[1: The revolt of the Goths, and the blockade of
Constantinople, are distinctly mentioned by Claudian, (in Rufin.
l. ii. 7 - 100,) Zosimus, (l. v. 292,) and Jornandes, (de Rebus
Geticis, c. 29.)]
[2: - Alii per toga ferocis
Danubii solidata ruunt; expertaque remis
Frangunt stagna rotis.
Claudian and Ovid often amuse their fancy by interchanging the
metaphors and properties of liquid water, and solid ice. Much
false wit has been expended in this easy exercise.]
[3: Jerom, tom. i. p. 26. He endeavors to comfort his
friend Heliodorus, bishop of Altinum, for the loss of his nephew,
Nepotian, by a curious recapitulation of all the public and
private misfortunes of the times. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles.
tom. xii. p. 200, &c.]
[4: Baltha or bold: origo mirifica, says Jornandes, (c.
29.) This illustrious race long continued to flourish in France,
in the Gothic province of Septimania, or Languedoc; under the
corrupted appellation of Boax; and a branch of that family
afterwards settled in the kingdom of Naples (Grotius in Prolegom.
ad Hist. Gothic. p. 53.) The lords of Baux, near Arles, and of
seventy-nine subordinate places, were independent of the counts
of Provence, (Longuerue, Description de la France, tom. i. p.
357).]
[5: Zosimus (l. v. p. 293 - 295) is our best guide for
the conquest of Greece: but the hints and allusion of Claudian
are so many rays of historic light.]
[6: Compare Herodotus (l. vii. c. 176) and Livy, (xxxvi.
15.) The narrow entrance of Greece was probably enlarged by each
successive ravisher.]
[7: He passed, says Eunapius, (in Vit. Philosoph. p. 93,
edit. Commelin, 1596,) through the straits, of Thermopylae.]
[8: In obedience to Jerom and Claudian, (in Rufin. l.
ii. 191,) I have mixed some darker colors in the mild
representation of Zosimus, who wished to soften the calamities of
Athens.
Nec fera Cecropias traxissent vincula matres.
Synesius (Epist. clvi. p. 272, edit. Petav.) observes, that
Athens, whose sufferings he imputes to the proconsul's avarice,
was at that time less famous for her schools of philosophy than
for her trade of honey.]
[9: - Vallata mari Scironia rupes,
Et duo continuo connectens aequora muro
Isthmos.
Claudian de Bel. Getico, 188.
The Scironian rocks are described by Pausanias, (l. i. c.
44, p. 107, edit. Kuhn,) and our modern travellers, Wheeler (p.
436) and Chandler, (p. 298.) Hadrian made the road passable for
two carriages.]
[10: Claudian (in Rufin. l. ii. 186, and de Bello
Getico, 611, &c.) vaguely, though forcibly, delineates the scene
of rapine and destruction.]
[11: These generous lines of Homer (Odyss. l. v. 306)
were transcribed by one of the captive youths of Corinth: and the
tears of Mummius may prove that the rude conqueror, though he was
ignorant of the value of an original picture, possessed the
purest source of good taste, a benevolent heart, (Plutarch,
Symposiac. l. ix. tom. ii. p. 737, edit. Wechel.)]
[12: Homer perpetually describes the exemplary patience
of those female captives, who gave their charms, and even their
hearts, to the murderers of their fathers, brothers, &c. Such a
passion (of Eriphile for Achilles) is touched with admirable
delicacy by Racine.]
[13: Plutarch (in Pyrrho, tom. ii. p. 474, edit. Brian)
gives the genuine answer in the Laconic dialect. Pyrrhus
attacked Sparta with 25,000 foot, 2000 horse, and 24 elephants,
and the defence of that open town is a fine comment on the laws
of Lycurgus, even in the last stage of decay.]
[14: Such, perhaps, as Homer (Iliad, xx. 164) had so
nobly painted him.]
[15: Eunapius (in Vit. Philosoph. p. 90 - 93) intimates
that a troop of monks betrayed Greece, and followed the Gothic
camp.
Note: The expression is curious: Vit. Max. t. i. p. 53,
edit. Boissonade. - M.]
[16: For Stilicho's Greek war, compare the honest
narrative of Zosimus (l. v. p. 295, 296) with the curious
circumstantial flattery of Claudian, (i. Cons. Stilich. l. i. 172
- 186, iv. Cons. Hon. 459 - 487.) As the event was not glorious,
it is artfully thrown into the shade.]
[17: The troops who marched through Elis delivered up
their arms. This security enriched the Eleans, who were lovers of
a rural life. Riches begat pride: they disdained their
privilege, and they suffered. Polybius advises them to retire
once more within their magic circle. See a learned and judicious
discourse on the Olympic games, which Mr. West has prefixed to
his translation of Pindar.]
[18: Claudian (in iv. Cons. Hon. 480) alludes to the
fact without naming the river; perhaps the Alpheus, (i. Cons.
Stil. l. i. 185.)
