History, which he had meditated against this delegate of his power; for which reason he made a rapid journey to Antioch, dragged him before his tribunal, and sentenced him to a cruel and ignominious punishment.*

From A. D.

395.

to

A. D.

410.

Such unrelenting ferocity turned against the Imperial Minister the rage of every Order of the people, from the Eunuchs in the Palace to the Generals at the head of the army. The former, who were, perhaps, the most intimately acquainted with his purposes, set the example of opposing his nefarious schemes. He had His disap- betrothed his daughter to Arcadius, and by this marriage pointment he hoped to establish his authority on a permanent the mar basis; but the Chamberlain Eutropius, acting in conriage of Ar- cert with the other Eunuchs, conducted to the pliant Emperor a young lady named Eudoxia, whose father commanded a body of Franks in the service of Rome. Disappointed, and even in some degree the object of ridicule, Rufinus did not despair of maintaining his ascendancy over the feeble mind of his Sovereign, and of enjoying an ample revenge upon all by whom his plan of domestic aggrandizement had been thwarted.† To effect this object he importuned the Government of the Western Empire to send back the troops which Theodosius had led into Italy in his last expedition. Stilicho, who presided at the helm of affairs in the name of Honorius, expressed his readiness to comply with this request, and even to march at the head of the Eastern contingent to Constantinople. As the main reason assigned by Rufinus for demanding the return of the troops was founded on an alarm excited by the appearance of the Huns on the Syrian border, and of Alaric in the Provinces of Thrace and Macedonia, the offer of the Western General to assist with his presence and advice the brother of his Sovereign, ought not to have created the slighest suspicion. But Stilicho claimed the guardianship of both Emperors, as having, he alleged, been intrusted to him by their father in the last moments of his life; and it was therefore suspected that his authority might derange the plan of administration adopted, or rather tolerated, by Arcadius, under the auspices of his ambitious Præfect, and involve the two Empires in war. He was accordingly informed that, although the Legions of the East were still expected to obey the summons forwarded to them from the Capital, his personal attendance would not be accepted; but that, on the contrary, if he passed the line which separated the dominions of his master from those of Arcadius, his conduct would be regarded as an act of avowed hostility. Stilicho abstained from a measure which, he saw, would at once defeat his object, and occasion much national calamity; but he intrusted to Gaïnas, a Gothic Chief in whom he had the utmost confidence, the command of the Eastern forces and the accomplishment of his revenge. When, therefore, the cohorts had advanced within a mile of the Metropolis, they halted until the Emperor and his Minister should come forth to greet their arrival; and no sooner did they see the enemy of their General and the oppressor of the people surrounded by their ranks, than one of 395. their number stepped forth and plunged a sword into his breast. The fury of the populace, hitherto checked

Det of

4. D.

⚫ Zos. lib. iv. c. 52. Claud. in Rufin. lib. i. Orbisque rapinas Accipit una domus. Philostorg. lib. ii. c. 3. Ambros. Epist, 1. Symmach. lib. iii. c. 6. Zosimus (lib. v. c. 1.) includes Stilicho in the charges which he brings against Rufinus. + Zos. lib. v. c. 5. Philostorg. lib. ii. c. 6.

VOL. XI.

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succeed to his power.

The feeble Arcadius now found himself in the hands of the men who had deceived and murdered his principal servant. The Empress, who owed her elevation to the stratagem of Eutropius, recommended him to the favour of her husband; while Gaïnas, who could rely upon the support of the army, sought no other patron. Zosimus insinuates that the influence of Stilicho was exerted to secure the promotion of his tools at the Court of Constantinople, and that the General of Honorius still aspired to the government of both Empires, in capacity of guardian to the two young Princes. What- Eutropius ever truth there may be in the former part of this and Gaïnas gestion, there seems to be no doubt that his interference in the administration of the Eastern State, roused a spirit of opposition to his policy so strong and determined, that the sons of Theodosius, instead of affording mutual support against the powerful nations which were, on all sides, pressing upon the limits of their respective Provinces, viewed each other as enemies to be weakened or subdued. The Roman Empire was thus not less divided in interest and affection than in territorial dominions; and hence its decline and final overthrow were accelerated, from year to year, by the very counsels and arms which ought to have secured its perpetuity.†

A. D.

396.

