BOOK II. Their use to the Saxons. federation arose from a general desire of security and revenge. The horizon of Rome was at this juncture darkening civil wars were consuming the strength of the empire; and its Germanic enemies, who had many losses of liberty, life, and property to avenge, were learning the dangerous secret of the benefit of union. The Alemanni 30 had alarmed Marcus Aurelius with its first exhibition. The advantage of this confederation generated others, until the Roman empire was overwhelmed by the accumulating torrent; and her western provinces were parcelled out among those warlike spoilers whose improved posterity now govern Europe. This sagacious union of strength in a common cause was consecrated on the Rhine by the general name of Francs, in which the peculiar denominations of the tribes were absorbed.31 Their valour achieved its end; and their existence and general conduct were peculiarly useful to the Saxon nation.32 The safety and success of our ancestors may have flowed from this timely confederation. The Saxon exploits on the ocean inflicted such wounds on the Roman colonies and commerce, that a peculiar fleet was appointed to counteract them; the southern coast of Britain was put under an officer called Comes Littoris Saxonici; and every historian mentions them with dread and hatred. It does not seem visionary to state, that it would have been one of the first employments of the Roman indignation to have exterminated 30 For the nations who assumed this name, see Spener, 175. 179. 31 The states who united in the league are particularised by Spener, p. 341. ; and by Chrytæus, Sax. Proem. 32 The ancient writers give us some curious traits of the Francs of this period : "Francis familiare est ridendo fidem frangere." Vopiscus Proc. c. xiii. p. 237. Ed. Bip. "Gens Francorum infidelis est. Si perjeret Francus quid novi faciet, qui perjuriam ipsum sermonis genus putat esse non criminis." Salvian de Gub. Dei, lib. iv. p. 82. Mag. Bib. Pat. 5. Again, lib. vii. p. 116. "Franci mendaces, sed hospitales.” - This union of laughter and crime, of deceit and politeness, has not been entirely unknown to France in many periods since the fifth century. III. them by an expedition like those of Drusus, Ger- СНАР. manicus, and Maximin, if the confederation of the Francs had not interposed a formidable barrier that was never destroyed, and which kept the imperial armies employed on the south banks of the Rhine.33 We may add, that the furious desolations of Maximin were favourable to the growth of the Saxon power; for they depopulated the contiguous states, and left the Saxons without any strong neighbours to coerce or endanger them. Another cause peculiarly promotive of the prosperity of the Saxons, and directly tending to facilitate their future conquests in Britain, was their application to maritime expeditions; and it is interesting to the philosophical student of history to remark by what incidents they were led to this peculiar application of their courage and activity. 33 Pontanus Origin Franc. - Spener, 333-360., and his 2 vol. 421-429., and Schilter's Glossary, 316-322., furnish much information on the Frankish tribes. BOOK CHAP. IV. The Application of the SAXONS to Maritime Expeditions. THE situation of the Saxons on the sea-coast of that part of Europe which was in the neighbourhood of some fertile provinces of the Roman empire, and yet remote enough to elude their vengeful pursuit, and the possession of an island with a harbour so ample, and yet so guarded against hostile assaults, as Heligland afforded, were circumstances propitious to a system of piracy. The tribes on the sea-coasts, from the mouths of the Rhine to the Baltic, had from the days of Cæsar been gradually forming themselves to maritime exertions. The Romans themselves, inattentive to the consequences, contributed to their progress in this new path of war. Drusus equipped a fleet on the Rhine to waft his army to the Ems: he cut a channel for its passage into the Zuyder Zee; and we find in his time, that the Bructeri, who lived on the left of the Ems, were able to fight a battle with him on the seas. In the reign of Tiberius, Germanicus built a thousand vessels on the Rhine, Maes, and Scheld2, teaching the attentive natives the use of ships, and the manner of their constructing them, and employing them in their navigation. Within thirty years afterwards, Gennascus, at the head of the Chauci, evinced the maritime improvements of the tribes in these parts: for with light ships, armed for plunder, he made the descent already noticed on the contiguous shores, and particularly on the Roman provinces in France, knowing 1 Mascou, Hist. vol. i. p. 80. 2 Tacit. Ann. lib. ii. c. 6. that they were rich, and perceiving that they were weak against such attacks. His enterprises were in fact the precursors of those with which the Francs and Saxons afterwards annoyed the Roman empire. The naval exertions of Civilis have been stated before. As the population between the Rhine and Ems became thus accustomed to excursions on the seas, the Saxons began to multiply near them, and to spread into the islands we have described. But an active system of naval enterprise is not naturally chosen by any nation; and, still less, distant voyages, which are fatal to land warriors from their ignorance, and still more formidable from their superstitions. Hence the Saxons might have lived amid their rocks and marshes, conflicting with their neighbours, or sailing about them in petty vessels for petty warfare, till they had mouldered away in the vicissitudes in which so many tribes perished; if one remarkable incident, not originating from themselves, but from a Roman emperor, who intended no such result, had not excited their peculiar attention to maritime expeditions on a larger scale, with grander prospects, and to countries far remote. This event, which tinged with new and lasting colours the destiny of Europe, by determining the Saxons to piratical enterprises, was the daring achievements of the Francs; whom Probus, during his brief sovereignty, had transported to the Pontus. To break the strength of the barbaric myriads, who were every year assaulting the Roman state with increasing force, this emperor had recourse to the policy, not unfrequent under the imperial government, of settling colonies of their warriors in places very distant from the region of their nativity. CHAP. IV. Among others, a numerous body of Francs, or Voyage of 3 Tacit. Ann. lib. xi. c. 18. the Francs BOOK II. from the Euxine. rather of the contiguous tribes united under that name, was transplanted to the Euxine. The attachment of mankind to the scenes of their childhood; and their ardent longing, when in foreign lands, for the country which their relatives inhabit; where their most pleasing associations have been formed; where their individual characters have been acquired, and customs like their own exist; are feelings so natural to every bosom, and so common to every age, that it is not surprising that the Frankish exiles, when removed to the Euxine, regretted their native wilds.* We read, therefore, with general sympathy, that they soon afterwards seized the earliest opportunity of abandoning their foreign settlement. They possessed themselves of many ships, probably the vessels in which they had been carried from the German Ocean to the Euxine, and formed the daring plan of sailing back to the Rhine. Its novelty and improbability procured its success; and the necessities which attended it, led them to great exploits. Compelled to land wherever they could for supplies, safety, and information, they ravaged the coasts of Asia and Greece. Reaching at length Sicily, they attacked and ravaged Syracuse with great slaughter. Beaten about by the winds, often ignorant where they were, seeking subsistence, pillaging to obtain it, and excited to new plunder by the successful depredations they had already made, they carried their triumphant hostility to several districts of Africa. They were driven off that continent by a force sent from Carthage; but this repulse turning them towards Europe, and finding no where a home, they concluded at last their remarkable voyage by reaching in safety their native shores." ✦ So strong was this feeling in Germany, that some of the German chiefs whom Augustus forced from their country killed themselves. 1 Mascou, 85. The original authorities are Zosimus, end of book i.; Eumen. Paneg, iv. c. 18.; and Vopiscus in Probo, c. 18. |