- Et Alpheus Geticis angustus acervis
Tardior ad Siculos etiamnum pergit amores.
Yet I should prefer the Peneus, a shallow stream in a wide and
deep bed, which runs through Elis, and falls into the sea below
Cyllene. It had been joined with the Alpheus to cleanse the
Augean stable. (Cellarius, tom. i. p. 760. Chandler's Travels,
p. 286.)]
[19: Strabo, l. viii. p. 517. Plin. Hist. Natur. iv. 3.
Wheeler, p. 308. Chandler, p. 275. They measured from different
points the distance between the two lands.]
[20: Synesius passed three years (A.D. 397 - 400) at
Constantinople, as deputy from Cyrene to the emperor Arcadius.
He presented him with a crown of gold, and pronounced before him
the instructive oration de Regno, (p. 1 - 32, edit. Petav. Paris,
1612.) The philosopher was made bishop of Ptolemais, A.D. 410,
and died about 430. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xii. p. 490,
554, 683 - 685.]
[21: Synesius de Regno, p. 21 - 26.]
[22: - qui foedera rumpit
Ditatur: qui servat, eget: vastator Achivae
Gentis, et Epirum nuper populatus inultam,
Praesidet Illyrico: jam, quos obsedit, amicos
Ingreditur muros; illis responsa daturus,
Quorum conjugibus potitur, natosque peremit.
Claudian in Eutrop. l. ii. 212. Alaric applauds his own policy
(de Bell Getic. 533 - 543) in the use which he had made of this
Illyrian jurisdiction.]
[23: Jornandes, c. 29, p. 651. The Gothic historian
adds, with unusual spirit, Cum suis deliberans suasit suo labore
quaerere regna, quam alienis per otium subjacere.
- Discors odiisque anceps civilibus orbis,
Non sua vis tutata diu, dum foedera fallax
Ludit, et alternae perjuria venditat aulae.
Claudian de Bell. Get. 565]
[25: Alpibus Italiae ruptis penetrabis ad Urbem.
This authentic prediction was announced by Alaric, or at
least by Claudian, (de Bell. Getico, 547,) seven years before the
event. But as it was not accomplished within the term which has
been rashly fixed the interpreters escaped through an ambiguous
meaning.]
[26: Our best materials are 970 verses of Claudian in
the poem on the Getic war, and the beginning of that which
celebrates the sixth consulship of Honorius. Zosimus is totally
silent; and we are reduced to such scraps, or rather crumbs, as
we can pick from Orosius and the Chronicles.]
[27: Notwithstanding the gross errors of Jornandes, who
confounds the Italian wars of Alaric, (c. 29,) his date of the
consulship of Stilicho and Aurelian (A.D. 400) is firm and
respectable. It is certain from Claudian (Tillemont, Hist. des
Emp. tom. v. p. 804) that the battle of Polentia was fought A.D.
403; but we cannot easily fill the interval.]
[28: Tantum Romanae urbis judicium fugis, ut magis
obsidionem barbaricam, quam pacatoe urbis judicium velis
sustinere. Jerom, tom. ii. p. 239. Rufinus understood his own
danger; the peaceful city was inflamed by the beldam Marcella,
and the rest of Jerom's faction.]
[29: Jovinian, the enemy of fasts and of celibacy, who
was persecuted and insulted by the furious Jerom, (Jortin's
Remarks, vol. iv. p. 104, &c.) See the original edict of
banishment in the Theodosian Code, xvi. tit. v. leg. 43.]
[30: This epigram (de Sene Veronensi qui suburbium
nusquam egres sus est) is one of the earliest and most pleasing
compositions of Claudian. Cowley's imitation (Hurd's edition,
vol. ii. p. 241) has some natural and happy strokes: but it is
much inferior to the original portrait, which is evidently drawn
from the life.]
[31: Ingentem meminit parvo qui germine quercum
Aequaevumque videt consenuisse nemus.
A neighboring wood born with himself he sees,
And loves his old contemporary trees.
In this passage, Cowley is perhaps superior to his original; and
the English poet, who was a good botanist, has concealed the oaks
under a more general expression.]
[32: Claudian de Bell. Get. 199 - 266. He may seem
prolix: but fear and superstition occupied as large a space in
the minds of the Italians.]
[33: From the passages of Paulinus, which Baronius has
produced, (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 403, No. 51,) it is manifest that
the general alarm had pervaded all Italy, as far as Nola in
Campania, where that famous penitent had fixed his abode.]
[34: Solus erat Stilicho, &c., is the exclusive
commendation which Claudian bestows, (del Bell. Get. 267,)
without condescending to except the emperor. How insignificant
must Honorius have appeared in his own court.]
[35: The face of the country, and the hardiness of
Stilicho, are finely described, (de Bell. Get. 340 - 363.)]
[36: Venit et extremis legio praetenta Britannis,
Quae Scoto dat frena truci.
De Bell. Get. 416.
Yet the most rapid march from Edinburgh, or Newcastle, to Milan,
must have required a longer space of time than Claudian seems
willing to allow for the duration of the Gothic war.]
