Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.—Part I

Manners Of The Pastoral Nations.—Progress Of The Huns, From China
To Europe.—Flight Of The Goths.—They Pass The Danube.—Gothic
War.—Defeat And Death Of Valens.—Gratian Invests Theodosius With
The Eastern Empire.—His Character And Success.—Peace And
Settlement Of The Goths.

In the second year of the reign of Valentinian and Valens, on the
morning of the twenty-first day of July, the greatest part of the
Roman world was shaken by a violent and destructive earthquake.
The impression was communicated to the waters; the shores of the
Mediterranean were left dry, by the sudden retreat of the sea;
great quantities of fish were caught with the hand; large vessels
were stranded on the mud; and a curious spectator 1 amused his
eye, or rather his fancy, by contemplating the various appearance
of valleys and mountains, which had never, since the formation of
the globe, been exposed to the sun. But the tide soon returned,
with the weight of an immense and irresistible deluge, which was
severely felt on the coasts of Sicily, of Dalmatia, of Greece,
and of Egypt: large boats were transported, and lodged on the
roofs of houses, or at the distance of two miles from the shore;
the people, with their habitations, were swept away by the
waters; and the city of Alexandria annually commemorated the
fatal day, on which fifty thousand persons had lost their lives
in the inundation. This calamity, the report of which was
magnified from one province to another, astonished and terrified
the subjects of Rome; and their affrighted imagination enlarged
the real extent of a momentary evil. They recollected the
preceding earthquakes, which had subverted the cities of
Palestine and Bithynia: they considered these alarming strokes as
the prelude only of still more dreadful calamities, and their
fearful vanity was disposed to confound the symptoms of a
declining empire and a sinking world. 2 It was the fashion of the
times to attribute every remarkable event to the particular will
of the Deity; the alterations of nature were connected, by an
invisible chain, with the moral and metaphysical opinions of the
human mind; and the most sagacious divines could distinguish,
according to the color of their respective prejudices, that the
establishment of heresy tended to produce an earthquake; or that
a deluge was the inevitable consequence of the progress of sin
and error. Without presuming to discuss the truth or propriety of
these lofty speculations, the historian may content himself with
an observation, which seems to be justified by experience, that
man has much more to fear from the passions of his
fellow-creatures, than from the convulsions of the elements. 3
The mischievous effects of an earthquake, or deluge, a hurricane,
or the eruption of a volcano, bear a very inconsiderable portion
to the ordinary calamities of war, as they are now moderated by
the prudence or humanity of the princes of Europe, who amuse
their own leisure, and exercise the courage of their subjects, in
the practice of the military art. But the laws and manners of
modern nations protect the safety and freedom of the vanquished
soldier; and the peaceful citizen has seldom reason to complain,
that his life, or even his fortune, is exposed to the rage of
war. In the disastrous period of the fall of the Roman empire,
which may justly be dated from the reign of Valens, the happiness
and security of each individual were personally attacked; and the
arts and labors of ages were rudely defaced by the Barbarians of
Scythia and Germany. The invasion of the Huns precipitated on the
provinces of the West the Gothic nation, which advanced, in less
than forty years, from the Danube to the Atlantic, and opened a
way, by the success of their arms, to the inroads of so many
hostile tribes, more savage than themselves. The original
principle of motion was concealed in the remote countries of the
North; and the curious observation of the pastoral life of the
Scythians, 4 or Tartars, 5 will illustrate the latent cause of
these destructive emigrations.

1 (return) [ Such is the bad taste of Ammianus, (xxvi. 10,) that
it is not easy to distinguish his facts from his metaphors. Yet
he positively affirms, that he saw the rotten carcass of a ship,
_ad decundum lapidem_, at Mothone, or Modon, in Peloponnesus.]

2 (return) [ The earthquakes and inundations are variously
described by Libanius, (Orat. de ulciscenda Juliani nece, c. x.,
in Fabricius, Bibl. Græc. tom. vii. p. 158, with a learned note
of Olearius,) Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 221,) Sozomen, (l. vi. c. 2,)
Cedrenus, (p. 310, 314,) and Jerom, (in Chron. p. 186, and tom.
i. p. 250, in Vit. Hilarion.) Epidaurus must have been
overwhelmed, had not the prudent citizens placed St. Hilarion, an
Egyptian monk, on the beach. He made the sign of the Cross; the
mountain-wave stopped, bowed, and returned.]

