Chapter XXX: Revolt Of The Goths.—Part V

On the side of the Pyrenees, the ambition of Constantine might be
justified by the proximity of danger; but his throne was soon
established by the conquest, or rather submission, of Spain;
which yielded to the influence of regular and habitual
subordination, and received the laws and magistrates of the
Gallic praefecture. The only opposition which was made to the
authority of Constantine proceeded not so much from the powers of
government, or the spirit of the people, as from the private zeal
and interest of the family of Theodosius. Four brothers 98 had
obtained, by the favor of their kinsman, the deceased emperor, an
honorable rank and ample possessions in their native country; and
the grateful youths resolved to risk those advantages in the
service of his son. After an unsuccessful effort to maintain
their ground at the head of the stationary troops of Lusitania,
they retired to their estates; where they armed and levied, at
their own expense, a considerable body of slaves and dependants,
and boldly marched to occupy the strong posts of the Pyrenean
Mountains. This domestic insurrection alarmed and perplexed the
sovereign of Gaul and Britain; and he was compelled to negotiate
with some troops of Barbarian auxiliaries, for the service of the
Spanish war. They were distinguished by the title of Honorians;
99 a name which might have reminded them of their fidelity to
their lawful sovereign; and if it should candidly be allowed that
the Scots were influenced by any partial affection for a British
prince, the Moors and the Marcomanni could be tempted only by the
profuse liberality of the usurper, who distributed among the
Barbarians the military, and even the civil, honors of Spain. The
nine bands of Honorians, which may be easily traced on the
establishment of the Western empire, could not exceed the number
of five thousand men: yet this inconsiderable force was
sufficient to terminate a war, which had threatened the power and
safety of Constantine. The rustic army of the Theodosian family
was surrounded and destroyed in the Pyrenees: two of the brothers
had the good fortune to escape by sea to Italy, or the East; the
other two, after an interval of suspense, were executed at Arles;
and if Honorius could remain insensible of the public disgrace,
he might perhaps be affected by the personal misfortunes of his
generous kinsmen. Such were the feeble arms which decided the
possession of the Western provinces of Europe, from the wall of
Antoninus to the columns of Hercules. The events of peace and war
have undoubtedly been diminished by the narrow and imperfect view
of the historians of the times, who were equally ignorant of the
causes, and of the effects, of the most important revolutions.
But the total decay of the national strength had annihilated even
the last resource of a despotic government; and the revenue of
exhausted provinces could no longer purchase the military service
of a discontented and pusillanimous people.

98 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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.)]

The poet, whose flattery has ascribed to the Roman eagle the
victories of Pollentia and Verona, pursues the hasty retreat of
Alaric, from the confines of Italy, with a horrid train of
imaginary spectres, such as might hover over an army of
Barbarians, which was almost exterminated by war, famine, and
disease. 100 In the course of this unfortunate expedition, the
king of the Goths must indeed have sustained a considerable loss;
and his harassed forces required an interval of repose, to
recruit their numbers and revive their confidence. Adversity had
exercised and displayed the genius of Alaric; and the fame of his
valor invited to the Gothic standard the bravest of the Barbarian
warriors; who, from the Euxine to the Rhine, were agitated by the
desire of rapine and conquest. He had deserved the esteem, and he
soon accepted the friendship, of Stilicho himself. Renouncing the
service of the emperor of the East, Alaric concluded, with the
court of Ravenna, a treaty of peace and alliance, by which he was
declared master-general of the Roman armies throughout the
praefecture of Illyricum; as it was claimed, according to the
true and ancient limits, by the minister of Honorius. 101 The
execution of the ambitious design, which was either stipulated,
or implied, in the articles of the treaty, appears to have been
suspended by the formidable irruption of Radagaisus; and the
neutrality of the Gothic king may perhaps be compared to the
indifference of Caesar, who, in the conspiracy of Catiline,
refused either to assist, or to oppose, the enemy of the
republic. After the defeat of the Vandals, Stilicho resumed his
pretensions to the provinces of the East; appointed civil
magistrates for the administration of justice, and of the
finances; and declared his impatience to lead to the gates of
Constantinople the united armies of the Romans and of the Goths.
The prudence, however, of Stilicho, his aversion to civil war,
and his perfect knowledge of the weakness of the state, may
countenance the suspicion, that domestic peace, rather than
foreign conquest, was the object of his policy; and that his
principal care was to employ the forces of Alaric at a distance
from Italy. This design could not long escape the penetration of
the Gothic king, who continued to hold a doubtful, and perhaps a
treacherous, correspondence with the rival courts; who
protracted, like a dissatisfied mercenary, his languid operations
in Thessaly and Epirus, and who soon returned to claim the
extravagant reward of his ineffectual services. From his camp
near Aemona, 102 on the confines of Italy, he transmitted to the
emperor of the West a long account of promises, of expenses, and
of demands; called for immediate satisfaction, and clearly
intimated the consequences of a refusal. Yet if his conduct was
hostile, his language was decent and dutiful. He humbly professed
himself the friend of Stilicho, and the soldier of Honorius;
offered his person and his troops to march, without delay,
against the usurper of Gaul; and solicited, as a permanent
retreat for the Gothic nation, the possession of some vacant
province of the Western empire.