[37: Every traveller must recollect the face of
Lombardy, (see Fonvenelle, tom. v. p. 279,) which is often
tormented by the capricious and irregular abundance of waters.
The Austrians, before Genoa, were encamped in the dry bed of the
Polcevera. "Ne sarebbe" (says Muratori) "mai passato per mente a
que' buoni Alemanni, che quel picciolo torrente potesse, per cosi
dire, in un instante cangiarsi in un terribil gigante." (Annali
d'Italia, tom. xvi. p. 443, Milan, 1752, 8vo edit.)]
[A: According to Le Beau and his commentator M. St.
Martin, Honorius did not attempt to fly. Settlements were
offered to the Goths in Lombardy, and they advanced from the Po
towards the Alps to take possession of them. But it was a
treacherous stratagem of Stilicho, who surprised them while they
were reposing on the faith of this treaty. Le Beau, v. x.]
[38: Claudian does not clearly answer our question,
Where was Honorius himself? Yet the flight is marked by the
pursuit; and my idea of the Gothic was is justified by the
Italian critics, Sigonius (tom. P, ii. p. 369, de Imp. Occident.
l. x.) and Muratori, (Annali d'Italia. tom. iv. p. 45.)]
[39: One of the roads may be traced in the Itineraries,
(p. 98, 288, 294, with Wesseling's Notes.) Asta lay some miles on
the right hand.]
[40: Asta, or Asti, a Roman colony, is now the capital
of a pleasant country, which, in the sixteenth century, devolved
to the dukes of Savoy, (Leandro Alberti Descrizzione d'Italia, p.
382.)]
[41: Nec me timor impulit ullus. He might hold this
proud language the next year at Rome, five hundred miles from the
scene of danger (vi. Cons. Hon. 449.)]
[42: Hanc ego vel victor regno, vel morte tenebo
Victus, humum.
The speeches (de Bell. Get. 479 - 549) of the Gothic Nestor, and
Achilles, are strong, characteristic, adapted to the
circumstances; and possibly not less genuine than those of Livy.]
[43: Orosius (l. vii. c. 37) is shocked at the impiety
of the Romans, who attacked, on Easter Sunday, such pious
Christians. Yet, at the same time, public prayers were offered
at the shrine of St. Thomas of Edessa, for the destruction of the
Arian robber. See Tillemont (Hist des Emp. tom. v. p. 529) who
quotes a homily, which has been erroneously ascribed to St.
Chrysostom.]
[44: The vestiges of Pollentia are twenty-five miles to
the south- east of Turin. Urbs, in the same neighborhood, was a
royal chase of the kings of Lombardy, and a small river, which
excused the prediction, "penetrabis ad urbem," (Cluver. Ital.
Antiq tom. i. p. 83 - 85.)]
[45: Orosius wishes, in doubtful words, to insinuate the
defeat of the Romans. "Pugnantes vicimus, victores victi sumus."
Prosper (in Chron.) makes it an equal and bloody battle, but the
Gothic writers Cassiodorus (in Chron.) and Jornandes (de Reb.
Get. c. 29) claim a decisive victory.]
[46: Demens Ausonidum gemmata monilia matrum,
Romanasque alta famulas cervice petebat.
De Bell. Get. 627.]
[47: Claudian (de Bell. Get. 580 - 647) and Prudentius
(in Symmach. n. 694 - 719) celebrate, without ambiguity, the
Roman victory of Pollentia. They are poetical and party writers;
yet some credit is due to the most suspicious witnesses, who are
checked by the recent notoriety of facts.]
[48: Claudian's peroration is strong and elegant; but
the identity of the Cimbric and Gothic fields must be understood
(like Virgil's Philippi, Georgic i. 490) according to the loose
geography of a poet. Verselle and Pollentia are sixty miles from
each other; and the latitude is still greater, if the Cimbri were
defeated in the wide and barren plain of Verona, (Maffei, Verona
Illustrata, P. i. p. 54 - 62.)]
[49: Claudian and Prudentius must be strictly examined,
to reduce the figures, and extort the historic sense, of those
poets.]
[50: Et gravant en airain ses freles avantages
De mes etats conquis enchainer les images.
The practice of exposing in triumph the images of kings and
provinces was familiar to the Romans. The bust of Mithridates
himself was twelve feet high, of massy gold, (Freinshem.
Supplement. Livian. ciii. 47.)]
[51: The Getic war, and the sixth consulship of
Honorius, obscurely connect the events of Alaric's retreat and
losses.]
[52: Taceo de Alarico ... saepe visto, saepe concluso,
semperque dimisso. Orosius, l. vii. c. 37, p. 567. Claudian
(vi. Cons. Hon. 320) drops the curtain with a fine image.]
[53: The remainder of Claudian's poem on the sixth
consulship of Honorius, describes the journey, the triumph, and
the games, (330 - 660.)]
[54: See the inscription in Mascou's History of the
Ancient Germans, viii. 12. The words are positive and
indiscreet: Getarum nationem in omne aevum domitam, &c.]