3 (return) [ Dicæarchus, the Peripatetic, composed a formal
treatise, to prove this obvious truth; which is not the most
honorable to the human species. (Cicero, de Officiis, ii. 5.)]

4 (return) [ The original Scythians of Herodotus (l. iv. c.
47—57, 99—101) were confined, by the Danube and the Palus Mæotis,
within a square of 4000 stadia, (400 Roman miles.) See D’Anville
(Mém. de l’Académie, tom. xxxv. p. 573—591.) Diodorus Siculus
(tom. i. l. ii. p. 155, edit. Wesseling) has marked the gradual
progress of the _name_ and nation.]

5 (return) [ The _Tatars_, or Tartars, were a primitive tribe,
the rivals, and at length the subjects, of the Moguls. In the
victorious armies of Zingis Khan, and his successors, the Tartars
formed the vanguard; and the name, which first reached the ears
of foreigners, was applied to the whole nation, (Freret, in the
Hist. de l’Académie, tom. xviii. p. 60.) In speaking of all, or
any of the northern shepherds of Europe, or Asia, I indifferently
use the appellations of _Scythians_ or _Tartars_. * Note: The
Moguls, (Mongols,) according to M. Klaproth, are a tribe of the
Tartar nation. Tableaux Hist. de l’Asie, p. 154.—M.]

The different characters that mark the civilized nations of the
globe, may be ascribed to the use, and the abuse, of reason;
which so variously shapes, and so artificially composes, the
manners and opinions of a European, or a Chinese. But the
operation of instinct is more sure and simple than that of
reason: it is much easier to ascertain the appetites of a
quadruped than the speculations of a philosopher; and the savage
tribes of mankind, as they approach nearer to the condition of
animals, preserve a stronger resemblance to themselves and to
each other. The uniform stability of their manners is the natural
consequence of the imperfection of their faculties. Reduced to a
similar situation, their wants, their desires, their enjoyments,
still continue the same: and the influence of food or climate,
which, in a more improved state of society, is suspended, or
subdued, by so many moral causes, most powerfully contributes to
form, and to maintain, the national character of Barbarians. In
every age, the immense plains of Scythia, or Tartary, have been
inhabited by vagrant tribes of hunters and shepherds, whose
indolence refuses to cultivate the earth, and whose restless
spirit disdains the confinement of a sedentary life. In every
age, the Scythians, and Tartars, have been renowned for their
invincible courage and rapid conquests. The thrones of Asia have
been repeatedly overturned by the shepherds of the North; and
their arms have spread terror and devastation over the most
fertile and warlike countries of Europe. 6 On this occasion, as
well as on many others, the sober historian is forcibly awakened
from a pleasing vision; and is compelled, with some reluctance,
to confess, that the pastoral manners, which have been adorned
with the fairest attributes of peace and innocence, are much
better adapted to the fierce and cruel habits of a military life.
To illustrate this observation, I shall now proceed to consider a
nation of shepherds and of warriors, in the three important
articles of, I. Their diet; II. Their habitations; and, III.
Their exercises. The narratives of antiquity are justified by the
experience of modern times; 7 and the banks of the Borysthenes,
of the Volga, or of the Selinga, will indifferently present the
same uniform spectacle of similar and native manners. 8

6 (return) [ Imperium Asiæ _ter_ quæsivere: ipsi perpetuo ab
alieno imperio, aut intacti aut invicti, mansere. Since the time
of Justin, (ii. 2,) they have multiplied this account. Voltaire,
in a few words, (tom. x. p. 64, Hist. Generale, c. 156,) has
abridged the Tartar conquests.

Oft o’er the trembling nations from afar,
Has Scythia breathed the living cloud of war.
Note *: Gray.—M.]

