HISTORICAL HANDBOOKS EDITED BY OSCAR BROWNING, M.A. FELLOW OF king's COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE ; ASSISTANT-MASTER AT ETON COLLEGE. RIVINGTONS lEonlfon Waterloo Place ©ifort High Street fflambrtogC Trinity Street [a— 134] HISTORY Roman Empire FROM THE DEATH OF THEODOSIUS THE GREAT TO THE CORONA TION OF CHARLES THE GREAT, A.D. 395-800 BY ARTHUR M. CURTEIS, M.A. LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD; ASSISTANT MASTER IN SHERBORNE SCHOOL WITH MAPS RIVINGTONS HonKon, (©jrforK, antl Cambridge 1875 ■^ PREFACE. i This book is the substance of a course of lectures, delivered to the two highest Forms in Sherborne School. It is meant to be a help towards bridging over the gulf between the two sections of history, which are popularly supposed to divide a little after *i the Christian era into "ancient" and "modern." :^ Such a division, however, produces error and con- V »v fusion, by obscuring the unity and continuity of history ; the teaching of which loses half its value, if we forget that " Ancient " is the parent of " Medi- aeval," and therefore of " Modern " history, and that Imperial Eome is the centre and meeting-point of all history — " an Universal Empire in which all ^ earlier history loses itself, and out of which all later ^ history grew."^ The position of Theodoric, Charles, or Frederick cannot be understood without reference to that earlier Empire of Theodosius, Constantine, and Trajan, of which the later was a direct conse- quence. For this reason I hope also that the book may be ^ Freeman's General Sketch, cap. i. p. IG. vi Preface used with advantage in the highest Forms in schools. The objection, indeed, is sometimes raised, that works of this kind are of little use, being too condensed to be interesting or to convey adequate information. The objection would be fatal if true. Their real utility, however, depends on two things — the way in which they are used, and the judgment with which a writer omits or condenses facts. It is clearly not necessary to lay equal stress on all parts of history alike, because not all great men are equally great, nor all important crises equally important. And,it is one advantage of such a period as is embraced in this book, that it centres naturally, and without the sacrifice of any important point, round the lives of a few men, who from character or circumstances " made " the history of their times. It is a further advantage, that almost every page necessarily con- tains allusions which a competent lecturer may, if he will, make the text for illustration, comment, and amplification. As random examples of what is meant, p. 48 might suggest a lecture on the Aryan languages, and on the kind of proof which they afford as to the relationship of Aryan nations ; pp. 137 sqq^. might be illustrated by legends, similar to those there mentioned; while chap. ii. would afford scope for a fuller explanation of the history and govern- ment of tlie early Church. Used thus as a " text- book " to be indefinitely expanded, I believe that a Preface vii " hand-book " may be made the vehicle of instruc- tion both accurate and wide. My main authorities throughout have been Gibbon, and Milman's "Latin Christianity." The only original research to which I can lay claim is a fre- quent reference to Eginhard for the life of Charles the Great. To Mr Freeman's works I am largely indebted, while in chap. i. I have borrowed freely from M. de Coulange's "Cit^ Antique." Not only for that chapter, but for the majority of chapters, I cannot acknowledge too warmly the debt which I owe to the works of the late M. Amedee Thierry. Lastly, I owe to one friend special thanks for in- valuable help and advice in every page of the book — my colleague, the Eev. 0. W. Tancock. A. M. CUKTEIS. Sherborne, January 1875. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. ADMINISTRATIVE AND LEGAL UNITY. Death of Theodosius and Condition of Empire — Influence of the Provinces — Policy of Julius Caesar — Reforms delayed by Caesar's Murder — Policy of Augustus, Tiberius, and Claudius — Im- portance of the Provinces— Edict of Caracallus — Consequences of the Edict — Jealousy of East and "West — Diocletian — Dio- cletain's failure — Constantine — Changes in the Constitution — Modification of Roman Law — Roman Law gradually softened — Responsa Prudentum and the Edidiim Perijetuutn — Sum- mary ...... 1-19 CHAPTER II. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE FIRST FOUR CENTURIES. The Church recognised by Constantine — Christians confounded with Jews — Christians Disliked and Persecuted — Effects of Persecution on the Church — The Decian Persecution — Fifty Years' Peace — The Diocletian Persecution — Toleration under Galerius and Constantine^Christianity the dominant State Religion — Influence of Christianity on the Empire — Moral Evils deep-seated when Christianity was introduced — ESect of Christian Morality — Excellent Organisation of the Christian Church— Christianity the State Church . . 20-41 X Contents CHAPTER III. THE BARBARIANS ON THE FRONTIER. CENT. IV. Romans and Barbarians from the same Stock — "Who were the Ary- ans ? — Semitic and Turanian Races — Aryan Migrations — Kelts — Teutons — Shaves — Relations between Empire and Barbarians — Tribes lying on Roman Frontiers — Huns — The Teutonic Races— The Goths — The Vandals — The Burgundians — The Franks — The Saxons — The Lombards — Summary of First Three Chapters . . . . ' . 42-54 CHAPTER IV. CHURCH AND STATE IN CONSTANTINOPLE, EUTROPIUS, AND CHRYSOSTOM. Death of Theodosius — Sons of Theodosius — Rise of Eutropius — Allies of Eutropius — Right of Asylum — Chrysostom : Life at Antioch — Death of Nectarius — Eutropius ajipoints Chrysostom — Character of Chrysostom — Hatred of Eutropius — Quarrel between Eutropius and the Empress — Interference of Chry- sostom — His famous Sermon — Condemnation of Eutropius — Sequel of his Downfall .... 