[55: On the curious, though horrid, subject of the
gladiators, consult the two books of the Saturnalia of Lipsius,
who, as an antiquarian, is inclined to excuse the practice of
antiquity, (tom. iii. p. 483 - 545.)]
[56: Cod. Theodos. l. xv. tit. xii. leg. i. The
Commentary of Godefroy affords large materials (tom. v. p. 396)
for the history of gladiators.]
[57: See the peroration of Prudentius (in Symmach. l.
ii. 1121 - 1131) who had doubtless read the eloquent invective of
Lactantius, (Divin. Institut. l. vi. c. 20.) The Christian
apologists have not spared these bloody games, which were
introduced in the religious festivals of Paganism.]
[58: Theodoret, l. v. c. 26. I wish to believe the
story of St. Telemachus. Yet no church has been dedicated, no
altar has been erected, to the only monk who died a martyr in the
cause of humanity.]
[B: Muller, in his valuable Treatise, de Genio, moribus
et luxu aevi Theodosiani, is disposed to question the effect
produced by the heroic, or rather saintly, death of Telemachus.
No prohibitory law of Honorius is to be found in the Theodosian
Code, only the old and imperfect edict of Constantine. But
Muller has produced no evidence or allusion to gladiatorial shows
after this period. The combats with wild beasts certainly lasted
till the fall of the Western empire; but the gladiatorial combats
ceased either by common consent, or by Imperial edict. - M.]
[59: Crudele gladiatorum spectaculum et inhumanum
nonnullis videri solet, et haud scio an ita sit, ut nunc fit.
Cicero Tusculan. ii. 17. He faintly censures the abuse, and
warmly defends the use, of these sports; oculis nulla poterat
esse fortior contra dolorem et mortem disciplina. Seneca (epist.
vii.) shows the feelings of a man.]
[60: This account of Ravenna is drawn from Strabo, (l.
v. p. 327,) Pliny, (iii. 20,) Stephen of Byzantium, (sub voce, p.
651, edit. Berkel,) Claudian, (in vi. Cons. Honor. 494, &c.,)
Sidonius Apollinaris, (l. i. epist. 5, 8,) Jornandes, (de Reb.
Get. c. 29,) Procopius (de Bell, (lothic, l. i. c. i. p. 309,
edit. Louvre,) and Cluverius, (Ital. Antiq tom i. p. 301 - 307.)
Yet I still want a local antiquarian and a good topographical
map.]
[61: Martial (Epigram iii. 56, 57) plays on the trick of
the knave, who had sold him wine instead of water; but he
seriously declares that a cistern at Ravenna is more valuable
than a vineyard. Sidonius complains that the town is destitute
of fountains and aqueducts; and ranks the want of fresh water
among the local evils, such as the croaking of frogs, the
stinging of gnats, &c.]
[62: The fable of Theodore and Honoria, which Dryden has
so admirably transplanted from Boccaccio, (Giornata iii. novell.
viii.,) was acted in the wood of Chiassi, a corrupt word from
Classis, the naval station which, with the intermediate road, or
suburb the Via Caesaris, constituted the triple city of Ravenna.]
[63: From the year 404, the dates of the Theodosian Code
become sedentary at Constantinople and Ravenna. See Godefroy's
Chronology of the Laws, tom. i. p. cxlviii., &c.]
[64: See M. de Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 179 -
189, tom ii p. 295, 334 - 338.]
[C: There is no authority which connects this inroad of
the Teutonic tribes with the movements of the Huns. The Huns can
hardly have reached the shores of the Baltic, and probably the
greater part of the forces of Radagaisus, particularly the
Vandals, had long occupied a more southern position. - M.]
[65: Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. iii. p. 182)
has observed an emigration from the Palus Maeotis to the north of
Germany, which he ascribes to famine. But his views of ancient
history are strangely darkened by ignorance and error.]
[66: Zosimus (l. v. p. 331) uses the general description
of the nations beyond the Danube and the Rhine. Their situation,
and consequently their names, are manifestly shown, even in the
various epithets which each ancient writer may have casually
added.]
[67: The name of Rhadagast was that of a local deity of
the Obotrites, (in Mecklenburg.) A hero might naturally assume
the appellation of his tutelar god; but it is not probable that
the Barbarians should worship an unsuccessful hero. See Mascou,
Hist. of the Germans, viii. 14.
Note: The god of war and of hospitality with the Vends and
all the Sclavonian races of Germany bore the name of Radegast,
apparently the same with Rhadagaisus. His principal temple was
at Rhetra in Mecklenburg. It was adorned with great magnificence.
The statue of the gold was of gold. St. Martin, v. 255. A
statue of Radegast, of much coarser materials, and of the rudest
workmanship, was discovered between 1760 and 1770, with those of
other Wendish deities, on the supposed site of Rhetra. The names
of the gods were cut upon them in Runic characters. See the very
curious volume on these antiquities - Die Gottesdienstliche
Alterthumer der Obotriter - Masch and Wogen. Berlin, 1771. - M.]