7 (return) [ The fourth book of Herodotus affords a curious
though imperfect, portrait of the Scythians. Among the moderns,
who describe the uniform scene, the Khan of Khowaresm, Abulghazi
Bahadur, expresses his native feelings; and his genealogical
history of the Tartars has been copiously illustrated by the
French and English editors. Carpin, Ascelin, and Rubruquis (in
the Hist. des Voyages, tom. vii.) represent the Moguls of the
fourteenth century. To these guides I have added Gerbillon, and
the other Jesuits, (Description de la China par du Halde, tom.
iv.,) who accurately surveyed the Chinese Tartary; and that
honest and intelligent traveller, Bell, of Antermony, (two
volumes in 4to. Glasgow, 1763.) * Note: Of the various works
published since the time of Gibbon, which throw fight on the
nomadic population of Central Asia, may be particularly remarked
the Travels and Dissertations of Pallas; and above all, the very
curious work of Bergman, Nomadische Streifereyen. Riga, 1805.—M.]

8 (return) [ The Uzbecks are the most altered from their
primitive manners; 1. By the profession of the Mahometan
religion; and 2. By the possession of the cities and harvests of
the great Bucharia.]

I. The corn, or even the rice, which constitutes the ordinary and
wholesome food of a civilized people, can be obtained only by the
patient toil of the husbandman. Some of the happy savages, who
dwell between the tropics, are plentifully nourished by the
liberality of nature; but in the climates of the North, a nation
of shepherds is reduced to their flocks and herds. The skilful
practitioners of the medical art will determine (if they are able
to determine) how far the temper of the human mind may be
affected by the use of animal, or of vegetable, food; and whether
the common association of carniverous and cruel deserves to be
considered in any other light than that of an innocent, perhaps a
salutary, prejudice of humanity. 9 Yet, if it be true, that the
sentiment of compassion is imperceptibly weakened by the sight
and practice of domestic cruelty, we may observe, that the horrid
objects which are disguised by the arts of European refinement,
are exhibited in their naked and most disgusting simplicity in
the tent of a Tartarian shepherd. The ox, or the sheep, are
slaughtered by the same hand from which they were accustomed to
receive their daily food; and the bleeding limbs are served, with
very little preparation, on the table of their unfeeling
murderer. In the military profession, and especially in the
conduct of a numerous army, the exclusive use of animal food
appears to be productive of the most solid advantages. Corn is a
bulky and perishable commodity; and the large magazines, which
are indispensably necessary for the subsistence of our troops,
must be slowly transported by the labor of men or horses. But the
flocks and herds, which accompany the march of the Tartars,
afford a sure and increasing supply of flesh and milk: in the far
greater part of the uncultivated waste, the vegetation of the
grass is quick and luxuriant; and there are few places so
extremely barren, that the hardy cattle of the North cannot find
some tolerable pasture.

The supply is multiplied and prolonged by the undistinguishing
appetite, and patient abstinence, of the Tartars. They
indifferently feed on the flesh of those animals that have been
killed for the table, or have died of disease. Horseflesh, which
in every age and country has been proscribed by the civilized
nations of Europe and Asia, they devour with peculiar greediness;
and this singular taste facilitates the success of their military
operations. The active cavalry of Scythia is always followed, in
their most distant and rapid incursions, by an adequate number of
spare horses, who may be occasionally used, either to redouble
the speed, or to satisfy the hunger, of the Barbarians. Many are
the resources of courage and poverty. When the forage round a
camp of Tartars is almost consumed, they slaughter the greatest
part of their cattle, and preserve the flesh, either smoked, or
dried in the sun. On the sudden emergency of a hasty march, they
provide themselves with a sufficient quantity of little balls of
cheese, or rather of hard curd, which they occasionally dissolve
in water; and this unsubstantial diet will support, for many
days, the life, and even the spirits, of the patient warrior. But
this extraordinary abstinence, which the Stoic would approve, and
the hermit might envy, is commonly succeeded by the most
voracious indulgence of appetite. The wines of a happier climate
are the most grateful present, or the most valuable commodity,
that can be offered to the Tartars; and the only example of their
industry seems to consist in the art of extracting from mare’s
milk a fermented liquor, which possesses a very strong power of
intoxication. Like the animals of prey, the savages, both of the
old and new world, experience the alternate vicissitudes of
famine and plenty; and their stomach is inured to sustain,
without much inconvenience, the opposite extremes of hunger and
of intemperance.

