculativetruth. The partial and increasing favor of Constantine may naturally bereferred to the esteem which he entertained for the moral character ofthe Christians; and to a persuasion, that the propagation of the gospelwould inculcate the practice of private and public virtue. Whateverlatitude an absolute monarch may assume in his own conduct, whateverindulgence he may claim for his own passions, it is undoubtedly hisinterest that all his subjects should respect the natural and civilobligations of society. But the operation of the wisest laws isimperfect and precarious. They seldom inspire virtue, they cannot alwaysrestrain vice. Their power is insufficient to prohibit all that theycondemn, nor can they always punish the actions which they prohibit.The legislators of antiquity had summoned to their aid the powers ofeducation and of opinion. But every principle which had once maintainedthe vigor and purity of Rome and Sparta, was long since extinguishedin a declining and despotic empire. Philosophy still exercised hertemperate sway over the human mind, but the cause of virtue derived veryfeeble support from the influence of the Pagan superstition. Under thesediscouraging circ*mstances, a prudent magistrate might observe withpleasure the progress of a religion which diffused among the people apure, benevolent, and universal system of ethics, adapted to every dutyand every condition of life; recommended as the will and reason ofthe supreme Deity, and enforced by the sanction of eternal rewards orpunishments. The experience of Greek and Roman history could not informthe world how far the system of national manners might be reformed andimproved by the precepts of a divine revelation; and Constantine mightlisten with some confidence to the flattering, and indeed reasonable,assurances of Lactantius. The eloquent apologist seemed firmly toexpect, and almost ventured to promise, that the establishment ofChristianity would restore the innocence and felicity of the primitiveage; that the worship of the true God would extinguish war anddissension among those who mutually considered themselves as thechildren of a common parent; that every impure desire, every angry orselfish passion, would be restrained by the knowledge of the gospel; andthat the magistrates might sheath the sword of justice among a peoplewho would be universally actuated by the sentiments of truth and piety,of equity and moderation, of harmony and universal love.

The passive and unresisting obedience, which bows under the yoke ofauthority, or even of oppression, must have appeared, in the eyes ofan absolute monarch, the most conspicuous and useful of the evangelicvirtues. The primitive Christians derived the institution of civilgovernment, not from the consent of the people, but from the decreesof Heaven. The reigning emperor, though he had usurped the sceptreby treason and murder, immediately assumed the sacred character ofvicegerent of the Deity. To the Deity alone he was accountable for theabuse of his power; and his subjects were indissolubly bound, by theiroath of fidelity, to a tyrant, who had violated every law of nature andsociety. The humble Christians were sent into the world as sheep amongwolves; and since they were not permitted to employ force even in thedefence of their religion, they should be still more criminal if theywere tempted to shed the blood of their fellow-creatures in disputingthe vain privileges, or the sordid possessions, of this transitory life.Faithful to the doctrine of the apostle, who in the reign of Nero hadpreached the duty of unconditional submission, the Christians of thethree first centuries preserved their conscience pure and innocentof the guilt of secret conspiracy, or open rebellion. While theyexperienced the rigor of persecution, they were never provoked either tomeet their tyrants in the field, or indignantly to withdraw themselvesinto some remote and sequestered corner of the globe. The Protestantsof France, of Germany, and of Britain, who asserted with such intrepidcourage their civil and religious freedom, have been insulted by theinvidious comparison between the conduct of the primitive and of thereformed Christians. Perhaps, instead of censure, some applause may bedue to the superior sense and spirit of our ancestors, who had convincedthemselves that religion cannot abolish the unalienable rights of humannature. Perhaps the patience of the primitive church may be ascribed toits weakness, as well as to its virtue. A sect of unwarlike plebeians,without leaders, without arms, without fortifications, must haveencountered inevitable destruction in a rash and fruitless resistanceto the master of the Roman legions. But the Christians, when theydeprecated the wrath of Diocletian, or solicited the favor ofConstantine, could allege, with truth and confidence, that they heldthe principle of passive obedience, and that, in the space ofthree centuries, their conduct had always been conformable to theirprinciples. They might add, that the throne of the emperors would beestablished on a fixed and permanent basis, if all their subjects,embracing the Christian doctrine, should learn to suffer and to obey.

In the general order of Providence, princes and tyrants are consideredas the ministers of Heaven, appointed to rule or to chastise the nationsof the earth. But sacred history affords many illustrious examples ofthe more immediate interposition of the Deity in the government of hischosen people. The sceptre and the sword were committed to the hands ofMoses, of Joshua, of Gideon, of David, of the Maccabees; the virtuesof those heroes were the motive or the effect of the divine favor, thesuccess of their arms was destined to achieve the deliverance or thetriumph of the church. If the judges of IsrÊl were occasional andtemporary magistrates, the kings of Judah derived from the royal unctionof their great ancestor an hereditary and indefeasible right, whichcould not be forfeited by their own vices, nor recalled by the capriceof their subjects. The same extraordinary providence, which was nolonger confined to the Jewish people, might elect Constantine andhis family as the protectors of the Christian world; and the devoutLactantius announces, in a prophetic tone, the future glories of hislong and universal reign. Galerius and Maximin, Maxentius and Licinius,were the rivals who shared with the favorite of heaven the provinces ofthe empire. The tragic deaths of Galerius and Maximin soon gratified theresentment, and fulfilled the sanguine expectations, of the Christians.The success of Constantine against Maxentius and Licinius removed thetwo formidable competitors who still opposed the triumph of the secondDavid, and his cause might seem to claim the peculiar interposition ofProvidence. The character of the Roman tyrant disgraced the purpleand human nature; and though the Christians might enjoy his precariousfavor, they were exposed, with the rest of his subjects, to the effectsof his wanton and capricious cruelty. The conduct of Licinius soonbetrayed the reluctance with which he had consented to the wise andhumane regulations of the edict of Milan. The convocation of provincialsynods was prohibited in his dominions; his Christian officers wereignominiously dismissed; and if he avoided the guilt, or rather danger,of a general persecution, his partial oppressions were rendered stillmore odious by the violation of a solemn and voluntary engagement. Whilethe East, according to the lively expression of Eusebius, was involvedin the shades of infernal darkness, the auspicious rays of celestiallight warmed and illuminated the provinces of the West. The piety ofConstantine was admitted as an unexceptionable proof of the justiceof his arms; and his use of victory confirmed the opinion of theChristians, that their hero was inspired, and conducted, by the Lord ofHosts. The conquest of Italy produced a general edict of toleration; andas soon as the defeat of Licinius had invested Constantine with thesole dominion of the Roman world, he immediately, by circular letters,exhorted all his subjects to imitate, without delay, the example oftheir sovereign, and to embrace the divine truth of Christianity.

Chapter XX: Conversion Of Constantine.--Part II.

The assurance that the elevation of Constantine was intimately connectedwith the designs of Providence, instilled into the minds of theChristians two opinions, which, by very different means, assisted theaccomplishment of the prophecy. Their warm and active loyalty exhaustedin his favor every resource of human industry; and they confidentlyexpected that their strenuous efforts would be seconded by somedivine and miraculous aid. The enemies of Constantine have imputed tointerested motives the alliance which he insensibly contracted with theCatholic church, and which apparently contributed to the success of hisambition. In the beginning of the fourth century, the Christians stillbore a very inadequate proportion to the inhabitants of the empire; butamong a degenerate people, who viewed the change of masters with theindifference of slaves, the spirit and union of a religious partymight assist the popular leader, to whose service, from a principle ofconscience, they had devoted their lives and fortunes. The example ofhis father had instructed Constantine to esteem and to reward the meritof the Christians; and in the distribution of public offices, he had theadvantage of strengthening his government, by the choice of ministersor generals, in whose fidelity he could repose a just and unreservedconfidence. By the influence of these dignified missionaries, theproselytes of the new faith must have multiplied in the court and army;the Barbarians of Germany, who filled the ranks of the legions, were ofa careless temper, which acquiesced without resistance in the religionof their commander; and when they passed the Alps, it may fairly bepresumed, that a great number of the soldiers had already consecratedtheir swords to the service of Christ and of Constantine. The habits ofmankind and the interests of religion gradually abated the horror of warand bloodshed, which had so long prevailed among the Christians; andin the councils which were assembled under the gracious protection ofConstantine, the authority of the bishops was seasonably employed toratify the obligation of the military oath, and to inflict the penaltyof excommunication on those soldiers who threw away their arms duringthe peace of the church. While Constantine, in his own dominions,increased the number and zeal of his faithful adherents, he could dependon the support of a powerful faction in those provinces which were stillpossessed or usurped by his rivals. A secret disaffection was diffusedamong the Christian subjects of Maxentius and Licinius; and theresentment, which the latter did not attempt to conceal, served onlyto engage them still more deeply in the interest of his competitor. Theregular correspondence which connected the bishops of the most distantprovinces, enabled them freely to communicate their wishes and theirdesigns, and to transmit without danger any useful intelligence, or anypious contributions, which might promote the service of Constantine, whopublicly declared that he had taken up arms for the deliverance of thechurch.

The enthusiasm which inspired the troops, and perhaps the emperorhimself, had sharpened their swords while it satisfied their conscience.They marched to battle with the full assurance, that the same God, whohad formerly opened a passage to the IsrÊlites through the waters ofJordan, and had thrown down the walls of Jericho at the sound of thetrumpets of Joshua, would display his visible majesty and power inthe victory of Constantine. The evidence of ecclesiastical historyis prepared to affirm, that their expectations were justified by theconspicuous miracle to which the conversion of the first Christianemperor has been almost unanimously ascribed. The real or imaginarycause of so important an event, deserves and demands the attention ofposterity; and I shall endeavor to form a just estimate of the famousvision of Constantine, by a distinct consideration of the standard,the dream, and the celestial sign; by separating the historical, thenatural, and the marvellous parts of this extraordinary story, which, inthe composition of a specious argument, have been artfully confounded inone splendid and brittle mass.

I. An instrument of the tortures which were inflicted only on slaves andstrangers, became on object of horror in the eyes of a Roman citizen;and the ideas of guilt, of pain, and of ignominy, were closely unitedwith the idea of the cross. The piety, rather than the humanity, ofConstantine soon abolished in his dominions the punishment which theSavior of mankind had condescended to suffer; but the emperor hadalready learned to despise the prejudices of his education, and ofhis people, before he could erect in the midst of Rome his own statue,bearing a cross in its right hand; with an inscription which referredthe victory of his arms, and the deliverance of Rome, to the virtueof that salutary sign, the true symbol of force and courage. The samesymbol sanctified the arms of the soldiers of Constantine; the crossglittered on their helmet, was engraved on their shields, was interwoveninto their banners; and the consecrated emblems which adorned the personof the emperor himself, were distinguished only by richer materials andmore exquisite workmanship. But the principal standard which displayedthe triumph of the cross was styled the Labarum, an obscure, thoughcelebrated name, which has been vainly derived from almost all thelanguages of the world. It is described as a long pike intersected bya transversal beam. The silken veil, which hung down from the beam,was curiously inwrought with the images of the reigning monarch andhis children. The summit of the pike supported a crown of gold whichenclosed the mysterious monogram, at once expressive of the figure ofthe cross, and the initial letters, of the name of Christ. The safetyof the labarum was intrusted to fifty guards, of approved valor andfidelity; their station was marked by honors and emoluments; and somefortunate accidents soon introduced an opinion, that as long as theguards of the labarum were engaged in the execution of their office,they were secure and invulnerable amidst the darts of the enemy. Inthe second civil war, Licinius felt and dreaded the power of thisconsecrated banner, the sight of which, in the distress of battle,animated the soldiers of Constantine with an invincible enthusiasm, andscattered terror and dismay through the ranks of the adverse legions.The Christian emperors, who respected the example of Constantine,displayed in all their military expeditions the standard of the cross;but when the degenerate successors of Theodosius had ceased to appearin person at the head of their armies, the labarum was deposited as avenerable but useless relic in the palace of Constantinople. Its honorsare still preserved on the medals of the Flavian family. Their gratefuldevotion has placed the monogram of Christ in the midst of the ensignsof Rome. The solemn epithets of, safety of the republic, glory ofthe army, restoration of public happiness, are equally applied to thereligious and military trophies; and there is still extant a medalof the emperor Constantius, where the standard of the labarum isaccompanied with these memorable words, By This Sign Thou Shalt Conquer.

II. In all occasions of danger and distress, it was the practice of theprimitive Christians to fortify their minds and bodies by the sign ofthe cross, which they used, in all their ecclesiastical rites, in allthe daily occurrences of life, as an infallible preservative againstevery species of spiritual or temporal evil. The authority of thechurch might alone have had sufficient weight to justify the devotion ofConstantine, who in the same prudent and gradual progress acknowledgedthe truth, and assumed the symbol, of Christianity. But the testimony ofa contemporary writer, who in a formal treatise has avenged the cause ofreligion, bestows on the piety of the emperor a more awful and sublimecharacter. He affirms, with the most perfect confidence, that in thenight which preceded the last battle against Maxentius, Constantine wasadmonished in a dream * to inscribe the shields of his soldiers with thecelestial sign of God, the sacred monogram of the name of Christ; thathe executed the commands of Heaven, and that his valor and obediencewere rewarded by the decisive victory of the Milvian Bridge. Someconsiderations might perhaps incline a sceptical mind to suspect thejudgment or the veracity of the rhetorician, whose pen, either fromzeal or interest, was devoted to the cause of the prevailing faction.He appears to have published his deaths of the persecutors at Nicomediaabout three years after the Roman victory; but the interval of athousand miles, and a thousand days, will allow an ample latitude forthe invention of declaimers, the credulity of party, and the tacitapprobation of the emperor himself who might listen without indignationto a marvellous tale, which exalted his fame, and promoted his designs.In favor of Licinius, who still dissembled his animosity to theChristians, the same author has provided a similar vision, of a form ofprayer, which was communicated by an angel, and repeated by the wholearmy before they engaged the legions of the tyrant Maximin. The frequentrepetition of miracles serves to provoke, where it does not subdue,the reason of mankind; but if the dream of Constantine is separatelyconsidered, it may be naturally explained either by the policy or theenthusiasm of the emperor. Whilst his anxiety for the approaching day,which must decide the fate of the empire, was suspended by a short andinterrupted slumber, the venerable form of Christ, and the well-knownsymbol of his religion, might forcibly offer themselves to the activefancy of a prince who reverenced the name, and had perhaps secretlyimplored the power, of the God of the Christians. As readily might aconsummate statesman indulge himself in the use of one of those militarystratagems, one of those pious frauds, which Philip and Sertorius hademployed with such art and effect. The prÊternatural origin of dreamswas universally admitted by the nations of antiquity, and a considerablepart of the Gallic army was already prepared to place their confidencein the salutary sign of the Christian religion. The secret vision ofConstantine could be disproved only by the event; and the intrepidhero who had passed the Alps and the Apennine, might view with carelessdespair the consequences of a defeat under the walls of Rome. The senateand people, exulting in their own deliverance from an odious tyrant,acknowledged that the victory of Constantine surpassed the powersof man, without daring to insinuate that it had been obtained by theprotection of the Gods. The triumphal arch, which was erected aboutthree years after the event, proclaims, in ambiguous language, thatby the greatness of his own mind, and by an instinct or impulse of theDivinity, he had saved and avenged the Roman republic. The Pagan orator,who had seized an earlier opportunity of celebrating the virtues of theconqueror, supposes that he alone enjoyed a secret and intimate commercewith the Supreme Being, who delegated the care of mortals to hissubordinate deities; and thus assigns a very plausible reason why thesubjects of Constantine should not presume to embrace the new religionof their sovereign.

III. The philosopher, who with calm suspicion examines the dreams andomens, the miracles and prodigies, of profane or even of ecclesiasticalhistory, will probably conclude, that if the eyes of the spectators havesometimes been deceived by fraud, the understanding of the readershas much more frequently been insulted by fiction. Every event, orappearance, or accident, which seems to deviate from the ordinary courseof nature, has been rashly ascribed to the immediate action of theDeity; and the astonished fancy of the multitude has sometimes givenshape and color, language and motion, to the fleeting but uncommonmeteors of the air. Nazarius and Eusebius are the two most celebratedorators, who, in studied panegyrics, have labored to exalt the glory ofConstantine. Nine years after the Roman victory, Nazarius describes anarmy of divine warriors, who seemed to fall from the sky: he marks theirbeauty, their spirit, their gigantic forms, the stream of lightwhich beamed from their celestial armor, their patience in sufferingthemselves to be heard, as well as seen, by mortals; and theirdeclaration that they were sent, that they flew, to the assistance ofthe great Constantine. For the truth of this prodigy, the Pagan oratorappeals to the whole Gallic nation, in whose presence he was thenspeaking; and seems to hope that the ancient apparitions would nowobtain credit from this recent and public event. The Christian fable ofEusebius, which, in the space of twenty-six years, might arise from theoriginal dream, is cast in a much more correct and elegant mould. In oneof the marches of Constantine, he is reported to have seen with his owneyes the luminous trophy of the cross, placed above the meridian sun andinscribed with the following words: By This Conquer. This amazing objectin the sky astonished the whole army, as well as the emperor himself,who was yet undetermined in the choice of a religion: but hisastonishment was converted into faith by the vision of the ensuingnight. Christ appeared before his eyes; and displaying the samecelestial sign of the cross, he directed Constantine to frame a similarstandard, and to march, with an assurance of victory, against Maxentiusand all his enemies. The learned bishop of CÊsarea appears to besensible, that the recent discovery of this marvellous anecdote wouldexcite some surprise and distrust among the most pious of his readers.Yet, instead of ascertaining the precise circ*mstances of time andplace, which always serve to detect falsehood or establish truth;instead of collecting and recording the evidence of so many livingwitnesses who must have been spectators of this stupendous miracle;Eusebius contents himself with alleging a very singular testimony; thatof the deceased Constantine, who, many years after the event, in thefreedom of conversation, had related to him this extraordinary incidentof his own life, and had attested the truth of it by a solemn oath. Theprudence and gratitude of the learned prelate forbade him to suspect theveracity of his victorious master; but he plainly intimates, that in afact of such a nature, he should have refused his assent to any meanerauthority. This motive of credibility could not survive the power ofthe Flavian family; and the celestial sign, which the Infidels mightafterwards deride, was disregarded by the Christians of the age whichimmediately followed the conversion of Constantine. But the Catholicchurch, both of the East and of the West, has adopted a prodigy whichfavors, or seems to favor, the popular worship of the cross. Thevision of Constantine maintained an honorable place in the legend ofsuperstition, till the bold and sagacious spirit of criticism presumedto depreciate the triumph, and to arraign the truth, of the firstChristian emperor.

The Protestant and philosophic readers of the present age will inclineto believe, that in the account of his own conversion, Constantineattested a wilful falsehood by a solemn and deliberate perjury. They maynot hesitate to pronounce, that in the choice of a religion, his mindwas determined only by a sense of interest; and that (according to theexpression of a profane poet ) he used the altars of the church as aconvenient footstool to the throne of the empire. A conclusion so harshand so absolute is not, however, warranted by our knowledge of humannature, of Constantine, or of Christianity. In an age of religiousfervor, the most artful statesmen are observed to feel some part of theenthusiasm which they inspire, and the most orthodox saints assumethe dangerous privilege of defending the cause of truth by the arms ofdeceit and falsehood. Personal interest is often the standard of ourbelief, as well as of our practice; and the same motives of temporaladvantage which might influence the public conduct and professions ofConstantine, would insensibly dispose his mind to embrace a religionso propitious to his fame and fortunes. His vanity was gratified by theflattering assurance, that he had been chosen by Heaven to reign overthe earth; success had justified his divine title to the throne, andthat title was founded on the truth of the Christian revelation. As realvirtue is sometimes excited by undeserved applause, the specious pietyof Constantine, if at first it was only specious, might gradually,by the influence of praise, of habit, and of example, be matured intoserious faith and fervent devotion. The bishops and teachers of the newsect, whose dress and manners had not qualified them for the residenceof a court, were admitted to the Imperial table; they accompanied themonarch in his expeditions; and the ascendant which one of them, anEgyptian or a Spaniard, acquired over his mind, was imputed by thePagans to the effect of magic. Lactantius, who has adorned the preceptsof the gospel with the eloquence of Cicero, and Eusebius, who hasconsecrated the learning and philosophy of the Greeks to the serviceof religion, were both received into the friendship and familiarity oftheir sovereign; and those able masters of controversy could patientlywatch the soft and yielding moments of persuasion, and dexterouslyapply the arguments which were the best adapted to his character andunderstanding. Whatever advantages might be derived from the acquisitionof an Imperial proselyte, he was distinguished by the splendor of hispurple, rather than by the superiority of wisdom, or virtue, fromthe many thousands of his subjects who had embraced the doctrines ofChristianity. Nor can it be deemed incredible, that the mind of anunlettered soldier should have yielded to the weight of evidence, which,in a more enlightened age, has satisfied or subdued the reason of aGrotius, a Pascal, or a Locke. In the midst of the incessant laborsof his great office, this soldier employed, or affected to employ, thehours of the night in the diligent study of the Scriptures, and thecomposition of theological discourses; which he afterwards pronouncedin the presence of a numerous and applauding audience. In a very longdiscourse, which is still extant, the royal preacher expatiates onthe various proofs still extant, the royal preacher expatiates on thevarious proofs of religion; but he dwells with peculiar complacencyon the Sibylline verses, and the fourth eclogue of Virgil. Forty yearsbefore the birth of Christ, the Mantuan bard, as if inspired by thecelestial muse of Isaiah, had celebrated, with all the pomp of orientalmetaphor, the return of the Virgin, the fall of the serpent, theapproaching birth of a godlike child, the offspring of the greatJupiter, who should expiate the guilt of human kind, and governthe peaceful universe with the virtues of his father; the rise andappearance of a heavenly race, primitive nation throughout the world;and the gradual restoration of the innocence and felicity of the goldenage. The poet was perhaps unconscious of the secret sense and object ofthese sublime predictions, which have been so unworthily applied tothe infant son of a consul, or a triumvir; but if a more splendid, andindeed specious interpretation of the fourth eclogue contributed tothe conversion of the first Christian emperor, Virgil may deserve to beranked among the most successful missionaries of the gospel.

Chapter XX: Conversion Of Constantine.--Part III.

The awful mysteries of the Christian faith and worship were concealedfrom the eyes of strangers, and even of catechumens, with an affectedsecrecy, which served to excite their wonder and curiosity. But thesevere rules of discipline which the prudence of the bishops hadinstituted, were relaxed by the same prudence in favor of an Imperialproselyte, whom it was so important to allure, by every gentlecondescension, into the pale of the church; and Constantine waspermitted, at least by a tacit dispensation, to enjoy most of theprivileges, before he had contracted any of the obligations, of aChristian. Instead of retiring from the congregation, when the voice ofthe deacon dismissed the profane multitude, he prayed with the faithful,disputed with the bishops, preached on the most sublime and intricatesubjects of theology, celebrated with sacred rites the vigil of Easter,and publicly declared himself, not only a partaker, but, in somemeasure, a priest and hierophant of the Christian mysteries. Thepride of Constantine might assume, and his services had deserved, someextraordinary distinction: and ill-timed rigor might have blasted theunripened fruits of his conversion; and if the doors of the church hadbeen strictly closed against a prince who had deserted the altars ofthe gods, the master of the empire would have been left destitute ofany form of religious worship. In his last visit to Rome, he piouslydisclaimed and insulted the superstition of his ancestors, by refusingto lead the military procession of the equestrian order, and to offerthe public vows to the Jupiter of the Capitoline Hill. Many years beforehis baptism and death, Constantine had proclaimed to the world, thatneither his person nor his image should ever more be seen withinthe walls of an idolatrous temple; while he distributed through theprovinces a variety of medals and pictures, which represented theemperor in an humble and suppliant posture of Christian devotion.

The pride of Constantine, who refused the privileges of a catechumen,cannot easily be explained or excused; but the delay of his baptism maybe justified by the maxims and the practice of ecclesiastical antiquity.The sacrament of baptism was regularly administered by the bishophimself, with his assistant clergy, in the cathedral church of thediocese, during the fifty days between the solemn festivals of Easterand Pentecost; and this holy term admitted a numerous band of infantsand adult persons into the bosom of the church. The discretion ofparents often suspended the baptism of their children till they couldunderstand the obligations which they contracted: the severity ofancient bishops exacted from the new converts a novitiate of two orthree years; and the catechumens themselves, from different motives ofa temporal or a spiritual nature, were seldom impatient to assume thecharacter of perfect and initiated Christians. The sacrament of baptismwas supposed to contain a full and absolute expiation of sin; and thesoul was instantly restored to its original purity, and entitled tothe promise of eternal salvation. Among the proselytes of Christianity,there are many who judged it imprudent to precipitate a salutary rite,which could not be repeated; to throw away an inestimable privilege,which could never be recovered. By the delay of their baptism, theycould venture freely to indulge their passions in the enjoyments of thisworld, while they still retained in their own hands the means of a sureand easy absolution. The sublime theory of the gospel had made a muchfainter impression on the heart than on the understanding of Constantinehimself. He pursued the great object of his ambition through the darkand bloody paths of war and policy; and, after the victory, he abandonedhimself, without moderation, to the abuse of his fortune. Instead ofasserting his just superiority above the imperfect heroism and profanephilosophy of Trajan and the Antonines, the mature age of Constantineforfeited the reputation which he had acquired in his youth. As hegradually advanced in the knowledge of truth, he proportionally declinedin the practice of virtue; and the same year of his reign in which heconvened the council of Nice, was polluted by the execution, or rathermurder, of his eldest son. This date is alone sufficient to refute theignorant and malicious suggestions of Zosimus, who affirms, that,after the death of Crispus, the remorse of his father accepted from theministers of Christianity the expiation which he had vainly solicitedfrom the Pagan pontiffs. At the time of the death of Crispus, theemperor could no longer hesitate in the choice of a religion; he couldno longer be ignorant that the church was possessed of an infallibleremedy, though he chose to defer the application of it till the approachof death had removed the temptation and danger of a relapse. The bishopswhom he summoned, in his last illness, to the palace of Nicomedia, wereedified by the fervor with which he requested and received the sacramentof baptism, by the solemn protestation that the remainder of his lifeshould be worthy of a disciple of Christ, and by his humble refusal towear the Imperial purple after he had been clothed in the white garmentof a Neophyte. The example and reputation of Constantine seemed tocountenance the delay of baptism. Future tyrants were encouraged tobelieve, that the innocent blood which they might shed in a long reignwould instantly be washed away in the waters of regeneration; andthe abuse of religion dangerously undermined the foundations of moralvirtue.

The gratitude of the church has exalted the virtues and excused thefailings of a generous patron, who seated Christianity on the throneof the Roman world; and the Greeks, who celebrate the festival of theImperial saint, seldom mention the name of Constantine without addingthe title of equal to the Apostles. Such a comparison, if it alludeto the character of those divine missionaries, must be imputed to theextravagance of impious flattery. But if the parallel be confined tothe extent and number of their evangelic victories the success ofConstantine might perhaps equal that of the Apostles themselves. By theedicts of toleration, he removed the temporal disadvantages which hadhitherto retarded the progress of Christianity; and its active andnumerous ministers received a free permission, a liberal encouragement,to recommend the salutary truths of revelation by every argument whichcould affect the reason or piety of mankind. The exact balance of thetwo religions continued but a moment; and the piercing eye of ambitionand avarice soon discovered, that the profession of Christianity mightcontribute to the interest of the present, as well as of a futurelife. The hopes of wealth and honors, the example of an emperor, hisexhortations, his irresistible smiles, diffused conviction among thevenal and obsequious crowds which usually fill the apartments of apalace. The cities which signalized a forward zeal by the voluntarydestruction of their temples, were distinguished by municipalprivileges, and rewarded with popular donatives; and the new capital ofthe East gloried in the singular advantage that Constantinople was neverprofaned by the worship of idols. As the lower ranks of society aregoverned by imitation, the conversion of those who possessed anyeminence of birth, of power, or of riches, was soon followed bydependent multitudes. The salvation of the common people was purchasedat an easy rate, if it be true that, in one year, twelve thousand menwere baptized at Rome, besides a proportionable number of women andchildren, and that a white garment, with twenty pieces of gold, hadbeen promised by the emperor to every convert. The powerful influence ofConstantine was not circ*mscribed by the narrow limits of his life,or of his dominions. The education which he bestowed on his sons andnephews secured to the empire a race of princes, whose faith was stillmore lively and sincere, as they imbibed, in their earliest infancy, thespirit, or at least the doctrine, of Christianity. War and commercehad spread the knowledge of the gospel beyond the confines of theRoman provinces; and the Barbarians, who had disdained as humble andproscribed sect, soon learned to esteem a religion which had been solately embraced by the greatest monarch, and the most civilized nation,of the globe. The Goths and Germans, who enlisted under the standard ofRome, revered the cross which glittered at the head of the legions, andtheir fierce countrymen received at the same time the lessons of faithand of humanity. The kings of Iberia and Armenia * worshipped the god oftheir protector; and their subjects, who have invariably preserved thename of Christians, soon formed a sacred and perpetual connection withtheir Roman brethren. The Christians of Persia were suspected, in timeof war, of preferring their religion to their country; but as long aspeace subsisted between the two empires, the persecuting spirit of theMagi was effectually restrained by the interposition of Constantine. Therays of the gospel illuminated the coast of India. The colonies of Jews,who had penetrated into Arabia and Ethiopia, opposed the progress ofChristianity; but the labor of the missionaries was in some measurefacilitated by a previous knowledge of the Mosaic revelation; andAbyssinia still reveres the memory of Frumentius, * who, in the timeof Constantine, devoted his life to the conversion of those sequesteredregions. Under the reign of his son Constantius, Theophilus, who washimself of Indian extraction, was invested with the double characterof ambassador and bishop. He embarked on the Red Sea with two hundredhorses of the purest breed of Cappadocia, which were sent by the emperorto the prince of the SabÊans, or Homerites. Theophilus was intrustedwith many other useful or curious presents, which might raise theadmiration, and conciliate the friendship, of the Barbarians; and hesuccessfully employed several years in a pastoral visit to the churchesof the torrid zone.

The irresistible power of the Roman emperors was displayed in theimportant and dangerous change of the national religion. The terrorsof a military force silenced the faint and unsupported murmurs of thePagans, and there was reason to expect, that the cheerful submissionof the Christian clergy, as well as people, would be the resultof conscience and gratitude. It was long since established, as afundamental maxim of the Roman constitution, that every rank of citizenswas alike subject to the laws, and that the care of religion was theright as well as duty of the civil magistrate. Constantine and hissuccessors could not easily persuade themselves that they had forfeited,by their conversion, any branch of the Imperial prerogatives, orthat they were incapable of giving laws to a religion which they hadprotected and embraced. The emperors still continued to exercise asupreme jurisdiction over the ecclesiastical order, and the sixteenthbook of the Theodosian code represents, under a variety of titles, theauthority which they assumed in the government of the Catholic church.

But the distinction of the spiritual and temporal powers, which hadnever been imposed on the free spirit of Greece and Rome, was introducedand confirmed by the legal establishment of Christianity. The office ofsupreme pontiff, which, from the time of Numa to that of Augustus, hadalways been exercised by one of the most eminent of the senators, wasat length united to the Imperial dignity. The first magistrate of thestate, as often as he was prompted by superstition or policy, performedwith his own hands the sacerdotal functions; nor was there any order ofpriests, either at Rome or in the provinces, who claimed a more sacredcharacter among men, or a more intimate communication with the gods. Butin the Christian church, which intrusts the service of the altar toa perpetual succession of consecrated ministers, the monarch, whosespiritual rank is less honorable than that of the meanest deacon, wasseated below the rails of the sanctuary, and confounded with the restof the faithful multitude. The emperor might be saluted as the fatherof his people, but he owed a filial duty and reverence to the fathers ofthe church; and the same marks of respect, which Constantine had paid tothe persons of saints and confessors, were soon exacted by the prideof the episcopal order. A secret conflict between the civil andecclesiastical jurisdictions embarrassed the operation of the Romangovernment; and a pious emperor was alarmed by the guilt and danger oftouching with a profane hand the ark of the covenant. The separationof men into the two orders of the clergy and of the laity was, indeed,familiar to many nations of antiquity; and the priests of India, ofPersia, of Assyria, of Judea, of ∆thiopia, of Egypt, and of Gaul,derived from a celestial origin the temporal power and possessionswhich they had acquired. These venerable institutions had graduallyassimilated themselves to the manners and government of their respectivecountries; but the opposition or contempt of the civil power served tocement the discipline of the primitive church. The Christians hadbeen obliged to elect their own magistrates, to raise and distribute apeculiar revenue, and to regulate the internal policy of their republicby a code of laws, which were ratified by the consent of the people andthe practice of three hundred years. When Constantine embraced the faithof the Christians, he seemed to contract a perpetual alliance witha distinct and independent society; and the privileges granted orconfirmed by that emperor, or by his successors, were accepted, notas the precarious favors of the court, but as the just and inalienablerights of the ecclesiastical order.

The Catholic church was administered by the spiritual and legaljurisdiction of eighteen hundred bishops; of whom one thousand wereseated in the Greek, and eight hundred in the Latin, provinces of theempire. The extent and boundaries of their respective dioceses had beenvariously and accidentally decided by the zeal and success of the firstmissionaries, by the wishes of the people, and by the propagation of thegospel. Episcopal churches were closely planted along the banks of theNile, on the sea-coast of Africa, in the proconsular Asia, and throughthe southern provinces of Italy. The bishops of Gaul and Spain, ofThrace and Pontus, reigned over an ample territory, and delegated theirrural suffragans to execute the subordinate duties of the pastoraloffice. A Christian diocese might be spread over a province, or reducedto a village; but all the bishops possessed an equal and indeliblecharacter: they all derived the same powers and privileges from theapostles, from the people, and from the laws. While the civil andmilitary professions were separated by the policy of Constantine, a newand perpetual order of ecclesiastical ministers, always respectable,sometimes dangerous, was established in the church and state. Theimportant review of their station and attributes may be distributedunder the following heads: I. Popular Election. II. Ordination of theClergy. III. Property. IV. Civil Jurisdiction. V. Spiritual censures.VI. Exercise of public oratory. VII. Privilege of legislativeassemblies.

I. The freedom of election subsisted long after the legal establishmentof Christianity; and the subjects of Rome enjoyed in the churchthe privilege which they had lost in the republic, of choosing themagistrates whom they were bound to obey. As soon as a bishop had closedhis eyes, the metropolitan issued a commission to one of his suffragansto administer the vacant see, and prepare, within a limited time, thefuture election. The right of voting was vested in the inferior clergy,who were best qualified to judge of the merit of the candidates; inthe senators or nobles of the city, all those who were distinguishedby their rank or property; and finally in the whole body of the people,who, on the appointed day, flocked in multitudes from the most remoteparts of the diocese, and sometimes silenced by their tumultuousacclamations, the voice of reason and the laws of discipline. Theseacclamations might accidentally fix on the head of the most deservingcompetitor; of some ancient presbyter, some holy monk, or some layman,conspicuous for his zeal and piety. But the episcopal chair wassolicited, especially in the great and opulent cities of the empire, asa temporal rather than as a spiritual dignity. The interested views, theselfish and angry passions, the arts of perfidy and dissimulation, thesecret corruption, the open and even bloody violence which had formerlydisgraced the freedom of election in the commonwealths of Greece andRome, too often influenced the choice of the successors of the apostles.While one of the candidates boasted the honors of his family, a secondallured his judges by the delicacies of a plentiful table, and a third,more guilty than his rivals, offered to share the plunder of the churchamong the accomplices of his sacrilegious hopes The civil as well asecclesiastical laws attempted to exclude the populace from thissolemn and important transaction. The canons of ancient discipline,by requiring several episcopal qualifications, of age, station, &c.,restrained, in some measure, the indiscriminate caprice of the electors.The authority of the provincial bishops, who were assembled in thevacant church to consecrate the choice of the people, was interposed tomoderate their passions and to correct their mistakes. The bishopscould refuse to ordain an unworthy candidate, and the rage of contendingfactions sometimes accepted their impartial mediation. The submission,or the resistance, of the clergy and people, on various occasions,afforded different precedents, which were insensibly converted intopositive laws and provincial customs; but it was every where admitted,as a fundamental maxim of religious policy, that no bishop could beimposed on an orthodox church, without the consent of its members.The emperors, as the guardians of the public peace, and as the firstcitizens of Rome and Constantinople, might effectually declare theirwishes in the choice of a primate; but those absolute monarchs respectedthe freedom of ecclesiastical elections; and while they distributed andresumed the honors of the state and army, they allowed eighteen hundredperpetual magistrates to receive their important offices from the freesuffrages of the people. It was agreeable to the dictates of justice,that these magistrates should not desert an honorable station fromwhich they could not be removed; but the wisdom of councils endeavored,without much success, to enforce the residence, and to prevent thetranslation, of bishops. The discipline of the West was indeed lessrelaxed than that of the East; but the same passions which made thoseregulations necessary, rendered them ineffectual. The reproaches whichangry prelates have so vehemently urged against each other, serve onlyto expose their common guilt, and their mutual indiscretion.

II. The bishops alone possessed the faculty of spiritual generation: andthis extraordinary privilege might compensate, in some degree, for thepainful celibacy which was imposed as a virtue, as a duty, and at lengthas a positive obligation. The religions of antiquity, which establisheda separate order of priests, dedicated a holy race, a tribe or family,to the perpetual service of the gods. Such institutions were founded forpossession, rather than conquest. The children of the priests enjoyed,with proud and indolent security, their sacred inheritance; and thefiery spirit of enthusiasm was abated by the cares, the pleasures, andthe endearments of domestic life. But the Christian sanctuary was opento every ambitious candidate, who aspired to its heavenly promises ortemporal possessions. This office of priests, like that of soldiers ormagistrates, was strenuously exercised by those men, whose temper andabilities had prompted them to embrace the ecclesiastical profession, orwho had been selected by a discerning bishop, as the best qualifiedto promote the glory and interest of the church. The bishops (till theabuse was restrained by the prudence of the laws) might constrain thereluctant, and protect the distressed; and the imposition of handsforever bestowed some of the most valuable privileges of civil society.The whole body of the Catholic clergy, more numerous perhaps than thelegions, was exempted * by the emperors from all service, private orpublic, all municipal offices, and all personal taxes and contributions,which pressed on their fellow-citizens with intolerable weight; and theduties of their holy profession were accepted as a full discharge oftheir obligations to the republic. Each bishop acquired an absoluteand indefeasible right to the perpetual obedience of the clerk whomhe ordained: the clergy of each episcopal church, with its dependentparishes, formed a regular and permanent society; and the cathedrals ofConstantinople and Carthage maintained their peculiar establishmentof five hundred ecclesiastical ministers. Their ranks and numbers wereinsensibly multiplied by the superstition of the times, which introducedinto the church the splendid ceremonies of a Jewish or Pagan temple;and a long train of priests, deacons, sub-deacons, acolythes, exorcists,readers, singers, and doorkeepers, contributed, in their respectivestations, to swell the pomp and harmony of religious worship. Theclerical name and privileges were extended to many pious fraternities,who devoutly supported the ecclesiastical throne. Six hundredparabolani, or adventurers, visited the sick at Alexandria; elevenhundred copiat, or grave-diggers, buried the dead at Constantinople; andthe swarms of monks, who arose from the Nile, overspread and darkenedthe face of the Christian world.

Chapter XX: Conversion Of Constantine.--Part IV.

III. The edict of Milan secured the revenue as well as the peace of thechurch. The Christians not only recovered the lands and houses of whichthey had been stripped by the persecuting laws of Diocletian, but theyacquired a perfect title to all the possessions which they had hithertoenjoyed by the connivance of the magistrate. As soon as Christianitybecame the religion of the emperor and the empire, the national clergymight claim a decent and honorable maintenance; and the payment of anannual tax might have delivered the people from the more oppressivetribute, which superstition imposes on her votaries. But as thewants and expenses of the church increased with her prosperity, theecclesiastical order was still supported and enriched by the voluntaryoblations of the faithful. Eight years after the edict of Milan,Constantine granted to all his subjects the free and universalpermission of bequeathing their fortunes to the holy Catholic church;and their devout liberality, which during their lives was checked byluxury or avarice, flowed with a profuse stream at the hour of theirdeath. The wealthy Christians were encouraged by the example of theirsovereign. An absolute monarch, who is rich without patrimony, may becharitable without merit; and Constantine too easily believed that heshould purchase the favor of Heaven, if he maintained the idle at theexpense of the industrious; and distributed among the saints the wealthof the republic. The same messenger who carried over to Africa the headof Maxentius, might be intrusted with an epistle to CÊcilian, bishop ofCarthage. The emperor acquaints him, that the treasurers of the provinceare directed to pay into his hands the sum of three thousand folles, oreighteen thousand pounds sterling, and to obey his further requisitionsfor the relief of the churches of Africa, Numidia, and Mauritania. Theliberality of Constantine increased in a just proportion to his faith,and to his vices. He assigned in each city a regular allowance of corn,to supply the fund of ecclesiastical charity; and the persons of bothsexes who embraced the monastic life became the peculiar favoritesof their sovereign. The Christian temples of Antioch, Alexandria,Jerusalem, Constantinople &c., displayed the ostentatious piety of aprince, ambitious in a declining age to equal the perfect labors ofantiquity. The form of these religious edifices was simple and oblong;though they might sometimes swell into the shape of a dome, andsometimes branch into the figure of a cross. The timbers were framedfor the most part of cedars of Libanus; the roof was covered with tiles,perhaps of gilt brass; and the walls, the columns, the pavement, wereencrusted with variegated marbles. The most precious ornaments of goldand silver, of silk and gems, were profusely dedicated to the service ofthe altar; and this specious magnificence was supported on the solid andperpetual basis of landed property. In the space of two centuries, fromthe reign of Constantine to that of Justinian, the eighteen hundredchurches of the empire were enriched by the frequent and unalienablegifts of the prince and people. An annual income of six hundred poundssterling may be reasonably assigned to the bishops, who were placed atan equal distance between riches and poverty, but the standard of theirwealth insensibly rose with the dignity and opulence of the citieswhich they governed. An authentic but imperfect rent-roll specifies somehouses, shops, gardens, and farms, which belonged to the three Basilicof Rome, St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. John Lateran, in the provinces ofItaly, Africa, and the East. They produce, besides a reserved rent ofoil, linen, paper, aromatics, &c., a clear annual revenue of twenty-twothousand pieces of gold, or twelve thousand pounds sterling. In the ageof Constantine and Justinian, the bishops no longer possessed, perhapsthey no longer deserved, the unsuspecting confidence of their clergy andpeople. The ecclesiastical revenues of each diocese were dividedinto four parts for the respective uses of the bishop himself, of hisinferior clergy, of the poor, and of the public worship; and the abuseof this sacred trust was strictly and repeatedly checked. The patrimonyof the church was still subject to all the public compositions of thestate. The clergy of Rome, Alexandria, Thessalonica, &c., might solicitand obtain some partial exemptions; but the premature attempt ofthe great council of Rimini, which aspired to universal freedom, wassuccessfully resisted by the son of Constantine.

IV. The Latin clergy, who erected their tribunal on the ruins ofthe civil and common law, have modestly accepted, as the gift ofConstantine, the independent jurisdiction, which was the fruit oftime, of accident, and of their own industry. But the liberality ofthe Christian emperors had actually endowed them with some legalprerogatives, which secured and dignified the sacerdotal character. 1.Under a despotic government, the bishops alone enjoyed and asserted theinestimable privilege of being tried only by their peers; and even ina capital accusation, a synod of their brethren were the sole judgesof their guilt or innocence. Such a tribunal, unless it was inflamed bypersonal resentment or religious discord, might be favorable, or evenpartial, to the sacerdotal order: but Constantine was satisfied, thatsecret impunity would be less pernicious than public scandal: andthe Nicene council was edited by his public declaration, that if hesurprised a bishop in the act of adultery, he should cast his Imperialmantle over the episcopal sinner. 2. The domestic jurisdiction of thebishops was at once a privilege and a restraint of the ecclesiasticalorder, whose civil causes were decently withdrawn from the cognizance ofa secular judge. Their venial offences were not exposed to the shameof a public trial or punishment; and the gentle correction which thetenderness of youth may endure from its parents or instructors, wasinflicted by the temperate severity of the bishops. But if the clergywere guilty of any crime which could not be sufficiently expiated bytheir degradation from an honorable and beneficial profession, theRoman magistrate drew the sword of justice, without any regard toecclesiastical immunities. 3. The arbitration of the bishops wasratified by a positive law; and the judges were instructed to execute,without appeal or delay, the episcopal decrees, whose validity hadhitherto depended on the consent of the parties. The conversion of themagistrates themselves, and of the whole empire, might gradually removethe fears and scruples of the Christians. But they still resorted to thetribunal of the bishops, whose abilities and integrity they esteemed;and the venerable Austin enjoyed the satisfaction of complaining thathis spiritual functions were perpetually interrupted by the invidiouslabor of deciding the claim or the possession of silver and gold, oflands and cattle. 4. The ancient privilege of sanctuary was transferredto the Christian temples, and extended, by the liberal piety ofthe younger Theodosius, to the precincts of consecrated ground. Thefugitive, and even guilty, suppliants were permitted to implore eitherthe justice, or the mercy, of the Deity and his ministers. The rashviolence of despotism was suspended by the mild interposition of thechurch; and the lives or fortunes of the most eminent subjects might beprotected by the mediation of the bishop.

V. The bishop was the perpetual censor of the morals of his peopleThe discipline of penance was digested into a system of canonicaljurisprudence, which accurately defined the duty of private or publicconfession, the rules of evidence, the degrees of guilt, and the measureof punishment. It was impossible to execute this spiritual censure, ifthe Christian pontiff, who punished the obscure sins of the multitude,respected the conspicuous vices and destructive crimes of themagistrate: but it was impossible to arraign the conduct of themagistrate, without, controlling the administration of civil government.Some considerations of religion, or loyalty, or fear, protected thesacred persons of the emperors from the zeal or resentment of thebishops; but they boldly censured and excommunicated the subordinatetyrants, who were not invested with the majesty of the purple. St.Athanasius excommunicated one of the ministers of Egypt; and theinterdict which he pronounced, of fire and water, was solemnlytransmitted to the churches of Cappadocia. Under the reign of theyounger Theodosius, the polite and eloquent Synesius, one of thedescendants of Hercules, filled the episcopal seat of Ptolemais, nearthe ruins of ancient Cyrene, and the philosophic bishop supportedwith dignity the character which he had assumed with reluctance. Hevanquished the monster of Libya, the president Andronicus, who abusedthe authority of a venal office, invented new modes of rapine andtorture, and aggravated the guilt of oppression by that of sacrilege.After a fruitless attempt to reclaim the haughty magistrate by mild andreligious admonition, Synesius proceeds to inflict the last sentence ofecclesiastical justice, which devotes Andronicus, with his associatesand their families, to the abhorrence of earth and heaven. Theimpenitent sinners, more cruel than Phalaris or Sennacherib, moredestructive than war, pestilence, or a cloud of locusts, are deprivedof the name and privileges of Christians, of the participation of thesacraments, and of the hope of Paradise. The bishop exhorts the clergy,the magistrates, and the people, to renounce all society with theenemies of Christ; to exclude them from their houses and tables; and torefuse them the common offices of life, and the decent rites of burial.The church of Ptolemais, obscure and contemptible as she may appear,addresses this declaration to all her sister churches of the world; andthe profane who reject her decrees, will be involved in the guilt andpunishment of Andronicus and his impious followers. These spiritualterrors were enforced by a dexterous application to the Byzantinecourt; the trembling president implored the mercy of the church; and thedescendants of Hercules enjoyed the satisfaction of raising a prostratetyrant from the ground. Such principles and such examples insensiblyprepared the triumph of the Roman pontiffs, who have trampled on thenecks of kings.

VI. Every popular government has experienced the effects of rude orartificial eloquence. The coldest nature is animated, the firmest reasonis moved, by the rapid communication of the prevailing impulse; and eachhearer is affected by his own passions, and by those of the surroundingmultitude. The ruin of civil liberty had silenced the demagogues ofAthens, and the tribunes of Rome; the custom of preaching which seemsto constitute a considerable part of Christian devotion, had not beenintroduced into the temples of antiquity; and the ears of monarchs werenever invaded by the harsh sound of popular eloquence, till the pulpitsof the empire were filled with sacred orators, who possessed someadvantages unknown to their profane predecessors. The arguments andrhetoric of the tribune were instantly opposed with equal arms, byskilful and resolute antagonists; and the cause of truth and reasonmight derive an accidental support from the conflict of hostilepassions. The bishop, or some distinguished presbyter, to whom hecautiously delegated the powers of preaching, harangued, without thedanger of interruption or reply, a submissive multitude, whose minds hadbeen prepared and subdued by the awful ceremonies of religion. Such wasthe strict subordination of the Catholic church, that the same concertedsounds might issue at once from a hundred pulpits of Italy or Egypt, ifthey were tuned by the master hand of the Roman or Alexandrian primate.The design of this institution was laudable, but the fruits were notalways salutary. The preachers recommended the practice of the socialduties; but they exalted the perfection of monastic virtue, which ispainful to the individual, and useless to mankind. Their charitableexhortations betrayed a secret wish that the clergy might be permittedto manage the wealth of the faithful, for the benefit of the poor. Themost sublime representations of the attributes and laws of the Deitywere sullied by an idle mixture of metaphysical subtleties, puerilerites, and fictitious miracles: and they expatiated, with the mostfervent zeal, on the religious merit of hating the adversaries,and obeying the ministers of the church. When the public peace wasdistracted by heresy and schism, the sacred orators sounded the trumpetof discord, and, perhaps, of sedition. The understandings of theircongregations were perplexed by mystery, their passions were inflamedby invectives; and they rushed from the Christian temples of Antiochor Alexandria, prepared either to suffer or to inflict martyrdom. Thecorruption of taste and language is strongly marked in the vehementdeclamations of the Latin bishops; but the compositions of Gregory andChrysostom have been compared with the most splendid models of Attic, orat least of Asiatic, eloquence.

VII. The representatives of the Christian republic were regularlyassembled in the spring and autumn of each year; and these synodsdiffused the spirit of ecclesiastical discipline and legislation throughthe hundred and twenty provinces of the Roman world. The archbishop ormetropolitan was empowered, by the laws, to summon the suffragan bishopsof his province; to revise their conduct, to vindicate their rights,to declare their faith, and to examine the merits of the candidates whowere elected by the clergy and people to supply the vacancies of theepiscopal college. The primates of Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Carthage,and afterwards Constantinople, who exercised a more ample jurisdiction,convened the numerous assembly of their dependent bishops. But theconvocation of great and extraordinary synods was the prerogative ofthe emperor alone. Whenever the emergencies of the church required thisdecisive measure, he despatched a peremptory summons to the bishops, orthe deputies of each province, with an order for the use of post-horses,and a competent allowance for the expenses of their journey. At an earlyperiod, when Constantine was the protector, rather than the proselyte,of Christianity, he referred the African controversy to the councilof Arles; in which the bishops of York of Treves, of Milan, and ofCarthage, met as friends and brethren, to debate in their native tongueon the common interest of the Latin or Western church. Eleven yearsafterwards, a more numerous and celebrated assembly was convened at Nicein Bithynia, to extinguish, by their final sentence, the subtle disputeswhich had arisen in Egypt on the subject of the Trinity. Three hundredand eighteen bishops obeyed the summons of their indulgent master;the ecclesiastics of every rank, and sect, and denomination, have beencomputed at two thousand and forty-eight persons; the Greeks appearedin person; and the consent of the Latins was expressed by the legatesof the Roman pontiff. The session, which lasted about two months, wasfrequently honored by the presence of the emperor. Leaving his guardsat the door, he seated himself (with the permission of the council) on alow stool in the midst of the hall. Constantine listened with patience,and spoke with modesty: and while he influenced the debates, he humblyprofessed that he was the minister, not the judge, of the successorsof the apostles, who had been established as priests and as gods uponearth. Such profound reverence of an absolute monarch towards a feebleand unarmed assembly of his own subjects, can only be compared to therespect with which the senate had been treated by the Roman princeswho adopted the policy of Augustus. Within the space of fifty years, aphilosophic spectator of the vicissitudes of human affairs might havecontemplated Tacitus in the senate of Rome, and Constantine in thecouncil of Nice. The fathers of the Capitol and those of the church hadalike degenerated from the virtues of their founders; but as the bishopswere more deeply rooted in the public opinion, they sustained theirdignity with more decent pride, and sometimes opposed with a manlyspirit the wishes of their sovereign. The progress of time andsuperstition erased the memory of the weakness, the passion, theignorance, which disgraced these ecclesiastical synods; and the Catholicworld has unanimously submitted to the infallible decrees of the generalcouncils.

Chapter XXI: Persecution Of Heresy, State Of The Church.--Part I.

 Persecution Of Heresy.--The Schism Of The Donatists.--The Arian Controversy.--Athanasius.--Distracted State Of The Church And Empire Under Constantine And His Sons.-- Toleration Of Paganism.

The grateful applause of the clergy has consecrated the memory ofa prince who indulged their passions and promoted their interest.Constantine gave them security, wealth, honors, and revenge; and thesupport of the orthodox faith was considered as the most sacred andimportant duty of the civil magistrate. The edict of Milan, the greatcharter of toleration, had confirmed to each individual of the Romanworld the privilege of choosing and professing his own religion. Butthis inestimable privilege was soon violated; with the knowledge oftruth, the emperor imbibed the maxims of persecution; and the sectswhich dissented from the Catholic church were afflicted and oppressedby the triumph of Christianity. Constantine easily believed thatthe Heretics, who presumed to dispute his opinions, or to oppose hiscommands, were guilty of the most absurd and criminal obstinacy; andthat a seasonable application of moderate severities might save thoseunhappy men from the danger of an everlasting condemnation. Not amoment was lost in excluding the ministers and teachers of the separatedcongregations from any share of the rewards and immunities which theemperor had so liberally bestowed on the orthodox clergy. But as thesectaries might still exist under the cloud of royal disgrace, theconquest of the East was immediately followed by an edict whichannounced their total destruction. After a preamble filled with passionand reproach, Constantine absolutely prohibits the assemblies of theHeretics, and confiscates their public property to the use either of therevenue or of the Catholic church. The sects against whom the Imperialseverity was directed, appear to have been the adherents of Paul ofSamosata; the Montanists of Phrygia, who maintained an enthusiasticsuccession of prophecy; the Novatians, who sternly rejected the temporalefficacy of repentance; the Marcionites and Valentinians, under whoseleading banners the various Gnostics of Asia and Egypt had insensiblyrallied; and perhaps the ManichÊans, who had recently imported fromPersia a more artful composition of Oriental and Christian theology. Thedesign of extirpating the name, or at least of restraining the progress,of these odious Heretics, was prosecuted with vigor and effect. Someof the penal regulations were copied from the edicts of Diocletian; andthis method of conversion was applauded by the same bishops who hadfelt the hand of oppression, and pleaded for the rights of humanity. Twoimmaterial circ*mstances may serve, however, to prove that the mindof Constantine was not entirely corrupted by the spirit of zeal andbigotry. Before he condemned the ManichÊans and their kindred sects, heresolved to make an accurate inquiry into the nature of their religiousprinciples. As if he distrusted the impartiality of his ecclesiasticalcounsellors, this delicate commission was intrusted to a civilmagistrate, whose learning and moderation he justly esteemed, and ofwhose venal character he was probably ignorant. The emperor was soonconvinced, that he had too hastily proscribed the orthodox faith and theexemplary morals of the Novatians, who had dissented from the churchin some articles of discipline which were not perhaps essential tosalvation. By a particular edict, he exempted them from the generalpenalties of the law; allowed them to build a church at Constantinople,respected the miracles of their saints, invited their bishop Acesius tothe council of Nice; and gently ridiculed the narrow tenets of his sectby a familiar jest; which, from the mouth of a sovereign, must have beenreceived with applause and gratitude.

The complaints and mutual accusations which assailed the throne ofConstantine, as soon as the death of Maxentius had submitted Africa tohis victorious arms, were ill adapted to edify an imperfect proselyte.He learned, with surprise, that the provinces of that great country,from the confines of Cyrene to the columns of Hercules, were distractedwith religious discord. The source of the division was derived froma double election in the church of Carthage; the second, in rank andopulence, of the ecclesiastical thrones of the West. CÊcilian andMajorinus were the two rival prelates of Africa; and the death of thelatter soon made room for Donatus, who, by his superior abilities andapparent virtues, was the firmest support of his party. The advantagewhich CÊcilian might claim from the priority of his ordination, wasdestroyed by the illegal, or at least indecent, haste, with which it hadbeen performed, without expecting the arrival of the bishops of Numidia.The authority of these bishops, who, to the number of seventy, condemnedCÊcilian, and consecrated Majorinus, is again weakened by the infamyof some of their personal characters; and by the female intrigues,sacrilegious bargains, and tumultuous proceedings, which are imputedto this Numidian council. The bishops of the contending factionsmaintained, with equal ardor and obstinacy, that their adversaries weredegraded, or at least dishonored, by the odious crime of deliveringthe Holy Scriptures to the officers of Diocletian. From their mutualreproaches, as well as from the story of this dark transaction, it mayjustly be inferred, that the late persecution had imbittered the zeal,without reforming the manners, of the African Christians. Thatdivided church was incapable of affording an impartial judicature; thecontroversy was solemnly tried in five successive tribunals, whichwere appointed by the emperor; and the whole proceeding, from thefirst appeal to the final sentence, lasted above three years. A severeinquisition, which was taken by the PrÊtorian vicar, and the proconsulof Africa, the report of two episcopal visitors who had been sent toCarthage, the decrees of the councils of Rome and of Arles, and thesupreme judgment of Constantine himself in his sacred consistory,were all favorable to the cause of CÊcilian; and he was unanimouslyacknowledged by the civil and ecclesiastical powers, as the true andlawful primate of Africa. The honors and estates of the church wereattributed to his suffragan bishops, and it was not without difficulty,that Constantine was satisfied with inflicting the punishment of exileon the principal leaders of the Donatist faction. As their cause wasexamined with attention, perhaps it was determined with justice. Perhapstheir complaint was not without foundation, that the credulity of theemperor had been abused by the insidious arts of his favorite Osius. Theinfluence of falsehood and corruption might procure the condemnationof the innocent, or aggravate the sentence of the guilty. Such an act,however, of injustice, if it concluded an importunate dispute, might benumbered among the transient evils of a despotic administration, whichare neither felt nor remembered by posterity.

But this incident, so inconsiderable that it scarcely deserves a placein history, was productive of a memorable schism which afflicted theprovinces of Africa above three hundred years, and was extinguished onlywith Christianity itself. The inflexible zeal of freedom and fanaticismanimated the Donatists to refuse obedience to the usurpers, whoseelection they disputed, and whose spiritual powers they denied.Excluded from the civil and religious communion of mankind, they boldlyexcommunicated the rest of mankind, who had embraced the impious partyof CÊcilian, and of the Traditors, from which he derived his pretendedordination. They asserted with confidence, and almost with exultation,that the Apostolical succession was interrupted; that all the bishops ofEurope and Asia were infected by the contagion of guilt and schism; andthat the prerogatives of the Catholic church were confined to the chosenportion of the African believers, who alone had preserved inviolate theintegrity of their faith and discipline. This rigid theory was supportedby the most uncharitable conduct. Whenever they acquired a proselyte,even from the distant provinces of the East, they carefully repeated thesacred rites of baptism and ordination; as they rejected the validityof those which he had already received from the hands of heretics orschismatics. Bishops, virgins, and even spotless infants, were subjectedto the disgrace of a public penance, before they could be admitted tothe communion of the Donatists. If they obtained possession of a churchwhich had been used by their Catholic adversaries, they purified theunhallowed building with the same zealous care which a temple of idolsmight have required. They washed the pavement, scraped the walls, burntthe altar, which was commonly of wood, melted the consecrated plate, andcast the Holy Eucharist to the dogs, with every circ*mstance of ignominywhich could provoke and perpetuate the animosity of religious factions.Notwithstanding this irreconcilable aversion, the two parties, who weremixed and separated in all the cities of Africa, had the same languageand manners, the same zeal and learning, the same faith and worship.Proscribed by the civil and ecclesiastical powers of the empire, theDonatists still maintained in some provinces, particularly in Numidia,their superior numbers; and four hundred bishops acknowledged thejurisdiction of their primate. But the invincible spirit of the sectsometimes preyed on its own vitals: and the bosom of their schismaticalchurch was torn by intestine divisions. A fourth part of the Donatistbishops followed the independent standard of the Maximianists. Thenarrow and solitary path which their first leaders had marked out,continued to deviate from the great society of mankind. Even theimperceptible sect of the Rogatians could affirm, without a blush, thatwhen Christ should descend to judge the earth, he would find his truereligion preserved only in a few nameless villages of the CÊsareanMauritania.

The schism of the Donatists was confined to Africa: the more diffusivemischief of the Trinitarian controversy successively penetrated intoevery part of the Christian world. The former was an accidental quarrel,occasioned by the abuse of freedom; the latter was a high and mysteriousargument, derived from the abuse of philosophy. From the age ofConstantine to that of Clovis and Theodoric, the temporal interests bothof the Romans and Barbarians were deeply involved in the theologicaldisputes of Arianism. The historian may therefore be permittedrespectfully to withdraw the veil of the sanctuary; and to deduce theprogress of reason and faith, of error and passion from the school ofPlato, to the decline and fall of the empire.

The genius of Plato, informed by his own meditation, or by thetraditional knowledge of the priests of Egypt, had ventured to explorethe mysterious nature of the Deity. When he had elevated his mind to thesublime contemplation of the first self-existent, necessary cause of theuniverse, the Athenian sage was incapable of conceiving how the simpleunity of his essence could admit the infinite variety of distinct andsuccessive ideas which compose the model of the intellectual world; howa Being purely incorporeal could execute that perfect model, and mouldwith a plastic hand the rude and independent chaos. The vain hope ofextricating himself from these difficulties, which must ever oppressthe feeble powers of the human mind, might induce Plato to consider thedivine nature under the threefold modification--of the first cause, thereason, or Logos, and the soul or spirit of the universe. Hispoetical imagination sometimes fixed and animated these metaphysicalabstractions; the three archical on original principles were representedin the Platonic system as three Gods, united with each other by amysterious and ineffable generation; and the Logos was particularlyconsidered under the more accessible character of the Son of an EternalFather, and the Creator and Governor of the world. Such appear to havebeen the secret doctrines which were cautiously whispered in the gardensof the academy; and which, according to the more recent disciples ofPlato, * could not be perfectly understood, till after an assiduousstudy of thirty years.

The arms of the Macedonians diffused over Asia and Egypt the languageand learning of Greece; and the theological system of Plato was taught,with less reserve, and perhaps with some improvements, in the celebratedschool of Alexandria. A numerous colony of Jews had been invited, by thefavor of the Ptolemies, to settle in their new capital. While the bulkof the nation practised the legal ceremonies, and pursued the lucrativeoccupations of commerce, a few Hebrews, of a more liberal spirit,devoted their lives to religious and philosophical contemplation. Theycultivated with diligence, and embraced with ardor, the theologicalsystem of the Athenian sage. But their national pride would have beenmortified by a fair confession of their former poverty: and they boldlymarked, as the sacred inheritance of their ancestors, the gold andjewels which they had so lately stolen from their Egyptian masters.One hundred years before the birth of Christ, a philosophical treatise,which manifestly betrays the style and sentiments of the school ofPlato, was produced by the Alexandrian Jews, and unanimously receivedas a genuine and valuable relic of the inspired Wisdom of Solomon.A similar union of the Mosaic faith and the Grecian philosophy,distinguishes the works of Philo, which were composed, for the mostpart, under the reign of Augustus. The material soul of the universemight offend the piety of the Hebrews: but they applied the character ofthe Logos to the Jehovah of Moses and the patriarchs; and the Son of Godwas introduced upon earth under a visible, and even human appearance, toperform those familiar offices which seem incompatible with the natureand attributes of the Universal Cause.

Chapter XXI: Persecution Of Heresy, State Of The Church.--Part II.

The eloquence of Plato, the name of Solomon, the authority of the schoolof Alexandria, and the consent of the Jews and Greeks, were insufficientto establish the truth of a mysterious doctrine, which might please, butcould not satisfy, a rational mind. A prophet, or apostle, inspiredby the Deity, can alone exercise a lawful dominion over the faith ofmankind: and the theology of Plato might have been forever confoundedwith the philosophical visions of the Academy, the Porch, and theLycÊum, if the name and divine attributes of the Logos had not beenconfirmed by the celestial pen of the last and most sublime of theEvangelists. The Christian Revelation, which was consummated under thereign of Nerva, disclosed to the world the amazing secret, that theLogos, who was with God from the beginning, and was God, who had madeall things, and for whom all things had been made, was incarnate in theperson of Jesus of Nazareth; who had been born of a virgin, and suffereddeath on the cross. Besides the genera design of fixing on a perpetualbasis the divine honors of Christ, the most ancient and respectable ofthe ecclesiastical writers have ascribed to the evangelic theologian aparticular intention to confute two opposite heresies, which disturbedthe peace of the primitive church. I. The faith of the Ebionites,perhaps of the Nazarenes, was gross and imperfect. They revered Jesusas the greatest of the prophets, endowed with supernatural virtue andpower. They ascribed to his person and to his future reign all thepredictions of the Hebrew oracles which relate to the spiritual andeverlasting kingdom of the promised Messiah. Some of them mightconfess that he was born of a virgin; but they obstinately rejected thepreceding existence and divine perfections of the Logos, or Son of God,which are so clearly defined in the Gospel of St. John. About fiftyyears afterwards, the Ebionites, whose errors are mentioned by JustinMartyr with less severity than they seem to deserve, formed a veryinconsiderable portion of the Christian name. II. The Gnostics, whowere distinguished by the epithet of Docetes, deviated into the contraryextreme; and betrayed the human, while they asserted the divine, natureof Christ. Educated in the school of Plato, accustomed to the sublimeidea of the Logos, they readily conceived that the brightest ∆on, orEmanation of the Deity, might assume the outward shape and visibleappearances of a mortal; but they vainly pretended, that theimperfections of matter are incompatible with the purity of a celestialsubstance. While the blood of Christ yet smoked on Mount Calvary, theDocetes invented the impious and extravagant hypothesis, that, insteadof issuing from the womb of the Virgin, he had descended on the banksof the Jordan in the form of perfect manhood; that he had imposed on thesenses of his enemies, and of his disciples; and that the ministers ofPilate had wasted their impotent rage on an airy phantom, who seemed toexpire on the cross, and, after three days, to rise from the dead.

The divine sanction, which the Apostle had bestowed on the fundamentalprinciple of the theology of Plato, encouraged the learned proselytes ofthe second and third centuries to admire and study the writings of theAthenian sage, who had thus marvellously anticipated one of the mostsurprising discoveries of the Christian revelation. The respectable nameof Plato was used by the orthodox, and abused by the heretics, asthe common support of truth and error: the authority of his skilfulcommentators, and the science of dialectics, were employed to justifythe remote consequences of his opinions and to supply the discreetsilence of the inspired writers. The same subtle and profound questionsconcerning the nature, the generation, the distinction, and the equalityof the three divine persons of the mysterious Triad, or Trinity,were agitated in the philosophical and in the Christian schools ofAlexandria. An eager spirit of curiosity urged them to explore thesecrets of the abyss; and the pride of the professors, and of theirdisciples, was satisfied with the sciences of words. But the mostsagacious of the Christian theologians, the great Athanasius himself,has candidly confessed, that whenever he forced his understanding tomeditate on the divinity of the Logos, his toilsome and unavailingefforts recoiled on themselves; that the more he thought, the lesshe comprehended; and the more he wrote, the less capable was he ofexpressing his thoughts. In every step of the inquiry, we are compelledto feel and acknowledge the immeasurable disproportion between thesize of the object and the capacity of the human mind. We may strive toabstract the notions of time, of space, and of matter, which so closelyadhere to all the perceptions of our experimental knowledge. But as soonas we presume to reason of infinite substance, of spiritual generation;as often as we deduce any positive conclusions from a negative idea, weare involved in darkness, perplexity, and inevitable contradiction. Asthese difficulties arise from the nature of the subject, they oppress,with the same insuperable weight, the philosophic and the theologicaldisputant; but we may observe two essential and peculiar circ*mstances,which discriminated the doctrines of the Catholic church from theopinions of the Platonic school.

I. A chosen society of philosophers, men of a liberal education andcurious disposition, might silently meditate, and temperately discussin the gardens of Athens or the library of Alexandria, the abstrusequestions of metaphysical science. The lofty speculations, whichneither convinced the understanding, nor agitated the passions, of thePlatonists themselves, were carelessly overlooked by the idle, the busy,and even the studious part of mankind. But after the Logos had beenrevealed as the sacred object of the faith, the hope, and the religiousworship of the Christians, the mysterious system was embraced by anumerous and increasing multitude in every province of the Roman world.Those persons who, from their age, or sex, or occupations, were theleast qualified to judge, who were the least exercised in the habitsof abstract reasoning, aspired to contemplate the economy of the DivineNature: and it is the boast of Tertullian, that a Christian mechaniccould readily answer such questions as had perplexed the wisest ofthe Grecian sages. Where the subject lies so far beyond our reach, thedifference between the highest and the lowest of human understandingsmay indeed be calculated as infinitely small; yet the degree ofweakness may perhaps be measured by the degree of obstinacy anddogmatic confidence. These speculations, instead of being treated asthe amusem*nt of a vacant hour, became the most serious business of thepresent, and the most useful preparation for a future, life. A theology,which it was incumbent to believe, which it was impious to doubt, andwhich it might be dangerous, and even fatal, to mistake, became thefamiliar topic of private meditation and popular discourse. The coldindifference of philosophy was inflamed by the fervent spirit ofdevotion; and even the metaphors of common language suggested thefallacious prejudices of sense and experience. The Christians, whoabhorred the gross and impure generation of the Greek mythology, weretempted to argue from the familiar analogy of the filial andpaternal relations. The character of Son seemed to imply a perpetualsubordination to the voluntary author of his existence; but as theact of generation, in the most spiritual and abstracted sense, must besupposed to transmit the properties of a common nature, they durst notpresume to circ*mscribe the powers or the duration of the Son of aneternal and omnipotent Father. Fourscore years after the death ofChrist, the Christians of Bithynia, declared before the tribunal ofPliny, that they invoked him as a god: and his divine honors have beenperpetuated in every age and country, by the various sects who assumethe name of his disciples. Their tender reverence for the memory ofChrist, and their horror for the profane worship of any created being,would have engaged them to assert the equal and absolute divinity of theLogos, if their rapid ascent towards the throne of heaven had not beenimperceptibly checked by the apprehension of violating the unity andsole supremacy of the great Father of Christ and of the Universe. Thesuspense and fluctuation produced in the minds of the Christians bythese opposite tendencies, may be observed in the writings of thetheologians who flourished after the end of the apostolic age, andbefore the origin of the Arian controversy. Their suffrage is claimed,with equal confidence, by the orthodox and by the heretical parties; andthe most inquisitive critics have fairly allowed, that if they had thegood fortune of possessing the Catholic verity, they have deliveredtheir conceptions in loose, inaccurate, and sometimes contradictorylanguage.

Chapter XXI: Persecution Of Heresy, State Of The Church.--Part III.

II. The devotion of individuals was the first circ*mstance whichdistinguished the Christians from the Platonists: the second was theauthority of the church. The disciples of philosophy asserted the rightsof intellectual freedom, and their respect for the sentiments of theirteachers was a liberal and voluntary tribute, which they offered tosuperior reason. But the Christians formed a numerous and disciplinedsociety; and the jurisdiction of their laws and magistrates was strictlyexercised over the minds of the faithful. The loose wanderings of theimagination were gradually confined by creeds and confessions; thefreedom of private judgment submitted to the public wisdom of synods;the authority of a theologian was determined by his ecclesiastical rank;and the episcopal successors of the apostles inflicted the censures ofthe church on those who deviated from the orthodox belief. But in an ageof religious controversy, every act of oppression adds new force tothe elastic vigor of the mind; and the zeal or obstinacy of a spiritualrebel was sometimes stimulated by secret motives of ambition or avarice.A metaphysical argument became the cause or pretence of politicalcontests; the subtleties of the Platonic school were used as the badgesof popular factions, and the distance which separated their respectivetenets were enlarged or magnified by the acrimony of dispute. As longas the dark heresies of Praxeas and Sabellius labored to confound theFather with the Son, the orthodox party might be excused if theyadhered more strictly and more earnestly to the distinction, than to theequality, of the divine persons. But as soon as the heat of controversyhad subsided, and the progress of the Sabellians was no longer an objectof terror to the churches of Rome, of Africa, or of Egypt, the tideof theological opinion began to flow with a gentle but steady motiontowards the contrary extreme; and the most orthodox doctors allowedthemselves the use of the terms and definitions which had been censuredin the mouth of the sectaries. After the edict of toleration hadrestored peace and leisure to the Christians, the Trinitariancontroversy was revived in the ancient seat of Platonism, the learned,the opulent, the tumultuous city of Alexandria; and the flame ofreligious discord was rapidly communicated from the schools to theclergy, the people, the province, and the East. The abstruse question ofthe eternity of the Logos was agitated in ecclesiastic conferences andpopular sermons; and the heterodox opinions of Arius were soon madepublic by his own zeal, and by that of his adversaries. His mostimplacable adversaries have acknowledged the learning and blameless lifeof that eminent presbyter, who, in a former election, had declared, andperhaps generously declined, his pretensions to the episcopal throne.His competitor Alexander assumed the office of his judge. The importantcause was argued before him; and if at first he seemed to hesitate, heat length pronounced his final sentence, as an absolute rule of faith.The undaunted presbyter, who presumed to resist the authority of hisangry bishop, was separated from the community of the church. But thepride of Arius was supported by the applause of a numerous party. Hereckoned among his immediate followers two bishops of Egypt, sevenpresbyters, twelve deacons, and (what may appear almost incredible)seven hundred virgins. A large majority of the bishops of Asia appearedto support or favor his cause; and their measures were conducted byEusebius of CÊsarea, the most learned of the Christian prelates; and byEusebius of Nicomedia, who had acquired the reputation of a statesmanwithout forfeiting that of a saint. Synods in Palestine and Bithyniawere opposed to the synods of Egypt. The attention of the prince andpeople was attracted by this theological dispute; and the decision,at the end of six years, was referred to the supreme authority of thegeneral council of Nice.