55-67 CHAPTER V. CHRYSOSTOM AND THE EMPRESS EUDOXIA. Difficulties of Chrysostom — Chrysostom unpopular with the Clergy — Unpopular with the Rich — The Friends of Chrysostom — Intrigues against Chrysostom — Troubles with the Arians — The " Tall Brothers" of the Nitrian Desert — Intrigues of Theophilus — Council of the Oak — Condemnation of Chrysos- tom — Sermon against the Empress — Deportation of Chrysostom to Chalcedon — Riot and Earthquake in Constantinople — Chry- sostom Recalled — Statues of the Empress — Coimcil of Con- stantinople — Chrysostom forbidden to leave the Palace — His Disobedience — The Council Ratifies his Condemnation — Chry- sostom appeals to the West — Second Exile of Chrysostom — Riot and Burning of St Sophia — Chrysostom Conveyed to Cu- cusus — Removal to Pityus— Death at Comana in Pontus 68-94 Cotitents xi CHAPTER VI. ' ALARIC AND THE VISIGOTHS— A.D. 396-419. State of Italy — Alaric the Visigoth — Province of Eastern lUyri- cum — Alaric in Illyricum — Stilicho prepares to Attack — Alaric and Stilicho in Peloponnesus — Revolt of Gildo suppressed — Threatened Invasion of Italy — Battle of Pollentia — ^Inroad of Radagaisus — Olympius — Murder of Stilicho — Reaction in Italy — Alaric Marches on Rome — First Siege of Rome — Nego- tiations for Peace — Second Siege of Rome — Third Siege and Sack of Rome — Death of Alaric — Succeeded by Atiiulf and Wallia 95-117 CHAPTER VII. GENSERIC AND THE VANDALS— A.D. 423-533. Events following the Death of Honorius — Valentinian III. — Pe- tronius Maximus — Last Twenty Years of the Western Empire — The Transition— The Vandals — Their Migrations — Genseric King — Invasion of i^.frica — The Vandal Kingdom — Rome sacked by Genseric — Policy of Genseric — Expedition against Carthage — Basiliscus its Leader — Defeat of the Expedition — Decline of the Vandal Power . . . 118-135 CHAPTER VIII. *" ATTILA AND THE HUNS -A.D. 435-453. King Attila — The Traditions about Attila— Gallo-Roman and Italian Traditions — East German or Gothic Traditions — West German and Scandinavian Traditions — Nibelungen-lied — Hun- garian Traditions — Summary — State of Central Europe — At- tila, King — Gradual Encroachments — Embassy to Constan- tinople — Counter - Embassy — Attila demands the Princess Honoria — Alliance with Genseric and the Franks — Attila Invades Gaul — Siege of Orleans — Relief of Orleans — Battle of Chalons — Attila threatens Italy — Embassy from Rome to Attila — Attila leaves Italy — Marriage and Death of Attila ...... 136-154 xii Contents CHAPTER IX. THE "CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT"— COMMONLY CALLED THE FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE, A.D. 475-526. Results of Attila's Death — Orestes the Pannonian — Romulus Au- gustulus — Downfall of Orestes and the Emperor — A Change in Form of Government — Odoacer " King" — Difficulties in and out of Italy — Odoacer subordinate to the Emperor — Theo- doric sent to reduce Italy to Obedience — March of Theodoric — Struggle between Odoacer and Theodoric — Convention of Ravenna — Mui'der of Odoacer — Prosperous Reign of Theodoric — Close of Theodoric's Reign . . . 155-171 CHAPTER X. THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN— A.D. 527-565. Contrast of East to West — Justinian — Justinian's Rise — Descrip- tion of Justinian — The Nika Riot — Belisarius compared to Marlborough — African Campaign of Belisarius — Position of the Vandals — Africa reduced in Three Months — Pretext for the Invasion of Italy — Belisarius reduces Sicily and South Italy — Siege of Rome by the O.strogoths — Siege raised — Fall of Ravenna— Recall of Belisarius — Revolt of the Goths — Narses in Italy — Conclusion . . . 172-189 CHAPTER XL THE EMPIRE IN RELATION TO THE BARBARIANS OF THE EAST— A.D. 450-650. Subject of the Chapter — Results of the Death of Attila — Dangers on the Frontiers — The Middle Danube — Eastern Danube and North Coast of the Euxine — Huns on the Tanais — The Sla- vonians — Avars, Turks, &c., in Central Asia — Persia — Bar- barian Irruptions across the Danube — The Avars — True Story of " False Avars " — Avars attack the Slaves — Persian En- croachments — Heraclius prepares for War — Treachery of the Avars — Heraclius victorious in Persia — Successful Defence of Constantinople— Effects of the War . . 190-209 Contents xiii CHAPTER XII. MOHAMMED AND MOHAMMEDANISM— A.D. 622-711. Mohammedanism — Secondary Causes of Success — Characteristics of Arabia — Characteristics of Tribes — Political and Eeligious Confusion — Primary Causes of Success — Mohammed's Early Years — Mohammed "called" to be the Prophet of God — Ill Success of Mohammed — The Hegira or Flight of Mo- hammed to Medina — First Proclamation of War against In- fidels — Fall of Mecca — Death of Mohammed — The Doctrines of Mohammedanism — The Unity of God — Angels and Genii — The Koran — The Creed — Articles of Religion — Was Moham- medanism Original ? — Mohammedan Conquests . 210-227 CHAPTER XHI. THE POPES AND THE LOMBARDS IN ITALY- A.D. 540-740. Gregory the Great — State of Italy after its Conquest — The Lom- bards — Lombard Conquest of Italy — Territorial Limits of Exarchate — Gregory I. — Interview of Gregory with EngKsh Slaves — Gregory prevented going to England — Sketch of Eng- lish History — St Augustine — Effects of Christianity in Eng- land — Gregory as Bishop, Pope, and (virtual) King — Gregory II. — Rise of Iconoclasm — Leo III. the Isaurian — Attempts to force Iconoclasm upon Christendom — Iconoclastic Controversy in the East — In the West, Papal Appeal to the Franks 228-246 CHAPTER XIV. ^ THE FRANKS AND THE PAPACY— A.D. 500-800. The FranTis — Gaul under the Romans — Invasion of Roman Gaul — Gaul divided between Visigoths, Burg^^ndians, and Franks — Chlodwig and Merwing Dynasty — Rise of the Mayors of the Palace — Charles Martel — Battle of Tours — Results of Charles' Victory — Gregory III. appeals to Charles — Gregory succeeded by Pope Zacharias — Coronation of Pippin — Pippin and Pope Stephen — Pippin's "Donation" to the Papacy — Charles xiv Contents succeeds Pippin — Charles increases the "Donation" — Charles crowned Emperor of the West — Results of Coronation — Con- quests of Charles the Great — His Policy — Character and Person of Charles — General Summaiy . . . 247-265 The Synopsis of Historical Events . . . 266-268 Index ....... 