ways were infested with robbers.116 The oppression of the good and the impunity of the wicked equally contributed to diffuse through the island a spirit of discontent and revolt; and every ambitious subject, every desperate exile, might entertain a reasonable hope of subverting the weak and distracted government of Britain. The hostile tribes of the 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 and irresistible fury, from the wall of Antoninus to the shores of Kent. Every production of art and nature, every object of convenience or luxury, which they were incapable of creating by labour or procuring by trade, was accumulated in the rich and fruitful province of Britain.117 A philosopher may deplore the eternal discord of the human race, but he will confess that the desire of spoil is a more rational provocation than the vanity of conquest. From the age of Constantine to that of the Plantagenets, this rapacious spirit continued to instigate the poor and hardy Caledonians; but the same people, whose generous humanity seems to inspire the songs of Ossian, was disgraced by a savage ignorance of the virtues of peace and of the laws of war. Their southern neighbours have felt, and perhaps exaggerated, the cruel depredations of the Scots and Picts; 118 and a valiant tribe of Caledonia, the Attacotti,119 the enemies, and afterwards the soldiers, of Valentinian, are accused, by an eye-witness, of delighting in the taste of human flesh. When they hunted the woods for prey, it is said that they attacked the shepherd rather than his flock; and that they curiously selected the most delicate and brawny parts, both of males and females, which they prepared for their horrid

116 Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. xxxix. p. 264. This curious passage has escaped the diligence of our British antiquaries.

117 The Caledonians praised and coveted the gold, the steeds, the lights, &c., of the stranger. See Dr. Blair's Dissertation on Ossian, vol. ii. p. 343; and Mr. Macpherson's Introduction, p. 242-286.

118 Lord Lyttleton has circumstantially related (History of Henry II. vol. i. p. 182), and Sir David Dalrymple has slightly mentioned (Annals of Scotland, vol. i. p. 69), a barbarous inroad of the Scots, at a time (A.D. 1137) when law, religion, and society must have softened their primitive manners.

119 Attacotti bellicosa hominum natio. Ammian. xxvii. 8. Cambden (Introduct. p. clii.) has restored their true name in the text of Jerom. The bands of Attacotti, which Jerom had seen in Gaul, were afterwards stationed in Italy and Illyricum (Notitia, S. viii. xxxix. xl.).

repasts.120 If, in the neighbourhood of the commercial and literary town of Glasgow, a race of cannibals has really existed, we may contemplate, in the period of the Scottish history, the opposite extremes of savage and civilized life. Such reflections tend to enlarge the circle of our ideas, and to encourage the pleasing hope that New Zealand may produce, in some future age, the Hume of the Southern Hemisphere.

tion of

Theo

Every messenger who escaped across the British channel Restoraconveyed the most melancholy and alarming tidings to the ears Britain by of Valentinian; and the emperor was soon informed that the dosius two military commanders of the province had been surprised (Britanand cut off by the Barbarians. Severus, count of the domestics, A.D. 366-370 was hastily dispatched, and as suddenly recalled, by the court

In

of Treves. The representations of Jovinus served only to in-
dicate the greatness of the evil; and after a long and serious
consultation, the defence, or rather the recovery, of Britain was
intrusted to the abilities of the brave Theodosius. The exploits
of that general, the father of a line of emperors, have been
celebrated, with peculiar complacency, by the writers of the
age; but his real merit deserved their applause; and his nomi-
nation was received, by the army and province, as a sure presage
of approaching victory. He seized the favourable moment of
navigation, and securely landed the numerous and veteran bands
of the Heruli and Batavians, the Jovians and the Victors.
his march from Sandwich to London, Theodosius defeated several
parties of the barbarians, released a multitude of captives, and,
after distributing to his soldiers a small portion of the spoil,
established the fame of disinterested justice by the restitution
of the remainder to the rightful proprietors. The citizens of
London, who had almost despaired of their safety, threw open
their gates; and, as soon as Theodosius had obtained from the
court of Treves the important aid of a military lieutenant and
a civil governor, he executed, with wisdom and vigour, the labo-
rious task of the deliverance of Britain.121 The vagrant soldiers
were recalled to their standard; an edict of amnesty dispelled

