full inscription, beginning: Fl. Merobaudi vs com. sc., and ending: dedicata iv. kal. Aug. Conss. DD NN Theodosio xv. et Valentiniano iv. (C. I. L. vi., 1724). About the same time fragments of a poet of that age were discovered in a Ms. of St. Gall, and the text of the Inscription enabled Niebuhr (by means of verbal similarities) to establish that these relics belonged to Merobaudes. First edited by Niebuhr, they were printed by Bekker in the Bonn Corpus Byz. (in the same volume as Corippus); a new edition by Vollmer has appeared in the Mon. Germ. Hist., 1905. The following are some of the points of historical interest in these fragments:

Carmina I. and II. reflect the establishment of Galla Placidia and her son Valentinian in the West after the overthrow of the usurper John by the help of Theodosius ii. The verse on the child Valentinian (I., 11):

hic ubi sacra parens placidi petit oscula nati,

has a curious interest owing to the epithet. The child who is here placidus (with a play on his mother's name) is destined to be more familiar as the mature, effeminate Placidus, branded for ever with infamy by another poet:

Aetium Placidus mactavit semivir amens.

The victory over John and the betrothal of Valentinian with Eudoxia are thus referred to (1. 9) :

cui natura dedit, victoria reddidit orbem

claraque longinquos praebuit aula toros.

For the intimate relation between the courts of Ravenna and Constantinople, such a full and candid expression of gratitude to the Eastern sovereign, as the following, on the part of a poet of Ravenna, is of much significance, C. ii., 13, 14:

sic dominos secura sui de stemmate regni

continuat proprios dum creat aula novos.

C. iv. is a hendecasyllabic poem on the birthday of Gaudentius the son of Aetius. The sojourn of Aetius as a hostage with the Goths is mentioned:

50

vix puberibus pater sub annis

objectus Geticis puer catenis,

bellorum mora, fœderis sequester.

The most important fragment is that of the Panegyric on a consulship of Aetius, probably the second (A.D. 437) with a Preface in prose. He refers to his exploits against the Armorici (1. 8):

lustrat Aremoricos iam mitior incola saltus;

he describes the peace of A.D. 435 with Gaiseric (insessor Libyes) and alludes to the marriage of Huneric with Eudoxia (11. 24-30).

27 nunc hostem exutus pactis propioribus arsit
Romanam vincire fidem Latiosque parentes
adnumerare sibi sociamque intexere prolem.

The death of the father of Aetius and the story of that general's youth are narrated (1. 110 sqq.), and the suppression of troubles in Gaul, probably caused by the bagaudae, is celebrated (148 sqq.). The deliverance of Narbo is specially emphasized (1. 20):

sed belliger ultor

captivum reseravit iter clausasque recepit

expulso praedone vias, &c.

The work of OPTATUS (of Mileu in Numidia), De schismate Donatistarum, in 7 Books (c. 375 A.D.), has been edited by C. Ziwsa, 1893 (in the Corpus script. eccles. Lat.), with other documents on the Donatist question.

The works of St. AMBROSE are appearing in the Corpus script. eccles. Lat.

So Mommsen, Hermes 36, 516, n. 5. Niebuhr referred it to the third consulship,

A.D. 446.

6 Cp. Chron, Gall. ad 437 A.D. (Mommsen, Chron. Min., i. p. 660).

(1896, &c., ed. by C. Schenkl). A new edition of the works of St. AUGUSTINE by various editors is appearing in the same series. (De civitate, ed. Hoffmann, 2 vols., 1899-1900; Confessions, ed. Knöll, 1896; Letters, Part 1, 1895; Part 2, 1898; Part 3, 1904; Scripta contra Donatistas, Part 1, ed. Petschenig, 1908.) The Vita Augustini by POSSIDIUS will be found in Migne, P. L., vol. 32. The works of St. JEROME are printed (after Vallars) in Migne, P. L., vols. 22-30.