100 (return) [

Comitatur euntem Pallor, et atra fames; et saucia lividus ora
Luctus; et inferno stridentes agmine morbi. —-Claudian in vi.
Cons. Hon. 821, &c.]

101 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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.]

The political and secret transactions of two statesmen, who
labored to deceive each other and the world, must forever have
been concealed in the impenetrable darkness of the cabinet, if
the debates of a popular assembly had not thrown some rays of
light on the correspondence of Alaric and Stilicho. The necessity
of finding some artificial support for a government, which, from
a principle, not of moderation, but of weakness, was reduced to
negotiate with its own subjects, had insensibly revived the
authority of the Roman senate; and the minister of Honorius
respectfully consulted the legislative council of the republic.
Stilicho assembled the senate in the palace of the Caesars;
represented, in a studied oration, the actual state of affairs;
proposed the demands of the Gothic king, and submitted to their
consideration the choice of peace or war. The senators, as if
they had been suddenly awakened from a dream of four hundred
years, appeared, on this important occasion, to be inspired by
the courage, rather than by the wisdom, of their predecessors.
They loudly declared, in regular speeches, or in tumultuary
acclamations, that it was unworthy of the majesty of Rome to
purchase a precarious and disgraceful truce from a Barbarian
king; and that, in the judgment of a magnanimous people, the
chance of ruin was always preferable to the certainty of
dishonor. The minister, whose pacific intentions were seconded
only by the voice of a few servile and venal followers, attempted
to allay the general ferment, by an apology for his own conduct,
and even for the demands of the Gothic prince. “The payment of a
subsidy, which had excited the indignation of the Romans, ought
not (such was the language of Stilicho) to be considered in the
odious light, either of a tribute, or of a ransom, extorted by
the menaces of a Barbarian enemy. Alaric had faithfully asserted
the just pretensions of the republic to the provinces which were
usurped by the Greeks of Constantinople: he modestly required the
fair and stipulated recompense of his services; and if he had
desisted from the prosecution of his enterprise, he had obeyed,
in his retreat, the peremptory, though private, letters of the
emperor himself. These contradictory orders (he would not
dissemble the errors of his own family) had been procured by the
intercession of Serena. The tender piety of his wife had been too
deeply affected by the discord of the royal brothers, the sons of
her adopted father; and the sentiments of nature had too easily
prevailed over the stern dictates of the public welfare.” These
ostensible reasons, which faintly disguise the obscure intrigues
of the palace of Ravenna, were supported by the authority of
Stilicho; and obtained, after a warm debate, the reluctant
approbation of the senate. The tumult of virtue and freedom
subsided; and the sum of four thousand pounds of gold was
granted, under the name of a subsidy, to secure the peace of
Italy, and to conciliate the friendship of the king of the Goths.
Lampadius alone, one of the most illustrious members of the
assembly, still persisted in his dissent; exclaimed, with a loud
voice, “This is not a treaty of peace, but of servitude;” 103 and
escaped the danger of such bold opposition by immediately
retiring to the sanctuary of a Christian church. [See Palace Of
The Caesars]

103 (return) [ 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.]