An inroad of the Goths under the celebrated Alaric, Gothic war. revived for a moment the union of the two Empires. Conjectures After the most patient investigation into the few sources as to its of Historical truth which still remain, we have not been origin. able to discover the cause of the formidable war which, in the year 396, alarmed the interior Provinces both of Italy and of Greece. Zosimus and Orosius agree in ascribing it to the arts of Rufinus and of his rival Stilicho; each of whom is accused of wishing, amid the turmoil which must ensue, to enhance the value of his services, and thereby to raise himself to the supreme power. This charge, as it respects the Minister of Arcadius, is attended with a considerable show of probability; and his memory is still loaded with the atrocious imputation of meditating a change in the Government, to be effected by the success of the Barbarians against his native Prince, the son, too, of his greatest benefactor. His treason is attributed to the disappointment which he sustained in the marriage of the Emperor with Eudoxia instead of his daughter; to avenge which, says Claudian, he invited the Huns into Asia, and laid Europe open to the Goths. He lived not to witness the fatal effects of his wicked policy.

The march of Alaric, who descended from the banks Devastation of the Danube, through Thrace, Dacia, Macedonia, and committed Thessaly into Achaia, and even the Peloponnesus, was by Alaric in marked with blood and desolation, with the sack of towns and the captivity of the inhabitants. Rufinus had everywhere placed such Officers in command as either could not defend their Country, or who were base

Claud. in Rufin. lib. ii. Zos. lib. v. c. 7. Soz. lib. viii. c. 1. Soc. lib. vi. c. 1. Philostorg. lib. xi. c. 3.

+ Zos. lib. v. c. 8. Claud. I. Cons. Stilich. lib. i. Soz. lib. viii. c. 1. Claud. in Eutrop. lib. i. Philostorg. lib. xi. c. 4.

Oros. lib. vii. c. 37. Ut rebus repentè turbatis, necessitas Reipublicæ scelus ambitûs tegeret, barbaras gentes ille inmisit, hic fovit. Zosimus (lib. v. c. 5.) says much the same. 21

From A. D. 395.

to

A. D. 410.

History. enough to receive instructions not to defend it. The straits of Thermopyle were abandoned without drawing a sword, and the strongest positions in Greece were given up as fast as the enemy could advance to occupy them. Phocis and Boeotia could not resist the torrent of Barbarians which were thus let in upon them. All the men capable of bearing arms were massacred, while the women and children were reserved for the most degrading servitude. Athens saved her walls by a seasonable capitulation; but Argos, Corinth, and Sparta submitted unconditionally to the good pleasure of the conqueror, and resigned their wealth, their ornaments, the triumphs of Art and of War, and, above all, the flower of their inhabitants, as a prey to his savage followers. As, however, the succeeding events of this Gothic insurrection are more closely connected with the history of the West than of the East, we shall not follow them out to any greater length at present, but resume the narrative as it respects the reign of Arcadius and of his unworthy Ministers at Constantinople.* Eutropius was on many accounts the most odious and contemptible of those instruments of tyranny which were employed or permitted by the weak Monarch of the Grecian Empire to oppress his subjects. The origin and occupations of this favourite cast a shade upon his character which no degree of power or of wealth could remove; while the insolence with which he assailed men of the noblest birth, and the rapacity with which he plundered all classes of the people, excited against him an universal feeling of indignation. His avarice was equal to that of Rufinus, without having the accompaniment of that lofty ambition which stimulated the covetousness of the latter. To the disgrace of the Roman name, he appeared in the Senate as a Consul, and at the head of the army as a Commander; imitating the acts which were performed by Cæsar and Camillus, as an ape mimics the doings of a

Character of Eutro

pius.

ment.