The Commonitorium of ORIENTIUS (ed. Ellis, in Corpus scr. ecc. Lat.) contains a description of the desolate state of Gaul at the beginning of the fifth century, which is also described by Jerome, and illustrated by two anonymous poems: ad uxorem, in Migne, P. L., 61, 611, and De Providentia Dei, ib. 617 (see above, p. 285, n. 93).

PROSPER TIRO, of Aquitaine, lived in the first half of the fifth century. He was probably in holy orders, and was an admirer of St. Augustine. He compiled an Epitome chronicon, based almost entirely on Jerome's chronicle, and published it in A.D. 433 (first edition). (1) From the crucifixion forward, Prosper added the consuls of each year, derived from a consular list. (2) He continued the chronicle of Jerome to A.D. 433, the year of publication. (3) He introduced notices from some of St. Augustine's works. The second edition appeared A.D. 443, the third A.D. 445, the fourth (which some of the extant Mss. represent) A.D. 451, in each case brought down to the date of publication. The fifth and last edition appeared A.D. 455, after the death of Valentinian, which it records. The compilation has been very carelessly done, both in the earlier part which is based on Jerome and in the later independent part, A.D. 378-455. But in lack of other sources Prosper is very important for the first half of the fifth century. The authoritative edition is that of Mommsen (in Chronica Minora, i. p. 343 sqq., 1892), on whose preface this notice is based.

From the true Prosper Tiro (whom Gibbon always cites as Prosper) we must carefully distinguish another chronicle, which for some time went under Prosper's name. This is what used to be called the Chronicon Imperiale. It ended with the year 452, and was ascribed to Prosper, because the last notices of Prosper's chronicle, A.D. 453-455, were added to it in the Mss. But it came to be seen that the two chronicles were not from the same author; the Chronicon Imperiale gives Imperial not Consular years; and the strange practice was adopted of distinguishing it from the work of the true Prosper by giving it the true Prosper's full name "Prosper Tiro". This practice was followed by Gibbon. It must therefore be carefully remembered that in Gibbon's references "Prosper" means Prosper Tiro, while "Prosper Tiro " means a totally distinct chronicle with which neither Prosper Tiro nor any one of Prosper's name had anything to do.

This anonymous chronicle has been edited by Mommsen in Chron. Min. i. p. 617 sqq., along with another anonymous chronicle (which goes down to A.D. 511). under the title CHRONICA GALLICA. The earlier part is based on Jerome's chronicle. The compiler also used the additions made by Rufinus to the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius; some works of Ambrose, Augustine and Cassian; and the Life of Ambrose by Paulinus. From A.D. 395 to the end he either used written sources now lost or verbal information. He is quite independent of Prosper, and sympathizes with the opponents of Augustine in the Pelagian controversy. His work contains two important notices on the Saxon conquest of Britain (A.D. 408 and 441).

This later part of the work represents a Gallic chronicle, perhaps written si Massilia (cp. Mommsen, p. 628), which was used by the compiler of the other chronicle, which, as mentioned above, goes down to A.D. 511. The later part of this chronicle is taken doubtless from a continuation of the Gallic chronicle. The author of the chronicle of A.D. 511 drew also upon Orosius and Idetius and upes the Chronicle of Constantinople (Mommsen, p. 627).

In future it would be convenient to refer to Gibbon's "Prosper Tiro" and this

Also Pithoeanum, having been first published (at Paris in 1588) by Petrus Pithoess The best Ms. is in the British Museum.

Preserved in a Ms. at Madrid, under the name of Sulpicius Severus. It has been discussed by O. Holder-Egger, Ueber die Weltchronik des sogenannten Severus Sulpitics, &c., 1875.

1

second chronicle as the CHRONICLE OF 452 and the CHRONICLE OF 511. The SouthGallic Annals were continued in the sixth century and were used by Marius of Avenches, Maximus of Saragossa, and Isidore of Seville. See vol. iv., Appendix 1. With the South-Gallic Chronicles Mommsen has published (from a Brussels and a Madrid Ms.) a short untitled NARRATION concerning Emperors of the Valentinianean and Theodosian House (Valentinian, Valens, Gratian, Theodosius, Arcadius and Honorius), written by a "contemporary and admirer" of Theodosius ii. It contains no new historical fact; but is interesting in having the notice that Honorius died of dropsy, which is found in no other Latin record, and among Greek writers only in Philostorgius (12, 13).

