Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.—Part V

After the defeat and death of the tyrant of Gaul, the Roman world
was in the possession of Theodosius. He derived from the choice
of Gratian his honorable title to the provinces of the East: he
had acquired the West by the right of conquest; and the three
years which he spent in Italy were usefully employed to restore
the authority of the laws, and to correct the abuses which had
prevailed with impunity under the usurpation of Maximus, and the
minority of Valentinian. The name of Valentinian was regularly
inserted in the public acts: but the tender age, and doubtful
faith, of the son of Justina, appeared to require the prudent
care of an orthodox guardian; and his specious ambition might
have excluded the unfortunate youth, without a struggle, and
almost without a murmur, from the administration, and even from
the inheritance, of the empire. If Theodosius had consulted the
rigid maxims of interest and policy, his conduct would have been
justified by his friends; but the generosity of his behavior on
this memorable occasion has extorted the applause of his most
inveterate enemies. He seated Valentinian on the throne of Milan;
and, without stipulating any present or future advantages,
restored him to the absolute dominion of all the provinces, from
which he had been driven by the arms of Maximus. To the
restitution of his ample patrimony, Theodosius added the free and
generous gift of the countries beyond the Alps, which his
successful valor had recovered from the assassin of Gratian. 101
Satisfied with the glory which he had acquired, by revenging the
death of his benefactor, and delivering the West from the yoke of
tyranny, the emperor returned from Milan to Constantinople; and,
in the peaceful possession of the East, insensibly relapsed into
his former habits of luxury and indolence. Theodosius discharged
his obligation to the brother, he indulged his conjugal
tenderness to the sister, of Valentinian; and posterity, which
admires the pure and singular glory of his elevation, must
applaud his unrivalled generosity in the use of victory.

101 (return) [ It is the niggard praise of Zosimus himself, (l.
iv. p. 267.) Augustin says, with some happiness of expression,
Valentinianum.... misericordissima veneratione restituit.]

The empress Justina did not long survive her return to Italy;
and, though she beheld the triumph of Theodosius, she was not
allowed to influence the government of her son. 102 The
pernicious attachment to the Arian sect, which Valentinian had
imbibed from her example and instructions, was soon erased by the
lessons of a more orthodox education. His growing zeal for the
faith of Nice, and his filial reverence for the character and
authority of Ambrose, disposed the Catholics to entertain the
most favorable opinion of the virtues of the young emperor of the
West. 103 They applauded his chastity and temperance, his
contempt of pleasure, his application to business, and his tender
affection for his two sisters; which could not, however, seduce
his impartial equity to pronounce an unjust sentence against the
meanest of his subjects. But this amiable youth, before he had
accomplished the twentieth year of his age, was oppressed by
domestic treason; and the empire was again involved in the
horrors of a civil war. Arbogastes, 104 a gallant soldier of the
nation of the Franks, held the second rank in the service of
Gratian. On the death of his master he joined the standard of
Theodosius; contributed, by his valor and military conduct, to
the destruction of the tyrant; and was appointed, after the
victory, master-general of the armies of Gaul. His real merit,
and apparent fidelity, had gained the confidence both of the
prince and people; his boundless liberality corrupted the
allegiance of the troops; and, whilst he was universally esteemed
as the pillar of the state, the bold and crafty Barbarian was
secretly determined either to rule, or to ruin, the empire of the
West. The important commands of the army were distributed among
the Franks; the creatures of Arbogastes were promoted to all the
honors and offices of the civil government; the progress of the
conspiracy removed every faithful servant from the presence of
Valentinian; and the emperor, without power and without
intelligence, insensibly sunk into the precarious and dependent
condition of a captive. 105 The indignation which he expressed,
though it might arise only from the rash and impatient temper of
youth, may be candidly ascribed to the generous spirit of a
prince, who felt that he was not unworthy to reign. He secretly
invited the archbishop of Milan to undertake the office of a
mediator; as the pledge of his sincerity, and the guardian of his
safety. He contrived to apprise the emperor of the East of his
helpless situation, and he declared, that, unless Theodosius
could speedily march to his assistance, he must attempt to escape
from the palace, or rather prison, of Vienna in Gaul, where he
had imprudently fixed his residence in the midst of the hostile
faction. But the hopes of relief were distant, and doubtful: and,
as every day furnished some new provocation, the emperor, without
strength or counsel, too hastily resolved to risk an immediate
contest with his powerful general. He received Arbogastes on the
throne; and, as the count approached with some appearance of
respect, delivered to him a paper, which dismissed him from all
his employments. “My authority,” replied Arbogastes, with
insulting coolness, “does not depend on the smile or the frown of
a monarch;” and he contemptuously threw the paper on the ground.
The indignant monarch snatched at the sword of one of the guards,
which he struggled to draw from its scabbard; and it was not
without some degree of violence that he was prevented from using
the deadly weapon against his enemy, or against himself. A few
days after this extraordinary quarrel, in which he had exposed
his resentment and his weakness, the unfortunate Valentinian was
found strangled in his apartment; and some pains were employed to
disguise the manifest guilt of Arbogastes, and to persuade the
world, that the death of the young emperor had been the voluntary
effect of his own despair. 106 His body was conducted with decent
pomp to the sepulchre of Milan; and the archbishop pronounced a
funeral oration to commemorate his virtues and his misfortunes.
107 On this occasion the humanity of Ambrose tempted him to make
a singular breach in his theological system; and to comfort the
weeping sisters of Valentinian, by the firm assurance, that their
pious brother, though he had not received the sacrament of
baptism, was introduced, without difficulty, into the mansions of
eternal bliss. 108