120 Cum ipse adolescentulus in Galliâ viderim Attacottos (or Scotos) gentem Britannicam humanis vesci carnibus; et cum per silvas procorum greges, et armentorum pecudumque reperiant, pastorum nates et feminarum papillas solere abscindere; et has solas ciborum delicias arbitrari. Such is the evidence of Jerom (tom. ii. p. 75 (adv. Jovin. ii. 7]), whose veracity I find no reason to question.

[Theodosius had the task too of suppressing a tyrant, Valentinus; Amm, Xxxviii. 3.]

Dux

niarum]

A.D. 368 and 369

III.
AFRICA.

the public apprehensions; and his cheerful example alleviated the rigour of martial discipline. The scattered and desultory warfare of the Barbarians, who infested the land and sea, deprived him of the glory of a signal victory; but the prudent spirit and consummate art of the Roman general were displayed in the operations of two campaigns, which successively rescued every part of the province from the hands of a cruel and rapacious enemy. The splendour of the cities and the security of the fortifications were diligently restored by the paternal care of Theodosius; who with a strong hand confined the trembling Caledonians to the northern angle of the island, and perpetuated, by the name and settlement of the new province of Valentia, the glories of the reign of Valentinian.122 The voice of poetry and panegyric may add, perhaps with some degree of truth, that the unknown regions of Thule were stained with the blood of the Picts; that the oars of Theodosius dashed the waves of the Hyperborean ocean; and that the distant Orkneys were the scene of his naval victory over the Saxon pirates. 123 He left the province with a fair, as well as splendid, reputation: and was immediately promoted to the rank of master-general of the cavalry, by a prince who could applaud without envy the merit of his servants. In the important station of the upper Danube, the conqueror of Britain checked and defeated the armies of the Alemanni before he was chosen to suppress the revolt of Africa.

III. The prince who refuses to be the judge, instructs his Tyranny of people to consider him as the accomplice, of his ministers. The A.D. 366, &c. military command of Africa had been long exercised by Count Romanus, and his abilities were not inadequate to his station;

Romanus.

122 Ammianus has concisely represented (xx. 1, xxvi. 4, xxvii. 8, xxviii. 3) the
whole series of the British war. [It is generally said that the name Valentia was
in honour of Valentinian. But would it not, in that case, be Valentiniana? It
seems more likely that it was a compliment to Valens on the part of his brother.]
123 Horrescit. . . ratibus . . . impervia Thule.
Ille... nec falso nomine Pictos

Edomuit. Scotumque vago mucrone secutus.
Fregit Hyperboreas remis audacibus undas.

Claudian, in iii. Cons. Honorii, ver. 53, &c.
-Maduerunt Saxone fuso

Orcades incaluit Pictorum sanguine Thule.
Scotorum cumulos flevit glacialis Ierne.

In iv. Cons. Hon. ver. 31, &c.

See likewise Pacatus (in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 5). But it is not easy to appreciate the intrinsic value of flattery and metaphor. Compare the British victories of Bolanus (Statius. Silv. v. 2) with his real character (Tacit. in Vit. Agricol. c. 16),

