Part 36 (1/2)

(M1154) He was also a great general, and sought to crush the power of the Persian kings and make Babylonia a Roman province. Here, too, he failed, although he gained signal successes. He was mortally wounded while effecting a retreat from the Tigris, after a short reign of twenty months.

With him ended the house of Constantine. The empire was conferred by the troops on Flavius Claudius Jovia.n.u.s, chief of the imperial household, A.D.

363-a man of moderate talents and good intentions, but unfit for such stormy times. He restored Christianity, which henceforth was the national religion. He died the following year, and was succeeded by Flavius Valentinia.n.u.s, the son of Count Gratian, a general who had arisen from obscurity in Pannonia, to the command of Africa and Britain.

(M1155) Valentinian was forty-four years of age when he began to reign, A.D. 364, a man of n.o.ble character and person, and in a month a.s.sociated his brother Flavius Valens with him in the government of the empire.

Valentinian kept the West, and conferred the East on Valens. Thus was the empire again formally divided, and was not reunited until the reign of Theodosius. Valentinian chose the post of danger, rather than of pleasure and luxury, for the West was now invaded by various tribes of the Germanic race. The Alemanni were powerful on the Rhine; the Saxons were invading Britain; the Burgundians were commencing their ravages in Gaul; and the Goths were preparing for another inroad. The emperor, whose seat of power was Milan, was engaged in perpetual, but indecisive conflicts. He reigned with vigor, and repressed the barbarians. He bestowed the t.i.tle of Augustus on his son Gratian, and died in a storm of wrath by the bursting of a blood-vessel, while reviling the amba.s.sadors of the Quadi, A.D. 375.

(M1156) The emperor Valens, at Constantinople, was exposed to no less dangers, without the force to meet them. The great nation of the Goths, who had been at peace with the empire for a generation, resumed their hostilities upon the Danube. Hermanneric, the first historic name among these fierce people, had won a series of brilliant victories over other barbarians, after he was eighty years of age. His dominions extended from the Danube to the Baltic, and embraced the greater part of Germany and Scythia.

(M1157) But the Goths were invaded by a fierce race of barbarians, more savage than themselves, from the banks of the Don, called Scythians, or Huns, of Sclavonic origin. Pressed by this new enemy, they sought shelter in the Roman territory. Instead of receiving them as allies, the emperor treated them as enemies. Hostages from the flower of their youth were scattered through the cities of Asia Minor, while the corrupt governors of Thrace annoyed them by insults and grievances. The aged Hermanneric, exasperated by misfortune, made preparations for a general war, while Sarmatians, Alans, and Huns united with them. After three indecisive campaigns, the emperor Valens advanced to attack their camp near Hadrianople, defended by Fritagern. Under the walls of this city was fought the most b.l.o.o.d.y and disastrous battle which Rome ever lost, A.D.

378. Two-thirds of the imperial army was destroyed, the emperor was slain, and the remainder fled in consternation. Sixty thousand infantry and six thousand cavalry lay dead upon the fatal field. The victors, intoxicated with their success, invested Hadrianople, but were unequal to the task, being inexperienced in sieges. Laden with spoil, they retired to the western boundaries of Thrace. From the sh.o.r.es of the Bosphorus to the Julian Alps, nothing was seen but conflagration, murder, and devastation.

So great were the misfortunes of the Illyrian provinces, that they never afterward recovered. Churches were turned into stables, palaces were burned, works of art were destroyed, the relics of martyrs were desecrated, the population decimated, and the provinces were overrun.

(M1158) In this day of calamity a hero and deliverer was needed. The feeble Gratian, who ruled in the West, cast his eyes upon an exile, whose father, an eminent general, had been unjustly murdered by the emperor Valentinian. This man was Theodosius, then living in modest retirement on his farm near Valladolid, in Spain, as unambitious as David among his sheep, as contented as Cincinnatus at the plow. Even Gibbon does not sneer at this great Christian emperor, who revived for a while the falling empire. He accepted the sceptre of Valens, A.D. 370, and the conduct of the Gothic war, being but thirty-three years of age. One of the greatest of all the emperors, and the last great man who swayed the sceptre of Trajan, his ancestor, he has not too warmly been praised by the Church, whose defender he was-the last flickering light of an expiring monarchy,-although his character has been a.s.sailed by modern critics of great respectability.

(M1159) As soon as he was invested with the purple, he took up his residence in Thessalonica, and devoted his energies to the task a.s.signed him by the necessities of the empire. He succeeded in putting a stop to the progress of the Goths, disarmed them by treaties, and allowed them to settle on the right bank of the Danube, within the limits of the empire.

He invited the aged Athanaric to his capital and table, who was astonished by his riches and glory. Peace was favored by the death of Fritagern, and forty thousand Goths were received as soldiers of the empire,-an impolitic act.

(M1160) At this period the Goths settled in Msia were visited by Uphilas, a Christian missionary and Arian bishop, who translated the Bible, and had great success in the conversion of the barbarians to a nominal faith. This is the earliest instance of the reception of the new faith by the Germanic races.

(M1161) While Theodosius was restoring the eastern empire, Gratian relapsed into indolent pleasures at Milan, which provoked a revolution.