269-279 MAPS. Central Europe .... to face page 54 The Roman Empire ... ,, 208 Italy ..... ,,246 Europe in time of Charles the Great . ,, 2C2 Cf)C 3£loman dBrnpixt- $ CHAP TBI? I. ADMINISTRATIVE AND LEGAL t^NITY. Death of Theodosius and Condition of Empire — The year a.d. 395 — The year of the death of Theo- dosius the Great was important in the history of Eome, The Empire, which, in 1,000 years had grown from the limits of a single city and a narrow territory to embrace under one government, one law, one religion, the whole civilised world, had fallen a prey to internal dissensions, and was to succumb ere long to enemies from without. The evils consequent on the incessant wars of the Ito- public, both foreign and civil, had wrought their effect. The middle class in Italy was almost destroyed, and its place filled by a vast slave population. Property had passed into a few hands. Conquest in the East bad brought an inilux of Oriental vice and luxury. The old Eoman faith and morality were supplanted by mingled atheism and superstition. The gulf between rich and poor grew ever wider. Honour, morality, public spirit, decayed, until " the Empire," the irresponsible rule of a single man, had become the best hope of salvation for society, the only condition of impartial and just govern- 2 History of the Roman Empire ment. In fact, there had been for many generations two opposite forces at work sinmltaneonsly : on the one hand, and on the surface, the ever growing desire for equality and unity; on the other hand, and beneath the surface, the disintegration which follows from class hatred, from decay of honour and political virtue, from immorality and ignorance. The disintegration was complete when at the death of Theodosius the Empire fell asunder, and Milan or Eavenna in the west, and Constantinople in the east, became rival capitals of rival empires, never again united. Innuence of the Provinces. — The great Empire had now completed the work, which beginning with the foundation of the city took its final direction and received its greatest impulse from JuHus Caesar. Eoman history has many sides according to our point of view : revolu- tions social and political; wars civil and foreign; its laws, its great men; but Eome's place in universal history is determmed by the great result which she impressed on all the nations brought within her influence — uniformity of administration, law, and religion. No doubt the process was a slow one. It needed 1,000 years to consolidate so vast an Empire, and weld it into one homogeneous mass. For 250 years Eome had withheld her rights of citizen- ship from her Itahan subjects — rights only wi'ung from her by defeat. To the provinces, the confederate states, the allied kings, the Eoman Senate maintained a haughty attitude, allowing them to groan beneath the rapacity aud tyranny of unscrupulous proconsids, whom the tri- bunals were too interested or too corrupt to convict. But in their extremity they found allies. The democratic party in Eome, engaged in a desperate struggle with the aristocrats, were glad to find allies in the provincials; the provincials in their turn were ready enough to purchase by alliance what they so much coveted, citizensliip and Administrative and Legal Unity 3 equality. And it was in the provinces that Julius Cyesar, the great leader of the democrats, found his staunchest supporters. Policy of Juliiis Caesar. — Of so many-sided a genius it is natural that men should form different esti- mates; it would be difficidt to form an entirely just one. Beyond a doubt he was ambitious, immoral, and quite free from scruples. But if he had the ambition to be the first man in the state, he had also the foresight to see what a magnificent oj^portunity the errors of the aristocratical party had given him, and the genius to use it with success. Men act from mixed motives; and it would be as absurd to ascribe Caesar's extraordinary career to motives of selfish ambition only, as to credit him "with feelings of pure philanthropy. He had all the genius, rapidity of action, fertility of resource, and versa- tility of IS^apoleon, but he was a far greater man. It may have been cunning ambition, it may well have been some more honourable feeling, which prompted him from Ms entrance into public hfe to form and maintain friendly intercourse with the leading men and senates of various provinces — to procure the Eoman franchise for Gallia Transpadana — to keep up a correspondence, even during his hottest campaigns, with all parts of the Empire — to spend money in repairing public buildings in Gaul and Spain, Asia and Greece. Whatever were his motives, he had his reward, and that without delay. The provin- cials, despised and ignored by the aristocracy of Italy, saw their opportunity in the impending struggle of parties, and when Caesar crossed the Eubicon (b.c. 49), and com- mitted himself to the contest with the Senate, it was with the open support of some, and the good wishes, expressed or understood, of all the Eoman provinces. And, thus supported, in four years he v.'as master of the Empire. 4 History of the Roman Empire Reforms delayed by Caesar's Murder — b.c. 44. — Tlie reorganisation of the body politic should naturally now have commenced; it was a calamity for the world that Csesar fell a victim to political vengeance almost before he had begun the work of reform. Some few hints, however, are left us of his probable intentions. He projected a codification of the laws — a geographical survey of the Empire — a reform of the law courts — an increase of the Senate to the number of 1,000, by the admission of provincial notables, especially from Gaul and Spain — an extension of the rights of citizenship (beyond the mere accident of birth and locality) to all men of education, intelligence, or wealth throughout the Empire, a principle afterwards accepted and extended — and lastly, a large in- crease of colonies. Of these vast projects a part only was even begun, but it is as easy to perceive the general idea of their originator as to understand the rage of the aristocratic party, whose most cherished privileges would thus have been destroyed. Uniformity of rights and privileges meant for them loss of power and dignity. The death of Caesar appeared their only means of safety; and so the hand of the enthusiast Brutus was armed with the assassin's dagger. But they had miscalculated the effect of the blow. It simply threw the