When the mysteries of the Christian faith were dangerously exposed topublic debate, it might be observed, that the human understanding wascapable of forming three district, though imperfect systems, concerningthe nature of the Divine Trinity; and it was pronounced, that none ofthese systems, in a pure and absolute sense, were exempt from heresyand error. I. According to the first hypothesis, which was maintainedby Arius and his disciples, the Logos was a dependent and spontaneousproduction, created from nothing by the will of the father. The Son, bywhom all things were made, had been begotten before all worlds, and thelongest of the astronomical periods could be compared only as afleeting moment to the extent of his duration; yet this duration wasnot infinite, and there had been a time which preceded the ineffablegeneration of the Logos. On this only-begotten Son, the Almighty Fatherhad transfused his ample spirit, and impressed the effulgence of hisglory. Visible image of invisible perfection, he saw, at an immeasurabledistance beneath his feet, the thrones of the brightest archangels; yethe shone only with a reflected light, and, like the sons of the Romansemperors, who were invested with the titles of CÊsar or Augustus,he governed the universe in obedience to the will of his Father andMonarch. II. In the second hypothesis, the Logos possessed all theinherent, incommunicable perfections, which religion and philosophyappropriate to the Supreme God. Three distinct and infinite minds orsubstances, three coÎqual and coÎternal beings, composed the DivineEssence; and it would have implied contradiction, that any of themshould not have existed, or that they should ever cease to exist.The advocates of a system which seemed to establish three independentDeities, attempted to preserve the unity of the First Cause, soconspicuous in the design and order of the world, by the perpetualconcord of their administration, and the essential agreement of theirwill. A faint resemblance of this unity of action may be discoveredin the societies of men, and even of animals. The causes which disturbtheir harmony, proceed only from the imperfection and inequality oftheir faculties; but the omnipotence which is guided by infinitewisdom and goodness, cannot fail of choosing the same means forthe accomplishment of the same ends. III. Three beings, who, by theself-derived necessity of their existence, possess all the divineattributes in the most perfect degree; who are eternal in duration,infinite in space, and intimately present to each other, and to thewhole universe; irresistibly force themselves on the astonished mind, asone and the same being, who, in the economy of grace, as well as in thatof nature, may manifest himself under different forms, and be consideredunder different aspects. By this hypothesis, a real substantial trinityis refined into a trinity of names, and abstract modifications, thatsubsist only in the mind which conceives them. The Logos is no longer aperson, but an attribute; and it is only in a figurative sense that theepithet of Son can be applied to the eternal reason, which was with Godfrom the beginning, and by which, not by whom, all things were made. Theincarnation of the Logos is reduced to a mere inspiration of the DivineWisdom, which filled the soul, and directed all the actions, of theman Jesus. Thus, after revolving around the theological circle, we aresurprised to find that the Sabellian ends where the Ebionite had begun;and that the incomprehensible mystery which excites our adoration,eludes our inquiry.

If the bishops of the council of Nice had been permitted to follow theunbiased dictates of their conscience, Arius and his associates couldscarcely have flattered themselves with the hopes of obtaining amajority of votes, in favor of an hypothesis so directly averse tothe two most popular opinions of the Catholic world. The Arians soonperceived the danger of their situation, and prudently assumed thosemodest virtues, which, in the fury of civil and religious dissensions,are seldom practised, or even praised, except by the weaker party. Theyrecommended the exercise of Christian charity and moderation; urged theincomprehensible nature of the controversy, disclaimed the use of anyterms or definitions which could not be found in the Scriptures; andoffered, by very liberal concessions, to satisfy their adversarieswithout renouncing the integrity of their own principles. The victoriousfaction received all their proposals with haughty suspicion; andanxiously sought for some irreconcilable mark of distinction,the rejection of which might involve the Arians in the guilt andconsequences of heresy. A letter was publicly read, and ignominiouslytorn, in which their patron, Eusebius of Nicomedia, ingenuouslyconfessed, that the admission of the hom*oousion, or Consubstantial,a word already familiar to the Platonists, was incompatible with theprinciples of their theological system. The fortunate opportunity waseagerly embraced by the bishops, who governed the resolutions of thesynod; and, according to the lively expression of Ambrose, they used thesword, which heresy itself had drawn from the scabbard, to cut off thehead of the hated monster. The consubstantiality of the Father and theSon was established by the council of Nice, and has been unanimouslyreceived as a fundamental article of the Christian faith, by the consentof the Greek, the Latin, the Oriental, and the Protestant churches. Butif the same word had not served to stigmatize the heretics, and tounite the Catholics, it would have been inadequate to the purpose ofthe majority, by whom it was introduced into the orthodox creed. Thismajority was divided into two parties, distinguished by a contrarytendency to the sentiments of the Tritheists and of the Sabellians. Butas those opposite extremes seemed to overthrow the foundations either ofnatural or revealed religion, they mutually agreed to qualify therigor of their principles; and to disavow the just, but invidious,consequences, which might be urged by their antagonists. The interestof the common cause inclined them to join their numbers, and to concealtheir differences; their animosity was softened by the healing counselsof toleration, and their disputes were suspended by the use of themysterious hom*oousion, which either party was free to interpretaccording to their peculiar tenets. The Sabellian sense, which, aboutfifty years before, had obliged the council of Antioch to prohibit thiscelebrated term, had endeared it to those theologians who entertaineda secret but partial affection for a nominal Trinity. But the morefashionable saints of the Arian times, the intrepid Athanasius, thelearned Gregory Nazianzen, and the other pillars of the church, whosupported with ability and success the Nicene doctrine, appeared toconsider the expression of substance as if it had been synonymouswith that of nature; and they ventured to illustrate their meaning, byaffirming that three men, as they belong to the same common species,are consubstantial, or hom*oousian to each other. This pure and distinctequality was tempered, on the one hand, by the internal connection, andspiritual penetration which indissolubly unites the divine persons; and,on the other, by the preeminence of the Father, which was acknowledgedas far as it is compatible with the independence of the Son. Withinthese limits, the almost invisible and tremulous ball of orthodoxy wasallowed securely to vibrate. On either side, beyond this consecratedground, the heretics and the dÊmons lurked in ambush to surprise anddevour the unhappy wanderer. But as the degrees of theological hatreddepend on the spirit of the war, rather than on the importance of thecontroversy, the heretics who degraded, were treated with moreseverity than those who annihilated, the person of the Son. The lifeof Athanasius was consumed in irreconcilable opposition to theimpious madness of the Arians; but he defended above twenty years theSabellianism of Marcellus of Ancyra; and when at last he was compelledto withdraw himself from his communion, he continued to mention, with anambiguous smile, the venial errors of his respectable friend.

The authority of a general council, to which the Arians themselves hadbeen compelled to submit, inscribed on the banners of the orthodox partythe mysterious characters of the word hom*oousion, which essentiallycontributed, notwithstanding some obscure disputes, some nocturnalcombats, to maintain and perpetuate the uniformity of faith, or at leastof language. The Consubstantialists, who by their success have deservedand obtained the title of Catholics, gloried in the simplicity andsteadiness of their own creed, and insulted the repeated variations oftheir adversaries, who were destitute of any certain rule of faith. Thesincerity or the cunning of the Arian chiefs, the fear of the laws or ofthe people, their reverence for Christ, their hatred of Athanasius, allthe causes, human and divine, that influence and disturb the counselsof a theological faction, introduced among the sectaries a spirit ofdiscord and inconstancy, which, in the course of a few years, erectedeighteen different models of religion, and avenged the violated dignityof the church. The zealous Hilary, who, from the peculiar hardships ofhis situation, was inclined to extenuate rather than to aggravate theerrors of the Oriental clergy, declares, that in the wide extent of theten provinces of Asia, to which he had been banished, there could befound very few prelates who had preserved the knowledge of the trueGod. The oppression which he had felt, the disorders of which he was thespectator and the victim, appeased, during a short interval, the angrypassions of his soul; and in the following passage, of which I shalltranscribe a few lines, the bishop of Poitiers unwarily deviates intothe style of a Christian philosopher. "It is a thing," says Hilary,"equally deplorable and dangerous, that there are as many creeds asopinions among men, as many doctrines as inclinations, and as manysources of blasphemy as there are faults among us; because we makecreeds arbitrarily, and explain them as arbitrarily. The hom*oousion isrejected, and received, and explained away by successive synods. Thepartial or total resemblance of the Father and of the Son is a subjectof dispute for these unhappy times. Every year, nay, every moon, we makenew creeds to describe invisible mysteries. We repent of what wehave done, we defend those who repent, we anathematize those whom wedefended. We condemn either the doctrine of others in ourselves, or ourown in that of others; and reciprocally tearing one another to pieces,we have been the cause of each other's ruin."

It will not be expected, it would not perhaps be endured, that I shouldswell this theological digression, by a minute examination of theeighteen creeds, the authors of which, for the most part, disclaimed theodious name of their parent Arius. It is amusing enough to delineate theform, and to trace the vegetation, of a singular plant; but the tediousdetail of leaves without flowers, and of branches without fruit,would soon exhaust the patience, and disappoint the curiosity, of thelaborious student. One question, which gradually arose from the Ariancontroversy, may, however, be noticed, as it served to produce anddiscriminate the three sects, who were united only by their commonaversion to the hom*oousion of the Nicene synod. 1. If they were askedwhether the Son was like unto the Father, the question was resolutelyanswered in the negative, by the heretics who adhered to the principlesof Arius, or indeed to those of philosophy; which seem to establish aninfinite difference between the Creator and the most excellent of hiscreatures. This obvious consequence was maintained by ∆tius, on whomthe zeal of his adversaries bestowed the surname of the Atheist. Hisrestless and aspiring spirit urged him to try almost every professionof human life. He was successively a slave, or at least a husbandman,a travelling tinker, a goldsmith, a physician, a schoolmaster,a theologian, and at last the apostle of a new church, which waspropagated by the abilities of his disciple Eunomius. Armed with textsof Scripture, and with captious syllogisms from the logic of Aristotle,the subtle ∆tius had acquired the fame of an invincible disputant, whomit was impossible either to silence or to convince. Such talents engagedthe friendship of the Arian bishops, till they were forced to renounce,and even to persecute, a dangerous ally, who, by the accuracy of hisreasoning, had prejudiced their cause in the popular opinion, andoffended the piety of their most devoted followers. 2. The omnipotenceof the Creator suggested a specious and respectful solution of thelikeness of the Father and the Son; and faith might humbly receive whatreason could not presume to deny, that the Supreme God might communicatehis infinite perfections, and create a being similar only to himself.These Arians were powerfully supported by the weight and abilitiesof their leaders, who had succeeded to the management of the Eusebianinterest, and who occupied the principal thrones of the East. Theydetested, perhaps with some affectation, the impiety of ∆tius; theyprofessed to believe, either without reserve, or according to theScriptures, that the Son was different from all other creatures, andsimilar only to the Father. But they denied, the he was either of thesame, or of a similar substance; sometimes boldly justifying theirdissent, and sometimes objecting to the use of the word substance,which seems to imply an adequate, or at least, a distinct, notion ofthe nature of the Deity. 3. The sect which deserted the doctrine of asimilar substance, was the most numerous, at least in the provinces ofAsia; and when the leaders of both parties were assembled in the councilof Seleucia, their opinion would have prevailed by a majority of onehundred and five to forty-three bishops. The Greek word, which waschosen to express this mysterious resemblance, bears so close anaffinity to the orthodox symbol, that the profane of every age havederided the furious contests which the difference of a single diphthongexcited between the hom*oousians and the hom*oiousians. As it frequentlyhappens, that the sounds and characters which approach the nearestto each other accidentally represent the most opposite ideas, theobservation would be itself ridiculous, if it were possible to mark anyreal and sensible distinction between the doctrine of the Semi-Arians,as they were improperly styled, and that of the Catholics themselves.The bishop of Poitiers, who in his Phrygian exile very wisely aimed ata coalition of parties, endeavors to prove that by a pious and faithfulinterpretation, the hom*oiousion may be reduced to a consubstantialsense. Yet he confesses that the word has a dark and suspiciousaspect; and, as if darkness were congenial to theological disputes, theSemi-Arians, who advanced to the doors of the church, assailed them withthe most unrelenting fury.

The provinces of Egypt and Asia, which cultivated the language andmanners of the Greeks, had deeply imbibed the venom of the Ariancontroversy. The familiar study of the Platonic system, a vain andargumentative disposition, a copious and flexible idiom, supplied theclergy and people of the East with an inexhaustible flow of words anddistinctions; and, in the midst of their fierce contentions, they easilyforgot the doubt which is recommended by philosophy, and the submissionwhich is enjoined by religion. The inhabitants of the West were of aless inquisitive spirit; their passions were not so forcibly moved byinvisible objects, their minds were less frequently exercised by thehabits of dispute; and such was the happy ignorance of the Gallicanchurch, that Hilary himself, above thirty years after the first generalcouncil, was still a stranger to the Nicene creed. The Latins hadreceived the rays of divine knowledge through the dark and doubtfulmedium of a translation. The poverty and stubbornness of their nativetongue was not always capable of affording just equivalents for theGreek terms, for the technical words of the Platonic philosophy, whichhad been consecrated, by the gospel or by the church, to express themysteries of the Christian faith; and a verbal defect might introduceinto the Latin theology a long train of error or perplexity. But as thewestern provincials had the good fortune of deriving their religion froman orthodox source, they preserved with steadiness the doctrinewhich they had accepted with docility; and when the Arian pestilenceapproached their frontiers, they were supplied with the seasonablepreservative of the hom*oousion, by the paternal care of the Romanpontiff. Their sentiments and their temper were displayed in thememorable synod of Rimini, which surpassed in numbers the council ofNice, since it was composed of above four hundred bishops of Italy,Africa, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and Illyricum. From the first debates itappeared, that only fourscore prelates adhered to the party, thoughthey affected to anathematize the name and memory, of Arius. But thisinferiority was compensated by the advantages of skill, of experience,and of discipline; and the minority was conducted by Valens andUrsacius, two bishops of Illyricum, who had spent their lives in theintrigues of courts and councils, and who had been trained under theEusebian banner in the religious wars of the East. By their argumentsand negotiations, they embarrassed, they confounded, they at lastdeceived, the honest simplicity of the Latin bishops; who sufferedthe palladium of the faith to be extorted from their hand by fraud andimportunity, rather than by open violence. The council of Rimini wasnot allowed to separate, till the members had imprudently subscribed acaptious creed, in which some expressions, susceptible of an hereticalsense, were inserted in the room of the hom*oousion. It was on thisoccasion, that, according to Jerom, the world was surprised to finditself Arian. But the bishops of the Latin provinces had no soonerreached their respective dioceses, than they discovered their mistake,and repented of their weakness. The ignominious capitulation wasrejected with disdain and abhorrence; and the hom*oousian standard, whichhad been shaken but not overthrown, was more firmly replanted in all thechurches of the West.

Chapter XXI: Persecution Of Heresy, State Of The Church.--Part IV.

Such was the rise and progress, and such were the natural revolutionsof those theological disputes, which disturbed the peace of Christianityunder the reigns of Constantine and of his sons. But as those princespresumed to extend their despotism over the faith, as well as over thelives and fortunes, of their subjects, the weight of their suffragesometimes inclined the ecclesiastical balance: and the prerogatives ofthe King of Heaven were settled, or changed, or modified, in the cabinetof an earthly monarch.

The unhappy spirit of discord which pervaded the provinces of the East,interrupted the triumph of Constantine; but the emperor continued forsome time to view, with cool and careless indifference, the object ofthe dispute. As he was yet ignorant of the difficulty of appeasing thequarrels of theologians, he addressed to the contending parties, toAlexander and to Arius, a moderating epistle; which may be ascribed,with far greater reason, to the untutored sense of a soldier andstatesman, than to the dictates of any of his episcopal counsellors. Heattributes the origin of the whole controversy to a trifling andsubtle question, concerning an incomprehensible point of law, whichwas foolishly asked by the bishop, and imprudently resolved by thepresbyter. He laments that the Christian people, who had the same God,the same religion, and the same worship, should be divided by suchinconsiderable distinctions; and he seriously recommend to the clergyof Alexandria the example of the Greek philosophers; who could maintaintheir arguments without losing their temper, and assert their freedomwithout violating their friendship. The indifference and contempt ofthe sovereign would have been, perhaps, the most effectual method ofsilencing the dispute, if the popular current had been less rapid andimpetuous, and if Constantine himself, in the midst of faction andfanaticism, could have preserved the calm possession of his ownmind. But his ecclesiastical ministers soon contrived to seduce theimpartiality of the magistrate, and to awaken the zeal of the proselyte.He was provoked by the insults which had been offered to his statues;he was alarmed by the real, as well as the imaginary magnitude ofthe spreading mischief; and he extinguished the hope of peace andtoleration, from the moment that he assembled three hundred bishopswithin the walls of the same palace. The presence of the monarch swelledthe importance of the debate; his attention multiplied the arguments;and he exposed his person with a patient intrepidity, which animatedthe valor of the combatants. Notwithstanding the applause which has beenbestowed on the eloquence and sagacity of Constantine, a Roman general,whose religion might be still a subject of doubt, and whose mind had notbeen enlightened either by study or by inspiration, was indifferentlyqualified to discuss, in the Greek language, a metaphysical question, oran article of faith. But the credit of his favorite Osius, who appearsto have presided in the council of Nice, might dispose the emperor infavor of the orthodox party; and a well-timed insinuation, that thesame Eusebius of Nicomedia, who now protected the heretic, had latelyassisted the tyrant, might exasperate him against their adversaries. TheNicene creed was ratified by Constantine; and his firm declaration,that those who resisted the divine judgment of the synod, must preparethemselves for an immediate exile, annihilated the murmurs of a feebleopposition; which, from seventeen, was almost instantly reduced totwo, protesting bishops. Eusebius of CÊsarea yielded a reluctant andambiguous consent to the hom*oousion; and the wavering conduct of theNicomedian Eusebius served only to delay, about three months, hisdisgrace and exile. The impious Arius was banished into one of theremote provinces of Illyricum; his person and disciples were branded bylaw with the odious name of Porphyrians; his writings were condemnedto the flames, and a capital punishment was denounced against those inwhose possession they should be found. The emperor had now imbibed thespirit of controversy, and the angry, sarcastic style of his edicts wasdesigned to inspire his subjects with the hatred which he had conceivedagainst the enemies of Christ.

But, as if the conduct of the emperor had been guided by passion insteadof principle, three years from the council of Nice were scarcely elapsedbefore he discovered some symptoms of mercy, and even of indulgence,towards the proscribed sect, which was secretly protected by hisfavorite sister. The exiles were recalled, and Eusebius, who graduallyresumed his influence over the mind of Constantine, was restored to theepiscopal throne, from which he had been ignominiously degraded. Ariushimself was treated by the whole court with the respect which would havebeen due to an innocent and oppressed man. His faith was approved bythe synod of Jerusalem; and the emperor seemed impatient to repair hisinjustice, by issuing an absolute command, that he should be solemnlyadmitted to the communion in the cathedral of Constantinople. On thesame day, which had been fixed for the triumph of Arius, he expired;and the strange and horrid circ*mstances of his death might excite asuspicion, that the orthodox saints had contributed more efficaciouslythan by their prayers, to deliver the church from the most formidable ofher enemies. The three principal leaders of the Catholics, Athanasiusof Alexandria, Eustathius of Antioch, and Paul of Constantinople weredeposed on various f accusations, by the sentence of numerous councils;and were afterwards banished into distant provinces by the first of theChristian emperors, who, in the last moments of his life, received therites of baptism from the Arian bishop of Nicomedia. The ecclesiasticalgovernment of Constantine cannot be justified from the reproach oflevity and weakness. But the credulous monarch, unskilled in thestratagems of theological warfare, might be deceived by the modestand specious professions of the heretics, whose sentiments he neverperfectly understood; and while he protected Arius, and persecutedAthanasius, he still considered the council of Nice as the bulwark ofthe Christian faith, and the peculiar glory of his own reign.

The sons of Constantine must have been admitted from their childhoodinto the rank of catechumens; but they imitated, in the delay oftheir baptism, the example of their father. Like him they presumed topronounce their judgment on mysteries into which they had never beenregularly initiated; and the fate of the Trinitarian controversydepended, in a great measure, on the sentiments of Constantius; whoinherited the provinces of the East, and acquired the possession of thewhole empire. The Arian presbyter or bishop, who had secreted forhis use the testament of the deceased emperor, improved the fortunateoccasion which had introduced him to the familiarity of a prince,whose public counsels were always swayed by his domestic favorites. Theeunuchs and slaves diffused the spiritual poison through the palace, andthe dangerous infection was communicated by the female attendants to theguards, and by the empress to her unsuspicious husband. The partialitywhich Constantius always expressed towards the Eusebian faction, wasinsensibly fortified by the dexterous management of their leaders; andhis victory over the tyrant Magnentius increased his inclination, aswell as ability, to employ the arms of power in the cause of Arianism.While the two armies were engaged in the plains of Mursa, and the fateof the two rivals depended on the chance of war, the son of Constantinepassed the anxious moments in a church of the martyrs under the wallsof the city. His spiritual comforter, Valens, the Arian bishop of thediocese, employed the most artful precautions to obtain such earlyintelligence as might secure either his favor or his escape. A secretchain of swift and trusty messengers informed him of the vicissitudesof the battle; and while the courtiers stood trembling round theiraffrighted master, Valens assured him that the Gallic legions gave way;and insinuated with some presence of mind, that the glorious event hadbeen revealed to him by an angel. The grateful emperor ascribed hissuccess to the merits and intercession of the bishop of Mursa, whosefaith had deserved the public and miraculous approbation of Heaven.The Arians, who considered as their own the victory of Constantius,preferred his glory to that of his father. Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem,immediately composed the description of a celestial cross, encircledwith a splendid rainbow; which during the festival of Pentecost, aboutthe third hour of the day, had appeared over the Mount of Olives, to theedification of the devout pilgrims, and the people of the holy city. Thesize of the meteor was gradually magnified; and the Arian historian hasventured to affirm, that it was conspicuous to the two armies in theplains of Pannonia; and that the tyrant, who is purposely represented asan idolater, fled before the auspicious sign of orthodox Christianity.

The sentiments of a judicious stranger, who has impartially consideredthe progress of civil or ecclesiastical discord, are always entitled toour notice; and a short passage of Ammianus, who served in the armies,and studied the character of Constantius, is perhaps of more value thanmany pages of theological invectives. "The Christian religion, which,in itself," says that moderate historian, "is plain and simple, heconfounded by the dotage of superstition. Instead of reconciling theparties by the weight of his authority, he cherished and promulgated, byverbal disputes, the differences which his vain curiosity had excited.The highways were covered with troops of bishops galloping from everyside to the assemblies, which they call synods; and while they laboredto reduce the whole sect to their own particular opinions, the publicestablishment of the posts was almost ruined by their hasty andrepeated journeys." Our more intimate knowledge of the ecclesiasticaltransactions of the reign of Constantius would furnish an amplecommentary on this remarkable passage, which justifies the rationalapprehensions of Athanasius, that the restless activity of the clergy,who wandered round the empire in search of the true faith, would excitethe contempt and laughter of the unbelieving world. As soon as theemperor was relieved from the terrors of the civil war, he devotedthe leisure of his winter quarters at Arles, Milan, Sirmium, andConstantinople, to the amusem*nt or toils of controversy: the sword ofthe magistrate, and even of the tyrant, was unsheathed, to enforce thereasons of the theologian; and as he opposed the orthodox faith of Nice,it is readily confessed that his incapacity and ignorance were equal tohis presumption. The eunuchs, the women, and the bishops, who governedthe vain and feeble mind of the emperor, had inspired him with aninsuperable dislike to the hom*oousion; but his timid consciencewas alarmed by the impiety of ∆tius. The guilt of that atheist wasaggravated by the suspicious favor of the unfortunate Gallus; and eventhe death of the Imperial ministers, who had been massacred at Antioch,were imputed to the suggestions of that dangerous sophist. The mind ofConstantius, which could neither be moderated by reason, nor fixed byfaith, was blindly impelled to either side of the dark and empty abyss,by his horror of the opposite extreme; he alternately embraced andcondemned the sentiments, he successively banished and recalled theleaders, of the Arian and Semi-Arian factions. During the season ofpublic business or festivity, he employed whole days, and even nights,in selecting the words, and weighing the syllables, which composed hisfluctuating creeds. The subject of his meditations still pursuedand occupied his slumbers: the incoherent dreams of the emperor werereceived as celestial visions, and he accepted with complacency thelofty title of bishop of bishops, from those ecclesiastics who forgotthe interest of their order for the gratification of their passions. Thedesign of establishing a uniformity of doctrine, which had engagedhim to convene so many synods in Gaul, Italy, Illyricum, and Asia, wasrepeatedly baffled by his own levity, by the divisions of the Arians,and by the resistance of the Catholics; and he resolved, as the lastand decisive effort, imperiously to dictate the decrees of a generalcouncil. The destructive earthquake of Nicomedia, the difficulty offinding a convenient place, and perhaps some secret motives of policy,produced an alteration in the summons. The bishops of the East weredirected to meet at Seleucia, in Isauria; while those of the Westheld their deliberations at Rimini, on the coast of the Hadriatic; andinstead of two or three deputies from each province, the whole episcopalbody was ordered to march. The Eastern council, after consuming fourdays in fierce and unavailing debate, separated without any definitiveconclusion. The council of the West was protracted till the seventhmonth. Taurus, the PrÊtorian prÊfect was instructed not to dismiss theprelates till they should all be united in the same opinion; and hisefforts were supported by the power of banishing fifteen of the mostrefractory, and a promise of the consulship if he achieved so difficultan adventure. His prayers and threats, the authority of the sovereign,the sophistry of Valens and Ursacius, the distress of cold and hunger,and the tedious melancholy of a hopeless exile, at length extorted thereluctant consent of the bishops of Rimini. The deputies of the East andof the West attended the emperor in the palace of Constantinople, and heenjoyed the satisfaction of imposing on the world a profession offaith which established the likeness, without expressing theconsubstantiality, of the Son of God. But the triumph of Arianismhad been preceded by the removal of the orthodox clergy, whom itwas impossible either to intimidate or to corrupt; and the reign ofConstantius was disgraced by the unjust and ineffectual persecution ofthe great Athanasius.

We have seldom an opportunity of observing, either in active orspeculative life, what effect may be produced, or what obstacles may besurmounted, by the force of a single mind, when it is inflexibly appliedto the pursuit of a single object. The immortal name of Athanasius willnever be separated from the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity, to whosedefence he consecrated every moment and every faculty of his being.Educated in the family of Alexander, he had vigorously opposed the earlyprogress of the Arian heresy: he exercised the important functions ofsecretary under the aged prelate; and the fathers of the Nicene councilbeheld with surprise and respect the rising virtues of the young deacon.In a time of public danger, the dull claims of age and of rank aresometimes superseded; and within five months after his return from Nice,the deacon Athanasius was seated on the archiepiscopal throne of Egypt.He filled that eminent station above forty-six years, and his longadministration was spent in a perpetual combat against the powers ofArianism. Five times was Athanasius expelled from his throne; twentyyears he passed as an exile or a fugitive: and almost every provinceof the Roman empire was successively witness to his merit, and hissufferings in the cause of the hom*oousion, which he considered as thesole pleasure and business, as the duty, and as the glory of his life.Amidst the storms of persecution, the archbishop of Alexandria waspatient of labor, jealous of fame, careless of safety; and although hismind was tainted by the contagion of fanaticism, Athanasius displayed asuperiority of character and abilities, which would have qualified him,far better than the degenerate sons of Constantine, for the governmentof a great monarchy. His learning was much less profound and extensivethan that of Eusebius of CÊsarea, and his rude eloquence could not becompared with the polished oratory of Gregory of Basil; but wheneverthe primate of Egypt was called upon to justify his sentiments, or hisconduct, his unpremeditated style, either of speaking or writing, wasclear, forcible, and persuasive. He has always been revered, in theorthodox school, as one of the most accurate masters of the Christiantheology; and he was supposed to possess two profane sciences, lessadapted to the episcopal character, the knowledge of jurisprudence, andthat of divination. Some fortunate conjectures of future events, whichimpartial reasoners might ascribe to the experience and judgment ofAthanasius, were attributed by his friends to heavenly inspiration, andimputed by his enemies to infernal magic.

But as Athanasius was continually engaged with the prejudices andpassions of every order of men, from the monk to the emperor, theknowledge of human nature was his first and most important science. Hepreserved a distinct and unbroken view of a scene which was incessantlyshifting; and never failed to improve those decisive moments whichare irrecoverably past before they are perceived by a common eye. Thearchbishop of Alexandria was capable of distinguishing how far he mightboldly command, and where he must dexterously insinuate; how long hemight contend with power, and when he must withdraw from persecution;and while he directed the thunders of the church against heresy andrebellion, he could assume, in the bosom of his own party, the flexibleand indulgent temper of a prudent leader. The election of Athanasiushas not escaped the reproach of irregularity and precipitation; but thepropriety of his behavior conciliated the affections both of the clergyand of the people. The Alexandrians were impatient to rise in arms forthe defence of an eloquent and liberal pastor. In his distress he alwaysderived support, or at least consolation, from the faithful attachmentof his parochial clergy; and the hundred bishops of Egypt adhered, withunshaken zeal, to the cause of Athanasius. In the modest equipage whichpride and policy would affect, he frequently performed the episcopalvisitation of his provinces, from the mouth of the Nile to the confinesof ∆thiopia; familiarly conversing with the meanest of the populace, andhumbly saluting the saints and hermits of the desert. Nor was it onlyin ecclesiastical assemblies, among men whose education and mannerswere similar to his own, that Athanasius displayed the ascendancy of hisgenius. He appeared with easy and respectful firmness in the courts ofprinces; and in the various turns of his prosperous and adverse fortunehe never lost the confidence of his friends, or the esteem of hisenemies.

In his youth, the primate of Egypt resisted the great Constantine, whohad repeatedly signified his will, that Arius should be restored tothe Catholic communion. The emperor respected, and might forgive, thisinflexible resolution; and the faction who considered Athanasius astheir most formidable enemy, was constrained to dissemble their hatred,and silently to prepare an indirect and distant assault. They scatteredrumors and suspicions, represented the archbishop as a proud andoppressive tyrant, and boldly accused him of violating the treaty whichhad been ratified in the Nicene council, with the schismatic followersof Meletius. Athanasius had openly disapproved that ignominiouspeace, and the emperor was disposed to believe that he had abused hisecclesiastical and civil power, to prosecute those odious sectaries:that he had sacrilegiously broken a chalice in one of their churches ofMareotis; that he had whipped or imprisoned six of their bishops; andthat Arsenius, a seventh bishop of the same party, had been murdered,or at least mutilated, by the cruel hand of the primate. These charges,which affected his honor and his life, were referred by Constantine tohis brother Dalmatius the censor, who resided at Antioch; the synods ofCÊsarea and Tyre were successively convened; and the bishops of the Eastwere instructed to judge the cause of Athanasius, before they proceededto consecrate the new church of the Resurrection at Jerusalem. Theprimate might be conscious of his innocence; but he was sensible thatthe same implacable spirit which had dictated the accusation, woulddirect the proceeding, and pronounce the sentence. He prudently declinedthe tribunal of his enemies; despised the summons of the synod ofCÊsarea; and, after a long and artful delay, submitted to the peremptorycommands of the emperor, who threatened to punish his criminaldisobedience if he refused to appear in the council of Tyre. BeforeAthanasius, at the head of fifty Egyptian prelates, sailed fromAlexandria, he had wisely secured the alliance of the Meletians; andArsenius himself, his imaginary victim, and his secret friend, wasprivately concealed in his train. The synod of Tyre was conducted byEusebius of CÊsarea, with more passion, and with less art, than hislearning and experience might promise; his numerous faction repeated thenames of homicide and tyrant; and their clamors were encouraged by theseeming patience of Athanasius, who expected the decisive moment toproduce Arsenius alive and unhurt in the midst of the assembly. Thenature of the other charges did not admit of such clear and satisfactoryreplies; yet the archbishop was able to prove, that in the village,where he was accused of breaking a consecrated chalice, neither churchnor altar nor chalice could really exist. The Arians, who had secretlydetermined the guilt and condemnation of their enemy, attempted,however, to disguise their injustice by the imitation of judicial forms:the synod appointed an episcopal commission of six delegates to collectevidence on the spot; and this measure which was vigorously opposed bythe Egyptian bishops, opened new scenes of violence and perjury. Afterthe return of the deputies from Alexandria, the majority of the councilpronounced the final sentence of degradation and exile against theprimate of Egypt. The decree, expressed in the fiercest language ofmalice and revenge, was communicated to the emperor and the Catholicchurch; and the bishops immediately resumed a mild and devout aspect,such as became their holy pilgrimage to the Sepulchre of Christ.

Chapter XXI: Persecution Of Heresy, State Of The Church.--Part V.

But the injustice of these ecclesiastical judges had not beencountenanced by the submission, or even by the presence, of Athanasius.He resolved to make a bold and dangerous experiment, whether the thronewas inaccessible to the voice of truth; and before the final sentencecould be pronounced at Tyre, the intrepid primate threw himself into abark which was ready to hoist sail for the Imperial city. The requestof a formal audience might have been opposed or eluded; but Athanasiusconcealed his arrival, watched the moment of Constantine's return froman adjacent villa, and boldly encountered his angry sovereign as hepassed on horseback through the principal street of Constantinople.So strange an apparition excited his surprise and indignation; and theguards were ordered to remove the importunate suitor; but his resentmentwas subdued by involuntary respect; and the haughty spirit of theemperor was awed by the courage and eloquence of a bishop, who imploredhis justice and awakened his conscience. Constantine listened to thecomplaints of Athanasius with impartial and even gracious attention; themembers of the synod of Tyre were summoned to justify their proceedings;and the arts of the Eusebian faction would have been confounded, ifthey had not aggravated the guilt of the primate, by the dexteroussupposition of an unpardonable offence; a criminal design to interceptand detain the corn-fleet of Alexandria, which supplied the subsistenceof the new capital. The emperor was satisfied that the peace of Egyptwould be secured by the absence of a popular leader; but he refused tofill the vacancy of the archiepiscopal throne; and the sentence, which,after long hesitation, he pronounced, was that of a jealous ostracism,rather than of an ignominious exile. In the remote province of Gaul, butin the hospitable court of Treves, Athanasius passed about twenty eightmonths. The death of the emperor changed the face of public affairs and,amidst the general indulgence of a young reign, the primate was restoredto his country by an honorable edict of the younger Constantine, whoexpressed a deep sense of the innocence and merit of his venerableguest.

The death of that prince exposed Athanasius to a second persecution;and the feeble Constantius, the sovereign of the East, soon becamethe secret accomplice of the Eusebians. Ninety bishops of that sect orfaction assembled at Antioch, under the specious pretence of dedicatingthe cathedral. They composed an ambiguous creed, which is faintly tingedwith the colors of Semi-Arianism, and twenty-five canons, which stillregulate the discipline of the orthodox Greeks. It was decided, withsome appearance of equity, that a bishop, deprived by a synod, shouldnot resume his episcopal functions till he had been absolved by thejudgment of an equal synod; the law was immediately applied to the caseof Athanasius; the council of Antioch pronounced, or rather confirmed,his degradation: a stranger, named Gregory, was seated on his throne;and Philagrius, the prÊfect of Egypt, was instructed to support the newprimate with the civil and military powers of the province. Oppressedby the conspiracy of the Asiatic prelates, Athanasius withdrew fromAlexandria, and passed three years as an exile and a suppliant on theholy threshold of the Vatican. By the assiduous study of the Latinlanguage, he soon qualified himself to negotiate with the westernclergy; his decent flattery swayed and directed the haughty Julius;the Roman pontiff was persuaded to consider his appeal as the peculiarinterest of the Apostolic see: and his innocence was unanimouslydeclared in a council of fifty bishops of Italy. At the end of threeyears, the primate was summoned to the court of Milan by the emperorConstans, who, in the indulgence of unlawful pleasures, still professeda lively regard for the orthodox faith. The cause of truth and justicewas promoted by the influence of gold, and the ministers of Constansadvised their sovereign to require the convocation of an ecclesiasticalassembly, which might act as the representatives of the Catholic church.Ninety-four bishops of the West, seventy-six bishops of the East,encountered each other at Sardica, on the verge of the two empires,but in the dominions of the protector of Athanasius. Their debates soondegenerated into hostile altercations; the Asiatics, apprehensive fortheir personal safety, retired to Philippopolis in Thrace; and therival synods reciprocally hurled their spiritual thunders against theirenemies, whom they piously condemned as the enemies of the true God.Their decrees were published and ratified in their respective provinces:and Athanasius, who in the West was revered as a saint, was exposed asa criminal to the abhorrence of the East. The council of Sardica revealsthe first symptoms of discord and schism between the Greek and Latinchurches which were separated by the accidental difference of faith, andthe permanent distinction of language.

During his second exile in the West, Athanasius was frequently admittedto the Imperial presence; at Capua, Lodi, Milan, Verona, Padua,Aquileia, and Treves. The bishop of the diocese usually assisted atthese interviews; the master of the offices stood before the veil orcurtain of the sacred apartment; and the uniform moderation of theprimate might be attested by these respectable witnesses, to whoseevidence he solemnly appeals. Prudence would undoubtedly suggest themild and respectful tone that became a subject and a bishop. In thesefamiliar conferences with the sovereign of the West, Athanasius mightlament the error of Constantius, but he boldly arraigned the guilt ofhis eunuchs and his Arian prelates; deplored the distress and danger ofthe Catholic church; and excited Constans to emulate the zeal and gloryof his father. The emperor declared his resolution of employing thetroops and treasures of Europe in the orthodox cause; and signified, bya concise and peremptory epistle to his brother Constantius, that unlesshe consented to the immediate restoration of Athanasius, he himself,with a fleet and army, would seat the archbishop on the throne ofAlexandria. But this religious war, so horrible to nature, was preventedby the timely compliance of Constantius; and the emperor of the Eastcondescended to solicit a reconciliation with a subject whom he hadinjured. Athanasius waited with decent pride, till he had received threesuccessive epistles full of the strongest assurances of the protection,the favor, and the esteem of his sovereign; who invited him to resumehis episcopal seat, and who added the humiliating precaution of engaginghis principal ministers to attest the sincerity of his intentions. Theywere manifested in a still more public manner, by the strict orderswhich were despatched into Egypt to recall the adherents of Athanasius,to restore their privileges, to proclaim their innocence, and toerase from the public registers the illegal proceedings which had beenobtained during the prevalence of the Eusebian faction. After everysatisfaction and security had been given, which justice or even delicacycould require, the primate proceeded, by slow journeys, through theprovinces of Thrace, Asia, and Syria; and his progress was marked by theabject homage of the Oriental bishops, who excited his contempt withoutdeceiving his penetration. At Antioch he saw the emperor Constantius;sustained, with modest firmness, the embraces and protestations of hismaster, and eluded the proposal of allowing the Arians a single churchat Alexandria, by claiming, in the other cities of the empire, a similartoleration for his own party; a reply which might have appeared justand moderate in the mouth of an independent prince. The entrance ofthe archbishop into his capital was a triumphal procession; absence andpersecution had endeared him to the Alexandrians; his authority, whichhe exercised with rigor, was more firmly established; and his famewas diffused from ∆thiopia to Britain, over the whole extent of theChristian world.

But the subject who has reduced his prince to the necessity ofdissembling, can never expect a sincere and lasting forgiveness; andthe tragic fate of Constans soon deprived Athanasius of a powerful andgenerous protector. The civil war between the assassin and the onlysurviving brother of Constans, which afflicted the empire above threeyears, secured an interval of repose to the Catholic church; and thetwo contending parties were desirous to conciliate the friendship of abishop, who, by the weight of his personal authority, might determinethe fluctuating resolutions of an important province. He gave audienceto the ambassadors of the tyrant, with whom he was afterwards accused ofholding a secret correspondence; and the emperor Constantius repeatedlyassured his dearest father, the most reverend Athanasius, that,notwithstanding the malicious rumors which were circulated by theircommon enemies, he had inherited the sentiments, as well as the throne,of his deceased brother. Gratitude and humanity would have disposed theprimate of Egypt to deplore the untimely fate of Constans, and toabhor the guilt of Magnentius; but as he clearly understood that theapprehensions of Constantius were his only safeguard, the fervor of hisprayers for the success of the righteous cause might perhaps be somewhatabated. The ruin of Athanasius was no longer contrived by the obscuremalice of a few bigoted or angry bishops, who abused the authority of acredulous monarch. The monarch himself avowed the resolution, which hehad so long suppressed, of avenging his private injuries; and the firstwinter after his victory, which he passed at Arles, was employed againstan enemy more odious to him than the vanquished tyrant of Gaul.

If the emperor had capriciously decreed the death of the most eminentand virtuous citizen of the republic, the cruel order would have beenexecuted without hesitation, by the ministers of open violence or ofspecious injustice. The caution, the delay, the difficulty with whichhe proceeded in the condemnation and punishment of a popular bishop,discovered to the world that the privileges of the church had alreadyrevived a sense of order and freedom in the Roman government. Thesentence which was pronounced in the synod of Tyre, and subscribed bya large majority of the Eastern bishops, had never been expresslyrepealed; and as Athanasius had been once degraded from his episcopaldignity by the judgment of his brethren, every subsequent act might beconsidered as irregular, and even criminal. But the memory of the firmand effectual support which the primate of Egypt had derived from theattachment of the Western church, engaged Constantius to suspend theexecution of the sentence till he had obtained the concurrence of theLatin bishops. Two years were consumed in ecclesiastical negotiations;and the important cause between the emperor and one of his subjects wassolemnly debated, first in the synod of Arles, and afterwards in thegreat council of Milan, which consisted of above three hundred bishops.Their integrity was gradually undermined by the arguments of the Arians,the dexterity of the eunuchs, and the pressing solicitations of a princewho gratified his revenge at the expense of his dignity, and exposed hisown passions, whilst he influenced those of the clergy. Corruption,the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty, was successfullypractised; honors, gifts, and immunities were offered and accepted asthe price of an episcopal vote; and the condemnation of the Alexandrianprimate was artfully represented as the only measure which could restorethe peace and union of the Catholic church. The friends of Athanasiuswere not, however, wanting to their leader, or to their cause. Witha manly spirit, which the sanctity of their character rendered lessdangerous, they maintained, in public debate, and in private conferencewith the emperor, the eternal obligation of religion and justice.They declared, that neither the hope of his favor, nor the fear of hisdispleasure, should prevail on them to join in the condemnation of anabsent, an innocent, a respectable brother. They affirmed, with apparentreason, that the illegal and obsolete decrees of the council of Tyre hadlong since been tacitly abolished by the Imperial edicts, the honorablereestablishment of the archbishop of Alexandria, and the silence orrecantation of his most clamorous adversaries. They alleged, that hisinnocence had been attested by the unanimous bishops of Egypt, and hadbeen acknowledged in the councils of Rome and Sardica, by the impartialjudgment of the Latin church. They deplored the hard condition ofAthanasius, who, after enjoying so many years his seat, his reputation,and the seeming confidence of his sovereign, was again called upon toconfute the most groundless and extravagant accusations. Their languagewas specious; their conduct was honorable: but in this long andobstinate contest, which fixed the eyes of the whole empire on a singlebishop, the ecclesiastical factions were prepared to sacrifice truthand justice to the more interesting object of defending or removingthe intrepid champion of the Nicene faith. The Arians still thought itprudent to disguise, in ambiguous language, their real sentiments anddesigns; but the orthodox bishops, armed with the favor of the people,and the decrees of a general council, insisted on every occasion, andparticularly at Milan, that their adversaries should purge themselvesfrom the suspicion of heresy, before they presumed to arraign theconduct of the great Athanasius.

But the voice of reason (if reason was indeed on the side of Athanasius)was silenced by the clamors of a factious or venal majority; and thecouncils of Arles and Milan were not dissolved, till the archbishop ofAlexandria had been solemnly condemned and deposed by the judgment ofthe Western, as well as of the Eastern, church. The bishops who hadopposed, were required to subscribe, the sentence, and to unite inreligious communion with the suspected leaders of the adverse party. Aformulary of consent was transmitted by the messengers of state tothe absent bishops: and all those who refused to submit their privateopinion to the public and inspired wisdom of the councils of Arles andMilan, were immediately banished by the emperor, who affected to executethe decrees of the Catholic church. Among those prelates who led thehonorable band of confessors and exiles, Liberius of Rome, Osius ofCordova, Paulinus of Treves, Dionysius of Milan, Eusebius of VercellÊ,Lucifer of Cagliari and Hilary of Poitiers, may deserve to beparticularly distinguished. The eminent station of Liberius, whogoverned the capital of the empire; the personal merit and longexperience of the venerable Osius, who was revered as the favorite ofthe great Constantine, and the father of the Nicene faith, placed thoseprelates at the head of the Latin church: and their example, either ofsubmission or resistance, would probable be imitated by the episcopalcrowd. But the repeated attempts of the emperor to seduce or tointimidate the bishops of Rome and Cordova, were for some timeineffectual. The Spaniard declared himself ready to suffer underConstantius, as he had suffered threescore years before under hisgrandfather Maximian. The Roman, in the presence of his sovereign,asserted the innocence of Athanasius and his own freedom. When he wasbanished to BerÊa in Thrace, he sent back a large sum which had beenoffered for the accommodation of his journey; and insulted the court ofMilan by the haughty remark, that the emperor and his eunuchs might wantthat gold to pay their soldiers and their bishops. The resolution ofLiberius and Osius was at length subdued by the hardships of exile andconfinement. The Roman pontiff purchased his return by some criminalcompliances; and afterwards expiated his guilt by a seasonablerepentance. Persuasion and violence were employed to extort thereluctant signature of the decrepit bishop of Cordova, whose strengthwas broken, and whose faculties were perhaps impaired by the weight ofa hundred years; and the insolent triumph of the Arians provoked someof the orthodox party to treat with inhuman severity the character, orrather the memory, of an unfortunate old man, to whose former servicesChristianity itself was so deeply indebted.

The fall of Liberius and Osius reflected a brighter lustre on thefirmness of those bishops who still adhered, with unshaken fidelity,to the cause of Athanasius and religious truth. The ingenious maliceof their enemies had deprived them of the benefit of mutual comfort andadvice, separated those illustrious exiles into distant provinces, andcarefully selected the most inhospitable spots of a great empire. Yetthey soon experienced that the deserts of Libya, and the most barbaroustracts of Cappadocia, were less inhospitable than the residence of thosecities in which an Arian bishop could satiate, without restraint, theexquisite rancor of theological hatred. Their consolation was derivedfrom the consciousness of rectitude and independence, from the applause,the visits, the letters, and the liberal alms of their adherents, andfrom the satisfaction which they soon enjoyed of observing the intestinedivisions of the adversaries of the Nicene faith. Such was the niceand capricious taste of the emperor Constantius; and so easily washe offended by the slightest deviation from his imaginary standard ofChristian truth, that he persecuted, with equal zeal, those who defendedthe consubstantiality, those who asserted the similar substance, andthose who denied the likeness of the Son of God. Three bishops, degradedand banished for those adverse opinions, might possibly meet in the sameplace of exile; and, according to the difference of their temper, mighteither pity or insult the blind enthusiasm of their antagonists, whosepresent sufferings would never be compensated by future happiness.

The disgrace and exile of the orthodox bishops of the West weredesigned as so many preparatory steps to the ruin of Athanasius himself.Six-and-twenty months had elapsed, during which the Imperial courtsecretly labored, by the most insidious arts, to remove him fromAlexandria, and to withdraw the allowance which supplied his popularliberality. But when the primate of Egypt, deserted and proscribed bythe Latin church, was left destitute of any foreign support, Constantiusdespatched two of his secretaries with a verbal commission to announceand execute the order of his banishment. As the justice of the sentencewas publicly avowed by the whole party, the only motive which couldrestrain Constantius from giving his messengers the sanction of awritten mandate, must be imputed to his doubt of the event; and to asense of the danger to which he might expose the second city, and themost fertile province, of the empire, if the people should persist inthe resolution of defending, by force of arms, the innocence of theirspiritual father. Such extreme caution afforded Athanasius a speciouspretence respectfully to dispute the truth of an order, which he couldnot reconcile, either with the equity, or with the former declarations,of his gracious master. The civil powers of Egypt found themselvesinadequate to the task of persuading or compelling the primate toabdicate his episcopal throne; and they were obliged to concludea treaty with the popular leaders of Alexandria, by which it wasstipulated, that all proceedings and all hostilities should be suspendedtill the emperor's pleasure had been more distinctly ascertained. Bythis seeming moderation, the Catholics were deceived into a false andfatal security; while the legions of the Upper Egypt, and of Libya,advanced, by secret orders and hasty marches, to besiege, or rather tosurprise, a capital habituated to sedition, and inflamed by religiouszeal. The position of Alexandria, between the sea and the Lake Mareotis,facilitated the approach and landing of the troops; who were introducedinto the heart of the city, before any effectual measures could be takeneither to shut the gates or to occupy the important posts of defence.At the hour of midnight, twenty-three days after the signature of thetreaty, Syrianus, duke of Egypt, at the head of five thousand soldiers,armed and prepared for an assault, unexpectedly invested the church ofSt. Theonas, where the archbishop, with a part of his clergy and people,performed their nocturnal devotions. The doors of the sacred edificeyielded to the impetuosity of the attack, which was accompanied withevery horrid circ*mstance of tumult and bloodshed; but, as the bodies ofthe slain, and the fragments of military weapons, remained the nextday an unexceptionable evidence in the possession of the Catholics,the enterprise of Syrianus may be considered as a successful irruptionrather than as an absolute conquest. The other churches of the citywere profaned by similar outrages; and, during at least four months,Alexandria was exposed to the insults of a licentious army, stimulatedby the ecclesiastics of a hostile faction. Many of the faithful werekilled; who may deserve the name of martyrs, if their deaths wereneither provoked nor revenged; bishops and presbyters were treated withcruel ignominy; consecrated virgins were stripped naked, scourged andviolated; the houses of wealthy citizens were plundered; and, underthe mask of religious zeal, lust, avarice, and private resentmentwere gratified with impunity, and even with applause. The Pagans ofAlexandria, who still formed a numerous and discontented party, wereeasily persuaded to desert a bishop whom they feared and esteemed. Thehopes of some peculiar favors, and the apprehension of being involvedin the general penalties of rebellion, engaged them to promise theirsupport to the destined successor of Athanasius, the famous George ofCappadocia. The usurper, after receiving the consecration of an Ariansynod, was placed on the episcopal throne by the arms of Sebastian, whohad been appointed Count of Egypt for the execution of that importantdesign. In the use, as well as in the acquisition, of power, the tyrant,George disregarded the laws of religion, of justice, and of humanity;and the same scenes of violence and scandal which had been exhibitedin the capital, were repeated in more than ninety episcopal citiesof Egypt. Encouraged by success, Constantius ventured to approve theconduct of his minister. By a public and passionate epistle, the emperorcongratulates the deliverance of Alexandria from a popular tyrant, whodeluded his blind votaries by the magic of his eloquence; expatiates onthe virtues and piety of the most reverend George, the elected bishop;and aspires, as the patron and benefactor of the city to surpass thefame of Alexander himself. But he solemnly declares his unalterableresolution to pursue with fire and sword the seditious adherents of thewicked Athanasius, who, by flying from justice, has confessed his guilt,and escaped the ignominious death which he had so often deserved.

Chapter XXI: Persecution Of Heresy, State Of The Church.--Part VI.

Athanasius had indeed escaped from the most imminent dangers; and theadventures of that extraordinary man deserve and fix our attention. Onthe memorable night when the church of St. Theonas was invested by thetroops of Syrianus, the archbishop, seated on his throne, expected,with calm and intrepid dignity, the approach of death. While the publicdevotion was interrupted by shouts of rage and cries of terror,he animated his trembling congregation to express their religiousconfidence, by chanting one of the psalms of David which celebratesthe triumph of the God of IsrÊl over the haughty and impious tyrantof Egypt. The doors were at length burst open: a cloud of arrows wasdischarged among the people; the soldiers, with drawn swords, rushedforwards into the sanctuary; and the dreadful gleam of their arms wasreflected by the holy luminaries which burnt round the altar. Athanasiusstill rejected the pious importunity of the monks and presbyters, whowere attached to his person; and nobly refused to desert his episcopalstation, till he had dismissed in safety the last of the congregation.The darkness and tumult of the night favored the retreat of thearchbishop; and though he was oppressed by the waves of an agitatedmultitude, though he was thrown to the ground, and left without sense ormotion, he still recovered his undaunted courage, and eluded the eagersearch of the soldiers, who were instructed by their Arian guides,that the head of Athanasius would be the most acceptable present to theemperor. From that moment the primate of Egypt disappeared from the eyesof his enemies, and remained above six years concealed in impenetrableobscurity.

The despotic power of his implacable enemy filled the whole extent ofthe Roman world; and the exasperated monarch had endeavored, by a verypressing epistle to the Christian princes of Ethiopia, * to excludeAthanasius from the most remote and sequestered regions of the earth.Counts, prÊfects, tribunes, whole armies, were successively employed topursue a bishop and a fugitive; the vigilance of the civil and militarypowers was excited by the Imperial edicts; liberal rewards were promisedto the man who should produce Athanasius, either alive or dead; and themost severe penalties were denounced against those who should dare toprotect the public enemy. But the deserts of Thebais were now peopled bya race of wild, yet submissive fanatics, who preferred the commands oftheir abbot to the laws of their sovereign. The numerous disciples ofAntony and Pachomius received the fugitive primate as their father,admired the patience and humility with which he conformed to theirstrictest institutions, collected every word which dropped from his lipsas the genuine effusions of inspired wisdom; and persuaded themselvesthat their prayers, their fasts, and their vigils, were less meritoriousthan the zeal which they expressed, and the dangers which they braved,in the defence of truth and innocence. The monasteries of Egypt wereseated in lonely and desolate places, on the summit of mountains, or inthe islands of the Nile; and the sacred horn or trumpet of Tabennewas the well-known signal which assembled several thousand robust anddetermined monks, who, for the most part, had been the peasants of theadjacent country. When their dark retreats were invaded by a militaryforce, which it was impossible to resist, they silently stretched outtheir necks to the executioner; and supported their national character,that tortures could never wrest from an Egyptian the confession ofa secret which he was resolved not to disclose. The archbishop ofAlexandria, for whose safety they eagerly devoted their lives, waslost among a uniform and well-disciplined multitude; and on the nearerapproach of danger, he was swiftly removed, by their officious hands,from one place of concealment to another, till he reached the formidabledeserts, which the gloomy and credulous temper of superstition hadpeopled with dÊmons and savage monsters. The retirement of Athanasius,which ended only with the life of Constantius, was spent, for the mostpart, in the society of the monks, who faithfully served him as guards,as secretaries, and as messengers; but the importance of maintaining amore intimate connection with the Catholic party tempted him, wheneverthe diligence of the pursuit was abated, to emerge from the desert,to introduce himself into Alexandria, and to trust his person to thediscretion of his friends and adherents. His various adventures mighthave furnished the subject of a very entertaining romance. He was oncesecreted in a dry cistern, which he had scarcely left before he wasbetrayed by the treachery of a female slave; and he was once concealedin a still more extraordinary asylum, the house of a virgin, only twentyyears of age, and who was celebrated in the whole city for her exquisitebeauty. At the hour of midnight, as she related the story many yearsafterwards, she was surprised by the appearance of the archbishop in aloose undress, who, advancing with hasty steps, conjured her to affordhim the protection which he had been directed by a celestial vision toseek under her hospitable roof. The pious maid accepted and preservedthe sacred pledge which was intrusted to her prudence and courage.Without imparting the secret to any one, she instantly conductedAthanasius into her most secret chamber, and watched over his safetywith the tenderness of a friend and the assiduity of a servant. Aslong as the danger continued, she regularly supplied him with books andprovisions, washed his feet, managed his correspondence, and dexterouslyconcealed from the eye of suspicion this familiar and solitaryintercourse between a saint whose character required the mostunblemished chastity, and a female whose charms might excite the mostdangerous emotions. During the six years of persecution and exile,Athanasius repeated his visits to his fair and faithful companion; andthe formal declaration, that he saw the councils of Rimini and Seleucia,forces us to believe that he was secretly present at the time and placeof their convocation. The advantage of personally negotiating with hisfriends, and of observing and improving the divisions of his enemies,might justify, in a prudent statesman, so bold and dangerous anenterprise: and Alexandria was connected by trade and navigation withevery seaport of the Mediterranean. From the depth of his inaccessibleretreat the intrepid primate waged an incessant and offensive waragainst the protector of the Arians; and his seasonable writings, whichwere diligently circulated and eagerly perused, contributed to unite andanimate the orthodox party. In his public apologies, which he addressedto the emperor himself, he sometimes affected the praise of moderation;whilst at the same time, in secret and vehement invectives, he exposedConstantius as a weak and wicked prince, the executioner of his family,the tyrant of the republic, and the Antichrist of the church. In theheight of his prosperity, the victorious monarch, who had chastised therashness of Gallus, and suppressed the revolt of Sylvanus, who had takenthe diadem from the head of Vetranio, and vanquished in the field thelegions of Magnentius, received from an invisible hand a wound, which hecould neither heal nor revenge; and the son of Constantine was thefirst of the Christian princes who experienced the strength of thoseprinciples, which, in the cause of religion, could resist the mostviolent exertions of the civil power.

The persecution of Athanasius, and of so many respectable bishops, whosuffered for the truth of their opinions, or at least for the integrityof their conscience, was a just subject of indignation and discontentto all Christians, except those who were blindly devoted to the Arianfaction. The people regretted the loss of their faithful pastors, whosebanishment was usually followed by the intrusion of a stranger into theepiscopal chair; and loudly complained, that the right of election wasviolated, and that they were condemned to obey a mercenary usurper,whose person was unknown, and whose principles were suspected. TheCatholics might prove to the world, that they were not involved inthe guilt and heresy of their ecclesiastical governor, by publiclytestifying their dissent, or by totally separating themselves fromhis communion. The first of these methods was invented at Antioch,and practised with such success, that it was soon diffused over theChristian world. The doxology or sacred hymn, which celebrates the gloryof the Trinity, is susceptible of very nice, but material, inflections;and the substance of an orthodox, or an heretical, creed, may beexpressed by the difference of a disjunctive, or a copulative, particle.Alternate responses, and a more regular psalmody, were introduced intothe public service by Flavianus and Diodorus, two devout and activelaymen, who were attached to the Nicene faith. Under their conducta swarm of monks issued from the adjacent desert, bands ofwell-disciplined singers were stationed in the cathedral of Antioch, theGlory to the Father, And the Son, And the Holy Ghost, was triumphantlychanted by a full chorus of voices; and the Catholics insulted, by thepurity of their doctrine, the Arian prelate, who had usurped the throneof the venerable Eustathius. The same zeal which inspired their songsprompted the more scrupulous members of the orthodox party to formseparate assemblies, which were governed by the presbyters, till thedeath of their exiled bishop allowed the election and consecration of anew episcopal pastor. The revolutions of the court multiplied the numberof pretenders; and the same city was often disputed, under the reignof Constantius, by two, or three, or even four, bishops, who exercisedtheir spiritual jurisdiction over their respective followers, andalternately lost and regained the temporal possessions of the church.The abuse of Christianity introduced into the Roman government newcauses of tyranny and sedition; the bands of civil society were tornasunder by the fury of religious factions; and the obscure citizen,who might calmly have surveyed the elevation and fall of successiveemperors, imagined and experienced, that his own life and fortune wereconnected with the interests of a popular ecclesiastic. The example ofthe two capitals, Rome and Constantinople, may serve to represent thestate of the empire, and the temper of mankind, under the reign of thesons of Constantine.

I. The Roman pontiff, as long as he maintained his station and hisprinciples, was guarded by the warm attachment of a great people; andcould reject with scorn the prayers, the menaces, and the oblations ofan heretical prince. When the eunuchs had secretly pronounced the exileof Liberius, the well-grounded apprehension of a tumult engaged them touse the utmost precautions in the execution of the sentence. The capitalwas invested on every side, and the prÊfect was commanded to seize theperson of the bishop, either by stratagem or by open force. The orderwas obeyed, and Liberius, with the greatest difficulty, at the hour ofmidnight, was swiftly conveyed beyond the reach of the Roman people,before their consternation was turned into rage. As soon as they wereinformed of his banishment into Thrace, a general assembly was convened,and the clergy of Rome bound themselves, by a public and solemn oath,never to desert their bishop, never to acknowledge the usurper FÊlix;who, by the influence of the eunuchs, had been irregularly chosen andconsecrated within the walls of a profane palace. At the end of twoyears, their pious obstinacy subsisted entire and unshaken; andwhen Constantius visited Rome, he was assailed by the importunatesolicitations of a people, who had preserved, as the last remnantof their ancient freedom, the right of treating their sovereign withfamiliar insolence. The wives of many of the senators and most honorablecitizens, after pressing their husbands to intercede in favor ofLiberius, were advised to undertake a commission, which in their handswould be less dangerous, and might prove more successful. The emperorreceived with politeness these female deputies, whose wealth and dignitywere displayed in the magnificence of their dress and ornaments: headmired their inflexible resolution of following their beloved pastorto the most distant regions of the earth; and consented that the twobishops, Liberius and FÊlix, should govern in peace their respectivecongregations. But the ideas of toleration were so repugnant to thepractice, and even to the sentiments, of those times, that when theanswer of Constantius was publicly read in the Circus of Rome, soreasonable a project of accommodation was rejected with contempt andridicule. The eager vehemence which animated the spectators in thedecisive moment of a horse-race, was now directed towards a differentobject; and the Circus resounded with the shout of thousands, whor*peatedly exclaimed, "One God, One Christ, One Bishop!" The zeal of theRoman people in the cause of Liberius was not confined to words alone;and the dangerous and bloody sedition which they excited soon after thedeparture of Constantius determined that prince to accept the submissionof the exiled prelate, and to restore him to the undivided dominion ofthe capital. After some ineffectual resistance, his rival was expelledfrom the city by the permission of the emperor and the power of theopposite faction; the adherents of FÊlix were inhumanly murdered in thestreets, in the public places, in the baths, and even in the churches;and the face of Rome, upon the return of a Christian bishop, renewed thehorrid image of the massacres of Marius, and the proscriptions of Sylla.

II. Notwithstanding the rapid increase of Christians under the reign ofthe Flavian family, Rome, Alexandria, and the other great cities of theempire, still contained a strong and powerful faction of Infidels, whoenvied the prosperity, and who ridiculed, even in their theatres, thetheological disputes of the church. Constantinople alone enjoyed theadvantage of being born and educated in the bosom of the faith. Thecapital of the East had never been polluted by the worship of idols;and the whole body of the people had deeply imbibed the opinions, thevirtues, and the passions, which distinguished the Christians ofthat age from the rest of mankind. After the death of Alexander, theepiscopal throne was disputed by Paul and Macedonius. By their zeal andabilities they both deserved the eminent station to which they aspired;and if the moral character of Macedonius was less exceptionable, hiscompetitor had the advantage of a prior election and a more orthodoxdoctrine. His firm attachment to the Nicene creed, which has given Paula place in the calendar among saints and martyrs, exposed him to theresentment of the Arians. In the space of fourteen years he was fivetimes driven from his throne; to which he was more frequently restoredby the violence of the people, than by the permission of the prince; andthe power of Macedonius could be secured only by the death of his rival.The unfortunate Paul was dragged in chains from the sandy deserts ofMesopotamia to the most desolate places of Mount Taurus, confined ina dark and narrow dungeon, left six days without food, and at lengthstrangled, by the order of Philip, one of the principal ministers of theemperor Constantius. The first blood which stained the new capital wasspilt in this ecclesiastical contest; and many persons were slain onboth sides, in the furious and obstinate seditions of the people. Thecommission of enforcing a sentence of banishment against Paul had beenintrusted to Hermogenes, the master-general of the cavalry; but theexecution of it was fatal to himself. The Catholics rose in the defenceof their bishop; the palace of Hermogenes was consumed; the firstmilitary officer of the empire was dragged by the heels through thestreets of Constantinople, and, after he expired, his lifeless corpsewas exposed to their wanton insults. The fate of Hermogenes instructedPhilip, the PrÊtorian prÊfect, to act with more precaution on a similaroccasion. In the most gentle and honorable terms, he required theattendance of Paul in the baths of Zeuxippus, which had a privatecommunication with the palace and the sea. A vessel, which lay ready atthe garden stairs, immediately hoisted sail; and, while the people werestill ignorant of the meditated sacrilege, their bishop was alreadyembarked on his voyage to Thessalonica. They soon beheld, with surpriseand indignation, the gates of the palace thrown open, and the usurperMacedonius seated by the side of the prÊfect on a lofty chariot, whichwas surrounded by troops of guards with drawn swords. The militaryprocession advanced towards the cathedral; the Arians and the Catholicseagerly rushed to occupy that important post; and three thousand onehundred and fifty persons lost their lives in the confusion of thetumult. Macedonius, who was supported by a regular force, obtained adecisive victory; but his reign was disturbed by clamor and sedition;and the causes which appeared the least connected with the subject ofdispute, were sufficient to nourish and to kindle the flame of civildiscord. As the chapel in which the body of the great Constantine hadbeen deposited was in a ruinous condition, the bishop transported thosevenerable remains into the church of St. Acacius. This prudent and evenpious measure was represented as a wicked profanation by the whole partywhich adhered to the hom*oousian doctrine. The factions immediately flewto arms, the consecrated ground was used as their field of battle; andone of the ecclesiastical historians has observed, as a real fact, notas a figure of rhetoric, that the well before the church overflowed witha stream of blood, which filled the porticos and the adjacent courts.The writer who should impute these tumults solely to a religiousprinciple, would betray a very imperfect knowledge of human nature; yetit must be confessed that the motive which misled the sincerity ofzeal, and the pretence which disguised the licentiousness of passion,suppressed the remorse which, in another cause, would have succeeded tothe rage of the Christians at Constantinople.

Chapter XXI: Persecution Of Heresy, State Of The Church.--Part VII.

The cruel and arbitrary disposition of Constantius, which did not alwaysrequire the provocations of guilt and resistance, was justly exasperatedby the tumults of his capital, and the criminal behavior of a faction,which opposed the authority and religion of their sovereign. Theordinary punishments of death, exile, and confiscation, were inflictedwith partial vigor; and the Greeks still revere the holy memory of twoclerks, a reader, and a sub-deacon, who were accused of the murder ofHermogenes, and beheaded at the gates of Constantinople. By an edict ofConstantius against the Catholics which has not been judged worthy of aplace in the Theodosian code, those who refused to communicate with theArian bishops, and particularly with Macedonius, were deprived of theimmunities of ecclesiastics, and of the rights of Christians; theywere compelled to relinquish the possession of the churches; and werestrictly prohibited from holding their assemblies within the walls ofthe city. The execution of this unjust law, in the provinces of Thraceand Asia Minor, was committed to the zeal of Macedonius; the civil andmilitary powers were directed to obey his commands; and the crueltiesexercised by this Semi-Arian tyrant in the support of the hom*oiousion,exceeded the commission, and disgraced the reign, of Constantius. Thesacraments of the church were administered to the reluctant victims,who denied the vocation, and abhorred the principles, of Macedonius.The rites of baptism were conferred on women and children, who, for thatpurpose, had been torn from the arms of their friends and parents; themouths of the communicants were held open by a wooden engine, while theconsecrated bread was forced down their throat; the breasts of tendervirgins were either burnt with red-hot egg-shells, or inhumanlycompressed between sharp and heavy boards. The Novatians ofConstantinople and the adjacent country, by their firm attachment tothe hom*oousian standard, deserved to be confounded with the Catholicsthemselves. Macedonius was informed, that a large district ofPaphlagonia was almost entirely inhabited by those sectaries. Heresolved either to convert or to extirpate them; and as he distrusted,on this occasion, the efficacy of an ecclesiastical mission, hecommanded a body of four thousand legionaries to march against therebels, and to reduce the territory of Mantinium under his spiritualdominion. The Novatian peasants, animated by despair and religious fury,boldly encountered the invaders of their country; and though many ofthe Paphlagonians were slain, the Roman legions were vanquished by anirregular multitude, armed only with scythes and axes; and, except a fewwho escaped by an ignominious flight, four thousand soldiers were leftdead on the field of battle. The successor of Constantius has expressed,in a concise but lively manner, some of the theological calamities whichafflicted the empire, and more especially the East, in the reign ofa prince who was the slave of his own passions, and of those of hiseunuchs: "Many were imprisoned, and persecuted, and driven intoexile. Whole troops of those who are styled heretics, were massacred,particularly at Cyzicus, and at Samosata. In Paphlagonia, Bithynia,Galatia, and in many other provinces, towns and villages were laidwaste, and utterly destroyed."

While the flames of the Arian controversy consumed the vitals of theempire, the African provinces were infested by their peculiar enemies,the savage fanatics, who, under the name of Circumcellions, formed thestrength and scandal of the Donatist party. The severe execution of thelaws of Constantine had excited a spirit of discontent and resistance,the strenuous efforts of his son Constans, to restore the unity of thechurch, exasperated the sentiments of mutual hatred, which had firstoccasioned the separation; and the methods of force and corruptionemployed by the two Imperial commissioners, Paul and Macarius, furnishedthe schismatics with a specious contrast between the maxims of theapostles and the conduct of their pretended successors. The peasants whoinhabited the villages of Numidia and Mauritania, were a ferocious race,who had been imperfectly reduced under the authority of the Roman laws;who were imperfectly converted to the Christian faith; but who wereactuated by a blind and furious enthusiasm in the cause of theirDonatist teachers. They indignantly supported the exile of theirbishops, the demolition of their churches, and the interruption of theirsecret assemblies. The violence of the officers of justice, who wereusually sustained by a military guard, was sometimes repelled with equalviolence; and the blood of some popular ecclesiastics, which had beenshed in the quarrel, inflamed their rude followers with an eager desireof revenging the death of these holy martyrs. By their own cruelty andrashness, the ministers of persecution sometimes provoked their fate;and the guilt of an accidental tumult precipitated the criminals intodespair and rebellion. Driven from their native villages, the Donatistpeasants assembled in formidable gangs on the edge of the Getuliandesert; and readily exchanged the habits of labor for a life of idlenessand rapine, which was consecrated by the name of religion, and faintlycondemned by the doctors of the sect. The leaders of the Circumcellionsassumed the title of captains of the saints; their principal weapon, asthey were indifferently provided with swords and spears, was a huge andweighty club, which they termed an Israelite; and the well-known soundof "Praise be to God," which they used as their cry of war, diffusedconsternation over the unarmed provinces of Africa. At first theirdepredations were colored by the plea of necessity; but they soonexceeded the measure of subsistence, indulged without control theirintemperance and avarice, burnt the villages which they had pillaged,and reigned the licentious tyrants of the open country. The occupationsof husbandry, and the administration of justice, were interrupted; andas the Circumcellions pretended to restore the primitive equality ofmankind, and to reform the abuses of civil society, they opened a secureasylum for the slaves and debtors, who flocked in crowds to their holystandard. When they were not resisted, they usually contented themselveswith plunder, but the slightest opposition provoked them to acts ofviolence and murder; and some Catholic priests, who had imprudentlysignalized their zeal, were tortured by the fanatics with the mostrefined and wanton barbarity. The spirit of the Circumcellions was notalways exerted against their defenceless enemies; they engaged, andsometimes defeated, the troops of the province; and in the bloody actionof Bagai, they attacked in the open field, but with unsuccessful valor,an advanced guard of the Imperial cavalry. The Donatists who were takenin arms, received, and they soon deserved, the same treatment whichmight have been shown to the wild beasts of the desert. The captivesdied, without a murmur, either by the sword, the axe, or the fire; andthe measures of retaliation were multiplied in a rapid proportion, whichaggravated the horrors of rebellion, and excluded the hope of mutualforgiveness. In the beginning of the present century, the example of theCircumcellions has been renewed in the persecution, the boldness, thecrimes, and the enthusiasm of the Camisards; and if the fanatics ofLanguedoc surpassed those of Numidia, by their military achievements,the Africans maintained their fierce independence with more resolutionand perseverance.