[68: Olympiodorus (apud Photium, p. 180, uses the Greek
word which does not convey any precise idea. I suspect that they
were the princes and nobles with their faithful companions; the
knights with their squires, as they would have been styled some
centuries afterwards.]
[69: Tacit. de Moribus Germanorum, c. 37.]
[70: - Cujus agendi
Spectator vel causa fui,
(Claudian, vi. Cons. Hon. 439,)
is the modest language of Honorius, in speaking of the Gothic
war, which he had seen somewhat nearer.]
[71: Zosimus (l. v. p. 331) transports the war, and the
victory of Stilisho, beyond the Danube. A strange error, which
is awkwardly and imperfectly cured (Tillemont, Hist. des Emp.
tom. v. p. 807.) In good policy, we must use the service of
Zosimus, without esteeming or trusting him.]
[72: Codex Theodos. l. vii. tit. xiii. leg. 16. The
date of this law A.D. 406. May 18) satisfies-me, as it had done
Godefroy, (tom. ii. p. 387,) of the true year of the invasion of
Radagaisus. Tillemont, Pagi, and Muratori, prefer the preceding
year; but they are bound, by certain obligations of civility and
respect, to St. Paulinus of Nola.]
[73: Soon after Rome had been taken by the Gauls, the
senate, on a sudden emergency, armed ten legions, 3000 horse, and
42,000 foot; a force which the city could not have sent forth
under Augustus, (Livy, xi. 25.) This declaration may puzzle an
antiquary, but it is clearly explained by Montesquieu.]
[74: Machiavel has explained, at least as a philosopher,
the origin of Florence, which insensibly descended, for the
benefit of trade, from the rock of Faesulae to the banks of the
Arno, (Istoria Fiorentina, tom. i. p. 36. Londra, 1747.) The
triumvirs sent a colony to Florence, which, under Tiberius,
(Tacit. Annal. i. 79,) deserved the reputation and name of a
flourishing city. See Cluver. Ital. Antiq. tom. i. p. 507, &c.]
[75: Yet the Jupiter of Radagaisus, who worshipped Thor
and Woden, was very different from the Olympic or Capitoline
Jove. The accommodating temper of Polytheism might unite those
various and remote deities; but the genuine Romans ahhorred the
human sacrifices of Gaul and Germany.]
[D: Gibbon has rather softened the language of Augustine
as to this threatened insurrection of the Pagans, in order to
restore the prohibited rites and ceremonies of Paganism; and
their treasonable hopes that the success of Radagaisus would be
the triumph of idolatry. Compare ii. 25 - M.]
[76: Paulinus (in Vit. Ambros c. 50) relates this story,
which he received from the mouth of Pansophia herself, a
religious matron of Florence. Yet the archbishop soon ceased to
take an active part in the business of the world, and never
became a popular saint.]
[77: Augustin de Civitat. Dei, v. 23. Orosius, l. vii.
c. 37, p. 567 - 571. The two friends wrote in Africa, ten or
twelve years after the victory; and their authority is implicitly
followed by Isidore of Seville, (in Chron. p. 713, edit. Grot.)
How many interesting facts might Orosius have inserted in the
vacant space which is devoted to pious nonsense!]
[78: Franguntur montes, planumque per ardua Caesar
Ducit opus: pandit fossas, turritaque summis
Disponit castella jugis, magnoque necessu
Amplexus fines, saltus, memorosaque tesqua
Et silvas, vastaque feras indagine claudit.! Yet
the simplicity of truth (Caesar, de Bell. Civ. iii. 44) is far
greater than the amplifications of Lucan, (Pharsal. l. vi. 29 - 63.)]
[79: The rhetorical expressions of Orosius, "in arido et
aspero montis jugo;" "in unum ac parvum verticem," are not very
suitable to the encampment of a great army. But Faesulae, only
three miles from Florence, might afford space for the
head-quarters of Radagaisus, and would be comprehended within the
circuit of the Roman lines.]
[80: See Zosimus, l. v. p. 331, and the Chronicles of
Prosper and Marcellinus.]
[81: Olympiodorus (apud Photium, p. 180) uses an
expression which would denote a strict and friendly alliance, and
render Stilicho still more criminal. The paulisper detentus,
deinde interfectus, of Orosius, is sufficiently odious.
Note: Gibbon, by translating this passage of Olympiodorus,
as if it had been good Greek, has probably fallen into an error.
The natural order of the words is as Gibbon translates it; but it
is almost clear, refers to the Gothic chiefs, "whom Stilicho,
after he had defeated Radagaisus, attached to his army." So in
the version corrected by Classen for Niebuhr's edition of the
Byzantines, p. 450. - M.]
[82: Orosius, piously inhuman, sacrifices the king and
people, Agag and the Amalekites, without a symptom of compassion.
The bloody actor is less detestable than the cool, unfeeling
historian.