provinces into the arms of Caesar's adopted son, and rendered their own cause and the cause of the Eepublic hopeless. It threw extra- ordinary powers into the hands of individual leaders, and for one political purpose only — the unification of the Empire on the ruins of the Eepublic. Policy of Augustus, Tiberius, and Claudius. — The policy of Julius was accepted by his successors more or less entirely as a tradition of the Empire. Augustus, how- ever, more cautious and less foreseeing, was content to con- solidate and organise. In order to acquaint himself with Administrative and Legal Unity 5 the needs of tlie provinces, he visited every one of them, except Africa and Sardinia- he provided for their hetter government by their division into " in]ij)erial " and " sena- torial" groups, reserving for his own supervision those which were from any cause especially exposed to danger, or especially important to the state, such as Transalpine Gaul or Egypt ; he instituted a regular series of posts or couriers from one end of the Empire to the other; he rescued the provinces from one of their most bitter grievances, the cor- ruption of the governors, by reducing them to salaried offi- cials, who as government agents were in strict subservience to the home government, and forbidden to receive anything beyond the contributions allowed by the Senate or ordered by the Emperor, The successor of Augustus, the cruel and gloomy Tiberius, was popular out of Italy, and the first nine years of his reign were years of order and equitable government for the provinces. Tacitus, the best of authorities in such a case, assures us that the pro- vinces were not harassed by new burdens, nor the old burdens made heavier by the avarice or cruelty of officials, while scourgings and confiscations were unknown; and Suetonius has preserved for us the hon mot of Tiberius, often repeated, that "the office of a good shepherd is to shear and not to flay his sheep." Claudius, himself a provincial and born at Lyons, always entertained a strong feeling of afi'ection for the provinces, and especially for Gaul, the organisation of wliich he completed. It was, indeed, his firmness alone that, in the famous debate' in the Senate which Tacitus records in the Annals (xi. 23), secured for the Gauls the coveted jus lionorum. They had for some time enjoyed the civitas, and now claimed the completion of their privileges. In the arguments adduced in the Curia against the concession of their claims, we see the true spirit of the old Eoman oligarchy. 6 History of the Roman Empire " Could not Italy," it was urged, "find men enough to fur- iiisli her own Senate % At least she had done so in the good old days ! And now a mass of aliens must be intro- duced to oust the poor nobles and senators of Latium — aliens, too, who but the other day had fought against Csesar, and whose ancestors had even burnt Eome itself !" Tacitus has given us also the purport of Claudius' reply. He began by reminding his hearers that Eome owed even lier origin and early fortunes, and many of her noblest families, to the principle of comprehension. "In the palmiest days of the Eepubhc, Etruria, Lucania, all Italy, had sent members to the Senate. JSTor was tliis all. The plebs had been admitted to share magistracies with the patricians, the Latins and other Italian nations with both. The peace of Italy had been assured from the day when the nations beyond the Padus had been admitted to tbe citizensliip. Lastly," he asked, "why did Athens and Sparta, powerful as they were, perish, but for the fact that they kept their vanquished foes at arms' length, as though they were foreigners 1" The demand of the Gauls was granted; but the savage indignation of the old aristo- cratical party, long pent up, broke out in innuendo and satire. " What else could one expect," says their mouth- piece, Seneca, ''from one born in a provmce !" Importance of the Provinces. — Yet in spite of the oUgarchs the tide was now flowing strongly, and could not be stemmed. The provinces had made good their footing as integral parts of the Empire. The Senate (to which Tiberius had transferred the powers of the ancient "cowiY^'a," and which he transformed into a sort of immense })rivy council), the bar, the army, were aU crowded with provincials. Eich men from the provinces flocked to Italy, and bought out the dissolute or impoverished repre- sentatives of old patrician families. Literary men opened Administrative and L the abode of the Emperor and his court, the seat of go- vernment, the headquarters of Christianity, was soon filled with a dense population, drawn thither from all quarters of the Empire by one motive or another, and was solemnly inaugiu-ated as the capital of the Empire on May 11th, 330. In less than a century the new Eome had surpassed the old both in wealth and numbers. Changes in the Constitution. — N'or was Constan- tine content with a mere change of capital. The numbers of the " bureaucracy," or government officials, were con- tinually increased ; military and civil functions were for the first time separated ; a new order of nobility was in- troduced ; the term " patrician " ceased to be an here- ditary, and became a purely personal distinction ; agents were employed in hundreds as " king's messengers," to convey despatches, who too soon became also informers to headquarters ; lastly, to diminish the possibility of revolt, the number of men in a legion was reduced from 6,000 to about 1,500, while the actual numbers of the army itseK were increased. Each legion had been a corm d'armee, and was now reduced to the position of a regi- ment, or at most of a brigade. There were six praetorian prefects with administrative functions only (the prefects of Eome, and Constantinople, of the East, Illyricum, Italy, and Gaul), and two masters-general of cavalry and infantry, responsible for the military arrangements of the Empire. This organisation of ranks and honours was carried from the highest down to the very lowest classes of society, even the working-classes in city and comitry being arranged in guilds and corporations, with similarity of occupation as their basis. Thus, from the Emperor on the throne to the serf on the farm, there was a