Such disorders are the natural effects of religious tyranny, but therage of the Donatists was inflamed by a frenzy of a very extraordinarykind; and which, if it really prevailed among them in so extravagant adegree, cannot surely be paralleled in any country or in any age. Manyof these fanatics were possessed with the horror of life, and the desireof martyrdom; and they deemed it of little moment by what means, orby what hands, they perished, if their conduct was sanctified by theintention of devoting themselves to the glory of the true faith, andthe hope of eternal happiness. Sometimes they rudely disturbed thefestivals, and profaned the temples of Paganism, with the design ofexciting the most zealous of the idolaters to revenge the insultedhonor of their gods. They sometimes forced their way into the courtsof justice, and compelled the affrighted judge to give orders for theirimmediate execution. They frequently stopped travellers on the publichighways, and obliged them to inflict the stroke of martyrdom, by thepromise of a reward, if they consented, and by the threat of instantdeath, if they refused to grant so very singular a favor. When they weredisappointed of every other resource, they announced the day onwhich, in the presence of their friends and brethren, they should eastthemselves headlong from some lofty rock; and many precipices wereshown, which had acquired fame by the number of religious suicides.In the actions of these desperate enthusiasts, who were admired by oneparty as the martyrs of God, and abhorred by the other as the victims ofSatan, an impartial philosopher may discover the influence and the lastabuse of that inflexible spirit which was originally derived from thecharacter and principles of the Jewish nation.

The simple narrative of the intestine divisions, which distracted thepeace, and dishonored the triumph, of the church, will confirm theremark of a Pagan historian, and justify the complaint of a venerablebishop. The experience of Ammianus had convinced him, that the enmity ofthe Christians towards each other, surpassed the fury of savage beastsagainst man; and Gregory Nazianzen most pathetically laments, that thekingdom of heaven was converted, by discord, into the image of chaos, ofa nocturnal tempest, and of hell itself. The fierce and partial writersof the times, ascribing all virtue to themselves, and imputing all guiltto their adversaries, have painted the battle of the angels and dÊmons.Our calmer reason will reject such pure and perfect monsters of viceor sanctity, and will impute an equal, or at least an indiscriminate,measure of good and evil to the hostile sectaries, who assumed andbestowed the appellations of orthodox and heretics. They had beeneducated in the same religion and the same civil society. Their hopesand fears in the present, or in a future life, were balanced in thesame proportion. On either side, the error might be innocent, thefaith sincere, the practice meritorious or corrupt. Their passions wereexcited by similar objects; and they might alternately abuse thefavor of the court, or of the people. The metaphysical opinions of theAthanasians and the Arians could not influence their moral character;and they were alike actuated by the intolerant spirit which has beenextracted from the pure and simple maxims of the gospel.

A modern writer, who, with a just confidence, has prefixed to his ownhistory the honorable epithets of political and philosophical, accusesthe timid prudence of Montesquieu, for neglecting to enumerate, amongthe causes of the decline of the empire, a law of Constantine, by whichthe exercise of the Pagan worship was absolutely suppressed, and aconsiderable part of his subjects was left destitute of priests,of temples, and of any public religion. The zeal of the philosophichistorian for the rights of mankind, has induced him to acquiesce inthe ambiguous testimony of those ecclesiastics, who have too lightlyascribed to their favorite hero the merit of a general persecution.Instead of alleging this imaginary law, which would have blazed inthe front of the Imperial codes, we may safely appeal to the originalepistle, which Constantine addressed to the followers of the ancientreligion; at a time when he no longer disguised his conversion, nordreaded the rivals of his throne. He invites and exhorts, in the mostpressing terms, the subjects of the Roman empire to imitate the exampleof their master; but he declares, that those who still refuse to opentheir eyes to the celestial light, may freely enjoy their temples andtheir fancied gods. A report, that the ceremonies of paganism weresuppressed, is formally contradicted by the emperor himself, who wiselyassigns, as the principle of his moderation, the invincible force ofhabit, of prejudice, and of superstition. Without violating the sanctityof his promise, without alarming the fears of the Pagans, the artfulmonarch advanced, by slow and cautious steps, to undermine the irregularand decayed fabric of polytheism. The partial acts of severity whichhe occasionally exercised, though they were secretly promoted by aChristian zeal, were colored by the fairest pretences of justice and thepublic good; and while Constantine designed to ruin the foundations, heseemed to reform the abuses, of the ancient religion. After the exampleof the wisest of his predecessors, he condemned, under the most rigorouspenalties, the occult and impious arts of divination; which excitedthe vain hopes, and sometimes the criminal attempts, of those who werediscontented with their present condition. An ignominious silence wasimposed on the oracles, which had been publicly convicted of fraudand falsehood; the effeminate priests of the Nile were abolished; andConstantine discharged the duties of a Roman censor, when he gave ordersfor the demolition of several temples of Phnicia; in which every mode ofprostitution was devoutly practised in the face of day, and to the honorof Venus. The Imperial city of Constantinople was, in some measure,raised at the expense, and was adorned with the spoils, of the opulenttemples of Greece and Asia; the sacred property was confiscated; thestatues of gods and heroes were transported, with rude familiarity,among a people who considered them as objects, not of adoration, butof curiosity; the gold and silver were restored to circulation; andthe magistrates, the bishops, and the eunuchs, improved the fortunateoccasion of gratifying, at once, their zeal, their avarice, and theirresentment. But these depredations were confined to a small part of theRoman world; and the provinces had been long since accustomed toendure the same sacrilegious rapine, from the tyranny of princes andproconsuls, who could not be suspected of any design to subvert theestablished religion.

The sons of Constantine trod in the footsteps of their father, with morezeal, and with less discretion. The pretences of rapine and oppressionwere insensibly multiplied; every indulgence was shown to theillegal behavior of the Christians; every doubt was explained tothe disadvantage of Paganism; and the demolition of the temples wascelebrated as one of the auspicious events of the reign of Constans andConstantius. The name of Constantius is prefixed to a concise law, whichmight have superseded the necessity of any future prohibitions. "Itis our pleasure, that in all places, and in all cities, the temples beimmediately shut, and carefully guarded, that none may have the powerof offending. It is likewise our pleasure, that all our subjects shouldabstain from sacrifices. If any one should be guilty of such an act,let him feel the sword of vengeance, and after his execution, lethis property be confiscated to the public use. We denounce the samepenalties against the governors of the provinces, if they neglect topunish the criminals." But there is the strongest reason to believe,that this formidable edict was either composed without being published,or was published without being executed. The evidence of facts, and themonuments which are still extant of brass and marble, continue to provethe public exercise of the Pagan worship during the whole reign of thesons of Constantine. In the East, as well as in the West, in cities, aswell as in the country, a great number of temples were respected, or atleast were spared; and the devout multitude still enjoyed the luxury ofsacrifices, of festivals, and of processions, by the permission, orby the connivance, of the civil government. About four years after thesupposed date of this bloody edict, Constantius visited the temples ofRome; and the decency of his behavior is recommended by a pagan oratoras an example worthy of the imitation of succeeding princes. "Thatemperor," says Symmachus, "suffered the privileges of the vestal virginsto remain inviolate; he bestowed the sacerdotal dignities on the noblesof Rome, granted the customary allowance to defray the expenses of thepublic rites and sacrifices; and, though he had embraced a differentreligion, he never attempted to deprive the empire of the sacred worshipof antiquity." The senate still presumed to consecrate, by solemndecrees, the divine memory of their sovereigns; and Constantine himselfwas associated, after his death, to those gods whom he had renounced andinsulted during his life. The title, the ensigns, the prerogatives, ofsovereign pontiff, which had been instituted by Numa, and assumedby Augustus, were accepted, without hesitation, by seven Christianemperors; who were invested with a more absolute authority over thereligion which they had deserted, than over that which they professed.

The divisions of Christianity suspended the ruin of Paganism; and theholy war against the infidels was less vigorously prosecuted by princesand bishops, who were more immediately alarmed by the guilt and dangerof domestic rebellion. The extirpation of idolatry might have beenjustified by the established principles of intolerance: but the hostilesects, which alternately reigned in the Imperial court were mutuallyapprehensive of alienating, and perhaps exasperating, the minds ofa powerful, though declining faction. Every motive of authorityand fashion, of interest and reason, now militated on the side ofChristianity; but two or three generations elapsed, before theirvictorious influence was universally felt. The religion which hadso long and so lately been established in the Roman empire was stillrevered by a numerous people, less attached indeed to speculativeopinion, than to ancient custom. The honors of the state and armywere indifferently bestowed on all the subjects of Constantine andConstantius; and a considerable portion of knowledge and wealth andvalor was still engaged in the service of polytheism. The superstitionof the senator and of the peasant, of the poet and the philosopher, wasderived from very different causes, but they met with equal devotionin the temples of the gods. Their zeal was insensibly provoked by theinsulting triumph of a proscribed sect; and their hopes were revived bythe well-grounded confidence, that the presumptive heir of the empire,a young and valiant hero, who had delivered Gaul from the arms of theBarbarians, had secretly embraced the religion of his ancestors.

Chapter XXII: Julian Declared Emperor.--Part I Julian Is DeclaredEmperor By The Legions Of Gaul.--His March And Success.--The Death OfConstantius.--Civil Administration Of Julian.

While the Romans languished under the ignominious tyranny of eunuchsand bishops, the praises of Julian were repeated with transport in everypart of the empire, except in the palace of Constantius. The barbariansof Germany had felt, and still dreaded, the arms of the young CÊsar; hissoldiers were the companions of his victory; the grateful provincialsenjoyed the blessings of his reign; but the favorites, who had opposedhis elevation, were offended by his virtues; and they justly consideredthe friend of the people as the enemy of the court. As long as the fameof Julian was doubtful, the buffoons of the palace, who were skilled inthe language of satire, tried the efficacy of those arts which theyhad so often practised with success. They easily discovered, that hissimplicity was not exempt from affectation: the ridiculous epithets ofa hairy savage, of an ape invested with the purple, were applied to thedress and person of the philosophic warrior; and his modest despatcheswere stigmatized as the vain and elaborate fictions of a loquaciousGreek, a speculative soldier, who had studied the art of war amidstthe groves of the academy. The voice of malicious folly was at lengthsilenced by the shouts of victory; the conqueror of the Franks andAlemanni could no longer be painted as an object of contempt; and themonarch himself was meanly ambitious of stealing from his lieutenantthe honorable reward of his labors. In the letters crowned with laurel,which, according to ancient custom, were addressed to the provinces, thename of Julian was omitted. "Constantius had made his dispositions inperson; he had signalized his valor in the foremost ranks; his militaryconduct had secured the victory; and the captive king of the barbarianswas presented to him on the field of battle," from which he was atthat time distant about forty days' journey. So extravagant a fablewas incapable, however, of deceiving the public credulity, or even ofsatisfying the pride of the emperor himself. Secretly conscious thatthe applause and favor of the Romans accompanied the rising fortunes ofJulian, his discontented mind was prepared to receive the subtle poisonof those artful sycophants, who colored their mischievous designs withthe fairest appearances of truth and candor. Instead of depreciating themerits of Julian, they acknowledged, and even exaggerated, his popularfame, superior talents, and important services. But they darklyinsinuated, that the virtues of the CÊsar might instantly be convertedinto the most dangerous crimes, if the inconstant multitude shouldprefer their inclinations to their duty; or if the general of avictorious army should be tempted from his allegiance by the hopes ofrevenge and independent greatness. The personal fears of Constantiuswere interpreted by his council as a laudable anxiety for the publicsafety; whilst in private, and perhaps in his own breast, he disguised,under the less odious appellation of fear, the sentiments of hatredand envy, which he had secretly conceived for the inimitable virtues ofJulian.

The apparent tranquillity of Gaul, and the imminent danger of theeastern provinces, offered a specious pretence for the design which wasartfully concerted by the Imperial ministers. They resolved to disarmthe CÊsar; to recall those faithful troops who guarded his person anddignity; and to employ, in a distant war against the Persian monarch,the hardy veterans who had vanquished, on the banks of the Rhine, thefiercest nations of Germany. While Julian used the laborious hours ofhis winter quarters at Paris in the administration of power, which, inhis hands, was the exercise of virtue, he was surprised by the hastyarrival of a tribune and a notary, with positive orders, from theemperor, which they were directed to execute, and he was commanded notto oppose. Constantius signified his pleasure, that four entire legions,the CeltÊ, and Petulants, the Heruli, and the Batavians, should beseparated from the standard of Julian, under which they had acquiredtheir fame and discipline; that in each of the remaining bands threehundred of the bravest youths should be selected; and that this numerousdetachment, the strength of the Gallic army, should instantly begintheir march, and exert their utmost diligence to arrive, before theopening of the campaign, on the frontiers of Persia. The CÊsar foresawand lamented the consequences of this fatal mandate. Most of theauxiliaries, who engaged their voluntary service, had stipulated, thatthey should never be obliged to pass the Alps. The public faith of Rome,and the personal honor of Julian, had been pledged for the observanceof this condition. Such an act of treachery and oppression would destroythe confidence, and excite the resentment, of the independent warriorsof Germany, who considered truth as the noblest of their virtues, andfreedom as the most valuable of their possessions. The legionaries,who enjoyed the title and privileges of Romans, were enlisted for thegeneral defence of the republic; but those mercenary troops heard withcold indifference the antiquated names of the republic and of Rome.Attached, either from birth or long habit, to the climate and manners ofGaul, they loved and admired Julian; they despised, and perhaps hated,the emperor; they dreaded the laborious march, the Persian arrows, andthe burning deserts of Asia. They claimed as their own the country whichthey had saved; and excused their want of spirit, by pleading the sacredand more immediate duty of protecting their families and friends.The apprehensions of the Gauls were derived from the knowledge of theimpending and inevitable danger. As soon as the provinces were exhaustedof their military strength, the Germans would violate a treaty which hadbeen imposed on their fears; and notwithstanding the abilities and valorof Julian, the general of a nominal army, to whom the public calamitieswould be imputed, must find himself, after a vain resistance, either aprisoner in the camp of the barbarians, or a criminal in the palace ofConstantius. If Julian complied with the orders which he had received,he subscribed his own destruction, and that of a people who deservedhis affection. But a positive refusal was an act of rebellion, anda declaration of war. The inexorable jealousy of the emperor, theperemptory, and perhaps insidious, nature of his commands, left not anyroom for a fair apology, or candid interpretation; and the dependentstation of the CÊsar scarcely allowed him to pause or to deliberate.Solitude increased the perplexity of Julian; he could no longer apply tothe faithful counsels of Sallust, who had been removed from his officeby the judicious malice of the eunuchs: he could not even enforce hisrepresentations by the concurrence of the ministers, who would havebeen afraid or ashamed to approve the ruin of Gaul. The moment had beenchosen, when Lupicinus, the general of the cavalry, was despatched intoBritain, to repulse the inroads of the Scots and Picts; and Florentiuswas occupied at Vienna by the assessment of the tribute. The latter, acrafty and corrupt statesman, declining to assume a responsible part onthis dangerous occasion, eluded the pressing and repeated invitationsof Julian, who represented to him, that in every important measure, thepresence of the prÊfect was indispensable in the council of the prince.In the mean while the CÊsar was oppressed by the rude and importunatesolicitations of the Imperial messengers, who presumed to suggest, thatif he expected the return of his ministers, he would charge himself withthe guilt of the delay, and reserve for them the merit of the execution.Unable to resist, unwilling to comply, Julian expressed, in the mostserious terms, his wish, and even his intention, of resigning thepurple, which he could not preserve with honor, but which he could notabdicate with safety.

After a painful conflict, Julian was compelled to acknowledge, thatobedience was the virtue of the most eminent subject, and that thesovereign alone was entitled to judge of the public welfare. He issuedthe necessary orders for carrying into execution the commands ofConstantius; a part of the troops began their march for the Alps;and the detachments from the several garrisons moved towards theirrespective places of assembly. They advanced with difficulty through thetrembling and affrighted crowds of provincials, who attempted to excitetheir pity by silent despair, or loud lamentations, while the wives ofthe soldiers, holding their infants in their arms, accused the desertionof their husbands, in the mixed language of grief, of tenderness, andof indignation. This scene of general distress afflicted the humanityof the CÊsar; he granted a sufficient number of post-wagons to transportthe wives and families of the soldiers, endeavored to alleviate thehardships which he was constrained to inflict, and increased, by themost laudable arts, his own popularity, and the discontent of the exiledtroops. The grief of an armed multitude is soon converted into rage;their licentious murmurs, which every hour were communicated from tentto tent with more boldness and effect, prepared their minds for themost daring acts of sedition; and by the connivance of their tribunes, aseasonable libel was secretly dispersed, which painted in lively colorsthe disgrace of the CÊsar, the oppression of the Gallic army, and thefeeble vices of the tyrant of Asia. The servants of Constantius wereastonished and alarmed by the progress of this dangerous spirit. Theypressed the CÊsar to hasten the departure of the troops; but theyimprudently rejected the honest and judicious advice of Julian; whoproposed that they should not march through Paris, and suggested thedanger and temptation of a last interview.

As soon as the approach of the troops was announced, the CÊsar went outto meet them, and ascended his tribunal, which had been erected in aplain before the gates of the city. After distinguishing the officersand soldiers, who by their rank or merit deserved a peculiar attention,Julian addressed himself in a studied oration to the surroundingmultitude: he celebrated their exploits with grateful applause;encouraged them to accept, with alacrity, the honor of serving underthe eye of a powerful and liberal monarch; and admonished them, thatthe commands of Augustus required an instant and cheerful obedience.The soldiers, who were apprehensive of offending their general by anindecent clamor, or of belying their sentiments by false and venalacclamations, maintained an obstinate silence; and after a shortpause, were dismissed to their quarters. The principal officers wereentertained by the CÊsar, who professed, in the warmest language offriendship, his desire and his inability to reward, according to theirdeserts, the brave companions of his victories. They retired from thefeast, full of grief and perplexity; and lamented the hardship oftheir fate, which tore them from their beloved general and their nativecountry. The only expedient which could prevent their separation wasboldly agitated and approved the popular resentment was insensiblymoulded into a regular conspiracy; their just reasons of complaint wereheightened by passion, and their passions were inflamed by wine; as,on the eve of their departure, the troops were indulged in licentiousfestivity. At the hour of midnight, the impetuous multitude, withswords, and bows, and torches in their hands, rushed into the suburbs;encompassed the palace; and, careless of future dangers, pronounced thefatal and irrevocable words, Julian Augustus! The prince, whose anxioussuspense was interrupted by their disorderly acclamations, securedthe doors against their intrusion; and as long as it was in his power,secluded his person and dignity from the accidents of a nocturnaltumult. At the dawn of day, the soldiers, whose zeal was irritatedby opposition, forcibly entered the palace, seized, with respectfulviolence, the object of their choice, guarded Julian with drawn swordsthrough the streets of Paris, placed him on the tribunal, and withrepeated shouts saluted him as their emperor. Prudence, as well asloyalty, inculcated the propriety of resisting their treasonabledesigns; and of preparing, for his oppressed virtue, the excuseof violence. Addressing himself by turns to the multitude and toindividuals, he sometimes implored their mercy, and sometimes expressedhis indignation; conjured them not to sully the fame of their immortalvictories; and ventured to promise, that if they would immediatelyreturn to their allegiance, he would undertake to obtain from theemperor not only a free and gracious pardon, but even the revocationof the orders which had excited their resentment. But the soldiers, whowere conscious of their guilt, chose rather to depend on the gratitudeof Julian, than on the clemency of the emperor. Their zeal wasinsensibly turned into impatience, and their impatience into rage.The inflexible CÊsar sustained, till the third hour of the day, theirprayers, their reproaches, and their menaces; nor did he yield, till hehad been repeatedly assured, that if he wished to live, he must consentto reign. He was exalted on a shield in the presence, and amidst theunanimous acclamations, of the troops; a rich military collar, whichwas offered by chance, supplied the want of a diadem; the ceremony wasconcluded by the promise of a moderate donative; and the new emperor,overwhelmed with real or affected grief retired into the most secretrecesses of his apartment.

The grief of Julian could proceed only from his innocence; out hisinnocence must appear extremely doubtful in the eyes of those who havelearned to suspect the motives and the professions of princes. Hislively and active mind was susceptible of the various impressions ofhope and fear, of gratitude and revenge, of duty and of ambition, of thelove of fame, and of the fear of reproach. But it is impossible for usto calculate the respective weight and operation of these sentiments;or to ascertain the principles of action which might escape theobservation, while they guided, or rather impelled, the steps of Julianhimself. The discontent of the troops was produced by the malice of hisenemies; their tumult was the natural effect of interest and of passion;and if Julian had tried to conceal a deep design under the appearancesof chance, he must have employed the most consummate artifice withoutnecessity, and probably without success. He solemnly declares, in thepresence of Jupiter, of the Sun, of Mars, of Minerva, and of all theother deities, that till the close of the evening which preceded hiselevation, he was utterly ignorant of the designs of the soldiers; andit may seem ungenerous to distrust the honor of a hero and the truth ofa philosopher. Yet the superstitious confidence that Constantius was theenemy, and that he himself was the favorite, of the gods, might prompthim to desire, to solicit, and even to hasten the auspicious momentof his reign, which was predestined to restore the ancient religion ofmankind. When Julian had received the intelligence of the conspiracy,he resigned himself to a short slumber; and afterwards related to hisfriends that he had seen the genius of the empire waiting with someimpatience at his door, pressing for admittance, and reproaching hiswant of spirit and ambition. Astonished and perplexed, he addressed hisprayers to the great Jupiter, who immediately signified, by a clear andmanifest omen, that he should submit to the will of heaven and of thearmy. The conduct which disclaims the ordinary maxims of reason, excitesour suspicion and eludes our inquiry. Whenever the spirit of fanaticism,at once so credulous and so crafty, has insinuated itself into anoble mind, it insensibly corrodes the vital principles of virtue andveracity.

To moderate the zeal of his party, to protect the persons of hisenemies, to defeat and to despise the secret enterprises which wereformed against his life and dignity, were the cares which employedthe first days of the reign of the new emperor. Although he was firmlyresolved to maintain the station which he had assumed, he was stilldesirous of saving his country from the calamities of civil war, ofdeclining a contest with the superior forces of Constantius, andof preserving his own character from the reproach of perfidy andingratitude. Adorned with the ensigns of military and imperial pomp,Julian showed himself in the field of Mars to the soldiers, who glowedwith ardent enthusiasm in the cause of their pupil, their leader,and their friend. He recapitulated their victories, lamented theirsufferings, applauded their resolution, animated their hopes, andchecked their impetuosity; nor did he dismiss the assembly, till he hadobtained a solemn promise from the troops, that if the emperor of theEast would subscribe an equitable treaty, they would renounce any viewsof conquest, and satisfy themselves with the tranquil possession of theGallic provinces. On this foundation he composed, in his own name,and in that of the army, a specious and moderate epistle, whichwas delivered to Pentadius, his master of the offices, and to hischamberlain Eutherius; two ambassadors whom he appointed to receive theanswer, and observe the dispositions of Constantius. This epistle isinscribed with the modest appellation of CÊsar; but Julian solicits in aperemptory, though respectful, manner, the confirmation of the title ofAugustus. He acknowledges the irregularity of his own election, whilehe justifies, in some measure, the resentment and violence of the troopswhich had extorted his reluctant consent. He allows the supremacy ofhis brother Constantius; and engages to send him an annual present ofSpanish horses, to recruit his army with a select number of barbarianyouths, and to accept from his choice a PrÊtorian prÊfect of approveddiscretion and fidelity. But he reserves for himself the nomination ofhis other civil and military officers, with the troops, the revenue,and the sovereignty of the provinces beyond the Alps. He admonishesthe emperor to consult the dictates of justice; to distrust the arts ofthose venal flatterers, who subsist only by the discord of princes;and to embrace the offer of a fair and honorable treaty, equallyadvantageous to the republic and to the house of Constantine. In thisnegotiation Julian claimed no more than he already possessed. Thedelegated authority which he had long exercised over the provinces ofGaul, Spain, and Britain, was still obeyed under a name more independentand august. The soldiers and the people rejoiced in a revolution whichwas not stained even with the blood of the guilty. Florentius was afugitive; Lupicinus a prisoner. The persons who were disaffected to thenew government were disarmed and secured; and the vacant offices weredistributed, according to the recommendation of merit, by a prince whodespised the intrigues of the palace, and the clamors of the soldiers.

The negotiations of peace were accompanied and supported by the mostvigorous preparations for war. The army, which Julian held in readinessfor immediate action, was recruited and augmented by the disordersof the times. The cruel persecutions of the faction of Magnentius hadfilled Gaul with numerous bands of outlaws and robbers. They cheerfullyaccepted the offer of a general pardon from a prince whom they couldtrust, submitted to the restraints of military discipline, andretained only their implacable hatred to the person and government ofConstantius. As soon as the season of the year permitted Julian to takethe field, he appeared at the head of his legions; threw a bridge overthe Rhine in the neighborhood of Cleves; and prepared to chastise theperfidy of the Attuarii, a tribe of Franks, who presumed that theymight ravage, with impunity, the frontiers of a divided empire. Thedifficulty, as well as glory, of this enterprise, consisted in alaborious march; and Julian had conquered, as soon as he could penetrateinto a country, which former princes had considered as inaccessible.After he had given peace to the Barbarians, the emperor carefullyvisited the fortifications along the Rhine from Cleves to Basil;surveyed, with peculiar attention, the territories which he hadrecovered from the hands of the Alemanni, passed through BesanÁon, whichhad severely suffered from their fury, and fixed his headquarters atVienna for the ensuing winter. The barrier of Gaul was improved andstrengthened with additional fortifications; and Julian entertained somehopes that the Germans, whom he had so often vanquished, might, in hisabsence, be restrained by the terror of his name. Vadomair was the onlyprince of the Alemanni whom he esteemed or feared and while the subtleBarbarian affected to observe the faith of treaties, the progress of hisarms threatened the state with an unseasonable and dangerous war. Thepolicy of Julian condescended to surprise the prince of the Alemanniby his own arts: and Vadomair, who, in the character of a friend, hadincautiously accepted an invitation from the Roman governors, was seizedin the midst of the entertainment, and sent away prisoner into the heartof Spain. Before the Barbarians were recovered from their amazement,the emperor appeared in arms on the banks of the Rhine, and, once morecrossing the river, renewed the deep impressions of terror and respectwhich had been already made by four preceding expeditions.

Chapter XXII: Julian Declared Emperor.--Part II.

The ambassadors of Julian had been instructed to execute, with theutmost diligence, their important commission. But, in their passagethrough Italy and Illyricum, they were detained by the tedious andaffected delays of the provincial governors; they were conducted byslow journeys from Constantinople to CÊsarea in Cappadocia; and whenat length they were admitted to the presence of Constantius, they foundthat he had already conceived, from the despatches of his own officers,the most unfavorable opinion of the conduct of Julian, and of the Gallicarmy. The letters were heard with impatience; the trembling messengerswere dismissed with indignation and contempt; and the looks, gestures,the furious language of the monarch, expressed the disorder of his soul.The domestic connection, which might have reconciled the brother and thehusband of Helena, was recently dissolved by the death of that princess,whose pregnancy had been several times fruitless, and was at last fatalto herself. The empress Eusebia had preserved, to the last moment of herlife, the warm, and even jealous, affection which she had conceived forJulian; and her mild influence might have moderated the resentment of aprince, who, since her death, was abandoned to his own passions, and tothe arts of his eunuchs. But the terror of a foreign invasion obligedhim to suspend the punishment of a private enemy: he continued his marchtowards the confines of Persia, and thought it sufficient to signify theconditions which might entitle Julian and his guilty followers to theclemency of their offended sovereign. He required, that the presumptuousCÊsar should expressly renounce the appellation and rank of Augustus,which he had accepted from the rebels; that he should descend to hisformer station of a limited and dependent minister; that he should vestthe powers of the state and army in the hands of those officers who wereappointed by the Imperial court; and that he should trust his safety tothe assurances of pardon, which were announced by Epictetus, a Gallicbishop, and one of the Arian favorites of Constantius. Several monthswere ineffectually consumed in a treaty which was negotiated at thedistance of three thousand miles between Paris and Antioch; and, as soonas Julian perceived that his modest and respectful behavior served onlyto irritate the pride of an implacable adversary, he boldly resolvedto commit his life and fortune to the chance of a civil war. He gave apublic and military audience to the quÊstor Leonas: the haughtyepistle of Constantius was read to the attentive multitude; and Julianprotested, with the most flattering deference, that he was ready toresign the title of Augustus, if he could obtain the consent of thosewhom he acknowledged as the authors of his elevation. The faint proposalwas impetuously silenced; and the acclamations of "Julian Augustus,continue to reign, by the authority of the army, of the people, of therepublic which you have saved," thundered at once from every part of thefield, and terrified the pale ambassador of Constantius. A part ofthe letter was afterwards read, in which the emperor arraigned theingratitude of Julian, whom he had invested with the honors of thepurple; whom he had educated with so much care and tenderness; whom hehad preserved in his infancy, when he was left a helpless orphan. "Anorphan!" interrupted Julian, who justified his cause by indulging hispassions: "does the assassin of my family reproach me that I was left anorphan? He urges me to revenge those injuries which I have long studiedto forget." The assembly was dismissed; and Leonas, who, with somedifficulty, had been protected from the popular fury, was sent back tohis master with an epistle, in which Julian expressed, in a strain ofthe most vehement eloquence, the sentiments of contempt, of hatred,and of resentment, which had been suppressed and imbittered by thedissimulation of twenty years. After this message, which might beconsidered as a signal of irreconcilable war, Julian, who, some weeksbefore, had celebrated the Christian festival of the Epiphany, madea public declaration that he committed the care of his safety to theImmortal Gods; and thus publicly renounced the religion as well as thefriendship of Constantius.

The situation of Julian required a vigorous and immediate resolution.He had discovered, from intercepted letters, that his adversary,sacrificing the interest of the state to that of the monarch, had againexcited the Barbarians to invade the provinces of the West. The positionof two magazines, one of them collected on the banks of the Lake ofConstance, the other formed at the foot of the Cottian Alps, seemed toindicate the march of two armies; and the size of those magazines, eachof which consisted of six hundred thousand quarters of wheat, or ratherflour, was a threatening evidence of the strength and numbers of theenemy who prepared to surround him. But the Imperial legions were stillin their distant quarters of Asia; the Danube was feebly guarded; and ifJulian could occupy, by a sudden incursion, the important provinces ofIllyricum, he might expect that a people of soldiers would resort to hisstandard, and that the rich mines of gold and silver would contribute tothe expenses of the civil war. He proposed this bold enterprise to theassembly of the soldiers; inspired them with a just confidence intheir general, and in themselves; and exhorted them to maintaintheir reputation of being terrible to the enemy, moderate to theirfellow-citizens, and obedient to their officers. His spirited discoursewas received with the loudest acclamations, and the same troops whichhad taken up arms against Constantius, when he summoned them to leaveGaul, now declared with alacrity, that they would follow Julian tothe farthest extremities of Europe or Asia. The oath of fidelity wasadministered; and the soldiers, clashing their shields, and pointingtheir drawn swords to their throats, devoted themselves, with horridimprecations, to the service of a leader whom they celebrated asthe deliverer of Gaul and the conqueror of the Germans. This solemnengagement, which seemed to be dictated by affection rather than byduty, was singly opposed by Nebridius, who had been admitted tothe office of PrÊtorian prÊfect. That faithful minister, alone andunassisted, asserted the rights of Constantius, in the midst of an armedand angry multitude, to whose fury he had almost fallen an honorable,but useless sacrifice. After losing one of his hands by the stroke of asword, he embraced the knees of the prince whom he had offended. Juliancovered the prÊfect with his Imperial mantle, and, protecting him fromthe zeal of his followers, dismissed him to his own house, with lessrespect than was perhaps due to the virtue of an enemy. The high officeof Nebridius was bestowed on Sallust; and the provinces of Gaul, whichwere now delivered from the intolerable oppression of taxes, enjoyedthe mild and equitable administration of the friend of Julian, who waspermitted to practise those virtues which he had instilled into the mindof his pupil.

The hopes of Julian depended much less on the number of his troops, thanon the celerity of his motions. In the execution of a daring enterprise,he availed himself of every precaution, as far as prudence couldsuggest; and where prudence could no longer accompany his steps, hetrusted the event to valor and to fortune. In the neighborhood of Basilhe assembled and divided his army. One body, which consisted of tenthousand men, was directed under the command of Nevitta, general of thecavalry, to advance through the midland parts of RhÊtia and Noricum.A similar division of troops, under the orders of Jovius and Jovinus,prepared to follow the oblique course of the highways, through the Alps,and the northern confines of Italy. The instructions to the generalswere conceived with energy and precision: to hasten their march in closeand compact columns, which, according to the disposition of the ground,might readily be changed into any order of battle; to secure themselvesagainst the surprises of the night by strong posts and vigilant guards;to prevent resistance by their unexpected arrival; to elude examinationby their sudden departure; to spread the opinion of their strength, andthe terror of his name; and to join their sovereign under the wallsof Sirmium. For himself Julian had reserved a more difficult andextraordinary part. He selected three thousand brave and activevolunteers, resolved, like their leader, to cast behind them every hopeof a retreat; at the head of this faithful band, he fearlessly plungedinto the recesses of the Marcian, or Black Forest, which concealsthe sources of the Danube; and, for many days, the fate of Julian wasunknown to the world. The secrecy of his march, his diligence, andvigor, surmounted every obstacle; he forced his way over mountains andmorasses, occupied the bridges or swam the rivers, pursued his directcourse, without reflecting whether he traversed the territory of theRomans or of the Barbarians, and at length emerged, between Ratisbonand Vienna, at the place where he designed to embark his troops onthe Danube. By a well-concerted stratagem, he seized a fleet of lightbrigantines, as it lay at anchor; secured a apply of coarse provisionssufficient to satisfy the indelicate, and voracious, appetite of aGallic army; and boldly committed himself to the stream of the Danube.The labors of the mariners, who plied their oars with incessantdiligence, and the steady continuance of a favorable wind, carriedhis fleet above seven hundred miles in eleven days; and he had alreadydisembarked his troops at Bononia, * only nineteen miles from Sirmium,before his enemies could receive any certain intelligence that hehad left the banks of the Rhine. In the course of this long andrapid navigation, the mind of Julian was fixed on the object of hisenterprise; and though he accepted the deputations of some cities, whichhastened to claim the merit of an early submission, he passed before thehostile stations, which were placed along the river, without indulgingthe temptation of signalizing a useless and ill-timed valor. The banksof the Danube were crowded on either side with spectators, who gazed onthe military pomp, anticipated the importance of the event, and diffusedthrough the adjacent country the fame of a young hero, who advancedwith more than mortal speed at the head of the innumerable forces of theWest. Lucilian, who, with the rank of general of the cavalry, commandedthe military powers of Illyricum, was alarmed and perplexed by thedoubtful reports, which he could neither reject nor believe. He hadtaken some slow and irresolute measures for the purpose of collectinghis troops, when he was surprised by Dagalaiphus, an active officer,whom Julian, as soon as he landed at Bononia, had pushed forwards withsome light infantry. The captive general, uncertain of his life ordeath, was hastily thrown upon a horse, and conducted to the presence ofJulian; who kindly raised him from the ground, and dispelled the terrorand amazement which seemed to stupefy his faculties. But Lucilian had nosooner recovered his spirits, than he betrayed his want of discretion,by presuming to admonish his conqueror that he had rashly ventured,with a handful of men, to expose his person in the midst of his enemies."Reserve for your master Constantius these timid remonstrances," repliedJulian, with a smile of contempt: "when I gave you my purple to kiss,I received you not as a counsellor, but as a suppliant." Conscious thatsuccess alone could justify his attempt, and that boldness only couldcommand success, he instantly advanced, at the head of three thousandsoldiers, to attack the strongest and most populous city of the Illyrianprovinces. As he entered the long suburb of Sirmium, he was receivedby the joyful acclamations of the army and people; who, crowned withflowers, and holding lighted tapers in their hands, conducted theiracknowledged sovereign to his Imperial residence. Two days were devotedto the public joy, which was celebrated by the games of the circus;but, early on the morning of the third day, Julian marched to occupy thenarrow pass of Succi, in the defiles of Mount HÊmus; which, almost inthe midway between Sirmium and Constantinople, separates the provincesof Thrace and Dacia, by an abrupt descent towards the former, anda gentle declivity on the side of the latter. The defence of thisimportant post was intrusted to the brave Nevitta; who, as well as thegenerals of the Italian division, successfully executed the plan of themarch and junction which their master had so ably conceived.

The homage which Julian obtained, from the fears or the inclination ofthe people, extended far beyond the immediate effect of his arms. TheprÊfectures of Italy and Illyricum were administered by Taurus andFlorentius, who united that important office with the vain honors of theconsulship; and as those magistrates had retired with precipitation tothe court of Asia, Julian, who could not always restrain the levity ofhis temper, stigmatized their flight by adding, in all the Acts ofthe Year, the epithet of fugitive to the names of the two consuls.The provinces which had been deserted by their first magistratesacknowledged the authority of an emperor, who, conciliating thequalities of a soldier with those of a philosopher, was equally admiredin the camps of the Danube and in the cities of Greece. From his palace,or, more properly, from his head-quarters of Sirmium and Naissus, hedistributed to the principal cities of the empire, a labored apologyfor his own conduct; published the secret despatches of Constantius; andsolicited the judgment of mankind between two competitors, the one ofwhom had expelled, and the other had invited, the Barbarians. Julian,whose mind was deeply wounded by the reproach of ingratitude, aspiredto maintain, by argument as well as by arms, the superior merits ofhis cause; and to excel, not only in the arts of war, but in those ofcomposition. His epistle to the senate and people of Athens seems tohave been dictated by an elegant enthusiasm; which prompted him tosubmit his actions and his motives to the degenerate Athenians of hisown times, with the same humble deference as if he had been pleading,in the days of Aristides, before the tribunal of the Areopagus. Hisapplication to the senate of Rome, which was still permitted to bestowthe titles of Imperial power, was agreeable to the forms of the expiringrepublic. An assembly was summoned by Tertullus, prÊfect of the city;the epistle of Julian was read; and, as he appeared to be master ofItaly his claims were admitted without a dissenting voice. His obliquecensure of the innovations of Constantine, and his passionate invectiveagainst the vices of Constantius, were heard with less satisfaction;and the senate, as if Julian had been present, unanimously exclaimed,"Respect, we beseech you, the author of your own fortune." An artfulexpression, which, according to the chance of war, might be differentlyexplained; as a manly reproof of the ingratitude of the usurper, or asa flattering confession, that a single act of such benefit to the stateought to atone for all the failings of Constantius.

The intelligence of the march and rapid progress of Julian was speedilytransmitted to his rival, who, by the retreat of Sapor, had obtainedsome respite from the Persian war. Disguising the anguish of his soulunder the semblance of contempt, Constantius professed his intention ofreturning into Europe, and of giving chase to Julian; for he never spokeof his military expedition in any other light than that of a huntingparty. In the camp of Hierapolis, in Syria, he communicated this designto his army; slightly mentioned the guilt and rashness of the CÊsar; andventured to assure them, that if the mutineers of Gaul presumed to meetthem in the field, they would be unable to sustain the fire of theireyes, and the irresistible weight of their shout of onset. The speechof the emperor was received with military applause, and Theodotus,the president of the council of Hierapolis, requested, with tearsof adulation, that his city might be adorned with the head ofthe vanquished rebel. A chosen detachment was despatched away inpost-wagons, to secure, if it were yet possible, the pass of Succi;the recruits, the horses, the arms, and the magazines, which had beenprepared against Sapor, were appropriated to the service of the civilwar; and the domestic victories of Constantius inspired his partisanswith the most sanguine assurances of success. The notary Gaudentius hadoccupied in his name the provinces of Africa; the subsistence ofRome was intercepted; and the distress of Julian was increased byan unexpected event, which might have been productive of fatalconsequences. Julian had received the submission of two legions and acohort of archers, who were stationed at Sirmium; but he suspected, withreason, the fidelity of those troops which had been distinguished by theemperor; and it was thought expedient, under the pretence of the exposedstate of the Gallic frontier, to dismiss them from the most importantscene of action. They advanced, with reluctance, as far as the confinesof Italy; but as they dreaded the length of the way, and the savagefierceness of the Germans, they resolved, by the instigation of oneof their tribunes, to halt at Aquileia, and to erect the banners ofConstantius on the walls of that impregnable city. The vigilance ofJulian perceived at once the extent of the mischief, and the necessityof applying an immediate remedy. By his order, Jovinus led back apart of the army into Italy; and the siege of Aquileia was formed withdiligence, and prosecuted with vigor. But the legionaries, who seemed tohave rejected the yoke of discipline, conducted the defence of the placewith skill and perseverance; invited the rest of Italy to imitate theexample of their courage and loyalty; and threatened the retreat ofJulian, if he should be forced to yield to the superior numbers of thearmies of the East.

But the humanity of Julian was preserved from the cruel alternativewhich he pathetically laments, of destroying or of being himselfdestroyed: and the seasonable death of Constantius delivered the Romanempire from the calamities of civil war. The approach of winter couldnot detain the monarch at Antioch; and his favorites durst not opposehis impatient desire of revenge. A slight fever, which was perhapsoccasioned by the agitation of his spirits, was increased by thefatigues of the journey; and Constantius was obliged to halt at thelittle town of Mopsucrene, twelve miles beyond Tarsus, where he expired,after a short illness, in the forty-fifth year of his age, and thetwenty-fourth of his reign. His genuine character, which was composedof pride and weakness, of superstition and cruelty, has been fullydisplayed in the preceding narrative of civil and ecclesiastical events.The long abuse of power rendered him a considerable object in the eyesof his contemporaries; but as personal merit can alone deserve thenotice of posterity, the last of the sons of Constantine may bedismissed from the world, with the remark, that he inherited thedefects, without the abilities, of his father. Before Constantiusexpired, he is said to have named Julian for his successor; nor does itseem improbable, that his anxious concern for the fate of a young andtender wife, whom he left with child, may have prevailed, in his lastmoments, over the harsher passions of hatred and revenge. Eusebius, andhis guilty associates, made a faint attempt to prolong the reign of theeunuchs, by the election of another emperor; but their intrigues wererejected with disdain, by an army which now abhorred the thought ofcivil discord; and two officers of rank were instantly despatched, toassure Julian, that every sword in the empire would be drawn for hisservice. The military designs of that prince, who had formed threedifferent attacks against Thrace, were prevented by this fortunateevent. Without shedding the blood of his fellow-citizens, he escapedthe dangers of a doubtful conflict, and acquired the advantages of acomplete victory. Impatient to visit the place of his birth, and the newcapital of the empire, he advanced from Naissus through the mountainsof HÊmus, and the cities of Thrace. When he reached Heraclea, at thedistance of sixty miles, all Constantinople was poured forth to receivehim; and he made his triumphal entry amidst the dutiful acclamationsof the soldiers, the people, and the senate. At innumerable multitudepressed around him with eager respect and were perhaps disappointedwhen they beheld the small stature and simple garb of a hero, whoseunexperienced youth had vanquished the Barbarians of Germany, andwho had now traversed, in a successful career, the whole continent ofEurope, from the shores of the Atlantic to those of the Bosphorus. A fewdays afterwards, when the remains of the deceased emperor were landedin the harbor, the subjects of Julian applauded the real or affectedhumanity of their sovereign. On foot, without his diadem, and clothed ina mourning habit, he accompanied the funeral as far as the church ofthe Holy Apostles, where the body was deposited: and if these marks ofrespect may be interpreted as a selfish tribute to the birth and dignityof his Imperial kinsman, the tears of Julian professed to the world thathe had forgot the injuries, and remembered only the obligations, whichhe had received from Constantius. As soon as the legions of Aquileiawere assured of the death of the emperor, they opened the gates of thecity, and, by the sacrifice of their guilty leaders, obtained an easypardon from the prudence or lenity of Julian; who, in the thirty-secondyear of his age, acquired the undisputed possession of the Roman empire.

Chapter XXII: Julian Declared Emperor.--Part III.

Philosophy had instructed Julian to compare the advantages of actionand retirement; but the elevation of his birth, and the accidents ofhis life, never allowed him the freedom of choice. He might perhapssincerely have preferred the groves of the academy, and the society ofAthens; but he was constrained, at first by the will, and afterwardsby the injustice, of Constantius, to expose his person and fame to thedangers of Imperial greatness; and to make himself accountable tothe world, and to posterity, for the happiness of millions. Julianrecollected with terror the observation of his master Plato, that thegovernment of our flocks and herds is always committed to beings of asuperior species; and that the conduct of nations requires and deservesthe celestial powers of the gods or of the genii. From this principle hejustly concluded, that the man who presumes to reign, should aspire tothe perfection of the divine nature; that he should purify his soulfrom her mortal and terrestrial part; that he should extinguish hisappetites, enlighten his understanding, regulate his passions, andsubdue the wild beast, which, according to the lively metaphor ofAristotle, seldom fails to ascend the throne of a despot. The throne ofJulian, which the death of Constantius fixed on an independent basis,was the seat of reason, of virtue, and perhaps of vanity. He despisedthe honors, renounced the pleasures, and discharged with incessantdiligence the duties, of his exalted station; and there were few amonghis subjects who would have consented to relieve him from the weight ofthe diadem, had they been obliged to submit their time and their actionsto the rigorous laws which that philosophic emperor imposed on himself.One of his most intimate friends, who had often shared the frugalsimplicity of his table, has remarked, that his light and sparing diet(which was usually of the vegetable kind) left his mind and body alwaysfree and active, for the various and important business of an author, apontiff, a magistrate, a general, and a prince. In one and the same day,he gave audience to several ambassadors, and wrote, or dictated, a greatnumber of letters to his generals, his civil magistrates, his privatefriends, and the different cities of his dominions. He listened tothe memorials which had been received, considered the subject of thepetitions, and signified his intentions more rapidly than they could betaken in short-hand by the diligence of his secretaries. He possessedsuch flexibility of thought, and such firmness of attention, that hecould employ his hand to write, his ear to listen, and his voice todictate; and pursue at once three several trains of ideas withouthesitation, and without error. While his ministers reposed, the princeflew with agility from one labor to another, and, after a hasty dinner,retired into his library, till the public business, which he hadappointed for the evening, summoned him to interrupt the prosecution ofhis studies. The supper of the emperor was still less substantialthan the former meal; his sleep was never clouded by the fumes ofindigestion; and except in the short interval of a marriage, which wasthe effect of policy rather than love, the chaste Julian never sharedhis bed with a female companion. He was soon awakened by the entranceof fresh secretaries, who had slept the preceding day; and his servantswere obliged to wait alternately while their indefatigable masterallowed himself scarcely any other refreshment than the change ofoccupation. The predecessors of Julian, his uncle, his brother, and hiscousin, indulged their puerile taste for the games of the Circus, underthe specious pretence of complying with the inclinations of the people;and they frequently remained the greatest part of the day as idlespectators, and as a part of the splendid spectacle, till the ordinaryround of twenty-four races was completely finished. On solemn festivals,Julian, who felt and professed an unfashionable dislike to thesefrivolous amusem*nts, condescended to appear in the Circus; and afterbestowing a careless glance at five or six of the races, he hastilywithdrew with the impatience of a philosopher, who considered everymoment as lost that was not devoted to the advantage of the public orthe improvement of his own mind. By this avarice of time, he seemed toprotract the short duration of his reign; and if the dates were lesssecurely ascertained, we should refuse to believe, that only sixteenmonths elapsed between the death of Constantius and the departure ofhis successor for the Persian war. The actions of Julian can onlybe preserved by the care of the historian; but the portion of hisvoluminous writings, which is still extant, remains as a monument of theapplication, as well as of the genius, of the emperor. The Misopogon,the CÊsars, several of his orations, and his elaborate work against theChristian religion, were composed in the long nights of the two winters,the former of which he passed at Constantinople, and the latter atAntioch.

The reformation of the Imperial court was one of the first and mostnecessary acts of the government of Julian. Soon after his entranceinto the palace of Constantinople, he had occasion for the service ofa barber. An officer, magnificently dressed, immediately presentedhimself. "It is a barber," exclaimed the prince, with affected surprise,"that I want, and not a receiver-general of the finances." He questionedthe man concerning the profits of his employment and was informed, thatbesides a large salary, and some valuable perquisites, he enjoyed adaily allowance for twenty servants, and as many horses. A thousandbarbers, a thousand cup-bearers, a thousand cooks, were distributedin the several offices of luxury; and the number of eunuchs couldbe compared only with the insects of a summer's day. The monarch whor*signed to his subjects the superiority of merit and virtue, wasdistinguished by the oppressive magnificence of his dress, his table,his buildings, and his train. The stately palaces erected by Constantineand his sons, were decorated with many colored marbles, and ornaments ofmassy gold. The most exquisite dainties were procured, to gratify theirpride, rather than their taste; birds of the most distant climates, fishfrom the most remote seas, fruits out of their natural season, winterroses, and summer snows. The domestic crowd of the palace surpassed theexpense of the legions; yet the smallest part of this costly multitudewas subservient to the use, or even to the splendor, of the throne. Themonarch was disgraced, and the people was injured, by the creation andsale of an infinite number of obscure, and even titular employments;and the most worthless of mankind might purchase the privilege of beingmaintained, without the necessity of labor, from the public revenue. Thewaste of an enormous household, the increase of fees and perquisites,which were soon claimed as a lawful debt, and the bribes which theyextorted from those who feared their enmity, or solicited their favor,suddenly enriched these haughty menials. They abused their fortune,without considering their past, or their future, condition; and theirrapine and venality could be equalled only by the extravagance of theirdissipations. Their silken robes were embroidered with gold, theirtables were served with delicacy and profusion; the houses which theybuilt for their own use, would have covered the farm of an ancientconsul; and the most honorable citizens were obliged to dismount fromtheir horses, and respectfully to salute a eunuch whom they met onthe public highway. The luxury of the palace excited the contempt andindignation of Julian, who usually slept on the ground, who yieldedwith reluctance to the indispensable calls of nature; and who placed hisvanity, not in emulating, but in despising, the pomp of royalty.

By the total extirpation of a mischief which was magnified even beyondits real extent, he was impatient to relieve the distress, and toappease the murmurs of the people; who support with less uneasiness theweight of taxes, if they are convinced that the fruits of their industryare appropriated to the service of the state. But in the execution ofthis salutary work, Julian is accused of proceeding with too much hasteand inconsiderate severity. By a single edict, he reduced the palaceof Constantinople to an immense desert, and dismissed with ignominy thewhole train of slaves and dependants, without providing any just, or atleast benevolent, exceptions, for the age, the services, or the poverty,of the faithful domestics of the Imperial family. Such indeed wasthe temper of Julian, who seldom recollected the fundamental maxim ofAristotle, that true virtue is placed at an equal distance between theopposite vices. The splendid and effeminate dress of the Asiatics,the curls and paint, the collars and bracelets, which had appeared soridiculous in the person of Constantine, were consistently rejected byhis philosophic successor. But with the fopperies, Julian affected torenounce the decencies of dress; and seemed to value himself for hisneglect of the laws of cleanliness. In a satirical performance, whichwas designed for the public eye, the emperor descants with pleasure, andeven with pride, on the length of his nails, and the inky blackness ofhis hands; protests, that although the greatest part of his body wascovered with hair, the use of the razor was confined to his head alone;and celebrates, with visible complacency, the shaggy and populous beard,which he fondly cherished, after the example of the philosophers ofGreece. Had Julian consulted the simple dictates of reason, the firstmagistrate of the Romans would have scorned the affectation of Diogenes,as well as that of Darius.

But the work of public reformation would have remained imperfect, ifJulian had only corrected the abuses, without punishing the crimes, ofhis predecessor's reign. "We are now delivered," says he, in a familiarletter to one of his intimate friends, "we are now surprisinglydelivered from the voracious jaws of the Hydra. I do not mean to applythe epithet to my brother Constantius. He is no more; may the earth lielight on his head! But his artful and cruel favorites studied to deceiveand exasperate a prince, whose natural mildness cannot be praisedwithout some efforts of adulation. It is not, however, my intention,that even those men should be oppressed: they are accused, and theyshall enjoy the benefit of a fair and impartial trial." To conduct thisinquiry, Julian named six judges of the highest rank in the state andarmy; and as he wished to escape the reproach of condemning his personalenemies, he fixed this extraordinary tribunal at Chalcedon, on theAsiatic side of the Bosphorus; and transferred to the commissioners anabsolute power to pronounce and execute their final sentence, withoutdelay, and without appeal. The office of president was exercised bythe venerable prÊfect of the East, a second Sallust, whose virtuesconciliated the esteem of Greek sophists, and of Christian bishops. Hewas assisted by the eloquent Mamertinus, one of the consuls elect, whosemerit is loudly celebrated by the doubtful evidence of his own applause.But the civil wisdom of two magistrates was overbalanced by theferocious violence of four generals, Nevitta, Agilo, Jovinus, andArbetio. Arbetio, whom the public would have seen with less surpriseat the bar than on the bench, was supposed to possess the secret ofthe commission; the armed and angry leaders of the Jovian and Herculianbands encompassed the tribunal; and the judges were alternately swayedby the laws of justice, and by the clamors of faction.

The chamberlain Eusebius, who had so long abused the favor ofConstantius, expiated, by an ignominious death, the insolence, thecorruption, and cruelty of his servile reign. The executions of Pauland Apodemius (the former of whom was burnt alive) were accepted asan inadequate atonement by the widows and orphans of so many hundredRomans, whom those legal tyrants had betrayed and murdered. But justiceherself (if we may use the pathetic expression of Ammianus ) appearedto weep over the fate of Ursulus, the treasurer of the empire; andhis blood accused the ingratitude of Julian, whose distress had beenseasonably relieved by the intrepid liberality of that honest minister.The rage of the soldiers, whom he had provoked by his indiscretion, wasthe cause and the excuse of his death; and the emperor, deeply woundedby his own reproaches and those of the public, offered some consolationto the family of Ursulus, by the restitution of his confiscatedfortunes. Before the end of the year in which they had been adorned withthe ensigns of the prefecture and consulship, Taurus and Florentius werereduced to implore the clemency of the inexorable tribunal of Chalcedon.The former was banished to VercellÊ in Italy, and a sentence of deathwas pronounced against the latter. A wise prince should have rewardedthe crime of Taurus: the faithful minister, when he was no longer ableto oppose the progress of a rebel, had taken refuge in the court ofhis benefactor and his lawful sovereign. But the guilt of Florentiusjustified the severity of the judges; and his escape served to displaythe magnanimity of Julian, who nobly checked the interested diligenceof an informer, and refused to learn what place concealed the wretchedfugitive from his just resentment. Some months after the tribunal ofChalcedon had been dissolved, the prÊtorian vicegerent of Africa, thenotary Gaudentius, and Artemius duke of Egypt, were executed at Antioch.Artemius had reigned the cruel and corrupt tyrant of a great province;Gaudentius had long practised the arts of calumny against theinnocent, the virtuous, and even the person of Julian himself. Yetthe circ*mstances of their trial and condemnation were so unskillfullymanaged, that these wicked men obtained, in the public opinion, theglory of suffering for the obstinate loyalty with which they hadsupported the cause of Constantius. The rest of his servants wereprotected by a general act of oblivion; and they were left to enjoywith impunity the bribes which they had accepted, either to defend theoppressed, or to oppress the friendless. This measure, which, on thesoundest principles of policy, may deserve our approbation, was executedin a manner which seemed to degrade the majesty of the throne. Julianwas tormented by the importunities of a multitude, particularly ofEgyptians, who loudly redemanded the gifts which they had imprudentlyor illegally bestowed; he foresaw the endless prosecution of vexatioussuits; and he engaged a promise, which ought always to have been sacred,that if they would repair to Chalcedon, he would meet them in person, tohear and determine their complaints. But as soon as they were landed,he issued an absolute order, which prohibited the watermen fromtransporting any Egyptian to Constantinople; and thus detained hisdisappointed clients on the Asiatic shore till, their patience and moneybeing utterly exhausted, they were obliged to return with indignantmurmurs to their native country.

Chapter XXII: Julian Declared Emperor.--Part IV.

The numerous army of spies, of agents, and informers enlisted byConstantius to secure the repose of one man, and to interrupt that ofmillions, was immediately disbanded by his generous successor. Julianwas slow in his suspicions, and gentle in his punishments; and hiscontempt of treason was the result of judgment, of vanity, and ofcourage. Conscious of superior merit, he was persuaded that few amonghis subjects would dare to meet him in the field, to attempt his life,or even to seat themselves on his vacant throne. The philosopher couldexcuse the hasty sallies of discontent; and the hero could despise theambitious projects which surpassed the fortune or the abilities of therash conspirators. A citizen of Ancyra had prepared for his own use apurple garment; and this indiscreet action, which, under the reignof Constantius, would have been considered as a capital offence, wasreported to Julian by the officious importunity of a private enemy. Themonarch, after making some inquiry into the rank and character ofhis rival, despatched the informer with a present of a pair of purpleslippers, to complete the magnificence of his Imperial habit. A moredangerous conspiracy was formed by ten of the domestic guards, who hadresolved to assassinate Julian in the field of exercise near Antioch.Their intemperance revealed their guilt; and they were conducted inchains to the presence of their injured sovereign, who, after a livelyrepresentation of the wickedness and folly of their enterprise, insteadof a death of torture, which they deserved and expected, pronounced asentence of exile against the two principal offenders. The only instancein which Julian seemed to depart from his accustomed clemency, was theexecution of a rash youth, who, with a feeble hand, had aspired toseize the reins of empire. But that youth was the son of Marcellus, thegeneral of cavalry, who, in the first campaign of the Gallic war, haddeserted the standard of the CÊsar and the republic. Without appearingto indulge his personal resentment, Julian might easily confoundthe crime of the son and of the father; but he was reconciled by thedistress of Marcellus, and the liberality of the emperor endeavored toheal the wound which had been inflicted by the hand of justice.

Julian was not insensible of the advantages of freedom. From his studieshe had imbibed the spirit of ancient sages and heroes; his life andfortunes had depended on the caprice of a tyrant; and when he ascendedthe throne, his pride was sometimes mortified by the reflection, thatthe slaves who would not dare to censure his defects were not worthyto applaud his virtues. He sincerely abhorred the system of Orientaldespotism, which Diocletian, Constantine, and the patient habits offourscore years, had established in the empire. A motive of superstitionprevented the execution of the design, which Julian had frequentlymeditated, of relieving his head from the weight of a costly diadem; buthe absolutely refused the title of Dominus, or Lord, a word whichwas grown so familiar to the ears of the Romans, that they no longerremembered its servile and humiliating origin. The office, or ratherthe name, of consul, was cherished by a prince who contemplated withreverence the ruins of the republic; and the same behavior which hadbeen assumed by the prudence of Augustus was adopted by Julian fromchoice and inclination. On the calends of January, at break of day, thenew consuls, Mamertinus and Nevitta, hastened to the palace to salutethe emperor. As soon as he was informed of their approach, he leapedfrom his throne, eagerly advanced to meet them, and compelled theblushing magistrates to receive the demonstrations of his affectedhumility. From the palace they proceeded to the senate. The emperor, onfoot, marched before their litters; and the gazing multitude admired theimage of ancient times, or secretly blamed a conduct, which, in theireyes, degraded the majesty of the purple. But the behavior of Julian wasuniformly supported. During the games of the Circus, he had, imprudentlyor designedly, performed the manumission of a slave in the presence ofthe consul. The moment he was reminded that he had trespassed on thejurisdiction of another magistrate, he condemned himself to pay a fineof ten pounds of gold; and embraced this public occasion of declaring tothe world, that he was subject, like the rest of his fellow-citizens,to the laws, and even to the forms, of the republic. The spirit of hisadministration, and his regard for the place of his nativity, inducedJulian to confer on the senate of Constantinople the same honors,privileges, and authority, which were still enjoyed by the senate ofancient Rome. A legal fiction was introduced, and gradually established,that one half of the national council had migrated into the East; andthe despotic successors of Julian, accepting the title of Senators,acknowledged themselves the members of a respectable body, whichwas permitted to represent the majesty of the Roman name. FromConstantinople, the attention of the monarch was extended to themunicipal senates of the provinces. He abolished, by repeated edicts,the unjust and pernicious exemptions which had withdrawn so many idlecitizens from the services of their country; and by imposing an equaldistribution of public duties, he restored the strength, the splendor,or, according to the glowing expression of Libanius, the soul of theexpiring cities of his empire. The venerable age of Greece excited themost tender compassion in the mind of Julian, which kindled into rapturewhen he recollected the gods, the heroes, and the men superior to heroesand to gods, who have bequeathed to the latest posterity the monumentsof their genius, or the example of their virtues. He relieved thedistress, and restored the beauty, of the cities of Epirus andPeloponnesus. Athens acknowledged him for her benefactor; Argos, for herdeliverer. The pride of Corinth, again rising from her ruins with thehonors of a Roman colony, exacted a tribute from the adjacent republics,for the purpose of defraying the games of the Isthmus, which werecelebrated in the amphitheatre with the hunting of bears and panthers.From this tribute the cities of Elis, of Delphi, and of Argos, which hadinherited from their remote ancestors the sacred office of perpetuatingthe Olympic, the Pythian, and the Nemean games, claimed a justexemption. The immunity of Elis and Delphi was respected by theCorinthians; but the poverty of Argos tempted the insolence ofoppression; and the feeble complaints of its deputies were silenced bythe decree of a provincial magistrate, who seems to have consulted onlythe interest of the capital in which he resided. Seven years afterthis sentence, Julian allowed the cause to be referred to a superiortribunal; and his eloquence was interposed, most probably with success,in the defence of a city, which had been the royal seat of Agamemnon,and had given to Macedonia a race of kings and conquerors.

The laborious administration of military and civil affairs, which weremultiplied in proportion to the extent of the empire, exercised theabilities of Julian; but he frequently assumed the two characters ofOrator and of Judge, which are almost unknown to the modern sovereignsof Europe. The arts of persuasion, so diligently cultivated by the firstCÊsars, were neglected by the military ignorance and Asiatic pride oftheir successors; and if they condescended to harangue the soldiers,whom they feared, they treated with silent disdain the senators, whomthey despised. The assemblies of the senate, which Constantius hadavoided, were considered by Julian as the place where he could exhibit,with the most propriety, the maxims of a republican, and the talents ofa rhetorician. He alternately practised, as in a school of declamation,the several modes of praise, of censure, of exhortation; and his friendLibanius has remarked, that the study of Homer taught him to imitatethe simple, concise style of Menelaus, the copiousness of Nestor, whosewords descended like the flakes of a winter's snow, or the patheticand forcible eloquence of Ulysses. The functions of a judge, which aresometimes incompatible with those of a prince, were exercised by Julian,not only as a duty, but as an amusem*nt; and although he might havetrusted the integrity and discernment of his PrÊtorian prÊfects, heoften placed himself by their side on the seat of judgment. Theacute penetration of his mind was agreeably occupied in detecting anddefeating the chicanery of the advocates, who labored to disguise thetruths of facts, and to pervert the sense of the laws. He sometimesforgot the gravity of his station, asked indiscreet or unseasonablequestions, and betrayed, by the loudness of his voice, and the agitationof his body, the earnest vehemence with which he maintained his opinionagainst the judges, the advocates, and their clients. But his knowledgeof his own temper prompted him to encourage, and even to solicit, thereproof of his friends and ministers; and whenever they ventured tooppose the irregular sallies of his passions, the spectators couldobserve the shame, as well as the gratitude, of their monarch. Thedecrees of Julian were almost always founded on the principles ofjustice; and he had the firmness to resist the two most dangeroustemptations, which assault the tribunal of a sovereign, under thespecious forms of compassion and equity. He decided the merits of thecause without weighing the circ*mstances of the parties; and the poor,whom he wished to relieve, were condemned to satisfy the just demands ofa wealthy and noble adversary. He carefully distinguished the judge fromthe legislator; and though he meditated a necessary reformation of theRoman jurisprudence, he pronounced sentence according to the strict andliteral interpretation of those laws, which the magistrates were boundto execute, and the subjects to obey.

The generality of princes, if they were stripped of their purple, andcast naked into the world, would immediately sink to the lowest rankof society, without a hope of emerging from their obscurity. But thepersonal merit of Julian was, in some measure, independent of hisfortune. Whatever had been his choice of life, by the force of intrepidcourage, lively wit, and intense application, he would have obtained, orat least he would have deserved, the highest honors of his profession;and Julian might have raised himself to the rank of minister, orgeneral, of the state in which he was born a private citizen. If thejealous caprice of power had disappointed his expectations, if he hadprudently declined the paths of greatness, the employment of the sametalents in studious solitude would have placed beyond the reach ofkings his present happiness and his immortal fame. When we inspect,with minute, or perhaps malevolent attention, the portrait of Julian,something seems wanting to the grace and perfection of the whole figure.His genius was less powerful and sublime than that of CÊsar; nor didhe possess the consummate prudence of Augustus. The virtues of Trajanappear more steady and natural, and the philosophy of Marcus is moresimple and consistent. Yet Julian sustained adversity with firmness, andprosperity with moderation. After an interval of one hundred and twentyyears from the death of Alexander Severus, the Romans beheld an emperorwho made no distinction between his duties and his pleasures; wholabored to relieve the distress, and to revive the spirit, of hissubjects; and who endeavored always to connect authority with merit,and happiness with virtue. Even faction, and religious faction, wasconstrained to acknowledge the superiority of his genius, in peace aswell as in war, and to confess, with a sigh, that the apostate Julianwas a lover of his country, and that he deserved the empire of theworld.

Chapter XXIII: Reign Of Julian.--Part I.

 The Religion Of Julian.--Universal Toleration.--He Attempts To Restore And Reform The Pagan Worship--To Rebuild The Temple Of Jerusalem--His Artful Persecution Of The Christians.--Mutual Zeal And Injustice.

The character of Apostate has injured the reputation of Julian; andthe enthusiasm which clouded his virtues has exaggerated the real andapparent magnitude of his faults. Our partial ignorance may representhim as a philosophic monarch, who studied to protect, with an equalhand, the religious factions of the empire; and to allay the theologicalfever which had inflamed the minds of the people, from the edicts ofDiocletian to the exile of Athanasius. A more accurate view of thecharacter and conduct of Julian will remove this favorable prepossessionfor a prince who did not escape the general contagion of the times. Weenjoy the singular advantage of comparing the pictures which have beendelineated by his fondest admirers and his implacable enemies. Theactions of Julian are faithfully related by a judicious and candidhistorian, the impartial spectator of his life and death. The unanimousevidence of his contemporaries is confirmed by the public and privatedeclarations of the emperor himself; and his various writings expressthe uniform tenor of his religious sentiments, which policy would haveprompted him to dissemble rather than to affect. A devout and sincereattachment for the gods of Athens and Rome constituted the rulingpassion of Julian; the powers of an enlightened understanding werebetrayed and corrupted by the influence of superstitious prejudice; andthe phantoms which existed only in the mind of the emperor had a realand pernicious effect on the government of the empire. The vehement zealof the Christians, who despised the worship, and overturned thealtars of those fabulous deities, engaged their votary in a state ofirreconcilable hostility with a very numerous party of his subjects;and he was sometimes tempted by the desire of victory, or the shame ofa repulse, to violate the laws of prudence, and even of justice. Thetriumph of the party, which he deserted and opposed, has fixed a stainof infamy on the name of Julian; and the unsuccessful apostate has beenoverwhelmed with a torrent of pious invectives, of which the signalwas given by the sonorous trumpet of Gregory Nazianzen. The interestingnature of the events which were crowded into the short reign of thisactive emperor, deserve a just and circ*mstantial narrative. Hismotives, his counsels, and his actions, as far as they are connectedwith the history of religion, will be the subject of the presentchapter.

The cause of his strange and fatal apostasy may be derived from theearly period of his life, when he was left an orphan in the hands ofthe murderers of his family. The names of Christ and of Constantius,the ideas of slavery and of religion, were soon associated in a youthfulimagination, which was susceptible of the most lively impressions. Thecare of his infancy was intrusted to Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, whowas related to him on the side of his mother; and till Julian reachedthe twentieth year of his age, he received from his Christian preceptorsthe education, not of a hero, but of a saint. The emperor, less jealousof a heavenly than of an earthly crown, contented himself with theimperfect character of a catechumen, while he bestowed the advantagesof baptism on the nephews of Constantine. They were even admitted to theinferior offices of the ecclesiastical order; and Julian publicly readthe Holy Scriptures in the church of Nicomedia. The study of religion,which they assiduously cultivated, appeared to produce the fairestfruits of faith and devotion. They prayed, they fasted, they distributedalms to the poor, gifts to the clergy, and oblations to the tombs ofthe martyrs; and the splendid monument of St. Mamas, at CÊsarea, waserected, or at least was undertaken, by the joint labor of Gallus andJulian. They respectfully conversed with the bishops, who were eminentfor superior sanctity, and solicited the benediction of the monks andhermits, who had introduced into Cappadocia the voluntary hardshipsof the ascetic life. As the two princes advanced towards the years ofmanhood, they discovered, in their religious sentiments, the differenceof their characters. The dull and obstinate understanding of Gallusembraced, with implicit zeal, the doctrines of Christianity; which neverinfluenced his conduct, or moderated his passions. The mild dispositionof the younger brother was less repugnant to the precepts of the gospel;and his active curiosity might have been gratified by a theologicalsystem, which explains the mysterious essence of the Deity, andopens the boundless prospect of invisible and future worlds. Butthe independent spirit of Julian refused to yield the passive andunresisting obedience which was required, in the name of religion, bythe haughty ministers of the church. Their speculative opinionswere imposed as positive laws, and guarded by the terrors of eternalpunishments; but while they prescribed the rigid formulary of thethoughts, the words, and the actions of the young prince; whilstthey silenced his objections, and severely checked the freedom of hisinquiries, they secretly provoked his impatient genius to disclaim theauthority of his ecclesiastical guides. He was educated in the LesserAsia, amidst the scandals of the Arian controversy. The fierce contestsof the Eastern bishops, the incessant alterations of their creeds, andthe profane motives which appeared to actuate their conduct, insensiblystrengthened the prejudice of Julian, that they neither understood norbelieved the religion for which they so fiercely contended. Instead oflistening to the proofs of Christianity with that favorable attentionwhich adds weight to the most respectable evidence, he heard withsuspicion, and disputed with obstinacy and acuteness, the doctrines forwhich he already entertained an invincible aversion. Whenever the youngprinces were directed to compose declamations on the subject of theprevailing controversies, Julian always declared himself the advocate ofPaganism; under the specious excuse that, in the defence of the weakercause, his learning and ingenuity might be more advantageously exercisedand displayed.

As soon as Gallus was invested with the honors of the purple, Julian waspermitted to breathe the air of freedom, of literature, and of Paganism.The crowd of sophists, who were attracted by the taste and liberality oftheir royal pupil, had formed a strict alliance between the learning andthe religion of Greece; and the poems of Homer, instead of being admiredas the original productions of human genius, were seriously ascribedto the heavenly inspiration of Apollo and the muses. The deities ofOlympus, as they are painted by the immortal bard, imprint themselves onthe minds which are the least addicted to superstitious credulity.Our familiar knowledge of their names and characters, their forms andattributes, seems to bestow on those airy beings a real and substantialexistence; and the pleasing enchantment produces an imperfect andmomentary assent of the imagination to those fables, which are the mostrepugnant to our reason and experience. In the age of Julian, everycirc*mstance contributed to prolong and fortify the illusion; themagnificent temples of Greece and Asia; the works of those artists whohad expressed, in painting or in sculpture, the divine conceptions ofthe poet; the pomp of festivals and sacrifices; the successful arts ofdivination; the popular traditions of oracles and prodigies; and theancient practice of two thousand years. The weakness of polytheismwas, in some measure, excused by the moderation of its claims; and thedevotion of the Pagans was not incompatible with the most licentiousscepticism. Instead of an indivisible and regular system, which occupiesthe whole extent of the believing mind, the mythology of the Greeks wascomposed of a thousand loose and flexible parts, and the servant of thegods was at liberty to define the degree and measure of his religiousfaith. The creed which Julian adopted for his own use was of the largestdimensions; and, by strange contradiction, he disdained the salutaryyoke of the gospel, whilst he made a voluntary offering of his reasonon the altars of Jupiter and Apollo. One of the orations of Julian isconsecrated to the honor of Cybele, the mother of the gods, who requiredfrom her effeminate priests the bloody sacrifice, so rashly performedby the madness of the Phrygian boy. The pious emperor condescends torelate, without a blush, and without a smile, the voyage of thegoddess from the shores of Pergamus to the mouth of the Tyber, and thestupendous miracle, which convinced the senate and people of Rome thatthe lump of clay, which their ambassadors had transported over the seas,was endowed with life, and sentiment, and divine power. For the truthof this prodigy he appeals to the public monuments of the city; andcensures, with some acrimony, the sickly and affected taste of thosem*n, who impertinently derided the sacred traditions of their ancestors.