102 (return) [ Sozomen, l. vii. c. 14. His chronology is very
irregular.]

103 (return) [ See Ambrose, (tom. ii. de Obit. Valentinian. c.
15, &c. p. 1178. c. 36, &c. p. 1184.) When the young emperor gave
an entertainment, he fasted himself; he refused to see a handsome
actress, &c. Since he ordered his wild beasts to to be killed, it
is ungenerous in Philostor (l. xi. c. 1) to reproach him with the
love of that amusement.]

104 (return) [ Zosimus (l. iv. p. 275) praises the enemy of
Theodosius. But he is detested by Socrates (l. v. c. 25) and
Orosius, (l. vii. c. 35.)]

105 (return) [ Gregory of Tours (l. ii. c. 9, p. 165, in the
second volume of the Historians of France) has preserved a
curious fragment of Sulpicius Alexander, an historian far more
valuable than himself.]

106 (return) [ Godefroy (Dissertat. ad. Philostorg. p. 429-434)
has diligently collected all the circumstances of the death of
Valentinian II. The variations, and the ignorance, of
contemporary writers, prove that it was secret.]

107 (return) [ De Obitu Valentinian. tom. ii. p. 1173-1196. He is
forced to speak a discreet and obscure language: yet he is much
bolder than any layman, or perhaps any other ecclesiastic, would
have dared to be.]

108 (return) [ See c. 51, p. 1188, c. 75, p. 1193. Dom Chardon,
(Hist. des Sacramens, tom. i. p. 86,) who owns that St. Ambrose
most strenuously maintains the indispensable necessity of
baptism, labors to reconcile the contradiction.]

The prudence of Arbogastes had prepared the success of his
ambitious designs: and the provincials, in whose breast every
sentiment of patriotism or loyalty was extinguished, expected,
with tame resignation, the unknown master, whom the choice of a
Frank might place on the Imperial throne. But some remains of
pride and prejudice still opposed the elevation of Arbogastes
himself; and the judicious Barbarian thought it more advisable to
reign under the name of some dependent Roman. He bestowed the
purple on the rhetorician Eugenius; 109 whom he had already
raised from the place of his domestic secretary to the rank of
master of the offices. In the course, both of his private and
public service, the count had always approved the attachment and
abilities of Eugenius; his learning and eloquence, supported by
the gravity of his manners, recommended him to the esteem of the
people; and the reluctance with which he seemed to ascend the
throne, may inspire a favorable prejudice of his virtue and
moderation. The ambassadors of the new emperor were immediately
despatched to the court of Theodosius, to communicate, with
affected grief, the unfortunate accident of the death of
Valentinian; and, without mentioning the name of Arbogastes, to
request, that the monarch of the East would embrace, as his
lawful colleague, the respectable citizen, who had obtained the
unanimous suffrage of the armies and provinces of the West. 110
Theodosius was justly provoked, that the perfidy of a Barbarian,
should have destroyed, in a moment, the labors, and the fruit, of
his former victory; and he was excited by the tears of his
beloved wife, 111 to revenge the fate of her unhappy brother, and
once more to assert by arms the violated majesty of the throne.
But as the second conquest of the West was a task of difficulty
and danger, he dismissed, with splendid presents, and an
ambiguous answer, the ambassadors of Eugenius; and almost two
years were consumed in the preparations of the civil war. Before
he formed any decisive resolution, the pious emperor was anxious
to discover the will of Heaven; and as the progress of
Christianity had silenced the oracles of Delphi and Dodona, he
consulted an Egyptian monk, who possessed, in the opinion of the
age, the gift of miracles, and the knowledge of futurity.
Eutropius, one of the favorite eunuchs of the palace of
Constantinople, embarked for Alexandria, from whence he sailed up
the Nile, as far as the city of Lycopolis, or of Wolves, in the
remote province of Thebais. 112 In the neighborhood of that city,
and on the summit of a lofty mountain, the holy John 113 had
constructed, with his own hands, an humble cell, in which he had
dwelt above fifty years, without opening his door, without seeing
the face of a woman, and without tasting any food that had been
prepared by fire, or any human art. Five days of the week he
spent in prayer and meditation; but on Saturdays and Sundays he
regularly opened a small window, and gave audience to the crowd
of suppliants who successively flowed from every part of the
Christian world. The eunuch of Theodosius approached the window
with respectful steps, proposed his questions concerning the
event of the civil war, and soon returned with a favorable
oracle, which animated the courage of the emperor by the
assurance of a bloody, but infallible victory. 114 The
accomplishment of the prediction was forwarded by all the means
that human prudence could supply. The industry of the two
master-generals, Stilicho and Timasius, was directed to recruit
the numbers, and to revive the discipline of the Roman legions.
The formidable troops of Barbarians marched under the ensigns of
their national chieftains. The Iberian, the Arab, and the Goth,
who gazed on each other with mutual astonishment, were enlisted
in the service of the same prince; 1141 and the renowned Alaric
acquired, in the school of Theodosius, the knowledge of the art
of war, which he afterwards so fatally exerted for the
destruction of Rome. 115