But the reign of Stilicho drew towards its end; and the proud
minister might perceive the symptoms of his approaching disgrace.
The generous boldness of Lampadius had been applauded; and the
senate, so patiently resigned to a long servitude, rejected with
disdain the offer of invidious and imaginary freedom. The troops,
who still assumed the name and prerogatives of the Roman legions,
were exasperated by the partial affection of Stilicho for the
Barbarians: and the people imputed to the mischievous policy of
the minister the public misfortunes, which were the natural
consequence of their own degeneracy. Yet Stilicho might have
continued to brave the clamors of the people, and even of the
soldiers, if he could have maintained his dominion over the
feeble mind of his pupil. But the respectful attachment of
Honorius was converted into fear, suspicion, and hatred. The
crafty Olympius, 104 who concealed his vices under the mask of
Christian piety, had secretly undermined the benefactor, by whose
favor he was promoted to the honorable offices of the Imperial
palace. Olympius revealed to the unsuspecting emperor, who had
attained the twenty-fifth year of his age, that he was without
weight, or authority, in his own government; and artfully alarmed
his timid and indolent disposition by a lively picture of the
designs of Stilicho, who already meditated the death of his
sovereign, with the ambitious hope of placing the diadem on the
head of his son Eucherius. The emperor was instigated, by his new
favorite, to assume the tone of independent dignity; and the
minister was astonished to find, that secret resolutions were
formed in the court and council, which were repugnant to his
interest, or to his intentions. Instead of residing in the palace
of Rome, Honorius declared that it was his pleasure to return to
the secure fortress of Ravenna. On the first intelligence of the
death of his brother Arcadius, he prepared to visit
Constantinople, and to regulate, with the authority of a
guardian, the provinces of the infant Theodosius. 105 The
representation of the difficulty and expense of such a distant
expedition, checked this strange and sudden sally of active
diligence; but the dangerous project of showing the emperor to
the camp of Pavia, which was composed of the Roman troops, the
enemies of Stilicho, and his Barbarian auxiliaries, remained
fixed and unalterable. The minister was pressed, by the advice of
his confidant, Justinian, a Roman advocate, of a lively and
penetrating genius, to oppose a journey so prejudicial to his
reputation and safety. His strenuous but ineffectual efforts
confirmed the triumph of Olympius; and the prudent lawyer
withdrew himself from the impending ruin of his patron.

104 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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.]

In the passage of the emperor through Bologna, a mutiny of the
guards was excited and appeased by the secret policy of Stilicho;
who announced his instructions to decimate the guilty, and
ascribed to his own intercession the merit of their pardon. After
this tumult, Honorius embraced, for the last time, the minister
whom he now considered as a tyrant, and proceeded on his way to
the camp of Pavia; where he was received by the loyal
acclamations of the troops who were assembled for the service of
the Gallic war. On the morning of the fourth day, he pronounced,
as he had been taught, a military oration in the presence of the
soldiers, whom the charitable visits, and artful discourses, of
Olympius had prepared to execute a dark and bloody conspiracy. At
the first signal, they massacred the friends of Stilicho, the
most illustrious officers of the empire; two Prætorian praefects,
of Gaul and of Italy; two masters-general of the cavalry and
infantry; the master of the offices; the quaestor, the treasurer,
and the count of the domestics. Many lives were lost; many houses
were plundered; the furious sedition continued to rage till the
close of the evening; and the trembling emperor, who was seen in
the streets of Pavia without his robes or diadem, yielded to the
persuasions of his favorite; condemned the memory of the slain;
and solemnly approved the innocence and fidelity of their
assassins. The intelligence of the massacre of Pavia filled the
mind of Stilicho with just and gloomy apprehensions; and he
instantly summoned, in the camp of Bologna, a council of the
confederate leaders, who were attached to his service, and would
be involved in his ruin. The impetuous voice of the assembly
called aloud for arms, and for revenge; to march, without a
moment’s delay, under the banners of a hero, whom they had so
often followed to victory; to surprise, to oppress, to extirpate
the guilty Olympius, and his degenerate Romans; and perhaps to
fix the diadem on the head of their injured general. Instead of
executing a resolution, which might have been justified by
success, Stilicho hesitated till he was irrecoverably lost. He
was still ignorant of the fate of the emperor; he distrusted the
fidelity of his own party; and he viewed with horror the fatal
consequences of arming a crowd of licentious Barbarians against
the soldiers and people of Italy. The confederates, impatient of
his timorous and doubtful delay, hastily retired, with fear and
indignation. At the hour of midnight, Sarus, a Gothic warrior,
renowned among the Barbarians themselves for his strength and
valor, suddenly invaded the camp of his benefactor, plundered the
baggage, cut in pieces the faithful Huns, who guarded his person,
and penetrated to the tent, where the minister, pensive and
sleepless, meditated on the dangers of his situation. Stilicho
escaped with difficulty from the sword of the Goths and, after
issuing a last and generous admonition to the cities of Italy, to
shut their gates against the Barbarians, his confidence, or his
despair, urged him to throw himself into Ravenna, which was
already in the absolute possession of his enemies. Olympius, who
had assumed the dominion of Honorius, was speedily informed, that
his rival had embraced, as a suppliant the altar of the Christian
church. The base and cruel disposition of the hypocrite was
incapable of pity or remorse; but he piously affected to elude,
rather than to violate, the privilege of the sanctuary. Count
Heraclian, with a troop of soldiers, appeared, at the dawn of
day, before the gates of the church of Ravenna. The bishop was
satisfied by a solemn oath, that the Imperial mandate only
directed them to secure the person of Stilicho: but as soon as
the unfortunate minister had been tempted beyond the holy
threshold, he produced the warrant for his instant execution.
Stilicho supported, with calm resignation, the injurious names of
traitor and parricide; repressed the unseasonable zeal of his
followers, who were ready to attempt an ineffectual rescue; and,
with a firmness not unworthy of the last of the Roman generals,
submitted his neck to the sword of Heraclian. 106