But the devout philosopher, who sincerely embraced, and warmlyencouraged, the superstition of the people, reserved for himself theprivilege of a liberal interpretation; and silently withdrew from thefoot of the altars into the sanctuary of the temple. The extravagance ofthe Grecian mythology proclaimed, with a clear and audible voice, thatthe pious inquirer, instead of being scandalized or satisfied with theliteral sense, should diligently explore the occult wisdom, which hadbeen disguised, by the prudence of antiquity, under the mask of follyand of fable. The philosophers of the Platonic school, Plotinus,Porphyry, and the divine Iamblichus, were admired as the most skilfulmasters of this allegorical science, which labored to soften andharmonize the deformed features of Paganism. Julian himself, who wasdirected in the mysterious pursuit by ∆desius, the venerable successorof Iamblichus, aspired to the possession of a treasure, which heesteemed, if we may credit his solemn asseverations, far above theempire of the world. It was indeed a treasure, which derived its valueonly from opinion; and every artist who flattered himself that he hadextracted the precious ore from the surrounding dross, claimed an equalright of stamping the name and figure the most agreeable to his peculiarfancy. The fable of Atys and Cybele had been already explained byPorphyry; but his labors served only to animate the pious industry ofJulian, who invented and published his own allegory of that ancient andmystic tale. This freedom of interpretation, which might gratify thepride of the Platonists, exposed the vanity of their art. Without atedious detail, the modern reader could not form a just idea of thestrange allusions, the forced etymologies, the solemn trifling, andthe impenetrable obscurity of these sages, who professed to revealthe system of the universe. As the traditions of Pagan mythology werevariously related, the sacred interpreters were at liberty to selectthe most convenient circ*mstances; and as they translated an arbitrarycipher, they could extract from any fable any sense which was adapted totheir favorite system of religion and philosophy. The lascivious form ofa naked Venus was tortured into the discovery of some moral precept, orsome physical truth; and the castration of Atys explained the revolutionof the sun between the tropics, or the separation of the human soul fromvice and error.

The theological system of Julian appears to have contained the sublimeand important principles of natural religion. But as the faith, which isnot founded on revelation, must remain destitute of any firm assurance,the disciple of Plato imprudently relapsed into the habits of vulgarsuperstition; and the popular and philosophic notion of the Deity seemsto have been confounded in the practice, the writings, and even in themind of Julian. The pious emperor acknowledged and adored the EternalCause of the universe, to whom he ascribed all the perfections ofan infinite nature, invisible to the eyes and inaccessible to theunderstanding, of feeble mortals. The Supreme God had created, orrather, in the Platonic language, had generated, the gradual successionof dependent spirits, of gods, of dÊmons, of heroes, and of men; andevery being which derived its existence immediately from the FirstCause, received the inherent gift of immortality. That so preciousan advantage might be lavished upon unworthy objects, the Creator hadintrusted to the skill and power of the inferior gods the office offorming the human body, and of arranging the beautiful harmony of theanimal, the vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms. To the conduct of thesedivine ministers he delegated the temporal government of this lowerworld; but their imperfect administration is not exempt from discordor error. The earth and its inhabitants are divided among them, and thecharacters of Mars or Minerva, of Mercury or Venus, may be distinctlytraced in the laws and manners of their peculiar votaries. As long asour immortal souls are confined in a mortal prison, it is our interest,as well as our duty, to solicit the favor, and to deprecate the wrath,of the powers of heaven; whose pride is gratified by the devotionof mankind; and whose grosser parts may be supposed to derive somenourishment from the fumes of sacrifice. The inferior gods mightsometimes condescend to animate the statues, and to inhabit the temples,which were dedicated to their honor. They might occasionally visit theearth, but the heavens were the proper throne and symbol of their glory.The invariable order of the sun, moon, and stars, was hastily admittedby Julian, as a proof of their eternal duration; and their eternity wasa sufficient evidence that they were the workmanship, not of an inferiordeity, but of the Omnipotent King. In the system of Platonists, thevisible was a type of the invisible world. The celestial bodies, as theywere informed by a divine spirit, might be considered as the objectsthe most worthy of religious worship. The Sun, whose genial influencepervades and sustains the universe, justly claimed the adoration ofmankind, as the bright representative of the Logos, the lively, therational, the beneficent image of the intellectual Father.

In every age, the absence of genuine inspiration is supplied by thestrong illusions of enthusiasm, and the mimic arts of imposture. If,in the time of Julian, these arts had been practised only by the paganpriests, for the support of an expiring cause, some indulgence mightperhaps be allowed to the interest and habits of the sacerdotalcharacter. But it may appear a subject of surprise and scandal, thatthe philosophers themselves should have contributed to abuse thesuperstitious credulity of mankind, and that the Grecian mysteriesshould have been supported by the magic or theurgy of the modernPlatonists. They arrogantly pretended to control the order of nature, toexplore the secrets of futurity, to command the service of the inferiordÊmons, to enjoy the view and conversation of the superior gods, and bydisengaging the soul from her material bands, to reunite that immortalparticle with the Infinite and Divine Spirit.

The devout and fearless curiosity of Julian tempted the philosopherswith the hopes of an easy conquest; which, from the situation of theiryoung proselyte, might be productive of the most important consequences.Julian imbibed the first rudiments of the Platonic doctrines from themouth of ∆desius, who had fixed at Pergamus his wandering and persecutedschool. But as the declining strength of that venerable sage was unequalto the ardor, the diligence, the rapid conception of his pupil, two ofhis most learned disciples, Chrysanthes and Eusebius, supplied, at hisown desire, the place of their aged master. These philosophers seem tohave prepared and distributed their respective parts; and they artfullycontrived, by dark hints and affected disputes, to excite the impatienthopes of the aspirant, till they delivered him into the hands of theirassociate, Maximus, the boldest and most skilful master of the Theurgicscience. By his hands, Julian was secretly initiated at Ephesus, inthe twentieth year of his age. His residence at Athens confirmed thisunnatural alliance of philosophy and superstition. He obtained theprivilege of a solemn initiation into the mysteries of Eleusis, which,amidst the general decay of the Grecian worship, still retained somevestiges of their primÊval sanctity; and such was the zeal of Julian,that he afterwards invited the Eleusinian pontiff to the court of Gaul,for the sole purpose of consummating, by mystic rites and sacrifices,the great work of his sanctification. As these ceremonies were performedin the depth of caverns, and in the silence of the night, and as theinviolable secret of the mysteries was preserved by the discretion ofthe initiated, I shall not presume to describe the horrid sounds,and fiery apparitions, which were presented to the senses, or theimagination, of the credulous aspirant, till the visions of comfort andknowledge broke upon him in a blaze of celestial light. In the cavernsof Ephesus and Eleusis, the mind of Julian was penetrated with sincere,deep, and unalterable enthusiasm; though he might sometimes exhibit thevicissitudes of pious fraud and hypocrisy, which may be observed, or atleast suspected, in the characters of the most conscientious fanatics.From that moment he consecrated his life to the service of the gods;and while the occupations of war, of government, and of study, seemedto claim the whole measure of his time, a stated portion of the hours ofthe night was invariably reserved for the exercise of private devotion.The temperance which adorned the severe manners of the soldier andthe philosopher was connected with some strict and frivolous rules ofreligious abstinence; and it was in honor of Pan or Mercury, of Hecateor Isis, that Julian, on particular days, denied himself the use of someparticular food, which might have been offensive to his tutelar deities.By these voluntary fasts, he prepared his senses and his understandingfor the frequent and familiar visits with which he was honored by thecelestial powers. Notwithstanding the modest silence of Julian himself,we may learn from his faithful friend, the orator Libanius, that helived in a perpetual intercourse with the gods and goddesses; that theydescended upon earth to enjoy the conversation of their favorite hero;that they gently interrupted his slumbers by touching his hand or hishair; that they warned him of every impending danger, and conducted him,by their infallible wisdom, in every action of his life; and that he hadacquired such an intimate knowledge of his heavenly guests, as readilyto distinguish the voice of Jupiter from that of Minerva, and the formof Apollo from the figure of Hercules. These sleeping or waking visions,the ordinary effects of abstinence and fanaticism, would almost degradethe emperor to the level of an Egyptian monk. But the useless livesof Antony or Pachomius were consumed in these vain occupations. Juliancould break from the dream of superstition to arm himself for battle;and after vanquishing in the field the enemies of Rome, he calmlyretired into his tent, to dictate the wise and salutary laws of anempire, or to indulge his genius in the elegant pursuits of literatureand philosophy.

The important secret of the apostasy of Julian was intrusted to thefidelity of the initiated, with whom he was united by the sacred tiesof friendship and religion. The pleasing rumor was cautiously circulatedamong the adherents of the ancient worship; and his future greatnessbecame the object of the hopes, the prayers, and the predictions of thePagans, in every province of the empire. From the zeal and virtues oftheir royal proselyte, they fondly expected the cure of every evil, andthe restoration of every blessing; and instead of disapproving of theardor of their pious wishes, Julian ingenuously confessed, that hewas ambitious to attain a situation in which he might be useful to hiscountry and to his religion. But this religion was viewed with ahostile eye by the successor of Constantine, whose capricious passionsalternately saved and threatened the life of Julian. The arts of magicand divination were strictly prohibited under a despotic government,which condescended to fear them; and if the Pagans were reluctantlyindulged in the exercise of their superstition, the rank of Julian wouldhave excepted him from the general toleration. The apostate soon becamethe presumptive heir of the monarchy, and his death could alone haveappeased the just apprehensions of the Christians. But the young prince,who aspired to the glory of a hero rather than of a martyr, consultedhis safety by dissembling his religion; and the easy temper ofpolytheism permitted him to join in the public worship of a sect whichhe inwardly despised. Libanius has considered the hypocrisy of hisfriend as a subject, not of censure, but of praise. "As the statues ofthe gods," says that orator, "which have been defiled with filth, areagain placed in a magnificent temple, so the beauty of truth was seatedin the mind of Julian, after it had been purified from the errors andfollies of his education. His sentiments were changed; but as it wouldhave been dangerous to have avowed his sentiments, his conduct stillcontinued the same. Very different from the ass in ∆sop, who disguisedhimself with a lion's hide, our lion was obliged to conceal himselfunder the skin of an ass; and, while he embraced the dictates of reason,to obey the laws of prudence and necessity." The dissimulation of Julianlasted about ten years, from his secret initiation at Ephesus tothe beginning of the civil war; when he declared himself at once theimplacable enemy of Christ and of Constantius. This state of constraintmight contribute to strengthen his devotion; and as soon as he hadsatisfied the obligation of assisting, on solemn festivals, at theassemblies of the Christians, Julian returned, with the impatience of alover, to burn his free and voluntary incense on the domestic chapels ofJupiter and Mercury. But as every act of dissimulation must be painfulto an ingenuous spirit, the profession of Christianity increased theaversion of Julian for a religion which oppressed the freedom of hismind, and compelled him to hold a conduct repugnant to the noblestattributes of human nature, sincerity and courage.

Chapter XXIII: Reign Of Julian.--Part II.

The inclination of Julian might prefer the gods of Homer, and of theScipios, to the new faith, which his uncle had established in the Romanempire; and in which he himself had been sanctified by the sacrament ofbaptism. But, as a philosopher, it was incumbent on him to justify hisdissent from Christianity, which was supported by the number of itsconverts, by the chain of prophecy, the splendor of or miracles, andthe weight of evidence. The elaborate work, which he composed amidstthe preparations of the Persian war, contained the substance of thosearguments which he had long revolved in his mind. Some fragments havebeen transcribed and preserved, by his adversary, the vehement Cyrilof Alexandria; and they exhibit a very singular mixture of wit andlearning, of sophistry and fanaticism. The elegance of the style and therank of the author, recommended his writings to the public attention;and in the impious list of the enemies of Christianity, the celebratedname of Porphyry was effaced by the superior merit or reputation ofJulian. The minds of the faithful were either seduced, or scandalized,or alarmed; and the pagans, who sometimes presumed to engage in theunequal dispute, derived, from the popular work of their Imperialmissionary, an inexhaustible supply of fallacious objections. But in theassiduous prosecution of these theological studies, the emperor ofthe Romans imbibed the illiberal prejudices and passions of a polemicdivine. He contracted an irrevocable obligation to maintain andpropagate his religious opinions; and whilst he secretly applauded thestrength and dexterity with which he wielded the weapons ofcontroversy, he was tempted to distrust the sincerity, or to despisethe understandings, of his antagonists, who could obstinately resist theforce of reason and eloquence.

The Christians, who beheld with horror and indignation the apostasy ofJulian, had much more to fear from his power than from his arguments.The pagans, who were conscious of his fervent zeal, expected, perhapswith impatience, that the flames of persecution should be immediatelykindled against the enemies of the gods; and that the ingenious maliceof Julian would invent some cruel refinements of death and torture whichhad been unknown to the rude and inexperienced fury of his predecessors.But the hopes, as well as the fears, of the religious factions wereapparently disappointed, by the prudent humanity of a prince, who wascareful of his own fame, of the public peace, and of the rights ofmankind. Instructed by history and reflection, Julian was persuaded,that if the diseases of the body may sometimes be cured by salutaryviolence, neither steel nor fire can eradicate the erroneous opinions ofthe mind. The reluctant victim may be dragged to the foot of the altar;but the heart still abhors and disclaims the sacrilegious act of thehand. Religious obstinacy is hardened and exasperated by oppression;and, as soon as the persecution subsides, those who have yielded arerestored as penitents, and those who have resisted are honored as saintsand martyrs. If Julian adopted the unsuccessful cruelty of Diocletianand his colleagues, he was sensible that he should stain his memory withthe name of a tyrant, and add new glories to the Catholic church,which had derived strength and increase from the severity of the paganmagistrates. Actuated by these motives, and apprehensive of disturbingthe repose of an unsettled reign, Julian surprised the world by anedict, which was not unworthy of a statesman, or a philosopher. Heextended to all the inhabitants of the Roman world the benefits of afree and equal toleration; and the only hardship which he inflicted onthe Christians, was to deprive them of the power of tormenting theirfellow-subjects, whom they stigmatized with the odious titles ofidolaters and heretics. The pagans received a gracious permission, orrather an express order, to open All their temples; and they were atonce delivered from the oppressive laws, and arbitrary vexations, whichthey had sustained under the reign of Constantine, and of his sons. Atthe same time the bishops and clergy, who had been banished by the Arianmonarch, were recalled from exile, and restored to their respectivechurches; the Donatists, the Novatians, the Macedonians, the Eunomians,and those who, with a more prosperous fortune, adhered to the doctrineof the Council of Nice. Julian, who understood and derided theirtheological disputes, invited to the palace the leaders of the hostilesects, that he might enjoy the agreeable spectacle of their furiousencounters. The clamor of controversy sometimes provoked the emperor toexclaim, "Hear me! the Franks have heard me, and the Alemanni;" buthe soon discovered that he was now engaged with more obstinate andimplacable enemies; and though he exerted the powers of oratory topersuade them to live in concord, or at least in peace, he was perfectlysatisfied, before he dismissed them from his presence, that he hadnothing to dread from the union of the Christians. The impartialAmmianus has ascribed this affected clemency to the desire of fomentingthe intestine divisions of the church, and the insidious design ofundermining the foundations of Christianity, was inseparably connectedwith the zeal which Julian professed, to restore the ancient religion ofthe empire.

As soon as he ascended the throne, he assumed, according to the customof his predecessors, the character of supreme pontiff; not only asthe most honorable title of Imperial greatness, but as a sacred andimportant office; the duties of which he was resolved to execute withpious diligence. As the business of the state prevented the emperor fromjoining every day in the public devotion of his subjects, he dedicateda domestic chapel to his tutelar deity the Sun; his gardens were filledwith statues and altars of the gods; and each apartment of the palacedisplaced the appearance of a magnificent temple. Every morning hesaluted the parent of light with a sacrifice; the blood of anothervictim was shed at the moment when the Sun sunk below the horizon;and the Moon, the Stars, and the Genii of the night received theirrespective and seasonable honors from the indefatigable devotion ofJulian. On solemn festivals, he regularly visited the temple of the godor goddess to whom the day was peculiarly consecrated, and endeavored toexcite the religion of the magistrates and people by the example ofhis own zeal. Instead of maintaining the lofty state of a monarch,distinguished by the splendor of his purple, and encompassed bythe golden shields of his guards, Julian solicited, with respectfuleagerness, the meanest offices which contributed to the worship of thegods. Amidst the sacred but licentious crowd of priests, of inferiorministers, and of female dancers, who were dedicated to the service ofthe temple, it was the business of the emperor to bring the wood,to blow the fire, to handle the knife, to slaughter the victim, and,thrusting his bloody hands into the bowels of the expiring animal, todraw forth the heart or liver, and to read, with the consummate skill ofan haruspex, imaginary signs of future events. The wisest of the Paganscensured this extravagant superstition, which affected to despise therestraints of prudence and decency. Under the reign of a prince, whopractised the rigid maxims of economy, the expense of religious worshipconsumed a very large portion of the revenue a constant supply of thescarcest and most beautiful birds was transported from distant climates,to bleed on the altars of the gods; a hundred oxen were frequentlysacrificed by Julian on one and the same day; and it soon became apopular jest, that if he should return with conquest from the Persianwar, the breed of horned cattle must infallibly be extinguished. Yetthis expense may appear inconsiderable, when it is compared with thesplendid presents which were offered either by the hand, or by order,of the emperor, to all the celebrated places of devotion in the Romanworld; and with the sums allotted to repair and decorate the ancienttemples, which had suffered the silent decay of time, or therecent injuries of Christian rapine. Encouraged by the example, theexhortations, the liberality, of their pious sovereign, the cities andfamilies resumed the practice of their neglected ceremonies. "Every partof the world," exclaims Libanius, with devout transport, "displayedthe triumph of religion; and the grateful prospect of flaming altars,bleeding victims, the smoke of incense, and a solemn train of priestsand prophets, without fear and without danger. The sound of prayer andof music was heard on the tops of the highest mountains; and the sameox afforded a sacrifice for the gods, and a supper for their joyousvotaries."

But the genius and power of Julian were unequal to the enterprise ofrestoring a religion which was destitute of theological principles, ofmoral precepts, and of ecclesiastical discipline; which rapidly hastenedto decay and dissolution, and was not susceptible of any solid orconsistent reformation. The jurisdiction of the supreme pontiff, moreespecially after that office had been united with the Imperial dignity,comprehended the whole extent of the Roman empire. Julian named for hisvicars, in the several provinces, the priests and philosophers whom heesteemed the best qualified to cooperate in the execution of hisgreat design; and his pastoral letters, if we may use that name,still represent a very curious sketch of his wishes and intentions. Hedirects, that in every city the sacerdotal order should be composed,without any distinction of birth and fortune, of those persons who werethe most conspicuous for the love of the gods, and of men. "If theyare guilty," continues he, "of any scandalous offence, they should becensured or degraded by the superior pontiff; but as long as they retaintheir rank, they are entitled to the respect of the magistrates andpeople. Their humility may be shown in the plainness of their domesticgarb; their dignity, in the pomp of holy vestments. When they aresummoned in their turn to officiate before the altar, they ought not,during the appointed number of days, to depart from the precincts ofthe temple; nor should a single day be suffered to elapse, withoutthe prayers and the sacrifice, which they are obliged to offer forthe prosperity of the state, and of individuals. The exercise of theirsacred functions requires an immaculate purity, both of mind and body;and even when they are dismissed from the temple to the occupations ofcommon life, it is incumbent on them to excel in decency and virtue therest of their fellow-citizens. The priest of the gods should never beseen in theatres or taverns. His conversation should be chaste, hisdiet temperate, his friends of honorable reputation; and if he sometimesvisits the Forum or the Palace, he should appear only as the advocateof those who have vainly solicited either justice or mercy. His studiesshould be suited to the sanctity of his profession. Licentious tales,or comedies, or satires, must be banished from his library, which oughtsolely to consist of historical or philosophical writings; of history,which is founded in truth, and of philosophy, which is connected withreligion. The impious opinions of the Epicureans and sceptics deservehis abhorrence and contempt; but he should diligently study the systemsof Pythagoras, of Plato, and of the Stoics, which unanimously teach thatthere are gods; that the world is governed by their providence; thattheir goodness is the source of every temporal blessing; and thatthey have prepared for the human soul a future state of reward orpunishment." The Imperial pontiff inculcates, in the most persuasivelanguage, the duties of benevolence and hospitality; exhorts hisinferior clergy to recommend the universal practice of those virtues;promises to assist their indigence from the public treasury; anddeclares his resolution of establishing hospitals in every city, wherethe poor should be received without any invidious distinction of countryor of religion. Julian beheld with envy the wise and humane regulationsof the church; and he very frankly confesses his intention to deprivethe Christians of the applause, as well as advantage, which they hadacquired by the exclusive practice of charity and beneficence. Thesame spirit of imitation might dispose the emperor to adopt severalecclesiastical institutions, the use and importance of which wereapproved by the success of his enemies. But if these imaginary plans ofreformation had been realized, the forced and imperfect copy would havebeen less beneficial to Paganism, than honorable to Christianity. TheGentiles, who peaceably followed the customs of their ancestors, wererather surprised than pleased with the introduction of foreign manners;and in the short period of his reign, Julian had frequent occasions tocomplain of the want of fervor of his own party.

The enthusiasm of Julian prompted him to embrace the friends of Jupiteras his personal friends and brethren; and though he partially overlookedthe merit of Christian constancy, he admired and rewarded the nobleperseverance of those Gentiles who had preferred the favor of the godsto that of the emperor. If they cultivated the literature, as well asthe religion, of the Greeks, they acquired an additional claim to thefriendship of Julian, who ranked the Muses in the number of his tutelardeities. In the religion which he had adopted, piety and learningwere almost synonymous; and a crowd of poets, of rhetoricians, andof philosophers, hastened to the Imperial court, to occupy the vacantplaces of the bishops, who had seduced the credulity of Constantius. Hissuccessor esteemed the ties of common initiation as far more sacred thanthose of consanguinity; he chose his favorites among the sages, who weredeeply skilled in the occult sciences of magic and divination; and everyimpostor, who pretended to reveal the secrets of futurity, wasassured of enjoying the present hour in honor and affluence. Among thephilosophers, Maximus obtained the most eminent rank in the friendshipof his royal disciple, who communicated, with unreserved confidence, hisactions, his sentiments, and his religious designs, during the anxioussuspense of the civil war. As soon as Julian had taken possession ofthe palace of Constantinople, he despatched an honorable and pressinginvitation to Maximus, who then resided at Sardes in Lydia, withChrysanthius, the associate of his art and studies. The prudent andsuperstitious Chrysanthius refused to undertake a journey which showeditself, according to the rules of divination, with the most threateningand malignant aspect: but his companion, whose fanaticism was of abolder cast, persisted in his interrogations, till he had extorted fromthe gods a seeming consent to his own wishes, and those of the emperor.The journey of Maximus through the cities of Asia displayed the triumphof philosophic vanity; and the magistrates vied with each other inthe honorable reception which they prepared for the friend of theirsovereign. Julian was pronouncing an oration before the senate, whenhe was informed of the arrival of Maximus. The emperor immediatelyinterrupted his discourse, advanced to meet him, and after a tenderembrace, conducted him by the hand into the midst of the assembly; wherehe publicly acknowledged the benefits which he had derived fromthe instructions of the philosopher. Maximus, who soon acquired theconfidence, and influenced the councils of Julian, was insensiblycorrupted by the temptations of a court. His dress became more splendid,his demeanor more lofty, and he was exposed, under a succeeding reign,to a disgraceful inquiry into the means by which the disciple of Platohad accumulated, in the short duration of his favor, a very scandalousproportion of wealth. Of the other philosophers and sophists, who wereinvited to the Imperial residence by the choice of Julian, or by thesuccess of Maximus, few were able to preserve their innocence ortheir reputation. The liberal gifts of money, lands, and houses, wereinsufficient to satiate their rapacious avarice; and the indignation ofthe people was justly excited by the remembrance of their abject povertyand disinterested professions. The penetration of Julian could notalways be deceived: but he was unwilling to despise the characters ofthose men whose talents deserved his esteem: he desired to escape thedouble reproach of imprudence and inconstancy; and he was apprehensiveof degrading, in the eyes of the profane, the honor of letters and ofreligion.

The favor of Julian was almost equally divided between the Pagans,who had firmly adhered to the worship of their ancestors, and theChristians, who prudently embraced the religion of their sovereign. Theacquisition of new proselytes gratified the ruling passions of hissoul, superstition and vanity; and he was heard to declare, with theenthusiasm of a missionary, that if he could render each individualricher than Midas, and every city greater than Babylon, he should notesteem himself the benefactor of mankind, unless, at the same time,he could reclaim his subjects from their impious revolt against theimmortal gods. A prince who had studied human nature, and who possessedthe treasures of the Roman empire, could adapt his arguments, hispromises, and his rewards, to every order of Christians; and the meritof a seasonable conversion was allowed to supply the defects of acandidate, or even to expiate the guilt of a criminal. As the army isthe most forcible engine of absolute power, Julian applied himself, withpeculiar diligence, to corrupt the religion of his troops, without whosehearty concurrence every measure must be dangerous and unsuccessful;and the natural temper of soldiers made this conquest as easy as it wasimportant. The legions of Gaul devoted themselves to the faith, as wellas to the fortunes, of their victorious leader; and even before thedeath of Constantius, he had the satisfaction of announcing to hisfriends, that they assisted with fervent devotion, and voraciousappetite, at the sacrifices, which were repeatedly offered in his camp,of whole hecatombs of fat oxen. The armies of the East, which had beentrained under the standard of the cross, and of Constantius, required amore artful and expensive mode of persuasion. On the days of solemnand public festivals, the emperor received the homage, and rewardedthe merit, of the troops. His throne of state was encircled with themilitary ensigns of Rome and the republic; the holy name of Christ waserased from the Labarum; and the symbols of war, of majesty, and ofpagan superstition, were so dexterously blended, that the faithfulsubject incurred the guilt of idolatry, when he respectfully saluted theperson or image of his sovereign. The soldiers passed successively inreview; and each of them, before he received from the hand of Julian aliberal donative, proportioned to his rank and services, was required tocast a few grains of incense into the flame which burnt upon the altar.Some Christian confessors might resist, and others might repent; butthe far greater number, allured by the prospect of gold, and awed by thepresence of the emperor, contracted the criminal engagement; and theirfuture perseverance in the worship of the gods was enforced by everyconsideration of duty and of interest. By the frequent repetition ofthese arts, and at the expense of sums which would have purchased theservice of half the nations of Scythia, Julian gradually acquired forhis troops the imaginary protection of the gods, and for himself thefirm and effectual support of the Roman legions. It is indeed more thanprobable, that the restoration and encouragement of Paganism revealeda multitude of pretended Christians, who, from motives of temporaladvantage, had acquiesced in the religion of the former reign; and whoafterwards returned, with the same flexibility of conscience, to thefaith which was professed by the successors of Julian.

While the devout monarch incessantly labored to restore and propagatethe religion of his ancestors, he embraced the extraordinary design ofrebuilding the temple of Jerusalem. In a public epistle to the nation orcommunity of the Jews, dispersed through the provinces, he pitiestheir misfortunes, condemns their oppressors, praises their constancy,declares himself their gracious protector, and expresses a pious hope,that after his return from the Persian war, he may be permitted to payhis grateful vows to the Almighty in his holy city of Jerusalem. Theblind superstition, and abject slavery, of those unfortunate exiles,must excite the contempt of a philosophic emperor; but they deserved thefriendship of Julian, by their implacable hatred of the Christian name.The barren synagogue abhorred and envied the fecundity of the rebelliouschurch; the power of the Jews was not equal to their malice; but theirgravest rabbis approved the private murder of an apostate; and theirseditious clamors had often awakened the indolence of the Paganmagistrates. Under the reign of Constantine, the Jews became thesubjects of their revolted children nor was it long before theyexperienced the bitterness of domestic tyranny. The civil immunitieswhich had been granted, or confirmed, by Severus, were graduallyrepealed by the Christian princes; and a rash tumult, excited by theJews of Palestine, seemed to justify the lucrative modes of oppressionwhich were invented by the bishops and eunuchs of the court ofConstantius. The Jewish patriarch, who was still permitted to exercisea precarious jurisdiction, held his residence at Tiberias; and theneighboring cities of Palestine were filled with the remains of a peoplewho fondly adhered to the promised land. But the edict of Hadrian wasrenewed and enforced; and they viewed from afar the walls of the holycity, which were profaned in their eyes by the triumph of the cross andthe devotion of the Christians.

Chapter XXIII: Reign Of Julian.--Part III.

In the midst of a rocky and barren country, the walls of Jerusalemenclosed the two mountains of Sion and Acra, within an oval figure ofabout three English miles. Towards the south, the upper town, and thefortress of David, were erected on the lofty ascent of Mount Sion: onthe north side, the buildings of the lower town covered the spacioussummit of Mount Acra; and a part of the hill, distinguished by the nameof Moriah, and levelled by human industry, was crowned with the statelytemple of the Jewish nation. After the final destruction of the templeby the arms of Titus and Hadrian, a ploughshare was drawn over theconsecrated ground, as a sign of perpetual interdiction. Sion wasdeserted; and the vacant space of the lower city was filled with thepublic and private edifices of the ∆lian colony, which spread themselvesover the adjacent hill of Calvary. The holy places were polluted withmountains of idolatry; and, either from design or accident, a chapel wasdedicated to Venus, on the spot which had been sanctified by the deathand resurrection of Christ. * Almost three hundred years after thosestupendous events, the profane chapel of Venus was demolished by theorder of Constantine; and the removal of the earth and stones revealedthe holy sepulchre to the eyes of mankind. A magnificent church waserected on that mystic ground, by the first Christian emperor; and theeffects of his pious munificence were extended to every spot which hadbeen consecrated by the footstep of patriarchs, of prophets, and of theSon of God.

The passionate desire of contemplating the original monuments of theirredemption attracted to Jerusalem a successive crowd of pilgrims, fromthe shores of the Atlantic Ocean, and the most distant countries ofthe East; and their piety was authorized by the example of the empressHelena, who appears to have united the credulity of age with the warmfeelings of a recent conversion. Sages and heroes, who have visitedthe memorable scenes of ancient wisdom or glory, have confessed theinspiration of the genius of the place; and the Christian who kneltbefore the holy sepulchre, ascribed his lively faith, and his ferventdevotion, to the more immediate influence of the Divine Spirit. Thezeal, perhaps the avarice, of the clergy of Jerusalem, cherished andmultiplied these beneficial visits. They fixed, by unquestionabletradition, the scene of each memorable event. They exhibited theinstruments which had been used in the passion of Christ; the nails andthe lance that had pierced his hands, his feet, and his side; the crownof thorns that was planted on his head; the pillar at which he wasscourged; and, above all, they showed the cross on which he suffered,and which was dug out of the earth in the reign of those princes, whoinserted the symbol of Christianity in the banners of the Roman legions.Such miracles as seemed necessary to account for its extraordinarypreservation, and seasonable discovery, were gradually propagatedwithout opposition. The custody of the true cross, which on EasterSunday was solemnly exposed to the people, was intrusted to the bishopof Jerusalem; and he alone might gratify the curious devotion of thepilgrims, by the gift of small pieces, which they encased in gold orgems, and carried away in triumph to their respective countries. But asthis gainful branch of commerce must soon have been annihilated, it wasfound convenient to suppose, that the marvelous wood possessed asecret power of vegetation; and that its substance, though continuallydiminished, still remained entire and unimpaired. It might perhapshave been expected, that the influence of the place and the belief ofa perpetual miracle, should have produced some salutary effects on themorals, as well as on the faith, of the people. Yet the most respectableof the ecclesiastical writers have been obliged to confess, not onlythat the streets of Jerusalem were filled with the incessant tumult ofbusiness and pleasure, but that every species of vice--adultery, theft,idolatry, poisoning, murder--was familiar to the inhabitants of the holycity. The wealth and preeminence of the church of Jerusalem excited theambition of Arian, as well as orthodox, candidates; and the virtues ofCyril, who, since his death, has been honored with the title of Saint,were displayed in the exercise, rather than in the acquisition, of hisepiscopal dignity.

The vain and ambitious mind of Julian might aspire to restore theancient glory of the temple of Jerusalem. As the Christians were firmlypersuaded that a sentence of everlasting destruction had been pronouncedagainst the whole fabric of the Mosaic law, the Imperial sophist wouldhave converted the success of his undertaking into a specious argumentagainst the faith of prophecy, and the truth of revelation. He wasdispleased with the spiritual worship of the synagogue; but he approvedthe institutions of Moses, who had not disdained to adopt many of therites and ceremonies of Egypt. The local and national deity of the Jewswas sincerely adored by a polytheist, who desired only to multiplythe number of the gods; and such was the appetite of Julian for bloodysacrifice, that his emulation might be excited by the piety of Solomon,who had offered, at the feast of the dedication, twenty-two thousandoxen, and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. These considerationsmight influence his designs; but the prospect of an immediate andimportant advantage would not suffer the impatient monarch to expectthe remote and uncertain event of the Persian war. He resolved to erect,without delay, on the commanding eminence of Moriah, a stately temple,which might eclipse the splendor of the church of the resurrection onthe adjacent hill of Calvary; to establish an order of priests, whoseinterested zeal would detect the arts, and resist the ambition, of theirChristian rivals; and to invite a numerous colony of Jews, whose sternfanaticism would be always prepared to second, and even to anticipate,the hostile measures of the Pagan government. Among the friends of theemperor (if the names of emperor, and of friend, are not incompatible)the first place was assigned, by Julian himself, to the virtuous andlearned Alypius. The humanity of Alypius was tempered by severe justiceand manly fortitude; and while he exercised his abilities in the civiladministration of Britain, he imitated, in his poetical compositions,the harmony and softness of the odes of Sappho. This minister, to whomJulian communicated, without reserve, his most careless levities, andhis most serious counsels, received an extraordinary commission torestore, in its pristine beauty, the temple of Jerusalem; and thediligence of Alypius required and obtained the strenuous support of thegovernor of Palestine. At the call of their great deliverer, the Jews,from all the provinces of the empire, assembled on the holy mountain oftheir fathers; and their insolent triumph alarmed and exasperated theChristian inhabitants of Jerusalem. The desire of rebuilding the templehas in every age been the ruling passion of the children of IsrÊl. Inthis propitious moment the men forgot their avarice, and the women theirdelicacy; spades and pickaxes of silver were provided by the vanity ofthe rich, and the rubbish was transported in mantles of silk and purple.Every purse was opened in liberal contributions, every hand claimeda share in the pious labor, and the commands of a great monarch wereexecuted by the enthusiasm of a whole people.

Yet, on this occasion, the joint efforts of power and enthusiasm wereunsuccessful; and the ground of the Jewish temple, which is now coveredby a Mahometan mosque, still continued to exhibit the same edifyingspectacle of ruin and desolation. Perhaps the absence and death of theemperor, and the new maxims of a Christian reign, might explain theinterruption of an arduous work, which was attempted only in the lastsix months of the life of Julian. But the Christians entertained anatural and pious expectation, that, in this memorable contest, thehonor of religion would be vindicated by some signal miracle. Anearthquake, a whirlwind, and a fiery eruption, which overturned andscattered the new foundations of the temple, are attested, with somevariations, by contemporary and respectable evidence. This public eventis described by Ambrose, bishop of Milan, in an epistle to the emperorTheodosius, which must provoke the severe animadversion of the Jews;by the eloquent Chrysostom, who might appeal to the memory of the elderpart of his congregation at Antioch; and by Gregory Nazianzen, whopublished his account of the miracle before the expiration of thesame year. The last of these writers has boldly declared, that thispreternatural event was not disputed by the infidels; and his assertion,strange as it may seem is confirmed by the unexceptionable testimony ofAmmianus Marcellinus. The philosophic soldier, who loved the virtues,without adopting the prejudices, of his master, has recorded, inhis judicious and candid history of his own times, the extraordinaryobstacles which interrupted the restoration of the temple of Jerusalem."Whilst Alypius, assisted by the governor of the province, urged, withvigor and diligence, the execution of the work, horrible balls of firebreaking out near the foundations, with frequent and reiterated attacks,rendered the place, from time to time, inaccessible to the scorched andblasted workmen; and the victorious element continuing in this mannerobstinately and resolutely bent, as it were, to drive them to adistance, the undertaking was abandoned." * Such authority shouldsatisfy a believing, and must astonish an incredulous, mind. Yet aphilosopher may still require the original evidence of impartial andintelligent spectators. At this important crisis, any singular accidentof nature would assume the appearance, and produce the effects of areal prodigy. This glorious deliverance would be speedily improved andmagnified by the pious art of the clergy of Jerusalem, and the activecredulity of the Christian world and, at the distance of twenty years, aRoman historian, care less of theological disputes, might adorn his workwith the specious and splendid miracle.

Chapter XXIII: Reign Of Julian.--Part IV.

The restoration of the Jewish temple was secretly connected with theruin of the Christian church. Julian still continued to maintain thefreedom of religious worship, without distinguishing whether thisuniversal toleration proceeded from his justice or his clemency. Heaffected to pity the unhappy Christians, who were mistaken in the mostimportant object of their lives; but his pity was degraded by contempt,his contempt was embittered by hatred; and the sentiments of Julian wereexpressed in a style of sarcastic wit, which inflicts a deep and deadlywound, whenever it issues from the mouth of a sovereign. As he wassensible that the Christians gloried in the name of their Redeemer,he countenanced, and perhaps enjoined, the use of the less honorableappellation of GalilÊans. He declared, that by the folly of theGalilÊans, whom he describes as a sect of fanatics, contemptible tomen, and odious to the gods, the empire had been reduced to the brink ofdestruction; and he insinuates in a public edict, that a frantic patientmight sometimes be cured by salutary violence. An ungenerous distinctionwas admitted into the mind and counsels of Julian, that, according tothe difference of their religious sentiments, one part of his subjectsdeserved his favor and friendship, while the other was entitled onlyto the common benefits that his justice could not refuse to an obedientpeople. According to a principle, pregnant with mischief and oppression,the emperor transferred to the pontiffs of his own religion themanagement of the liberal allowances for the public revenue, which hadbeen granted to the church by the piety of Constantine and his sons.The proud system of clerical honors and immunities, which had beenconstructed with so much art and labor, was levelled to the ground; thehopes of testamentary donations were intercepted by the rigor of thelaws; and the priests of the Christian sect were confounded with thelast and most ignominious class of the people. Such of these regulationsas appeared necessary to check the ambition and avarice of theecclesiastics, were soon afterwards imitated by the wisdom of anorthodox prince. The peculiar distinctions which policy has bestowed, orsuperstition has lavished, on the sacerdotal order, must be confined tothose priests who profess the religion of the state. But the will ofthe legislator was not exempt from prejudice and passion; and it was theobject of the insidious policy of Julian, to deprive the Christians ofall the temporal honors and advantages which rendered them respectablein the eyes of the world.

A just and severe censure has been inflicted on the law which prohibitedthe Christians from teaching the arts of grammar and rhetoric. Themotives alleged by the emperor to justify this partial and oppressivemeasure, might command, during his lifetime, the silence of slaves andthe applause of flatterers. Julian abuses the ambiguous meaning ofa word which might be indifferently applied to the language and thereligion of the Greeks: he contemptuously observes, that the men whoexalt the merit of implicit faith are unfit to claim or to enjoy theadvantages of science; and he vainly contends, that if they refuseto adore the gods of Homer and Demosthenes, they ought to contentthemselves with expounding Luke and Matthew in the church of theGalilÊans. In all the cities of the Roman world, the education of theyouth was intrusted to masters of grammar and rhetoric; who were electedby the magistrates, maintained at the public expense, and distinguishedby many lucrative and honorable privileges. The edict of Julian appearsto have included the physicians, and professors of all the liberalarts; and the emperor, who reserved to himself the approbation of thecandidates, was authorized by the laws to corrupt, or to punish, thereligious constancy of the most learned of the Christians. As soonas the resignation of the more obstinate teachers had established theunrivalled dominion of the Pagan sophists, Julian invited the risinggeneration to resort with freedom to the public schools, in a justconfidence, that their tender minds would receive the impressions ofliterature and idolatry. If the greatest part of the Christian youthshould be deterred by their own scruples, or by those of their parents,from accepting this dangerous mode of instruction, they must, at thesame time, relinquish the benefits of a liberal education. Julian hadreason to expect that, in the space of a few years, the church wouldrelapse into its primÊval simplicity, and that the theologians, whopossessed an adequate share of the learning and eloquence of the age,would be succeeded by a generation of blind and ignorant fanatics,incapable of defending the truth of their own principles, or of exposingthe various follies of Polytheism.

It was undoubtedly the wish and design of Julian to deprive theChristians of the advantages of wealth, of knowledge, and of power; butthe injustice of excluding them from all offices of trust and profitseems to have been the result of his general policy, rather than theimmediate consequence of any positive law. Superior merit might deserveand obtain, some extraordinary exceptions; but the greater part of theChristian officers were gradually removed from their employments in thestate, the army, and the provinces. The hopes of future candidates wereextinguished by the declared partiality of a prince, who maliciouslyreminded them, that it was unlawful for a Christian to use the sword,either of justice, or of war; and who studiously guarded the camp andthe tribunals with the ensigns of idolatry. The powers of governmentwere intrusted to the pagans, who professed an ardent zeal for thereligion of their ancestors; and as the choice of the emperor was oftendirected by the rules of divination, the favorites whom he preferred asthe most agreeable to the gods, did not always obtain the approbation ofmankind. Under the administration of their enemies, the Christians hadmuch to suffer, and more to apprehend. The temper of Julian was averseto cruelty; and the care of his reputation, which was exposed to theeyes of the universe, restrained the philosophic monarch from violatingthe laws of justice and toleration, which he himself had so recentlyestablished. But the provincial ministers of his authority were placedin a less conspicuous station. In the exercise of arbitrary power, theyconsulted the wishes, rather than the commands, of their sovereign;and ventured to exercise a secret and vexatious tyranny against thesectaries, on whom they were not permitted to confer the honors ofmartyrdom. The emperor, who dissembled as long as possible his knowledgeof the injustice that was exercised in his name, expressed his realsense of the conduct of his officers, by gentle reproofs and substantialrewards.

The most effectual instrument of oppression, with which they werearmed, was the law that obliged the Christians to make full andample satisfaction for the temples which they had destroyed underthe preceding reign. The zeal of the triumphant church had not alwaysexpected the sanction of the public authority; and the bishops, who weresecure of impunity, had often marched at the head of their congregation,to attack and demolish the fortresses of the prince of darkness. Theconsecrated lands, which had increased the patrimony of the sovereign orof the clergy, were clearly defined, and easily restored. But on theselands, and on the ruins of Pagan superstition, the Christians hadfrequently erected their own religious edifices: and as it was necessaryto remove the church before the temple could be rebuilt, the justiceand piety of the emperor were applauded by one party, while the otherdeplored and execrated his sacrilegious violence. After the ground wascleared, the restitution of those stately structures which had beenlevelled with the dust, and of the precious ornaments which had beenconverted to Christian uses, swelled into a very large account ofdamages and debt. The authors of the injury had neither the ability northe inclination to discharge this accumulated demand: and the impartialwisdom of a legislator would have been displayed in balancingthe adverse claims and complaints, by an equitable and temperatearbitration. But the whole empire, and particularly the East, was throwninto confusion by the rash edicts of Julian; and the Pagan magistrates,inflamed by zeal and revenge, abused the rigorous privilege of the Romanlaw, which substitutes, in the place of his inadequate property, theperson of the insolvent debtor. Under the preceding reign, Mark, bishopof Arethusa, had labored in the conversion of his people with arms moreeffectual than those of persuasion. The magistrates required the fullvalue of a temple which had been destroyed by his intolerant zeal: butas they were satisfied of his poverty, they desired only to bend hisinflexible spirit to the promise of the slightest compensation. Theyapprehended the aged prelate, they inhumanly scourged him, they tore hisbeard; and his naked body, anointed with honey, was suspended, in a net,between heaven and earth, and exposed to the stings of insects and therays of a Syrian sun. From this lofty station, Mark still persisted toglory in his crime, and to insult the impotent rage of his persecutors.He was at length rescued from their hands, and dismissed to enjoy thehonor of his divine triumph. The Arians celebrated the virtue of theirpious confessor; the Catholics ambitiously claimed his alliance; and thePagans, who might be susceptible of shame or remorse, were deterred fromthe repetition of such unavailing cruelty. Julian spared his life: butif the bishop of Arethusa had saved the infancy of Julian, posteritywill condemn the ingratitude, instead of praising the clemency, of theemperor.

At the distance of five miles from Antioch, the Macedonian kings ofSyria had consecrated to Apollo one of the most elegant places ofdevotion in the Pagan world. A magnificent temple rose in honor ofthe god of light; and his colossal figure almost filled the capacioussanctuary, which was enriched with gold and gems, and adorned by theskill of the Grecian artists. The deity was represented in a bendingattitude, with a golden cup in his hand, pouring out a libation on theearth; as if he supplicated the venerable mother to give to his arms thecold and beauteous Daphne: for the spot was ennobled by fiction; andthe fancy of the Syrian poets had transported the amorous tale from thebanks of the Peneus to those of the Orontes. The ancient rites of Greecewere imitated by the royal colony of Antioch. A stream of prophecy,which rivalled the truth and reputation of the Delphic oracle, flowedfrom the Castalian fountain of Daphne. In the adjacent fields a stadiumwas built by a special privilege, which had been purchased from Elis;the Olympic games were celebrated at the expense of the city; and arevenue of thirty thousand pounds sterling was annually applied tothe public pleasures. The perpetual resort of pilgrims and spectatorsinsensibly formed, in the neighborhood of the temple, the statelyand populous village of Daphne, which emulated the splendor, withoutacquiring the title, of a provincial city. The temple and the villagewere deeply bosomed in a thick grove of laurels and cypresses, whichreached as far as a circumference of ten miles, and formed in the mostsultry summers a cool and impenetrable shade. A thousand streams ofthe purest water, issuing from every hill, preserved the verdure of theearth, and the temperature of the air; the senses were gratifiedwith harmonious sounds and aromatic odors; and the peaceful grove wasconsecrated to health and joy, to luxury and love. The vigorous youthpursued, like Apollo, the object of his desires; and the blushing maidwas warned, by the fate of Daphne, to shun the folly of unseasonablecoyness. The soldier and the philosopher wisely avoided the temptationof this sensual paradise: where pleasure, assuming the character ofreligion, imperceptibly dissolved the firmness of manly virtue. Butthe groves of Daphne continued for many ages to enjoy the veneration ofnatives and strangers; the privileges of the holy ground were enlargedby the munificence of succeeding emperors; and every generation addednew ornaments to the splendor of the temple.

When Julian, on the day of the annual festival, hastened to adorethe Apollo of Daphne, his devotion was raised to the highest pitchof eagerness and impatience. His lively imagination anticipated thegrateful pomp of victims, of libations and of incense; a long processionof youths and virgins, clothed in white robes, the symbol of theirinnocence; and the tumultuous concourse of an innumerable people. Butthe zeal of Antioch was diverted, since the reign of Christianity, intoa different channel. Instead of hecatombs of fat oxen sacrificed by thetribes of a wealthy city to their tutelar deity the emperor complainsthat he found only a single goose, provided at the expense of a priest,the pale and solitary in habitant of this decayed temple. The altar wasdeserted, the oracle had been reduced to silence, and the holy groundwas profaned by the introduction of Christian and funereal rites. AfterBabylas (a bishop of Antioch, who died in prison in the persecution ofDecius) had rested near a century in his grave, his body, by the orderof CÊsar Gallus, was transported into the midst of the grove of Daphne.A magnificent church was erected over his remains; a portion of thesacred lands was usurped for the maintenance of the clergy, and for theburial of the Christians at Antioch, who were ambitious of lying atthe feet of their bishop; and the priests of Apollo retired, with theiraffrighted and indignant votaries. As soon as another revolution seemedto restore the fortune of Paganism, the church of St. Babylas wasdemolished, and new buildings were added to the mouldering edifice whichhad been raised by the piety of Syrian kings. But the first and mostserious care of Julian was to deliver his oppressed deity fromthe odious presence of the dead and living Christians, who had soeffectually suppressed the voice of fraud or enthusiasm. The scene ofinfection was purified, according to the forms of ancient rituals;the bodies were decently removed; and the ministers of the churchwere permitted to convey the remains of St. Babylas to their formerhabitation within the walls of Antioch. The modest behavior which mighthave assuaged the jealousy of a hostile government was neglected,on this occasion, by the zeal of the Christians. The lofty car, thattransported the relics of Babylas, was followed, and accompanied, andreceived, by an innumerable multitude; who chanted, with thunderingacclamations, the Psalms of David the most expressive of their contemptfor idols and idolaters. The return of the saint was a triumph; and thetriumph was an insult on the religion of the emperor, who exerted hispride to dissemble his resentment. During the night which terminatedthis indiscreet procession, the temple of Daphne was in flames; thestatue of Apollo was consumed; and the walls of the edifice were lefta naked and awful monument of ruin. The Christians of Antioch asserted,with religious confidence, that the powerful intercession of St. Babylashad pointed the lightnings of heaven against the devoted roof: but asJulian was reduced to the alternative of believing either a crime or amiracle, he chose, without hesitation, without evidence, but with somecolor of probability, to impute the fire of Daphne to the revenge of theGalilÊans. Their offence, had it been sufficiently proved, might havejustified the retaliation, which was immediately executed by the orderof Julian, of shutting the doors, and confiscating the wealth, of thecathedral of Antioch. To discover the criminals who were guilty of thetumult, of the fire, or of secreting the riches of the church, severalof the ecclesiastics were tortured; and a Presbyter, of the name ofTheodoret, was beheaded by the sentence of the Count of the East. Butthis hasty act was blamed by the emperor; who lamented, with real oraffected concern, that the imprudent zeal of his ministers would tarnishhis reign with the disgrace of persecution.

Chapter XXIII: Reign Of Julian.--Part V.

The zeal of the ministers of Julian was instantly checked by the frownof their sovereign; but when the father of his country declares himselfthe leader of a faction, the license of popular fury cannot easily berestrained, nor consistently punished. Julian, in a public composition,applauds the devotion and loyalty of the holy cities of Syria, whosepious inhabitants had destroyed, at the first signal, the sepulchresof the GalilÊans; and faintly complains, that they had revengedthe injuries of the gods with less moderation than he should haverecommended. This imperfect and reluctant confession may appear toconfirm the ecclesiastical narratives; that in the cities of Gaza,Ascalon, CÊsarea, Heliopolis, &c., the Pagans abused, without prudenceor remorse, the moment of their prosperity. That the unhappy objectsof their cruelty were released from torture only by death; and as theirmangled bodies were dragged through the streets, they were pierced(such was the universal rage) by the spits of cooks, and the distaffs ofenraged women; and that the entrails of Christian priests and virgins,after they had been tasted by those bloody fanatics, were mixed withbarley, and contemptuously thrown to the unclean animals of the city.Such scenes of religious madness exhibit the most contemptible andodious picture of human nature; but the massacre of Alexandria attractsstill more attention, from the certainty of the fact, the rank of thevictims, and the splendor of the capital of Egypt.

George, from his parents or his education, surnamed the Cappadocian, wasborn at Epiphania in Cilicia, in a fuller's shop. From this obscure andservile origin he raised himself by the talents of a parasite; and thepatrons, whom he assiduously flattered, procured for their worthlessdependent a lucrative commission, or contract, to supply the army withbacon. His employment was mean; he rendered it infamous. He accumulatedwealth by the basest arts of fraud and corruption; but his malversationswere so notorious, that George was compelled to escape from the pursuitsof justice. After this disgrace, in which he appears to have saved hisfortune at the expense of his honor, he embraced, with real or affectedzeal, the profession of Arianism. From the love, or the ostentation,of learning, he collected a valuable library of history rhetoric,philosophy, and theology, and the choice of the prevailing factionpromoted George of Cappadocia to the throne of Athanasius. The entranceof the new archbishop was that of a Barbarian conqueror; and each momentof his reign was polluted by cruelty and avarice. The Catholics ofAlexandria and Egypt were abandoned to a tyrant, qualified, by natureand education, to exercise the office of persecution; but he oppressedwith an impartial hand the various inhabitants of his extensive diocese.The primate of Egypt assumed the pomp and insolence of his loftystation; but he still betrayed the vices of his base and servileextraction. The merchants of Alexandria were impoverished by the unjust,and almost universal, monopoly, which he acquired, of nitre, salt,paper, funerals, &c.: and the spiritual father of a great peoplecondescended to practise the vile and pernicious arts of an informer.The Alexandrians could never forget, nor forgive, the tax, which hesuggested, on all the houses of the city; under an obsolete claim, thatthe royal founder had conveyed to his successors, the Ptolemies and theCÊsars, the perpetual property of the soil. The Pagans, who had beenflattered with the hopes of freedom and toleration, excited his devoutavarice; and the rich temples of Alexandria were either pillaged orinsulted by the haughty prince, who exclaimed, in a loud and threateningtone, "How long will these sepulchres be permitted to stand?" Underthe reign of Constantius, he was expelled by the fury, or rather by thejustice, of the people; and it was not without a violent struggle, thatthe civil and military powers of the state could restore his authority,and gratify his revenge. The messenger who proclaimed at Alexandria theaccession of Julian, announced the downfall of the archbishop. George,with two of his obsequious ministers, Count Diodorus, and Dracontius,master of the mint were ignominiously dragged in chains to the publicprison. At the end of twenty-four days, the prison was forced open bythe rage of a superstitious multitude, impatient of the tedious formsof judicial proceedings. The enemies of gods and men expired under theircruel insults; the lifeless bodies of the archbishop and his associateswere carried in triumph through the streets on the back of a camel;

and the inactivity of the Athanasian party was esteemed a shining

example of evangelical patience. The remains of these guilty wretcheswere thrown into the sea; and the popular leaders of the tumult declaredtheir resolution to disappoint the devotion of the Christians, and tointercept the future honors of these martyrs, who had been punished,like their predecessors, by the enemies of their religion. The fears ofthe Pagans were just, and their precautions ineffectual. The meritoriousdeath of the archbishop obliterated the memory of his life. The rival ofAthanasius was dear and sacred to the Arians, and the seeming conversionof those sectaries introduced his worship into the bosom of the Catholicchurch. The odious stranger, disguising every circ*mstance of time andplace, assumed the mask of a martyr, a saint, and a Christian hero; andthe infamous George of Cappadocia has been transformed into the renownedSt. George of England, the patron of arms, of chivalry, and of thegarter.

About the same time that Julian was informed of the tumult ofAlexandria, he received intelligence from Edessa, that the proudand wealthy faction of the Arians had insulted the weakness of theValentinians, and committed such disorders as ought not to be sufferedwith impunity in a well-regulated state. Without expecting the slowforms of justice, the exasperated prince directed his mandate to themagistrates of Edessa, by which he confiscated the whole property ofthe church: the money was distributed among the soldiers; the lands wereadded to the domain; and this act of oppression was aggravated by themost ungenerous irony. "I show myself," says Julian, "the true friend ofthe GalilÊans. Their admirable law has promised the kingdom of heavento the poor; and they will advance with more diligence in the paths ofvirtue and salvation, when they are relieved by my assistance from theload of temporal possessions. Take care," pursued the monarch, in a moreserious tone, "take care how you provoke my patience and humanity. Ifthese disorders continue, I will revenge on the magistrates the crimesof the people; and you will have reason to dread, not only confiscationand exile, but fire and the sword." The tumults of Alexandria weredoubtless of a more bloody and dangerous nature: but a Christian bishophad fallen by the hands of the Pagans; and the public epistle of Julianaffords a very lively proof of the partial spirit of his administration.His reproaches to the citizens of Alexandria are mingled withexpressions of esteem and tenderness; and he laments, that, on thisoccasion, they should have departed from the gentle and generous mannerswhich attested their Grecian extraction. He gravely censures the offencewhich they had committed against the laws of justice and humanity; buthe recapitulates, with visible complacency, the intolerable provocationswhich they had so long endured from the impious tyranny of Georgeof Cappadocia. Julian admits the principle, that a wise and vigorousgovernment should chastise the insolence of the people; yet, inconsideration of their founder Alexander, and of Serapis their tutelardeity, he grants a free and gracious pardon to the guilty city, forwhich he again feels the affection of a brother.

After the tumult of Alexandria had subsided, Athanasius, amidst thepublic acclamations, seated himself on the throne from whence hisunworthy competitor had been precipitated: and as the zeal of thearchbishop was tempered with discretion, the exercise of his authoritytended not to inflame, but to reconcile, the minds of the people. Hispastoral labors were not confined to the narrow limits of Egypt. Thestate of the Christian world was present to his active and capaciousmind; and the age, the merit, the reputation of Athanasius, enabled himto assume, in a moment of danger, the office of Ecclesiastical Dictator.Three years were not yet elapsed since the majority of the bishops ofthe West had ignorantly, or reluctantly, subscribed the Confession ofRimini. They repented, they believed, but they dreaded the unseasonablerigor of their orthodox brethren; and if their pride was stronger thantheir faith, they might throw themselves into the arms of the Arians, toescape the indignity of a public penance, which must degrade them to thecondition of obscure laymen. At the same time the domestic differencesconcerning the union and distinction of the divine persons, wereagitated with some heat among the Catholic doctors; and the progress ofthis metaphysical controversy seemed to threaten a public and lastingdivision of the Greek and Latin churches. By the wisdom of a selectsynod, to which the name and presence of Athanasius gave the authorityof a general council, the bishops, who had unwarily deviated into error,were admitted to the communion of the church, on the easy condition ofsubscribing the Nicene Creed; without any formal acknowledgment of theirpast fault, or any minute definition of their scholastic opinions. Theadvice of the primate of Egypt had already prepared the clergy of Gauland Spain, of Italy and Greece, for the reception of this salutarymeasure; and, notwithstanding the opposition of some ardent spirits,the fear of the common enemy promoted the peace and harmony of theChristians.

The skill and diligence of the primate of Egypt had improved the seasonof tranquillity, before it was interrupted by the hostile edicts of theemperor. Julian, who despised the Christians, honored Athanasius withhis sincere and peculiar hatred. For his sake alone, he introduced anarbitrary distinction, repugnant at least to the spirit of his formerdeclarations. He maintained, that the GalilÊans, whom he had recalledfrom exile, were not restored, by that general indulgence, tothe possession of their respective churches; and he expressed hisastonishment, that a criminal, who had been repeatedly condemned by thejudgment of the emperors, should dare to insult the majesty of the laws,and insolently usurp the archiepiscopal throne of Alexandria, withoutexpecting the orders of his sovereign. As a punishment for the imaginaryoffence, he again banished Athanasius from the city; and he was pleasedto suppose, that this act of justice would be highly agreeable to hispious subjects. The pressing solicitations of the people soon convincedhim, that the majority of the Alexandrians were Christians; and thatthe greatest part of the Christians were firmly attached to the cause oftheir oppressed primate. But the knowledge of their sentiments, insteadof persuading him to recall his decree, provoked him to extend to allEgypt the term of the exile of Athanasius. The zeal of the multituderendered Julian still more inexorable: he was alarmed by the danger ofleaving at the head of a tumultuous city, a daring and popular leader;and the language of his resentment discovers the opinion which heentertained of the courage and abilities of Athanasius. The executionof the sentence was still delayed, by the caution or negligence ofEcdicius, prÊfect of Egypt, who was at length awakened from his lethargyby a severe reprimand. "Though you neglect," says Julian, "to write tome on any other subject, at least it is your duty to inform me of yourconduct towards Athanasius, the enemy of the gods. My intentions havebeen long since communicated to you. I swear by the great Serapis,that unless, on the calends of December, Athanasius has departed fromAlexandria, nay, from Egypt, the officers of your government shall paya fine of one hundred pounds of gold. You know my temper: I am slow tocondemn, but I am still slower to forgive." This epistle was enforced bya short postscript, written with the emperor's own hand. "The contemptthat is shown for all the gods fills me with grief and indignation.There is nothing that I should see, nothing that I should hear, withmore pleasure, than the expulsion of Athanasius from all Egypt. Theabominable wretch! Under my reign, the baptism of several Grecian ladiesof the highest rank has been the effect of his persecutions." The deathof Athanasius was not expressly commanded; but the prÊfect of Egyptunderstood that it was safer for him to exceed, than to neglect, theorders of an irritated master. The archbishop prudently retired to themonasteries of the Desert; eluded, with his usual dexterity, the snaresof the enemy; and lived to triumph over the ashes of a prince, who, inwords of formidable import, had declared his wish that the wholevenom of the GalilÊan school were contained in the single person ofAthanasius.

I have endeavored faithfully to represent the artful system by whichJulian proposed to obtain the effects, without incurring the guilt,or reproach, of persecution. But if the deadly spirit of fanaticismperverted the heart and understanding of a virtuous prince, it must, atthe same time, be confessed that the real sufferings of the Christianswere inflamed and magnified by human passions and religious enthusiasm.The meekness and resignation which had distinguished the primitivedisciples of the gospel, was the object of the applause, rather than ofthe imitation of their successors. The Christians, who had now possessedabove forty years the civil and ecclesiastical government of the empire,had contracted the insolent vices of prosperity, and the habit ofbelieving that the saints alone were entitled to reign over the earth.As soon as the enmity of Julian deprived the clergy of the privilegeswhich had been conferred by the favor of Constantine, they complainedof the most cruel oppression; and the free toleration of idolaters andheretics was a subject of grief and scandal to the orthodox party. Theacts of violence, which were no longer countenanced by the magistrates,were still committed by the zeal of the people. At Pessinus, the altarof Cybele was overturned almost in the presence of the emperor; and inthe city of CÊsarea in Cappadocia, the temple of Fortune, the sole placeof worship which had been left to the Pagans, was destroyed by the rageof a popular tumult. On these occasions, a prince, who felt for thehonor of the gods, was not disposed to interrupt the course of justice;and his mind was still more deeply exasperated, when he found that thefanatics, who had deserved and suffered the punishment of incendiaries,were rewarded with the honors of martyrdom. The Christian subjects ofJulian were assured of the hostile designs of their sovereign; and, totheir jealous apprehension, every circ*mstance of his governmentmight afford some grounds of discontent and suspicion. In the ordinaryadministration of the laws, the Christians, who formed so large apart of the people, must frequently be condemned: but their indulgentbrethren, without examining the merits of the cause, presumed theirinnocence, allowed their claims, and imputed the severity of their judgeto the partial malice of religious persecution. These present hardships,intolerable as they might appear, were represented as a slight preludeof the impending calamities. The Christians considered Julian as a crueland crafty tyrant; who suspended the execution of his revenge till heshould return victorious from the Persian war. They expected, that assoon as he had triumphed over the foreign enemies of Rome, he would layaside the irksome mask of dissimulation; that the amphitheatre wouldstream with the blood of hermits and bishops; and that the Christianswho still persevered in the profession of the faith, would be deprivedof the common benefits of nature and society. Every calumny that couldwound the reputation of the Apostate, was credulously embraced bythe fears and hatred of his adversaries; and their indiscreet clamorsprovoked the temper of a sovereign, whom it was their duty to respect,and their interest to flatter. They still protested, that prayers andtears were their only weapons against the impious tyrant, whose headthey devoted to the justice of offended Heaven. But they insinuated,with sullen resolution, that their submission was no longer the effectof weakness; and that, in the imperfect state of human virtue,the patience, which is founded on principle, may be exhausted bypersecution. It is impossible to determine how far the zeal of Julianwould have prevailed over his good sense and humanity; but if weseriously reflect on the strength and spirit of the church, we shall beconvinced, that before the emperor could have extinguished the religionof Christ, he must have involved his country in the horrors of a civilwar.

Chapter XXIV: The Retreat And Death Of Julian.--Part I.

 Residence Of Julian At Antioch.--His Successful Expedition Against The Persians.--Passage Of The Tigris--The Retreat And Death Of Julian.--Election Of Jovian.--He Saves The Roman Army By A Disgraceful Treaty.

The philosophical fable which Julian composed under the name of theCÊsars, is one of the most agreeable and instructive productionsof ancient wit. During the freedom and equality of the days of theSaturnalia, Romulus prepared a feast for the deities of Olympus, who hadadopted him as a worthy associate, and for the Roman princes, who hadreigned over his martial people, and the vanquished nations of theearth. The immortals were placed in just order on their thrones ofstate, and the table of the CÊsars was spread below the Moon in theupper region of the air. The tyrants, who would have disgraced thesociety of gods and men, were thrown headlong, by the inexorableNemesis, into the Tartarean abyss. The rest of the CÊsars successivelyadvanced to their seats; and as they passed, the vices, the defects, theblemishes of their respective characters, were maliciously noticedby old Silenus, a laughing moralist, who disguised the wisdom of aphilosopher under the mask of a Bacchanal. As soon as the feast wasended, the voice of Mercury proclaimed the will of Jupiter, that acelestial crown should be the reward of superior merit. Julius CÊsar,Augustus, Trajan, and Marcus Antoninus, were selected as the mostillustrious candidates; the effeminate Constantine was not excludedfrom this honorable competition, and the great Alexander was invited todispute the prize of glory with the Roman heroes. Each of the candidateswas allowed to display the merit of his own exploits; but, in thejudgment of the gods, the modest silence of Marcus pleaded morepowerfully than the elaborate orations of his haughty rivals. When thejudges of this awful contest proceeded to examine the heart, and toscrutinize the springs of action, the superiority of the Imperial Stoicappeared still more decisive and conspicuous. Alexander and CÊsar,Augustus, Trajan, and Constantine, acknowledged, with a blush, thatfame, or power, or pleasure had been the important object of theirlabors: but the gods themselves beheld, with reverence and love,a virtuous mortal, who had practised on the throne the lessons ofphilosophy; and who, in a state of human imperfection, had aspired toimitate the moral attributes of the Deity. The value of this agreeablecomposition (the CÊsars of Julian) is enhanced by the rank of theauthor. A prince, who delineates, with freedom, the vices and virtues ofhis predecessors, subscribes, in every line, the censure or approbationof his own conduct.

In the cool moments of reflection, Julian preferred the useful andbenevolent virtues of Antoninus; but his ambitious spirit was inflamedby the glory of Alexander; and he solicited, with equal ardor, theesteem of the wise, and the applause of the multitude. In the season oflife when the powers of the mind and body enjoy the most active vigor,the emperor who was instructed by the experience, and animated by thesuccess, of the German war, resolved to signalize his reign by some moresplendid and memorable achievement. The ambassadors of the East, fromthe continent of India, and the Isle of Ceylon, had respectfully salutedthe Roman purple. The nations of the West esteemed and dreaded thepersonal virtues of Julian, both in peace and war. He despised thetrophies of a Gothic victory, and was satisfied that the rapaciousBarbarians of the Danube would be restrained from any future violationof the faith of treaties by the terror of his name, and the additionalfortifications with which he strengthened the Thracian and Illyrianfrontiers. The successor of Cyrus and Artaxerxes was the only rival whomhe deemed worthy of his arms; and he resolved, by the final conquest ofPersia, to chastise the naughty nation which had so long resistedand insulted the majesty of Rome. As soon as the Persian monarch wasinformed that the throne of Constantius was filed by a prince of a verydifferent character, he condescended to make some artful, or perhapssincere, overtures towards a negotiation of peace. But the pride ofSapor was astonished by the firmness of Julian; who sternly declared,that he would never consent to hold a peaceful conference among theflames and ruins of the cities of Mesopotamia; and who added, with asmile of contempt, that it was needless to treat by ambassadors, ashe himself had determined to visit speedily the court of Persia.The impatience of the emperor urged the diligence of the militarypreparations. The generals were named; and Julian, marching fromConstantinople through the provinces of Asia Minor, arrived at Antiochabout eight months after the death of his predecessor. His ardent desireto march into the heart of Persia, was checked by the indispensable dutyof regulating the state of the empire; by his zeal to revive the worshipof the gods; and by the advice of his wisest friends; who representedthe necessity of allowing the salutary interval of winter quarters,to restore the exhausted strength of the legions of Gaul, and thediscipline and spirit of the Eastern troops. Julian was persuaded tofix, till the ensuing spring, his residence at Antioch, among a peoplemaliciously disposed to deride the haste, and to censure the delays, oftheir sovereign.

If Julian had flattered himself, that his personal connection with thecapital of the East would be productive of mutual satisfaction to theprince and people, he made a very false estimate of his own character,and of the manners of Antioch. The warmth of the climate disposed thenatives to the most intemperate enjoyment of tranquillity and opulence;and the lively licentiousness of the Greeks was blended with thehereditary softness of the Syrians. Fashion was the only law, pleasurethe only pursuit, and the splendor of dress and furniture was the onlydistinction of the citizens of Antioch. The arts of luxury were honored;the serious and manly virtues were the subject of ridicule; and thecontempt for female modesty and reverent age announced the universalcorruption of the capital of the East. The love of spectacles was thetaste, or rather passion, of the Syrians; the most skilful artists wereprocured from the adjacent cities; a considerable share of the revenuewas devoted to the public amusem*nts; and the magnificence of the gamesof the theatre and circus was considered as the happiness and as theglory of Antioch. The rustic manners of a prince who disdained suchglory, and was insensible of such happiness, soon disgusted the delicacyof his subjects; and the effeminate Orientals could neither imitate,nor admire, the severe simplicity which Julian always maintained, andsometimes affected. The days of festivity, consecrated, by ancientcustom, to the honor of the gods, were the only occasions in whichJulian relaxed his philosophic severity; and those festivals were theonly days in which the Syrians of Antioch could reject the allurementsof pleasure. The majority of the people supported the glory of theChristian name, which had been first invented by their ancestors: theycontended themselves with disobeying the moral precepts, but they werescrupulously attached to the speculative doctrines of their religion.The church of Antioch was distracted by heresy and schism; but theArians and the Athanasians, the followers of Meletius and those ofPaulinus, were actuated by the same pious hatred of their commonadversary.

The strongest prejudice was entertained against the character of anapostate, the enemy and successor of a prince who had engaged theaffections of a very numerous sect; and the removal of St. Babylasexcited an implacable opposition to the person of Julian. His subjectscomplained, with superstitious indignation, that famine had pursued theemperor's steps from Constantinople to Antioch; and the discontent ofa hungry people was exasperated by the injudicious attempt to relievetheir distress. The inclemency of the season had affected the harvestsof Syria; and the price of bread, in the markets of Antioch, hadnaturally risen in proportion to the scarcity of corn. But the fairand reasonable proportion was soon violated by the rapacious arts ofmonopoly. In this unequal contest, in which the produce of the land isclaimed by one party as his exclusive property, is used by another as alucrative object of trade, and is required by a third for the daily andnecessary support of life, all the profits of the intermediate agentsare accumulated on the head of the defenceless customers. The hardshipsof their situation were exaggerated and increased by their ownimpatience and anxiety; and the apprehension of a scarcity graduallyproduced the appearances of a famine. When the luxurious citizensof Antioch complained of the high price of poultry and fish, Julianpublicly declared, that a frugal city ought to be satisfied with aregular supply of wine, oil, and bread; but he acknowledged, that it wasthe duty of a sovereign to provide for the subsistence of his people.With this salutary view, the emperor ventured on a very dangerous anddoubtful step, of fixing, by legal authority, the value of corn. Heenacted, that, in a time of scarcity, it should be sold at a price whichhad seldom been known in the most plentiful years; and that his ownexample might strengthen his laws, he sent into the market four hundredand twenty-two thousand modii, or measures, which were drawn by hisorder from the granaries of Hierapolis, of Chalcis, and even of Egypt.The consequences might have been foreseen, and were soon felt. TheImperial wheat was purchased by the rich merchants; the proprietors ofland, or of corn, withheld from the city the accustomed supply; and thesmall quantities that appeared in the market were secretly sold at anadvanced and illegal price. Julian still continued to applaud his ownpolicy, treated the complaints of the people as a vain and ungratefulmurmur, and convinced Antioch that he had inherited the obstinacy,though not the cruelty, of his brother Gallus. The remonstrances of themunicipal senate served only to exasperate his inflexible mind. Hewas persuaded, perhaps with truth, that the senators of Antioch whopossessed lands, or were concerned in trade, had themselves contributedto the calamities of their country; and he imputed the disrespectfulboldness which they assumed, to the sense, not of public duty, but ofprivate interest. The whole body, consisting of two hundred of the mostnoble and wealthy citizens, were sent, under a guard, from the palace tothe prison; and though they were permitted, before the close of evening,to return to their respective houses, the emperor himself couldnot obtain the forgiveness which he had so easily granted. The samegrievances were still the subject of the same complaints, which wereindustriously circulated by the wit and levity of the Syrian Greeks.During the licentious days of the Saturnalia, the streets of the cityresounded with insolent songs, which derided the laws, the religion,the personal conduct, and even the beard, of the emperor; the spiritof Antioch was manifested by the connivance of the magistrates, andthe applause of the multitude. The disciple of Socrates was too deeplyaffected by these popular insults; but the monarch, endowed with a quicksensibility, and possessed of absolute power, refused his passionsthe gratification of revenge. A tyrant might have proscribed, withoutdistinction, the lives and fortunes of the citizens of Antioch; andthe unwarlike Syrians must have patiently submitted to the lust, therapaciousness and the cruelty, of the faithful legions of Gaul. A mildersentence might have deprived the capital of the East of its honors andprivileges; and the courtiers, perhaps the subjects, of Julian, wouldhave applauded an act of justice, which asserted the dignity of thesupreme magistrate of the republic. But instead of abusing, or exerting,the authority of the state, to revenge his personal injuries, Juliancontented himself with an inoffensive mode of retaliation, which itwould be in the power of few princes to employ. He had been insultedby satires and libels; in his turn, he composed, under the title ofthe Enemy of the Beard, an ironical confession of his own faults, and asevere satire on the licentious and effeminate manners of Antioch. ThisImperial reply was publicly exposed before the gates of the palace; andthe Misopogon still remains a singular monument of the resentment, thewit, the humanity, and the indiscretion of Julian. Though he affected tolaugh, he could not forgive. His contempt was expressed, and his revengemight be gratified, by the nomination of a governor worthy only ofsuch subjects; and the emperor, forever renouncing the ungratefulcity, proclaimed his resolution to pass the ensuing winter at Tarsus inCilicia.