109 (return) [ Quem sibi Germanus famulam delegerat exul, is the
contemptuous expression of Claudian, (iv. Cons. Hon. 74.)
Eugenius professed Christianity; but his secret attachment to
Paganism (Sozomen, l. vii. c. 22, Philostorg. l. xi. c. 2) is
probable in a grammarian, and would secure the friendship of
Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 276, 277.)]

110 (return) [ Zosimus (l. iv. p. 278) mentions this embassy; but
he is diverted by another story from relating the event.]

111 (return) [ Zosim. l. iv. p. 277. He afterwards says (p. 280)
that Galla died in childbed; and intimates, that the affliction
of her husband was extreme but short.]

112 (return) [ Lycopolis is the modern Siut, or Osiot, a town of
Said, about the size of St. Denys, which drives a profitable
trade with the kingdom of Senaar, and has a very convenient
fountain, “cujus potu signa virgini tatis eripiuntur.” See
D’Anville, Description de l’Egypte, p. 181 Abulfeda, Descript.
Egypt. p. 14, and the curious Annotations, p. 25, 92, of his
editor Michaelis.]

113 (return) [ The Life of John of Lycopolis is described by his
two friends, Rufinus (l. ii. c. i. p. 449) and Palladius, (Hist.
Lausiac. c. 43, p. 738,) in Rosweyde’s great Collection of the
Vitae Patrum. Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. x. p. 718, 720) has
settled the chronology.]

114 (return) [ Sozomen, l. vii. c. 22. Claudian (in Eutrop. l. i.
312) mentions the eunuch’s journey; but he most contemptuously
derides the Egyptian dreams, and the oracles of the Nile.]

1141 (return) [ Gibbon has embodied the picturesque verses of
Claudian:—

.... Nec tantis dissona linguis Turba, nec armorum cultu diversion
unquam]

115 (return) [ Zosimus, l. iv. p. 280. Socrates, l. vii. 10.
Alaric himself (de Bell. Getico, 524) dwells with more
complacency on his early exploits against the Romans.

.... Tot Augustos Hebro qui teste fugavi.

Yet his vanity could scarcely have proved this plurality of
flying emperors.]