Note: Considering the vow, which he was universally believed
to have made, to destroy Rome, and to sacrifice the senators on
the altars, and that he is said to have immolated his prisoners
to his gods, the execution of Radagaisus, if, as it appears, he
was taken in arms, cannot deserve Gibbon's severe condemnation.
Mr. Herbert (notes to his poem of Attila, p. 317) justly
observes, that "Stilicho had probably authority for hanging him
on the first tree." Marcellinus, adds Mr. Herbert, attributes the
execution to the Gothic chiefs Sarus. - M.]
[83: And Claudian's muse, was she asleep? had she been
ill paid! Methinks the seventh consulship of Honorius (A.D. 407)
would have furnished the subject of a noble poem. Before it was
discovered that the state could no longer be saved, Stilicho
(after Romulus, Camillus and Marius) might have been worthily
surnamed the fourth founder of Rome.]
[84: A luminous passage of Prosper's Chronicle, "In tres
partes, pes diversos principes, diversus exercitus," reduces the
miracle of Florence and connects the history of Italy, Gaul, and
Germany.]
[85: Orosius and Jerom positively charge him with
instigating the in vasion. "Excitatae a Stilichone gentes," &c.
They must mean a directly. He saved Italy at the expense of
Gaul]
[86: The Count de Buat is satisfied, that the Germans
who invaded Gaul were the two thirds that yet remained of the
army of Radagaisus. See the Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de
l'Europe, (tom. vii. p. 87, 121. Paris, 1772;) an elaborate work,
which I had not the advantage of perusing till the year 1777. As
early as 1771, I find the same idea expressed in a rough draught
of the present History. I have since observed a similar
intimation in Mascou, (viii. 15.) Such agreement, without mutual
communication, may add some weight to our common sentiment.]
[87: - Provincia missos
Expellet citius fasces, quam Francia reges
Quos dederis.
Claudian (i. Cons. Stil. l. i. 235, &c.) is clear and
satisfactory. These kings of France are unknown to Gregory of
Tours; but the author of the Gesta Francorum mentions both Sunno
and Marcomir, and names the latter as the father of Pharamond,
(in tom. ii. p. 543.) He seems to write from good materials,
which he did not understand.]
[88: See Zosimus, (l. vi. p. 373,) Orosius, (l. vii. c.
40, p. 576,) and the Chronicles. Gregory of Tours (l. ii. c. 9,
p. 165, in the second volume of the Historians of France) has
preserved a valuable fragment of Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus,
whose three names denote a Christian, a Roman subject, and a
Semi-Barbarian.]
[89: Claudian (i. Cons. Stil. l. i. 221, &c., l. ii.
186) describes the peace and prosperity of the Gallic frontier.
The Abbe Dubos (Hist. Critique, &c., tom. i. p. 174) would read
Alba (a nameless rivulet of the Ardennes) instead of Albis; and
expatiates on the danger of the Gallic cattle grazing beyond the
Elbe. Foolish enough! In poetical geography, the Elbe, and the
Hercynian, signify any river, or any wood, in Germany. Claudian
is not prepared for the strict examination of our antiquaries.]
[90: - Germinasque viator
Cum videat ripas, quae sit Romana requirat.]
[91: Jerom, tom. i. p. 93. See in the 1st vol. of the
Historians of France, p. 777, 782, the proper extracts from the
Carmen de Providentil Divina, and Salvian. The anonymous poet
was himself a captive, with his bishop and fellow-citizens.]
[92: The Pelagian doctrine, which was first agitated
A.D. 405, was condemned, in the space of ten years, at Rome and
Carthage. St Augustin fought and conquered; but the Greek church
was favorable to his adversaries; and (what is singular enough)
the people did not take any part in a dispute which they could
not understand.]
[93: See the Memoires de Guillaume du Bellay, l. vi. In
French, the original reproof is less obvious, and more pointed,
from the double sense of the word journee, which alike signifies,
a day's travel, or a battle.]
[94: Claudian, (i. Cons. Stil. l. ii. 250.) It is
supposed that the Scots of Ireland invaded, by sea, the whole
western coast of Britain: and some slight credit may be given
even to Nennius and the Irish traditions, (Carte's Hist. of
England, vol. i. p. 169.) Whitaker's Genuine History of the
Britons, p. 199. The sixty-six lives of St. Patrick, which were
extant in the ninth century, must have contained as many thousand
lies; yet we may believe, that, in one of these Irish inroads the
future apostle was led away captive, (Usher, Antiquit. Eccles
Britann. p. 431, and Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xvi. p. 45 782,
&c.)]
[95: The British usurpers are taken from Zosimus, (l.
vi. p. 371 - 375,) Orosius, (l. vii. c. 40, p. 576, 577,)
Olympiodorus, (apud Photium, p. 180, 181,) the ecclesiastical
historians, and the Chronicles. The Latins are ignorant of
Marcus.]
[96: Cum in Constantino inconstantiam ... execrarentur,
(Sidonius Apollinaris, l. v. epist. 9, p. 139, edit. secund.