9 (return) [ Il est certain que les grands mangeurs de viande
sont en général cruels et féroces plus que les autres hommes.
Cette observation est de tous les lieux, et de tous les temps: la
barbarie Angloise est connue, &c. Emile de Rousseau, tom. i. p.
274. Whatever we may think of the general observation, _we_ shall
not easily allow the truth of his example. The good-natured
complaints of Plutarch, and the pathetic lamentations of Ovid,
seduce our reason, by exciting our sensibility.]

II. In the ages of rustic and martial simplicity, a people of
soldiers and husbandmen are dispersed over the face of an
extensive and cultivated country; and some time must elapse
before the warlike youth of Greece or Italy could be assembled
under the same standard, either to defend their own confines, or
to invade the territories of the adjacent tribes. The progress of
manufactures and commerce insensibly collects a large multitude
within the walls of a city: but these citizens are no longer
soldiers; and the arts which adorn and improve the state of civil
society, corrupt the habits of the military life. The pastoral
manners of the Scythians seem to unite the different advantages
of simplicity and refinement. The individuals of the same tribe
are constantly assembled, but they are assembled in a camp; and
the native spirit of these dauntless shepherds is animated by
mutual support and emulation. The houses of the Tartars are no
more than small tents, of an oval form, which afford a cold and
dirty habitation, for the promiscuous youth of both sexes. The
palaces of the rich consist of wooden huts, of such a size that
they may be conveniently fixed on large wagons, and drawn by a
team perhaps of twenty or thirty oxen. The flocks and herds,
after grazing all day in the adjacent pastures, retire, on the
approach of night, within the protection of the camp. The
necessity of preventing the most mischievous confusion, in such a
perpetual concourse of men and animals, must gradually introduce,
in the distribution, the order, and the guard, of the encampment,
the rudiments of the military art. As soon as the forage of a
certain district is consumed, the tribe, or rather army, of
shepherds, makes a regular march to some fresh pastures; and thus
acquires, in the ordinary occupations of the pastoral life, the
practical knowledge of one of the most important and difficult
operations of war. The choice of stations is regulated by the
difference of the seasons: in the summer, the Tartars advance
towards the North, and pitch their tents on the banks of a river,
or, at least, in the neighborhood of a running stream. But in the
winter, they return to the South, and shelter their camp, behind
some convenient eminence, against the winds, which are chilled in
their passage over the bleak and icy regions of Siberia. These
manners are admirably adapted to diffuse, among the wandering
tribes, the spirit of emigration and conquest. The connection
between the people and their territory is of so frail a texture,
that it may be broken by the slightest accident. The camp, and
not the soil, is the native country of the genuine Tartar. Within
the precincts of that camp, his family, his companions, his
property, are always included; and, in the most distant marches,
he is still surrounded by the objects which are dear, or
valuable, or familiar in his eyes. The thirst of rapine, the
fear, or the resentment of injury, the impatience of servitude,
have, in every age, been sufficient causes to urge the tribes of
Scythia boldly to advance into some unknown countries, where they
might hope to find a more plentiful subsistence or a less
formidable enemy. The revolutions of the North have frequently
determined the fate of the South; and in the conflict of hostile
nations, the victor and the vanquished have alternately drove,
and been driven, from the confines of China to those of Germany.
10 These great emigrations, which have been sometimes executed
with almost incredible diligence, were rendered more easy by the
peculiar nature of the climate. It is well known that the cold of
Tartary is much more severe than in the midst of the temperate
zone might reasonably be expected; this uncommon rigor is
attributed to the height of the plains, which rise, especially
towards the East, more than half a mile above the level of the
sea; and to the quantity of saltpetre with which the soil is
deeply impregnated. 11 In the winter season, the broad and rapid
rivers, that discharge their waters into the Euxine, the Caspian,
or the Icy Sea, are strongly frozen; the fields are covered with
a bed of snow; and the fugitive, or victorious, tribes may
securely traverse, with their families, their wagons, and their
cattle, the smooth and hard surface of an immense plain.

10 (return) [ These Tartar emigrations have been discovered by M.
de Guignes (Histoire des Huns, tom. i. ii.) a skilful and
laborious interpreter of the Chinese language; who has thus laid
open new and important scenes in the history of mankind.]