Maximus was proclaimed emperor by the legions in Britain, and invaded Gaul. Gratian fled, with a retinue of three hundred horse, and was overtaken and slain. Theodosius recognized the claims of the usurper, unwilling to waste the blood of the enfeebled soldiers in a new civil war, provided that Italy and Africa were secured to Valentinian II., the younger brother of Gratian. The young emperor made himself unpopular by espousing Arianism, and for being governed by his mother Justina, and four years after was obliged to flee to Thessalonica, on an invasion of Italy by Maximus, and invoke the aid of Theodosius, who responded to his call, won by the charms of the princess Galla, whom he married. Maximus was defeated, put to death, and Valentinian II. was replaced upon his throne.

(M1162) It was when Maximus was triumphant in Gaul that the celebrated Ambrose, archbishop of Milan, was sent to the usurper's camp to demand the dead body of the murdered Gratian. But this intrepid prelate made himself still more famous for his defense of orthodoxy against the whole power of Valentinian II. and his mother. He is also immortalized for the chastis.e.m.e.nt he inflicted upon Theodosius himself for the slaughter of Thessalonica. The emperor was in Milan when intelligence arrived of a sedition in the city, caused by factions of the circus, during which Boderic, the commander of the imperial troops, was killed. This outrage was revenged by the wanton ma.s.sacre of seven thousand people. The news of this barbarity filled Ambrose with horror, and he wrote a letter to the emperor, which led to his repentance; but as he was about to enter the basilica, the prelate met him at the door, and refused admission until he had expiated his crime by a rigorous penance, and the emperor submitted to the humiliation-an act of submission to the Church which was much admired-an act of ecclesiastical authority which formed a precedent for the heroism of Hildebrand.

(M1163) Under the influence of the clergy, now a great power, Theodosius the same year promulgated an edict for the suppression of all acts of pagan wors.h.i.+p, private and public, under heavy penalties, and the Church, in turn, became persecuting. At this lime the corruption of the Church made rapid progress. Pretended miracles, pious frauds, the wors.h.i.+p of saints, veneration of relics, ascetic severities, monastic superst.i.tions, the pomp of bishops, and a secular spirit marked the triumph of Christianity over paganism. The Church was united to the State, and the profession of the new faith was made a necessary qualification for the enjoyment of civil rights. But the Church was now distinguished for great men, who held high rank, theologians, and bishops, like Augustine, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Gregory, n.a.z.ianzin, Basil, Eusebius, and Martin of Tours.

(M1164) Theodosius died in Milan, in the arms of Ambrose, A.D. 395, and with him the genius of Rome expired, and the real drama of the fall of the empire began. He was succeeded by his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, the one in the East and the other in the West, the former being under the tutelage of Rufinus, the latter under the care of Stilicho, master-general of the armies. Both emperors were unworthy or unequal to maintain their inheritances. The barbarians gained fresh courage from the death of Theodosius, and recommenced their ravages. The soldiers of the empire were dispirited and enervated, and threw away their defensive armor. They even were not able to bear the weight of the cuira.s.s and helmet, and the heavy weapons of their ancestors were exchanged for the bow. Thus they were exposed to the deadly missiles of their enemies, and fled upon the approach of danger. Gainas the Goth, who commanded the legions, slew Rufinus in the presence of Arcadius, who abandoned himself at Constantinople to the influence of the eunuch Eutropius, most celebrated for introducing Chrysostom to the court. The eunuch minister soon after was murdered in a tumult, and Arcadius was then governed by his wife Eudoxia, who secured the banishment of Chrysostom.

(M1165) The empire was now finally divided. A long succession of feeble princes reigned in the East, ruled by favorites and women, at whose courts the manners and customs of Oriental kings were introduced. The Eastern empire now a.s.sumes the character of an Eastern monarchy, and henceforth goes by the name of the Greek empire, at first, embracing those countries bounded by the Adriatic and Tigris, but gradually narrowed to the precincts of Constantinople. It lasted for one thousand years longer, before it was finally subdued by the Turks. The history of the Greek empire properly belongs to the mediaeval ages. It is our object to trace the final fall of the Western empire.

(M1166) Under Honorius, the Visigoths, ruled by Alaric, appear in history as a great and warlike people. Stilicho, the general of Honorius, encountered them unsuccessfully in two campaigns, in Macedonia and Thessaly, and the degenerate cities of Greece purchased their preservation at an enormous ransom. In the year 402, Alaric crossed the Alps, and Honorius fled to the marshes of Ravenna, where, protected by the shallow sea, the Western emperors a long time resided. Stilicho gained, however, a great victory over the Goths at Pollentia, near Turin, and arrested the march of Alaric upon Rome. The defeated Goth rose, however, superior to this defeat, celebrated by the poet Claudian, as the greatest victory which Rome had ever achieved. He escaped with the main body of his cavalry, broke through the pa.s.ses of the Apennines, spread devastation on the fruitful fields of Tuscany, resolved to risk another battle for the great prize he aimed to secure, even imperial Rome. But Stilicho purchased the retreat of the Goths by a present of forty thousand pounds of gold.