The second of the two fragments which, accidentally joined together in a Ms. and hence falsely supposed to belong to the same work, go under the name of ANONYMUS VALESII, is highly important for events in Italy for the period which it covers from A.D. 475 to 526, that is to say, for Odovacar and Theodoric. It is a fragment of annals written at Ravenna in the sixth century, when that city had been recovered by the Empire. The fragment (of which more will be said in vol. iv. Appendix 1) is mentioned here, because it is edited by Mommsen (in Chronica Minora, I. p. 259 sqq.) as belonging to one of a series of annals and chronicles which had a common source in a lost document which he calls CHRONICA ITALICA and which had formerly been called by Waitz the Ravennate Annals, a name which disguises the fact that the compilation had been begun before Ravenna became the seat of the western Emperors.

The other chief documents which contain the material for arriving at the original constitution of the Chronica Italica are as follows:

FASTI VINDOBONENSES, preserved in a Vienna Ms. in two recensions (distinguished as priores and posteriores), to which are to be added some excerpts in a St. Gall Ms. (excerpta Sangallensia). This chronicle used to be known as the Anonymus Cuspiniani, having been first published by Cuspinianus in 1553. The prior recension comes down to A.D. 493, the posterior to A.D. 539, but both are mutilated, the prior omitting the years 404-454.

The CONTINUATION OF PROSPER, preserved in a Copenhagen Ms.10 (compiled in the seventh century towards the end of the reign of Heraclius, probably in Italy). In the later part of this work use was made of the chronicle of Isidore (who himself used the Chronica Italica) and the Chronica Italica.

The Latin version of a Greek chronicle (written at Alexandria after A.D. 387), known as the BARBARUS of Scaliger.

Excerpts in the Liber Pontificalis of Ravenna, written by AGNELLUS in the ninth century. For this work, edited by Holder-Egger in the Mon. Germ. Hist. (older editions in Muratori, Scr. rer. Ital. II. 1 and Migne, P. L., 106), cp. Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, 1, 899 sqq., and Balzani, Le cronache Italiane nel medio evo (1884), 86 824.

These documents are edited by Mommsen in parallel columns in vol. i. of Chronica Minora. But as the Chronica Italica were utilised by Prosper, Marcellinus Comes, Cassiodorus, Marius of Aventicum, Isidore, Paulus Diaconus, Theophanes, these authors must be also taken into account. The Chronica Italica" seems to have been first published in A.D. 387, and its basis was the chronicle of Constantinople. Afterwards it was from time to time brought up to date, perhaps, as Mommsen suggests, by the care of booksellers. In the sixth century it was probably re-edited and carried on, after the overthrow of the Gothic kingdom, by Archbishop Maximian of Ravenna, whose "chronicle" is cited by Agnellus. But there is no reason to suppose that he had anything to do with the illiterate fragment of the so-called Anonymus Valesii.

The so-called HISTORIA MISCELLA is made up of three distinct works of different ages: (1) Books 1-10 - the history of Eutropius, coming down to the death of Jovian; cp. vol. i. Appendix 1; (2) Books 11-16, the work of Paulus Diaconus, who lived at the end of the eighth century and is more famous by his

For the first fragment see vol. ii., Appendix, p. 560.

10 The new material contained in it was first edited by G. Hille (1866) under the title Prosperi Aquitani Chronici continuator Havniensis.

History of the Lombards; (3) the continuation of Landulfus Sagax, who lived more than 200 years later. The second part, which concerns us here, is compiled from Prosper, Orosius, Jordanes and others, but contains some notices drawn from lost sources. The work may be consulted in Muratori's Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, vol. i. (of which collection a new critical edition is appearing, ed. by Carducci and Fiorini, 1900, etc.), or in Migne's Patrol. Lat., vol. xev.