Sirmond.) Yet Sidonius might be tempted, by so fair a pun, to
stigmatize a prince who had disgraced his grandfather.]
[97: Bagaudoe is the name which Zosimus applies to them;
perhaps they deserved a less odious character, (see Dubos, Hist.
Critique, tom. i. p. 203, and this History, vol. i. p. 407.) We
shall hear of them again.]
[98: Verinianus, Didymus, Theodosius, and Lagodius, who
in modern courts would be styled princes of the blood, were not
distinguished by any rank or privileges above the rest of their
fellow-subjects.]
[99: These Honoriani, or Honoriaci, consisted of two
bands of Scots, or Attacotti, two of Moors, two of Marcomanni,
the Victores, the Asca in, and the Gallicani, (Notitia Imperii,
sect. xxxiii. edit. Lab.) They were part of the sixty-five
Auxilia Palatina, and are properly styled by Zosimus, (l. vi.
374.)]
[100: - Comitatur euntem
Pallor, et atra fames; et saucia lividus ora
Luctus; et inferno stridentes agmine morbi.
Claudian in vi. Cons. Hon. 821, &c.]
[101: These dark transactions are investigated by the
Count de Bual (Hist. des Peuples de l'Europe, tom. vii. c. iii. -
viii. p. 69 - 206,) whose laborious accuracy may sometimes
fatigue a superficial reader.]
[102: See Zosimus, l. v. p. 334, 335. He interrupts his
scanty narrative to relate the fable of Aemona, and of the ship
Argo; which was drawn overland from that place to the Adriatic.
Sozomen (l. viii. c. 25, l. ix. c. 4) and Socrates (l. vii. c.
10) cast a pale and doubtful light; and Orosius (l. vii. c. 38,
p. 571) is abominably partial.]
[103: Zosimus, l. v. p. 338, 339. He repeats the words
of Lampadius, as they were spoke in Latin, "Non est ista pax, sed
pactio servi tutis," and then translates them into Greek for the
benefit of his readers.
Note: From Cicero's XIIth Philippic, 14. - M.]
[104: He came from the coast of the Euxine, and
exercised a splendid office. His actions justify his character,
which Zosimus (l. v. p. 340) exposes with visible satisfaction.
Augustin revered the piety of Olympius, whom he styles a true son
of the church, (Baronius, Annal. Eccles, Eccles. A.D. 408, No.
19, &c. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 467, 468.) But
these praises, which the African saint so unworthily bestows,
might proceed as well from ignorance as from adulation.]
[105: Zosimus, l. v. p. 338, 339. Sozomen, l. ix. c. 4.
Stilicho offered to undertake the journey to Constantinople, that
he might divert Honorius from the vain attempt. The Eastern
empire would not have obeyed, and could not have been conquered.]
[106: Zosimus (l. v. p. 336 - 345) has copiously, though
not clearly, related the disgrace and death of Stilicho.
Olympiodorus, (apud Phot. p. 177.) Orosius, (l. vii. c. 38, p.
571, 572,) Sozomen, (l. ix. c. 4,) and Philostorgius, (l. xi. c.
3, l. xii. c. 2,) afford supplemental hints.]
[107: Zosimus, l. v. p. 333. The marriage of a
Christian with two sisters, scandalizes Tillemont, (Hist. des
Empereurs, tom. v. p. 557;) who expects, in vain, that Pope
Innocent I. should have done something in the way either of
censure or of dispensation.]
[108: Two of his friends are honorably mentioned,
(Zosimus, l. v. p. 346:) Peter, chief of the school of notaries,
and the great chamberlain Deuterius. Stilicho had secured the
bed-chamber; and it is surprising that, under a feeble prince,
the bed-chamber was not able to secure him.]
[109: Orosius (l. vii. c. 38, p. 571, 572) seems to copy
the false and furious manifestos, which were dispersed through
the provinces by the new administration.]
[110: See the Theodosian code, l. vii. tit. xvi. leg. 1,
l. ix. tit. xlii. leg. 22. Stilicho is branded with the name of
proedo publicus, who employed his wealth, ad omnem ditandam,
inquietandamque Barbariem.]
[111: Augustin himself is satisfied with the effectual
laws, which Stilicho had enacted against heretics and idolaters;
and which are still extant in the Code. He only applies to
Olympius for their confirmation, (Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D.
408, No. 19.)]
[112: Zosimus, l. v. p. 351. We may observe the bad
taste of the age, in dressing their statues with such awkward
finery.]
[113: See Rutilius Numatianus, (Itinerar. l. ii. 41 -
60,) to whom religious enthusiasm has dictated some elegant and
forcible lines. Stilicho likewise stripped the gold plates from
the doors of the Capitol, and read a prophetic sentence which was
engraven under them, (Zosimus, l. v. p. 352.) These are foolish
stories: yet the charge of impiety adds weight and credit to the
praise which Zosimus reluctantly bestows on his virtues.