11 (return) [ A plain in the Chinese Tartary, only eighty leagues
from the great wall, was found by the missionaries to be three
thousand geometrical paces above the level of the sea.
Montesquieu, who has used, and abused, the relations of
travellers, deduces the revolutions of Asia from this important
circumstance, that heat and cold, weakness and strength, touch
each other without any temperate zone, (Esprit des Loix, l. xvii.
c. 3.)]

III. The pastoral life, compared with the labors of agriculture
and manufactures, is undoubtedly a life of idleness; and as the
most honorable shepherds of the Tartar race devolve on their
captives the domestic management of the cattle, their own leisure
is seldom disturbed by any servile and assiduous cares. But this
leisure, instead of being devoted to the soft enjoyments of love
and harmony, is usefully spent in the violent and sanguinary
exercise of the chase. The plains of Tartary are filled with a
strong and serviceable breed of horses, which are easily trained
for the purposes of war and hunting. The Scythians of every age
have been celebrated as bold and skilful riders; and constant
practice had seated them so firmly on horseback, that they were
supposed by strangers to perform the ordinary duties of civil
life, to eat, to drink, and even to sleep, without dismounting
from their steeds. They excel in the dexterous management of the
lance; the long Tartar bow is drawn with a nervous arm; and the
weighty arrow is directed to its object with unerring aim and
irresistible force. These arrows are often pointed against the
harmless animals of the desert, which increase and multiply in
the absence of their most formidable enemy; the hare, the goat,
the roebuck, the fallow-deer, the stag, the elk, and the
antelope. The vigor and patience, both of the men and horses, are
continually exercised by the fatigues of the chase; and the
plentiful supply of game contributes to the subsistence, and even
luxury, of a Tartar camp. But the exploits of the hunters of
Scythia are not confined to the destruction of timid or innoxious
beasts; they boldly encounter the angry wild boar, when he turns
against his pursuers, excite the sluggish courage of the bear,
and provoke the fury of the tiger, as he slumbers in the thicket.
Where there is danger, there may be glory; and the mode of
hunting, which opens the fairest field to the exertions of valor,
may justly be considered as the image, and as the school, of war.
The general hunting matches, the pride and delight of the Tartar
princes, compose an instructive exercise for their numerous
cavalry. A circle is drawn, of many miles in circumference, to
encompass the game of an extensive district; and the troops that
form the circle regularly advance towards a common centre; where
the captive animals, surrounded on every side, are abandoned to
the darts of the hunters. In this march, which frequently
continues many days, the cavalry are obliged to climb the hills,
to swim the rivers, and to wind through the valleys, without
interrupting the prescribed order of their gradual progress. They
acquire the habit of directing their eye, and their steps, to a
remote object; of preserving their intervals of suspending or
accelerating their pace, according to the motions of the troops
on their right and left; and of watching and repeating the
signals of their leaders. Their leaders study, in this practical
school, the most important lesson of the military art; the prompt
and accurate judgment of ground, of distance, and of time. To
employ against a human enemy the same patience and valor, the
same skill and discipline, is the only alteration which is
required in real war; and the amusements of the chase serve as a
prelude to the conquest of an empire. 12

12 (return) [ Petit de la Croix (Vie de Gengiscan, l. iii. c. 6)
represents the full glory and extent of the Mogul chase. The
Jesuits Gerbillon and Verbiest followed the emperor Khamhi when
he hunted in Tartary, (Duhalde, Déscription de la Chine, tom. iv.
p. 81, 290, &c., folio edit.) His grandson, Kienlong, who unites
the Tartar discipline with the laws and learning of China,
describes (Eloge de Moukden, p. 273—285) as a poet the pleasures
which he had often enjoyed as a sportsman.]