106 (return) [ 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.]

The servile crowd of the palace, who had so long adored the
fortune of Stilicho, affected to insult his fall; and the most
distant connection with the master-general of the West, which had
so lately been a title to wealth and honors, was studiously
denied, and rigorously punished. His family, united by a triple
alliance with the family of Theodosius, might envy the condition
of the meanest peasant. The flight of his son Eucherius was
intercepted; and the death of that innocent youth soon followed
the divorce of Thermantia, who filled the place of her sister
Maria; and who, like Maria, had remained a virgin in the Imperial
bed. 107 The friends of Stilicho, who had escaped the massacre of
Pavia, were persecuted by the implacable revenge of Olympius; and
the most exquisite cruelty was employed to extort the confession
of a treasonable and sacrilegious conspiracy. They died in
silence: their firmness justified the choice, 108 and perhaps
absolved the innocence of their patron: and the despotic power,
which could take his life without a trial, and stigmatize his
memory without a proof, has no jurisdiction over the impartial
suffrage of posterity. 109 The services of Stilicho are great and
manifest; his crimes, as they are vaguely stated in the language
of flattery and hatred, are obscure at least, and improbable.
About four months after his death, an edict was published, in the
name of Honorius, to restore the free communication of the two
empires, which had been so long interrupted by the public enemy.
110 The minister, whose fame and fortune depended on the
prosperity of the state, was accused of betraying Italy to the
Barbarians; whom he repeatedly vanquished at Pollentia, at
Verona, and before the walls of Florence. His pretended design of
placing the diadem on the head of his son Eucherius, could not
have been conducted without preparations or accomplices; and the
ambitious father would not surely have left the future emperor,
till the twentieth year of his age, in the humble station of
tribune of the notaries. Even the religion of Stilicho was
arraigned by the malice of his rival. The seasonable, and almost
miraculous, deliverance was devoutly celebrated by the applause
of the clergy; who asserted, that the restoration of idols, and
the persecution of the church, would have been the first measure
of the reign of Eucherius. The son of Stilicho, however, was
educated in the bosom of Christianity, which his father had
uniformly professed, and zealously supported. 111 1111 Serena had
borrowed her magnificent necklace from the statue of Vesta; 112
and the Pagans execrated the memory of the sacrilegious minister,
by whose order the Sibylline books, the oracles of Rome, had been
committed to the flames. 113 The pride and power of Stilicho
constituted his real guilt. An honorable reluctance to shed the
blood of his countrymen appears to have contributed to the
success of his unworthy rival; and it is the last humiliation of
the character of Honorius, that posterity has not condescended to
reproach him with his base ingratitude to the guardian of his
youth, and the support of his empire.

107 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ Zosimus, l. v. p. 351. We may observe the bad
taste of the age, in dressing their statues with such awkward
finery.]

113 (return) [ 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.]