Paulus OROSIUS of Tarraco in Spain dedicated to his friend St. Augustine his Historiae adversum Paganos in 7 Books. He was young when, at St. Augustine's suggestion, he wrote the work shortly after A.D. 417. It was intended to illustrate and vindicate the Divine dispensation of a history of the world from the deluge to his own day, and to show that Christianity was not the cause of the evil times (see below on Salvian). The only part of importance as historical material is the last portion of Bk. vii., which deals with the latter part of the fourth, and first seventeen years of the fifth, century. His spirit is that of a narrow-minded provincial bigot, but he has some very important entries for the history of his own time-for example, on the campaign of Pollentia and the invasion of Radagaisus. [Edition C. Zangemeister in the Corpus script. eccles. Lat. 1882; and text (Teubner) by same editor, 1889.]

The importance of the work of SALVIAN on the Divine Government (De Gubernatione Dei, in 8 Books) for the state of the Empire in the fifth century is not adequately realised by Gibbon. It is (as Mr. Hodgkin justly says, i. p. 918, in his admirable chapter on the book) "one of our most valuable sources of information as to the inner life of the dying Empire and the moral character of its foes". Salvian was a presbyter of Massilia. He was married, but after the birth of a daughter he and his wife took a vow of chastity for life. He seems to have been born c. 400 and was still living in 480. He wrote his book before the middle of the century.

The purpose of this book was to answer the great problem which at that time was perplexing thoughtful people: Why is civilized society dissolving and breaking up before the barbarians, if there is a Divine governance of the world? This question had been dealt with before by Augustine in the De Civitate Dei, and by Orosius in the Hist. adversus Paganos. Their various answers have been well compared by Mr. Hodgkin. Augustine's answer was merely negative: the evils which had come upon Rome were not the effect of the introduction of Christianity. Orosius denied the existence of the evils. But a good deal had happened between 417 and 440; and in 440 even Orosius could hardly have ventured to maintain his thesis. Salvian's answer was: these evils are the effects of our vices. He draws a vivid and highly exaggerated contrast between Roman vices and Teutonic virtues. He dwells especially on a matter which came very directly within his own knowledge, the abuses and unjust exactions practised by Gallic officials.

So far as Salvian's arguments are concerned there is nothing to be added to Gibbon's criticism (xxxv. n. 12): “Salvian has attempted to explain the moral government of the Deity: a task which may be readily performed by supposing that the calamities of the wicked are judgments, and those of the righteous trials".

Tyrannius RUFINUS (born at Concordia c. A.D. 345, died in Sicily, A.D. 410) lived in Egypt for some time, where he was thrown into prison, on the occasion of the persecution which was conducted with the permission of the Emperor Valens, by Lucius, the Arian successor of Athanasius at Alexandria. Having quitted Egypt, on his release, he spent nearly twenty years as a monk on the Mount of Olives. During this period he became acquainted with Bacurius the first Christian king of the Iberians, and with Oedesius the companion of Frumentius, the apostle of the Ethiopians. He returned to Italy in 397 and spent the later part of his life at Aquileia. This period was troubled by a famous controversy with his friend Jerome. Rufinus translated many Greek works into Latin, among others Origen's treatise repl apxv. The controversy arose out of certain references to Jerome in the Preface to this translation, and it was represented that Rufinus misused the authority of Jerome's name to cover heretical doctrines of Origen. The most important works of Rufinus (Opera omnia, in Migne, P. L.,

21) are his Ecclesiastical History in two Books, being a continuation of that of Eusebius, which he rendered into Latin; and his history of Egyptian anchorets. For the origin of monasticism the latter work is of considerable importance. Cp. E. Preuschen, Palladius und Rufinus, 1897.

For the LIBER PONTIFICALIS (of Rome) see below, vol. v., Appendix 1.

A register of the acts, decrees, letters of the Bishops of Rome, up to Innocent iii., is supplied in the Regesta Pontificum Romanorum of Jaffé, ed. 2, 1885; but this will be superseded by the work of P. F. Kehr (under the same title), of which two instalments, Italia Pontificia, vols. i. and ii., 1896-7, have appeared. The documents themselves are scattered in various collections; most of the letters will be found in Migne's Patrologia Latina. The "Avellane Collection" of Letters of Roman pontiffs and Emperors, from A.D. 367 to 553, on ecclesiastical affairs, is being edited by O. Guenther (Part 1, 1895) in the Corpus secr. eccl. Lat.