A. D. 397.

man.

The contempt with which his person and administration were everywhere regarded soon rendered him Cruelty and impatient of superior merit as well as of illustrious tyranny of genealogy. Abundantius, who had introduced him to his Govern- the Palace of Constantinople, was the first victim of his spleen, being deprived of his fortunes, and banished to an inhospitable district on the shores of the Black Sea. Timasius, the Master-General of the armies under Theodosius, was the next whom it was thought expedient to accuse of disaffection towards the Emperor and his Prime Minister. He, in like manner, was stripped of his immense riches, and doomed to pass the remainder of his days in the desert of Lybia. Nor was it held sufficient to protect himself against the just anger of those whose rank in the State was degraded by his presence in the councils of his Sovereign: he procured a law of treason to be passed, which punished with death and confiscation of goods every one who should conspire, either with subjects or with strangers, against any of the persons whom the Emperor considered as the Members of his Government, of his Household, of his Civil establishment, and even the principal Officers of his army. On this broad ground a private quarrel might be identified with a deliberate conspiracy against the State; and as the intention, if it could be

Claud. in Rufin. lib. ii. Zos. lib. v. c. 16. The latter historian mentions that Athens was saved by the appearance of the spectre of Achilles.

detected, was amenable to the same tribunal with the overt act, a hasty expression, or an ambiguous term, exposed the most illustrious individuals in the Empire to the loss of life and estate. Nay, to complete the reign of terror, it was enacted that the sons of traitors, although not convicted of the crime laid to the charge of their parents, should be rendered incapable of inheriting property, either on the side of the father or on that of the mother, or of receiving any legacy bequeathed to them by kinsmen or by strangers.

*

Rema Empire.

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A. D.

395.

to

A. D. 410.

A. D. 399.

This intolerable oppression found an avenger in a Insurrectio part of the Empire which, perhaps, was the least ex- of Tribigil posed to its weight. The Chief of one of those Colonies of Ostrogoths which had been planted by Theodosius in Phrygia, influenced either by the desire of plunder or by the secret instigation of Gaïnas, took the field at the head of his clan, and displayed the standard of rebellion. Tribigild, meeting with no formidable. resistance, made a great impression on the richest Provinces of Asia Minor; the intelligence of which no sooner reached Constantinople, than an army was sent against him under Leo, a rude and ignorant soldier, while Gaïnas was ordered to proceed into Thrace to defeat any attempt that might be made in that quarter. The incapacity of the former was soon made manifest. The Barbarians attacked his camp in the night, and dispersed his troops; the greater part of whom made haste to join the victorious rebel, and to encourage him in the pursuit of his ulterior object, the acquisition of wealth, and, as they imagined, the punishment of Eutropius. The failure of Leo rendered necessary the presence of Gaïnas with a reinforcement from the Thracian Legions; but this Officer, still more incensed than Tribigild against the Imperial favourite, had no intention to weaken the body of the insurgents or to disappoint their hopes. Instead of opposing the Ostrogoths, he directed their movements and even strengthened their positions; and when he had thus made them formidable, he wrote to Arcadius that the smallness of the army under his command, as it rendered the issue of a battle uncertain, dictated the expediency of terminating the contest by a negotiation for Peace. The Emperor, who could contemplate no alternative, waited with impatience for the conditions which it might please the victor to propose; but when he heard that the head of his Minister was demanded as the basis of the treaty, he was struck with horror and alarm. His wife Eudoxia, who valued the safety of her throne more than the life of an Eunuch, urged his compliance with the claim of Tribigild; insinuating, at the same time, that Eutropius had recently been guilty of some misdemeanours which gave great offence to her feelings of propriety. The miserable being, whose life was thus And deat made the price of Peace, fled to the Metropolitan Church, of Eutro where, under the protection of St. Chrysostom, he enjoyed the privilege of Sanctuary until the fury of the people had subsided. He was in the first instance banished to the island of Cyprus, whence he was almost instantly recalled, and condemned to death.†

But the ambition or revenge of Gaïnas was not satisfied with the downfal of Eutropius. Displeased at the elevation of Aurelian and Saturninus, two individuals

* Claud. in Eutrop. lib. i. Zos. lib. v. c. 9. +Zosimus (lib. v. c. 13.) represents the insurrection as originating with Gaïnas. In lib. v. c. 14-18. he gives a good account of this rebellion. Philostorg. lib. ii. c. 6.

pius.