The political society of the ancient Germans has the appearance
of a voluntary alliance of independent warriors. The tribes of
Scythia, distinguished by the modern appellation of _Hords_,
assume the form of a numerous and increasing family; which, in
the course of successive generations, has been propagated from
the same original stock. The meanest, and most ignorant, of the
Tartars, preserve, with conscious pride, the inestimable treasure
of their genealogy; and whatever distinctions of rank may have
been introduced, by the unequal distribution of pastoral wealth,
they mutually respect themselves, and each other, as the
descendants of the first founder of the tribe. The custom, which
still prevails, of adopting the bravest and most faithful of the
captives, may countenance the very probable suspicion, that this
extensive consanguinity is, in a great measure, legal and
fictitious. But the useful prejudice, which has obtained the
sanction of time and opinion, produces the effects of truth; the
haughty Barbarians yield a cheerful and voluntary obedience to
the head of their blood; and their chief, or _mursa_, as the
representative of their great father, exercises the authority of
a judge in peace, and of a leader in war. In the original state
of the pastoral world, each of the _mursas_ (if we may continue
to use a modern appellation) acted as the independent chief of a
large and separate family; and the limits of their peculiar
territories were gradually fixed by superior force, or mutual
consent. But the constant operation of various and permanent
causes contributed to unite the vagrant Hords into national
communities, under the command of a supreme head. The weak were
desirous of support, and the strong were ambitious of dominion;
the power, which is the result of union, oppressed and collected
the divided force of the adjacent tribes; and, as the vanquished
were freely admitted to share the advantages of victory, the most
valiant chiefs hastened to range themselves and their followers
under the formidable standard of a confederate nation. The most
successful of the Tartar princes assumed the military command, to
which he was entitled by the superiority, either of merit or of
power. He was raised to the throne by the acclamations of his
equals; and the title of _Khan_ expresses, in the language of the
North of Asia, the full extent of the regal dignity. The right of
hereditary succession was long confined to the blood of the
founder of the monarchy; and at this moment all the Khans, who
reign from Crimea to the wall of China, are the lineal
descendants of the renowned Zingis. 13 But, as it is the
indispensable duty of a Tartar sovereign to lead his warlike
subjects into the field, the claims of an infant are often
disregarded; and some royal kinsman, distinguished by his age and
valor, is intrusted with the sword and sceptre of his
predecessor. Two distinct and regular taxes are levied on the
tribes, to support the dignity of the national monarch, and of
their peculiar chief; and each of those contributions amounts to
the tithe, both of their property, and of their spoil. A Tartar
sovereign enjoys the tenth part of the wealth of his people; and
as his own domestic riches of flocks and herds increase in a much
larger proportion, he is able plentifully to maintain the rustic
splendor of his court, to reward the most deserving, or the most
favored of his followers, and to obtain, from the gentle
influence of corruption, the obedience which might be sometimes
refused to the stern mandates of authority. The manners of his
subjects, accustomed, like himself, to blood and rapine, might
excuse, in their eyes, such partial acts of tyranny, as would
excite the horror of a civilized people; but the power of a
despot has never been acknowledged in the deserts of Scythia. The
immediate jurisdiction of the khan is confined within the limits
of his own tribe; and the exercise of his royal prerogative has
been moderated by the ancient institution of a national council.
The Coroulai, 14 or Diet, of the Tartars, was regularly held in
the spring and autumn, in the midst of a plain; where the princes
of the reigning family, and the mursas of the respective tribes,
may conveniently assemble on horseback, with their martial and
numerous trains; and the ambitious monarch, who reviewed the
strength, must consult the inclination of an armed people. The
rudiments of a feudal government may be discovered in the
constitution of the Scythian or Tartar nations; but the perpetual
conflict of those hostile nations has sometimes terminated in the
establishment of a powerful and despotic empire. The victor,
enriched by the tribute, and fortified by the arms of dependent
kings, has spread his conquests over Europe or Asia: the
successful shepherds of the North have submitted to the
confinement of arts, of laws, and of cities; and the introduction
of luxury, after destroying the freedom of the people, has
undermined the foundations of the throne. 15

13 (return) [ See the second volume of the Genealogical History
of the Tartars; and the list of the Khans, at the end of the life
of Geng’s, or Zingis. Under the reign of Timur, or Tamerlane, one
of his subjects, a descendant of Zingis, still bore the regal
appellation of Khan and the conqueror of Asia contented himself
with the title of Emir or Sultan. Abulghazi, part v. c. 4.
D’Herbelot, Bibliothèque Orien tale, p. 878.]

14 (return) [ See the Diets of the ancient Huns, (De Guignes,
tom. ii. p. 26,) and a curious description of those of Zingis,
(Vie de Gengiscan, l. i. c. 6, l. iv. c. 11.) Such assemblies are
frequently mentioned in the Persian history of Timur; though they
served only to countenance the resolutions of their master.]