The emperor of the West, or, to speak more properly, his general
Arbogastes, was instructed by the misconduct and misfortune of
Maximus, how dangerous it might prove to extend the line of
defence against a skilful antagonist, who was free to press, or
to suspend, to contract, or to multiply, his various methods of
attack. 116 Arbogastes fixed his station on the confines of
Italy; the troops of Theodosius were permitted to occupy, without
resistance, the provinces of Pannonia, as far as the foot of the
Julian Alps; and even the passes of the mountains were
negligently, or perhaps artfully, abandoned to the bold invader.
He descended from the hills, and beheld, with some astonishment,
the formidable camp of the Gauls and Germans, that covered with
arms and tents the open country which extends to the walls of
Aquileia, and the banks of the Frigidus, 117 or Cold River. 118
This narrow theatre of the war, circumscribed by the Alps and the
Adriatic, did not allow much room for the operations of military
skill; the spirit of Arbogastes would have disdained a pardon;
his guilt extinguished the hope of a negotiation; and Theodosius
was impatient to satisfy his glory and revenge, by the
chastisement of the assassins of Valentinian. Without weighing
the natural and artificial obstacles that opposed his efforts,
the emperor of the East immediately attacked the fortifications
of his rivals, assigned the post of honorable danger to the
Goths, and cherished a secret wish, that the bloody conflict
might diminish the pride and numbers of the conquerors. Ten
thousand of those auxiliaries, and Bacurius, general of the
Iberians, died bravely on the field of battle. But the victory
was not purchased by their blood; the Gauls maintained their
advantage; and the approach of night protected the disorderly
flight, or retreat, of the troops of Theodosius. The emperor
retired to the adjacent hills; where he passed a disconsolate
night, without sleep, without provisions, and without hopes; 119
except that strong assurance, which, under the most desperate
circumstances, the independent mind may derive from the contempt
of fortune and of life. The triumph of Eugenius was celebrated by
the insolent and dissolute joy of his camp; whilst the active and
vigilant Arbogastes secretly detached a considerable body of
troops to occupy the passes of the mountains, and to encompass
the rear of the Eastern army. The dawn of day discovered to the
eyes of Theodosius the extent and the extremity of his danger;
but his apprehensions were soon dispelled, by a friendly message
from the leaders of those troops who expressed their inclination
to desert the standard of the tyrant. The honorable and lucrative
rewards, which they stipulated as the price of their perfidy,
were granted without hesitation; and as ink and paper could not
easily be procured, the emperor subscribed, on his own tablets,
the ratification of the treaty. The spirit of his soldiers was
revived by this seasonable reenforcement; and they again marched,
with confidence, to surprise the camp of a tyrant, whose
principal officers appeared to distrust, either the justice or
the success of his arms. In the heat of the battle, a violent
tempest, 120 such as is often felt among the Alps, suddenly arose
from the East. The army of Theodosius was sheltered by their
position from the impetuosity of the wind, which blew a cloud of
dust in the faces of the enemy, disordered their ranks, wrested
their weapons from their hands, and diverted, or repelled, their
ineffectual javelins. This accidental advantage was skilfully
improved, the violence of the storm was magnified by the
superstitious terrors of the Gauls; and they yielded without
shame to the invisible powers of heaven, who seemed to militate
on the side of the pious emperor. His victory was decisive; and
the deaths of his two rivals were distinguished only by the
difference of their characters. The rhetorician Eugenius, who had
almost acquired the dominion of the world, was reduced to implore
the mercy of the conqueror; and the unrelenting soldiers
separated his head from his body as he lay prostrate at the feet
of Theodosius. Arbogastes, after the loss of a battle, in which
he had discharged the duties of a soldier and a general, wandered
several days among the mountains. But when he was convinced that
his cause was desperate, and his escape impracticable, the
intrepid Barbarian imitated the example of the ancient Romans,
and turned his sword against his own breast. The fate of the
empire was determined in a narrow corner of Italy; and the
legitimate successor of the house of Valentinian embraced the
archbishop of Milan, and graciously received the submission of
the provinces of the West. Those provinces were involved in the
guilt of rebellion; while the inflexible courage of Ambrose alone
had resisted the claims of successful usurpation. With a manly
freedom, which might have been fatal to any other subject, the
archbishop rejected the gifts of Eugenius, 1201 declined his
correspondence, and withdrew himself from Milan, to avoid the
odious presence of a tyrant, whose downfall he predicted in
discreet and ambiguous language. The merit of Ambrose was
applauded by the conqueror, who secured the attachment of the
people by his alliance with the church; and the clemency of
Theodosius is ascribed to the humane intercession of the
archbishop of Milan. 121

116 (return) [ Claudian (in iv. Cons. Honor. 77, &c.) contrasts
the military plans of the two usurpers:—

.... Novitas audere priorem Suadebat; cautumque dabant exempla
sequentem. Hic nova moliri praeceps: hic quaerere tuta Providus.
Hic fusis; colectis viribus ille. Hic vagus excurrens; hic
claustra reductus Dissimiles, sed morte pares......]