A. D.

399.

From A. D. 395.

to

History of Consular rank, who were invested with the offices to which he aspired, he threw off his allegiance altogether, united his force with that of Tribigild in the Province of Lydia, and forthwith advanced to the shores of the Hellespont. Arcadius found it necessary to enter into a negotiation with the two rebellious Commanders. He condescended to have a personal interview with them at Chalcedon, where he agreed to sacrifice his new Ministers to appease the jealousy of Gaïnas, to make the latter Master-General of the Roman armies, and to permit the Capital to be garrisoned with Gothic soldiers.*

A. D.

410. Revolt of Gainas.

This success led to the speedy ruin of the fortunate Barbarian. Unable to repress the violence of his followers, who mixed with the insolence of conquest the acrimony of Religious controversy, he had the mortification to learn that a great part of his army was cut off by the citizens of Constantinople, who had risen in defence of their creed. Gaïnas was declared a public enemy, and compelled to seek safety in flight. The loyal troops in the adjoining Provinces were intrusted to the command of Fravitta, a Gothic Chief, whose fidelity towards the Emperor pointed him out as the fittest person for that important charge; upon which suitable preparations were made by sea and land to subdue the rebellious Generals, and to restore the independence of Government. Of the war which ensued so few details have been preserved that we can only form a conjecture in regard to the scene on which it His defeat. was prosecuted, and the immediate results which it produced. It would appear that a succession of defeats in Thrace induced Gaïnas to attempt the passage of the Hellespont in the face of a superior force, by which he was repulsed with great loss and pursued towards the Danube. In these circumstances he relinquished whatever designs he might have entertained on the Sovereignty of the East, placed himself at the head of his light cavalry, and resolved to fight his way into the Countries beyond the river, where he hoped to resume the power which he is supposed to have originally possessed, as the leader of a small Sept, or Tribe. But Uldin, the King of the Huns, occupied all the strong positions on the Southern bank of the stream which the fugitive intended to pass; and being unwilling that an adventurer, at once so bold and faithless, should have the means of forming an army in his rear, and desirous, perhaps, to recommend his services to the Imperial Court, he opposed the further retreat of the vanquished rebel. Gaïnas, reduced to despair, made several furious charges upon the lines of his And death. antagonist, in one of which he was slain, together with the greater part of his devoted band. His head was sent to Constantinople, and relieved the unwarlike Emperor from the fears which had recently oppressed him, as well for his life as for his crown.†

The Peace procured by this victory appears to have continued unbroken till the death of Arcadius. Seven years elapsed between these two events; during which period the Goths and Huns, satisfied for the moment with the share which they had obtained of the best lands in the Empire, and resolved to check the further inroads of their countrymen, who came to plunder rather than to occupy the cultivated fields, proved the main defence of the Northern frontier. The tranquillity

Roman Empire.

From

A. D. 395.

to Ꭺ. Ꭰ .

410.

of the Capital, indeed, was occasionally disturbed by the contests of the two great Religious parties, which at that time divided the Christian World, the Arians and the Catholics. Then, as on other occasions, the interests of the true Faith were made the pretext for indulging personal animosity and for gratifying ambitious views; and we find, accordingly, that thousands of both sexes, who knew not the meaning of the language which they used, nor the import of the question Religious which they discussed, were ready to inflict and to suffer controdeath, rather than yield a single step to their theological versies. opponents. The Empress herself, who had taken offence at the Archbishop, the celebrated Chrysostom, mingled in these disputes; and, on several occasions, carried her enmity so far as to convince every one that her zeal was stimulated by private resentment, and not, as she professed, by a regard for evangelical truth and piety.