The departure of Alaric from Italy, which he had ravaged, was regarded by the Roman people as a complete and final deliverance, and they abandoned themselves to absurd rejoicings and gladiatoral shows.

(M1167) But scarcely was Italy delivered from the Goths before an irruption of Vandals, Suevi, and Burgundians, under the command of Rodogast, or Rhadagast, two hundred thousand in number, issued from the coast of the Baltic, crossed the Vistula, the Alps, and the Apennines, ravaged the northern cities of Italy, and laid siege to Florence. The victor of Pollentia appeared for the rescue with the last army which the empire could raise, surrounded the enemy with strong intrenchments, and forced them to retire. Stilicho again delivered Italy, but one hundred thousand barbarians remained in arms between the Alps and the Apennines, who crossed into Gaul, then the most cultivated of the Western provinces, and completely devastated its fields, and villas, and cities. Mentz was destroyed; Worms fell, after an obstinate siege; Strasburg, Spires, Rheims, Tournay, Arras, and Amiens, all fell under the German yoke, and Gaul was finally separated from the empire. The Vandals, Sueves, and Alans, pa.s.sed into Spain, while the Burgundians remained behind, masters of the mountainous regions of Eastern Gaul, to which was given the name of Burgundy, A.D. 409.

The troubles of the empire led to the final withdrawal of the legions from Britain about the time that Gaul was lost, and about forty years before the conquest of the island by the Saxons.

Italy, for a time delivered, forgot the services of Stilicho, the only man capable of defending her. The jealousy of the timid emperor he served, and the frivolous Senate which he saved, removed for ever the last hope of Rome. This able general was a.s.sa.s.sinated at Ravenna, A.D. 408.

(M1168) The Gothic king, in his distant camp, beheld with joy the intrigues and factions which deprived the emperor of his best and last defender, and prepared for a new invasion of Italy. He descended like an avalanche upon the plains of Italy, and captured the cities of Aquileia, Concordia, and Cremona. He then ravaged the coasts of the Adriatic, and following the Flaminian way, crossed the Appennines, devastated Umbria, and reached, without obstruction, the city which for six hundred years had not seen a foreign enemy at her gates. Rome still contained within her walls, twenty-three miles in circuit, a vast population, but she had no warriors. She could boast of a long line of senatorial families, one thousand seven hundred and eighty palaces, and two million of people, together with the spoil of the ancient world, immense riches, and innumerable works of art; but where were her defenders? It is a sad proof of the degeneracy of the people that they were incapable of defense.

(M1169) Alaric made no effort to storm the city, but quietly sat down, and inclosed the wretched inhabitants with a cordon through which nothing could force its way. He cut off all communication with the country and the sea, and commanded the gates. Famine, added to pestilence, did the work of soldiers. Despair seized the haughty and effeminate citizens, who invoked the clemency of the barbarians. He derided the amba.s.sadors, and insulted them with rude and sarcastic jokes. ”The thicker the hay, the easier it is mowed,” replied he, when warned not to drive the people to despair. He condescended to spare the lives of the people on condition that they gave up _all_ their gold and silver, _all_ their precious movables, and _all_ their slaves of barbaric birth. More moderate terms were afterward granted, but the victor did not retreat until he had loaded his wagons with precious spoil. He retired to the fertile fields of Tuscany, to make negotiations with Honorius, intrenched at Ravenna; and it was only on the condition of being appointed master-general of the imperial army, with an annual subsidy of corn and money, the free possession of Dalmatia, Noric.u.m, and Venetia, that he consented to peace with the emperor. These terms were disregarded, and the indignant barbarian once again turned his face to the city he had spared. He took possession of Ostia, and Rome was at his mercy, since her magazines were in his hands. Again the Senate, fearful of famine, consented to the demands of the conqueror. He nominated Atticus, prefect of the city, as emperor, and from him received the commission of master-general of the armies of the West.

(M1170) Atticus, after a brief reign, was degraded, and negotiations were opened with Honorius. Repelled by fresh insults, which can not be comprehended other than from that infatuation which is sent upon the doomed, Alaric, vindictive and indignant, once more set out for Rome, resolved on plunder and revenge. In vain did the n.o.bles organize a defense. Cowardice or treachery opened the Salarian gate. In the dead of night the Goths entered the city, which now was the prey of soldiers. For five days and five nights the ”Eternal City” was exposed to every barbarity and license, and only the treasures acc.u.mulated and deposited in the churches of St. Paul and St. Peter were saved. A cruel slaughter of the citizens added to the miseries of a sack. Forty thousand slaves were let loose upon the people. The matrons and women of Rome were exposed to every indignity. The city was given up to pillage. The daughters and wives of senatorial families were made slaves. Italian fugitives thronged the sh.o.r.es of Africa and Syria, begging daily bread. The whole world was filled with consternation. The news of the capture of Rome made the tongue of St. Jerome cleave to the roof of his mouth, in his cell at Bethlehem.

Sorrow, misery, desolation, and despair, were everywhere. The end of the world was supposed to be at hand, and the great churchmen of the age found consolation only in the doctrine of the second coming of our Lord amid the clouds of heaven, A.D. 410.