1111 (return) [ 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.] Among the train of dependants whose wealth and
dignity attracted the notice of their own times, our curiosity is
excited by the celebrated name of the poet Claudian, who enjoyed
the favor of Stilicho, and was overwhelmed in the ruin of his
patron.]

Among the train of dependants whose wealth and dignity attracted
the notice of their own times, _our_ curiosity is excited by the
celebrated name of the poet Claudian, who enjoyed the favor of
Stilicho, and was overwhelmed in the ruin of his patron. The
titular offices of tribune and notary fixed his rank in the
Imperial court: he was indebted to the powerful intercession of
Serena for his marriage with a very rich heiress of the province
of Africa; 114 and the statute of Claudian, erected in the forum
of Trajan, was a monument of the taste and liberality of the
Roman senate. 115 After the praises of Stilicho became offensive
and criminal, Claudian was exposed to the enmity of a powerful
and unforgiving courtier, whom he had provoked by the insolence
of wit. He had compared, in a lively epigram, the opposite
characters of two Prætorian praefects of Italy; he contrasts the
innocent repose of a philosopher, who sometimes resigned the
hours of business to slumber, perhaps to study, with the
interesting diligence of a rapacious minister, indefatigable in
the pursuit of unjust or sacrilegious, gain. “How happy,”
continues Claudian, “how happy might it be for the people of
Italy, if Mallius could be constantly awake, and if Hadrian would
always sleep!” 116 The repose of Mallius was not disturbed by
this friendly and gentle admonition; but the cruel vigilance of
Hadrian watched the opportunity of revenge, and easily obtained,
from the enemies of Stilicho, the trifling sacrifice of an
obnoxious poet. The poet concealed himself, however, during the
tumult of the revolution; and, consulting the dictates of
prudence rather than of honor, he addressed, in the form of an
epistle, a suppliant and humble recantation to the offended
praefect. He deplores, in mournful strains, the fatal
indiscretion into which he had been hurried by passion and folly;
submits to the imitation of his adversary the generous examples
of the clemency of gods, of heroes, and of lions; and expresses
his hope that the magnanimity of Hadrian will not trample on a
defenceless and contemptible foe, already humbled by disgrace and
poverty, and deeply wounded by the exile, the tortures, and the
death of his dearest friends. 117 Whatever might be the success
of his prayer, or the accidents of his future life, the period of
a few years levelled in the grave the minister and the poet: but
the name of Hadrian is almost sunk in oblivion, while Claudian is
read with pleasure in every country which has retained, or
acquired, the knowledge of the Latin language. If we fairly
balance his merits and his defects, we shall acknowledge that
Claudian does not either satisfy, or silence, our reason. It
would not be easy to produce a passage that deserves the epithet
of sublime or pathetic; to select a verse that melts the heart or
enlarges the imagination. We should vainly seek, in the poems of
Claudian, the happy invention, and artificial conduct, of an
interesting fable; or the just and lively representation of the
characters and situations of real life. For the service of his
patron, he published occasional panegyrics and invectives: and
the design of these slavish compositions encouraged his
propensity to exceed the limits of truth and nature. These
imperfections, however, are compensated in some degree by the
poetical virtues of Claudian. He was endowed with the rare and
precious talent of raising the meanest, of adorning the most
barren, and of diversifying the most similar, topics: his
coloring, more especially in descriptive poetry, is soft and
splendid; and he seldom fails to display, and even to abuse, the
advantages of a cultivated understanding, a copious fancy, an
easy, and sometimes forcible, expression; and a perpetual flow of
harmonious versification. To these commendations, independent of
any accidents of time and place, we must add the peculiar merit
which Claudian derived from the unfavorable circumstances of his
birth. In the decline of arts, and of empire, a native of Egypt,
118 who had received the education of a Greek, assumed, in a
mature age, the familiar use, and absolute command, of the Latin
language; 119 soared above the heads of his feeble
contemporaries; and placed himself, after an interval of three
hundred years, among the poets of ancient Rome. 120

114 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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.]

120 (return) [ Strada (Prolusion v. vi.) allows him to contend
with the five heroic poets, Lucretius, Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, and
Statius. His patron is the accomplished courtier Balthazar
Castiglione. His admirers are numerous and passionate. Yet the
rigid critics reproach the exotic weeds, or flowers, which spring
too luxuriantly in his Latian soil]