Note: One particular in the extorted praise of Zosimus,
deserved the notice of the historian, as strongly opposed to the
former imputations of Zosimus himself, and indicative of he
corrupt practices of a declining age. "He had never bartered
promotion in the army for bribes, nor peculated in the supplies
of provisions for the army." l. v. c. xxxiv. - M.]
[E: Hence, perhaps, the accusation of treachery is
countenanced by Hatilius: -
Quo magis est facinus diri Stilichonis iniquum
Proditor arcani quod fuit imperii.
Romano generi dum nititur esse superstes,
Crudelis summis miscuit ima furor.
Dumque timet, quicquid se fecerat ipso timeri,
Immisit Latiae barbara tela neci. Rutil. Itin. II. 41. - M.]
[114: At the nuptials of Orpheus (a modest comparison!)
all the parts of animated nature contributed their various gifts;
and the gods themselves enriched their favorite. Claudian had
neither flocks, nor herds, nor vines, nor olives. His wealthy
bride was heiress to them all. But he carried to Africa a
recommendatory letter from Serena, his Juno, and was made happy,
(Epist. ii. ad Serenam.)]
[115: Claudian feels the honor like a man who deserved
it, (in praefat Bell. Get.) The original inscription, on marble,
was found at Rome, in the fifteenth century, in the house of
Pomponius Laetus. The statue of a poet, far superior to
Claudian, should have been erected, during his lifetime, by the
men of letters, his countrymen and contemporaries. It was a
noble design.]
[116: See Epigram xxx.
Mallius indulget somno noctesque diesque:
Insomnis Pharius sacra, profana, rapit.
Omnibus, hoc, Italae gentes, exposcite votis;
Mallius ut vigilet, dormiat ut Pharius.
Hadrian was a Pharian, (of Alexandrian.) See his public life in
Godefroy, Cod. Theodos. tom. vi. p. 364. Mallius did not always
sleep. He composed some elegant dialogues on the Greek systems
of natural philosophy, (Claud, in Mall. Theodor. Cons. 61 -
112.)]
[117: See Claudian's first Epistle. Yet, in some
places, an air of irony and indignation betrays his secret
reluctance.
Note: M. Beugnot has pointed out one remarkable
characteristic of Claudian's poetry, and of the times - his
extraordinary religious indifference. Here is a poet writing at
the actual crisis of the complete triumph of the new religion,
the visible extinction of the old: if we may so speak, a strictly
historical poet, whose works, excepting his Mythological poem on
the rape of Proserpine, are confined to temporary subjects, and
to the politics of his own eventful day; yet, excepting in one or
two small and indifferent pieces, manifestly written by a
Christian, and interpolated among his poems, there is no allusion
whatever to the great religious strife. No one would know the
existence of Christianity at that period of the world, by reading
the works of Claudian. His panegyric and his satire preserve the
same religious impartiality; award their most lavish praise or
their bitterest invective on Christian or Pagan; he insults the
fall of Eugenius, and glories in the victories of Theodosius.
Under the child, - and Honorius never became more than a child, -
Christianity continued to inflict wounds more and more deadly on
expiring Paganism. Are the gods of Olympus agitated with
apprehension at the birth of this new enemy? They are introduced
as rejoicing at his appearance, and promising long years of
glory. The whole prophetic choir of Paganism, all the oracles
throughout the world, are summoned to predict the felicity of his
reign. His birth is compared to that of Apollo, but the narrow
limits of an island must not confine the new deity -
... Non littora nostro
Sufficerent angusta Deo.
Augury and divination, the shrines of Ammon, and of Delphi, the
Persian Magi, and the Etruscan seers, the Chaldean astrologers,
the Sibyl herself, are described as still discharging their
prophetic functions, and celebrating the natal day of this
Christian prince. They are noble lines, as well as curious
illustrations of the times:
... Quae tunc documenta futuri?
Quae voces avium? quanti per inane volatus?
Quis vatum discursus erat? Tibi corniger Ammon,
Et dudum taciti rupere silentia Delphi.
Te Persae cecinere Magi, te sensit Etruscus
Augur, et inspectis Babylonius horruit astris;
Chaldaei stupuere senes, Cumanaque rursus
Itonuit rupes, rabidae delubra Sibyllae.
Claud. iv. Cons. Hon. 141.
From the Quarterly Review of Beugnot. Hist. de la Paganisme
en Occident, Q. R. v. lvii. p. 61. - M.]
[118: National vanity has made him a Florentine, or a
Spaniard. But the first Epistle of Claudian proves him a native
of Alexandria, (Fabricius, Bibliot. Latin. tom. iii. p. 191 -
202, edit. Ernest.)]
[119: His first Latin verses were composed during the
consulship of Probinus, A.D. 395.
Romanos bibimus primum, te consule, fontes,
Et Latiae cessit Graia Thalia togae.
Besides some Greek epigrams, which are still extant, the Latin
poet had composed, in Greek, the Antiquities of Tarsus,
Anazarbus, Berytus, Nice, &c. It is more easy to supply the loss
of good poetry, than of authentic history.]