Yet Antioch possessed one citizen, whose genius and virtues might atone,in the opinion of Julian, for the vice and folly of his country. Thesophist Libanius was born in the capital of the East; he publiclyprofessed the arts of rhetoric and declamation at Nice, Nicomedia,Constantinople, Athens, and, during the remainder of his life, atAntioch. His school was assiduously frequented by the Grecian youth; hisdisciples, who sometimes exceeded the number of eighty, celebrated theirincomparable master; and the jealousy of his rivals, who persecuted himfrom one city to another, confirmed the favorable opinion which Libaniusostentatiously displayed of his superior merit. The preceptors of Julianhad extorted a rash but solemn assurance, that he would never attendthe lectures of their adversary: the curiosity of the royal youthwas checked and inflamed: he secretly procured the writings of thisdangerous sophist, and gradually surpassed, in the perfect imitationof his style, the most laborious of his domestic pupils. When Julianascended the throne, he declared his impatience to embrace and rewardthe Syrian sophist, who had preserved, in a degenerate age, theGrecian purity of taste, of manners, and of religion. The emperor'sprepossession was increased and justified by the discreet pride of hisfavorite. Instead of pressing, with the foremost of the crowd, intothe palace of Constantinople, Libanius calmly expected his arrivalat Antioch; withdrew from court on the first symptoms of coldness andindifference; required a formal invitation for each visit; and taughthis sovereign an important lesson, that he might command the obedienceof a subject, but that he must deserve the attachment of a friend.The sophists of every age, despising, or affecting to despise, theaccidental distinctions of birth and fortune, reserve their esteem forthe superior qualities of the mind, with which they themselves are soplentifully endowed. Julian might disdain the acclamations of a venalcourt, who adored the Imperial purple; but he was deeply flattered bythe praise, the admonition, the freedom, and the envy of an independentphilosopher, who refused his favors, loved his person, celebrated hisfame, and protected his memory. The voluminous writings of Libaniusstill exist; for the most part, they are the vain and idle compositionsof an orator, who cultivated the science of words; the productions ofa recluse student, whose mind, regardless of his contemporaries, wasincessantly fixed on the Trojan war and the Athenian commonwealth.Yet the sophist of Antioch sometimes descended from this imaginaryelevation; he entertained a various and elaborate correspondence; hepraised the virtues of his own times; he boldly arraigned the abuse ofpublic and private life; and he eloquently pleaded the cause of Antiochagainst the just resentment of Julian and Theodosius. It is the commoncalamity of old age, to lose whatever might have rendered it desirable;but Libanius experienced the peculiar misfortune of surviving thereligion and the sciences, to which he had consecrated his genius.The friend of Julian was an indignant spectator of the triumph ofChristianity; and his bigotry, which darkened the prospect of thevisible world, did not inspire Libanius with any lively hopes ofcelestial glory and happiness.

Chapter XXIV: The Retreat And Death Of Julian.--Part II.

The martial impatience of Julian urged him to take the field in thebeginning of the spring; and he dismissed, with contempt and reproach,the senate of Antioch, who accompanied the emperor beyond the limits oftheir own territory, to which he was resolved never to return. After alaborious march of two days, he halted on the third at BerÊa, or Aleppo,where he had the mortification of finding a senate almost entirelyChristian; who received with cold and formal demonstrations of respectthe eloquent sermon of the apostle of paganism. The son of one ofthe most illustrious citizens of BerÊa, who had embraced, either frominterest or conscience, the religion of the emperor, was disinheritedby his angry parent. The father and the son were invited to the Imperialtable. Julian, placing himself between them, attempted, without success,to inculcate the lesson and example of toleration; supported, withaffected calmness, the indiscreet zeal of the aged Christian, who seemedto forget the sentiments of nature, and the duty of a subject; and atlength, turning towards the afflicted youth, "Since you have lost afather," said he, "for my sake, it is incumbent on me to supply hisplace." The emperor was received in a manner much more agreeable tohis wishes at BatnÊ, * a small town pleasantly seated in a grove ofcypresses, about twenty miles from the city of Hierapolis. The solemnrites of sacrifice were decently prepared by the inhabitants of BatnÊ,who seemed attached to the worship of their tutelar deities, Apollo andJupiter; but the serious piety of Julian was offended by the tumult oftheir applause; and he too clearly discerned, that the smoke which arosefrom their altars was the incense of flattery, rather than of devotion.The ancient and magnificent temple which had sanctified, for so manyages, the city of Hierapolis, no longer subsisted; and the consecratedwealth, which afforded a liberal maintenance to more than three hundredpriests, might hasten its downfall. Yet Julian enjoyed the satisfactionof embracing a philosopher and a friend, whose religious firmness hadwithstood the pressing and repeated solicitations of Constantius andGallus, as often as those princes lodged at his house, in their passagethrough Hierapolis. In the hurry of military preparation, and thecareless confidence of a familiar correspondence, the zeal of Julianappears to have been lively and uniform. He had now undertaken animportant and difficult war; and the anxiety of the event rendered himstill more attentive to observe and register the most trifling presages,from which, according to the rules of divination, any knowledge offuturity could be derived. He informed Libanius of his progress as faras Hierapolis, by an elegant epistle, which displays the facility of hisgenius, and his tender friendship for the sophist of Antioch.

Hierapolis, * situate almost on the banks of the Euphrates, hadbeen appointed for the general rendezvous of the Roman troops, whoimmediately passed the great river on a bridge of boats, which waspreviously constructed. If the inclinations of Julian had been similarto those of his predecessor, he might have wasted the active andimportant season of the year in the circus of Samosata or in thechurches of Edessa. But as the warlike emperor, instead of Constantius,had chosen Alexander for his model, he advanced without delay to CarrhÊ,a very ancient city of Mesopotamia, at the distance of fourscore milesfrom Hierapolis. The temple of the Moon attracted the devotionof Julian; but the halt of a few days was principally employed incompleting the immense preparations of the Persian war. The secret ofthe expedition had hitherto remained in his own breast; but as CarrhÊis the point of separation of the two great roads, he could no longerconceal whether it was his design to attack the dominions of Saporon the side of the Tigris, or on that of the Euphrates. The emperordetached an army of thirty thousand men, under the command of hiskinsman Procopius, and of Sebastian, who had been duke of Egypt. Theywere ordered to direct their march towards Nisibis, and to securethe frontier from the desultory incursions of the enemy, before theyattempted the passage of the Tigris. Their subsequent operations wereleft to the discretion of the generals; but Julian expected, that afterwasting with fire and sword the fertile districts of Media and Adiabene,they might arrive under the walls of Ctesiphon at the same time that hehimself, advancing with equal steps along the banks of the Euphrates,should besiege the capital of the Persian monarchy. The success of thiswell-concerted plan depended, in a great measure, on the powerful andready assistance of the king of Armenia, who, without exposing thesafety of his own dominions, might detach an army of four thousandhorse, and twenty thousand foot, to the assistance of the Romans. Butthe feeble Arsaces Tiranus, king of Armenia, had degenerated still moreshamefully than his father Chosroes, from the manly virtues of the greatTiridates; and as the pusillanimous monarch was averse to any enterpriseof danger and glory, he could disguise his timid indolence by themore decent excuses of religion and gratitude. He expressed a piousattachment to the memory of Constantius, from whose hands he hadreceived in marriage Olympias, the daughter of the prÊfect Ablavius; andthe alliance of a female, who had been educated as the destined wife ofthe emperor Constans, exalted the dignity of a Barbarian king.Tiranus professed the Christian religion; he reigned over a nation ofChristians; and he was restrained, by every principle of conscience andinterest, from contributing to the victory, which would consummate theruin of the church. The alienated mind of Tiranus was exasperated by theindiscretion of Julian, who treated the king of Armenia as his slave,and as the enemy of the gods. The haughty and threatening style of theImperial mandates awakened the secret indignation of a prince, who, inthe humiliating state of dependence, was still conscious of his royaldescent from the Arsacides, the lords of the East, and the rivals of theRoman power.

The military dispositions of Julian were skilfully contrived to deceivethe spies and to divert the attention of Sapor. The legions appearedto direct their march towards Nisibis and the Tigris. On a sudden theywheeled to the right; traversed the level and naked plain of CarrhÊ; andreached, on the third day, the banks of the Euphrates, where the strongtown of Nicephorium, or Callinicum, had been founded by the Macedoniankings. From thence the emperor pursued his march, above ninety miles,along the winding stream of the Euphrates, till, at length, about onemonth after his departure from Antioch, he discovered the towers ofCircesium, * the extreme limit of the Roman dominions. The army ofJulian, the most numerous that any of the CÊsars had ever led againstPersia, consisted of sixty-five thousand effective and well-disciplinedsoldiers. The veteran bands of cavalry and infantry, of Romans andBarbarians, had been selected from the different provinces; and a justpreeminence of loyalty and valor was claimed by the hardy Gauls, whoguarded the throne and person of their beloved prince. A formidable bodyof Scythian auxiliaries had been transported from another climate, andalmost from another world, to invade a distant country, of whose nameand situation they were ignorant. The love of rapine and war allured tothe Imperial standard several tribes of Saracens, or roving Arabs, whoseservice Julian had commanded, while he sternly refuse the payment of theaccustomed subsidies. The broad channel of the Euphrates was crowded bya fleet of eleven hundred ships, destined to attend the motions, and tosatisfy the wants, of the Roman army. The military strength of the fleetwas composed of fifty armed galleys; and these were accompanied byan equal number of flat-bottomed boats, which might occasionally beconnected into the form of temporary bridges. The rest of the ships,partly constructed of timber, and partly covered with raw hides, wereladen with an almost inexhaustible supply of arms and engines, ofutensils and provisions. The vigilant humanity of Julian had embarked avery large magazine of vinegar and biscuit for the use of the soldiers,but he prohibited the indulgence of wine; and rigorously stopped a longstring of superfluous camels that attempted to follow the rear of thearmy. The River Chaboras falls into the Euphrates at Circesium; andas soon as the trumpet gave the signal of march, the Romans passed thelittle stream which separated two mighty and hostile empires. The customof ancient discipline required a military oration; and Julian embracedevery opportunity of displaying his eloquence. He animated the impatientand attentive legions by the example of the inflexible courage andglorious triumphs of their ancestors. He excited their resentment by alively picture of the insolence of the Persians; and he exhorted them toimitate his firm resolution, either to extirpate that perfidious nation,or to devote his life in the cause of the republic. The eloquence ofJulian was enforced by a donative of one hundred and thirty pieces ofsilver to every soldier; and the bridge of the Chaboras was instantlycut away, to convince the troops that they must place their hopes ofsafety in the success of their arms. Yet the prudence of the emperorinduced him to secure a remote frontier, perpetually exposed to theinroads of the hostile Arabs. A detachment of four thousand men wasleft at Circesium, which completed, to the number of ten thousand, theregular garrison of that important fortress.

From the moment that the Romans entered the enemy's country, the countryof an active and artful enemy, the order of march was disposed in threecolumns. The strength of the infantry, and consequently of the wholearmy was placed in the centre, under the peculiar command of theirmaster-general Victor. On the right, the brave Nevitta led a column ofseveral legions along the banks of the Euphrates, and almost alwaysin sight of the fleet. The left flank of the army was protected by thecolumn of cavalry. Hormisdas and ArinthÊus were appointed generals ofthe horse; and the singular adventures of Hormisdas are not undeservingof our notice. He was a Persian prince, of the royal race of theSassanides, who, in the troubles of the minority of Sapor, had escapedfrom prison to the hospitable court of the great Constantine. Hormisdasat first excited the compassion, and at length acquired the esteem,of his new masters; his valor and fidelity raised him to the militaryhonors of the Roman service; and though a Christian, he might indulgethe secret satisfaction of convincing his ungrateful country, thanat oppressed subject may prove the most dangerous enemy. Such was thedisposition of the three principal columns. The front and flanks ofthe army were covered by Lucilianus with a flying detachment of fifteenhundred light-armed soldiers, whose active vigilance observed themost distant signs, and conveyed the earliest notice, of any hostileapproach. Dagalaiphus, and Secundinus duke of Osrhoene, conductedthe troops of the rear-guard; the baggage securely proceeded in theintervals of the columns; and the ranks, from a motive either of useor ostentation, were formed in such open order, that the whole line ofmarch extended almost ten miles. The ordinary post of Julian was at thehead of the centre column; but as he preferred the duties of a generalto the state of a monarch, he rapidly moved, with a small escort oflight cavalry, to the front, the rear, the flanks, wherever his presencecould animate or protect the march of the Roman army. The country whichthey traversed from the Chaboras, to the cultivated lands of Assyria,may be considered as a part of the desert of Arabia, a dry and barrenwaste, which could never be improved by the most powerful arts of humanindustry. Julian marched over the same ground which had been trod aboveseven hundred years before by the footsteps of the younger Cyrus, andwhich is described by one of the companions of his expedition, the sageand heroic Xenophon. "The country was a plain throughout, as even as thesea, and full of wormwood; and if any other kind of shrubs or reedsgrew there, they had all an aromatic smell, but no trees could be seen.Bustards and ostriches, antelopes and wild asses, appeared to be theonly inhabitants of the desert; and the fatigues of the march werealleviated by the amusem*nts of the chase." The loose sand of the desertwas frequently raised by the wind into clouds of dust; and a greatnumber of the soldiers of Julian, with their tents, were suddenly thrownto the ground by the violence of an unexpected hurricane.

The sandy plains of Mesopotamia were abandoned to the antelopes and wildasses of the desert; but a variety of populous towns and villages werepleasantly situated on the banks of the Euphrates, and in the islandswhich are occasionally formed by that river. The city of Annah, orAnatho, the actual residence of an Arabian emir, is composed of two longstreets, which enclose, within a natural fortification, a small islandin the midst, and two fruitful spots on either side, of the Euphrates.The warlike inhabitants of Anatho showed a disposition to stop the marchof a Roman emperor; till they were diverted from such fatal presumptionby the mild exhortations of Prince Hormisdas, and the approachingterrors of the fleet and army. They implored, and experienced, theclemency of Julian, who transplanted the people to an advantageoussettlement, near Chalcis in Syria, and admitted PusÊus, the governor,to an honorable rank in his service and friendship. But the impregnablefortress of Thilutha could scorn the menace of a siege; and the emperorwas obliged to content himself with an insulting promise, that, when hehad subdued the interior provinces of Persia, Thilutha would no longerrefuse to grace the triumph of the emperor. The inhabitants of theopen towns, unable to resist, and unwilling to yield, fled withprecipitation; and their houses, filled with spoil and provisions, wereoccupied by the soldiers of Julian, who massacred, without remorseand without punishment, some defenceless women. During the march, theSurenas, * or Persian general, and Malek Rodosaces, the renowned emir ofthe tribe of Gassan, incessantly hovered round the army; every stragglerwas intercepted; every detachment was attacked; and the valiantHormisdas escaped with some difficulty from their hands. But theBarbarians were finally repulsed; the country became every day lessfavorable to the operations of cavalry; and when the Romans arrivedat Macepracta, they perceived the ruins of the wall, which had beenconstructed by the ancient kings of Assyria, to secure their dominionsfrom the incursions of the Medes. These preliminaries of the expeditionof Julian appear to have employed about fifteen days; and we may computenear three hundred miles from the fortress of Circesium to the wall ofMacepracta.

The fertile province of Assyria, which stretched beyond the Tigris, asfar as the mountains of Media, extended about four hundred miles fromthe ancient wall of Macepracta, to the territory of Basra, where theunited streams of the Euphrates and Tigris discharge themselves into thePersian Gulf. The whole country might have claimed the peculiar name ofMesopotamia; as the two rivers, which are never more distant than fifty,approach, between Bagdad and Babylon, within twenty-five miles, of eachother. A multitude of artificial canals, dug without much labor in asoft and yielding soil connected the rivers, and intersected theplain of Assyria. The uses of these artificial canals were various andimportant. They served to discharge the superfluous waters from oneriver into the other, at the season of their respective inundations.Subdividing themselves into smaller and smaller branches, they refreshedthe dry lands, and supplied the deficiency of rain. They facilitated theintercourse of peace and commerce; and, as the dams could be speedilybroke down, they armed the despair of the Assyrians with the means ofopposing a sudden deluge to the progress of an invading army. To thesoil and climate of Assyria, nature had denied some of her choicestgifts, the vine, the olive, and the fig-tree; * but the food whichsupports the life of man, and particularly wheat and barley, wereproduced with inexhaustible fertility; and the husbandman, who committedhis seed to the earth, was frequently rewarded with an increase of two,or even of three, hundred. The face of the country was interspersed withgroves of innumerable palm-trees; and the diligent natives celebrated,either in verse or prose, the three hundred and sixty uses to whichthe trunk, the branches, the leaves, the juice, and the fruit, wereskilfully applied. Several manufactures, especially those of leather andlinen, employed the industry of a numerous people, and afforded valuablematerials for foreign trade; which appears, however, to have beenconducted by the hands of strangers. Babylon had been converted into aroyal park; but near the ruins of the ancient capital, new cities hadsuccessively arisen, and the populousness of the country was displayedin the multitude of towns and villages, which were built of bricks driedin the sun, and strongly cemented with bitumen; the natural and peculiarproduction of the Babylonian soil. While the successors of Cyrus reignedover Asia, the province of Syria alone maintained, during a third partof the year, the luxurious plenty of the table and household of theGreat King. Four considerable villages were assigned for the subsistenceof his Indian dogs; eight hundred stallions, and sixteen thousand mares,were constantly kept, at the expense of the country, for the royalstables; and as the daily tribute, which was paid to the satrap,amounted to one English bushel of silver, we may compute the annualrevenue of Assyria at more than twelve hundred thousand pounds sterling.

Chapter XXIV: The Retreat And Death Of Julian.--Part III.

The fields of Assyria were devoted by Julian to the calamities of war;and the philosopher retaliated on a guiltless people the acts of rapineand cruelty which had been committed by their haughty master in theRoman provinces. The trembling Assyrians summoned the rivers to theirassistance; and completed, with their own hands, the ruin of theircountry. The roads were rendered impracticable; a flood of waters waspoured into the camp; and, during several days, the troops of Julianwere obliged to contend with the most discouraging hardships. But everyobstacle was surmounted by the perseverance of the legionaries, who wereinured to toil as well as to danger, and who felt themselves animatedby the spirit of their leader. The damage was gradually repaired;the waters were restored to their proper channels; whole groves ofpalm-trees were cut down, and placed along the broken parts of the road;and the army passed over the broad and deeper canals, on bridges offloating rafts, which were supported by the help of bladders. Two citiesof Assyria presumed to resist the arms of a Roman emperor: and theyboth paid the severe penalty of their rashness. At the distance of fiftymiles from the royal residence of Ctesiphon, Perisabor, * or Anbar,held the second rank in the province; a city, large, populous, and wellfortified, surrounded with a double wall, almost encompassed by a branchof the Euphrates, and defended by the valor of a numerous garrison. Theexhortations of Hormisdas were repulsed with contempt; and the ears ofthe Persian prince were wounded by a just reproach, that, unmindful ofhis royal birth, he conducted an army of strangers against his king andcountry. The Assyrians maintained their loyalty by a skilful, as wellas vigorous, defence; till the lucky stroke of a battering-ram, havingopened a large breach, by shattering one of the angles of the wall, theyhastily retired into the fortifications of the interior citadel. Thesoldiers of Julian rushed impetuously into the town, and after thefull gratification of every military appetite, Perisabor was reduced toashes; and the engines which assaulted the citadel were planted on theruins of the smoking houses. The contest was continued by an incessantand mutual discharge of missile weapons; and the superiority which theRomans might derive from the mechanical powers of their balistÊ andcatapultÊ was counterbalanced by the advantage of the ground on the sideof the besieged. But as soon as an Helepolis had been constructed, whichcould engage on equal terms with the loftiest ramparts, the tremendousaspect of a moving turret, that would leave no hope of resistance ormercy, terrified the defenders of the citadel into an humble submission;and the place was surrendered only two days after Julian first appearedunder the walls of Perisabor. Two thousand five hundred persons, of bothsexes, the feeble remnant of a flourishing people, were permittedto retire; the plentiful magazines of corn, of arms, and of splendidfurniture, were partly distributed among the troops, and partly reservedfor the public service; the useless stores were destroyed by fire orthrown into the stream of the Euphrates; and the fate of Amida wasrevenged by the total ruin of Perisabor.

The city or rather fortress, of Maogamalcha, which was defended bysixteen large towers, a deep ditch, and two strong and solid walls ofbrick and bitumen, appears to have been constructed at the distance ofeleven miles, as the safeguard of the capital of Persia. The emperor,apprehensive of leaving such an important fortress in his rear,immediately formed the siege of Maogamalcha; and the Roman army wasdistributed, for that purpose, into three divisions. Victor, at the headof the cavalry, and of a detachment of heavy-armed foot, was ordered toclear the country, as far as the banks of the Tigris, and the suburbs ofCtesiphon. The conduct of the attack was assumed by Julian himself, whoseemed to place his whole dependence in the military engines whichhe erected against the walls; while he secretly contrived a moreefficacious method of introducing his troops into the heart of the cityUnder the direction of Nevitta and Dagalaiphus, the trenches were openedat a considerable distance, and gradually prolonged as far as the edgeof the ditch. The ditch was speedily filled with earth; and, by theincessant labor of the troops, a mine was carried under the foundationsof the walls, and sustained, at sufficient intervals, by props oftimber. Three chosen cohorts, advancing in a single file, silentlyexplored the dark and dangerous passage; till their intrepid leaderwhispered back the intelligence, that he was ready to issue from hisconfinement into the streets of the hostile city. Julian checked theirardor, that he might insure their success; and immediately divertedthe attention of the garrison, by the tumult and clamor of a generalassault. The Persians, who, from their walls, contemptuously beheld theprogress of an impotent attack, celebrated with songs of triumph theglory of Sapor; and ventured to assure the emperor, that he mightascend the starry mansion of Ormusd, before he could hope to take theimpregnable city of Maogamalcha. The city was already taken. History hasrecorded the name of a private soldier the first who ascended from themine into a deserted tower. The passage was widened by his companions,who pressed forwards with impatient valor. Fifteen hundred enemies werealready in the midst of the city. The astonished garrison abandoned thewalls, and their only hope of safety; the gates were instantly burstopen; and the revenge of the soldier, unless it were suspended by lustor avarice, was satiated by an undistinguishing massacre. The governor,who had yielded on a promise of mercy, was burnt alive, a few daysafterwards, on a charge of having uttered some disrespectful wordsagainst the honor of Prince Hormisdas. * The fortifications were razedto the ground; and not a vestige was left, that the city of Maogamalchahad ever existed. The neighborhood of the capital of Persia was adornedwith three stately palaces, laboriously enriched with every productionthat could gratify the luxury and pride of an Eastern monarch. Thepleasant situation of the gardens along the banks of the Tigris, wasimproved, according to the Persian taste, by the symmetry of flowers,fountains, and shady walks: and spacious parks were enclosed for thereception of the bears, lions, and wild boars, which were maintainedat a considerable expense for the pleasure of the royal chase. The parkwalls were broken down, the savage game was abandoned to the darts ofthe soldiers, and the palaces of Sapor were reduced to ashes, by thecommand of the Roman emperor. Julian, on this occasion, showed himselfignorant, or careless, of the laws of civility, which the prudence andrefinement of polished ages have established between hostile princes.Yet these wanton ravages need not excite in our breasts any vehementemotions of pity or resentment. A simple, naked statue, finished by thehand of a Grecian artist, is of more genuine value than all these rudeand costly monuments of Barbaric labor; and, if we are more deeplyaffected by the ruin of a palace than by the conflagration of a cottage,our humanity must have formed a very erroneous estimate of the miseriesof human life.

Julian was an object of hatred and terror to the Persian and thepainters of that nation represented the invader of their country underthe emblem of a furious lion, who vomited from his mouth a consumingfire. To his friends and soldiers the philosophic hero appeared ina more amiable light; and his virtues were never more conspicuouslydisplayed, than in the last and most active period of his life. Hepractised, without effort, and almost without merit, the habitualqualities of temperance and sobriety. According to the dictates of thatartificial wisdom, which assumes an absolute dominion over the mindand body, he sternly refused himself the indulgence of the most naturalappetites. In the warm climate of Assyria, which solicited a luxuriouspeople to the gratification of every sensual desire, a youthfulconqueror preserved his chastity pure and inviolate; nor was Julian evertempted, even by a motive of curiosity, to visit his female captivesof exquisite beauty, who, instead of resisting his power, would havedisputed with each other the honor of his embraces. With the samefirmness that he resisted the allurements of love, he sustained thehardships of war. When the Romans marched through the flat and floodedcountry, their sovereign, on foot, at the head of his legions, sharedtheir fatigues and animated their diligence. In every useful labor, thehand of Julian was prompt and strenuous; and the Imperial purple was wetand dirty as the coarse garment of the meanest soldier. The two siegesallowed him some remarkable opportunities of signalizing his personalvalor, which, in the improved state of the military art, can seldombe exerted by a prudent general. The emperor stood before the citadelbefore the citadel of Perisabor, insensible of his extreme danger,and encouraged his troops to burst open the gates of iron, till he wasalmost overwhelmed under a cloud of missile weapons and huge stones,that were directed against his person. As he examined the exteriorfortifications of Maogamalcha, two Persians, devoting themselves fortheir country, suddenly rushed upon him with drawn cimeters: the emperordexterously received their blows on his uplifted shield; and, with asteady and well-aimed thrust, laid one of his adversaries dead athis feet. The esteem of a prince who possesses the virtues which heapproves, is the noblest recompense of a deserving subject; and theauthority which Julian derived from his personal merit, enabled him torevive and enforce the rigor of ancient discipline. He punished withdeath or ignominy the misbehavior of three troops of horse, who, ina skirmish with the Surenas, had lost their honor and one of theirstandards: and he distinguished with obsidional crowns the valor of theforemost soldiers, who had ascended into the city of Maogamalcha. Afterthe siege of Perisabor, the firmness of the emperor was exercised by theinsolent avarice of the army, who loudly complained, that their serviceswere rewarded by a trifling donative of one hundred pieces of silver.His just indignation was expressed in the grave and manly language of aRoman. "Riches are the object of your desires; those riches are inthe hands of the Persians; and the spoils of this fruitful country areproposed as the prize of your valor and discipline. Believe me," addedJulian, "the Roman republic, which formerly possessed such immensetreasures, is now reduced to want and wretchedness once our princes havebeen persuaded, by weak and interested ministers, to purchase with goldthe tranquillity of the Barbarians. The revenue is exhausted; thecities are ruined; the provinces are dispeopled. For myself, the onlyinheritance that I have received from my royal ancestors is a soulincapable of fear; and as long as I am convinced that every realadvantage is seated in the mind, I shall not blush to acknowledge anhonorable poverty, which, in the days of ancient virtue, was consideredas the glory of Fabricius. That glory, and that virtue, may be your own,if you will listen to the voice of Heaven and of your leader. But ifyou will rashly persist, if you are determined to renew the shameful andmischievous examples of old seditions, proceed. As it becomes an emperorwho has filled the first rank among men, I am prepared to die, standing;and to despise a precarious life, which, every hour, may depend on anaccidental fever. If I have been found unworthy of the command, thereare now among you, (I speak it with pride and pleasure,) there are manychiefs whose merit and experience are equal to the conduct of the mostimportant war. Such has been the temper of my reign, that I can retire,without regret, and without apprehension, to the obscurity of a privatestation." The modest resolution of Julian was answered by the unanimousapplause and cheerful obedience of the Romans, who declared theirconfidence of victory, while they fought under the banners of theirheroic prince. Their courage was kindled by his frequent and familiarasseverations, (for such wishes were the oaths of Julian,) "So may Ireduce the Persians under the yoke!" "Thus may I restore the strengthand splendor of the republic!" The love of fame was the ardentpassion of his soul: but it was not before he trampled on the ruins ofMaogamalcha, that he allowed himself to say, "We have now provided somematerials for the sophist of Antioch."

The successful valor of Julian had triumphed over all the obstacles thatopposed his march to the gates of Ctesiphon. But the reduction, or eventhe siege, of the capital of Persia, was still at a distance: nor canthe military conduct of the emperor be clearly apprehended, without aknowledge of the country which was the theatre of his bold and skilfuloperations. Twenty miles to the south of Bagdad, and on the eastern bankof the Tigris, the curiosity of travellers has observed some ruins ofthe palaces of Ctesiphon, which, in the time of Julian, was a great andpopulous city. The name and glory of the adjacent Seleucia were foreverextinguished; and the only remaining quarter of that Greek colonyhad resumed, with the Assyrian language and manners, the primitiveappellation of Coche. Coche was situate on the western side of theTigris; but it was naturally considered as a suburb of Ctesiphon, withwhich we may suppose it to have been connected by a permanent bridgeof boats. The united parts contribute to form the common epithet ofAl Modain, the cities, which the Orientals have bestowed on the winterresidence of the Sassinades; and the whole circumference of the Persiancapital was strongly fortified by the waters of the river, by loftywalls, and by impracticable morasses. Near the ruins of Seleucia, thecamp of Julian was fixed, and secured, by a ditch and rampart, againstthe sallies of the numerous and enterprising garrison of Coche. In thisfruitful and pleasant country, the Romans were plentifully supplied withwater and forage: and several forts, which might have embarrassed themotions of the army, submitted, after some resistance, to the effortsof their valor. The fleet passed from the Euphrates into an artificialderivation of that river, which pours a copious and navigable streaminto the Tigris, at a small distance below the great city. If they hadfollowed this royal canal, which bore the name of Nahar-Malcha, theintermediate situation of Coche would have separated the fleet and armyof Julian; and the rash attempt of steering against the current of theTigris, and forcing their way through the midst of a hostile capital,must have been attended with the total destruction of the Roman navy.The prudence of the emperor foresaw the danger, and provided the remedy.As he had minutely studied the operations of Trajan in the same country,he soon recollected that his warlike predecessor had dug a new andnavigable canal, which, leaving Coche on the right hand, conveyed thewaters of the Nahar-Malcha into the river Tigris, at some distance abovethe cities. From the information of the peasants, Julian ascertained thevestiges of this ancient work, which were almost obliterated by designor accident. By the indefatigable labor of the soldiers, a broad anddeep channel was speedily prepared for the reception of the Euphrates.A strong dike was constructed to interrupt the ordinary current of theNahar-Malcha: a flood of waters rushed impetuously into their new bed;and the Roman fleet, steering their triumphant course into the Tigris,derided the vain and ineffectual barriers which the Persians ofCtesiphon had erected to oppose their passage.

As it became necessary to transport the Roman army over the Tigris,another labor presented itself, of less toil, but of more danger, thanthe preceding expedition. The stream was broad and rapid; the ascentsteep and difficult; and the intrenchments which had been formed on theridge of the opposite bank, were lined with a numerous army of heavycuirassiers, dexterous archers, and huge elephants; who (according tothe extravagant hyperbole of Libanius) could trample with the sameease a field of corn, or a legion of Romans. In the presence of such anenemy, the construction of a bridge was impracticable; and the intrepidprince, who instantly seized the only possible expedient, concealedhis design, till the moment of execution, from the knowledge of theBarbarians, of his own troops, and even of his generals themselves.Under the specious pretence of examining the state of the magazines,fourscore vessels * were gradually unladen; and a select detachment,apparently destined for some secret expedition, was ordered to stand totheir arms on the first signal. Julian disguised the silent anxiety ofhis own mind with smiles of confidence and joy; and amused the hostilenations with the spectacle of military games, which he insultinglycelebrated under the walls of Coche. The day was consecrated topleasure; but, as soon as the hour of supper was passed, the emperorsummoned the generals to his tent, and acquainted them that he hadfixed that night for the passage of the Tigris. They stood in silentand respectful astonishment; but, when the venerable Sallust assumed theprivilege of his age and experience, the rest of the chiefs supportedwith freedom the weight of his prudent remonstrances. Julian contentedhimself with observing, that conquest and safety depended on theattempt; that instead of diminishing, the number of their enemies wouldbe increased, by successive reenforcements; and that a longer delaywould neither contract the breadth of the stream, nor level the heightof the bank. The signal was instantly given, and obeyed; the mostimpatient of the legionaries leaped into five vessels that lay nearestto the bank; and as they plied their oars with intrepid diligence, theywere lost, after a few moments, in the darkness of the night. A flamearose on the opposite side; and Julian, who too clearly understoodthat his foremost vessels, in attempting to land, had been fired bythe enemy, dexterously converted their extreme danger into a presageof victory. "Our fellow-soldiers," he eagerly exclaimed, "are alreadymasters of the bank; see--they make the appointed signal; let us hastento emulate and assist their courage." The united and rapid motion ofa great fleet broke the violence of the current, and they reached theeastern shore of the Tigris with sufficient speed to extinguish theflames, and rescue their adventurous companions. The difficulties of asteep and lofty ascent were increased by the weight of armor, andthe darkness of the night. A shower of stones, darts, and fire, wasincessantly discharged on the heads of the assailants; who, afteran arduous struggle, climbed the bank and stood victorious upon therampart. As soon as they possessed a more equal field, Julian, who,with his light infantry, had led the attack, darted through the ranksa skilful and experienced eye: his bravest soldiers, according to theprecepts of Homer, were distributed in the front and rear: and allthe trumpets of the Imperial army sounded to battle. The Romans, aftersending up a military shout, advanced in measured steps to the animatingnotes of martial music; launched their formidable javelins; and rushedforwards with drawn swords, to deprive the Barbarians, by a closeronset, of the advantage of their missile weapons. The whole engagementlasted above twelve hours; till the gradual retreat of the Persianswas changed into a disorderly flight, of which the shameful examplewas given by the principal leader, and the Surenas himself. They werepursued to the gates of Ctesiphon; and the conquerors might have enteredthe dismayed city, if their general, Victor, who was dangerously woundedwith an arrow, had not conjured them to desist from a rash attempt,which must be fatal, if it were not successful. On their side, theRomans acknowledged the loss of only seventy-five men; while theyaffirmed, that the Barbarians had left on the field of battle twothousand five hundred, or even six thousand, of their bravest soldiers.The spoil was such as might be expected from the riches and luxury ofan Oriental camp; large quantities of silver and gold, splendid arms andtrappings, and beds and tables of massy silver. * The victorious emperordistributed, as the rewards of valor, some honorable gifts, civic, andmural, and naval crowns; which he, and perhaps he alone, esteemed moreprecious than the wealth of Asia. A solemn sacrifice was offered tothe god of war, but the appearances of the victims threatened the mostinauspicious events; and Julian soon discovered, by less ambiguoussigns, that he had now reached the term of his prosperity.

On the second day after the battle, the domestic guards, the Jovians andHerculians, and the remaining troops, which composed near two thirds ofthe whole army, were securely wafted over the Tigris. While the Persiansbeheld from the walls of Ctesiphon the desolation of the adjacentcountry, Julian cast many an anxious look towards the North, in fullexpectation, that as he himself had victoriously penetrated to thecapital of Sapor, the march and junction of his lieutenants, Sebastianand Procopius, would be executed with the same courage and diligence.His expectations were disappointed by the treachery of the Armenianking, who permitted, and most probably directed, the desertion of hisauxiliary troops from the camp of the Romans; and by the dissensions ofthe two generals, who were incapable of forming or executing any planfor the public service. When the emperor had relinquished the hope ofthis important reenforcement, he condescended to hold a council of war,and approved, after a full debate, the sentiment of those generals,who dissuaded the siege of Ctesiphon, as a fruitless and perniciousundertaking. It is not easy for us to conceive, by what arts offortification a city thrice besieged and taken by the predecessors ofJulian could be rendered impregnable against an army of sixty thousandRomans, commanded by a brave and experienced general, and abundantlysupplied with ships, provisions, battering engines, and military stores.But we may rest assured, from the love of glory, and contempt of danger,which formed the character of Julian, that he was not discouraged by anytrivial or imaginary obstacles. At the very time when he declined thesiege of Ctesiphon, he rejected, with obstinacy and disdain, the mostflattering offers of a negotiation of peace. Sapor, who had been so longaccustomed to the tardy ostentation of Constantius, was surprised by theintrepid diligence of his successor. As far as the confines of India andScythia, the satraps of the distant provinces were ordered to assembletheir troops, and to march, without delay, to the assistance of theirmonarch. But their preparations were dilatory, their motions slow;and before Sapor could lead an army into the field, he received themelancholy intelligence of the devastation of Assyria, the ruin ofhis palaces, and the slaughter of his bravest troops, who defended thepassage of the Tigris. The pride of royalty was humbled in the dust; hetook his repasts on the ground; and the disorder of his hair expressedthe grief and anxiety of his mind. Perhaps he would not have refused topurchase, with one half of his kingdom, the safety of the remainder;and he would have gladly subscribed himself, in a treaty of peace, thefaithful and dependent ally of the Roman conqueror. Under the pretenceof private business, a minister of rank and confidence was secretlydespatched to embrace the knees of Hormisdas, and to request, in thelanguage of a suppliant, that he might be introduced into the presenceof the emperor. The Sassanian prince, whether he listened to the voiceof pride or humanity, whether he consulted the sentiments of his birth,or the duties of his situation, was equally inclined to promote asalutary measure, which would terminate the calamities of Persia, andsecure the triumph of Rome. He was astonished by the inflexible firmnessof a hero, who remembered, most unfortunately for himself and for hiscountry, that Alexander had uniformly rejected the propositionsof Darius. But as Julian was sensible, that the hope of a safe andhonorable peace might cool the ardor of his troops, he earnestlyrequested that Hormisdas would privately dismiss the minister of Sapor,and conceal this dangerous temptation from the knowledge of the camp.

Chapter XXIV: The Retreat And Death Of Julian.--Part IV.

The honor, as well as interest, of Julian, forbade him to consume histime under the impregnable walls of Ctesiphon and as often as he defiedthe Barbarians, who defended the city, to meet him on the open plain,they prudently replied, that if he desired to exercise his valor,he might seek the army of the Great King. He felt the insult, and heaccepted the advice. Instead of confining his servile march to the banksof the Euphrates and Tigris, he resolved to imitate the adventurousspirit of Alexander, and boldly to advance into the inland provinces,till he forced his rival to contend with him, perhaps in the plains ofArbela, for the empire of Asia. The magnanimity of Julian was applaudedand betrayed, by the arts of a noble Persian, who, in the cause ofhis country, had generously submitted to act a part full of danger, offalsehood, and of shame. With a train of faithful followers, he desertedto the Imperial camp; exposed, in a specious tale, the injuries which hehad sustained; exaggerated the cruelty of Sapor, the discontent ofthe people, and the weakness of the monarchy; and confidently offeredhimself as the hostage and guide of the Roman march. The most rationalgrounds of suspicion were urged, without effect, by the wisdom andexperience of Hormisdas; and the credulous Julian, receiving the traitorinto his bosom, was persuaded to issue a hasty order, which, in theopinion of mankind, appeared to arraign his prudence, and to endangerhis safety. He destroyed, in a single hour, the whole navy, which hadbeen transported above five hundred miles, at so great an expense oftoil, of treasure, and of blood. Twelve, or, at the most, twenty-twosmall vessels were saved, to accompany, on carriages, the march of thearmy, and to form occasional bridges for the passage of the rivers.A supply of twenty days' provisions was reserved for the use of thesoldiers; and the rest of the magazines, with a fleet of eleven hundredvessels, which rode at anchor in the Tigris, were abandoned to theflames, by the absolute command of the emperor. The Christian bishops,Gregory and Augustin, insult the madness of the Apostate, who executed,with his own hands, the sentence of divine justice. Their authority, ofless weight, perhaps, in a military question, is confirmed by the cooljudgment of an experienced soldier, who was himself spectator of theconflagration, and who could not disapprove the reluctant murmurs ofthe troops. Yet there are not wanting some specious, and perhaps solid,reasons, which might justify the resolution of Julian. The navigation ofthe Euphrates never ascended above Babylon, nor that of the Tigris aboveOpis. The distance of the last-mentioned city from the Roman camp wasnot very considerable: and Julian must soon have renounced the vainand impracticable attempt of forcing upwards a great fleet against thestream of a rapid river, which in several places was embarrassedby natural or artificial cataracts. The power of sails and oars wasinsufficient; it became necessary to tow the ships against the currentof the river; the strength of twenty thousand soldiers was exhaustedin this tedious and servile labor, and if the Romans continued to marchalong the banks of the Tigris, they could only expect to return homewithout achieving any enterprise worthy of the genius or fortune oftheir leader. If, on the contrary, it was advisable to advance into theinland country, the destruction of the fleet and magazines was theonly measure which could save that valuable prize from the hands of thenumerous and active troops which might suddenly be poured from the gatesof Ctesiphon. Had the arms of Julian been victorious, we should nowadmire the conduct, as well as the courage, of a hero, who, by deprivinghis soldiers of the hopes of a retreat, left them only the alternativeof death or conquest.

The cumbersome train of artillery and wagons, which retards theoperations of a modern army, were in a great measure unknown in thecamps of the Romans. Yet, in every age, the subsistence of sixtythousand men must have been one of the most important cares of a prudentgeneral; and that subsistence could only be drawn from his own or fromthe enemy's country. Had it been possible for Julian to maintain abridge of communication on the Tigris, and to preserve the conqueredplaces of Assyria, a desolated province could not afford any large orregular supplies, in a season of the year when the lands were coveredby the inundation of the Euphrates, and the unwholesome air was darkenedwith swarms of innumerable insects. The appearance of the hostilecountry was far more inviting. The extensive region that lies betweenthe River Tigris and the mountains of Media, was filled with villagesand towns; and the fertile soil, for the most part, was in a veryimproved state of cultivation. Julian might expect, that a conqueror,who possessed the two forcible instruments of persuasion, steel andgold, would easily procure a plentiful subsistence from the fears oravarice of the natives. But, on the approach of the Romans, the richand smiling prospect was instantly blasted. Wherever they moved,the inhabitants deserted the open villages, and took shelter in thefortified towns; the cattle was driven away; the grass and ripe cornwere consumed with fire; and, as soon as the flames had subsided whichinterrupted the march of Julian, he beheld the melancholy face of asmoking and naked desert. This desperate but effectual method of defencecan only be executed by the enthusiasm of a people who prefer theirindependence to their property; or by the rigor of an arbitrarygovernment, which consults the public safety without submitting to theirinclinations the liberty of choice. On the present occasion the zealand obedience of the Persians seconded the commands of Sapor; andthe emperor was soon reduced to the scanty stock of provisions, whichcontinually wasted in his hands. Before they were entirely consumed, hemight still have reached the wealthy and unwarlike cities of Ecbatanaor Susa, by the effort of a rapid and well-directed march; but he wasdeprived of this last resource by his ignorance of the roads, and by theperfidy of his guides. The Romans wandered several days in the countryto the eastward of Bagdad; the Persian deserter, who had artfully ledthem into the spare, escaped from their resentment; and his followers,as soon as they were put to the torture, confessed the secret of theconspiracy. The visionary conquests of Hyrcania and India, which had solong amused, now tormented, the mind of Julian. Conscious that his ownimprudence was the cause of the public distress, he anxiously balancedthe hopes of safety or success, without obtaining a satisfactory answer,either from gods or men. At length, as the only practicable measure, heembraced the resolution of directing his steps towards the banks ofthe Tigris, with the design of saving the army by a hasty march tothe confines of Corduene; a fertile and friendly province, whichacknowledged the sovereignty of Rome. The desponding troops obeyedthe signal of the retreat, only seventy days after they had passed theChaboras, with the sanguine expectation of subverting the throne ofPersia.

As long as the Romans seemed to advance into the country, their marchwas observed and insulted from a distance, by several bodies of Persiancavalry; who, showing themselves sometimes in loose, and sometimesin close order, faintly skirmished with the advanced guards. Thesedetachments were, however, supported by a much greater force; and theheads of the columns were no sooner pointed towards the Tigris than acloud of dust arose on the plain. The Romans, who now aspired only tothe permission of a safe and speedy retreat, endeavored to persuadethemselves, that this formidable appearance was occasioned by a troopof wild asses, or perhaps by the approach of some friendly Arabs. Theyhalted, pitched their tents, fortified their camp, passed the wholenight in continual alarms; and discovered at the dawn of day, thatthey were surrounded by an army of Persians. This army, which might beconsidered only as the van of the Barbarians, was soon followed by themain body of cuirassiers, archers, and elephants, commanded by Meranes,a general of rank and reputation. He was accompanied by two of theking's sons, and many of the principal satraps; and fame and expectationexaggerated the strength of the remaining powers, which slowly advancedunder the conduct of Sapor himself. As the Romans continued their march,their long array, which was forced to bend or divide, according to thevarieties of the ground, afforded frequent and favorable opportunitiesto their vigilant enemies. The Persians repeatedly charged with fury;they were repeatedly repulsed with firmness; and the action at Maronga,which almost deserved the name of a battle, was marked by a considerableloss of satraps and elephants, perhaps of equal value in the eyes oftheir monarch. These splendid advantages were not obtained withoutan adequate slaughter on the side of the Romans: several officers ofdistinction were either killed or wounded; and the emperor himself, who,on all occasions of danger, inspired and guided the valor of his troops,was obliged to expose his person, and exert his abilities. The weight ofoffensive and defensive arms, which still constituted the strength andsafety of the Romans, disabled them from making any long or effectualpursuit; and as the horsem*n of the East were trained to dart theirjavelins, and shoot their arrows, at full speed, and in every possibledirection, the cavalry of Persia was never more formidable than inthe moment of a rapid and disorderly flight. But the most certain andirreparable loss of the Romans was that of time. The hardy veterans,accustomed to the cold climate of Gaul and Germany, fainted under thesultry heat of an Assyrian summer; their vigor was exhausted by theincessant repetition of march and combat; and the progress of the armywas suspended by the precautions of a slow and dangerous retreat, inthe presence of an active enemy. Every day, every hour, as the supplydiminished, the value and price of subsistence increased in the Romancamp. Julian, who always contented himself with such food as a hungrysoldier would have disdained, distributed, for the use of the troops,the provisions of the Imperial household, and whatever could be spared,from the sumpter-horses, of the tribunes and generals. But this feeblerelief served only to aggravate the sense of the public distress; andthe Romans began to entertain the most gloomy apprehensions that, beforethey could reach the frontiers of the empire, they should all perish,either by famine, or by the sword of the Barbarians.

While Julian struggled with the almost insuperable difficulties of hissituation, the silent hours of the night were still devoted to studyand contemplation. Whenever he closed his eyes in short and interruptedslumbers, his mind was agitated with painful anxiety; nor can it bethought surprising, that the Genius of the empire should once moreappear before him, covering with a funeral veil his head, and his hornof abundance, and slowly retiring from the Imperial tent. The monarchstarted from his couch, and stepping forth to refresh his weariedspirits with the coolness of the midnight air, he beheld a fiery meteor,which shot athwart the sky, and suddenly vanished. Julian was convincedthat he had seen the menacing countenance of the god of war; the councilwhich he summoned, of Tuscan Haruspices, unanimously pronounced that heshould abstain from action; but on this occasion, necessity and reasonwere more prevalent than superstition; and the trumpets sounded at thebreak of day. The army marched through a hilly country; and the hillshad been secretly occupied by the Persians. Julian led the van withthe skill and attention of a consummate general; he was alarmed bythe intelligence that his rear was suddenly attacked. The heat of theweather had tempted him to lay aside his cuirass; but he snatched ashield from one of his attendants, and hastened, with a sufficientreenforcement, to the relief of the rear-guard. A similar dangerrecalled the intrepid prince to the defence of the front; and, as hegalloped through the columns, the centre of the left was attacked, andalmost overpowered by the furious charge of the Persian cavalry andelephants. This huge body was soon defeated, by the well-timed evolutionof the light infantry, who aimed their weapons, with dexterityand effect, against the backs of the horsem*n, and the legs of theelephants. The Barbarians fled; and Julian, who was foremost in everydanger, animated the pursuit with his voice and gestures. His tremblingguards, scattered and oppressed by the disorderly throng of friends andenemies, reminded their fearless sovereign that he was without armor;and conjured him to decline the fall of the impending ruin. As theyexclaimed, a cloud of darts and arrows was discharged from the flyingsquadrons; and a javelin, after razing the skin of his arm, transpiercedthe ribs, and fixed in the inferior part of the liver. Julian attemptedto draw the deadly weapon from his side; but his fingers were cut by thesharpness of the steel, and he fell senseless from his horse. His guardsflew to his relief; and the wounded emperor was gently raised from theground, and conveyed out of the tumult of the battle into an adjacenttent. The report of the melancholy event passed from rank to rank; butthe grief of the Romans inspired them with invincible valor, and thedesire of revenge. The bloody and obstinate conflict was maintained bythe two armies, till they were separated by the total darkness of thenight. The Persians derived some honor from the advantage which theyobtained against the left wing, where Anatolius, master of the offices,was slain, and the prÊfect Sallust very narrowly escaped. But the eventof the day was adverse to the Barbarians. They abandoned the field;their two generals, Meranes and Nohordates, fifty nobles or satraps, anda multitude of their bravest soldiers; and the success of the Romans, ifJulian had survived, might have been improved into a decisive and usefulvictory.

The first words that Julian uttered, after his recovery from thefainting fit into which he had been thrown by loss of blood, wereexpressive of his martial spirit. He called for his horse and arms,and was impatient to rush into the battle. His remaining strength wasexhausted by the painful effort; and the surgeons, who examined hiswound, discovered the symptoms of approaching death. He employedthe awful moments with the firm temper of a hero and a sage; thephilosophers who had accompanied him in this fatal expedition, comparedthe tent of Julian with the prison of Socrates; and the spectators,whom duty, or friendship, or curiosity, had assembled round his couch,listened with respectful grief to the funeral oration of their dyingemperor. "Friends and fellow-soldiers, the seasonable period of mydeparture is now arrived, and I discharge, with the cheerfulness of aready debtor, the demands of nature. I have learned from philosophy, howmuch the soul is more excellent than the body; and that the separationof the nobler substance should be the subject of joy, rather than ofaffliction. I have learned from religion, that an early death has oftenbeen the reward of piety; and I accept, as a favor of the gods, themortal stroke that secures me from the danger of disgracing a character,which has hitherto been supported by virtue and fortitude. I die withoutremorse, as I have lived without guilt. I am pleased to reflect on theinnocence of my private life; and I can affirm with confidence, thatthe supreme authority, that emanation of the Divine Power, has beenpreserved in my hands pure and immaculate. Detesting the corrupt anddestructive maxims of despotism, I have considered the happiness of thepeople as the end of government. Submitting my actions to the laws ofprudence, of justice, and of moderation, I have trusted the event tothe care of Providence. Peace was the object of my counsels, as longas peace was consistent with the public welfare; but when the imperiousvoice of my country summoned me to arms, I exposed my person to thedangers of war, with the clear foreknowledge (which I had acquired fromthe art of divination) that I was destined to fall by the sword. I nowoffer my tribute of gratitude to the Eternal Being, who has not sufferedme to perish by the cruelty of a tyrant, by the secret dagger ofconspiracy, or by the slow tortures of lingering disease. He hasgiven me, in the midst of an honorable career, a splendid and gloriousdeparture from this world; and I hold it equally absurd, equallybase, to solicit, or to decline, the stroke of fate. This much I haveattempted to say; but my strength fails me, and I feel the approachof death. I shall cautiously refrain from any word that may tend toinfluence your suffrages in the election of an emperor. My choice mightbe imprudent or injudicious; and if it should not be ratified by theconsent of the army, it might be fatal to the person whom I shouldrecommend. I shall only, as a good citizen, express my hopes, that theRomans may be blessed with the government of a virtuous sovereign."After this discourse, which Julian pronounced in a firm and gentle toneof voice, he distributed, by a military testament, the remains of hisprivate fortune; and making some inquiry why Anatolius was not present,he understood, from the answer of Sallust, that Anatolius was killed;and bewailed, with amiable inconsistency, the loss of his friend. Atthe same time he reproved the immoderate grief of the spectators; andconjured them not to disgrace, by unmanly tears, the fate of a prince,who in a few moments would be united with heaven, and with the stars.The spectators were silent; and Julian entered into a metaphysicalargument with the philosophers Priscus and Maximus, on the nature of thesoul. The efforts which he made, of mind as well as body, most probablyhastened his death. His wound began to bleed with fresh violence; hisrespiration was embarrassed by the swelling of the veins; he calledfor a draught of cold water, and, as soon as he had drank it, expiredwithout pain, about the hour of midnight. Such was the end of thatextraordinary man, in the thirty-second year of his age, after a reignof one year and about eight months, from the death of Constantius. Inhis last moments he displayed, perhaps with some ostentation, the loveof virtue and of fame, which had been the ruling passions of his life.

The triumph of Christianity, and the calamities of the empire, may, insome measure, be ascribed to Julian himself, who had neglected tosecure the future execution of his designs, by the timely and judiciousnomination of an associate and successor. But the royal race ofConstantius Chlorus was reduced to his own person; and if he entertainedany serious thoughts of investing with the purple the most worthy amongthe Romans, he was diverted from his resolution by the difficulty of thechoice, the jealousy of power, the fear of ingratitude, and the naturalpresumption of health, of youth, and of prosperity. His unexpected deathleft the empire without a master, and without an heir, in a state ofperplexity and danger, which, in the space of fourscore years, had neverbeen experienced, since the election of Diocletian. In a governmentwhich had almost forgotten the distinction of pure and noble blood, thesuperiority of birth was of little moment; the claims of official rankwere accidental and precarious; and the candidates, who might aspire toascend the vacant throne could be supported only by the consciousness ofpersonal merit, or by the hopes of popular favor. But the situation ofa famished army, encompassed on all sides by a host of Barbarians,shortened the moments of grief and deliberation. In this scene of terrorand distress, the body of the deceased prince, according to his owndirections, was decently embalmed; and, at the dawn of day, the generalsconvened a military senate, at which the commanders of the legions, andthe officers both of cavalry and infantry, were invited to assist.Three or four hours of the night had not passed away without some secretcabals; and when the election of an emperor was proposed, the spirit offaction began to agitate the assembly. Victor and ArinthÊus collectedthe remains of the court of Constantius; the friends of Julian attachedthemselves to the Gallic chiefs, Dagalaiphus and Nevitta; and themost fatal consequences might be apprehended from the discord of twofactions, so opposite in their character and interest, in their maximsof government, and perhaps in their religious principles. The superiorvirtues of Sallust could alone reconcile their divisions, and unitetheir suffrages; and the venerable prÊfect would immediately have beendeclared the successor of Julian, if he himself, with sincere and modestfirmness, had not alleged his age and infirmities, so unequal to theweight of the diadem. The generals, who were surprised and perplexed byhis refusal, showed some disposition to adopt the salutary advice of aninferior officer, that they should act as they would have acted inthe absence of the emperor; that they should exert their abilitiesto extricate the army from the present distress; and, if they werefortunate enough to reach the confines of Mesopotamia, they shouldproceed with united and deliberate counsels in the election of a lawfulsovereign. While they debated, a few voices saluted Jovian, who wasno more than first of the domestics, with the names of Emperor andAugustus. The tumultuary acclamation * was instantly repeated by theguards who surrounded the tent, and passed, in a few minutes, to theextremities of the line. The new prince, astonished with his own fortunewas hastily invested with the Imperial ornaments, and received an oathof fidelity from the generals, whose favor and protection he so latelysolicited. The strongest recommendation of Jovian was the merit of hisfather, Count Varronian, who enjoyed, in honorable retirement, the fruitof his long services. In the obscure freedom of a private station,the son indulged his taste for wine and women; yet he supported, withcredit, the character of a Christian and a soldier. Without beingconspicuous for any of the ambitious qualifications which excitethe admiration and envy of mankind, the comely person of Jovian, hischeerful temper, and familiar wit, had gained the affection of hisfellow-soldiers; and the generals of both parties acquiesced in apopular election, which had not been conducted by the arts of theirenemies. The pride of this unexpected elevation was moderated by thejust apprehension, that the same day might terminate the life and reignof the new emperor. The pressing voice of necessity was obeyed withoutdelay; and the first orders issued by Jovian, a few hours after hispredecessor had expired, were to prosecute a march, which could aloneextricate the Romans from their actual distress.

Chapter XXIV: The Retreat And Death Of Julian.--Part V.

The esteem of an enemy is most sincerely expressed by his fears; andthe degree of fear may be accurately measured by the joy with which hecelebrates his deliverance. The welcome news of the death of Julian,which a deserter revealed to the camp of Sapor, inspired the despondingmonarch with a sudden confidence of victory. He immediately detached theroyal cavalry, perhaps the ten thousand Immortals, to second and supportthe pursuit; and discharged the whole weight of his united forces on therear-guard of the Romans. The rear-guard was thrown into disorder; therenowned legions, which derived their titles from Diocletian, and hiswarlike colleague, were broke and trampled down by the elephants; andthree tribunes lost their lives in attempting to stop the flight oftheir soldiers. The battle was at length restored by the perseveringvalor of the Romans; the Persians were repulsed with a great slaughterof men and elephants; and the army, after marching and fighting a longsummer's day, arrived, in the evening, at Samara, on the banks of theTigris, about one hundred miles above Ctesiphon. On the ensuing day,the Barbarians, instead of harassing the march, attacked the camp, ofJovian; which had been seated in a deep and sequestered valley. Fromthe hills, the archers of Persia insulted and annoyed the weariedlegionaries; and a body of cavalry, which had penetrated with desperatecourage through the PrÊtorian gate, was cut in pieces, after a doubtfulconflict, near the Imperial tent. In the succeeding night, the campof Carche was protected by the lofty dikes of the river; and theRoman army, though incessantly exposed to the vexatious pursuit of theSaracens, pitched their tents near the city of Dura, four days afterthe death of Julian. The Tigris was still on their left; their hopesand provisions were almost consumed; and the impatient soldiers, who hadfondly persuaded themselves that the frontiers of the empire were notfar distant, requested their new sovereign, that they might be permittedto hazard the passage of the river. With the assistance of his wisestofficers, Jovian endeavored to check their rashness; by representing,that if they possessed sufficient skill and vigor to stem the torrentof a deep and rapid stream, they would only deliver themselves nakedand defenceless to the Barbarians, who had occupied the opposite banks,Yielding at length to their clamorous importunities, he consented, withreluctance, that five hundred Gauls and Germans, accustomed from theirinfancy to the waters of the Rhine and Danube, should attempt thebold adventure, which might serve either as an encouragement, or as awarning, for the rest of the army. In the silence of the night, theyswam the Tigris, surprised an unguarded post of the enemy, and displayedat the dawn of day the signal of their resolution and fortune. Thesuccess of this trial disposed the emperor to listen to the promisesof his architects, who propose to construct a floating bridge of theinflated skins of sheep, oxen, and goats, covered with a floor of earthand fascines. Two important days were spent in the ineffectual labor;and the Romans, who already endured the miseries of famine, cast a lookof despair on the Tigris, and upon the Barbarians; whose numbers andobstinacy increased with the distress of the Imperial army.

In this hopeless condition, the fainting spirits of the Romans wererevived by the sound of peace. The transient presumption of Sapor hadvanished: he observed, with serious concern, that, in the repetition ofdoubtful combats, he had lost his most faithful and intrepid nobles, hisbravest troops, and the greatest part of his train of elephants: andthe experienced monarch feared to provoke the resistance of despair, thevicissitudes of fortune, and the unexhausted powers of the Roman empire;which might soon advance to relieve, or to revenge, the successor ofJulian. The Surenas himself, accompanied by another satrap, * appearedin the camp of Jovian; and declared, that the clemency of his sovereignwas not averse to signify the conditions on which he would consent tospare and to dismiss the CÊsar with the relics of his captive army.The hopes of safety subdued the firmness of the Romans; the emperor wascompelled, by the advice of his council, and the cries of his soldiers,to embrace the offer of peace; and the prÊfect Sallust was immediatelysent, with the general ArinthÊus, to understand the pleasure of theGreat King. The crafty Persian delayed, under various pretenses,the conclusion of the agreement; started difficulties, requiredexplanations, suggested expedients, receded from his concessions,increased his demands, and wasted four days in the arts of negotiation,till he had consumed the stock of provisions which yet remained in thecamp of the Romans. Had Jovian been capable of executing a bold andprudent measure, he would have continued his march, with unremittingdiligence; the progress of the treaty would have suspended the attacksof the Barbarians; and, before the expiration of the fourth day, hemight have safely reached the fruitful province of Corduene, at thedistance only of one hundred miles. The irresolute emperor, instead ofbreaking through the toils of the enemy, expected his fate with patientresignation; and accepted the humiliating conditions of peace, whichit was no longer in his power to refuse. The five provinces beyond theTigris, which had been ceded by the grandfather of Sapor, wererestored to the Persian monarchy. He acquired, by a single article, theimpregnable city of Nisibis; which had sustained, in three successivesieges, the effort of his arms. Singara, and the castle of the Moors,one of the strongest places of Mesopotamia, were likewise dismemberedfrom the empire. It was considered as an indulgence, that theinhabitants of those fortresses were permitted to retire with theireffects; but the conqueror rigorously insisted, that the Romans shouldforever abandon the king and kingdom of Armenia. ß A peace, or rather along truce, of thirty years, was stipulated between the hostile nations;the faith of the treaty was ratified by solemn oaths and religiousceremonies; and hostages of distinguished rank were reciprocallydelivered to secure the performance of the conditions.

The sophist of Antioch, who saw with indignation the sceptre of his heroin the feeble hand of a Christian successor, professes to admire themoderation of Sapor, in contenting himself with so small a portion ofthe Roman empire. If he had stretched as far as the Euphrates theclaims of his ambition, he might have been secure, says Libanius, of notmeeting with a refusal. If he had fixed, as the boundary of Persia,the Orontes, the Cydnus, the Sangarius, or even the Thracian Bosphorus,flatterers would not have been wanting in the court of Jovian toconvince the timid monarch, that his remaining provinces would stillafford the most ample gratifications of power and luxury. Withoutadopting in its full force this malicious insinuation, we mustacknowledge, that the conclusion of so ignominious a treaty wasfacilitated by the private ambition of Jovian. The obscure domestic,exalted to the throne by fortune, rather than by merit, was impatient toescape from the hands of the Persians, that he might prevent the designsof Procopius, who commanded the army of Mesopotamia, and establish hisdoubtful reign over the legions and provinces which were still ignorantof the hasty and tumultuous choice of the camp beyond the Tigris. In theneighborhood of the same river, at no very considerable distance fromthe fatal station of Dura, the ten thousand Greeks, without generals, orguides, or provisions, were abandoned, above twelve hundred miles fromtheir native country, to the resentment of a victorious monarch. Thedifference of their conduct and success depended much more on theircharacter than on their situation. Instead of tamely resigningthemselves to the secret deliberations and private views of a singleperson, the united councils of the Greeks were inspired by the generousenthusiasm of a popular assembly; where the mind of each citizen isfilled with the love of glory, the pride of freedom, and the contemptof death. Conscious of their superiority over the Barbarians in arms anddiscipline, they disdained to yield, they refused to capitulate: everyobstacle was surmounted by their patience, courage, and military skill;and the memorable retreat of the ten thousand exposed and insulted theweakness of the Persian monarchy.

As the price of his disgraceful concessions, the emperor mightperhaps have stipulated, that the camp of the hungry Romans should beplentifully supplied; and that they should be permitted to pass theTigris on the bridge which was constructed by the hands of the Persians.But, if Jovian presumed to solicit those equitable terms, they weresternly refused by the haughty tyrant of the East, whose clemency hadpardoned the invaders of his country. The Saracens sometimes interceptedthe stragglers of the march; but the generals and troops of Saporrespected the cessation of arms; and Jovian was suffered to explore themost convenient place for the passage of the river. The small vessels,which had been saved from the conflagration of the fleet, performedthe most essential service. They first conveyed the emperor and hisfavorites; and afterwards transported, in many successive voyages, agreat part of the army. But, as every man was anxious for his personalsafety, and apprehensive of being left on the hostile shore, thesoldiers, who were too impatient to wait the slow returns of the boats,boldly ventured themselves on light hurdles, or inflated skins; and,drawing after them their horses, attempted, with various success, toswim across the river. Many of these daring adventurers were swallowedby the waves; many others, who were carried along by the violence of thestream, fell an easy prey to the avarice or cruelty of the wild Arabs:and the loss which the army sustained in the passage of the Tigris, wasnot inferior to the carnage of a day of battle. As soon as the Romanswere landed on the western bank, they were delivered from the hostilepursuit of the Barbarians; but, in a laborious march of two hundredmiles over the plains of Mesopotamia, they endured the last extremitiesof thirst and hunger. They were obliged to traverse the sandy desert,which, in the extent of seventy miles, did not afford a single bladeof sweet grass, nor a single spring of fresh water; and the rest ofthe inhospitable waste was untrod by the footsteps either of friends orenemies. Whenever a small measure of flour could be discovered in thecamp, twenty pounds weight were greedily purchased with ten pieces ofgold: the beasts of burden were slaughtered and devoured; and the desertwas strewed with the arms and baggage of the Roman soldiers, whosetattered garments and meagre countenances displayed their pastsufferings and actual misery. A small convoy of provisions advanced tomeet the army as far as the castle of Ur; and the supply was the moregrateful, since it declared the fidelity of Sebastian and Procopius.At Thilsaphata, the emperor most graciously received the generalsof Mesopotamia; and the remains of a once flourishing army at lengthreposed themselves under the walls of Nisibis. The messengers of Jovianhad already proclaimed, in the language of flattery, his election, histreaty, and his return; and the new prince had taken the most effectualmeasures to secure the allegiance of the armies and provinces of Europe,by placing the military command in the hands of those officers, who,from motives of interest, or inclination, would firmly support the causeof their benefactor.

The friends of Julian had confidently announced the success of hisexpedition. They entertained a fond persuasion that the temples of thegods would be enriched with the spoils of the East; that Persia wouldbe reduced to the humble state of a tributary province, governed by thelaws and magistrates of Rome; that the Barbarians would adopt the dress,and manners, and language of their conquerors; and that the youth ofEcbatana and Susa would study the art of rhetoric under Grecian masters.The progress of the arms of Julian interrupted his communicationwith the empire; and, from the moment that he passed the Tigris, hisaffectionate subjects were ignorant of the fate and fortunes of theirprince. Their contemplation of fancied triumphs was disturbed by themelancholy rumor of his death; and they persisted to doubt, after theycould no longer deny, the truth of that fatal event. The messengers ofJovian promulgated the specious tale of a prudent and necessary peace;the voice of fame, louder and more sincere, revealed the disgrace of theemperor, and the conditions of the ignominious treaty. The minds of thepeople were filled with astonishment and grief, with indignation andterror, when they were informed, that the unworthy successor of Julianrelinquished the five provinces which had been acquired by the victoryof Galerius; and that he shamefully surrendered to the Barbarians theimportant city of Nisibis, the firmest bulwark of the provinces of theEast. The deep and dangerous question, how far the public faith shouldbe observed, when it becomes incompatible with the public safety, wasfreely agitated in popular conversation; and some hopes were entertainedthat the emperor would redeem his pusillanimous behavior by a splendidact of patriotic perfidy. The inflexible spirit of the Roman senate hadalways disclaimed the unequal conditions which were extorted from thedistress of their captive armies; and, if it were necessary to satisfythe national honor, by delivering the guilty general into the hands ofthe Barbarians, the greatest part of the subjects of Jovian would havecheerfully acquiesced in the precedent of ancient times.

But the emperor, whatever might be the limits of his constitutionalauthority, was the absolute master of the laws and arms of the state;and the same motives which had forced him to subscribe, now pressed himto execute, the treaty of peace. He was impatient to secure an empireat the expense of a few provinces; and the respectable names ofreligion and honor concealed the personal fears and ambition of Jovian.Notwithstanding the dutiful solicitations of the inhabitants, decency,as well as prudence, forbade the emperor to lodge in the palace ofNisibis; but the next morning after his arrival. Bineses, the ambassadorof Persia, entered the place, displayed from the citadel the standardof the Great King, and proclaimed, in his name, the cruel alternativeof exile or servitude. The principal citizens of Nisibis, who, till thatfatal moment, had confided in the protection of their sovereign, threwthemselves at his feet. They conjured him not to abandon, or, at least,not to deliver, a faithful colony to the rage of a Barbarian tyrant,exasperated by the three successive defeats which he had experiencedunder the walls of Nisibis. They still possessed arms and courage torepel the invaders of their country: they requested only the permissionof using them in their own defence; and, as soon as they had assertedtheir independence, they should implore the favor of being againadmitted into the ranks of his subjects. Their arguments, theireloquence, their tears, were ineffectual. Jovian alleged, with someconfusion, the sanctity of oaths; and, as the reluctance with which heaccepted the present of a crown of gold, convinced the citizens of theirhopeless condition, the advocate Sylvanus was provoked to exclaim, "Oemperor! may you thus be crowned by all the cities of your dominions!"Jovian, who in a few weeks had assumed the habits of a prince, wasdispleased with freedom, and offended with truth: and as he reasonablysupposed, that the discontent of the people might incline them to submitto the Persian government, he published an edict, under pain of death,that they should leave the city within the term of three days. Ammianushas delineated in lively colors the scene of universal despair, whichhe seems to have viewed with an eye of compassion. The martial youthdeserted, with indignant grief, the walls which they had so gloriouslydefended: the disconsolate mourner dropped a last tear over the tombof a son or husband, which must soon be profaned by the rude hand of aBarbarian master; and the aged citizen kissed the threshold, and clungto the doors, of the house where he had passed the cheerful and carelesshours of infancy. The highways were crowded with a trembling multitude:the distinctions of rank, and sex, and age, were lost in the generalcalamity. Every one strove to bear away some fragment from the wreck ofhis fortunes; and as they could not command the immediate service of anadequate number of horses or wagons, they were obliged to leavebehind them the greatest part of their valuable effects. The savageinsensibility of Jovian appears to have aggravated the hardships ofthese unhappy fugitives. They were seated, however, in a new-builtquarter of Amida; and that rising city, with the reenforcement of a veryconsiderable colony, soon recovered its former splendor, and became thecapital of Mesopotamia. Similar orders were despatched by the emperorfor the evacuation of Singara and the castle of the Moors; and for therestitution of the five provinces beyond the Tigris. Sapor enjoyed theglory and the fruits of his victory; and this ignominious peace hasjustly been considered as a memorable Êra in the decline and fall of theRoman empire. The predecessors of Jovian had sometimes relinquishedthe dominion of distant and unprofitable provinces; but, since thefoundation of the city, the genius of Rome, the god Terminus, whoguarded the boundaries of the republic, had never retired before thesword of a victorious enemy.

After Jovian had performed those engagements which the voice of hispeople might have tempted him to violate, he hastened away from thescene of his disgrace, and proceeded with his whole court to enjoy theluxury of Antioch. Without consulting the dictates of religious zeal,he was prompted, by humanity and gratitude, to bestow the last honorson the remains of his deceased sovereign: and Procopius, who sincerelybewailed the loss of his kinsman, was removed from the command of thearmy, under the decent pretence of conducting the funeral. The corpseof Julian was transported from Nisibis to Tarsus, in a slow march offifteen days; and, as it passed through the cities of the East,was saluted by the hostile factions, with mournful lamentations andclamorous insults. The Pagans already placed their beloved hero in therank of those gods whose worship he had restored; while the invectivesof the Christians pursued the soul of the Apostate to hell, and his bodyto the grave. One party lamented the approaching ruin of their altars;the other celebrated the marvellous deliverance of their church. TheChristians applauded, in lofty and ambiguous strains, the stroke ofdivine vengeance, which had been so long suspended over the guiltyhead of Julian. They acknowledge, that the death of the tyrant, at theinstant he expired beyond the Tigris, was revealed to the saints ofEgypt, Syria, and Cappadocia; and instead of suffering him to fall bythe Persian darts, their indiscretion ascribed the heroic deed to theobscure hand of some mortal or immortal champion of the faith. Suchimprudent declarations were eagerly adopted by the malice, or credulity,of their adversaries; who darkly insinuated, or confidently asserted,that the governors of the church had instigated and directed thefanaticism of a domestic assassin. Above sixteen years after the deathof Julian, the charge was solemnly and vehemently urged, in a publicoration, addressed by Libanius to the emperor Theodosius. His suspicionsare unsupported by fact or argument; and we can only esteem the generouszeal of the sophist of Antioch for the cold and neglected ashes of hisfriend.