settled gradation of ranks, the object of which was to secure to Administrative and Legal Unity 15 the Empire stability aud peace, and to tlie Linperor respect. Modification of Roman Law. — The administra- tive imity thus completed had been accompanied, almost pari passu, by a remarkable modification of Eoman law, calculated to meet the needs of a vast empire. The con- trast between the haughty exclusiveness of the patrician aristocracy of the Eepublic, and the humane and just comprehensiveness of the Empire, is not more striking than that between the stem and almost brutal law of early Eome and the equitable maxims and philosophical principles of the later imperial jurists. Eoman law, indeed, was only one instance of the rigid spuit pervading all Aryan law, " In ancient law," says ]\ir Maine, " we are met by the famUij as the unit of society, in modern b;^ the individual." JSTow the constituting principle of the family, according to primitive Aryan ideas (see chap, iii.), was neither blood-relationship nor natural afi'ection, but family worship, — the worship in earliest times not of various gods representing the forces of nature, much less of one God (a much later development), but of the dead. The due worship of the departed members of the family was the primary duty of its living members, and to secure this was the object of ancient law. And tliis is the key to the othermse unintelligible severity of Eoman Iqax. The priest of the family was the father, invested, there- fore, with all the stringent privileges of ]j<^dria putestas. Hence the importance of the male, of the son, who in his turn was to become the family priest, and the utter un- importance of the female, who as daughter only assisted at her father's worship, as wife at her husband's. Apart from father or husband, she had no existence in the eye of the law ; and marriage, performed Avith certain definite religious ceremonies {coii/aireatio), was in fact her initia- 1 6 History of the Roman Empire tion into a new religion, the worsliip of the ancestors of her husband. She passed thereby into her husband's power [manus), and became his " daughter." Of course, as time went on and ideas developed, civil marriage (by usus, a year's cohabitation, or coemptio, purchase) be- came common enough ; but confaireatio was the original and formal celebration of Eoman marriage. Hence arose the distinction between agnati and cognati, — between those members of the family who traced their connection exclusively through males, whether by blood or adoption, and those who drew their descent from the same original parents, whether through males or females. Hence, again, the importance of the family property, of the house and hearth where its gods were worshipped. Alienation was entirely forbidden by ancient law, and not allowed even by the twelve tables, except on certain conditions and with express formahties ; for the property of the family, like the relations of its members, depended altogether ori its worship. As the son, in the eye of the law, was all- important and the daughter nothing, the son inherited and the daughter did not ; his sons likewise inherited, but her sons, being only cognati to her own family, had no such power; even a stranger adopted as son by a paterfamilias inherited, while the emancipated son, cut off as it were from the family, did not ; wUls were unknown, for the father was but a temporary representative during life of a corporation that never died, the family, and was not allowed to interfere with property in which he had only a life interest. Hence, lastly, the severity of the law of debt. On the other hand, the patria poiestas of the paterfamilias, clung to at Eome long after it had really become an anachronism, gave him absolute rights loilhin the family short of the above conditions. He could acknowledge a child, repudiate a wife, marry or disinherit Administrative and Legal Unity 17 a son at pleasure. The wife's dowry and the son's labour belonged to him of right. Within the walls of his house he was sole judge, and coidd in certain cases even con- demn to death without appeal. Long after the worship of ancestors had ceased, long after the "family" had expanded into the " gens" or " clan," and the gens into the "curia," and the "curia" into the "tribe," and the " tribe " into the " city," these ancient prerogatives were still enjoyed by the paterfamilias. Roman Law gradually Softened. — The reason of this harshness, it may be, lies in the fact that the social customs and institutions of the Roman Eepubhc were identical with those of the great Aryan family prior to its disruption, wlide their political institutions were totally different, being of far later growth under quite other conditions of life. J^ow, " social," no less than " political," relations modify, at the same time that they are regulated by law. We should expect, therefore, what actually happened, that when Rome came in contact with other nations beyond her frontiers, Roman law was profoundly modified. A comparative study of alien laws and customs gave rise to a new term, jits gen- tium, expressive of the general point in which they were observed to agree ; while by a further induction the Roman lawyers strove to arrive at the abstract principles of justice, jus natuvale, underlying them all, with a view to the modification of their own barbarous civil law. These principles were gradually embodied in the "edicts" of the prsetors, the "rules" which they published annually on their entrance into office ; and by slow degrees tended to banish the study of the TAvelve Tables even from the schools, where they had formed part of the usual course. But in this, as in the wider field of political right, there were two parties, and a struggle between the con- ROM. EMP. B 1 8 History of the Roman Einpire servatives and the reformers. The new views mainly afiected such questions as the position of slaves, the mar- riage and dowries of women, wills, wardship, disinherit- ance, titles to property, deht, — questions on which the civil law was most obviously at variance with natural justice. And the general tendency was always towards a relaxation of strictness. Responsa Prudentum and the Edictum Per- petuum. — It