15 (return) [ Montesquieu labors to explain a difference, which
has not existed, between the liberty of the Arabs, and the
_perpetual_ slavery of the Tartars. (Esprit des Loix, l. xvii. c.
5, l. xviii. c. 19, &c.)]

The memory of past events cannot long be preserved in the
frequent and remote emigrations of illiterate Barbarians. The
modern Tartars are ignorant of the conquests of their ancestors;
16 and our knowledge of the history of the Scythians is derived
from their intercourse with the learned and civilized nations of
the South, the Greeks, the Persians, and the Chinese. The Greeks,
who navigated the Euxine, and planted their colonies along the
sea-coast, made the gradual and imperfect discovery of Scythia;
from the Danube, and the confines of Thrace, as far as the frozen
Mæotis, the seat of eternal winter, and Mount Caucasus, which, in
the language of poetry, was described as the utmost boundary of
the earth. They celebrated, with simple credulity, the virtues of
the pastoral life: 17 they entertained a more rational
apprehension of the strength and numbers of the warlike
Barbarians, 18 who contemptuously baffled the immense armament of
Darius, the son of Hystaspes. 19 The Persian monarchs had
extended their western conquests to the banks of the Danube, and
the limits of European Scythia. The eastern provinces of their
empire were exposed to the Scythians of Asia; the wild
inhabitants of the plains beyond the Oxus and the Jaxartes, two
mighty rivers, which direct their course towards the Caspian Sea.
The long and memorable quarrel of Iran and Touran is still the
theme of history or romance: the famous, perhaps the fabulous,
valor of the Persian heroes, Rustan and Asfendiar, was
signalized, in the defence of their country, against the
Afrasiabs of the North; 20 and the invincible spirit of the same
Barbarians resisted, on the same ground, the victorious arms of
Cyrus and Alexander. 21 In the eyes of the Greeks and Persians,
the real geography of Scythia was bounded, on the East, by the
mountains of Imaus, or Caf; and their distant prospect of the
extreme and inaccessible parts of Asia was clouded by ignorance,
or perplexed by fiction. But those inaccessible regions are the
ancient residence of a powerful and civilized nation, 22 which
ascends, by a probable tradition, above forty centuries; 23 and
which is able to verify a series of near two thousand years, by
the perpetual testimony of accurate and contemporary historians.
24 The annals of China 25 illustrate the state and revolutions of
the pastoral tribes, which may still be distinguished by the
vague appellation of Scythians, or Tartars; the vassals, the
enemies, and sometimes the conquerors, of a great empire; whose
policy has uniformly opposed the blind and impetuous valor of the
Barbarians of the North. From the mouth of the Danube to the Sea
of Japan, the whole longitude of Scythia is about one hundred and
ten degrees, which, in that parallel, are equal to more than five
thousand miles. The latitude of these extensive deserts cannot be
so easily, or so accurately, measured; but, from the fortieth
degree, which touches the wall of China, we may securely advance
above a thousand miles to the northward, till our progress is
stopped by the excessive cold of Siberia. In that dreary climate,
instead of the animated picture of a Tartar camp, the smoke that
issues from the earth, or rather from the snow, betrays the
subterraneous dwellings of the Tongouses, and the Samoides: the
want of horses and oxen is imperfectly supplied by the use of
reindeer, and of large dogs; and the conquerors of the earth
insensibly degenerate into a race of deformed and diminutive
savages, who tremble at the sound of arms. 26

16 (return) [ Abulghasi Khan, in the two first parts of his
Genealogical History, relates the miserable tales and traditions
of the Uzbek Tartars concerning the times which preceded the
reign of Zingis. * Note: The differences between the various
pastoral tribes and nations comprehended by the ancients under
the vague name of Scythians, and by Gibbon under inst of Tartars,
have received some, and still, perhaps, may receive more, light
from the comparisons of their dialects and languages by modern
scholars.—M]

17 (return) [ In the thirteenth book of the Iliad, Jupiter turns
away his eyes from the bloody fields of Troy, to the plains of
Thrace and Scythia. He would not, by changing the prospect,
behold a more peaceful or innocent scene.]

18 (return) [ Thucydides, l. ii. c. 97.]