It was an ancient custom in the funerals, as well as in the triumphs,of the Romans, that the voice of praise should be corrected by that ofsatire and ridicule; and that, in the midst of the splendid pageants,which displayed the glory of the living or of the dead, theirimperfections should not be concealed from the eyes of the world.This custom was practised in the funeral of Julian. The comedians, whor*sented his contempt and aversion for the theatre, exhibited, withthe applause of a Christian audience, the lively and exaggeratedrepresentation of the faults and follies of the deceased emperor. Hisvarious character and singular manners afforded an ample scope forpleasantry and ridicule. In the exercise of his uncommon talents, heoften descended below the majesty of his rank. Alexander was transformedinto Diogenes; the philosopher was degraded into a priest. The purity ofhis virtue was sullied by excessive vanity; his superstition disturbedthe peace, and endangered the safety, of a mighty empire; and hisirregular sallies were the less entitled to indulgence, as they appearedto be the laborious efforts of art, or even of affectation. The remainsof Julian were interred at Tarsus in Cilicia; but his stately tomb,which arose in that city, on the banks of the cold and limpid Cydnus,was displeasing to the faithful friends, who loved and revered thememory of that extraordinary man. The philosopher expressed a veryreasonable wish, that the disciple of Plato might have reposed amidstthe groves of the academy; while the soldier exclaimed, in bolderaccents, that the ashes of Julian should have been mingled with thoseof CÊsar, in the field of Mars, and among the ancient monuments ofRoman virtue. The history of princes does not very frequently renew theexamples of a similar competition.

Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of TheEmpire.--Part I.

 The Government And Death Of Jovian.--Election Of Valentinian, Who Associates His Brother Valens, And Makes The Final Division Of The Eastern And Western Empires.-- Revolt Of Procopius.--Civil And Ecclesiastical Administration.--Germany.--Britain.--Africa.--The East.--The Danube.--Death Of Valentinian.--His Two Sons, Gratian And Valentinian II., Succeed To The Western Empire.

The death of Julian had left the public affairs of the empire in avery doubtful and dangerous situation. The Roman army was saved by aninglorious, perhaps a necessary treaty; and the first moments of peacewere consecrated by the pious Jovian to restore the domestic tranquilityof the church and state. The indiscretion of his predecessor, insteadof reconciling, had artfully fomented the religious war: and the balancewhich he affected to preserve between the hostile factions, served onlyto perpetuate the contest, by the vicissitudes of hope and fear, by therival claims of ancient possession and actual favor. The Christianshad forgotten the spirit of the gospel; and the Pagans had imbibed thespirit of the church. In private families, the sentiments of nature wereextinguished by the blind fury of zeal and revenge: the majesty of thelaws was violated or abused; the cities of the East were stained withblood; and the most implacable enemies of the Romans were in the bosomof their country. Jovian was educated in the profession of Christianity;and as he marched from Nisibis to Antioch, the banner of the Cross, theLabarum of Constantine, which was again displayed at the head of thelegions, announced to the people the faith of their new emperor. As soonas he ascended the throne, he transmitted a circular epistle to allthe governors of provinces; in which he confessed the divine truth,and secured the legal establishment, of the Christian religion. Theinsidious edicts of Julian were abolished; the ecclesiastical immunitieswere restored and enlarged; and Jovian condescended to lament, that thedistress of the times obliged him to diminish the measure of charitabledistributions. The Christians were unanimous in the loud and sincereapplause which they bestowed on the pious successor of Julian. But theywere still ignorant what creed, or what synod, he would choose for thestandard of orthodoxy; and the peace of the church immediately revivedthose eager disputes which had been suspended during the season ofpersecution. The episcopal leaders of the contending sects, convinced,from experience, how much their fate would depend on the earliestimpressions that were made on the mind of an untutored soldier, hastenedto the court of Edessa, or Antioch. The highways of the East werecrowded with hom*oousian, and Arian, and Semi-Arian, and Eunomianbishops, who struggled to outstrip each other in the holy race: theapartments of the palace resounded with their clamors; and the earsof the prince were assaulted, and perhaps astonished, by the singularmixture of metaphysical argument and passionate invective. Themoderation of Jovian, who recommended concord and charity, and referredthe disputants to the sentence of a future council, was interpreted asa symptom of indifference: but his attachment to the Nicene creed was atlength discovered and declared, by the reverence which he expressed forthe celestial virtues of the great Athanasius. The intrepid veteran ofthe faith, at the age of seventy, had issued from his retreat on thefirst intelligence of the tyrant's death. The acclamations of thepeople seated him once more on the archiepiscopal throne; and he wiselyaccepted, or anticipated, the invitation of Jovian. The venerable figureof Athanasius, his calm courage, and insinuating eloquence, sustainedthe reputation which he had already acquired in the courts of foursuccessive princes. As soon as he had gained the confidence, and securedthe faith, of the Christian emperor, he returned in triumph to hisdiocese, and continued, with mature counsels and undiminished vigor, todirect, ten years longer, the ecclesiastical government of Alexandria,Egypt, and the Catholic church. Before his departure from Antioch, heassured Jovian that his orthodox devotion would be rewarded with a longand peaceful reign. Athanasius, had reason to hope, that he should beallowed either the merit of a successful prediction, or the excuse of agrateful though ineffectual prayer.

The slightest force, when it is applied to assist and guide the naturaldescent of its object, operates with irresistible weight; and Jovian hadthe good fortune to embrace the religious opinions which were supportedby the spirit of the times, and the zeal and numbers of the mostpowerful sect. Under his reign, Christianity obtained an easy andlasting victory; and as soon as the smile of royal patronage waswithdrawn, the genius of Paganism, which had been fondly raised andcherished by the arts of Julian, sunk irrecoverably. In many cities,the temples were shut or deserted: the philosophers who had abused theirtransient favor, thought it prudent to shave their beards, and disguisetheir profession; and the Christians rejoiced, that they were now ina condition to forgive, or to revenge, the injuries which they hadsuffered under the preceding reign. The consternation of the Paganworld was dispelled by a wise and gracious edict of toleration; in whichJovian explicitly declared, that although he should severely punish thesacrilegious rites of magic, his subjects might exercise, with freedomand safety, the ceremonies of the ancient worship. The memory of thislaw has been preserved by the orator Themistius, who was deputed by thesenate of Constantinople to express their royal devotion for the newemperor. Themistius expatiates on the clemency of the Divine Nature, thefacility of human error, the rights of conscience, and the independenceof the mind; and, with some eloquence, inculcates the principles ofphilosophical toleration; whose aid Superstition herself, in the hour ofher distress, is not ashamed to implore. He justly observes, that inthe recent changes, both religions had been alternately disgraced by theseeming acquisition of worthless proselytes, of those votaries of thereigning purple, who could pass, without a reason, and without a blush,from the church to the temple, and from the altars of Jupiter to thesacred table of the Christians.

In the space of seven months, the Roman troops, who were now returned toAntioch, had performed a march of fifteen hundred miles; in whichthey had endured all the hardships of war, of famine, and of climate.Notwithstanding their services, their fatigues, and the approach ofwinter, the timid and impatient Jovian allowed only, to the men andhorses, a respite of six weeks. The emperor could not sustain theindiscreet and malicious raillery of the people of Antioch. He wasimpatient to possess the palace of Constantinople; and to prevent theambition of some competitor, who might occupy the vacant allegianceof Europe. But he soon received the grateful intelligence, that hisauthority was acknowledged from the Thracian Bosphorus to the AtlanticOcean. By the first letters which he despatched from the camp ofMesopotamia, he had delegated the military command of Gaul and Illyricumto Malarich, a brave and faithful officer of the nation of theFranks; and to his father-in-law, Count Lucillian, who had formerlydistinguished his courage and conduct in the defence of Nisibis.Malarich had declined an office to which he thought himself unequal;and Lucillian was massacred at Rheims, in an accidental mutiny of theBatavian cohorts. But the moderation of Jovinus, master-general of thecavalry, who forgave the intention of his disgrace, soon appeased thetumult, and confirmed the uncertain minds of the soldiers. The oath offidelity was administered and taken, with loyal acclamations; andthe deputies of the Western armies saluted their new sovereign as hedescended from Mount Taurus to the city of Tyana in Cappadocia. FromTyana he continued his hasty march to Ancyra, capital of the province ofGalatia; where Jovian assumed, with his infant son, the name and ensignsof the consulship. Dadastana, an obscure town, almost at an equaldistance between Ancyra and Nice, was marked for the fatal term of hisjourney and life. After indulging himself with a plentiful, perhapsan intemperate, supper, he retired to rest; and the next morning theemperor Jovian was found dead in his bed. The cause of this sudden deathwas variously understood. By some it was ascribed to the consequencesof an indigestion, occasioned either by the quantity of the wine, orthe quality of the mushrooms, which he had swallowed in the evening.According to others, he was suffocated in his sleep by the vaporof charcoal, which extracted from the walls of the apartment theunwholesome moisture of the fresh plaster. But the want of a regularinquiry into the death of a prince, whose reign and person were soonforgotten, appears to have been the only circ*mstance which countenancedthe malicious whispers of poison and domestic guilt. The body of Jovianwas sent to Constantinople, to be interred with his predecessors, andthe sad procession was met on the road by his wife Charito, the daughterof Count Lucillian; who still wept the recent death of her father, andwas hastening to dry her tears in the embraces of an Imperial husband.Her disappointment and grief were imbittered by the anxiety of maternaltenderness. Six weeks before the death of Jovian, his infant son hadbeen placed in the curule chair, adorned with the title of Nobilissimus,and the vain ensigns of the consulship. Unconscious of his fortune, theroyal youth, who, from his grandfather, assumed the name of Varronian,was reminded only by the jealousy of the government, that he was the sonof an emperor. Sixteen years afterwards he was still alive, but he hadalready been deprived of an eye; and his afflicted mother expected everyhour, that the innocent victim would be torn from her arms, to appease,with his blood, the suspicions of the reigning prince.

After the death of Jovian, the throne of the Roman world remained tendays, without a master. The ministers and generals still continued tomeet in council; to exercise their respective functions; to maintain thepublic order; and peaceably to conduct the army to the city of Nice inBithynia, which was chosen for the place of the election. In a solemnassembly of the civil and military powers of the empire, the diadem wasagain unanimously offered to the prÊfect Sallust. He enjoyed the gloryof a second refusal: and when the virtues of the father were allegedin favor of his son, the prÊfect, with the firmness of a disinterestedpatriot, declared to the electors, that the feeble age of the one, andthe unexperienced youth of the other, were equally incapable of thelaborious duties of government. Several candidates were proposed; and,after weighing the objections of character or situation, they weresuccessively rejected; but, as soon as the name of Valentinian waspronounced, the merit of that officer united the suffrages of the wholeassembly, and obtained the sincere approbation of Sallust himself.Valentinian was the son of Count Gratian, a native of Cibalis, inPannonia, who from an obscure condition had raised himself, by matchlessstrength and dexterity, to the military commands of Africa and Britain;from which he retired with an ample fortune and suspicious integrity.The rank and services of Gratian contributed, however, to smooth thefirst steps of the promotion of his son; and afforded him an earlyopportunity of displaying those solid and useful qualifications, whichraised his character above the ordinary level of his fellow-soldiers.The person of Valentinian was tall, graceful, and majestic. His manlycountenance, deeply marked with the impression of sense and spirit,inspired his friends with awe, and his enemies with fear; and to secondthe efforts of his undaunted courage, the son of Gratian had inheritedthe advantages of a strong and healthy constitution. By the habits ofchastity and temperance, which restrain the appetites and invigoratethe faculties, Valentinian preserved his own and the public esteem. Theavocations of a military life had diverted his youth from the elegantpursuits of literature; * he was ignorant of the Greek language, and thearts of rhetoric; but as the mind of the orator was never disconcertedby timid perplexity, he was able, as often as the occasion prompted him,to deliver his decided sentiments with bold and ready elocution. Thelaws of martial discipline were the only laws that he had studied; andhe was soon distinguished by the laborious diligence, and inflexibleseverity, with which he discharged and enforced the duties of thecamp. In the time of Julian he provoked the danger of disgrace, by thecontempt which he publicly expressed for the reigning religion; andit should seem, from his subsequent conduct, that the indiscreet andunseasonable freedom of Valentinian was the effect of military spirit,rather than of Christian zeal. He was pardoned, however, and stillemployed by a prince who esteemed his merit; and in the various eventsof the Persian war, he improved the reputation which he had alreadyacquired on the banks of the Rhine. The celerity and success with whichhe executed an important commission, recommended him to the favor ofJovian; and to the honorable command of the second school, or company,of Targetiers, of the domestic guards. In the march from Antioch, hehad reached his quarters at Ancyra, when he was unexpectedly summoned,without guilt and without intrigue, to assume, in the forty-third yearof his age, the absolute government of the Roman empire.

The invitation of the ministers and generals at Nice was of littlemoment, unless it were confirmed by the voice of the army. The agedSallust, who had long observed the irregular fluctuations of popularassemblies, proposed, under pain of death, that none of those persons,whose rank in the service might excite a party in their favor, shouldappear in public on the day of the inauguration. Yet such was theprevalence of ancient superstition, that a whole day was voluntarilyadded to this dangerous interval, because it happened to be theintercalation of the Bissextile. At length, when the hour was supposedto be propitious, Valentinian showed himself from a lofty tribunal; thejudicious choice was applauded; and the new prince was solemnly investedwith the diadem and the purple, amidst the acclamation of the troops,who were disposed in martial order round the tribunal. But when hestretched forth his hand to address the armed multitude, a busy whisperwas accidentally started in the ranks, and insensibly swelled intoa loud and imperious clamor, that he should name, without delay, acolleague in the empire. The intrepid calmness of Valentinian obtainedsilence, and commanded respect; and he thus addressed the assembly: "Afew minutes since it was in your power, fellow-soldiers, to have left mein the obscurity of a private station. Judging, from the testimony of mypast life, that I deserved to reign, you have placed me on the throne.It is now my duty to consult the safety and interest of the republic.The weight of the universe is undoubtedly too great for the hands ofa feeble mortal. I am conscious of the limits of my abilities, and theuncertainty of my life; and far from declining, I am anxious to solicit,the assistance of a worthy colleague. But, where discord may befatal, the choice of a faithful friend requires mature and seriousdeliberation. That deliberation shall be my care. Let your conduct bedutiful and consistent. Retire to your quarters; refresh your minds andbodies; and expect the accustomed donative on the accession of anew emperor." The astonished troops, with a mixture of pride, ofsatisfaction, and of terror, confessed the voice of their master.Their angry clamors subsided into silent reverence; and Valentinian,encompassed with the eagles of the legions, and the various banners ofthe cavalry and infantry, was conducted, in warlike pomp, to the palaceof Nice. As he was sensible, however, of the importance of preventingsome rash declaration of the soldiers, he consulted the assembly ofthe chiefs; and their real sentiments were concisely expressed by thegenerous freedom of Dagalaiphus. "Most excellent prince," said thatofficer, "if you consider only your family, you have a brother; if youlove the republic, look round for the most deserving of the Romans." Theemperor, who suppressed his displeasure, without altering his intention,slowly proceeded from Nice to Nicomedia and Constantinople. In one ofthe suburbs of that capital, thirty days after his own elevation, hebestowed the title of Augustus on his brother Valens; * and as theboldest patriots were convinced, that their opposition, withoutbeing serviceable to their country, would be fatal to themselves, thedeclaration of his absolute will was received with silent submission.Valens was now in the thirty-sixth year of his age; but his abilitieshad never been exercised in any employment, military or civil; and hischaracter had not inspired the world with any sanguine expectations. Hepossessed, however, one quality, which recommended him to Valentinian,and preserved the domestic peace of the empire; devout and gratefulattachment to his benefactor, whose superiority of genius, as well as ofauthority, Valens humbly and cheerfully acknowledged in every action ofhis life.

Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of TheEmpire.--Part II.

Before Valentinian divided the provinces, he reformed the administrationof the empire. All ranks of subjects, who had been injured or oppressedunder the reign of Julian, were invited to support their publicaccusations. The silence of mankind attested the spotless integrity ofthe prÊfect Sallust; and his own pressing solicitations, that he mightbe permitted to retire from the business of the state, were rejectedby Valentinian with the most honorable expressions of friendship andesteem. But among the favorites of the late emperor, there were many whohad abused his credulity or superstition; and who could no longer hopeto be protected either by favor or justice. The greater part of theministers of the palace, and the governors of the provinces, wereremoved from their respective stations; yet the eminent merit ofsome officers was distinguished from the obnoxious crowd; and,notwithstanding the opposite clamors of zeal and resentment, the wholeproceedings of this delicate inquiry appear to have been conducted witha reasonable share of wisdom and moderation. The festivity of a newreign received a short and suspicious interruption from the suddenillness of the two princes; but as soon as their health was restored,they left Constantinople in the beginning of the spring. In the castle,or palace, of Mediana, only three miles from Naissus, they executed thesolemn and final division of the Roman empire. Valentinian bestowed onhis brother the rich prÊfecture of the East, from the Lower Danube tothe confines of Persia; whilst he reserved for his immediate governmentthe warlike * prÊfectures of Illyricum, Italy, and Gaul, from theextremity of Greece to the Caledonian rampart, and from the rampartof Caledonia to the foot of Mount Atlas. The provincial administrationremained on its former basis; but a double supply of generals andmagistrates was required for two councils, and two courts: the divisionwas made with a just regard to their peculiar merit and situation,and seven master-generals were soon created, either of the cavalry orinfantry. When this important business had been amicably transacted,Valentinian and Valens embraced for the last time. The emperor of theWest established his temporary residence at Milan; and the emperor ofthe East returned to Constantinople, to assume the dominion of fiftyprovinces, of whose language he was totally ignorant.

The tranquility of the East was soon disturbed by rebellion; and thethrone of Valens was threatened by the daring attempts of a rival whoseaffinity to the emperor Julian was his sole merit, and had been his onlycrime. Procopius had been hastily promoted from the obscure station of atribune, and a notary, to the joint command of the army of Mesopotamia;the public opinion already named him as the successor of a prince whowas destitute of natural heirs; and a vain rumor was propagated by hisfriends, or his enemies, that Julian, before the altar of the Moon atCarrhÊ, had privately invested Procopius with the Imperial purple.He endeavored, by his dutiful and submissive behavior, to disarm thejealousy of Jovian; resigned, without a contest, his military command;and retired, with his wife and family, to cultivate the ample patrimonywhich he possessed in the province of Cappadocia. These useful andinnocent occupations were interrupted by the appearance of an officerwith a band of soldiers, who, in the name of his new sovereigns,Valentinian and Valens, was despatched to conduct the unfortunateProcopius either to a perpetual prison or an ignominious death. Hispresence of mind procured him a longer respite, and a more splendidfate. Without presuming to dispute the royal mandate, he requested theindulgence of a few moments to embrace his weeping family; and whilethe vigilance of his guards was relaxed by a plentiful entertainment,he dexterously escaped to the sea-coast of the Euxine, from whence hepassed over to the country of Bosphorus. In that sequestered region heremained many months, exposed to the hardships of exile, of solitude,and of want; his melancholy temper brooding over his misfortunes, andhis mind agitated by the just apprehension, that, if any accident shoulddiscover his name, the faithless Barbarians would violate, without muchscruple, the laws of hospitality. In a moment of impatience anddespair, Procopius embarked in a merchant vessel, which made sail forConstantinople; and boldly aspired to the rank of a sovereign, becausehe was not allowed to enjoy the security of a subject. At first helurked in the villages of Bithynia, continually changing his habitationand his disguise. By degrees he ventured into the capital, trusted hislife and fortune to the fidelity of two friends, a senator and a eunuch,and conceived some hopes of success, from the intelligence which heobtained of the actual state of public affairs. The body of the peoplewas infected with a spirit of discontent: they regretted the justice andthe abilities of Sallust, who had been imprudently dismissed from theprÊfecture of the East. They despised the character of Valens, whichwas rude without vigor, and feeble without mildness. They dreaded theinfluence of his father-in-law, the patrician Petronius, a cruel andrapacious minister, who rigorously exacted all the arrears of tributethat might remain unpaid since the reign of the emperor Aurelian. Thecirc*mstances were propitious to the designs of a usurper. The hostilemeasures of the Persians required the presence of Valens in Syria: fromthe Danube to the Euphrates the troops were in motion; and the capitalwas occasionally filled with the soldiers who passed or repassed theThracian Bosphorus. Two cohorts of Gaul were persuaded to listen tothe secret proposals of the conspirators; which were recommended by thepromise of a liberal donative; and, as they still revered the memoryof Julian, they easily consented to support the hereditary claim of hisproscribed kinsman. At the dawn of day they were drawn up near the bathsof Anastasia; and Procopius, clothed in a purple garment, more suitableto a player than to a monarch, appeared, as if he rose from the dead,in the midst of Constantinople. The soldiers, who were prepared for hisreception, saluted their trembling prince with shouts of joy and vowsof fidelity. Their numbers were soon increased by a band of sturdypeasants, collected from the adjacent country; and Procopius, shieldedby the arms of his adherents, was successively conducted to thetribunal, the senate, and the palace. During the first moments of histumultuous reign, he was astonished and terrified by the gloomy silenceof the people; who were either ignorant of the cause, or apprehensiveof the event. But his military strength was superior to any actualresistance: the malecontents flocked to the standard of rebellion; thepoor were excited by the hopes, and the rich were intimidated by thefear, of a general pillage; and the obstinate credulity of the multitudewas once more deceived by the promised advantages of a revolution. Themagistrates were seized; the prisons and arsenals broke open; the gates,and the entrance of the harbor, were diligently occupied; and, in a fewhours, Procopius became the absolute, though precarious, master of theImperial city. * The usurper improved this unexpected success with somedegree of courage and dexterity. He artfully propagated the rumorsand opinions the most favorable to his interest; while he deluded thepopulace by giving audience to the frequent, but imaginary, ambassadorsof distant nations. The large bodies of troops stationed in the citiesof Thrace and the fortresses of the Lower Danube, were graduallyinvolved in the guilt of rebellion: and the Gothic princes consented tosupply the sovereign of Constantinople with the formidable strength ofseveral thousand auxiliaries. His generals passed the Bosphorus, andsubdued, without an effort, the unarmed, but wealthy provinces ofBithynia and Asia. After an honorable defence, the city and island ofCyzicus yielded to his power; the renowned legions of the Jovians andHerculians embraced the cause of the usurper, whom they were ordered tocrush; and, as the veterans were continually augmented with new levies,he soon appeared at the head of an army, whose valor, as well asnumbers, were not unequal to the greatness of the contest. The son ofHormisdas, a youth of spirit and ability, condescended to draw hissword against the lawful emperor of the East; and the Persian princewas immediately invested with the ancient and extraordinary powers ofa Roman Proconsul. The alliance of Faustina, the widow of the emperorConstantius, who intrusted herself and her daughter to the hands ofthe usurper, added dignity and reputation to his cause. The princessConstantia, who was then about five years of age, accompanied, in alitter, the march of the army. She was shown to the multitude in thearms of her adopted father; and, as often as she passed through theranks, the tenderness of the soldiers was inflamed into martial fury:they recollected the glories of the house of Constantine, and theydeclared, with loyal acclamation, that they would shed the last drop oftheir blood in the defence of the royal infant.

In the mean while Valentinian was alarmed and perplexed by the doubtfulintelligence of the revolt of the East. * The difficulties of a Germanwas forced him to confine his immediate care to the safety of hisown dominions; and, as every channel of communication was stopped orcorrupted, he listened, with doubtful anxiety, to the rumors whichwere industriously spread, that the defeat and death of Valens had leftProcopius sole master of the Eastern provinces. Valens was not dead: buton the news of the rebellion, which he received at CÊsarea, he baselydespaired of his life and fortune; proposed to negotiate with theusurper, and discovered his secret inclination to abdicate the Imperialpurple. The timid monarch was saved from disgrace and ruin by thefirmness of his ministers, and their abilities soon decided in his favorthe event of the civil war. In a season of tranquillity, Sallusthad resigned without a murmur; but as soon as the public safety wasattacked, he ambitiously solicited the preeminence of toil and danger;and the restoration of that virtuous minister to the prÊfecture of theEast, was the first step which indicated the repentance of Valens, andsatisfied the minds of the people. The reign of Procopius was apparentlysupported by powerful armies and obedient provinces. But many of theprincipal officers, military as well as civil, had been urged, eitherby motives of duty or interest, to withdraw themselves from the guiltyscene; or to watch the moment of betraying, and deserting, the cause ofthe usurper. Lupicinus advanced by hasty marches, to bring the legionsof Syria to the aid of Valens. Arintheus, who, in strength, beauty, andvalor, excelled all the heroes of the age, attacked with a small troopa superior body of the rebels. When he beheld the faces of the soldierswho had served under his banner, he commanded them, with a loud voice,to seize and deliver up their pretended leader; and such was theascendant of his genius, that this extraordinary order was instantlyobeyed. Arbetio, a respectable veteran of the great Constantine, whohad been distinguished by the honors of the consulship, was persuaded toleave his retirement, and once more to conduct an army into the field.In the heat of action, calmly taking off his helmet, he showed his grayhairs and venerable countenance: saluted the soldiers of Procopius bythe endearing names of children and companions, and exhorted them nolonger to support the desperate cause of a contemptible tyrant; butto follow their old commander, who had so often led them to honor andvictory. In the two engagements of Thyatira and Nacolia, the unfortunateProcopius was deserted by his troops, who were seduced by theinstructions and example of their perfidious officers. After wanderingsome time among the woods and mountains of Phrygia, he was betrayedby his desponding followers, conducted to the Imperial camp, andimmediately beheaded. He suffered the ordinary fate of an unsuccessfulusurper; but the acts of cruelty which were exercised by the conqueror,under the forms of legal justice, excited the pity and indignation ofmankind.

Such indeed are the common and natural fruits of despotism andrebellion. But the inquisition into the crime of magic, which, under thereign of the two brothers, was so rigorously prosecuted both at Rome andAntioch, was interpreted as the fatal symptom, either of the displeasureof Heaven, or of the depravity of mankind. Let us not hesitate toindulge a liberal pride, that, in the present age, the enlightened partof Europe has abolished a cruel and odious prejudice, which reigned inevery climate of the globe, and adhered to every system of religiousopinions. The nations, and the sects, of the Roman world, admitted withequal credulity, and similar abhorrence, the reality of that infernalart, which was able to control the eternal order of the planets, andthe voluntary operations of the human mind. They dreaded the mysteriouspower of spells and incantations, of potent herbs, and execrable rites;which could extinguish or recall life, inflame the passions of the soul,blast the works of creation, and extort from the reluctant dÊmons thesecrets of futurity. They believed, with the wildest inconsistency,that this preternatural dominion of the air, of earth, and of hell, wasexercised, from the vilest motives of malice or gain, by some wrinkledhags and itinerant sorcerers, who passed their obscure lives in penuryand contempt. The arts of magic were equally condemned by the publicopinion, and by the laws of Rome; but as they tended to gratify themost imperious passions of the heart of man, they were continuallyproscribed, and continually practised. An imaginary cause as capable ofproducing the most serious and mischievous effects. The dark predictionsof the death of an emperor, or the success of a conspiracy, werecalculated only to stimulate the hopes of ambition, and to dissolve theties of fidelity; and the intentional guilt of magic was aggravated bythe actual crimes of treason and sacrilege. Such vain terrors disturbedthe peace of society, and the happiness of individuals; and the harmlessflame which insensibly melted a waxen image, might derive a powerful andpernicious energy from the affrighted fancy of the person whom it wasmaliciously designed to represent. From the infusion of those herbs,which were supposed to possess a supernatural influence, it was an easystep to the use of more substantial poison; and the folly of mankindsometimes became the instrument, and the mask, of the most atrociouscrimes. As soon as the zeal of informers was encouraged by the ministersof Valens and Valentinian, they could not refuse to listen to anothercharge, too frequently mingled in the scenes of domestic guilt; a chargeof a softer and less malignant nature, for which the pious, thoughexcessive, rigor of Constantine had recently decreed the punishmentof death. This deadly and incoherent mixture of treason and magic,of poison and adultery, afforded infinite gradations of guilt andinnocence, of excuse and aggravation, which in these proceedings appearto have been confounded by the angry or corrupt passions of the judges.They easily discovered that the degree of their industry and discernmentwas estimated, by the Imperial court, according to the number ofexecutions that were furnished from the respective tribunals. It was notwithout extreme reluctance that they pronounced a sentence of acquittal;but they eagerly admitted such evidence as was stained with perjury, orprocured by torture, to prove the most improbable charges against themost respectable characters. The progress of the inquiry continuallyopened new subjects of criminal prosecution; the audacious informer,whose falsehood was detected, retired with impunity; but the wretchedvictim, who discovered his real or pretended accomplices, were seldompermitted to receive the price of his infamy. From the extremity ofItaly and Asia, the young, and the aged, were dragged in chains to thetribunals of Rome and Antioch. Senators, matrons, and philosophers,expired in ignominious and cruel tortures. The soldiers, who wereappointed to guard the prisons, declared, with a murmur of pity andindignation, that their numbers were insufficient to oppose the flight,or resistance, of the multitude of captives. The wealthiest familieswere ruined by fines and confiscations; the most innocent citizenstrembled for their safety; and we may form some notion of the magnitudeof the evil, from the extravagant assertion of an ancient writer,that, in the obnoxious provinces, the prisoners, the exiles, and thefugitives, formed the greatest part of the inhabitants.

When Tacitus describes the deaths of the innocent and illustriousRomans, who were sacrificed to the cruelty of the first CÊsars, the artof the historian, or the merit of the sufferers, excites in our breastthe most lively sensations of terror, of admiration, and of pity. Thecoarse and undistinguishing pencil of Ammianus has delineated his bloodyfigures with tedious and disgusting accuracy. But as our attention isno longer engaged by the contrast of freedom and servitude, of recentgreatness and of actual misery, we should turn with horror from thefrequent executions, which disgraced, both at Rome and Antioch, thereign of the two brothers. Valens was of a timid, and Valentinian of acholeric, disposition. An anxious regard to his personal safety was theruling principle of the administration of Valens. In the condition of asubject, he had kissed, with trembling awe, the hand of the oppressor;and when he ascended the throne, he reasonably expected, that thesame fears, which had subdued his own mind, would secure the patientsubmission of his people. The favorites of Valens obtained, by theprivilege of rapine and confiscation, the wealth which his economy wouldhave refused. They urged, with persuasive eloquence, that, in all casesof treason, suspicion is equivalent to proof; that the power supposesthe intention, of mischief; that the intention is not less criminal thanthe act; and that a subject no longer deserves to live, if his lifemay threaten the safety, or disturb the repose, of his sovereign. Thejudgment of Valentinian was sometimes deceived, and his confidenceabused; but he would have silenced the informers with a contemptuoussmile, had they presumed to alarm his fortitude by the sound of danger.They praised his inflexible love of justice; and, in the pursuit ofjustice, the emperor was easily tempted to consider clemency as aweakness, and passion as a virtue. As long as he wrestled with hisequals, in the bold competition of an active and ambitious life,Valentinian was seldom injured, and never insulted, with impunity: ifhis prudence was arraigned, his spirit was applauded; and the proudestand most powerful generals were apprehensive of provoking the resentmentof a fearless soldier. After he became master of the world, heunfortunately forgot, that where no resistance can be made, no couragecan be exerted; and instead of consulting the dictates of reason andmagnanimity, he indulged the furious emotions of his temper, at a timewhen they were disgraceful to himself, and fatal to the defencelessobjects of his displeasure. In the government of his household, or ofhis empire, slight, or even imaginary, offences--a hasty word, acasual omission, an involuntary delay--were chastised by a sentence ofimmediate death. The expressions which issued the most readily from themouth of the emperor of the West were, "Strike off his head;" "Burn himalive;" "Let him be beaten with clubs till he expires;" and his mostfavored ministers soon understood, that, by a rash attempt to dispute,or suspend, the execution of his sanguinary commands, they might involvethemselves in the guilt and punishment of disobedience. The repeatedgratification of this savage justice hardened the mind of Valentinianagainst pity and remorse; and the sallies of passion were confirmedby the habits of cruelty. He could behold with calm satisfaction theconvulsive agonies of torture and death; he reserved his friendship forthose faithful servants whose temper was the most congenial to his own.The merit of Maximin, who had slaughtered the noblest families of Rome,was rewarded with the royal approbation, and the prÊfecture of Gaul.Two fierce and enormous bears, distinguished by the appellations ofInnocence, and Mica Aurea, could alone deserve to share the favor ofMaximin. The cages of those trusty guards were always placed near thebed-chamber of Valentinian, who frequently amused his eyes with thegrateful spectacle of seeing them tear and devour the bleeding limbsof the malefactors who were abandoned to their rage. Their diet andexercises were carefully inspected by the Roman emperor; and whenInnocence had earned her discharge, by a long course of meritoriousservice, the faithful animal was again restored to the freedom of hernative woods.

Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of TheEmpire.--Part III.

But in the calmer moments of reflection, when the mind of Valens was notagitated by fear, or that of Valentinian by rage, the tyrant resumed thesentiments, or at least the conduct, of the father of his country. Thedispassionate judgment of the Western emperor could clearly perceive,and accurately pursue, his own and the public interest; and thesovereign of the East, who imitated with equal docility the variousexamples which he received from his elder brother, was sometimes guidedby the wisdom and virtue of the prÊfect Sallust. Both princes invariablyretained, in the purple, the chaste and temperate simplicity which hadadorned their private life; and, under their reign, the pleasures of thecourt never cost the people a blush or a sigh. They gradually reformedmany of the abuses of the times of Constantius; judiciously adopted andimproved the designs of Julian and his successor; and displayed a styleand spirit of legislation which might inspire posterity with the mostfavorable opinion of their character and government. It is not from themaster of Innocence, that we should expect the tender regard for thewelfare of his subjects, which prompted Valentinian to condemn theexposition of new-born infants; and to establish fourteen skilfulphysicians, with stipends and privileges, in the fourteen quartersof Rome. The good sense of an illiterate soldier founded a useful andliberal institution for the education of youth, and the support ofdeclining science. It was his intention, that the arts of rhetoricand grammar should be taught in the Greek and Latin languages, in themetropolis of every province; and as the size and dignity of the schoolwas usually proportioned to the importance of the city, the academiesof Rome and Constantinople claimed a just and singular preeminence. Thefragments of the literary edicts of Valentinian imperfectly representthe school of Constantinople, which was gradually improved by subsequentregulations. That school consisted of thirty-one professors in differentbranches of learning. One philosopher, and two lawyers; five sophists,and ten grammarians for the Greek, and three orators, and tengrammarians for the Latin tongue; besides seven scribes, or, as theywere then styled, antiquarians, whose laborious pens supplied the publiclibrary with fair and correct copies of the classic writers. The rule ofconduct, which was prescribed to the students, is the more curious, asit affords the first outlines of the form and discipline of a modernuniversity. It was required, that they should bring proper certificatesfrom the magistrates of their native province. Their names, professions,and places of abode, were regularly entered in a public register. Thestudious youth were severely prohibited from wasting their time infeasts, or in the theatre; and the term of their education was limitedto the age of twenty. The prÊfect of the city was empowered to chastisethe idle and refractory by stripes or expulsion; and he was directed tomake an annual report to the master of the offices, that the knowledgeand abilities of the scholars might be usefully applied to the publicservice. The institutions of Valentinian contributed to secure thebenefits of peace and plenty; and the cities were guarded by theestablishment of the Defensors; freely elected as the tribunes andadvocates of the people, to support their rights, and to expose theirgrievances, before the tribunals of the civil magistrates, or evenat the foot of the Imperial throne. The finances were diligentlyadministered by two princes, who had been so long accustomed to therigid economy of a private fortune; but in the receipt and applicationof the revenue, a discerning eye might observe some difference betweenthe government of the East and of the West. Valens was persuaded, thatroyal liberality can be supplied only by public oppression, and hisambition never aspired to secure, by their actual distress, the futurestrength and prosperity of his people. Instead of increasing theweight of taxes, which, in the space of forty years, had been graduallydoubled, he reduced, in the first years of his reign, one fourth of thetribute of the East. Valentinian appears to have been less attentive andless anxious to relieve the burdens of his people. He might reform theabuses of the fiscal administration; but he exacted, without scruple, avery large share of the private property; as he was convinced, that therevenues, which supported the luxury of individuals, would be much moreadvantageously employed for the defence and improvement of the state.The subjects of the East, who enjoyed the present benefit, applaudedthe indulgence of their prince. The solid but less splendid, merit ofValentinian was felt and acknowledged by the subsequent generation.

But the most honorable circ*mstance of the character of Valentinian, isthe firm and temperate impartiality which he uniformly preserved inan age of religious contention. His strong sense, unenlightened, butuncorrupted, by study, declined, with respectful indifference, thesubtle questions of theological debate. The government of the Earthclaimed his vigilance, and satisfied his ambition; and while heremembered that he was the disciple of the church, he never forgot thathe was the sovereign of the clergy. Under the reign of an apostate, hehad signalized his zeal for the honor of Christianity: he allowed to hissubjects the privilege which he had assumed for himself; and they mightaccept, with gratitude and confidence, the general toleration which wasgranted by a prince addicted to passion, but incapable of fear orof disguise. The Pagans, the Jews, and all the various sects whichacknowledged the divine authority of Christ, were protected by the lawsfrom arbitrary power or popular insult; nor was any mode of worshipprohibited by Valentinian, except those secret and criminal practices,which abused the name of religion for the dark purposes of vice anddisorder. The art of magic, as it was more cruelly punished, was morestrictly proscribed: but the emperor admitted a formal distinction toprotect the ancient methods of divination, which were approved by thesenate, and exercised by the Tuscan haruspices. He had condemned,with the consent of the most rational Pagans, the license of nocturnalsacrifices; but he immediately admitted the petition of PrÊtextatus,proconsul of Achaia, who represented, that the life of the Greeks wouldbecome dreary and comfortless, if they were deprived of the invaluableblessing of the Eleusinian mysteries. Philosophy alone can boast, (andperhaps it is no more than the boast of philosophy,) that her gentlehand is able to eradicate from the human mind the latent and deadlyprinciple of fanaticism. But this truce of twelve years, which wasenforced by the wise and vigorous government of Valentinian, bysuspending the repetition of mutual injuries, contributed to soften themanners, and abate the prejudices, of the religious factions.

The friend of toleration was unfortunately placed at a distance from thescene of the fiercest controversies. As soon as the Christians of theWest had extricated themselves from the snares of the creed of Rimini,they happily relapsed into the slumber of orthodoxy; and the smallremains of the Arian party, that still subsisted at Sirmium or Milan,might be considered rather as objects of contempt than of resentment.But in the provinces of the East, from the Euxine to the extremity ofThebais, the strength and numbers of the hostile factions were moreequally balanced; and this equality, instead of recommending thecounsels of peace, served only to perpetuate the horrors of religiouswar. The monks and bishops supported their arguments by invectives;and their invectives were sometimes followed by blows. Athanasius stillreigned at Alexandria; the thrones of Constantinople and Antioch wereoccupied by Arian prelates, and every episcopal vacancy was theoccasion of a popular tumult. The hom*oousians were fortified by thereconciliation of fifty-nine Macedonian, or Semi-Arian, bishops; buttheir secret reluctance to embrace the divinity of the Holy Ghost,clouded the splendor of the triumph; and the declaration of Valens, who,in the first years of his reign, had imitated the impartial conduct ofhis brother, was an important victory on the side of Arianism. The twobrothers had passed their private life in the condition of catechumens;but the piety of Valens prompted him to solicit the sacrament ofbaptism, before he exposed his person to the dangers of a Gothic war. Henaturally addressed himself to Eudoxus, * bishop of the Imperial city;and if the ignorant monarch was instructed by that Arian pastor in theprinciples of heterodox theology, his misfortune, rather than his guilt,was the inevitable consequence of his erroneous choice. Whatever hadbeen the determination of the emperor, he must have offended a numerousparty of his Christian subjects; as the leaders both of the hom*oousiansand of the Arians believed, that, if they were not suffered to reign,they were most cruelly injured and oppressed. After he had taken thisdecisive step, it was extremely difficult for him to preserve eitherthe virtue, or the reputation of impartiality. He never aspired,like Constantius, to the fame of a profound theologian; but as he hadreceived with simplicity and respect the tenets of Eudoxus, Valensresigned his conscience to the direction of his ecclesiastical guides,and promoted, by the influence of his authority, the reunion of theAthanasian heretics to the body of the Catholic church. At first, hepitied their blindness; by degrees he was provoked at their obstinacy;and he insensibly hated those sectaries to whom he was an object ofhatred. The feeble mind of Valens was always swayed by the persons withwhom he familiarly conversed; and the exile or imprisonment of a privatecitizen are the favors the most readily granted in a despotic court.Such punishments were frequently inflicted on the leaders of thehom*oousian party; and the misfortune of fourscore ecclesiastics ofConstantinople, who, perhaps accidentally, were burned on shipboard,was imputed to the cruel and premeditated malice of the emperor, and hisArian ministers. In every contest, the Catholics (if we may anticipatethat name) were obliged to pay the penalty of their own faults, and ofthose of their adversaries. In every election, the claims of the Ariancandidate obtained the preference; and if they were opposed by themajority of the people, he was usually supported by the authority ofthe civil magistrate, or even by the terrors of a military force.The enemies of Athanasius attempted to disturb the last years of hisvenerable age; and his temporary retreat to his father's sepulchre hasbeen celebrated as a fifth exile. But the zeal of a great people, whoinstantly flew to arms, intimidated the prÊfect: and the archbishopwas permitted to end his life in peace and in glory, after a reignof forty-seven years. The death of Athanasius was the signal of thepersecution of Egypt; and the Pagan minister of Valens, who forciblyseated the worthless Lucius on the archiepiscopal throne, purchasedthe favor of the reigning party, by the blood and sufferings of theirChristian brethren. The free toleration of the heathen and Jewishworship was bitterly lamented, as a circ*mstance which aggravated themisery of the Catholics, and the guilt of the impious tyrant of theEast.

The triumph of the orthodox party has left a deep stain of persecutionon the memory of Valens; and the character of a prince who derivedhis virtues, as well as his vices, from a feeble understanding and apusillanimous temper, scarcely deserves the labor of an apology. Yetcandor may discover some reasons to suspect that the ecclesiasticalministers of Valens often exceeded the orders, or even the intentions,of their master; and that the real measure of facts has been veryliberally magnified by the vehement declamation and easy credulity ofhis antagonists. 1. The silence of Valentinian may suggest a probableargument that the partial severities, which were exercised in thename and provinces of his colleague, amounted only to some obscureand inconsiderable deviations from the established system of religioustoleration: and the judicious historian, who has praised the equaltemper of the elder brother, has not thought himself obliged to contrastthe tranquillity of the West with the cruel persecution of the East.2. Whatever credit may be allowed to vague and distant reports, thecharacter, or at least the behavior, of Valens, may be most distinctlyseen in his personal transactions with the eloquent Basil, archbishopof CÊsarea, who had succeeded Athanasius in the management of theTrinitarian cause. The circ*mstantial narrative has been composed by thefriends and admirers of Basil; and as soon as we have stripped awaya thick coat of rhetoric and miracle, we shall be astonished by theunexpected mildness of the Arian tyrant, who admired the firmness of hischaracter, or was apprehensive, if he employed violence, of a generalrevolt in the province of Cappadocia. The archbishop, who asserted,with inflexible pride, the truth of his opinions, and the dignity of hisrank, was left in the free possession of his conscience and his throne.The emperor devoutly assisted at the solemn service of the cathedral;and, instead of a sentence of banishment, subscribed the donation ofa valuable estate for the use of a hospital, which Basil had latelyfounded in the neighborhood of CÊsarea. 3. I am not able to discover,that any law (such as Theodosius afterwards enacted against the Arians)was published by Valens against the Athanasian sectaries; and the edictwhich excited the most violent clamors, may not appear so extremelyreprehensible. The emperor had observed, that several of his subjects,gratifying their lazy disposition under the pretence of religion, hadassociated themselves with the monks of Egypt; and he directed thecount of the East to drag them from their solitude; and to compel thesedeserters of society to accept the fair alternative of renouncing theirtemporal possessions, or of discharging the public duties of men andcitizens. The ministers of Valens seem to have extended the sense ofthis penal statute, since they claimed a right of enlisting the youngand able-bodied monks in the Imperial armies. A detachment of cavalryand infantry, consisting of three thousand men, marched from Alexandriainto the adjacent desert of Nitria, which was peopled by five thousandmonks. The soldiers were conducted by Arian priests; and it is reported,that a considerable slaughter was made in the monasteries whichdisobeyed the commands of their sovereign.

The strict regulations which have been framed by the wisdom of modernlegislators to restrain the wealth and avarice of the clergy, may beoriginally deduced from the example of the emperor Valentinian. Hisedict, addressed to Damasus, bishop of Rome, was publicly read in thechurches of the city. He admonished the ecclesiastics and monks notto frequent the houses of widows and virgins; and menaced theirdisobedience with the animadversion of the civil judge. The director wasno longer permitted to receive any gift, or legacy, or inheritance, fromthe liberality of his spiritual-daughter: every testament contrary tothis edict was declared null and void; and the illegal donation wasconfiscated for the use of the treasury. By a subsequent regulation, itshould seem, that the same provisions were extended to nuns and bishops;and that all persons of the ecclesiastical order were rendered incapableof receiving any testamentary gifts, and strictly confined to thenatural and legal rights of inheritance. As the guardian of domestichappiness and virtue, Valentinian applied this severe remedy to thegrowing evil. In the capital of the empire, the females of noble andopulent houses possessed a very ample share of independent property: andmany of those devout females had embraced the doctrines of Christianity,not only with the cold assent of the understanding, but with the warmthof affection, and perhaps with the eagerness of fashion. They sacrificedthe pleasures of dress and luxury; and renounced, for the praise ofchastity, the soft endearments of conjugal society. Some ecclesiastic,of real or apparent sanctity, was chosen to direct their timorousconscience, and to amuse the vacant tenderness of their heart: and theunbounded confidence, which they hastily bestowed, was often abused byknaves and enthusiasts; who hastened from the extremities of theEast, to enjoy, on a splendid theatre, the privileges of the monasticprofession. By their contempt of the world, they insensibly acquired itsmost desirable advantages; the lively attachment, perhaps of a young andbeautiful woman, the delicate plenty of an opulent household, and therespectful homage of the slaves, the freedmen, and the clients ofa senatorial family. The immense fortunes of the Roman ladies weregradually consumed in lavish alms and expensive pilgrimages; and theartful monk, who had assigned himself the first, or possibly the soleplace, in the testament of his spiritual daughter, still presumedto declare, with the smooth face of hypocrisy, that he was only theinstrument of charity, and the steward of the poor. The lucrative, butdisgraceful, trade, which was exercised by the clergy to defraud theexpectations of the natural heirs, had provoked the indignation of asuperstitious age: and two of the most respectable of the Latin fathersvery honestly confess, that the ignominious edict of Valentinian wasjust and necessary; and that the Christian priests had deserved to losea privilege, which was still enjoyed by comedians, charioteers, and theministers of idols. But the wisdom and authority of the legislator areseldom victorious in a contest with the vigilant dexterity of privateinterest; and Jerom, or Ambrose, might patiently acquiesce in thejustice of an ineffectual or salutary law. If the ecclesiastics werechecked in the pursuit of personal emolument, they would exert a morelaudable industry to increase the wealth of the church; and dignifytheir covetousness with the specious names of piety and patriotism.

Damasus, bishop of Rome, who was constrained to stigmatize the avariceof his clergy by the publication of the law of Valentinian, had thegood sense, or the good fortune, to engage in his service the zeal andabilities of the learned Jerom; and the grateful saint has celebratedthe merit and purity of a very ambiguous character. But the splendidvices of the church of Rome, under the reign of Valentinian and Damasus,have been curiously observed by the historian Ammianus, who delivers hisimpartial sense in these expressive words: "The prÊfecture of Juventiuswas accompanied with peace and plenty, but the tranquillity of hisgovernment was soon disturbed by a bloody sedition of the distractedpeople. The ardor of Damasus and Ursinus, to seize the episcopal seat,surpassed the ordinary measure of human ambition. They contended withthe rage of party; the quarrel was maintained by the wounds and deathof their followers; and the prÊfect, unable to resist or appease thetumult, was constrained, by superior violence, to retire into thesuburbs. Damasus prevailed: the well-disputed victory remained on theside of his faction; one hundred and thirty-seven dead bodies were foundin the Basilica of Sicininus, where the Christians hold their religiousassemblies; and it was long before the angry minds of the people resumedtheir accustomed tranquillity. When I consider the splendor of thecapital, I am not astonished that so valuable a prize should inflame thedesires of ambitious men, and produce the fiercest and most obstinatecontests. The successful candidate is secure, that he will be enrichedby the offerings of matrons; that, as soon as his dress is composed withbecoming care and elegance, he may proceed, in his chariot, through thestreets of Rome; and that the sumptuousness of the Imperial table willnot equal the profuse and delicate entertainments provided by the taste,and at the expense, of the Roman pontiffs. How much more rationally(continues the honest Pagan) would those pontiffs consult their truehappiness, if, instead of alleging the greatness of the city as anexcuse for their manners, they would imitate the exemplary life of someprovincial bishops, whose temperance and sobriety, whose mean appareland downcast looks, recommend their pure and modest virtue to theDeity and his true worshippers!" The schism of Damasus and Ursinus wasextinguished by the exile of the latter; and the wisdom of the prÊfectPrÊtextatus restored the tranquillity of the city. PrÊtextatus was aphilosophic Pagan, a man of learning, of taste, and politeness; whodisguised a reproach in the form of a jest, when he assured Damasus,that if he could obtain the bishopric of Rome, he himself wouldimmediately embrace the Christian religion. This lively picture of thewealth and luxury of the popes in the fourth century becomes the morecurious, as it represents the intermediate degree between the humblepoverty of the apostolic fishermen, and the royal state of a temporalprince, whose dominions extend from the confines of Naples to the banksof the Po.

Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of TheEmpire.--Part IV.

When the suffrage of the generals and of the army committed the sceptreof the Roman empire to the hands of Valentinian, his reputation inarms, his military skill and experience, and his rigid attachment tothe forms, as well as spirit, of ancient discipline, were the principalmotives of their judicious choice. The eagerness of the troops, whopressed him to nominate his colleague, was justified by the dangeroussituation of public affairs; and Valentinian himself was conscious, thatthe abilities of the most active mind were unequal to the defence of thedistant frontiers of an invaded monarchy. As soon as the death ofJulian had relieved the Barbarians from the terror of his name, the mostsanguine hopes of rapine and conquest excited the nations of the East,of the North, and of the South. Their inroads were often vexatious,and sometimes formidable; but, during the twelve years of the reign ofValentinian, his firmness and vigilance protected his own dominions; andhis powerful genius seemed to inspire and direct the feeble counsels ofhis brother. Perhaps the method of annals would more forcibly expressthe urgent and divided cares of the two emperors; but the attention ofthe reader, likewise, would be distracted by a tedious and desultorynarrative. 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 empireunder the reigns of Valentinian and Valens.

I. The ambassadors of the Alemanni had been offended by the harsh andhaughty behavior of Ursacius, master of the offices; who by an actof unseasonable parsimony, had diminished the value, as well as thequantity, of the presents to which they were entitled, either fromcustom or treaty, on the accession of a new emperor. They expressed,and they communicated to their countrymen, their strong sense of thenational affront. The irascible minds of the chiefs were exasperatedby the suspicion of contempt; and the martial youth crowded to theirstandard. Before Valentinian could pass the Alps, the villages of Gaulwere in flames; before his general Degalaiphus could encounter theAlemanni, they had secured the captives and the spoil in the forests ofGermany. In the beginning of the ensuing year, the military force of thewhole nation, in deep and solid columns, broke through the barrier ofthe Rhine, during the severity of a northern winter. Two Roman countswere defeated and mortally wounded; and the standard of the Heruli andBatavians fell into the hands of the Heruli and Batavians fell intothe hands of the conquerors, who displayed, with insulting shouts andmenaces, the trophy of their victory. The standard was recovered; butthe Batavians had not redeemed the shame of their disgrace and flight inthe eyes of their severe judge. It was the opinion of Valentinian, thathis soldiers must learn to fear their commander, before they could ceaseto fear the enemy. The troops were solemnly assembled; and the tremblingBatavians were enclosed within the circle of the Imperial army.Valentinian then ascended his tribunal; and, as if he disdained topunish cowardice with death, he inflicted a stain of indelible ignominyon the officers, whose misconduct and pusillanimity were found to bethe first occasion of the defeat. The Batavians were degraded from theirrank, stripped of their arms, and condemned to be sold for slaves to thehighest bidder. At this tremendous sentence, the troops fell prostrateon the ground, deprecated the indignation of their sovereign, andprotested, that, if he would indulge them in another trial, they wouldapprove themselves not unworthy of the name of Romans, and of hissoldiers. Valentinian, with affected reluctance, yielded to theirentreaties; the Batavians resumed their arms, and with their arms, theinvincible resolution of wiping away their disgrace in the blood of theAlemanni. The principal command was declined by Dagalaiphus; andthat experienced general, who had represented, perhaps with toomuch prudence, the extreme difficulties of the undertaking, had themortification, before the end of the campaign, of seeing his rivalJovinus convert those difficulties into a decisive advantage over thescattered forces of the Barbarians. At the head of a well-disciplinedarmy of cavalry, infantry, and light troops, Jovinus advanced, withcautious and rapid steps, to Scarponna, * in the territory of Metz,where he surprised a large division of the Alemanni, before they hadtime to run to their arms; and flushed his soldiers with the confidenceof an easy and bloodless victory. Another division, or rather army,of the enemy, after the cruel and wanton devastation of the adjacentcountry, reposed themselves on the shady banks of the Moselle. Jovinus,who had viewed the ground with the eye of a general, made a silentapproach through a deep and woody vale, till he could distinctlyperceive the indolent security of the Germans. Some were bathing theirhuge 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 theenemy in their camp. Astonishment produced disorder; disorder wasfollowed by flight and dismay; and the confused multitude of the bravestwarriors was pierced by the swords and javelins of the legionaries andauxiliaries. The fugitives escaped to the third, and most considerable,camp, in the Catalonian plains, near Chalons in Champagne: thestraggling detachments were hastily recalled to their standard; andthe Barbarian chiefs, alarmed and admonished by the fate of theircompanions, prepared to encounter, in a decisive battle, the victoriousforces of the lieutenant of Valentinian. The bloody and obstinateconflict lasted a whole summer's day, with equal valor, and withalternate success. The Romans at length prevailed, with the loss ofabout twelve hundred men. Six thousand of the Alemanni were slain, fourthousand were wounded; and the brave Jovinus, after chasing the flyingremnant of their host as far as the banks of the Rhine, returned toParis, to receive the applause of his sovereign, and the ensigns of theconsulship for the ensuing year. The triumph of the Romans was indeedsullied by their treatment of the captive king, whom they hung ona gibbet, without the knowledge of their indignant general. Thisdisgraceful act of cruelty, which might be imputed to the fury of thetroops, was followed by the deliberate murder of Withicab, the son ofVadomair; a German prince, of a weak and sickly constitution, but of adaring and formidable spirit. The domestic assassin was instigated andprotected by the Romans; and the violation of the laws of humanityand justice betrayed their secret apprehension of the weakness of thedeclining empire. The use of the dagger is seldom adopted in publiccouncils, as long as they retain any confidence in the power of thesword.

While the Alemanni appeared to be humbled by their recent calamities,the pride of Valentinian was mortified by the unexpected surprisal ofMoguntiacum, or Mentz, the principal city of the Upper Germany. In theunsuspicious moment of a Christian festival, * Rando, a bold and artfulchieftain, who had long meditated his attempt, suddenly passed theRhine; entered the defenceless town, and retired with a multitude ofcaptives of either sex. Valentinian resolved to execute severe vengeanceon the whole body of the nation. Count Sebastian, with the bands ofItaly and Illyricum, was ordered to invade their country, most probablyon the side of RhÊtia. The emperor in person, accompanied by his sonGratian, passed the Rhine at the head of a formidable army, which wassupported on both flanks by Jovinus and Severus, the two masters-generalof the cavalry and infantry of the West. The Alemanni, unable to preventthe devastation of their villages, fixed their camp on a lofty, andalmost inaccessible, mountain, in the modern duchy of Wirtemberg, andresolutely expected the approach of the Romans. The life of Valentinianwas exposed to imminent danger by the intrepid curiosity with whichhe persisted to explore some secret and unguarded path. A troop ofBarbarians suddenly rose from their ambuscade: and the emperor, whovigorously spurred his horse down a steep and slippery descent,was obliged to leave behind him his armor-bearer, and his helmet,magnificently enriched with gold and precious stones. At the signalof the general assault, the Roman troops encompassed and ascended themountain of Solicinium on three different sides. Every step which theygained, increased their ardor, and abated the resistance of the enemy:and after their united forces had occupied the summit of the hill, theyimpetuously urged the Barbarians down the northern descent, where CountSebastian was posted to intercept their retreat. After this signalvictory, Valentinian returned to his winter quarters at Treves; wherehe indulged the public joy by the exhibition of splendid and triumphalgames. But the wise monarch, instead of aspiring to the conquest ofGermany, confined his attention to the important and laborious defenceof the Gallic frontier, against an enemy whose strength was renewed bya stream of daring volunteers, which incessantly flowed from the mostdistant tribes of the North. The banks of the Rhine from its source tothe straits of the ocean, were closely planted with strong castlesand convenient towers; new works, and new arms, were invented by theingenuity of a prince who was skilled in the mechanical arts; and hisnumerous levies of Roman and Barbarian youth were severely trained inall the exercises of war. The progress of the work, which was sometimesopposed by modest representations, and sometimes by hostile attempts,secured the tranquillity of Gaul during the nine subsequent years of theadministration of Valentinian.

That prudent emperor, who diligently practised the wise maxims ofDiocletian, was studious to foment and excite the intestine divisionsof the tribes of Germany. About the middle of the fourth century, thecountries, perhaps of Lusace and Thuringia, on either side of the Elbe,were occupied by the vague dominion of the Burgundians; a warlike andnumerous people, * of the Vandal race, whose obscure name insensiblyswelled into a powerful kingdom, and has finally settled on aflourishing province. The most remarkable circ*mstance in the ancientmanners of the Burgundians appears to have been the difference of theircivil and ecclesiastical constitution. The appellation of Hendinos wasgiven to the king or general, and the title of Sinistus to the highpriest, of the nation. The person of the priest was sacred, and hisdignity perpetual; but the temporal government was held by a veryprecarious tenure. If the events of war accuses the courage or conductof the king, he was immediately deposed; and the injustice of hissubjects made him responsible for the fertility of the earth, and theregularity of the seasons, which seemed to fall more properly within thesacerdotal department. The disputed possession of some salt-pits engagedthe Alemanni and the Burgundians in frequent contests: the latter wereeasily tempted, by the secret solicitations and liberal offers of theemperor; and their fabulous descent from the Roman soldiers, who hadformerly been left to garrison the fortresses of Drusus, was admittedwith mutual credulity, as it was conducive to mutual interest. An armyof fourscore thousand Burgundians soon appeared on the banks ofthe Rhine; and impatiently required the support and subsidies whichValentinian had promised: but they were amused with excuses and delays,till at length, after a fruitless expectation, they were compelled toretire. The arms and fortifications of the Gallic frontier checked thefury of their just resentment; and their massacre of the captives servedto imbitter the hereditary feud of the Burgundians and the Alemanni.The inconstancy of a wise prince may, perhaps, be explained by somealteration of circ*mstances; and perhaps it was the original design ofValentinian to intimidate, rather than to destroy; as the balance ofpower would have been equally overturned by the extirpation of either ofthe German nations. Among the princes of the Alemanni, Macrianus, who,with a Roman name, had assumed the arts of a soldier and a statesman,deserved his hatred and esteem. The emperor himself, with a light andunencumbered band, condescended to pass the Rhine, marched fifty milesinto the country, and would infallibly have seized the object ofhis pursuit, if his judicious measures had not been defeated by theimpatience of the troops. Macrianus was afterwards admitted to thehonor of a personal conference with the emperor; and the favors whichhe received, fixed him, till the hour of his death, a steady and sincerefriend of the republic.

The land was covered by the fortifications of Valentinian; but thesea-coast of Gaul and Britain was exposed to the depredations of theSaxons. That celebrated name, in which we have a dear and domesticinterest, escaped the notice of Tacitus; and in the maps of Ptolemy, itfaintly marks the narrow neck of the Cimbric peninsula, and three smallislands towards the mouth of the Elbe. This contracted territory, thepresent duchy of Sleswig, or perhaps of Holstein, was incapable ofpouring forth the inexhaustible swarms of Saxons who reigned over theocean, who filled the British island with their language, their laws,and their colonies; and who so long defended the liberty of the Northagainst the arms of Charlemagne. The solution of this difficulty iseasily derived from the similar manners, and loose constitution, of thetribes of Germany; which were blended with each other by the slightestaccidents of war or friendship. The situation of the native Saxonsdisposed them to embrace the hazardous professions of fishermen andpirates; and the success of their first adventures would naturallyexcite the emulation of their bravest countrymen, who were impatient ofthe gloomy solitude of their woods and mountains. Every tide might floatdown the Elbe whole fleets of canoes, filled with hardy and intrepidassociates, who aspired to behold the unbounded prospect of the ocean,and to taste the wealth and luxury of unknown worlds. It should seemprobable, however, that the most numerous auxiliaries of the Saxons werefurnished by the nations who dwelt along the shores of the Baltic. Theypossessed arms and ships, the art of navigation, and the habits ofnaval war; but the difficulty of issuing through the northern columns ofHercules (which, during several months of the year, are obstructed withice) confined their skill and courage within the limits of a spaciouslake. The rumor of the successful armaments which sailed from the mouthof the Elbe, would soon provoke them to cross the narrow isthmus ofSleswig, and to launch their vessels on the great sea. The varioustroops of pirates and adventurers, who fought under the same standard,were insensibly united in a permanent society, at first of rapine, andafterwards of government. A military confederation was graduallymoulded into a national body, by the gentle operation of marriage andconsanguinity; and the adjacent tribes, who solicited the alliance,accepted the name and laws, of the Saxons. If the fact were notestablished by the most unquestionable evidence, we should appear toabuse the credulity of our readers, by the description of the vesselsin which the Saxon pirates ventured to sport in the waves of the GermanOcean, the British Channel, and the Bay of Biscay. The keel of theirlarge flat-bottomed boats were framed of light timber, but the sides andupper works consisted only of wicker, with a covering of strong hides.In the course of their slow and distant navigations, they must alwayshave been exposed to the danger, and very frequently to the misfortune,of shipwreck; and the naval annals of the Saxons were undoubtedly filledwith the accounts of the losses which they sustained on the coasts ofBritain and Gaul. But the daring spirit of the pirates braved the perilsboth of the sea and of the shore: their skill was confirmed by thehabits of enterprise; the meanest of their mariners was alike capable ofhandling an oar, of rearing a sail, or of conducting a vessel, and theSaxons rejoiced in the appearance of a tempest, which concealed theirdesign, and dispersed the fleets of the enemy. After they had acquiredan accurate knowledge of the maritime provinces of the West, theyextended the scene of their depredations, and the most sequesteredplaces had no reason to presume on their security. The Saxon boats drewso little water that they could easily proceed fourscore or a hundredmiles up the great rivers; their weight was so inconsiderable, that theywere transported on wagons from one river to another; and the pirateswho had entered the mouth of the Seine, or of the Rhine, might descend,with the rapid stream of the Rhone, into the Mediterranean. Under thereign of Valentinian, the maritime provinces of Gaul were afflictedby the Saxons: a military count was stationed for the defence of thesea-coast, or Armorican limit; and that officer, who found his strength,or his abilities, unequal to the task, implored the assistance ofSeverus, master-general of the infantry. The Saxons, surrounded andoutnumbered, were forced to relinquish their spoil, and to yield aselect band of their tall and robust youth to serve in the Imperialarmies. They stipulated only a safe and honorable retreat; and thecondition was readily granted by the Roman general, who meditated an actof perfidy, imprudent as it was inhuman, while a Saxon remained alive,and in arms, to revenge the fate of their countrymen. The prematureeagerness of the infantry, who were secretly posted in a deep valley,betrayed the ambuscade; and they would perhaps have fallen the victimsof their own treachery, if a large body of cuirassiers, alarmed bythe noise of the combat, had not hastily advanced to extricate theircompanions, and to overwhelm the undaunted valor of the Saxons. Some ofthe prisoners were saved from the edge of the sword, to shed theirblood in the amphitheatre; and the orator Symmachus complains, thattwenty-nine of those desperate savages, by strangling themselves withtheir own hands, had disappointed the amusem*nt of the public. Yet thepolite and philosophic citizens of Rome were impressed with the deepesthorror, when they were informed, that the Saxons consecrated to the godsthe tithe of their human spoil; and that they ascertained by lot theobjects of the barbarous sacrifice.

II. The fabulous colonies of Egyptians and Trojans, of Scandinavians andSpaniards, which flattered the pride, and amused the credulity, of ourrude ancestors, have insensibly vanished in the light of science andphilosophy. The present age is satisfied with the simple and rationalopinion, that the islands of Great Britain and Ireland were graduallypeopled from the adjacent continent of Gaul. From the coast of Kent, tothe extremity of Caithness and Ulster, the memory of a Celtic originwas distinctly preserved, in the perpetual resemblance of language, ofreligion, and of manners; and the peculiar characters of the Britishtribes might be naturally ascribed to the influence of accidental andlocal circ*mstances. The Roman Province was reduced to the state ofcivilized and peaceful servitude; the rights of savage freedom werecontracted to the narrow limits of Caledonia. The inhabitants of thatnorthern region were divided, as early as the reign of Constantine,between the two great tribes of the Scots and of the Picts, who havesince experienced a very different fortune. The power, and almost thememory, of the Picts have been extinguished by their successful rivals;and the Scots, after maintaining for ages the dignity of an independentkingdom, have multiplied, by an equal and voluntary union, the honors ofthe English name. The hand of nature had contributed to mark the ancientdistinctions of the Scots and Picts. The former were the men of thehills, and the latter those of the plain. The eastern coast of Caledoniamay be considered as a level and fertile country, which, even in a rudestate of tillage, was capable of producing a considerable quantityof corn; and the epithet of cruitnich, or wheat-eaters, expressed thecontempt or envy of the carnivorous highlander. The cultivation of theearth might introduce a more accurate separation of property, and thehabits of a sedentary life; but the love of arms and rapine was stillthe ruling passion of the Picts; and their warriors, who strippedthemselves for a day of battle, were distinguished, in the eyes of theRomans, by the strange fashion of painting their naked bodies with gaudycolors and fantastic figures. The western part of Caledonia irregularlyrises into wild and barren hills, which scarcely repay the toil of thehusbandman, and are most profitably used for the pasture of cattle. Thehighlanders were condemned to the occupations of shepherds and hunters;and, as they seldom were fixed to any permanent habitation, theyacquired the expressive name of Scots, which, in the Celtic tongue, issaid to be equivalent to that of wanderers, or vagrants. The inhabitantsof a barren land were urged to seek a fresh supply of food in thewaters. The deep lakes and bays which intersect their country, areplentifully supplied with fish; and they gradually ventured to casttheir nets in the waves of the ocean. The vicinity of the Hebrides, soprofusely scattered along the western coast of Scotland, tempted theircuriosity, and improved their skill; and they acquired, by slow degrees,the art, or rather the habit, of managing their boats in a tempestuoussea, and of steering their nocturnal course by the light of thewell-known stars. The two bold headlands of Caledonia almost touchthe shores of a spacious island, which obtained, from its luxuriantvegetation, the epithet of Green; and has preserved, with a slightalteration, the name of Erin, or Ierne, or Ireland. It is probable,that in some remote period of antiquity, the fertile plains of Ulsterreceived a colony of hungry Scots; and that the strangers of theNorth, who had dared to encounter the arms of the legions, spread theirconquests over the savage and unwarlike natives of a solitary island. Itis certain, that, in the declining age of the Roman empire, Caledonia,Ireland, and the Isle of Man, were inhabited by the Scots, and that thekindred tribes, who were often associated in military enterprise, weredeeply affected by the various accidents of their mutual fortunes. Theylong cherished the lively tradition of their common name and origin;and the missionaries of the Isle of Saints, who diffused the light ofChristianity over North Britain, established the vain opinion, thattheir Irish countrymen were the natural, as well as spiritual, fathersof the Scottish race. The loose and obscure tradition has been preservedby the venerable Bede, who scattered some rays of light over thedarkness of the eighth century. On this slight foundation, a hugesuperstructure of fable was gradually reared, by the bards and themonks; two orders of men, who equally abused the privilege of fiction.The Scottish nation, with mistaken pride, adopted their Irish genealogy;and the annals of a long line of imaginary kings have been adorned bythe fancy of Boethius, and the classic elegance of Buchanan.

Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of TheEmpire.--Part V.

Six years after the death of Constantine, the destructive inroads of theScots and Picts required the presence of his youngest son, who reignedin the Western empire. Constans visited his British dominions: but wemay form some estimate of the importance of his achievements, by thelanguage of panegyric, which celebrates only his triumph over theelements or, in other words, the good fortune of a safe and easy passagefrom the port of Boulogne to the harbor of Sandwich. The calamitieswhich the afflicted provincials continued to experience, from foreignwar and domestic tyranny, were aggravated by the feeble and corruptadministration of the eunuchs of Constantius; and the transient reliefwhich they might obtain from the virtues of Julian, was soon lost bythe absence and death of their benefactor. The sums of gold and silver,which had been painfully collected, or liberally transmitted, forthe payment of the troops, were intercepted by the avarice of thecommanders; discharges, or, at least, exemptions, from the militaryservice, were publicly sold; the distress of the soldiers, who wereinjuriously deprived of their legal and scanty subsistence, provokedthem to frequent desertion; the nerves of discipline were relaxed, andthe highways were infested with robbers. The oppression of the good, andthe impunity of the wicked, equally contributed to diffuse through theisland a spirit of discontent and revolt; and every ambitious subject,every desperate exile, might entertain a reasonable hope of subvertingthe weak and distracted government of Britain. The hostile tribes ofthe North, who detested the pride and power of the King of the World,suspended their domestic feuds; and the Barbarians of the land and sea,the Scots, the Picts, and the Saxons, spread themselves with rapid andirresistible fury, from the wall of Antoninus to the shores of Kent.Every production of art and nature, every object of convenience andluxury, which they were incapable of creating by labor or procuring bytrade, was accumulated in the rich and fruitful province of Britain. Aphilosopher may deplore the eternal discords of the human race, but hewill confess, that the desire of spoil is a more rational provocationthan the vanity of conquest. From the age of Constantine to thePlantagenets, this rapacious spirit continued to instigate the poor andhardy Caledonians; but the same people, whose generous humanity seems toinspire the songs of Ossian, was disgraced by a savage ignorance of thevirtues of peace, and of the laws of war. Their southern neighbors havefelt, and perhaps exaggerated, the cruel depredations of the Scots andPicts; and a valiant tribe of Caledonia, the Attacotti, the enemies, andafterwards the soldiers, of Valentinian, are accused, by an eye-witness,of delighting in the taste of human flesh. When they hunted the woodsfor prey, it is said, that they attacked the shepherd rather than hisflock; and that they curiously selected the most delicate and brawnyparts, both of males and females, which they prepared for their horridrepasts. If, in the neighborhood of the commercial and literary town ofGlasgow, a race of cannibals has really existed, we may contemplate, inthe period of the Scottish history, the opposite extremes of savageand civilized life. Such reflections tend to enlarge the circle of ourideas; and to encourage the pleasing hope, that New Zealand may produce,in some future age, the Hume of the Southern Hemisphere.