remained for the Empire to organise these new principles of law, as it had organised the political administration. Since the Emperors concentrated in their own hands every old republican office, amongst others the trihunitia •potestas, they became, therefore, in their own persons a court of final appeal. Part of the onerous duty they delegated to the praetorian prsefect, in part they were assisted by a commission of lawyers, whose opinions [responsa ■pvtidentnm) were supposed to emanate from the Emperor himself, and to guide the decisions of judges. Thus by a legal fiction the Emperor was the interpreter of the law. Moreover, when Tiberius trans- ferred to the Senate the legislative and other powers of the comitia, senatus constdta, being discussed and passed beneath the Emperor's eyes, were in fact his work, and before long imperial "decrees" and "rescripts" were published as ipso facto laws. It is clear, however, that such a system had no method, and that the edicta proitorum and the resjJonsa j^i'udeiUum must have been innumerable, and always increasing, shifting, and some- times contradictory. "With the view, therefore, of re- ducing chaos to order, the Emperor Hadrian published the edictum. pe7-petmim. Taking the edict pubhshed by the great lawyer, Salvius Julianus, during his year of office, he made it the standard of legal decisions for Eome and Italy, — a rule to which subsequent prtctors were Administrative and Legal Unity 19 bound to corxform, save in new and exceptional cases. Marcus Aui^elius extended its application to the provinces, under the name of Edidum X''>'OV indole. More and more henceforward the civil law and the jus gentium tended to agree, until at last Christianity introduced a principle which human law could not, the brotherhood of all men, and so fundamentally changed their relations, at least in theory. Little by little the patria pottJcis was deprived of its absolute character, until under Jus- tinian it meant no more than the moral authority belong- ing to the head of the family. Marriage with religious ceremonies became confined to the pontifices; the wife's dowry became inahenable without her consent, and after- wards inalienable altogether; the distinction ceased between agnati and cognati, and with it the necessity for adop- tion ; in the case of property natural relationship began to occupy a larger and larger place, and the law of succession became gradually regulated ou simple principles of greater or less "proximity." These few instances will serve to illustrate how law became gradually synonymous with equity. Summary. — Thus at the death of the Emperor Theo- dosius (a.d. 395), we have before us the spectacle of a vast Ejnpire, troubled indeed by internal jealousies, and weak- ened by causes past remedy, yet presenting on the surface, at least, an appearance of unity, — governed in the same way and on the same principles from end to end, in Asia as in Italy, in Africa as in Gaul, and subject throughout to the same laws. CHAPTER II. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE FIRST FOUR CENTURIES. The Church recognised by Constantine. — Little has been said as yet of one of the most important forces at work within the Empire — the Christian Church In three centuries the small body of first behevers in Christ, a mere handful in numbers, having all things in common, had grown into a vast and organised Chm'ch, wealthy and powerful, whose bishops took equal rank with the military and civil officers of State, and which counted followers in every pro\"ince of the Empire. Indeed, at the time of its recognition by Constantine, Christianity was aheady an estabUshed society, with its own officers, its own revenues, its own code of laws; and after Constantine's conversion Christians stepped at once into prominence and influence. Thousands of the best and most upright men in the Em pire, previously ignored or persecuted by the State, were thus restored to civil and political life; and of course the State benefited accordingly. This chapter will narrate the fortunes of the Church to the end of the fourth century, and touch upon the means whereby she won her way to recognition, equality, supremacy, and the special difficulties with which she had to contend Christian CJmrch in first Four Centuries 2 1 Christians confounded with Jews. — Perhaps the most remarkahle thing in the rise of Cliristianity is the silence and obscurity in which it worked its way, and the scanty records that remain to us of its progress. "We gather, indeed, from the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, that the work of " organisation" had begun before S. Paul's death, and that the number of believers increased continuously; we know that as they became more numerous the Christians were confounded with the Jews in common estimation, and thus suffered persecution (not only from them but) in common with them. Yet up to the persecution under Nero (a.d. 64) they attracted so Httle attention at Eome by their numbers or religious observances, that S. Paul was detained for two years (a.d. Gl-63) as a mere jDolitical prisoner in what was called Custodia militaris, and then probably set at liberty, while contemporary writers^like Lucan and the elder Pliny, Persius and Juvenal — make no mention of thenx Even the persecution just named, consequent on the great fire of Eome, and set on foot (if we may believe Tacitus) by Nero himself, very probably arose from Christians being confounded with Jews in the eyes of the people, or from the Jews accusing them to screen themselves. One thing is certain, that the Christians in Eome suffered dreadful tortures at this time, while before they had en- joyed complete toleration; and it is not improbable that the persecution itself first opened the eyes of the Eoman government and people to the existence of the Christian Church, among them but not of them, while it made sub- sequent persecutions seem natural and defensible. Amidst aU the pomp and bustle of the great capital, a Eoman would hardly stop to distinguish in his ovm. mind Jew li"om Christian, or either of them from the votaries of other Eastern religions who were always flockiag to Eome. 22 History of tJie Roman Ejiipire But when the