19 (return) [ See the fourth book of Herodotus. When Darius
advanced into the Moldavian desert, between the Danube and the
Niester, the king of the Scythians sent him a mouse, a frog, a
bird, and five arrows; a tremendous allegory!]

20 (return) [ These wars and heroes may be found under their
respective _titles_, in the Bibliothèque Orientale of D’Herbelot.
They have been celebrated in an epic poem of sixty thousand
rhymed couplets, by Ferdusi, the Homer of Persia. See the history
of Nadir Shah, p. 145, 165. The public must lament that Mr. Jones
has suspended the pursuit of Oriental learning. Note: Ferdusi is
yet imperfectly known to European readers. An abstract of the
whole poem has been published by Goerres in German, under the
title “das Heldenbuch des Iran.” In English, an abstract with
poetical translations, by Mr. Atkinson, has appeared, under the
auspices of the Oriental Fund. But to translate a poet a man must
be a poet. The best account of the poem is in an article by Von
Hammer in the Vienna Jahrbucher, 1820: or perhaps in a masterly
article in Cochrane’s Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 1, 1835. A
splendid and critical edition of the whole work has been
published by a very learned English Orientalist, Captain Macan,
at the expense of the king of Oude. As to the number of 60,000
couplets, Captain Macan (Preface, p. 39) states that he never saw
a MS. containing more than 56,685, including doubtful and
spurious passages and episodes.—M. * Note: The later studies of
Sir W. Jones were more in unison with the wishes of the public,
thus expressed by Gibbon.—M.]

21 (return) [ The Caspian Sea, with its rivers and adjacent
tribes, are laboriously illustrated in the Examen Critique des
Historiens d’Alexandre, which compares the true geography, and
the errors produced by the vanity or ignorance of the Greeks.]

22 (return) [ The original seat of the nation appears to have
been in the Northwest of China, in the provinces of Chensi and
Chansi. Under the two first dynasties, the principal town was
still a movable camp; the villages were thinly scattered; more
land was employed in pasture than in tillage; the exercise of
hunting was ordained to clear the country from wild beasts;
Petcheli (where Pekin stands) was a desert, and the Southern
provinces were peopled with Indian savages. The dynasty of the
_Han_ (before Christ 206) gave the empire its actual form and
extent.]

23 (return) [ The æra of the Chinese monarchy has been variously
fixed from 2952 to 2132 years before Christ; and the year 2637
has been chosen for the lawful epoch, by the authority of the
present emperor. The difference arises from the uncertain
duration of the two first dynasties; and the vacant space that
lies beyond them, as far as the real, or fabulous, times of Fohi,
or Hoangti. Sematsien dates his authentic chronology from the
year 841; the thirty-six eclipses of Confucius (thirty-one of
which have been verified) were observed between the years 722 and
480 before Christ. The _historical_ period of China does not
ascend above the Greek Olympiads.]

24 (return) [ After several ages of anarchy and despotism, the
dynasty of the Han (before Christ 206) was the æra of the revival
of learning. The fragments of ancient literature were restored;
the characters were improved and fixed; and the future
preservation of books was secured by the useful inventions of
ink, paper, and the art of printing. Ninety-seven years before
Christ, Sematsien published the first history of China. His
labors were illustrated, and continued, by a series of one
hundred and eighty historians. The substance of their works is
still extant; and the most considerable of them are now deposited
in the king of France’s library.]

25 (return) [ China has been illustrated by the labors of the
French; of the missionaries at Pekin, and Messrs. Freret and De
Guignes at Paris. The substance of the three preceding notes is
extracted from the Chou-king, with the preface and notes of M. de
Guignes, Paris, 1770. The _Tong-Kien-Kang-Mou_, translated by P.
de Mailla, under the name of Hist. Génerale de la Chine, tom. i.
p. xlix.—cc.; the Mémoires sur la Chine, Paris, 1776, &c., tom.
i. p. 1—323; tom. ii. p. 5—364; the Histoire des Huns, tom. i. p.
4—131, tom. v. p. 345—362; and the Mémoires de l’Académie des
Inscriptions, tom. x. p. 377—402; tom. xv. p. 495—564; tom.
xviii. p. 178—295; xxxvi. p. 164—238.]

26 (return) [ See the Histoire Generale des Voyages, tom. xviii.,
and the Genealogical History, vol. ii. p. 620—664.]