but, as sordid interest was the sole motive of his conduct, he acted, on most occasions, as if he had been the enemy of the province and the friend of the Barbarians of the desert. The three flourishing cities of Oea, Leptis, and Sabrata, which, under the name of Tripoli, had long constituted a federal union,124 were obliged, for the first time, to shut their gates against a hostile invasion; several of their most honourable citizens were surprised and massacred; the villages, and even the suburbs, were pillaged; and the vines and fruit-trees of that rich territory were extirpated by the malicious savages of Getulia. The unhappy provincials implored the protection of Romanus; but they soon found that their military governor was not less cruel and rapacious than the Barbarians. As they were incapable of furnishing the four thousand camels, and the exorbitant present, which he required before he would march to the assistance of Tripoli, his demand was equivalent to a refusal, and he might justly be accused as the author of the public calamity. In the annual assembly of the three cities, they nominated two deputies, to lay at the feet of Valentinian the customary offering of a gold victory; and to accompany this tribute of duty, rather than of gratitude, with their humble complaint that they were ruined by the enemy and betrayed by their governor. If the severity of Valentinian had been rightly directed, it would have fallen on the guilty head of Romanus. But the Count, long exercised in the arts of corruption, had dispatched a swift and trusty messenger to secure the venal friendship of Remigius, master of the offices. The wisdom of the Imperial council was deceived by artifice; and their honest indignation was cooled by delay. At length, when the repetition of complaint had been justified by the repetition of public misfortunes, the notary Palladius was sent from the court of Treves, to examine the state of Africa, and the conduct of Romanus. The rigid impartiality of Palladius was easily disarmed: he was tempted to reserve for himself a part of the public treasure which he brought with him for the payment of the troops; and from the moment that he was conscious of his own guilt, he could no longer refuse to

121 Ammianus frequently mentions their concilium annuum, legitimum, &c. Leptis and Sabrata are long since ruined; but the city of Oea, the native country of Apuleius, still flourishes under the provincial denomination of Tripoli. See Cellarius (Geograph. Antiqua, tom. ii. part ii. p. 81), D'Anville (Géographie Ancienne, tom. iii. p. 71, 72), and Marmol (Afrique, tom. ii. p. 562).

VOL. III.-4

Revolt of
Firmus.
A.D. 372

The charge of the

attest the innocence and merit of the Count.
Tripolitans was declared to be false and frivolous; and Palladius
himself was sent back from Treves to Africa, with a special
commission to discover and prosecute the authors of this impious
conspiracy against the representatives of the sovereign. His
inquiries were managed with so much dexterity and success that
he compelled the citizens of Leptis, who had sustained a recent
siege of eight days, to contradict the truth of their own decrees
and to censure the behaviour 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 the province, was pub-
licly executed at Utica; four distinguished citizens were put to
death as the accomplices of the imaginary fraud; and the
tongues of two others were cut out by the express order of the
emperor. Romanus, elated by impunity and irritated by resist-
ance, was still continued in the military command; till the
Africans were provoked by his avarice to join the rebellious
standard of Firmus, the Moor.125

His father Nabal was one of the richest and most powerful
of the Moorish princes, who acknowledged the supremacy of
Rome. But, as he left, either by his wives or concubines, a
very numerous posterity, the wealthy inheritance was eagerly
disputed; and Zamma, one of his sons, was slain in a domestic
quarrel by his brother Firmus. The implacable zeal with which
Romanus prosecuted the legal revenge of this murder could be
ascribed only to a motive of avarice, or personal hatred; but, on
this occasion, his claims were just; his influence was weighty;
and Firmus clearly understood that he must either present his
neck to the executioner or appeal from the sentence of the
Imperial consistory to his sword and to the people."
He was

126

125 Ammian. xviii. 6. Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 25, 676) has discussed the chronological difficulties of the history of Count Romanus. [Attacks of the barbarians on the Tripolitan towns are fixed by Reiche, op. cit., to winter 363 and summer 365; Valentinian dispatches Nestorius and others to protect Africa, winter 365 (Amm. xxvi. 5, 14); Tripolis again invaded, summer 366; commission of Palladius, end of 366; embassy from Leptis, and return of Palladius, winter 367; second visit of Palladius to Africa, spring 368; Firmus rebels, winter 371; Theodosius arrives, summer 372 (between May and June 372 and Feb. 373: Sievers, Studien, p. 288).]

125 The chronology of Ammianus is loose and obscure and Orosius (1. vii. c. 33, p. 551, edit. Havercamp.) seems to place the revolt of Firmus after the deaths of Valentinian and Valens. [Not so; Gibbon has misread Orosius.] Tillemont (Hist. des Emp. tom. v. p. 691) endeavours to pick his way. The patient and sure