existence of this new sect, and its aggressive, imcompromising temper were once fairly reahsed, it is evident that the average Roman was much perplexed by the attitude of the Christians, by their obstinate firmness, coupled with their innocence of vice or crime. This is clear from Phny's letter of inquiry to the Emperor Trajan regarduig his treatment of them in his province of Bithy- nia. He does not understand, nor apparently much care to understand their views and hopes; yet he admits their singular purity, honesty, and simplicity, whde stating that acknowledgment of their faith met with capital punishment at his hands. And the Emperor expresses approval of this policy, merely warning Pliny not to allow search to be made for the offenders, nor to accept anonymous information. Christians Disliked and Persecuted. — There was, in fact, more than one reason why a Eoman should feel suspicion and jealousy towards Jews and Christians ahke. Both announced their confident hope in a "Deliverer" soon to come. Both held aloof, almost with horror, from the social life and customs and religious practices of the people around them. If the former seemed the more dangerous, because still a nation, still capable of sudden and dangerous rebellion, the latter were not less obstinate in their nonconformity, wliile they had apparently less reason for it. They were a sect or {even worse) a " secret society," whose objects were imperfectly understood, and therefore all the more hateful to a despotic government. To a soldier and disciplinarian hke Trajan, Christianity seemed little better than treason. On the other hand, men's minds were being deeply stirred by vague rumours, now of an expected return of some pretended ^ero from the East, now of intrigues in Parthia, now of fires and earthquakes and eruptions, all tending to rouse and in- Christian CJuircJi in first Fotir Centuries 23 flame fanaticism. Of this latent dislike and suspicion, easily fanned into active hatred, the Christians became the objects. And they did not shrink from the ordeal, more and more terrible as time went on. Bishops and leading men Hke Ignatius and Polycarp even courted a death which they least deserved. It may well have been, moreover, that the dislike felt in the highest as weU as the lowest circles towards the Christians, when once attention had been drawn to their existence, was aggra- vated by the mutual jealousy of East and "West. For Cliristianity was of the East, its language, organisation, Scriptures, and liturgy, being all alike Greek — that is, to a Eoman of those days, foreign. If we attempt to esti- mate the converging force of aU these prejudices — of the dishke felt by soldiers and statesmen, and the hatred of the fanatic, licentious, and ignorant — we shall be surprised that Christianity survived the storm at all. Effects of Persecution on the Church. — But the blood of martjTS is the seed of the Chui'ch. The persecu- tions in the reigns of Nero and Trajan may have been local, and traceable to accidental and temj)orary causes ; not so the subsequent persecutions under AureKus, Sep- timius, Decius, and Diocletian. That which to Trajan had been merely a breach of state discipline, and punish- able accordingly, seemed to his successors a far more serious crime, in proportion as to neglect and insult the national gods at a moment of increasing disaster was worse than merely declining State duties in a time of comparative peace and tranquillity. Now began, also, the publication of those "Apologies" for Christianity which served to show at once that Christians were too numerous to be any longer overlooked, while they were too few or too true to their principles to offer resistance to persecution. The reign of the great and good AureHus, so terrible to the 24 History of the Roman Empire Christians, was marked by the appearance of many such works. It is scarcely wonderful to find, on the other hand, that men and women quailed sometimes before the storm, and that a practice began to arise which, intended as a means of escape, eventually proved a stimulus to persecu- tion. No longer overlooked with contemptuous indifference, but exposed to the hatred of the mob, the jealousy of the authorities, the coldness and perhaps treachery of friends and relations, what wonder if weak brethren here and there yielded to temptation, and stooped io purchase from the magistrate his connivance in their secret profession of Christianity 1 The evU grew. I^ot individuals only, but whole churches raised funds for buying off their members from molestation, while the funds themselves only served to stimulate the cupidity of informers and officials, and so to aggravate the sufferings threatened or inflicted. A further abuse followed. The magistrates received powers to issue an order that so and so, mentioned by name, should do sacrifice to the gods, and thus prove that he was not a Christian. It became gradually a common practice for such a person to give notice, through a friend, that he was in reality a Christian, and therefore could not sacrifice, but was ready to pay a fine to be excused. On this he received a lihellus or certificate of his having duly offered the required sacrifice, and being accordingly exempt from the penalty of the law. The acting of this practical lie was sharply denounced by Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage (about A.D. 250), as a sin. But the- custom was in fact only a symptom of what is harshly called the "degeneracy" of the Catholic Church, that is, of the effects consequent on its increase of numbers, and unavoidably increased con- nection with the non-Christian world. It was no longer unusual for Christians to resort to heathen courts of justice, to be servants iu heathen households, to contract Christian Church in first Four Centuries 25 marriage with heathens, to frequent heathen theatres and spectacles, and to defend the practice by appeals to Scrip- ture. Such an intermingling invariably results in a certain relaxation of original strictness, and in the growth of abuses. The Decian Persecution — a.d. 248. — The "acci- dental tempest," as Gibbon calls it, of the persecution imder Septimius (about a.d. 200) was followed by an almost complete lull of