Every messenger who escaped across the British Channel, conveyed themost melancholy and alarming tidings to the ears of Valentinian; andthe emperor was soon informed that the two military commanders of theprovince had been surprised and cut off by the Barbarians. Severus,count of the domestics, was hastily despatched, and as suddenlyrecalled, by the court of Treves. The representations of Jovinus servedonly to indicate the greatness of the evil; and, after a long andserious consultation, the defence, or rather the recovery, of Britainwas intrusted to the abilities of the brave Theodosius. The exploits ofthat general, the father of a line of emperors, have been celebrated,with peculiar complacency, by the writers of the age: but his real meritdeserved their applause; and his nomination was received, by the armyand province, as a sure presage of approaching victory. He seized thefavorable moment of navigation, and securely landed the numerous andveteran bands of the Heruli and Batavians, the Jovians and the Victors.In his march from Sandwich to London, Theodosius defeated severalparties of the Barbarians, released a multitude of captives, and, afterdistributing to his soldiers a small portion of the spoil, establishedthe fame of disinterested justice, by the restitution of the remainderto the rightful proprietors. The citizens of London, who had almostdespaired of their safety, threw open their gates; and as soon asTheodosius had obtained from the court of Treves the important aid of amilitary lieutenant, and a civil governor, he executed, with wisdom andvigor, the laborious task of the deliverance of Britain. The vagrantsoldiers were recalled to their standard; an edict of amnesty dispelledthe public apprehensions; and his cheerful example alleviated therigor of martial discipline. The scattered and desultory warfare of theBarbarians, who infested the land and sea, deprived him of the gloryof a signal victory; but the prudent spirit, and consummate art, of theRoman general, were displayed in the operations of two campaigns, whichsuccessively rescued every part of the province from the hands of acruel and rapacious enemy. The splendor of the cities, and the securityof the fortifications, were diligently restored, by the paternal care ofTheodosius; who with a strong hand confined the trembling Caledoniansto the northern angle of the island; and perpetuated, by the name andsettlement of the new province of Valentia, the glories of the reignof Valentinian. The voice of poetry and panegyric may add, perhaps withsome degree of truth, that the unknown regions of Thule were stainedwith the blood of the Picts; that the oars of Theodosius dashed thewaves of the Hyperborean ocean; and that the distant Orkneys were thescene of his naval victory over the Saxon pirates. He left the provincewith a fair, as well as splendid, reputation; and was immediatelypromoted to the rank of master-general of the cavalry, by a prince whocould applaud, without envy, the merit of his servants. In the importantstation of the Upper Danube, the conqueror of Britain checked anddefeated the armies of the Alemanni, before he was chosen to suppressthe revolt of Africa.

III. The prince who refuses to be the judge, instructs the people toconsider him as the accomplice, of his ministers. The military commandof Africa had been long exercised by Count Romanus, and his abilitieswere not inadequate to his station; but, as sordid interest was the solemotive of his conduct, he acted, on most occasions, as if he had beenthe enemy of the province, and the friend of the Barbarians of thedesert. The three flourishing cities of Oea, Leptis, and Sabrata, which,under the name of Tripoli, had long constituted a federal union, wereobliged, for the first time, to shut their gates against a hostileinvasion; several of their most honorable citizens were surprised andmassacred; the villages, and even the suburbs, were pillaged; and thevines and fruit trees of that rich territory were extirpated by themalicious savages of Getulia. The unhappy provincials implored theprotection of Romanus; but they soon found that their military governorwas not less cruel and rapacious than the Barbarians. As they wereincapable of furnishing the four thousand camels, and the exorbitantpresent, which he required, before he would march to the assistance ofTripoli; his demand was equivalent to a refusal, and he might justly beaccused as the author of the public calamity. In the annual assemblyof the three cities, they nominated two deputies, to lay at the feet ofValentinian the customary offering of a gold victory; and to accompanythis tribute of duty, rather than of gratitude, with their humblecomplaint, that they were ruined by the enemy, and betrayed by theirgovernor. If the severity of Valentinian had been rightly directed, itwould have fallen on the guilty head of Romanus. But the count, longexercised in the arts of corruption, had despatched a swift and trustymessenger to secure the venal friendship of Remigius, master of theoffices. The wisdom of the Imperial council was deceived by artifice;and their honest indignation was cooled by delay. At length, when therepetition of complaint had been justified by the repetition of publicmisfortunes, the notary Palladius was sent from the court of Treves,to examine the state of Africa, and the conduct of Romanus. The rigidimpartiality of Palladius was easily disarmed: he was tempted to reservefor himself a part of the public treasure, which he brought with him forthe payment of the troops; and from the moment that he was consciousof his own guilt, he could no longer refuse to attest the innocence andmerit of the count. The charge of the Tripolitans was declared to befalse and frivolous; and Palladius himself was sent back from Treves toAfrica, with a special commission to discover and prosecute the authorsof this impious conspiracy against the representatives of the sovereign.His inquiries were managed with so much dexterity and success, that hecompelled the citizens of Leptis, who had sustained a recent siege ofeight days, to contradict the truth of their own decrees, and to censurethe behavior of their own deputies. A bloody sentence was pronounced,without hesitation, by the rash and headstrong cruelty of Valentinian.The president of Tripoli, who had presumed to pity the distress of theprovince, was publicly executed at Utica; four distinguished citizenswere put to death, as the accomplices of the imaginary fraud; and thetongues of two others were cut out, by the express order of the emperor.Romanus, elated by impunity, and irritated by resistance, was stillcontinued in the military command; till the Africans were provoked, byhis avarice, to join the rebellious standard of Firmus, the Moor.

His father Nabal was one of the richest and most powerful of the Moorishprinces, who acknowledged the supremacy of Rome. But as he left, eitherby his wives or concubines, a very numerous posterity, the wealthyinheritance was eagerly disputed; and Zamma, one of his sons, was slainin a domestic quarrel by his brother Firmus. The implacable zeal, withwhich Romanus prosecuted the legal revenge of this murder, could beascribed only to a motive of avarice, or personal hatred; but, on thisoccasion, his claims were just; his influence was weighty; and Firmusclearly understood, that he must either present his neck to theexecutioner, or appeal from the sentence of the Imperial consistory, tohis sword, and to the people. He was received as the deliverer of hiscountry; and, as soon as it appeared that Romanus was formidable onlyto a submissive province, the tyrant of Africa became the object ofuniversal contempt. The ruin of CÊsarea, which was plundered and burntby the licentious Barbarians, convinced the refractory cities of thedanger of resistance; the power of Firmus was established, at least inthe provinces of Mauritania and Numidia; and it seemed to be his onlydoubt whether he should assume the diadem of a Moorish king, or thepurple of a Roman emperor. But the imprudent and unhappy Africans soondiscovered, that, in this rash insurrection, they had not sufficientlyconsulted their own strength, or the abilities of their leader. Beforehe could procure any certain intelligence, that the emperor of the Westhad fixed the choice of a general, or that a fleet of transports wascollected at the mouth of the Rhone, he was suddenly informed thatthe great Theodosius, with a small band of veterans, had landed nearIgilgilis, or Gigeri, on the African coast; and the timid usurpersunk under the ascendant of virtue and military genius. Though Firmuspossessed arms and treasures, his despair of victory immediately reducedhim to the use of those arts, which, in the same country, and in asimilar situation, had formerly been practised by the crafty Jugurtha.He attempted to deceive, by an apparent submission, the vigilance of theRoman general; to seduce the fidelity of his troops; and to protract theduration of the war, by successively engaging the independent tribesof Africa to espouse his quarrel, or to protect his flight. Theodosiusimitated the example, and obtained the success, of his predecessorMetellus. When Firmus, in the character of a suppliant, accused hisown rashness, and humbly solicited the clemency of the emperor, thelieutenant of Valentinian received and dismissed him with a friendlyembrace: but he diligently required the useful and substantial pledgesof a sincere repentance; nor could he be persuaded, by the assurancesof peace, to suspend, for an instant, the operations of an active war.A dark conspiracy was detected by the penetration of Theodosius; and hesatisfied, without much reluctance, the public indignation, which hehad secretly excited. Several of the guilty accomplices of Firmus wereabandoned, according to ancient custom, to the tumult of a militaryexecution; many more, by the amputation of both their hands, continuedto exhibit an instructive spectacle of horror; the hatred of the rebelswas accompanied with fear; and the fear of the Roman soldiers wasmingled with respectful admiration. Amidst the boundless plains ofGetulia, and the innumerable valleys of Mount Atlas, it was impossibleto prevent the escape of Firmus; and if the usurper could have tiredthe patience of his antagonist, he would have secured his person inthe depth of some remote solitude, and expected the hopes of a futurerevolution. He was subdued by the perseverance of Theodosius; who hadformed an inflexible determination, that the war should end only by thedeath of the tyrant; and that every nation of Africa, which presumedto support his cause, should be involved in his ruin. At the head of asmall body of troops, which seldom exceeded three thousand five hundredmen, the Roman general advanced, with a steady prudence, devoid ofrashness or of fear, into the heart of a country, where he was sometimesattacked by armies of twenty thousand Moors. The boldness of hischarge dismayed the irregular Barbarians; they were disconcerted by hisseasonable and orderly retreats; they were continually baffled by theunknown resources of the military art; and they felt and confessed thejust superiority which was assumed by the leader of a civilized nation.When Theodosius entered the extensive dominions of Igmazen, king of theIsaflenses, the haughty savage required, in words of defiance, hisname, and the object of his expedition. "I am," replied the stern anddisdainful count, "I am the general of Valentinian, the lord of theworld; who has sent me hither to pursue and punish a desperate robber.Deliver him instantly into my hands; and be assured, that if thou dostnot obey the commands of my invincible sovereign, thou, and the peopleover whom thou reignest, shall be utterly extirpated." * As soon asIgmazen was satisfied, that his enemy had strength and resolution toexecute the fatal menace, he consented to purchase a necessary peaceby the sacrifice of a guilty fugitive. The guards that were placed tosecure the person of Firmus deprived him of the hopes of escape; andthe Moorish tyrant, after wine had extinguished the sense of danger,disappointed the insulting triumph of the Romans, by strangling himselfin the night. His dead body, the only present which Igmazen could offerto the conqueror, was carelessly thrown upon a camel; and Theodosius,leading back his victorious troops to Sitifi, was saluted by the warmestacclamations of joy and loyalty.

Africa had been lost by the vices of Romanus; it was restored by thevirtues of Theodosius; and our curiosity may be usefully directed to theinquiry of the respective treatment which the two generals received fromthe Imperial court. The authority of Count Romanus had been suspendedby the master-general of the cavalry; and he was committed to safe andhonorable custody till the end of the war. His crimes were proved by themost authentic evidence; and the public expected, with some impatience,the decree of severe justice. But the partial and powerful favor ofMellobaudes encouraged him to challenge his legal judges, to obtainrepeated delays for the purpose of procuring a crowd of friendlywitnesses, and, finally, to cover his guilty conduct, by the additionalguilt of fraud and forgery. About the same time, the restorer ofBritain and Africa, on a vague suspicion that his name and serviceswere superior to the rank of a subject, was ignominiously beheaded atCarthage. Valentinian no longer reigned; and the death of Theodosius,as well as the impunity of Romanus, may justly be imputed to the arts ofthe ministers, who abused the confidence, and deceived the inexperiencedyouth, of his sons.

If the geographical accuracy of Ammianus had been fortunately bestowedon the British exploits of Theodosius, we should have traced, with eagercuriosity, the distinct and domestic footsteps of his march. But thetedious enumeration of the unknown and uninteresting tribes of Africamay be reduced to the general remark, that they were all of the swarthyrace of the Moors; that they inhabited the back settlements of theMauritanian and Numidian province, the country, as they have since beentermed by the Arabs, of dates and of locusts; and that, as the Romanpower declined in Africa, the boundary of civilized manners andcultivated land was insensibly contracted. Beyond the utmost limits ofthe Moors, the vast and inhospitable desert of the South extends abovea thousand miles to the banks of the Niger. The ancients, who had a veryfaint and imperfect knowledge of the great peninsula of Africa, weresometimes tempted to believe, that the torrid zone must ever remaindestitute of inhabitants; and they sometimes amused their fancy byfilling the vacant space with headless men, or rather monsters; withhorned and cloven-footed satyrs; with fabulous centaurs; and with humanpygmies, who waged a bold and doubtful warfare against the cranes.Carthage would have trembled at the strange intelligence that thecountries on either side of the equator were filled with innumerablenations, who differed only in their color from the ordinary appearanceof the human species: and the subjects of the Roman empire might haveanxiously expected, that the swarms of Barbarians, which issued fromthe North, would soon be encountered from the South by new swarms ofBarbarians, equally fierce and equally formidable. These gloomy terrorswould indeed have been dispelled by a more intimate acquaintance withthe character of their African enemies. The inaction of the negroesdoes not seem to be the effect either of their virtue or of theirpusillanimity. They indulge, like the rest of mankind, their passionsand appetites; and the adjacent tribes are engaged in frequent acts ofhostility. But their rude ignorance has never invented any effectualweapons of defence, or of destruction; they appear incapable offorming any extensive plans of government, or conquest; and the obviousinferiority of their mental faculties has been discovered and abused bythe nations of the temperate zone. Sixty thousand blacks are annuallyembarked from the coast of Guinea, never to return to their nativecountry; but they are embarked in chains; and this constant emigration,which, in the space of two centuries, might have furnished armies tooverrun the globe, accuses the guilt of Europe, and the weakness ofAfrica.

Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of TheEmpire.--Part VI.

IV. The ignominious treaty, which saved the army of Jovian, had beenfaithfully executed on the side of the Romans; and as they had solemnlyrenounced the sovereignty and alliance of Armenia and Iberia, thosetributary kingdoms were exposed, without protection, to the arms of thePersian monarch. Sapor entered the Armenian territories at the head ofa formidable host of cuirassiers, of archers, and of mercenary foot; butit was the invariable practice of Sapor to mix war and negotiation, andto consider falsehood and perjury as the most powerful instruments ofregal policy. He affected to praise the prudent and moderate conduct ofthe king of Armenia; and the unsuspicious Tiranus was persuaded, by therepeated assurances of insidious friendship, to deliver his person intothe hands of a faithless and cruel enemy. In the midst of a splendidentertainment, he was bound in chains of silver, as an honor due to theblood of the Arsacides; and, after a short confinement in the Tower ofOblivion at Ecbatana, he was released from the miseries of life, eitherby his own dagger, or by that of an assassin. * The kingdom of Armeniawas reduced to the state of a Persian province; the administration wasshared between a distinguished satrap and a favorite eunuch; and Sapormarched, without delay, to subdue the martial spirit of the Iberians.Sauromaces, who reigned in that country by the permission of theemperors, was expelled by a superior force; and, as an insult on themajesty of Rome, the king of kings placed a diadem on the head of hisabject vassal Aspacuras. The city of Artogerassa was the only place ofArmenia which presumed to resist the efforts of his arms. The treasuredeposited in that strong fortress tempted the avarice of Sapor; but thedanger of Olympias, the wife or widow of the Armenian king, excited thepublic compassion, and animated the desperate valor of her subjects andsoldiers. ß The Persians were surprised and repulsed under the walls ofArtogerassa, by a bold and well-concerted sally of the besieged. Butthe forces of Sapor were continually renewed and increased; the hopelesscourage of the garrison was exhausted; the strength of the walls yieldedto the assault; and the proud conqueror, after wasting the rebelliouscity with fire and sword, led away captive an unfortunate queen; who,in a more auspicious hour, had been the destined bride of the son ofConstantine. Yet if Sapor already triumphed in the easy conquest of twodependent kingdoms, he soon felt, that a country is unsubdued as longas the minds of the people are actuated by a hostile and contumaciousspirit. The satraps, whom he was obliged to trust, embraced the firstopportunity of regaining the affection of their countrymen, and ofsignalizing their immortal hatred to the Persian name. Since theconversion of the Armenians and Iberians, these nations considered theChristians as the favorites, and the Magians as the adversaries, of theSupreme Being: the influence of the clergy, over a superstitiouspeople was uniformly exerted in the cause of Rome; and as long asthe successors of Constantine disputed with those of Artaxerxes thesovereignty of the intermediate provinces, the religious connectionalways threw a decisive advantage into the scale of the empire. Anumerous and active party acknowledged Para, the son of Tiranus, asthe lawful sovereign of Armenia, and his title to the throne was deeplyrooted in the hereditary succession of five hundred years. By theunanimous consent of the Iberians, the country was equally dividedbetween the rival princes; and Aspacuras, who owed his diadem tothe choice of Sapor, was obliged to declare, that his regard for hischildren, who were detained as hostages by the tyrant, was the onlyconsideration which prevented him from openly renouncing the alliance ofPersia. The emperor Valens, who respected the obligations of the treaty,and who was apprehensive of involving the East in a dangerous war,ventured, with slow and cautious measures, to support the Roman partyin the kingdoms of Iberia and Armenia. $ Twelve legions established theauthority of Sauromaces on the banks of the Cyrus. The Euphrates wasprotected by the valor of Arintheus. A powerful army, under the commandof Count Trajan, and of Vadomair, king of the Alemanni, fixed theircamp on the confines of Armenia. But they were strictly enjoined not tocommit the first hostilities, which might be understood as a breach ofthe treaty: and such was the implicit obedience of the Roman general,that they retreated, with exemplary patience, under a shower of Persianarrows till they had clearly acquired a just title to an honorable andlegitimate victory. Yet these appearances of war insensibly subsided ina vain and tedious negotiation. The contending parties supported theirclaims by mutual reproaches of perfidy and ambition; and it should seem,that the original treaty was expressed in very obscure terms, since theywere reduced to the necessity of making their inconclusive appeal to thepartial testimony of the generals of the two nations, who had assistedat the negotiations. The invasion of the Goths and Huns which soonafterwards shook the foundations of the Roman empire, exposed theprovinces of Asia to the arms of Sapor. But the declining age, andperhaps the infirmities, of the monarch suggested new maxims oftranquillity and moderation. His death, which happened in the fullmaturity of a reign of seventy years, changed in a moment the court andcouncils of Persia; and their attention was most probably engaged bydomestic troubles, and the distant efforts of a Carmanian war. Theremembrance of ancient injuries was lost in the enjoyment of peace. Thekingdoms of Armenia and Iberia were permitted, by the mutual, thoughtacit consent of both empires, to resume their doubtful neutrality. Inthe first years of the reign of Theodosius, a Persian embassy arrivedat Constantinople, to excuse the unjustifiable measures of the formerreign; and to offer, as the tribute of friendship, or even of respect, asplendid present of gems, of silk, and of Indian elephants.

In the general picture of the affairs of the East under the reignof Valens, the adventures of Para form one of the most striking andsingular objects. The noble youth, by the persuasion of his motherOlympias, had escaped through the Persian host that besiegedArtogerassa, and implored the protection of the emperor of the East. Byhis timid councils, Para was alternately supported, and recalled, andrestored, and betrayed. The hopes of the Armenians were sometimes raisedby the presence of their natural sovereign, * and the ministers ofValens were satisfied, that they preserved the integrity of the publicfaith, if their vassal was not suffered to assume the diadem andtitle of King. But they soon repented of their own rashness. They wereconfounded by the reproaches and threats of the Persian monarch.They found reason to distrust the cruel and inconstant temper of Parahimself; who sacrificed, to the slightest suspicions, the lives of hismost faithful servants, and held a secret and disgraceful correspondencewith the assassin of his father and the enemy of his country. Under thespecious pretence of consulting with the emperor on the subject of theircommon interest, Para was persuaded to descend from the mountains ofArmenia, where his party was in arms, and to trust his independence andsafety to the discretion of a perfidious court. The king of Armenia,for such he appeared in his own eyes and in those of his nation, wasreceived with due honors by the governors of the provinces through whichhe passed; but when he arrived at Tarsus in Cilicia, his progresswas stopped under various pretences; his motions were watched withrespectful vigilance, and he gradually discovered, that he was aprisoner in the hands of the Romans. Para suppressed his indignation,dissembled his fears, and after secretly preparing his escape, mountedon horseback with three hundred of his faithful followers. The officerstationed at the door of his apartment immediately communicated hisflight to the consular of Cilicia, who overtook him in the suburbs, andendeavored without success, to dissuade him from prosecuting his rashand dangerous design. A legion was ordered to pursue the royal fugitive;but the pursuit of infantry could not be very alarming to a body oflight cavalry; and upon the first cloud of arrows that was dischargedinto the air, they retreated with precipitation to the gates of Tarsus.After an incessant march of two days and two nights, Para and hisArmenians reached the banks of the Euphrates; but the passage of theriver which they were obliged to swim, * was attended with some delayand some loss. The country was alarmed; and the two roads, which wereonly separated by an interval of three miles had been occupied bya thousand archers on horseback, under the command of a count and atribune. Para must have yielded to superior force, if the accidentalarrival of a friendly traveller had not revealed the danger and themeans of escape. A dark and almost impervious path securely conveyedthe Armenian troop through the thicket; and Para had left behind him thecount and the tribune, while they patiently expected his approach alongthe public highways. They returned to the Imperial court to excuse theirwant of diligence or success; and seriously alleged, that the king ofArmenia, who was a skilful magician, had transformed himself and hisfollowers, and passed before their eyes under a borrowed shape. Afterhis return to his native kingdom, Para still continued to professhimself the friend and ally of the Romans: but the Romans had injuredhim too deeply ever to forgive, and the secret sentence of his death wassigned in the council of Valens. The execution of the bloody deed wascommitted to the subtle prudence of Count Trajan; and he had the meritof insinuating himself into the confidence of the credulous prince,that he might find an opportunity of stabbing him to the heart Para wasinvited to a Roman banquet, which had been prepared with all the pompand sensuality of the East; the hall resounded with cheerful music, andthe company was already heated with wine; when the count retired for aninstant, drew his sword, and gave the signal of the murder. A robust anddesperate Barbarian instantly rushed on the king of Armenia; and thoughhe bravely defended his life with the first weapon that chance offeredto his hand, the table of the Imperial general was stained with theroyal blood of a guest, and an ally. Such were the weak and wickedmaxims of the Roman administration, that, to attain a doubtful objectof political interest the laws of nations, and the sacred rights ofhospitality were inhumanly violated in the face of the world.

V. During a peaceful interval of thirty years, the Romans secured theirfrontiers, and the Goths extended their dominions. The victories of thegreat Hermanric, king of the Ostrogoths, and the most noble of the raceof the Amali, have been compared, by the enthusiasm of his countrymen,to the exploits of Alexander; with this singular, and almost incredible,difference, that the martial spirit of the Gothic hero, instead of beingsupported by the vigor of youth, was displayed with glory and success inthe extreme period of human life, between the age of fourscore andone hundred and ten years. The independent tribes were persuaded, orcompelled, to acknowledge the king of the Ostrogoths as the sovereign ofthe Gothic nation: the chiefs of the Visigoths, or Thervingi, renouncedthe royal title, and assumed the more humble appellation of Judges; and,among those judges, Athanaric, Fritigern, and Alavivus, were the mostillustrious, by their personal merit, as well as by their vicinityto the Roman provinces. These domestic conquests, which increased themilitary power of Hermanric, enlarged his ambitious designs. He invadedthe adjacent countries of the North; and twelve considerable nations,whose names and limits cannot be accurately defined, successivelyyielded to the superiority of the Gothic arms The Heruli, who inhabitedthe marshy lands near the lake MÊotis, were renowned for their strengthand agility; and the assistance of their light infantry was eagerlysolicited, and highly esteemed, in all the wars of the Barbarians.But the active spirit of the Heruli was subdued by the slow and steadyperseverance of the Goths; and, after a bloody action, in which the kingwas slain, the remains of that warlike tribe became a useful accessionto the camp of Hermanric. He then marched against the Venedi; unskilledin the use of arms, and formidable only by their numbers, which filledthe wide extent of the plains of modern Poland. The victorious Goths,who were not inferior in numbers, prevailed in the contest, by thedecisive advantages of exercise and discipline. After the submission ofthe Venedi, the conqueror advanced, without resistance, as far as theconfines of the ∆stii; an ancient people, whose name is still preservedin the province of Esthonia. Those distant inhabitants of the Balticcoast were supported by the labors of agriculture, enriched by the tradeof amber, and consecrated by the peculiar worship of the Mother of theGods. But the scarcity of iron obliged the ∆stian warriors to contentthemselves with wooden clubs; and the reduction of that wealthy countryis ascribed to the prudence, rather than to the arms, of Hermanric. Hisdominions, which extended from the Danube to the Baltic, included thenative seats, and the recent acquisitions, of the Goths; and he reignedover the greatest part of Germany and Scythia with the authority of aconqueror, and sometimes with the cruelty of a tyrant. But he reignedover a part of the globe incapable of perpetuating and adorning theglory of its heroes. The name of Hermanric is almost buried in oblivion;his exploits are imperfectly known; and the Romans themselves appearedunconscious of the progress of an aspiring power which threatened theliberty of the North, and the peace of the empire.

The Goths had contracted an hereditary attachment for the Imperial houseof Constantine, of whose power and liberality they had received so manysignal proofs. They respected the public peace; and if a hostile bandsometimes presumed to pass the Roman limit, their irregular conduct wascandidly ascribed to the ungovernable spirit of the Barbarian youth.Their contempt for two new and obscure princes, who had been raised tothe throne by a popular election, inspired the Goths with bolder hopes;and, while they agitated some design of marching their confederate forceunder the national standard, they were easily tempted to embrace theparty of Procopius; and to foment, by their dangerous aid, the civildiscord of the Romans. The public treaty might stipulate no more thanten thousand auxiliaries; but the design was so zealously adopted by thechiefs of the Visigoths, that the army which passed the Danube amountedto the number of thirty thousand men. They marched with the proudconfidence, that their invincible valor would decide the fate of theRoman empire; and the provinces of Thrace groaned under the weightof the Barbarians, who displayed the insolence of masters and thelicentiousness of enemies. But the intemperance which gratified theirappetites, retarded their progress; and before the Goths could receiveany certain intelligence of the defeat and death of Procopius, theyperceived, by the hostile state of the country, that the civil andmilitary powers were resumed by his successful rival. A chain of postsand fortifications, skilfully disposed by Valens, or the generals ofValens, resisted their march, prevented their retreat, and interceptedtheir subsistence. The fierceness of the Barbarians was tamed andsuspended by hunger; they indignantly threw down their arms at thefeet of the conqueror, who offered them food and chains: the numerouscaptives were distributed in all the cities of the East; and theprovincials, who were soon familiarized with their savage appearance,ventured, by degrees, to measure their own strength with theseformidable adversaries, whose name had so long been the object of theirterror. The king of Scythia (and Hermanric alone could deserve so loftya title) was grieved and exasperated by this national calamity. Hisambassadors loudly complained, at the court of Valens, of the infractionof the ancient and solemn alliance, which had so long subsisted betweenthe Romans and the Goths. They alleged, that they had fulfilled the dutyof allies, by assisting the kinsman and successor of the emperor Julian;they required the immediate restitution of the noble captives; and theyurged a very singular claim, that the Gothic generals marching inarms, and in hostile array, were entitled to the sacred character andprivileges of ambassadors. The decent, but peremptory, refusal ofthese extravagant demands, was signified to the Barbarians by Victor,master-general of the cavalry; who expressed, with force and dignity,the just complaints of the emperor of the East. The negotiation wasinterrupted; and the manly exhortations of Valentinian encouraged histimid brother to vindicate the insulted majesty of the empire.

The splendor and magnitude of this Gothic war are celebrated by acontemporary historian: but the events scarcely deserve the attentionof posterity, except as the preliminary steps of the approaching declineand fall of the empire. Instead of leading the nations of Germanyand Scythia to the banks of the Danube, or even to the gates ofConstantinople, the aged monarch of the Goths resigned to the braveAthanaric the danger and glory of a defensive war, against an enemy,who wielded with a feeble hand the powers of a mighty state. A bridge ofboats was established upon the Danube; the presence of Valens animatedhis troops; and his ignorance of the art of war was compensated bypersonal bravery, and a wise deference to the advice of Victor andArintheus, his masters-general of the cavalry and infantry. Theoperations of the campaign were conducted by their skill and experience;but they found it impossible to drive the Visigoths from their strongposts in the mountains; and the devastation of the plains obliged theRomans themselves to repass the Danube on the approach of winter. Theincessant rains, which swelled the waters of the river, produced a tacitsuspension of arms, and confined the emperor Valens, during the wholecourse of the ensuing summer, to his camp of Marcianopolis. The thirdyear of the war was more favorable to the Romans, and more perniciousto the Goths. The interruption of trade deprived the Barbarians of theobjects of luxury, which they already confounded with the necessaries oflife; and the desolation of a very extensive tract of country threatenedthem with the horrors of famine. Athanaric was provoked, or compelled,to risk a battle, which he lost, in the plains; and the pursuit wasrendered more bloody by the cruel precaution of the victorious generals,who had promised a large reward for the head of every Goth that wasbrought into the Imperial camp. The submission of the Barbariansappeased the resentment of Valens and his council: the emperor listenedwith satisfaction to the flattering and eloquent remonstrance of thesenate of Constantinople, which assumed, for the first time, a share inthe public deliberations; and the same generals, Victor and Arintheus,who had successfully directed the conduct of the war, were empowered toregulate the conditions of peace. The freedom of trade, which the Gothshad hitherto enjoyed, was restricted to two cities on the Danube; therashness of their leaders was severely punished by the suppression oftheir pensions and subsidies; and the exception, which was stipulatedin favor of Athanaric alone, was more advantageous than honorable tothe Judge of the Visigoths. Athanaric, who, on this occasion, appears tohave consulted his private interest, without expecting the orders ofhis sovereign, supported his own dignity, and that of his tribe, in thepersonal interview which was proposed by the ministers of Valens. Hepersisted in his declaration, that it was impossible for him, withoutincurring the guilt of perjury, ever to set his foot on the territoryof the empire; and it is more than probable, that his regard for thesanctity of an oath was confirmed by the recent and fatal examples ofRoman treachery. The Danube, which separated the dominions of the twoindependent nations, was chosen for the scene of the conference. Theemperor of the East, and the Judge of the Visigoths, accompanied by anequal number of armed followers, advanced in their respective barges tothe middle of the stream. After the ratification of the treaty, and thedelivery of hostages, Valens returned in triumph to Constantinople; andthe Goths remained in a state of tranquillity about six years; till theywere violently impelled against the Roman empire by an innumerablehost of Scythians, who appeared to issue from the frozen regions of theNorth.

The emperor of the West, who had resigned to his brother the commandof the Lower Danube, reserved for his immediate care the defence of theRhÊtian and Illyrian provinces, which spread so many hundred miles alongthe greatest of the European rivers. The active policy of Valentinianwas continually employed in adding new fortifications to the security ofthe frontier: but the abuse of this policy provoked the just resentmentof the Barbarians. The Quadi complained, that the ground for an intendedfortress had been marked out on their territories; and their complaintswere urged with so much reason and moderation, that Equitius,master-general of Illyricum, consented to suspend the prosecution ofthe work, till he should be more clearly informed of the will of hissovereign. This fair occasion of injuring a rival, and of advancing thefortune of his son, was eagerly embraced by the inhuman Maximin, theprÊfect, or rather tyrant, of Gaul. The passions of Valentinian wereimpatient of control; and he credulously listened to the assurances ofhis favorite, that if the government of Valeria, and the direction ofthe work, were intrusted to the zeal of his son Marcellinus, the emperorshould no longer be importuned with the audacious remonstrances ofthe Barbarians. The subjects of Rome, and the natives of Germany,were insulted by the arrogance of a young and worthless minister, whoconsidered his rapid elevation as the proof and reward of his superiormerit. He affected, however, to receive the modest application ofGabinius, king of the Quadi, with some attention and regard: but thisartful civility concealed a dark and bloody design, and the credulousprince was persuaded to accept the pressing invitation of Marcellinus.I am at a loss how to vary the narrative of similar crimes; or how torelate, that, in the course of the same year, but in remote parts of theempire, the inhospitable table of two Imperial generals was stained withthe royal blood of two guests and allies, inhumanly murdered by theirorder, and in their presence. The fate of Gabinius, and of Para, wasthe same: but the cruel death of their sovereign was resented in a verydifferent manner by the servile temper of the Armenians, and the freeand daring spirit of the Germans. The Quadi were much declined from thatformidable power, which, in the time of Marcus Antoninus, had spreadterror to the gates of Rome. But they still possessed arms and courage;their courage was animated by despair, and they obtained the usualreenforcement of the cavalry of their Sarmatian allies. So improvidentwas the assassin Marcellinus, that he chose the moment when the bravestveterans had been drawn away, to suppress the revolt of Firmus; and thewhole province was exposed, with a very feeble defence, to the rageof the exasperated Barbarians. They invaded Pannonia in the season ofharvest; unmercifully destroyed every object of plunder which they couldnot easily transport; and either disregarded, or demolished, the emptyfortifications. The princess Constantia, the daughter of the emperorConstantius, and the granddaughter of the great Constantine, verynarrowly escaped. That royal maid, who had innocently supported therevolt of Procopius, was now the destined wife of the heir of theWestern empire. She traversed the peaceful province with a splendid andunarmed train. Her person was saved from danger, and the republic fromdisgrace, by the active zeal of Messala, governor of the provinces.As soon as he was informed that the village, where she stopped only todine, was almost encompassed by the Barbarians, he hastily placed herin his own chariot, and drove full speed till he reached the gatesof Sirmium, which were at the distance of six-and-twenty miles. EvenSirmium might not have been secure, if the Quadi and Sarmatians haddiligently advanced during the general consternation of the magistratesand people. Their delay allowed Probus, the PrÊtorian prÊfect,sufficient time to recover his own spirits, and to revive the courageof the citizens. He skilfully directed their strenuous efforts to repairand strengthen the decayed fortifications; and procured the seasonableand effectual assistance of a company of archers, to protect the capitalof the Illyrian provinces. Disappointed in their attempts against thewalls of Sirmium, the indignant Barbarians turned their arms againstthe master general of the frontier, to whom they unjustly attributed themurder of their king. Equitius could bring into the field no more thantwo legions; but they contained the veteran strength of the MÊsian andPannonian bands. The obstinacy with which they disputed the vain honorsof rank and precedency, was the cause of their destruction; andwhile they acted with separate forces and divided councils, they weresurprised and slaughtered by the active vigor of the Sarmatian horse.The success of this invasion provoked the emulation of the borderingtribes; and the province of MÊsia would infallibly have been lost, ifyoung Theodosius, the duke, or military commander, of the frontier, hadnot signalized, in the defeat of the public enemy, an intrepid genius,worthy of his illustrious father, and of his future greatness.

Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of TheEmpire.--Part VII.

The mind of Valentinian, who then resided at Treves, was deeply affectedby the calamities of Illyricum; but the lateness of the season suspendedthe execution of his designs till the ensuing spring. He marched inperson, with a considerable part of the forces of Gaul, from the banksof the Moselle: and to the suppliant ambassadors of the Sarmatians, whomet him on the way, he returned a doubtful answer, that, as soon as hereached the scene of action, he should examine, and pronounce. When hearrived at Sirmium, he gave audience to the deputies of the Illyrianprovinces; who loudly congratulated their own felicity under theauspicious government of Probus, his PrÊtorian prÊfect. Valentinian, whowas flattered by these demonstrations of their loyalty and gratitude,imprudently asked the deputy of Epirus, a Cynic philosopher of intrepidsincerity, whether he was freely sent by the wishes of the province."With tears and groans am I sent," replied Iphicles, "by a reluctantpeople." The emperor paused: but the impunity of his ministersestablished the pernicious maxim, that they might oppress his subjects,without injuring his service. A strict inquiry into their conduct wouldhave relieved the public discontent. The severe condemnation of themurder of Gabinius, was the only measure which could restore theconfidence of the Germans, and vindicate the honor of the Roman name.But the haughty monarch was incapable of the magnanimity which daresto acknowledge a fault. He forgot the provocation, remembered only theinjury, and advanced into the country of the Quadi with an insatiatethirst of blood and revenge. The extreme devastation, and promiscuousmassacre, of a savage war, were justified, in the eyes of the emperor,and perhaps in those of the world, by the cruel equity of retaliation:and such was the discipline of the Romans, and the consternation of theenemy, that Valentinian repassed the Danube without the loss of a singleman. As he had resolved to complete the destruction of the Quadi bya second campaign, he fixed his winter quarters at Bregetio, on theDanube, near the Hungarian city of Presburg. While the operations of warwere suspended by the severity of the weather, the Quadi made an humbleattempt to deprecate the wrath of their conqueror; and, at the earnestpersuasion of Equitius, their ambassadors were introduced into theImperial council. They approached the throne with bended bodies anddejected countenances; and without daring to complain of the murder oftheir king, they affirmed, with solemn oaths, that the late invasionwas the crime of some irregular robbers, which the public council of thenation condemned and abhorred. The answer of the emperor left them butlittle to hope from his clemency or compassion. He reviled, in themost intemperate language, their baseness, their ingratitude, theirinsolence. His eyes, his voice, his color, his gestures, expressed theviolence of his ungoverned fury; and while his whole frame was agitatedwith convulsive passion, a large blood vessel suddenly burst in hisbody; and Valentinian fell speechless into the arms of his attendants.Their pious care immediately concealed his situation from the crowd;but, in a few minutes, the emperor of the West expired in an agonyof pain, retaining his senses till the last; and struggling, withoutsuccess, to declare his intentions to the generals and ministers, whosurrounded the royal couch. Valentinian was about fifty-four years ofa*ge; and he wanted only one hundred days to accomplish the twelve yearsof his reign.

The polygamy of Valentinian is seriously attested by an ecclesiasticalhistorian. "The empress Severa (I relate the fable) admitted intoher familiar society the lovely Justina, the daughter of an Italiangovernor: her admiration of those naked charms, which she had often seenin the bath, was expressed with such lavish and imprudent praise, thatthe emperor was tempted to introduce a second wife into his bed; andhis public edict extended to all the subjects of the empire the samedomestic privilege which he had assumed for himself." But we may beassured, from the evidence of reason as well as history, that thetwo marriages of Valentinian, with Severa, and with Justina, weresuccessively contracted; and that he used the ancient permission ofdivorce, which was still allowed by the laws, though it was condemned bythe church Severa was the mother of Gratian, who seemed to unite everyclaim which could entitle him to the undoubted succession of the Westernempire. He was the eldest son of a monarch whose glorious reign hadconfirmed the free and honorable choice of his fellow-soldiers. Beforehe had attained the ninth year of his age, the royal youth received fromthe hands of his indulgent father the purple robe and diadem, with thetitle of Augustus; the election was solemnly ratified by the consent andapplause of the armies of Gaul; and the name of Gratian was added to thenames of Valentinian and Valens, in all the legal transactions of theRoman government. By his marriage with the granddaughter of Constantine,the son of Valentinian acquired all the hereditary rights of theFlavian family; which, in a series of three Imperial generations, weresanctified by time, religion, and the reverence of the people. At thedeath of his father, the royal youth was in the seventeenth year of hisage; and his virtues already justified the favorable opinion of the armyand the people. But Gratian resided, without apprehension, in the palaceof Treves; whilst, at the distance of many hundred miles, Valentiniansuddenly expired in the camp of Bregetio. The passions, which had beenso long suppressed by the presence of a master, immediately revived inthe Imperial council; and the ambitious design of reigning in the nameof an infant, was artfully executed by Mellobaudes and Equitius,who commanded the attachment of the Illyrian and Italian bands. Theycontrived the most honorable pretences to remove the popular leaders,and the troops of Gaul, who might have asserted the claims of the lawfulsuccessor; they suggested the necessity of extinguishing the hopesof foreign and domestic enemies, by a bold and decisive measure. Theempress Justina, who had been left in a palace about one hundred milesfrom Bregetio, was respectively invited to appear in the camp, withthe son of the deceased emperor. On the sixth day after the death ofValentinian, the infant prince of the same name, who was only four yearsold, was shown, in the arms of his mother, to the legions; and solemnlyinvested, by military acclamation, with the titles and ensigns ofsupreme power. The impending dangers of a civil war were seasonablyprevented by the wise and moderate conduct of the emperor Gratian. Hecheerfully accepted the choice of the army; declared that he shouldalways consider the son of Justina as a brother, not as a rival; andadvised the empress, with her son Valentinian to fix their residence atMilan, in the fair and peaceful province of Italy; while he assumedthe more arduous command of the countries beyond the Alps. Gratiandissembled his resentment till he could safely punish, or disgrace,the authors of the conspiracy; and though he uniformly behaved withtenderness and regard to his infant colleague, he gradually confounded,in the administration of the Western empire, the office of a guardianwith the authority of a sovereign. The government of the Roman worldwas exercised in the united names of Valens and his two nephews; butthe feeble emperor of the East, who succeeded to the rank of his elderbrother, never obtained any weight or influence in the councils of theWest.

Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.--Part I.

 Manners Of The Pastoral Nations.--Progress Of The Huns, From China To Europe.--Flight Of The Goths.--They Pass The Danube. --Gothic War.--Defeat And Death Of Valens.--Gratian Invests Theodosius With The Eastern Empire.--His Character And Success. --Peace And Settlement Of The Goths.

In the second year of the reign of Valentinian and Valens, on themorning of the twenty-first day of July, the greatest part of the Romanworld was shaken by a violent and destructive earthquake. The impressionwas communicated to the waters; the shores of the Mediterranean wereleft dry, by the sudden retreat of the sea; great quantities of fishwere caught with the hand; large vessels were stranded on the mud; and acurious spectator amused his eye, or rather his fancy, by contemplatingthe various appearance of valleys and mountains, which had never, sincethe formation of the globe, been exposed to the sun. But the tide soonreturned, with the weight of an immense and irresistible deluge, whichwas severely felt on the coasts of Sicily, of Dalmatia, of Greece,and of Egypt: large boats were transported, and lodged on the roofs ofhouses, or at the distance of two miles from the shore; the people,with their habitations, were swept away by the waters; and the city ofAlexandria annually commemorated the fatal day, on which fifty thousandpersons had lost their lives in the inundation. This calamity, thereport of which was magnified from one province to another, astonishedand terrified the subjects of Rome; and their affrighted imaginationenlarged the real extent of a momentary evil. They recollected thepreceding earthquakes, which had subverted the cities of Palestine andBithynia: they considered these alarming strokes as the prelude only ofstill more dreadful calamities, and their fearful vanity was disposed toconfound the symptoms of a declining empire and a sinking world. Itwas the fashion of the times to attribute every remarkable event to theparticular will of the Deity; the alterations of nature were connected,by an invisible chain, with the moral and metaphysical opinions of thehuman mind; and the most sagacious divines could distinguish, accordingto the color of their respective prejudices, that the establishmentof heresy tended to produce an earthquake; or that a deluge was theinevitable consequence of the progress of sin and error. Withoutpresuming to discuss the truth or propriety of these lofty speculations,the historian may content himself with an observation, which seems tobe justified by experience, that man has much more to fear from thepassions of his fellow-creatures, than from the convulsions of theelements. The mischievous effects of an earthquake, or deluge, ahurricane, or the eruption of a volcano, bear a very inconsiderableportion to the ordinary calamities of war, as they are now moderated bythe prudence or humanity of the princes of Europe, who amuse their ownleisure, and exercise the courage of their subjects, in the practice ofthe military art. But the laws and manners of modern nations protect thesafety and freedom of the vanquished soldier; and the peaceful citizenhas seldom reason to complain, that his life, or even his fortune, isexposed to the rage of war. In the disastrous period of the fall of theRoman empire, which may justly be dated from the reign of Valens, thehappiness and security of each individual were personally attacked; andthe arts and labors of ages were rudely defaced by the Barbariansof Scythia and Germany. The invasion of the Huns precipitated on theprovinces of the West the Gothic nation, which advanced, in less thanforty years, from the Danube to the Atlantic, and opened a way, by thesuccess of their arms, to the inroads of so many hostile tribes, moresavage than themselves. The original principle of motion was concealedin the remote countries of the North; and the curious observation of thepastoral life of the Scythians, or Tartars, will illustrate the latentcause of these destructive emigrations.

The different characters that mark the civilized nations of the globe,may be ascribed to the use, and the abuse, of reason; which so variouslyshapes, and so artificially composes, the manners and opinions of aEuropean, or a Chinese. But the operation of instinct is more sure andsimple than that of reason: it is much easier to ascertain the appetitesof a quadruped than the speculations of a philosopher; and the savagetribes of mankind, as they approach nearer to the condition of animals,preserve a stronger resemblance to themselves and to each other. Theuniform stability of their manners is the natural consequence of theimperfection of their faculties. Reduced to a similar situation, theirwants, their desires, their enjoyments, still continue the same: andthe influence of food or climate, which, in a more improved stateof society, is suspended, or subdued, by so many moral causes, mostpowerfully contributes to form, and to maintain, the national characterof Barbarians. In every age, the immense plains of Scythia, or Tartary,have been inhabited by vagrant tribes of hunters and shepherds, whoseindolence refuses to cultivate the earth, and whose restless spiritdisdains the confinement of a sedentary life. In every age, theScythians, and Tartars, have been renowned for their invincible courageand rapid conquests. The thrones of Asia have been repeatedly overturnedby the shepherds of the North; and their arms have spread terror anddevastation over the most fertile and warlike countries of Europe.On this occasion, as well as on many others, the sober historian isforcibly awakened from a pleasing vision; and is compelled, with somereluctance, to confess, that the pastoral manners, which have beenadorned with the fairest attributes of peace and innocence, are muchbetter adapted to the fierce and cruel habits of a military life. Toillustrate this observation, I shall now proceed to consider a nation ofshepherds and of warriors, in the three important articles of, I. Theirdiet; II. Their habitations; and, III. Their exercises. The narrativesof antiquity are justified by the experience of modern times; andthe banks of the Borysthenes, of the Volga, or of the Selinga, willindifferently present the same uniform spectacle of similar and nativemanners.

I. The corn, or even the rice, which constitutes the ordinary andwholesome food of a civilized people, can be obtained only by thepatient toil of the husbandman. Some of the happy savages, who dwellbetween the tropics, are plentifully nourished by the liberality ofnature; but in the climates of the North, a nation of shepherds isreduced to their flocks and herds. The skilful practitioners of themedical art will determine (if they are able to determine) how far thetemper of the human mind may be affected by the use of animal, or ofvegetable, food; and whether the common association of carnivorousand cruel deserves to be considered in any other light than that of aninnocent, perhaps a salutary, prejudice of humanity. Yet, if it be true,that the sentiment of compassion is imperceptibly weakened by thesight and practice of domestic cruelty, we may observe, that the horridobjects which are disguised by the arts of European refinement, areexhibited in their naked and most disgusting simplicity in the tent ofa Tartarian shepherd. The ox, or the sheep, are slaughtered by the samehand from which they were accustomed to receive their daily food; andthe bleeding limbs are served, with very little preparation, on thetable of their unfeeling murderer. In the military profession, andespecially in the conduct of a numerous army, the exclusive use ofanimal food appears to be productive of the most solid advantages. Cornis a bulky and perishable commodity; and the large magazines, whichare indispensably necessary for the subsistence of our troops, must beslowly transported by the labor of men or horses. But the flocks andherds, which accompany the march of the Tartars, afford a sure andincreasing supply of flesh and milk: in the far greater part of theuncultivated waste, the vegetation of the grass is quick and luxuriant;and there are few places so extremely barren, that the hardy cattle ofthe North cannot find some tolerable pasture. The supply is multipliedand prolonged by the undistinguishing appetite, and patient abstinence,of the Tartars. They indifferently feed on the flesh of thoseanimals that have been killed for the table, or have died of disease.Horseflesh, which in every age and country has been proscribed bythe civilized nations of Europe and Asia, they devour with peculiargreediness; and this singular taste facilitates the success of theirmilitary operations. The active cavalry of Scythia is always followed,in their most distant and rapid incursions, by an adequate number ofspare horses, who may be occasionally used, either to redouble thespeed, or to satisfy the hunger, of the Barbarians. Many are theresources of courage and poverty. When the forage round a camp ofTartars is almost consumed, they slaughter the greatest part of theircattle, and preserve the flesh, either smoked, or dried in the sun. Onthe sudden emergency of a hasty march, they provide themselves with asufficient quantity of little balls of cheese, or rather of hard curd,which they occasionally dissolve in water; and this unsubstantial dietwill support, for many days, the life, and even the spirits, of thepatient warrior. But this extraordinary abstinence, which the Stoicwould approve, and the hermit might envy, is commonly succeeded by themost voracious indulgence of appetite. The wines of a happier climateare the most grateful present, or the most valuable commodity, that canbe offered to the Tartars; and the only example of their industry seemsto consist in the art of extracting from mare's milk a fermented liquor,which possesses a very strong power of intoxication. Like the animalsof prey, the savages, both of the old and new world, experience thealternate vicissitudes of famine and plenty; and their stomach is inuredto sustain, without much inconvenience, the opposite extremes of hungerand of intemperance.

II. In the ages of rustic and martial simplicity, a people of soldiersand husbandmen are dispersed over the face of an extensive andcultivated country; and some time must elapse before the warlike youthof Greece or Italy could be assembled under the same standard, either todefend their own confines, or to invade the territories of the adjacenttribes. The progress of manufactures and commerce insensibly collectsa large multitude within the walls of a city: but these citizens are nolonger soldiers; and the arts which adorn and improve the state of civilsociety, corrupt the habits of the military life. The pastoral mannersof the Scythians seem to unite the different advantages of simplicityand refinement. The individuals of the same tribe are constantlyassembled, but they are assembled in a camp; and the native spirit ofthese dauntless shepherds is animated by mutual support and emulation.The houses of the Tartars are no more than small tents, of an oval form,which afford a cold and dirty habitation, for the promiscuous youth ofboth sexes. The palaces of the rich consist of wooden huts, of such asize that they may be conveniently fixed on large wagons, and drawn bya team perhaps of twenty or thirty oxen. The flocks and herds, aftergrazing all day in the adjacent pastures, retire, on the approach ofnight, within the protection of the camp. The necessity of preventingthe most mischievous confusion, in such a perpetual concourse of men andanimals, must gradually introduce, in the distribution, the order, andthe guard, of the encampment, the rudiments of the military art. As soonas the forage of a certain district is consumed, the tribe, or ratherarmy, of shepherds, makes a regular march to some fresh pastures; andthus acquires, in the ordinary occupations of the pastoral life,the practical knowledge of one of the most important and difficultoperations of war. The choice of stations is regulated by the differenceof the seasons: in the summer, the Tartars advance towards the North,and pitch their tents on the banks of a river, or, at least, in theneighborhood of a running stream. But in the winter, they return to theSouth, and shelter their camp, behind some convenient eminence, againstthe winds, which are chilled in their passage over the bleak and icyregions of Siberia. These manners are admirably adapted to diffuse,among the wandering tribes, the spirit of emigration and conquest.The connection between the people and their territory is of so frail atexture, that it may be broken by the slightest accident. The camp, andnot the soil, is the native country of the genuine Tartar. Within theprecincts of that camp, his family, his companions, his property,are always included; and, in the most distant marches, he is stillsurrounded by the objects which are dear, or valuable, or familiar inhis eyes. The thirst of rapine, the fear, or the resentment of injury,the impatience of servitude, have, in every age, been sufficient causesto urge the tribes of Scythia boldly to advance into some unknowncountries, where they might hope to find a more plentiful subsistenceor a less formidable enemy. The revolutions of the North have frequentlydetermined the fate of the South; and in the conflict of hostilenations, the victor and the vanquished have alternately drove, and beendriven, from the confines of China to those of Germany. These greatemigrations, which have been sometimes executed with almost incrediblediligence, were rendered more easy by the peculiar nature of theclimate. It is well known that the cold of Tartary is much more severethan in the midst of the temperate zone might reasonably be expected;this uncommon rigor is attributed to the height of the plains, whichrise, especially towards the East, more than half a mile above the levelof the sea; and to the quantity of saltpetre with which the soil isdeeply impregnated. In the winter season, the broad and rapid rivers,that discharge their waters into the Euxine, the Caspian, or the IcySea, are strongly frozen; the fields are covered with a bed of snow; andthe fugitive, or victorious, tribes may securely traverse, with theirfamilies, their wagons, and their cattle, the smooth and hard surface ofan immense plain.

III. The pastoral life, compared with the labors of agriculture andmanufactures, is undoubtedly a life of idleness; and as the mosthonorable shepherds of the Tartar race devolve on their captives thedomestic management of the cattle, their own leisure is seldom disturbedby any servile and assiduous cares. But this leisure, instead of beingdevoted to the soft enjoyments of love and harmony, is use fully spentin the violent and sanguinary exercise of the chase. The plains ofTartary are filled with a strong and serviceable breed of horses, whichare easily trained for the purposes of war and hunting. The Scythians ofevery age have been celebrated as bold and skilful riders; and constantpractice had seated them so firmly on horseback, that they were supposedby strangers to perform the ordinary duties of civil life, to eat, todrink, and even to sleep, without dismounting from their steeds. Theyexcel in the dexterous management of the lance; the long Tartar bowis drawn with a nervous arm; and the weighty arrow is directed to itsobject with unerring aim and irresistible force. These arrows are oftenpointed against the harmless animals of the desert, which increase andmultiply in the absence of their most formidable enemy; the hare, thegoat, the roebuck, the fallow-deer, the stag, the elk, and the antelope.The vigor and patience, both of the men and horses, are continuallyexercised by the fatigues of the chase; and the plentiful supply of gamecontributes to the subsistence, and even luxury, of a Tartar camp.But the exploits of the hunters of Scythia are not confined to thedestruction of timid or innoxious beasts; they boldly encounter theangry wild boar, when he turns against his pursuers, excite the sluggishcourage of the bear, and provoke the fury of the tiger, as he slumbersin the thicket. Where there is danger, there may be glory; and the modeof hunting, which opens the fairest field to the exertions of valor,may justly be considered as the image, and as the school, of war. Thegeneral hunting matches, the pride and delight of the Tartar princes,compose an instructive exercise for their numerous cavalry. A circleis drawn, of many miles in circumference, to encompass the game ofan extensive district; and the troops that form the circle regularlyadvance towards a common centre; where the captive animals, surroundedon every side, are abandoned to the darts of the hunters. In this march,which frequently continues many days, the cavalry are obliged to climbthe hills, to swim the rivers, and to wind through the valleys, withoutinterrupting the prescribed order of their gradual progress. Theyacquire the habit of directing their eye, and their steps, to a remoteobject; of preserving their intervals of suspending or acceleratingtheir pace, according to the motions of the troops on their right andleft; and of watching and repeating the signals of their leaders. Theirleaders study, in this practical school, the most important lessonof the military art; the prompt and accurate judgment of ground, ofdistance, and of time. To employ against a human enemy the same patienceand valor, the same skill and discipline, is the only alteration whichis required in real war; and the amusem*nts of the chase serve as aprelude to the conquest of an empire.

The political society of the ancient Germans has the appearance ofa voluntary alliance of independent warriors. The tribes of Scythia,distinguished by the modern appellation of Hords, assume the form ofa numerous and increasing family; which, in the course of successivegenerations, has been propagated from the same original stock. Themeanest, and most ignorant, of the Tartars, preserve, with consciouspride, the inestimable treasure of their genealogy; and whateverdistinctions of rank may have been introduced, by the unequaldistribution of pastoral wealth, they mutually respect themselves, andeach other, as the descendants of the first founder of the tribe. Thecustom, which still prevails, of adopting the bravest and most faithfulof the captives, may countenance the very probable suspicion, that thisextensive consanguinity is, in a great measure, legal and fictitious.But the useful prejudice, which has obtained the sanction of time andopinion, produces the effects of truth; the haughty Barbarians yield acheerful and voluntary obedience to the head of their blood; and theirchief, or mursa, as the representative of their great father, exercisesthe authority of a judge in peace, and of a leader in war. In theoriginal state of the pastoral world, each of the mursas (if we maycontinue to use a modern appellation) acted as the independent chiefof a large and separate family; and the limits of their peculiarterritories were gradually fixed by superior force, or mutual consent.But the constant operation of various and permanent causes contributedto unite the vagrant Hords into national communities, under the commandof a supreme head. The weak were desirous of support, and the strongwere ambitious of dominion; the power, which is the result of union,oppressed and collected the divided force of the adjacent tribes;and, as the vanquished were freely admitted to share the advantages ofvictory, the most valiant chiefs hastened to range themselves and theirfollowers under the formidable standard of a confederate nation. Themost successful of the Tartar princes assumed the military command, towhich he was entitled by the superiority, either of merit or of power.He was raised to the throne by the acclamations of his equals; and thetitle of Khan expresses, in the language of the North of Asia, the fullextent of the regal dignity. The right of hereditary succession was longconfined to the blood of the founder of the monarchy; and at this momentall the Khans, who reign from Crimea to the wall of China, arethe lineal descendants of the renowned Zingis. But, as it is theindispensable duty of a Tartar sovereign to lead his warlike subjectsinto the field, the claims of an infant are often disregarded; and someroyal kinsman, distinguished by his age and valor, is intrusted with thesword and sceptre of his predecessor. Two distinct and regular taxes arelevied on the tribes, to support the dignity of the national monarch,and of their peculiar chief; and each of those contributions amountsto the tithe, both of their property, and of their spoil. A Tartarsovereign enjoys the tenth part of the wealth of his people; and ashis own domestic riches of flocks and herds increase in a much largerproportion, he is able plentifully to maintain the rustic splendor ofhis court, to reward the most deserving, or the most favored of hisfollowers, and to obtain, from the gentle influence of corruption, theobedience which might be sometimes refused to the stern mandates ofauthority. The manners of his subjects, accustomed, like himself, toblood and rapine, might excuse, in their eyes, such partial acts oftyranny, as would excite the horror of a civilized people; but the powerof a despot has never been acknowledged in the deserts of Scythia. Theimmediate jurisdiction of the khan is confined within the limits of hisown tribe; and the exercise of his royal prerogative has been moderatedby the ancient institution of a national council. The Coroultai, orDiet, of the Tartars, was regularly held in the spring and autumn, inthe midst of a plain; where the princes of the reigning family, and themursas of the respective tribes, may conveniently assemble on horseback,with their martial and numerous trains; and the ambitious monarch, whor*viewed the strength, must consult the inclination of an armedpeople. The rudiments of a feudal government may be discovered inthe constitution of the Scythian or Tartar nations; but the perpetualconflict of those hostile nations has sometimes terminated in theestablishment of a powerful and despotic empire. The victor, enrichedby the tribute, and fortified by the arms of dependent kings, has spreadhis conquests over Europe or Asia: the successful shepherds of the Northhave submitted to the confinement of arts, of laws, and of cities; andthe introduction of luxury, after destroying the freedom of the people,has undermined the foundations of the throne.

The memory of past events cannot long be preserved in the frequent andremote emigrations of illiterate Barbarians. The modern Tartars areignorant of the conquests of their ancestors; and our knowledge of thehistory of the Scythians is derived from their intercourse with thelearned and civilized nations of the South, the Greeks, the Persians,and the Chinese. The Greeks, who navigated the Euxine, and planted theircolonies along the sea-coast, made the gradual and imperfect discoveryof Scythia; from the Danube, and the confines of Thrace, as far as thefrozen MÊotis, the seat of eternal winter, and Mount Caucasus, which,in the language of poetry, was described as the utmost boundary ofthe earth. They celebrated, with simple credulity, the virtues of thepastoral life: they entertained a more rational apprehension of thestrength and numbers of the warlike Barbarians, who contemptuouslybaffled the immense armament of Darius, the son of Hystaspes. ThePersian monarchs had extended their western conquests to the banks ofthe Danube, and the limits of European Scythia. The eastern provinces oftheir empire were exposed to the Scythians of Asia; the wild inhabitantsof the plains beyond the Oxus and the Jaxartes, two mighty rivers, whichdirect their course towards the Caspian Sea. The long and memorablequarrel of Iran and Touran is still the theme of history or romance: thefamous, perhaps the fabulous, valor of the Persian heroes, Rustan andAsfendiar, was signalized, in the defence of their country, against theAfrasiabs of the North; and the invincible spirit of the same Barbariansresisted, on the same ground, the victorious arms of Cyrus andAlexander. In the eyes of the Greeks and Persians, the real geography ofScythia was bounded, on the East, by the mountains of Imaus, or Caf; andtheir distant prospect of the extreme and inaccessible parts of Asia wasclouded by ignorance, or perplexed by fiction. But those inaccessibleregions are the ancient residence of a powerful and civilized nation,which ascends, by a probable tradition, above forty centuries; and whichis able to verify a series of near two thousand years, by the perpetualtestimony of accurate and contemporary historians. The annals of Chinaillustrate the state and revolutions of the pastoral tribes, whichmay still be distinguished by the vague appellation of Scythians, orTartars; the vassals, the enemies, and sometimes the conquerors, of agreat empire; whose policy has uniformly opposed the blind and impetuousvalor of the Barbarians of the North. From the mouth of the Danube tothe Sea of Japan, the whole longitude of Scythia is about one hundredand ten degrees, which, in that parallel, are equal to more than fivethousand miles. The latitude of these extensive deserts cannot be soeasily, or so accurately, measured; but, from the fortieth degree, whichtouches the wall of China, we may securely advance above a thousandmiles to the northward, till our progress is stopped by the excessivecold of Siberia. In that dreary climate, instead of the animated pictureof a Tartar camp, the smoke that issues from the earth, or rather fromthe snow, betrays the subterraneous dwellings of the Tongouses, and theSamoides: the want of horses and oxen is imperfectly supplied by theuse of reindeer, and of large dogs; and the conquerors of the earthinsensibly degenerate into a race of deformed and diminutive savages,who tremble at the sound of arms.

Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.--Part II.

The Huns, who under the reign of Valens threatened the empire of Rome,had been formidable, in a much earlier period, to the empire of China.Their ancient, perhaps their original, seat was an extensive, though dryand barren, tract of country, immediately on the north side of the greatwall. Their place is at present occupied by the forty-nine Hords orBanners of the Mongous, a pastoral nation, which consists of about twohundred thousand families. But the valor of the Huns had extended thenarrow limits of their dominions; and their rustic chiefs, who assumedthe appellation of Tanjou, gradually became the conquerors, and thesovereigns of a formidable empire. Towards the East, their victoriousarms were stopped only by the ocean; and the tribes, which are thinlyscattered between the Amoor and the extreme peninsula of Corea, adhered,with reluctance, to the standard of the Huns. On the West, near the headof the Irtish, in the valleys of Imaus, they found a more ample space,and more numerous enemies. One of the lieutenants of the Tanjou subdued,in a single expedition, twenty-six nations; the Igours, distinguishedabove the Tartar race by the use of letters, were in the number of hisvassals; and, by the strange connection of human events, the flight ofone of those vagrant tribes recalled the victorious Parthians from theinvasion of Syria. On the side of the North, the ocean was assignedas the limit of the power of the Huns. Without enemies to resist theirprogress, or witnesses to contradict their vanity, they might securelyachieve a real, or imaginary, conquest of the frozen regions of Siberia.The Northern Sea was fixed as the remote boundary of their empire. Butthe name of that sea, on whose shores the patriot Sovou embraced thelife of a shepherd and an exile, may be transferred, with much moreprobability, to the Baikal, a capacious basin, above three hundred milesin length, which disdains the modest appellation of a lake and whichactually communicates with the seas of the North, by the long course ofthe Angara, the Tongusha, and the Jenissea. The submission of so manydistant nations might flatter the pride of the Tanjou; but the valorof the Huns could be rewarded only by the enjoyment of the wealth andluxury of the empire of the South. In the third century beforethe Christian Êra, a wall of fifteen hundred miles in length wasconstructed, to defend the frontiers of China against the inroads of theHuns; but this stupendous work, which holds a conspicuous place in themap of the world, has never contributed to the safety of an unwarlikepeople. The cavalry of the Tanjou frequently consisted of two or threehundred thousand men, formidable by the matchless dexterity with whichthey managed their bows and their horses: by their hardy patience insupporting the inclemency of the weather; and by the incredible speed oftheir march, which was seldom checked by torrents, or precipices, by thedeepest rivers, or by the most lofty mountains. They spread themselvesat once over the face of the country; and their rapid impetuositysurprised, astonished, and disconcerted the grave and elaborate tacticsof a Chinese army. The emperor Kaoti, a soldier of fortune, whosepersonal merit had raised him to the throne, marched against the Hunswith those veteran troops which had been trained in the civil wars ofChina. But he was soon surrounded by the Barbarians; and, after a siegeof seven days, the monarch, hopeless of relief, was reduced to purchasehis deliverance by an ignominious capitulation. The successors of Kaoti,whose lives were dedicated to the arts of peace, or the luxury ofthe palace, submitted to a more permanent disgrace. They too hastilyconfessed the insufficiency of arms and fortifications. They were tooeasily convinced, that while the blazing signals announced on every sidethe approach of the Huns, the Chinese troops, who slept with the helmeton their head, and the cuirass on their back, were destroyed by theincessant labor of ineffectual marches. A regular payment of money,and silk, was stipulated as the condition of a temporary and precariouspeace; and the wretched expedient of disguising a real tribute, underthe names of a gift or subsidy, was practised by the emperors of Chinaas well as by those of Rome. But there still remained a more disgracefularticle of tribute, which violated the sacred feelings of humanity andnature. The hardships of the savage life, which destroy in their infancythe children who are born with a less healthy and robust constitution,introduced a remarkable disproportion between the numbers of the twosexes. The Tartars are an ugly and even deformed race; and while theyconsider their own women as the instruments of domestic labor, theirdesires, or rather their appetites, are directed to the enjoyment ofmore elegant beauty. A select band of the fairest maidens of China wasannually devoted to the rude embraces of the Huns; and the alliance ofthe haughty Tanjous was secured by their marriage with the genuine, oradopted, daughters of the Imperial family, which vainly attemptedto escape the sacrilegious pollution. The situation of these unhappyvictims is described in the verses of a Chinese princess, who lamentsthat she had been condemned by her parents to a distant exile, under aBarbarian husband; who complains that sour milk was her only drink, rawflesh her only food, a tent her only palace; and who expresses, ina strain of pathetic simplicity, the natural wish, that she weretransformed into a bird, to fly back to her dear country; the object ofher tender and perpetual regret.

The conquest of China has been twice achieved by the pastoral tribesof the North: the forces of the Huns were not inferior to those of theMoguls, or of the Mantcheoux; and their ambition might entertain themost sanguine hopes of success. But their pride was humbled, and theirprogress was checked, by the arms and policy of Vouti, the fifth emperorof the powerful dynasty of the Han. In his long reign of fifty-fouryears, the Barbarians of the southern provinces submitted to the lawsand manners of China; and the ancient limits of the monarchy wereenlarged, from the great river of Kiang, to the port of Canton. Insteadof confining himself to the timid operations of a defensive war, hislieutenants penetrated many hundred miles into the country of the Huns.In those boundless deserts, where it is impossible to form magazines,and difficult to transport a sufficient supply of provisions, the armiesof Vouti were repeatedly exposed to intolerable hardships: and, of onehundred and forty thousand soldiers, who marched against the Barbarians,thirty thousand only returned in safety to the feet of their master.These losses, however, were compensated by splendid and decisivesuccess. The Chinese generals improved the superiority which theyderived from the temper of their arms, their chariots of war, andthe service of their Tartar auxiliaries. The camp of the Tanjou wassurprised in the midst of sleep and intemperance; and, though themonarch of the Huns bravely cut his way through the ranks of the enemy,he left above fifteen thousand of his subjects on the field of battle.Yet this signal victory, which was preceded and followed by many bloodyengagements, contributed much less to the destruction of the power ofthe Huns than the effectual policy which was employed to detach thetributary nations from their obedience. Intimidated by the arms,or allured by the promises, of Vouti and his successors, the mostconsiderable tribes, both of the East and of the West, disclaimed theauthority of the Tanjou. While some acknowledged themselves the alliesor vassals of the empire, they all became the implacable enemies ofthe Huns; and the numbers of that haughty people, as soon as they werereduced to their native strength, might, perhaps, have been containedwithin the walls of one of the great and populous cities of China. Thedesertion of his subjects, and the perplexity of a civil war, at lengthcompelled the Tanjou himself to renounce the dignity of an independentsovereign, and the freedom of a warlike and high-spirited nation. Hewas received at Sigan, the capital of the monarchy, by the troops, themandarins, and the emperor himself, with all the honors that could adornand disguise the triumph of Chinese vanity. A magnificent palace wasprepared for his reception; his place was assigned above all theprinces of the royal family; and the patience of the Barbarian kingwas exhausted by the ceremonies of a banquet, which consisted of eightcourses of meat, and of nine solemn pieces of music. But he performed,on his knees, the duty of a respectful homage to the emperor of China;pronounced, in his own name, and in the name of his successors, aperpetual oath of fidelity; and gratefully accepted a seal, which wasbestowed as the emblem of his regal dependence. After this humiliatingsubmission, the Tanjous sometimes departed from their allegiance andseized the favorable moments of war and rapine; but the monarchy of theHuns gradually declined, till it was broken, by civil dissension, intotwo hostile and separate kingdoms. One of the princes of the nationwas urged, by fear and ambition, to retire towards the South with eighthords, which composed between forty and fifty thousand families. Heobtained, with the title of Tanjou, a convenient territory on the vergeof the Chinese provinces; and his constant attachment to the service ofthe empire was secured by weakness, and the desire of revenge. From thetime of this fatal schism, the Huns of the North continued to languishabout fifty years; till they were oppressed on every side by theirforeign and domestic enemies. The proud inscription of a column, erectedon a lofty mountain, announced to posterity, that a Chinese army hadmarched seven hundred miles into the heart of their country. The Sienpi,a tribe of Oriental Tartars, retaliated the injuries which they hadformerly sustained; and the power of the Tanjous, after a reign ofthirteen hundred years, was utterly destroyed before the end of thefirst century of the Christian Êra.

The fate of the vanquished Huns was diversified by the various influenceof character and situation. Above one hundred thousand persons,the poorest, indeed, and the most pusillanimous of the people, werecontented to remain in their native country, to renounce their peculiarname and origin, and to mingle with the victorious nation of the Sienpi.Fifty-eight hords, about two hundred thousand men, ambitious of a morehonorable servitude, retired towards the South; implored the protectionof the emperors of China; and were permitted to inhabit, and to guard,the extreme frontiers of the province of Chansi and the territory ofOrtous. But the most warlike and powerful tribes of the Huns maintained,in their adverse fortune, the undaunted spirit of their ancestors. TheWestern world was open to their valor; and they resolved, under theconduct of their hereditary chieftains, to conquer and subdue someremote country, which was still inaccessible to the arms of the Sienpi,and to the laws of China. The course of their emigration soon carriedthem beyond the mountains of Imaus, and the limits of the Chinesegeography; but we are able to distinguish the two great divisions ofthese formidable exiles, which directed their march towards the Oxus,and towards the Volga. The first of these colonies established theirdominion in the fruitful and extensive plains of Sogdiana, on theeastern side of the Caspian; where they preserved the name of Huns, withthe epithet of Euthalites, or Nepthalites. Their manners were softened,and even their features were insensibly improved, by the mildness of theclimate, and their long residence in a flourishing province, which mightstill retain a faint impression of the arts of Greece. The white Huns,a name which they derived from the change of their complexions,soon abandoned the pastoral life of Scythia. Gorgo, which, under theappellation of Carizme, has since enjoyed a temporary splendor, was theresidence of the king, who exercised a legal authority over an obedientpeople. Their luxury was maintained by the labor of the Sogdians;and the only vestige of their ancient barbarism, was the custom whichobliged all the companions, perhaps to the number of twenty, who hadshared the liberality of a wealthy lord, to be buried alive in the samegrave. The vicinity of the Huns to the provinces of Persia, involvedthem in frequent and bloody contests with the power of that monarchy.But they respected, in peace, the faith of treaties; in war, shedictates of humanity; and their memorable victory over Peroses,or Firuz, displayed the moderation, as well as the valor, of theBarbarians. The second division of their countrymen, the Huns, whogradually advanced towards the North-west, were exercised by thehardships of a colder climate, and a more laborious march. Necessitycompelled them to exchange the silks of China for the furs of Siberia;the imperfect rudiments of civilized life were obliterated; and thenative fierceness of the Huns was exasperated by their intercourse withthe savage tribes, who were compared, with some propriety, to thewild beasts of the desert. Their independent spirit soon rejected thehereditary succession of the Tanjous; and while each horde was governedby its peculiar mursa, their tumultuary council directed the publicmeasures of the whole nation. As late as the thirteenth century, theirtransient residence on the eastern banks of the Volga was attested bythe name of Great Hungary. In the winter, they descended with theirflocks and herds towards the mouth of that mighty river; and theirsummer excursions reached as high as the latitude of Saratoff, orperhaps the conflux of the Kama. Such at least were the recent limits ofthe black Calmucks, who remained about a century under the protectionof Russia; and who have since returned to their native seats on thefrontiers of the Chinese empire. The march, and the return, of thosewandering Tartars, whose united camp consists of fifty thousand tents orfamilies, illustrate the distant emigrations of the ancient Huns.