Zosimus relates, too, that in the year 404, a part of Invasion of Syria and of Asia Minor was laid waste by an irruption the Isauof the Isaurians, who, bursting from the fastnesses of rians. Mount Taurus, swept away from the husbandmen of Pamphylia and Cilicia the fruits of their land, and robbed the inhabitants of the villages. This temporary invasion was checked by Arbazacius, who soon drove the freebooters back into the hills, and strengthened the military posts along the border; his reputation, however, did not pass unsullied by the suspicion that he had sold to the marauders the facility of escape, and accepted a share of their booty for permission to carry away the remainder. But this occurrence did not materially interrupt the Peace of the Empire, which, as we have already remarked, was not menaced by any powerful enemy until after the demise of Arcadius, Death of which took place in the month of May 408.*

The family of the Emperor, at his death, consisted of three daughters and a son. This last, named Theodosius, was only seven years of age when the throne of the East, now become hereditary, fell into his possession. His mother had recently paid the debt of nature; his uncle Honorius was incapable of rendering any assistance in the government of a State, which was already become more a rival than an ally, and hence the care of his person and authority naturally devolved upon the great Officers of the court and of the army. There is, indeed, to be found in the pages of Procopius a traditional narrative, setting forth that Arcadius had, by a special clause in his will, confided the fortunes of his son to the generosity of the Persian Monarch; whom, it is said, he regarded as less likely to be influenced by ambitious views, than the turbulent Chiefs by whom the throne of Constantinople was at that period surrounded. Agathias relates that the report of such an arrangement had reached his times, and, without positively calling the truth of it in question, directs his criticism rather to the wisdom of the measure than to the evidence upon which it had been believed. Subsequent writers, however, who have bestowed upon the testament of Arcadius fully more attention than it deserves, leave no room for doubt that Procopius must have been misled by a popular story, and that the young Theodosius was in no respect indebted either to the counsels or the arms of Persia.†

Arcadius

Availing ourselves of the pause created by the death of the Eastern Emperor, we resume the history of the West under the government of Honorius. We intentionally omit the details of a second African war, excited by Gildo, a brother of the tyrant Firmus, and which ended, like the former, in the defeat and death of the principal rebels. The year 398 was signalized at once by this success, and by the marriage of the Emperor with his cousin, the daughter of Stilicho; events which appear to have employed the panegyrics of Poetry, as well as the diligence of those minute Annalists who measure the importance of things by their local interest rather than by their effects on the public welfare. We pass on to a more momentous occurrence in the reign of Honorius, the invasion of Italy by Alaric, the celebrated leader of the Goths.

We have already described the operations which took place in Greece when, in the year 396, a various army, under the Chief just named, carried terror and devastation from the shores of the Danube to the extremity of Peloponnesus. The Ministers of Arcadius, jealous of the power possessed by Stilicho, who had been sent to deliver the Eastern Empire from the horrors of invasion, opposed the measures of their ally to such an extent that the Goths effected an easy escape from his hands. The Roman General was even commanded to retire from the dominions of Arcadius; while Alaric was received into the confidence of the Government whose territories he had ravaged, and whose authority he had laboured to subvert. After having destroyed the fairest parts of Greece and plundered Epirus, the Gothic Prince was raised by the Court of Constantinople to the rank of Master-General of the Eastern Illyricum. Nor did his elevation stop here; for his followers, animated by his numerous victories, and assured of future success, proclaimed him King of the Visigoths, and of all the Tribes who owned their kindred or allegiance.*