117 (return) [ The Frigidus, a small, though memorable, stream in
the country of Goretz, now called the Vipao, falls into the
Sontius, or Lisonzo, above Aquileia, some miles from the
Adriatic. See D’Anville’s ancient and modern maps, and the Italia
Antiqua of Cluverius, (tom. i. c. 188.)]

118 (return) [ Claudian’s wit is intolerable: the snow was dyed
red; the cold ver smoked; and the channel must have been choked
with carcasses the current had not been swelled with blood.
Confluxit populus: totam pater undique secum Moverat Aurorem;
mixtis hic Colchus Iberis, Hic mitra velatus Arabs, hic crine
decoro Armenius, hic picta Saces, fucataque Medus, Hic gemmata
tiger tentoria fixerat Indus.—De Laud. Stil. l. 145.—M.]

119 (return) [ Theodoret affirms, that St. John, and St. Philip,
appeared to the waking, or sleeping, emperor, on horseback, &c.
This is the first instance of apostolic chivalry, which
afterwards became so popular in Spain, and in the Crusades.]

120 (return) [ Te propter, gelidis Aquilo de monte procellis

Obruit adversas acies; revolutaque tela Vertit in auctores, et
turbine reppulit hastas
O nimium dilecte Deo, cui fundit ab antris Aeolus armatas hyemes;
cui militat Aether, Et conjurati veniunt ad classica venti.

These famous lines of Claudian (in iii. Cons. Honor. 93, &c. A.D.
396) are alleged by his contemporaries, Augustin and Orosius; who
suppress the Pagan deity of Aeolus, and add some circumstances
from the information of eye-witnesses. Within four months after
the victory, it was compared by Ambrose to the miraculous
victories of Moses and Joshua.]

1201 (return) [ Arbogastes and his emperor had openly espoused
the Pagan party, according to Ambrose and Augustin. See Le Beau,
v. 40. Beugnot (Histoire de la Destruction du Paganisme) is more
full, and perhaps somewhat fanciful, on this remarkable reaction
in favor of Paganism, but compare p 116.—M.]

121 (return) [ The events of this civil war are gathered from
Ambrose, (tom. ii. Epist. lxii. p. 1022,) Paulinus, (in Vit.
Ambros. c. 26-34,) Augustin, (de Civitat. Dei, v. 26,) Orosius,
(l. vii. c. 35,) Sozomen, (l. vii. c. 24,) Theodoret, (l. v. c.
24,) Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 281, 282,) Claudian, (in iii. Cons. Hon.
63-105, in iv. Cons. Hon. 70-117,) and the Chronicles published
by Scaliger.]

After the defeat of Eugenius, the merit, as well as the
authority, of Theodosius was cheerfully acknowledged by all the
inhabitants of the Roman world. The experience of his past
conduct encouraged the most pleasing expectations of his future
reign; and the age of the emperor, which did not exceed fifty
years, seemed to extend the prospect of the public felicity. His
death, only four months after his victory, was considered by the
people as an unforeseen and fatal event, which destroyed, in a
moment, the hopes of the rising generation. But the indulgence of
ease and luxury had secretly nourished the principles of disease.
122 The strength of Theodosius was unable to support the sudden
and violent transition from the palace to the camp; and the
increasing symptoms of a dropsy announced the speedy dissolution
of the emperor. The opinion, and perhaps the interest, of the
public had confirmed the division of the Eastern and Western
empires; and the two royal youths, Arcadius and Honorius, who had
already obtained, from the tenderness of their father, the title
of Augustus, were destined to fill the thrones of Constantinople
and of Rome. Those princes were not permitted to share the danger
and glory of the civil war; 123 but as soon as Theodosius had
triumphed over his unworthy rivals, he called his younger son,
Honorius, to enjoy the fruits of the victory, and to receive the
sceptre of the West from the hands of his dying father. The
arrival of Honorius at Milan was welcomed by a splendid
exhibition of the games of the Circus; and the emperor, though he
was oppressed by the weight of his disorder, contributed by his
presence to the public joy. But the remains of his strength were
exhausted by the painful effort which he made to assist at the
spectacles of the morning. Honorius supplied, during the rest of
the day, the place of his father; and the great Theodosius
expired in the ensuing night. Notwithstanding the recent
animosities of a civil war, his death was universally lamented.
The Barbarians, whom he had vanquished and the churchmen, by whom
he had been subdued, celebrated, with loud and sincere applause,
the qualities of the deceased emperor, which appeared the most
valuable in their eyes. The Romans were terrified by the
impending dangers of a feeble and divided administration, and
every disgraceful moment of the unfortunate reigns of Arcadius
and Honorius revived the memory of their irreparable loss.