It is impossible to fill the dark interval of time, which elapsed, afterthe Huns of the Volga were lost in the eyes of the Chinese, and beforethey showed themselves to those of the Romans. There is some reason,however, to apprehend, that the same force which had driven them fromtheir native seats, still continued to impel their march towards thefrontiers of Europe. The power of the Sienpi, their implacable enemies,which extended above three thousand miles from East to West, musthave gradually oppressed them by the weight and terror of a formidableneighborhood; and the flight of the tribes of Scythia would inevitablytend to increase the strength or to contract the territories, of theHuns. The harsh and obscure appellations of those tribes would offendthe ear, without informing the understanding, of the reader; but Icannot suppress the very natural suspicion, that the Huns of the Northderived a considerable reenforcement from the ruin of the dynasty ofthe South, which, in the course of the third century, submitted to thedominion of China; that the bravest warriors marched away in searchof their free and adventurous countrymen; and that, as they had beendivided by prosperity, they were easily reunited by the common hardshipsof their adverse fortune. The Huns, with their flocks and herds, theirwives and children, their dependents and allies, were transported to thewest of the Volga, and they boldly advanced to invade the country of theAlani, a pastoral people, who occupied, or wasted, an extensive tract ofthe deserts of Scythia. The plains between the Volga and the Tanais werecovered with the tents of the Alani, but their name and manners werediffused over the wide extent of their conquests; and the painted tribesof the Agathyrsi and Geloni were confounded among their vassals. Towardsthe North, they penetrated into the frozen regions of Siberia, among thesavages who were accustomed, in their rage or hunger, to the tasteof human flesh; and their Southern inroads were pushed as far as theconfines of Persia and India. The mixture of Somatic and German bloodhad contributed to improve the features of the Alani, * to whiten theirswarthy complexions, and to tinge their hair with a yellowish cast,which is seldom found in the Tartar race. They were less deformed intheir persons, less brutish in their manners, than the Huns; but theydid not yield to those formidable Barbarians in their martial andindependent spirit; in the love of freedom, which rejected even the useof domestic slaves; and in the love of arms, which considered war andrapine as the pleasure and the glory of mankind. A naked cimeter, fixedin the ground, was the only object of their religious worship; thescalps of their enemies formed the costly trappings of their horses;and they viewed, with pity and contempt, the pusillanimous warriors, whopatiently expected the infirmities of age, and the tortures of lingeringdisease. On the banks of the Tanais, the military power of the Hunsand the Alani encountered each other with equal valor, but with unequalsuccess. The Huns prevailed in the bloody contest; the king of the Alaniwas slain; and the remains of the vanquished nation were dispersed bythe ordinary alternative of flight or submission. A colony of exilesfound a secure refuge in the mountains of Caucasus, between theEuxine and the Caspian, where they still preserve their name and theirindependence. Another colony advanced, with more intrepid courage,towards the shores of the Baltic; associated themselves with theNorthern tribes of Germany; and shared the spoil of the Roman provincesof Gaul and Spain. But the greatest part of the nation of the Alaniembraced the offers of an honorable and advantageous union; and theHuns, who esteemed the valor of their less fortunate enemies, proceeded,with an increase of numbers and confidence, to invade the limits of theGothic empire.

The great Hermanric, whose dominions extended from the Baltic to theEuxine, enjoyed, in the full maturity of age and reputation, the fruitof his victories, when he was alarmed by the formidable approach of ahost of unknown enemies, on whom his barbarous subjects might, withoutinjustice, bestow the epithet of Barbarians. The numbers, the strength,the rapid motions, and the implacable cruelty of the Huns, were felt,and dreaded, and magnified, by the astonished Goths; who beheldtheir fields and villages consumed with flames, and deluged withindiscriminate slaughter. To these real terrors they added the surpriseand abhorrence which were excited by the shrill voice, the uncouthgestures, and the strange deformity of the Huns. * These savages ofScythia were compared (and the picture had some resemblance) to theanimals who walk very awkwardly on two legs and to the misshapenfigures, the Termini, which were often placed on the bridges ofantiquity. They were distinguished from the rest of the human species bytheir broad shoulders, flat noses, and small black eyes, deeply buriedin the head; and as they were almost destitute of beards, they neverenjoyed either the manly grace of youth, or the venerable aspect of age.A fabulous origin was assigned, worthy of their form and manners; thatthe witches of Scythia, who, for their foul and deadly practices, hadbeen driven from society, had copulated in the desert with infernalspirits; and that the Huns were the offspring of this execrableconjunction. The tale, so full of horror and absurdity, was greedilyembraced by the credulous hatred of the Goths; but, while it gratifiedtheir hatred, it increased their fear, since the posterity of dÊmonsand witches might be supposed to inherit some share of the prÊternaturalpowers, as well as of the malignant temper, of their parents. Againstthese enemies, Hermanric prepared to exert the united forces of theGothic state; but he soon discovered that his vassal tribes, provokedby oppression, were much more inclined to second, than to repel, theinvasion of the Huns. One of the chiefs of the Roxolani had formerlydeserted the standard of Hermanric, and the cruel tyrant had condemnedthe innocent wife of the traitor to be torn asunder by wild horses.The brothers of that unfortunate woman seized the favorable momentof revenge. The aged king of the Goths languished some time after thedangerous wound which he received from their daggers; but the conduct ofthe war was retarded by his infirmities; and the public councils of thenation were distracted by a spirit of jealousy and discord. His death,which has been imputed to his own despair, left the reins of governmentin the hands of Withimer, who, with the doubtful aid of some Scythianmercenaries, maintained the unequal contest against the arms of the Hunsand the Alani, till he was defeated and slain in a decisive battle. TheOstrogoths submitted to their fate; and the royal race of the Amali willhereafter be found among the subjects of the haughty Attila. But theperson of Witheric, the infant king, was saved by the diligence ofAlatheus and Saphrax; two warriors of approved valor and fidelity, who,by cautious marches, conducted the independent remains of the nation ofthe Ostrogoths towards the Danastus, or Niester; a considerable river,which now separates the Turkish dominions from the empire of Russia. Onthe banks of the Niester, the prudent Athanaric, more attentive to hisown than to the general safety, had fixed the camp of the Visigoths;with the firm resolution of opposing the victorious Barbarians, whom hethought it less advisable to provoke. The ordinary speed of the Huns waschecked by the weight of baggage, and the encumbrance of captives;but their military skill deceived, and almost destroyed, the army ofAthanaric. While the Judge of the Visigoths defended the banks of theNiester, he was encompassed and attacked by a numerous detachmentof cavalry, who, by the light of the moon, had passed the river in afordable place; and it was not without the utmost efforts of courageand conduct, that he was able to effect his retreat towards the hillycountry. The undaunted general had already formed a new and judiciousplan of defensive war; and the strong lines, which he was preparing toconstruct between the mountains, the Pruth, and the Danube, would havesecured the extensive and fertile territory that bears the modern nameof Walachia, from the destructive inroads of the Huns. But the hopesand measures of the Judge of the Visigoths was soon disappointed, by thetrembling impatience of his dismayed countrymen; who were persuaded bytheir fears, that the interposition of the Danube was the only barrierthat could save them from the rapid pursuit, and invincible valor, ofthe Barbarians of Scythia. Under the command of Fritigern and Alavivus,the body of the nation hastily advanced to the banks of the great river,and implored the protection of the Roman emperor of the East. Athanarichimself, still anxious to avoid the guilt of perjury, retired, with aband of faithful followers, into the mountainous country of Caucaland;which appears to have been guarded, and almost concealed, by theimpenetrable forests of Transylvania. *

Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.--Part III.

After Valens had terminated the Gothic war with some appearance of gloryand success, he made a progress through his dominions of Asia, and atlength fixed his residence in the capital of Syria. The five years whichhe spent at Antioch was employed to watch, from a secure distance, thehostile designs of the Persian monarch; to check the depredations ofthe Saracens and Isaurians; to enforce, by arguments more prevalent thanthose of reason and eloquence, the belief of the Arian theology; andto satisfy his anxious suspicions by the promiscuous execution of theinnocent and the guilty. But the attention of the emperor was mostseriously engaged, by the important intelligence which he received fromthe civil and military officers who were intrusted with the defence ofthe Danube. He was informed, that the North was agitated by a furioustempest; that the irruption of the Huns, an unknown and monstrous raceof savages, had subverted the power of the Goths; and that the suppliantmultitudes of that warlike nation, whose pride was now humbled in thedust, covered a space of many miles along the banks of the river. Withoutstretched arms, and pathetic lamentations, they loudly deplored theirpast misfortunes and their present danger; acknowledged that their onlyhope of safety was in the clemency of the Roman government; and mostsolemnly protested, that if the gracious liberality of the emperor wouldpermit them to cultivate the waste lands of Thrace, they shouldever hold themselves bound, by the strongest obligations of duty andgratitude, to obey the laws, and to guard the limits, of the republic.These assurances were confirmed by the ambassadors of the Goths, *who impatiently expected from the mouth of Valens an answer that mustfinally determine the fate of their unhappy countrymen. The emperor ofthe East was no longer guided by the wisdom and authority of his elderbrother, whose death happened towards the end of the preceding year;and as the distressful situation of the Goths required an instant andperemptory decision, he was deprived of the favorite resources of feebleand timid minds, who consider the use of dilatory and ambiguous measuresas the most admirable efforts of consummate prudence. As long as thesame passions and interests subsist among mankind, the questions of warand peace, of justice and policy, which were debated in the councils ofantiquity, will frequently present themselves as the subject of moderndeliberation. But the most experienced statesman of Europe has neverbeen summoned to consider the propriety, or the danger, of admitting,or rejecting, an innumerable multitude of Barbarians, who are drivenby despair and hunger to solicit a settlement on the territories ofa civilized nation. When that important proposition, so essentiallyconnected with the public safety, was referred to the ministers ofValens, they were perplexed and divided; but they soon acquiesced in theflattering sentiment which seemed the most favorable to the pride, theindolence, and the avarice of their sovereign. The slaves, who weredecorated with the titles of prÊfects and generals, dissembled ordisregarded the terrors of this national emigration; so extremelydifferent from the partial and accidental colonies, which had beenreceived on the extreme limits of the empire. But they applauded theliberality of fortune, which had conducted, from the most distantcountries of the globe, a numerous and invincible army of strangers, todefend the throne of Valens; who might now add to the royal treasuresthe immense sums of gold supplied by the provincials to compensate theirannual proportion of recruits. The prayers of the Goths were granted,and their service was accepted by the Imperial court: and orders wereimmediately despatched to the civil and military governors of theThracian diocese, to make the necessary preparations for the passage andsubsistence of a great people, till a proper and sufficient territorycould be allotted for their future residence. The liberality ofthe emperor was accompanied, however, with two harsh and rigorousconditions, which prudence might justify on the side of the Romans; butwhich distress alone could extort from the indignant Goths. Before theypassed the Danube, they were required to deliver their arms: and it wasinsisted, that their children should be taken from them, and dispersedthrough the provinces of Asia; where they might be civilized by thearts of education, and serve as hostages to secure the fidelity of theirparents.

During the suspense of a doubtful and distant negotiation, the impatientGoths made some rash attempts to pass the Danube, without the permissionof the government, whose protection they had implored. Their motionswere strictly observed by the vigilance of the troops which werestationed along the river and their foremost detachments were defeatedwith considerable slaughter; yet such were the timid councils of thereign of Valens, that the brave officers who had served their countryin the execution of their duty, were punished by the loss of theiremployments, and narrowly escaped the loss of their heads. The Imperialmandate was at length received for transporting over the Danube thewhole body of the Gothic nation; but the execution of this order was atask of labor and difficulty. The stream of the Danube, which in thoseparts is above a mile broad, had been swelled by incessant rains; and inthis tumultuous passage, many were swept away, and drowned, by the rapidviolence of the current. A large fleet of vessels, of boats, and ofcanoes, was provided; many days and nights they passed and repassed withindefatigable toil; and the most strenuous diligence was exerted bythe officers of Valens, that not a single Barbarian, of those who werereserved to subvert the foundations of Rome, should be left on theopposite shore. It was thought expedient that an accurate accountshould be taken of their numbers; but the persons who were employed soondesisted, with amazement and dismay, from the prosecution of the endlessand impracticable task: and the principal historian of the age mostseriously affirms, that the prodigious armies of Darius and Xerxes,which had so long been considered as the fables of vain and credulousantiquity, were now justified, in the eyes of mankind, by the evidenceof fact and experience. A probable testimony has fixed the number of theGothic warriors at two hundred thousand men: and if we can venture toadd the just proportion of women, of children, and of slaves, the wholemass of people which composed this formidable emigration, must haveamounted to near a million of persons, of both sexes, and of all ages.The children of the Goths, those at least of a distinguished rank, wereseparated from the multitude. They were conducted, without delay, tothe distant seats assigned for their residence and education; and as thenumerous train of hostages or captives passed through the cities, theirgay and splendid apparel, their robust and martial figure, excited thesurprise and envy of the Provincials. * But the stipulation, the mostoffensive to the Goths, and the most important to the Romans, wasshamefully eluded. The Barbarians, who considered their arms as theensigns of honor and the pledges of safety, were disposed to offer aprice, which the lust or avarice of the Imperial officers was easilytempted to accept. To preserve their arms, the haughty warriorsconsented, with some reluctance, to prostitute their wives or theirdaughters; the charms of a beauteous maid, or a comely boy, secured theconnivance of the inspectors; who sometimes cast an eye of covetousnesson the fringed carpets and linen garments of their new allies, or whosacrificed their duty to the mean consideration of filling their farmswith cattle, and their houses with slaves. The Goths, with arms in theirhands, were permitted to enter the boats; and when their strength wascollected on the other side of the river, the immense camp which wasspread over the plains and the hills of the Lower MÊsia, assumed athreatening and even hostile aspect. The leaders of the Ostrogoths,Alatheus and Saphrax, the guardians of their infant king, appearedsoon afterwards on the Northern banks of the Danube; and immediatelydespatched their ambassadors to the court of Antioch, to solicit, withthe same professions of allegiance and gratitude, the same favor whichhad been granted to the suppliant Visigoths. The absolute refusal ofValens suspended their progress, and discovered the repentance, thesuspicions, and the fears, of the Imperial council.

An undisciplined and unsettled nation of Barbarians required the firmesttemper, and the most dexterous management. The daily subsistence of neara million of extraordinary subjects could be supplied only by constantand skilful diligence, and might continually be interrupted by mistakeor accident. The insolence, or the indignation, of the Goths, if theyconceived themselves to be the objects either of fear or of contempt,might urge them to the most desperate extremities; and the fortune ofthe state seemed to depend on the prudence, as well as the integrity,of the generals of Valens. At this important crisis, the militarygovernment of Thrace was exercised by Lupicinus and Maximus, in whosevenal minds the slightest hope of private emolument outweighed everyconsideration of public advantage; and whose guilt was only alleviatedby their incapacity of discerning the pernicious effects of their rashand criminal administration. Instead of obeying the orders of theirsovereign, and satisfying, with decent liberality, the demands of theGoths, they levied an ungenerous and oppressive tax on the wants of thehungry Barbarians. The vilest food was sold at an extravagant price;and, in the room of wholesome and substantial provisions, the marketswere filled with the flesh of dogs, and of unclean animals, who had diedof disease. To obtain the valuable acquisition of a pound of bread,the Goths resigned the possession of an expensive, though serviceable,slave; and a small quantity of meat was greedily purchased with tenpounds of a precious, but useless metal, when their property wasexhausted, they continued this necessary traffic by the sale of theirsons and daughters; and notwithstanding the love of freedom, whichanimated every Gothic breast, they submitted to the humiliating maxim,that it was better for their children to be maintained in a servilecondition, than to perish in a state of wretched and helplessindependence. The most lively resentment is excited by the tyranny ofpretended benefactors, who sternly exact the debt of gratitude whichthey have cancelled by subsequent injuries: a spirit of discontentinsensibly arose in the camp of the Barbarians, who pleaded, withoutsuccess, the merit of their patient and dutiful behavior; and loudlycomplained of the inhospitable treatment which they had received fromtheir new allies. They beheld around them the wealth and plenty of afertile province, in the midst of which they suffered the intolerablehardships of artificial famine. But the means of relief, and even ofrevenge, were in their hands; since the rapaciousness of their tyrantshad left to an injured people the possession and the use of arms. Theclamors of a multitude, untaught to disguise their sentiments, announcedthe first symptoms of resistance, and alarmed the timid and guilty mindsof Lupicinus and Maximus. Those crafty ministers, who substituted thecunning of temporary expedients to the wise and salutary counsels ofgeneral policy, attempted to remove the Goths from their dangerousstation on the frontiers of the empire; and to disperse them, inseparate quarters of cantonment, through the interior provinces. As theywere conscious how ill they had deserved the respect, or confidence, ofthe Barbarians, they diligently collected, from every side, a militaryforce, that might urge the tardy and reluctant march of a people, whohad not yet renounced the title, or the duties, of Roman subjects. Butthe generals of Valens, while their attention was solely directed tothe discontented Visigoths, imprudently disarmed the ships and thefortifications which constituted the defence of the Danube. The fataloversight was observed, and improved, by Alatheus and Saphrax, whoanxiously watched the favorable moment of escaping from the pursuitof the Huns. By the help of such rafts and vessels as could be hastilyprocured, the leaders of the Ostrogoths transported, without opposition,their king and their army; and boldly fixed a hostile and independentcamp on the territories of the empire.

Under the name of Judges, Alavivus and Fritigern were the leaders of theVisigoths in peace and war; and the authority which they derived fromtheir birth was ratified by the free consent of the nation. In a seasonof tranquility, their power might have been equal, as well as theirrank; but, as soon as their countrymen were exasperated by hunger andoppression, the superior abilities of Fritigern assumed the militarycommand, which he was qualified to exercise for the public welfare. Herestrained the impatient spirit of the Visigoths till the injuries andthe insults of their tyrants should justify their resistance in theopinion of mankind: but he was not disposed to sacrifice any solidadvantages for the empty praise of justice and moderation. Sensibleof the benefits which would result from the union of the Gothic powersunder the same standard, he secretly cultivated the friendship of theOstrogoths; and while he professed an implicit obedience to theorders of the Roman generals, he proceeded by slow marches towardsMarcianopolis, the capital of the Lower MÊsia, about seventy miles fromthe banks of the Danube. On that fatal spot, the flames of discord andmutual hatred burst forth into a dreadful conflagration. Lupicinus hadinvited the Gothic chiefs to a splendid entertainment; and their martialtrain remained under arms at the entrance of the palace. But the gatesof the city were strictly guarded, and the Barbarians were sternlyexcluded from the use of a plentiful market, to which they assertedtheir equal claim of subjects and allies. Their humble prayers wererejected with insolence and derision; and as their patience was nowexhausted, the townsmen, the soldiers, and the Goths, were soon involvedin a conflict of passionate altercation and angry reproaches. A blow wasimprudently given; a sword was hastily drawn; and the first blood thatwas spilt in this accidental quarrel, became the signal of a longand destructive war. In the midst of noise and brutal intemperance,Lupicinus was informed, by a secret messenger, that many of his soldierswere slain, and despoiled of their arms; and as he was already inflamedby wine, and oppressed by sleep he issued a rash command, that theirdeath should be revenged by the massacre of the guards of Fritigern andAlavivus. The clamorous shouts and dying groans apprised Fritigern ofhis extreme danger; and, as he possessed the calm and intrepid spirit ofa hero, he saw that he was lost if he allowed a moment of deliberationto the man who had so deeply injured him. "A trifling dispute," said theGothic leader, with a firm but gentle tone of voice, "appears to havearisen between the two nations; but it may be productive of the mostdangerous consequences, unless the tumult is immediately pacified by theassurance of our safety, and the authority of our presence." At thesewords, Fritigern and his companions drew their swords, opened theirpassage through the unresisting crowd, which filled the palace, thestreets, and the gates, of Marcianopolis, and, mounting their horses,hastily vanished from the eyes of the astonished Romans. The generalsof the Goths were saluted by the fierce and joyful acclamations ofthe camp; war was instantly resolved, and the resolution was executedwithout delay: the banners of the nation were displayed according tothe custom of their ancestors; and the air resounded with the harsh andmournful music of the Barbarian trumpet. The weak and guilty Lupicinus,who had dared to provoke, who had neglected to destroy, and who stillpresumed to despise, his formidable enemy, marched against the Goths, atthe head of such a military force as could be collected on this suddenemergency. The Barbarians expected his approach about nine miles fromMarcianopolis; and on this occasion the talents of the general werefound to be of more prevailing efficacy than the weapons and disciplineof the troops. The valor of the Goths was so ably directed by the geniusof Fritigern, that they broke, by a close and vigorous attack, theranks of the Roman legions. Lupicinus left his arms and standards, histribunes and his bravest soldiers, on the field of battle; and theiruseless courage served only to protect the ignominious flight oftheir leader. "That successful day put an end to the distress of theBarbarians, and the security of the Romans: from that day, the Goths,renouncing the precarious condition of strangers and exiles, assumed thecharacter of citizens and masters, claimed an absolute dominion over thepossessors of land, and held, in their own right, the northern provincesof the empire, which are bounded by the Danube." Such are the words ofthe Gothic historian, who celebrates, with rude eloquence, the glory ofhis countrymen. But the dominion of the Barbarians was exercised onlyfor the purposes of rapine and destruction. As they had been deprived,by the ministers of the emperor, of the common benefits of nature, andthe fair intercourse of social life, they retaliated the injustice onthe subjects of the empire; and the crimes of Lupicinus were expiatedby the ruin of the peaceful husbandmen of Thrace, the conflagrationof their villages, and the massacre, or captivity, of their innocentfamilies. The report of the Gothic victory was soon diffused over theadjacent country; and while it filled the minds of the Romans withterror and dismay, their own hasty imprudence contributed to increasethe forces of Fritigern, and the calamities of the province. Some timebefore the great emigration, a numerous body of Goths, under the commandof Suerid and Colias, had been received into the protection and serviceof the empire. They were encamped under the walls of Hadrianople;but the ministers of Valens were anxious to remove them beyond theHellespont, at a distance from the dangerous temptation which might soeasily be communicated by the neighborhood, and the success, of theircountrymen. The respectful submission with which they yielded to theorder of their march, might be considered as a proof of their fidelity;and their moderate request of a sufficient allowance of provisions, andof a delay of only two days was expressed in the most dutiful terms. Butthe first magistrate of Hadrianople, incensed by some disorders whichhad been committed at his country-house, refused this indulgence; andarming against them the inhabitants and manufacturers of a populouscity, he urged, with hostile threats, their instant departure. TheBarbarians stood silent and amazed, till they were exasperated bythe insulting clamors, and missile weapons, of the populace: but whenpatience or contempt was fatigued, they crushed the undisciplinedmultitude, inflicted many a shameful wound on the backs of their flyingenemies, and despoiled them of the splendid armor, which they wereunworthy to bear. The resemblance of their sufferings and their actionssoon united this victorious detachment to the nation of the Visigoths;the troops of Colias and Suerid expected the approach of the greatFritigern, ranged themselves under his standard, and signalized theirardor in the siege of Hadrianople. But the resistance of the garrisoninformed the Barbarians, that in the attack of regular fortifications,the efforts of unskillful courage are seldom effectual. Their generalacknowledged his error, raised the siege, declared that "he was atpeace with stone walls," and revenged his disappointment on the adjacentcountry. He accepted, with pleasure, the useful reenforcement of hardyworkmen, who labored in the gold mines of Thrace, for the emolument,and under the lash, of an unfeeling master: and these new associatesconducted the Barbarians, through the secret paths, to the mostsequestered places, which had been chosen to secure the inhabitants, thecattle, and the magazines of corn. With the assistance of such guides,nothing could remain impervious or inaccessible; resistance was fatal;flight was impracticable; and the patient submission of helplessinnocence seldom found mercy from the Barbarian conqueror. In the courseof these depredations, a great number of the children of the Goths, whohad been sold into captivity, were restored to the embraces of theirafflicted parents; but these tender interviews, which might have revivedand cherished in their minds some sentiments of humanity, tended onlyto stimulate their native fierceness by the desire of revenge. Theylistened, with eager attention, to the complaints of their captivechildren, who had suffered the most cruel indignities from the lustfulor angry passions of their masters, and the same cruelties, the sameindignities, were severely retaliated on the sons and daughters of theRomans.

The imprudence of Valens and his ministers had introduced into the heartof the empire a nation of enemies; but the Visigoths might even yet havebeen reconciled, by the manly confession of past errors, and the sincereperformance of former engagements. These healing and temperate measuresseemed to concur with the timorous disposition of the sovereign ofthe East: but, on this occasion alone, Valens was brave; and hisunseasonable bravery was fatal to himself and to his subjects. Hedeclared his intention of marching from Antioch to Constantinople, tosubdue this dangerous rebellion; and, as he was not ignorant of thedifficulties of the enterprise, he solicited the assistance of hisnephew, the emperor Gratian, who commanded all the forces of the West.The veteran troops were hastily recalled from the defence of Armenia;that important frontier was abandoned to the discretion of Sapor;and the immediate conduct of the Gothic war was intrusted, duringthe absence of Valens, to his lieutenants Trajan and Profuturus, twogenerals who indulged themselves in a very false and favorable opinionof their own abilities. On their arrival in Thrace, they were joined byRichomer, count of the domestics; and the auxiliaries of the West, thatmarched under his banner, were composed of the Gallic legions, reducedindeed, by a spirit of desertion, to the vain appearances of strengthand numbers. In a council of war, which was influenced by pride,rather than by reason, it was resolved to seek, and to encounter, theBarbarians, who lay encamped in the spacious and fertile meadows,near the most southern of the six mouths of the Danube. Their camp wassurrounded by the usual fortification of wagons; and the Barbarians,secure within the vast circle of the enclosure, enjoyed the fruits oftheir valor, and the spoils of the province. In the midst of riotousintemperance, the watchful Fritigern observed the motions, andpenetrated the designs, of the Romans. He perceived, that the numbersof the enemy were continually increasing: and, as he understood theirintention of attacking his rear, as soon as the scarcity of forageshould oblige him to remove his camp, he recalled to their standard hispredatory detachments, which covered the adjacent country. As soon asthey descried the flaming beacons, they obeyed, with incredible speed,the signal of their leader: the camp was filled with the martial crowdof Barbarians; their impatient clamors demanded the battle, and theirtumultuous zeal was approved and animated by the spirit of their chiefs.The evening was already far advanced; and the two armies preparedthemselves for the approaching combat, which was deferred only till thedawn of day. While the trumpets sounded to arms, the undaunted courageof the Goths was confirmed by the mutual obligation of a solemn oath;and as they advanced to meet the enemy, the rude songs, which celebratedthe glory of their forefathers, were mingled with their fierce anddissonant outcries, and opposed to the artificial harmony of the Romanshout. Some military skill was displayed by Fritigern to gain theadvantage of a commanding eminence; but the bloody conflict, which beganand ended with the light, was maintained on either side, by the personaland obstinate efforts of strength, valor, and agility. The legions ofArmenia supported their fame in arms; but they were oppressed by theirresistible weight of the hostile multitude the left wing of the Romanswas thrown into disorder and the field was strewed with their mangledcarcasses. This partial defeat was balanced, however, by partialsuccess; and when the two armies, at a late hour of the evening,retreated to their respective camps, neither of them could claim thehonors, or the effects, of a decisive victory. The real loss was moreseverely felt by the Romans, in proportion to the smallness of theirnumbers; but the Goths were so deeply confounded and dismayed by thisvigorous, and perhaps unexpected, resistance, that they remained sevendays within the circle of their fortifications. Such funeral rites, asthe circ*mstances of time and place would admit, were piously dischargedto some officers of distinguished rank; but the indiscriminate vulgarwas left unburied on the plain. Their flesh was greedily devoured bythe birds of prey, who in that age enjoyed very frequent and deliciousfeasts; and several years afterwards the white and naked bones, whichcovered the wide extent of the fields, presented to the eyes of Ammianusa dreadful monument of the battle of Salices.

The progress of the Goths had been checked by the doubtful event ofthat bloody day; and the Imperial generals, whose army would have beenconsumed by the repetition of such a contest, embraced the more rationalplan of destroying the Barbarians by the wants and pressure of their ownmultitudes. They prepared to confine the Visigoths in the narrow angleof land between the Danube, the desert of Scythia, and the mountains ofHÊmus, till their strength and spirit should be insensibly wasted bythe inevitable operation of famine. The design was prosecuted withsome conduct and success: the Barbarians had almost exhausted theirown magazines, and the harvests of the country; and the diligence ofSaturninus, the master-general of the cavalry, was employed to improvethe strength, and to contract the extent, of the Roman fortifications.His labors were interrupted by the alarming intelligence, that newswarms of Barbarians had passed the unguarded Danube, either tosupport the cause, or to imitate the example, of Fritigern. The justapprehension, that he himself might be surrounded, and overwhelmed,by the arms of hostile and unknown nations, compelled Saturninus torelinquish the siege of the Gothic camp; and the indignant Visigoths,breaking from their confinement, satiated their hunger and revenge bythe repeated devastation of the fruitful country, which extends abovethree hundred miles from the banks of the Danube to the straits of theHellespont. The sagacious Fritigern had successfully appealed to thepassions, as well as to the interest, of his Barbarian allies; and thelove of rapine, and the hatred of Rome, seconded, or even prevented, theeloquence of his ambassadors. He cemented a strict and useful alliancewith the great body of his countrymen, who obeyed Alatheus and Saphraxas the guardians of their infant king: the long animosity of rivaltribes was suspended by the sense of their common interest; theindependent part of the nation was associated under one standard; andthe chiefs of the Ostrogoths appear to have yielded to the superiorgenius of the general of the Visigoths. He obtained the formidable aidof the TaifalÊ, * whose military renown was disgraced and pollutedby the public infamy of their domestic manners. Every youth, on hisentrance into the world, was united by the ties of honorable friendship,and brutal love, to some warrior of the tribe; nor could he hope tobe released from this unnatural connection, till he had approved hismanhood by slaying, in single combat, a huge bear, or a wild boar of theforest. But the most powerful auxiliaries of the Goths were drawn fromthe camp of those enemies who had expelled them from their native seats.The loose subordination, and extensive possessions, of the Huns andthe Alani, delayed the conquests, and distracted the councils, of thatvictorious people. Several of the hords were allured by the liberalpromises of Fritigern; and the rapid cavalry of Scythia added weight andenergy to the steady and strenuous efforts of the Gothic infantry.The Sarmatians, who could never forgive the successor of Valentinian,enjoyed and increased the general confusion; and a seasonable irruptionof the Alemanni, into the provinces of Gaul, engaged the attention, anddiverted the forces, of the emperor of the West.

Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.--Part IV.

One of the most dangerous inconveniences of the introduction of theBarbarians into the army and the palace, was sensibly felt in theircorrespondence with their hostile countrymen; to whom they imprudently,or maliciously, revealed the weakness of the Roman empire. A soldier, ofthe lifeguards of Gratian, was of the nation of the Alemanni, and of thetribe of the Lentienses, who dwelt beyond the Lake of Constance. Somedomestic business obliged him to request a leave of absence. In ashort visit to his family and friends, he was exposed to their curiousinquiries: and the vanity of the loquacious soldier tempted him todisplay his intimate acquaintance with the secrets of the state, and thedesigns of his master. The intelligence, that Gratian was preparing tolead the military force of Gaul, and of the West, to the assistance ofhis uncle Valens, pointed out to the restless spirit of the Alemanni themoment, and the mode, of a successful invasion. The enterprise of somelight detachments, who, in the month of February, passed the Rhine uponthe ice, was the prelude of a more important war. The boldest hopesof rapine, perhaps of conquest, outweighed the considerations of timidprudence, or national faith. Every forest, and every village, pouredforth a band of hardy adventurers; and the great army of the Alemanni,which, on their approach, was estimated at forty thousand men by thefears of the people, was afterwards magnified to the number of seventythousand by the vain and credulous flattery of the Imperial court. Thelegions, which had been ordered to march into Pannonia, were immediatelyrecalled, or detained, for the defence of Gaul; the military commandwas divided between Nanienus and Mellobaudes; and the youthful emperor,though he respected the long experience and sober wisdom of the former,was much more inclined to admire, and to follow, the martial ardor ofhis colleague; who was allowed to unite the incompatible characters ofcount of the domestics, and of king of the Franks. His rival Priarius,king of the Alemanni, was guided, or rather impelled, by the sameheadstrong valor; and as their troops were animated by the spirit oftheir leaders, they met, they saw, they encountered each other, near thetown of Argentaria, or Colmar, in the plains of Alsace. The glory ofthe day was justly ascribed to the missile weapons, and well-practisedevolutions, of the Roman soldiers; the Alemanni, who long maintainedtheir ground, were slaughtered with unrelenting fury; five thousand onlyof the Barbarians escaped to the woods and mountains; and the gloriousdeath of their king on the field of battle saved him from the reproachesof the people, who are always disposed to accuse the justice, or policy,of an unsuccessful war. After this signal victory, which secured thepeace of Gaul, and asserted the honor of the Roman arms, the emperorGratian appeared to proceed without delay on his Eastern expedition; butas he approached the confines of the Alemanni, he suddenly inclined tothe left, surprised them by his unexpected passage of the Rhine, andboldly advanced into the heart of their country. The Barbarians opposedto his progress the obstacles of nature and of courage; and stillcontinued to retreat, from one hill to another, till they weresatisfied, by repeated trials, of the power and perseverance of theirenemies. Their submission was accepted as a proof, not indeed of theirsincere repentance, but of their actual distress; and a select number oftheir brave and robust youth was exacted from the faithless nation, asthe most substantial pledge of their future moderation. The subjects ofthe empire, who had so often experienced that the Alemanni could neitherbe subdued by arms, nor restrained by treaties, might not promisethemselves any solid or lasting tranquillity: but they discovered,in the virtues of their young sovereign, the prospect of a long andauspicious reign. When the legions climbed the mountains, and scaled thefortifications of the Barbarians, the valor of Gratian was distinguishedin the foremost ranks; and the gilt and variegated armor of his guardswas pierced and shattered by the blows which they had received in theirconstant attachment to the person of their sovereign. At the age ofnineteen, the son of Valentinian seemed to possess the talents of peaceand war; and his personal success against the Alemanni was interpretedas a sure presage of his Gothic triumphs.

While Gratian deserved and enjoyed the applause of his subjects, theemperor Valens, who, at length, had removed his court and army fromAntioch, was received by the people of Constantinople as the authorof the public calamity. Before he had reposed himself ten days in thecapital, he was urged by the licentious clamors of the Hippodrome tomarch against the Barbarians, whom he had invited into his dominions;and the citizens, who are always brave at a distance from any realdanger, declared, with confidence, that, if they were supplied witharms, they alone would undertake to deliver the province from theravages of an insulting foe. The vain reproaches of an ignorantmultitude hastened the downfall of the Roman empire; they provoked thedesperate rashness of Valens; who did not find, either in his reputationor in his mind, any motives to support with firmness the publiccontempt. He was soon persuaded, by the successful achievements of hislieutenants, to despise the power of the Goths, who, by the diligenceof Fritigern, were now collected in the neighborhood of Hadrianople. Themarch of the TaifalÊ had been intercepted by the valiant Frigerid:the king of those licentious Barbarians was slain in battle; and thesuppliant captives were sent into distant exile to cultivate thelands of Italy, which were assigned for their settlement in the vacantterritories of Modena and Parma. The exploits of Sebastian, who wasrecently engaged in the service of Valens, and promoted to the rank ofmaster-general of the infantry, were still more honorable to himself,and useful to the republic. He obtained the permission of selectingthree hundred soldiers from each of the legions; and this separatedetachment soon acquired the spirit of discipline, and the exerciseof arms, which were almost forgotten under the reign of Valens. By thevigor and conduct of Sebastian, a large body of the Goths were surprisedin their camp; and the immense spoil, which was recovered from theirhands, filled the city of Hadrianople, and the adjacent plain. Thesplendid narratives, which the general transmitted of his own exploits,alarmed the Imperial court by the appearance of superior merit; andthough he cautiously insisted on the difficulties of the Gothic war,his valor was praised, his advice was rejected; and Valens, who listenedwith pride and pleasure to the flattering suggestions of the eunuchsof the palace, was impatient to seize the glory of an easy and assuredconquest. His army was strengthened by a numerous reenforcement ofveterans; and his march from Constantinople to Hadrianople was conductedwith so much military skill, that he prevented the activity of theBarbarians, who designed to occupy the intermediate defiles, and tointercept either the troops themselves, or their convoys of provisions.The camp of Valens, which he pitched under the walls of Hadrianople,was fortified, according to the practice of the Romans, with a ditch andrampart; and a most important council was summoned, to decide the fateof the emperor and of the empire. The party of reason and of delay wasstrenuously maintained by Victor, who had corrected, by the lessonsof experience, the native fierceness of the Sarmatian character; whileSebastian, with the flexible and obsequious eloquence of a courtier,represented every precaution, and every measure, that implied a doubtof immediate victory, as unworthy of the courage and majesty of theirinvincible monarch. The ruin of Valens was precipitated by the deceitfularts of Fritigern, and the prudent admonitions of the emperor of theWest. The advantages of negotiating in the midst of war wereperfectly understood by the general of the Barbarians; and a Christianecclesiastic was despatched, as the holy minister of peace, topenetrate, and to perplex, the councils of the enemy. The misfortunes,as well as the provocations, of the Gothic nation, were forcibly andtruly described by their ambassador; who protested, in the name ofFritigern, that he was still disposed to lay down his arms, or to employthem only in the defence of the empire; if he could secure for hiswandering countrymen a tranquil settlement on the waste lands of Thrace,and a sufficient allowance of corn and cattle. But he added, in awhisper of confidential friendship, that the exasperated Barbarians wereaverse to these reasonable conditions; and that Fritigern was doubtfulwhether he could accomplish the conclusion of the treaty, unless hefound himself supported by the presence and terrors of an Imperial army.About the same time, Count Richomer returned from the West to announcethe defeat and submission of the Alemanni, to inform Valens thathis nephew advanced by rapid marches at the head of the veteran andvictorious legions of Gaul, and to request, in the name of Gratian andof the republic, that every dangerous and decisive measure might besuspended, till the junction of the two emperors should insure thesuccess of the Gothic war. But the feeble sovereign of the East wasactuated only by the fatal illusions of pride and jealousy. He disdainedthe importunate advice; he rejected the humiliating aid; he secretlycompared the ignominious, at least the inglorious, period of his ownreign, with the fame of a beardless youth; and Valens rushed intothe field, to erect his imaginary trophy, before the diligence of hiscolleague could usurp any share of the triumphs of the day.

On the ninth of August, a day which has deserved to be marked among themost inauspicious of the Roman Calendar, the emperor Valens, leaving,under a strong guard, his baggage and military treasure, marched fromHadrianople to attack the Goths, who were encamped about twelve milesfrom the city. By some mistake of the orders, or some ignorance of theground, the right wing, or column of cavalry arrived in sight ofthe enemy, whilst the left was still at a considerable distance; thesoldiers were compelled, in the sultry heat of summer, to precipitatetheir pace; and the line of battle was formed with tedious confusion andirregular delay. The Gothic cavalry had been detached to forage inthe adjacent country; and Fritigern still continued to practise hiscustomary arts. He despatched messengers of peace, made proposals,required hostages, and wasted the hours, till the Romans, exposedwithout shelter to the burning rays of the sun, were exhausted bythirst, hunger, and intolerable fatigue. The emperor was persuaded tosend an ambassador to the Gothic camp; the zeal of Richomer, who alonehad courage to accept the dangerous commission, was applauded; andthe count of the domestics, adorned with the splendid ensigns of hisdignity, had proceeded some way in the space between the two armies,when he was suddenly recalled by the alarm of battle. The hasty andimprudent attack was made by Bacurius the Iberian, who commanded a bodyof archers and targiteers; and as they advanced with rashness, theyretreated with loss and disgrace. In the same moment, the flyingsquadrons of Alatheus and Saphrax, whose return was anxiously expectedby the general of the Goths, descended like a whirlwind from the hills,swept across the plain, and added new terrors to the tumultuous, butirresistible charge of the Barbarian host. The event of the battle ofHadrianople, so fatal to Valens and to the empire, may be described ina few words: the Roman cavalry fled; the infantry was abandoned,surrounded, and cut in pieces. The most skilful evolutions, thefirmest courage, are scarcely sufficient to extricate a body of foot,encompassed, on an open plain, by superior numbers of horse; but thetroops of Valens, oppressed by the weight of the enemy and their ownfears, were crowded into a narrow space, where it was impossible forthem to extend their ranks, or even to use, with effect, their swordsand javelins. In the midst of tumult, of slaughter, and of dismay, theemperor, deserted by his guards and wounded, as it was supposed, withan arrow, sought protection among the Lancearii and the Mattiarii,who still maintained their ground with some appearance of order andfirmness. His faithful generals, Trajan and Victor, who perceived hisdanger, loudly exclaimed that all was lost, unless the person of theemperor could be saved. Some troops, animated by their exhortation,advanced to his relief: they found only a bloody spot, covered with aheap of broken arms and mangled bodies, without being able to discovertheir unfortunate prince, either among the living or the dead. Theirsearch could not indeed be successful, if there is any truth in thecirc*mstances with which some historians have related the death of theemperor. By the care of his attendants, Valens was removed from thefield of battle to a neighboring cottage, where they attempted to dresshis wound, and to provide for his future safety. But this humble retreatwas instantly surrounded by the enemy: they tried to force the door,they were provoked by a discharge of arrows from the roof, till atlength, impatient of delay, they set fire to a pile of dry fa*gots,and consumed the cottage with the Roman emperor and his train. Valensperished in the flames; and a youth, who dropped from the window, aloneescaped, to attest the melancholy tale, and to inform the Goths of theinestimable prize which they had lost by their own rashness. A greatnumber of brave and distinguished officers perished in the battle ofHadrianople, which equalled in the actual loss, and far surpassed in thefatal consequences, the misfortune which Rome had formerly sustained inthe fields of CannÊ. Two master-generals of the cavalry and infantry,two great officers of the palace, and thirty-five tribunes, were foundamong the slain; and the death of Sebastian might satisfy the world,that he was the victim, as well as the author, of the public calamity.Above two thirds of the Roman army were destroyed: and the darkness ofthe night was esteemed a very favorable circ*mstance, as it served toconceal the flight of the multitude, and to protect the more orderlyretreat of Victor and Richomer, who alone, amidst the generalconsternation, maintained the advantage of calm courage and regulardiscipline.

While the impressions of grief and terror were still recent in the mindsof men, the most celebrated rhetorician of the age composed the funeraloration of a vanquished army, and of an unpopular prince, whose thronewas already occupied by a stranger. "There are not wanting," says thecandid Libanius, "those who arraign the prudence of the emperor, or whoimpute the public misfortune to the want of courage and discipline inthe troops. For my own part, I reverence the memory of their formerexploits: I reverence the glorious death, which they bravely received,standing, and fighting in their ranks: I reverence the field of battle,stained with their blood, and the blood of the Barbarians. Thosehonorable marks have been already washed away by the rains; but thelofty monuments of their bones, the bones of generals, of centurions,and of valiant warriors, claim a longer period of duration. The kinghimself fought and fell in the foremost ranks of the battle. Hisattendants presented him with the fleetest horses of the Imperialstable, that would soon have carried him beyond the pursuit of theenemy. They vainly pressed him to reserve his important life for thefuture service of the republic. He still declared that he was unworthyto survive so many of the bravest and most faithful of his subjects; andthe monarch was nobly buried under a mountain of the slain. Let none,therefore, presume to ascribe the victory of the Barbarians to the fear,the weakness, or the imprudence, of the Roman troops. The chiefs andthe soldiers were animated by the virtue of their ancestors, whom theyequalled in discipline and the arts of war. Their generous emulation wassupported by the love of glory, which prompted them to contend at thesame time with heat and thirst, with fire and the sword; and cheerfullyto embrace an honorable death, as their refuge against flight andinfamy. The indignation of the gods has been the only cause of thesuccess of our enemies." The truth of history may disclaim some parts ofthis panegyric, which cannot strictly be reconciled with the characterof Valens, or the circ*mstances of the battle: but the fairestcommendation is due to the eloquence, and still more to the generosity,of the sophist of Antioch.

The pride of the Goths was elated by this memorable victory; but theiravarice was disappointed by the mortifying discovery, that the richestpart of the Imperial spoil had been within the walls of Hadrianople.They hastened to possess the reward of their valor; but they wereencountered by the remains of a vanquished army, with an intrepidresolution, which was the effect of their despair, and the only hope oftheir safety. The walls of the city, and the ramparts of the adjacentcamp, were lined with military engines, that threw stones of an enormousweight; and astonished the ignorant Barbarians by the noise, andvelocity, still more than by the real effects, of the discharge. Thesoldiers, the citizens, the provincials, the domestics of the palace,were united in the danger, and in the defence: the furious assault ofthe Goths was repulsed; their secret arts of treachery and treason werediscovered; and, after an obstinate conflict of many hours, they retiredto their tents; convinced, by experience, that it would be far moreadvisable to observe the treaty, which their sagacious leader hadtacitly stipulated with the fortifications of great and populous cities.After the hasty and impolitic massacre of three hundred deserters, anact of justice extremely useful to the discipline of the Roman armies,the Goths indignantly raised the siege of Hadrianople. The scene of warand tumult was instantly converted into a silent solitude: the multitudesuddenly disappeared; the secret paths of the woods and mountains weremarked with the footsteps of the trembling fugitives, who soughta refuge in the distant cities of Illyricum and Macedonia; and thefaithful officers of the household, and the treasury, cautiouslyproceeded in search of the emperor, of whose death they were stillignorant. The tide of the Gothic inundation rolled from the wallsof Hadrianople to the suburbs of Constantinople. The Barbarians weresurprised with the splendid appearance of the capital of the East, theheight and extent of the walls, the myriads of wealthy and affrightedcitizens who crowded the ramparts, and the various prospect of the seaand land. While they gazed with hopeless desire on the inaccessiblebeauties of Constantinople, a sally was made from one of the gates bya party of Saracens, who had been fortunately engaged in the serviceof Valens. The cavalry of Scythia was forced to yield to the admirableswiftness and spirit of the Arabian horses: their riders were skilledin the evolutions of irregular war; and the Northern Barbarians wereastonished and dismayed, by the inhuman ferocity of the Barbarians ofthe South. A Gothic soldier was slain by the dagger of an Arab; and thehairy, naked savage, applying his lips to the wound, expressed a horriddelight, while he sucked the blood of his vanquished enemy. The army ofthe Goths, laden with the spoils of the wealthy suburbs and the adjacentterritory, slowly moved, from the Bosphorus, to the mountains which formthe western boundary of Thrace. The important pass of Succi was betrayedby the fear, or the misconduct, of Maurus; and the Barbarians, who nolonger had any resistance to apprehend from the scattered and vanquishedtroops of the East, spread themselves over the face of a fertile andcultivated country, as far as the confines of Italy and the HadriaticSea.

The Romans, who so coolly, and so concisely, mention the acts of justicewhich were exercised by the legions, reserve their compassion, and theireloquence, for their own sufferings, when the provinces were invaded,and desolated, by the arms of the successful Barbarians. The simplecirc*mstantial narrative (did such a narrative exist) of the ruin ofa single town, of the misfortunes of a single family, might exhibit aninteresting and instructive picture of human manners: but the tediousrepetition of vague and declamatory complaints would fatigue theattention of the most patient reader. The same censure may be applied,though not perhaps in an equal degree, to the profane, and theecclesiastical, writers of this unhappy period; that their minds wereinflamed by popular and religious animosity; and that the true size andcolor of every object is falsified by the exaggerations of their corrupteloquence. The vehement Jerom might justly deplore the calamitiesinflicted by the Goths, and their barbarous allies, on his nativecountry of Pannonia, and the wide extent of the provinces, from thewalls of Constantinople to the foot of the Julian Alps; the rapes, themassacres, the conflagrations; and, above all, the profanation of thechurches, that were turned into stables, and the contemptuous treatmentof the relics of holy martyrs. But the Saint is surely transportedbeyond the limits of nature and history, when he affirms, "that, inthose desert countries, nothing was left except the sky and the earth;that, after the destruction of the cities, and the extirpation of thehuman race, the land was overgrown with thick forests and inextricablebrambles; and that the universal desolation, announced by the prophetZephaniah, was accomplished, in the scarcity of the beasts, the birds,and even of the fish." These complaints were pronounced about twentyyears after the death of Valens; and the Illyrian provinces, which wereconstantly exposed to the invasion and passage of the Barbarians, stillcontinued, after a calamitous period of ten centuries, to supply newmaterials for rapine and destruction. Could it even be supposed, thata large tract of country had been left without cultivation and withoutinhabitants, the consequences might not have been so fatal to theinferior productions of animated nature. The useful and feeble animals,which are nourished by the hand of man, might suffer and perish, ifthey were deprived of his protection; but the beasts of the forest,his enemies or his victims, would multiply in the free and undisturbedpossession of their solitary domain. The various tribes that people theair, or the waters, are still less connected with the fate of the humanspecies; and it is highly probable that the fish of the Danube wouldhave felt more terror and distress, from the approach of a voraciouspike, than from the hostile inroad of a Gothic army.

Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.--Part V.

Whatever may have been the just measure of the calamities of Europe,there was reason to fear that the same calamities would soon extendto the peaceful countries of Asia. The sons of the Goths had beenjudiciously distributed through the cities of the East; and the arts ofeducation were employed to polish, and subdue, the native fiercenessof their temper. In the space of about twelve years, their numbers hadcontinually increased; and the children, who, in the first emigration,were sent over the Hellespont, had attained, with rapid growth, thestrength and spirit of perfect manhood. It was impossible to concealfrom their knowledge the events of the Gothic war; and, as those daringyouths had not studied the language of dissimulation, they betrayedtheir wish, their desire, perhaps their intention, to emulate theglorious example of their fathers The danger of the times seemed tojustify the jealous suspicions of the provincials; and these suspicionswere admitted as unquestionable evidence, that the Goths of Asia hadformed a secret and dangerous conspiracy against the public safety. Thedeath of Valens had left the East without a sovereign; and Julius, whofilled the important station of master-general of the troops, with ahigh reputation of diligence and ability, thought it his duty to consultthe senate of Constantinople; which he considered, during the vacancy ofthe throne, as the representative council of the nation. As soon as hehad obtained the discretionary power of acting as he should judge mostexpedient for the good of the republic, he assembled the principalofficers, and privately concerted effectual measures for the executionof his bloody design. An order was immediately promulgated, that, on astated day, the Gothic youth should assemble in the capital citiesof their respective provinces; and, as a report was industriouslycirculated, that they were summoned to receive a liberal gift of landsand money, the pleasing hope allayed the fury of their resentment, and,perhaps, suspended the motions of the conspiracy. On the appointed day,the unarmed crowd of the Gothic youth was carefully collected in thesquare or Forum; the streets and avenues were occupied by the Romantroops, and the roofs of the houses were covered with archers andslingers. At the same hour, in all the cities of the East, the signalwas given of indiscriminate slaughter; and the provinces of Asia weredelivered by the cruel prudence of Julius, from a domestic enemy, who,in a few months, might have carried fire and sword from the Hellespontto the Euphrates. The urgent consideration of the public safety mayundoubtedly authorize the violation of every positive law. How farthat, or any other, consideration may operate to dissolve the naturalobligations of humanity and justice, is a doctrine of which I stilldesire to remain ignorant.

The emperor Gratian was far advanced on his march towards the plainsof Hadrianople, when he was informed, at first by the confused voiceof fame, and afterwards by the more accurate reports of Victor andRichomer, that his impatient colleague had been slain in battle, andthat two thirds of the Roman army were exterminated by the sword of thevictorious Goths. Whatever resentment the rash and jealous vanity of hisuncle might deserve, the resentment of a generous mind is easily subduedby the softer emotions of grief and compassion; and even the sense ofpity was soon lost in the serious and alarming consideration of thestate of the republic. Gratian was too late to assist, he was too weakto revenge, his unfortunate colleague; and the valiant and modest youthfelt himself unequal to the support of a sinking world. A formidabletempest of the Barbarians of Germany seemed ready to burst over theprovinces of Gaul; and the mind of Gratian was oppressed and distractedby the administration of the Western empire. In this important crisis,the government of the East, and the conduct of the Gothic war, requiredthe undivided attention of a hero and a statesman. A subject investedwith such ample command would not long have preserved his fidelity to adistant benefactor; and the Imperial council embraced the wise and manlyresolution of conferring an obligation, rather than of yielding to aninsult. It was the wish of Gratian to bestow the purple as the rewardof virtue; but, at the age of nineteen, it is not easy for a prince,educated in the supreme rank, to understand the true characters of hisministers and generals. He attempted to weigh, with an impartial hand,their various merits and defects; and, whilst he checked the rashconfidence of ambition, he distrusted the cautious wisdom whichdespaired of the republic. As each moment of delay diminished somethingof the power and resources of the future sovereign of the East, thesituation of the times would not allow a tedious debate. The choice ofGratian was soon declared in favor of an exile, whose father, only threeyears before, had suffered, under the sanction of his authority, anunjust and ignominious death. The great Theodosius, a name celebrated inhistory, and dear to the Catholic church, was summoned to the Imperialcourt, which had gradually retreated from the confines of Thrace to themore secure station of Sirmium. Five months after the death of Valens,the emperor Gratian produced before the assembled troops his colleagueand their master; who, after a modest, perhaps a sincere, resistance,was compelled to accept, amidst the general acclamations, the diadem,the purple, and the equal title of Augustus. The provinces of Thrace,Asia, and Egypt, over which Valens had reigned, were resigned to theadministration of the new emperor; but, as he was specially intrustedwith the conduct of the Gothic war, the Illyrian prÊfecture wasdismembered; and the two great dioceses of Dacia and Macedonia wereadded to the dominions of the Eastern empire.

The same province, and perhaps the same city, which had given to thethrone the virtues of Trajan, and the talents of Hadrian, was theoriginal seat of another family of Spaniards, who, in a less fortunateage, possessed, near fourscore years, the declining empire of Rome. Theyemerged from the obscurity of municipal honors by the active spirit ofthe elder Theodosius, a general whose exploits in Britain and Africahave formed one of the most splendid parts of the annals of Valentinian.The son of that general, who likewise bore the name of Theodosius, waseducated, by skilful preceptors, in the liberal studies of youth; buthe was instructed in the art of war by the tender care and severediscipline of his father. Under the standard of such a leader, youngTheodosius sought glory and knowledge, in the most distant scenes ofmilitary action; inured his constitution to the difference of seasonsand climates; distinguished his valor by sea and land; and observed thevarious warfare of the Scots, the Saxons, and the Moors. His own merit,and the recommendation of the conqueror of Africa, soon raised him to aseparate command; and, in the station of Duke of MÊsia, he vanquishedan army of Sarmatians; saved the province; deserved the love of thesoldiers; and provoked the envy of the court. His rising fortunes weresoon blasted by the disgrace and execution of his illustrious father;and Theodosius obtained, as a favor, the permission of retiring to aprivate life in his native province of Spain. He displayed a firm andtemperate character in the ease with which he adapted himself to thisnew situation. His time was almost equally divided between the town andcountry; the spirit, which had animated his public conduct, was shownin the active and affectionate performance of every social duty; and thediligence of the soldier was profitably converted to the improvement ofhis ample patrimony, which lay between Valladolid and Segovia, in themidst of a fruitful district, still famous for a most exquisite breed ofsheep. From the innocent, but humble labors of his farm, Theodosiuswas transported, in less than four months, to the throne of the Easternempire; and the whole period of the history of the world will notperhaps afford a similar example, of an elevation at the same time sopure and so honorable. The princes who peaceably inherit the sceptre oftheir fathers, claim and enjoy a legal right, the more secure as it isabsolutely distinct from the merits of their personal characters. Thesubjects, who, in a monarchy, or a popular state, acquire the possessionof supreme power, may have raised themselves, by the superiority eitherof genius or virtue, above the heads of their equals; but theirvirtue is seldom exempt from ambition; and the cause of the successfulcandidate is frequently stained by the guilt of conspiracy, or civilwar. Even in those governments which allow the reigning monarch todeclare a colleague or a successor, his partial choice, which may beinfluenced by the blindest passions, is often directed to an unworthyobject But the most suspicious malignity cannot ascribe to Theodosius,in his obscure solitude of Caucha, the arts, the desires, or even thehopes, of an ambitious statesman; and the name of the Exile would longsince have been forgotten, if his genuine and distinguished virtues hadnot left a deep impression in the Imperial court. During the seasonof prosperity, he had been neglected; but, in the public distress, hissuperior merit was universally felt and acknowledged. What confidencemust have been reposed in his integrity, since Gratian could trust, thata pious son would forgive, for the sake of the republic, the murder ofhis father! What expectations must have been formed of his abilitiesto encourage the hope, that a single man could save, and restore, theempire of the East! Theodosius was invested with the purple in thethirty-third year of his age. The vulgar gazed with admiration on themanly beauty of his face, and the graceful majesty of his person, whichthey were pleased to compare with the pictures and medals of the emperorTrajan; whilst intelligent observers discovered, in the qualities of hisheart and understanding, a more important resemblance to the best andgreatest of the Roman princes.

It is not without the most sincere regret, that I must now take leave ofan accurate and faithful guide, who has composed the history of hisown times, without indulging the prejudices and passions, which usuallyaffect the mind of a contemporary. Ammianus Marcellinus, who terminateshis useful work with the defeat and death of Valens, recommends themore glorious subject of the ensuing reign to the youthful vigor andeloquence of the rising generation. The rising generation was notdisposed to accept his advice or to imitate his example; and, in thestudy of the reign of Theodosius, we are reduced to illustrate thepartial narrative of Zosimus, by the obscure hints of fragments andchronicles, by the figurative style of poetry or panegyric, and by theprecarious assistance of the ecclesiastical writers, who, in the heat ofreligious faction, are apt to despise the profane virtues of sincerityand moderation. Conscious of these disadvantages, which will continueto involve a considerable portion of the decline and fall of the Romanempire, I shall proceed with doubtful and timorous steps. Yet I mayboldly pronounce, that the battle of Hadrianople was never revenged byany signal or decisive victory of Theodosius over the Barbarians: andthe expressive silence of his venal orators may be confirmed by theobservation of the condition and circ*mstances of the times. The fabricof a mighty state, which has been reared by the labors of successiveages, could not be overturned by the misfortune of a single day, if thefatal power of the imagination did not exaggerate the real measure ofthe calamity. The loss of forty thousand Romans, who fell in the plainsof Hadrianople, might have been soon recruited in the populous provincesof the East, which contained so many millions of inhabitants. Thecourage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest, and most common,quality of human nature; and sufficient skill to encounter anundisciplined foe might have been speedily taught by the care of thesurviving centurions. If the Barbarians were mounted on the horses, andequipped with the armor, of their vanquished enemies, the numerous studsof Cappadocia and Spain would have supplied new squadrons of cavalry;the thirty-four arsenals of the empire were plentifully stored withmagazines of offensive and defensive arms: and the wealth of Asia mightstill have yielded an ample fund for the expenses of the war. But theeffects which were produced by the battle of Hadrianople on the mindsof 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. AGothic chief was heard to declare, with insolent moderation, that, forhis own part, he was fatigued with slaughter: but that he was astonishedhow a people, who fled before him like a flock of sheep, could stillpresume to dispute the possession of their treasures and provinces.The same terrors which the name of the Huns had spread among the Gothictribes, were inspired, by the formidable name of the Goths, amongthe subjects and soldiers of the Roman empire. If Theodosius, hastilycollecting his scattered forces, had led them into the field toencounter a victorious enemy, his army would have been vanquished bytheir own fears; and his rashness could not have been excused bythe chance of success. But the great Theodosius, an epithet which hehonorably deserved on this momentous occasion, conducted himself as thefirm and faithful guardian of the republic. He fixed his head-quartersat Thessalonica, the capital of the Macedonian diocese; from whencehe could watch the irregular motions of the Barbarians, and direct theoperations of his lieutenants, from the gates of Constantinople to theshores of the Hadriatic. The fortifications and garrisons of the citieswere strengthened; and the troops, among whom a sense of order anddiscipline was revived, were insensibly emboldened by the confidence oftheir own safety. From these secure stations, they were encouragedto make frequent sallies on the Barbarians, who infested the adjacentcountry; and, as they were seldom allowed to engage, without somedecisive superiority, either of ground or of numbers, their enterpriseswere, for the most part, successful; and they were soon convinced, bytheir own experience, of the possibility of vanquishing their invincibleenemies. The detachments of these separate garrisons were generallyunited into small armies; the same cautious measures were pursued,according to an extensive and well-concerted plan of operations; theevents of each day added strength and spirit to the Roman arms; andthe artful diligence of the emperor, who circulated the most favorablereports of the success of the war, contributed to subdue the pride ofthe Barbarians, and to animate the hopes and courage of his subjects.If, instead of this faint and imperfect outline, we could accuratelyrepresent the counsels and actions of Theodosius, in four successivecampaigns, there is reason to believe, that his consummate skill woulddeserve the applause of every military reader. The republic had formerlybeen saved by the delays of Fabius; and, while the splendid trophies ofScipio, in the field of Zama, attract the eyes of posterity, the campsand marches of the dictator among the hills of the Campania, may claima juster proportion of the solid and independent fame, which the generalis not compelled to share, either with fortune or with his troops. Suchwas 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 vigor of his mind, or divert his attention fromthe public service.

The deliverance and peace of the Roman provinces was the work ofprudence, rather than of valor: the prudence of Theodosius was secondedby fortune: and the emperor never failed to seize, and to improve, everyfavorable circ*mstance. As long as the superior genius of Fritigernpreserved the union, and directed the motions of the Barbarians, theirpower was not inadequate to the conquest of a great empire. The death ofthat hero, the predecessor and master of the renowned Alaric, relievedan impatient multitude from the intolerable yoke of discipline anddiscretion. The Barbarians, who had been restrained by his authority,abandoned themselves to the dictates of their passions; and theirpassions were seldom uniform or consistent. An army of conquerors wasbroken into many disorderly bands of savage robbers; and their blindand irregular fury was not less pernicious to themselves, than to theirenemies. Their mischievous disposition was shown in the destruction ofevery object which they wanted strength to remove, or taste to enjoy;and they often consumed, with improvident rage, the harvests, orthe granaries, which soon afterwards became necessary for their ownsubsistence. A spirit of discord arose among the independent tribesand nations, which had been united only by the bands of a loose andvoluntary alliance. The troops of the Huns and the Alani would naturallyupbraid the flight of the Goths; who were not disposed to use withmoderation the advantages of their fortune; the ancient jealousy ofthe Ostrogoths and the Visigoths could not long be suspended; and thehaughty chiefs still remembered the insults and injuries, which they hadreciprocally offered, or sustained, while the nation was seated in thecountries beyond the Danube. The progress of domestic faction abatedthe more diffusive sentiment of national animosity; and the officers ofTheodosius were instructed to purchase, with liberal gifts and promises,the retreat or service of the discontented party. The acquisitionof Modar, a prince of the royal blood of the Amali, gave a bold andfaithful champion to the cause of Rome. The illustrious desertersoon obtained the rank of master-general, with an important command;surprised an army of his countrymen, who were immersed in wine andsleep; and, after a cruel slaughter of the astonished Goths, returnedwith an immense spoil, and four thousand wagons, to the Imperial camp.In the hands of a skilful politician, the most different means may besuccessfully applied to the same ends; and the peace of the empire,which had been forwarded by the divisions, was accomplished by thereunion, of the Gothic nation. Athanaric, who had been a patientspectator of these extraordinary events, was at length driven, by thechance of arms, from the dark recesses of the woods of Caucaland. He nolonger hesitated to pass the Danube; and a very considerable part of thesubjects of Fritigern, who already felt the inconveniences of anarchy,were easily persuaded to acknowledge for their king a Gothic Judge,whose birth they respected, and whose abilities they had frequentlyexperienced. But age had chilled the daring spirit of Athanaric; and,instead of leading his people to the field of battle and victory, hewisely listened to the fair proposal of an honorable and advantageoustreaty. Theodosius, who was acquainted with the merit and power of hisnew ally, condescended to meet him at the distance of several milesfrom Constantinople; and entertained him in the Imperial city, withthe confidence of a friend, and the magnificence of a monarch. "TheBarbarian prince observed, with curious attention, the variety ofobjects which attracted his notice, and at last broke out into a sincereand passionate exclamation of wonder. I now behold (said he) what Inever could believe, the glories of this stupendous capital! And ashe cast his eyes around, he viewed, and he admired, the commandingsituation of the city, the strength and beauty of the walls and publicedifices, the capacious harbor, crowded with innumerable vessels, theperpetual concourse of distant nations, and the arms and discipline ofthe troops. Indeed, (continued Athanaric,) the emperor of the Romans isa god upon earth; and the presumptuous man, who dares to lift his handagainst him, is guilty of his own blood." The Gothic king did not longenjoy this splendid and honorable reception; and, as temperance was notthe virtue of his nation, it may justly be suspected, that his mortaldisease was contracted amidst the pleasures of the Imperial banquets.But the policy of Theodosius derived more solid benefit from the death,than he could have expected from the most faithful services, of hisally. The funeral of Athanaric was performed with solemn rites in thecapital of the East; a stately monument was erected to his memory;and his whole army, won by the liberal courtesy, and decent grief,of Theodosius, enlisted under the standard of the Roman empire. Thesubmission of so great a body of the Visigoths was productive of themost salutary consequences; and the mixed influence of force, of reason,and of corruption, became every day more powerful, and more extensive.Each independent chieftain hastened to obtain a separate treaty, fromthe apprehension that an obstinate delay might expose him, alone andunprotected, to the revenge, or justice, of the conqueror. The general,or rather the final, capitulation of the Goths, may be dated four years,one month, and twenty-five days, after the defeat and death of theemperor Valens.

The provinces of the Danube had been already relieved from theoppressive weight of the Gruthungi, or Ostrogoths, by the voluntaryretreat of Alatheus and Saphrax, whose restless spirit had prompted themto seek new scenes of rapine and glory. Their destructive course waspointed towards the West; but we must be satisfied with a very obscureand imperfect knowledge of their various adventures. The Ostrogothsimpelled several of the German tribes on the provinces of Gaul;concluded, and soon violated, a treaty with the emperor Gratian;advanced into the unknown countries of the North; and, after an intervalof more than four years, returned, with accumulated force, to the banksof the Lower Danube. Their troops were recruited with the fiercestwarriors of Germany and Scythia; and the soldiers, or at leastthe historians, of the empire, no longer recognized the name andcountenances of their former enemies. The general who commanded themilitary and naval powers of the Thracian frontier, soon perceived thathis superiority would be disadvantageous to the public service; and thatthe Barbarians, awed by the presence of his fleet and legions, wouldprobably defer the passage of the river till the approaching winter. Thedexterity of the spies, whom he sent into the Gothic camp, alluredthe Barbarians into a fatal snare. They were persuaded that, by a boldattempt, they might surprise, in the silence and darkness of the night,the sleeping army of the Romans; and the whole multitude was hastilyembarked in a fleet of three thousand canoes. The bravest of theOstrogoths led the van; the main body consisted of the remainderof their subjects and soldiers; and the women and children securelyfollowed in the rear. One of the nights without a moon had been selectedfor the execution of their design; and they had almost reached thesouthern bank of the Danube, in the firm confidence that they shouldfind an easy landing and an unguarded camp. But the progress of theBarbarians was suddenly stopped by an unexpected obstacle a triple lineof vessels, strongly connected with each other, and which formed animpenetrable chain of two miles and a half along the river. While theystruggled to force their way in the unequal conflict, their right flankwas overwhelmed by the irresistible attack of a fleet of galleys, whichwere urged down the stream by the united impulse of oars and of thetide. The weight and velocity of those ships of war broke, and sunk, anddispersed, the rude and feeble canoes of the Barbarians; their valorwas ineffectual; and Alatheus, the king, or general, of the Ostrogoths,perished with his bravest troops, either by the sword of the Romans, orin the waves of the Danube. The last division of this unfortunate fleetmight regain the opposite shore; but the distress and disorder of themultitude rendered them alike incapable, either of action or counsel;and they soon implored the clemency of the victorious enemy. On thisoccasion, as well as on many others, it is a difficult task to reconcilethe passions and prejudices of the writers of the age of Theodosius. Thepartial and malignant historian, who misrepresents every action of hisreign, affirms, that the emperor did not appear in the field of battletill the Barbarians had been vanquished by the valor and conduct of hislieutenant Promotus. The flattering poet, who celebrated, in the courtof Honorius, the glory of the father and of the son, ascribes thevictory to the personal prowess of Theodosius; and almost insinuates,that the king of the Ostrogoths was slain by the hand of the emperor.The truth of history might perhaps be found in a just medium betweenthese extreme and contradictory assertions.

The original treaty which fixed the settlement of the Goths, ascertainedtheir privileges, and stipulated their obligations, would illustrate thehistory of Theodosius and his successors. The series of their historyhas imperfectly preserved the spirit and substance of this singleagreement. The ravages of war and tyranny had provided many large tractsof fertile but uncultivated land for the use of those Barbarians whomight not disdain the practice of agriculture. A numerous colony ofthe Visigoths was seated in Thrace; the remains of the Ostrogoths wereplanted in Phrygia and Lydia; their immediate wants were supplied bya distribution of corn and cattle; and their future industry wasencouraged by an exemption from tribute, during a certain term of years.The Barbarians would have deserved to feel the cruel and perfidiouspolicy of the Imperial court, if they had suffered themselves to bedispersed through the provinces. They required, and they obtained,the sole possession of the villages and districts assigned for theirresidence; they still cherished and propagated their native mannersand language; asserted, in the bosom of despotism, the freedom of theirdomestic government; and acknowledged the sovereignty of the emperor,without submitting to the inferior jurisdiction of the laws andmagistrates of Rome. The hereditary chiefs of the tribes and familieswere still permitted to command their followers in peace and war; butthe royal dignity was abolished; and the generals of the Goths wereappointed and removed at the pleasure of the emperor. An army of fortythousand Goths was maintained for the perpetual service of the empire ofthe East; and those haughty troops, who assumed the title of Federati,or allies, were distinguished by their gold collars, liberal pay, andlicentious privileges. Their native courage was improved by the useof arms and the knowledge of discipline; and, while the republic wasguarded, or threatened, by the doubtful sword of the Barbarians, thelast sparks of the military flame were finally extinguished in the mindsof the Romans. Theodosius had the address to persuade his allies, thatthe conditions of peace, which had been extorted from him by prudenceand necessity, were the voluntary expressions of his sincere friendshipfor the Gothic nation. A different mode of vindication or apology wasopposed to the complaints of the people; who loudly censured theseshameful and dangerous concessions. The calamities of the war werepainted in the most lively colors; and the first symptoms of the returnof order, of plenty, and security, were diligently exaggerated. Theadvocates of Theodosius could affirm, with some appearance of truth andreason, that it was impossible to extirpate so many warlike tribes, whowere rendered desperate by the loss of their native country; and thatthe exhausted provinces would be revived by a fresh supply of soldiersand husbandmen. The Barbarians still wore an angry and hostile aspect;but the experience of past times might encourage the hope, that theywould acquire the habits of industry and obedience; that their mannerswould be polished by time, education, and the influence of Christianity;and that their posterity would insensibly blend with the great body ofthe Roman people.

Notwithstanding these specious arguments, and these sanguineexpectations, it was apparent to every discerning eye, that the Gothswould long remain the enemies, and might soon become the conquerorsof the Roman empire. Their rude and insolent behavior expressed theircontempt of the citizens and provincials, whom they insulted withimpunity. To the zeal and valor of the Barbarians Theodosius wasindebted for the success of his arms: but their assistance wasprecarious; and they were sometimes seduced, by a treacherous andinconstant disposition, to abandon his standard, at the moment whentheir service was the most essential. During the civil war againstMaximus, a great number of Gothic deserters retired into the morassesof Macedonia, wasted the adjacent provinces, and obliged the intrepidmonarch to expose his person, and exert his power, to suppress therising flame of rebellion. The public apprehensions were fortifiedby the strong suspicion, that these tumults were not the effect ofaccidental passion, but the result of deep and premeditated design. Itwas generally believed, that the Goths had signed the treaty ofpeace with a hostile and insidious spirit; and that their chiefs hadpreviously bound themselves, by a solemn and secret oath, never tokeep faith with the Romans; to maintain the fairest show of loyalty andfriendship, and to watch the favorable moment of rapine, of conquest,and of revenge. But as the minds of the Barbarians were not insensibleto the power of gratitude, several of the Gothic leaders sincerelydevoted themselves to the service of the empire, or, at least, of theemperor; the whole nation was insensibly divided into two oppositefactions, and much sophistry was employed in conversation and dispute,to compare the obligations of their first, and second, engagements. TheGoths, who considered themselves as the friends of peace, of justice,and of Rome, were directed by the authority of Fravitta, a valiant andhonorable youth, distinguished above the rest of his countrymen by thepoliteness of his manners, the liberality of his sentiments, and themild virtues of social life. But the more numerous faction adheredto the fierce and faithless Priulf, * who inflamed the passions, andasserted the independence, of his warlike followers. On one of thesolemn festivals, when the chiefs of both parties were invited to theImperial table, they were insensibly heated by wine, till they forgotthe usual restraints of discretion and respect, and betrayed, in thepresence of Theodosius, the fatal secret of their domestic disputes.The emperor, who had been the reluctant witness of this extraordinarycontroversy, dissembled his fears and resentment, and soon dismissed thetumultuous assembly. Fravitta, alarmed and exasperated by the insolenceof his rival, whose departure from the palace might have been the signalof a civil war, boldly followed him; and, drawing his sword, laidPriulf dead at his feet. Their companions flew to arms; and the faithfulchampion of Rome would have been oppressed by superior numbers, if hehad not been protected by the seasonable interposition of the Imperialguards. Such were the scenes of Barbaric rage, which disgraced thepalace and table of the Roman emperor; and, as the impatient Goths couldonly be restrained by the firm and temperate character of Theodosius,the public safety seemed to depend on the life and abilities of a singleman.

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The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (vol. 2) (2024)

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