For JORDANES see above, vol. i., Appendix 14.

The CODEX THEODOSIANUS (frequently referred to in Gibbon's notes) is our most important source for the legislation, and for the constitutional and the institutional history of the Empire in the fourth and early fifth centuries. The code, which collected the constitutions of previous Emperors (from Constantine I.) in 16 Books, was compiled by a commission appointed (A.D. 435) by Theodosius ii., and was issued in the names of that Emperor, from whom it takes its name, and of his colleague Valentinian iii., on Feb. 15, 438.11 It has not come down in its entirety; a considerable part of Books 1-5 is lost. The only older editions which need be mentioned here are that of Gothofredus (used by Gibbon) in 6 vols., 1665, with an invaluable commentary, and that of Haenel, 1837, based on a very wide study of the manuscripts, but showing (this is Mommsen's criticism) more diligence in collecting than judgment in using the material. These texts have been superseded by the edition of Mommsen, 1905. This work is in 2 vols., (1) the Code, ed. by Mommsen, (2) the small collection of novellae or "new constitutions" issued by Theodosius ii. and Valentinian iii. (after the publication of the Code), Marcian, Majorian, Severus, and Anthemius-which had been edited by Haenel, 1844-by P. M. Meyer.

COINS. Cohen's Description historique (see above vol. i., p. 484) ends with the death of Theodosius the Great. It is continued in Sabatier's Description générale des monnaies byzantines, 1862. (The older work on this subject was De Saulcy's Essai de classification des suites monétaires byzantines, 1836.) For the Vandal coinage, J. Friedländer, Die Münzen der Vandalen, 1849.

MODERN WORKS. Besides those mentioned in the Appendices to vol. i. and ii. : J. B. Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire, from Arcadius to Irene, 2 vols. 1889; H. Richter, Das weströmische Reich, besonders unter den Kaisern Gratian, Valentinian II. und Maximus (375-388), 1865; J. Ifland and A. Güldenpenning, der Kaiser Theodosius der Grosse, 1878; A. Güldenpenning, Geschichte des oströmischen Reiches unter den Kaisern Arcadius und Theodosius ii., 1885; F. Gregorovius, Athenaïs, Geschichte einer byzantinischen Kaiserin, 1882.

For the barbarian invasions and the Teutonic kingdoms: T. Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, vols. i. and ii. (ed. 2, 1892); F. Dahn, Könige der Germanen, 10 parts or vols. 1861-1907,12 and the same writer's Urgeschichte der germanischen und romanischen Völker (vol. i., 1881, deals with ancient Germany, and with the histories of the Vandals, Goths and Sueves; vol. ii., 1881, with the West Germans to the foundation of the Frankish kingdom; vol. iii., 1883, and vol. iv., 1889, with the Franks); P. Villari, Le invasioni barbariche in Italia, 1901 (Eng. tr. by L. Villari, 2 vols. 1902); L. Schmidt, Geschichte der deutschen Stämme bis zum Ausgange der Völkerwanderung I. 1-3, 1904-7 (in Sieglin's Quellen und Forschungen zur alten

11 An English translation of the introductory constitution, explaining the purpose of the Code, will be found in Bury, Later Roman Empire, i. 129 sqq.

12 Vol. i. (1861), the period before the migrations, and the history of the Vandals; vol. ii. (1861), the minor Gothic peoples; the Ostrogoths; vols. iii. and iv. (1866), the constitution of the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy, with Appendices on the laws; vol. v. (1870), the political history of the Visigoths; vol. vi. (1885), the constitution of the Visigoths; the kingdom of the Suevians in Spain; vol. vii. (1894-5), the Franks under the Merovingians; vol. viii. (1897-1900), the Franks under the Carolingians; vol. ix., Part 1 (1902), the Alamanni, Part 2 (1905), the Bavarians; vol. x. (1907), the Thuringians.