122 (return) [ This disease, ascribed by Socrates (l. v. c. 26)
to the fatigues of war, is represented by Philostorgius (l. xi.
c. 2) as the effect of sloth and intemperance; for which Photius
calls him an impudent liar, (Godefroy, Dissert. p. 438.)]

123 (return) [ Zosimus supposes, that the boy Honorius
accompanied his father, (l. iv. p. 280.) Yet the quanto
flagrabrant pectora voto is all that flattery would allow to a
contemporary poet; who clearly describes the emperor’s refusal,
and the journey of Honorius, after the victory (Claudian in iii.
Cons. 78-125.)]

In the faithful picture of the virtues of Theodosius, his
imperfections have not been dissembled; the act of cruelty, and
the habits of indolence, which tarnished the glory of one of the
greatest of the Roman princes. An historian, perpetually adverse
to the fame of Theodosius, has exaggerated his vices, and their
pernicious effects; he boldly asserts, that every rank of
subjects imitated the effeminate manners of their sovereign; and
that every species of corruption polluted the course of public
and private life; and that the feeble restraints of order and
decency were insufficient to resist the progress of that
degenerate spirit, which sacrifices, without a blush, the
consideration of duty and interest to the base indulgence of
sloth and appetite. 124 The complaints of contemporary writers,
who deplore the increase of luxury, and depravation of manners,
are commonly expressive of their peculiar temper and situation.
There are few observers, who possess a clear and comprehensive
view of the revolutions of society; and who are capable of
discovering the nice and secret springs of action, which impel,
in the same uniform direction, the blind and capricious passions
of a multitude of individuals. If it can be affirmed, with any
degree of truth, that the luxury of the Romans was more shameless
and dissolute in the reign of Theodosius than in the age of
Constantine, perhaps, or of Augustus, the alteration cannot be
ascribed to any beneficial improvements, which had gradually
increased the stock of national riches. A long period of calamity
or decay must have checked the industry, and diminished the
wealth, of the people; and their profuse luxury must have been
the result of that indolent despair, which enjoys the present
hour, and declines the thoughts of futurity. The uncertain
condition of their property discouraged the subjects of
Theodosius from engaging in those useful and laborious
undertakings which require an immediate expense, and promise a
slow and distant advantage. The frequent examples of ruin and
desolation tempted them not to spare the remains of a patrimony,
which might, every hour, become the prey of the rapacious Goth.
And the mad prodigality which prevails in the confusion of a
shipwreck, or a siege, may serve to explain the progress of
luxury amidst the misfortunes and terrors of a sinking nation.

124 (return) [ Zosimus, l. iv. p. 244.]

The effeminate luxury, which infected the manners of courts and
cities, had instilled a secret and destructive poison into the
camps of the legions; and their degeneracy has been marked by the
pen of a military writer, who had accurately studied the genuine
and ancient principles of Roman discipline. It is the just and
important observation of Vegetius, that the infantry was
invariably covered with defensive armor, from the foundation of
the city, to the reign of the emperor Gratian. The relaxation of
discipline, and the disuse of exercise, rendered the soldiers
less able, and less willing, to support the fatigues of the
service; they complained of the weight of the armor, which they
seldom wore; and they successively obtained the permission of
laying aside both their cuirasses and their helmets. The heavy
weapons of their ancestors, the short sword, and the formidable
pilum, which had subdued the world, insensibly dropped from their
feeble hands. As the use of the shield is incompatible with that
of the bow, they reluctantly marched into the field; condemned to
suffer either the pain of wounds, or the ignominy of flight, and
always disposed to prefer the more shameful alternative. The
cavalry of the Goths, the Huns, and the Alani, had felt the
benefits, and adopted the use, of defensive armor; and, as they
excelled in the management of missile weapons, they easily
overwhelmed the naked and trembling legions, whose heads and
breasts were exposed, without defence, to the arrows of the
Barbarians. The loss of armies, the destruction of cities, and
the dishonor of the Roman name, ineffectually solicited the
successors of Gratian to restore the helmets and the cuirasses of
the infantry. The enervated soldiers abandoned their own and the
public defence; and their pusillanimous indolence may be
considered as the immediate cause of the downfall of the empire.
125

125 (return) [ Vegetius, de Re Militari, l. i. c. 10. The series
of calamities which he marks, compel us to believe, that the
Hero, to whom he dedicates his book, is the last and most
inglorious of the Valentinians.]