Situated between the two Empires, Alaric could not fail to prove formidable to both. Enraged, perhaps, by the hostility of the Romans directed by the splendid talents of Stilicho, and, at all events, regarding them as a much more powerful enemy than the effeminate bands of Constantinople, he resolved, in the first instance, to lead his troops against Honorius, and to effect, if possible, the entire conquest of Italy. After two years' preparation, accordingly, he advanced into the warlike Province of Pannonia, forced the passage of the Alps, and pitched his camp in the plains of Istria and Venetia. But these achievements, it is obvious, could not be accomplished without the expense of much time and bloodshed; and, hence, although he began the war in the year 400, it was not till the third summer, that the terror of his arms disturbed th repose of the Imperial Court at Milan. Many battles and sieges must in the interval have occupied his attention and thinned his ranks, and there is even a great air of probability in the conjecture that the Gothic King was compelled, oftener than once during that period, to retire towards the Danube, and recruit his forces among the native Tribes who lined its banks. In the beginning of the third season, however, he approached so near the residence of the feeble Honorius, that it became necessary for the latter either to

Claud. in Eutrop. and de Bello Getico, v. 565.

Roman

From

A. D. 395.

to A. D.

410.

relinquish Italy altogether to the Barbarian conqueror, to make a great effort to drive him once more beyond Empire. the mountains. The Prince himself, yielding to his fears, was inclined to follow the advice of those who recommended an immediate retreat into Gaul; but Stilicho, unwilling to abandon the city and country of the Romans into the hands of a savage host, which would plunder and debase the venerable memorials of their ancient fame, entreated his Sovereign to maintain, Energy of if possible, his ground at Milan, until a sufficient army Stilicho. could be raised to check the progress of the invader. With this view the gallant General repaired to the Northern frontiers, whither the best disciplined portion of the Legions had been despatched. He crossed the Alps amidst the ice and snow which still lingered in their valleys, and attacked in the hilly parts of Rhætia a powerful body of the enemy who threatened a descent into the low country. He induced several Tribes of the Alemanni to join the standard of the Emperor, and to take arms against a people who were already become formidable to all the Western nations of Europe. In like manner, he summoned from the borders of the Rhine, and even of Caledonia, every cohort that could be spared from the immediate defence of those Provinces, and ordered them to hasten their march for the protection of Italy. So great, indeed, was the emergency, that he did not refuse to receive into his ranks a numerous body of Alanian horsemen, although former events had taught him to distrust alike their discipline and their fidelity.*

But the activity of Stilicho could not keep pace with Ho saves the ambition of Alaric, or with the fears of Honorius. Honorius at The Gothic army having crossed the Addua, the Roman Asta, Emperor, at the head of a feeble band of courtiers, fled into Liguria, on his way to the frontier of Gaul; but being pressed by the light troops of the enemy, he sought a temporary refuge within the walls of Asta. The King of the Visigoths, eager to terminate the war by the capture of the Prince, invested the place with his whole force; and as the means of defence were small, and the resolution of the garrison was unsustained either by courage or talent in their leader, the siege would, probably, have ended in a speedy capitulation, had not the father-in-law of Honorius descended from the adjoining heights with a body of soldiers determined to save their Emperor, or to perish in the attempt. The appearance of this able Officer soon changed the aspect of affairs. Alaric, who imagined that all the honour and wealth to be gained by the surrender of Asta were already in his hands, had the mortification to find himself surrounded, and exposed to the instant attack of a numerous and indignant army. The Chiefs of his camp compelled him to adopt the

rudential measure of retreating, as long as it was in their power to escape, and to carry with them the load of booty with which their march was encumbered.†

From Asta we trace the position of the Goths to the Defeats th neighbourhood of Polentia, where they appear to have Goths at pitched their tents. On the morning of Easter Sunday, Polentia. in the year 403, Stilicho attacked them whilst employed in their devotions, and gained an important victory. The abilities of Alaric were displayed to the greatest advantage, and he more than once turned the tide of

Claud. de Bello Getico, v. 267.

† Claud. VI. Cons. Hon. and de Bello Getico, v. 580.