thirty-eight years. But the short reign of Decius brought such suffering on the Church as made previous years since the times of Domitian and JN'ero seem all like years of peace. Like Aurelius, this Emperor was called upon to face new and unexpected dangers on the frontiers from the Goths; and like AureHus, anxious to restore the power and unity of the empire, and per- plexed as to the causes of its growing weakness, he seemed to perceive them in the obstinate nonconformity of the Christians. Instruments were foimd only too readily to act upon the imperial ideas. For the Christian theory and practice were too high not to excite dislike, which soon passed into active hatred and violence. The test of sacrifice to the gods was, by a special edict, ordered to be applied at once to all suspected persons. Numbers were consigned to prisons and to mines. Multitudes fled from their homes to the mountain or the desert, oidy to fall victims to starvation or wild beasts. Antioch, Alexandria, Carthage, and not cities only, but even villages, suffered from this inquisition. Rome for the first time saw her bishop suffer martyrdom (Fabianus, a.d. 249); Cyprian escaped from Carthage for a while, but was beheaded eight years afterwards, the first martyr among African bishops. Origen of Alexandria was tortured at Caesarea, and died of injuries then re- ceived. But in churches, as in individuals, times of 26 History of the Roman Empire trouble are often less dangerous to virtue than times of peace and prosperity, and the Decian persecution purified while it tested the Christian Church. Fifty Years' Peace. — And now, once again, for more than fifty years, there was comparative rest for Christians. Either their relative importance had so far increased, or the world at large had become so familiar "with their name and customs, that they were permitted to avow their faith openly, to conduct their elections puhlicly, to fill offices, to build churches. We are, in fact, approach- ing the time when the State was no longer able to with- hold recognition from a body, which counted its adhe- rents by thousands in every province of the empire. Even in the reign of Decius (a.d. 250) the Eoman Church itself had a bishop, forty-six presbyters, who were the parish priests of Eome, seven deacons, and ten "suburbi- carian" or suffragan bishojDS of adjacent towns, like Ostia or Tibur, who met in Synod at Eome. By the end of the fourth century the bishops of the empire numbered 1,800, — 1,000 in the Eastern provinces, and 800 in the Western, who were elected by the inferior clergy, the nobles, and people of the diocese, and the election ratified by the bishops of the province. That the doctrines of Christianity should find favour with women and slaves was not, perhaps, astonishing, considering the position they occupied in the world. We find them even pene- trating, not now for the first time, to the interior of the palace, and the wife and daughter of the Emperor Dio- cletian, and many of his principal officers, embraced the tenets and protected the faith of Cliristianity. The first eighteen years' of Diocletian's reign, iadeed, were years of perfect toleration, for the Emperor was a man of great breadth of view, and of a generally humane disposition. But its close was disfigured by a fierce persecution, the Christian Church in first Four Centitries 27 order for which was wrung from him rather than volun- tarily issued. There is no question that for nearly 200 years the influence of Christian ideas had heen secretly working an effect beyond the limits of the Church in reawakening belief, not perhaps in polytheism, but in natural religion. And this reaction operated in two ways. While it inclined the more virtuous and thoughtfid to view the Christians with tolerance, it influenced the re- hgious fanaticism of the ignorant, and supplied a ready mine of violence, when violence was needed. At times this fanatical spirit was exasperated beyond bounds, by the knowledge that not only was the number of converts to Christianity daily increasing, but the area from wliich they were drawn was daily widening — that not only the poor but the rich, not only the ignorant but the educated, not only the slave but the high born lady, were falling within the fatal influence of the new rehgion, and alienat- ing the gods by their apostacy. And this helps to explain the curious fact that, wMle on the whole, from Trajan on- wards, the Christians enjoyed longer and larger intervals of toleration and peace, the persecutions when they arose were more and more searching and terrible. The Diocletian Persecution — a.d. 303. — The per- secution of the year 303 seems to have differed somewhat from others in its origin, as well as in its character. Diocletian's colleagues, Maximian and Galerius, entertained a strong dislike towards Christianity — a dislike deepened and strengthened by the discovery, that the army also was tamted with these dangerous notions. No thorough-going soldier, indeed, could possibly overlook such conduct as that of Marcellus, the centurion, who, at a pubhc festival, being called upon to sacrifice to the gods, threw away belt and arms, and insignia of office, and exclaimed aloud that he would obey none but Jesus Christ, the eternal King, 28 History of the Rofnan Empire and that he renounced for ever the use of human weapons. He was tried, condemned, and heheaded for mutiny and desertion. This was martial law, however, not religious persecution ; hut this and other like incidents appear to have sunk deeply into the mind of Galerius, as heing symp- toms of prevalent principles, dangerous to puhlic safety. Accordingly, after the Persian war, when Galerius spent the winter of the year 302 with Diocletian at Nicomedia, he used, and used successfully, his utmost efforts to induce the Emperor to assent to a fresh trial, whether this im- ■perium in imperio, with its own taxes, and officers, and code of laws, could not finally he extirpated. The open- ing act of the drama was the destruction, onFehruary 23, 303, of the principal church in Meomedia hy the imperial troops. On the next day an imperial edict was puhlished, ordering that all churches throughout the Empire should be demolished, that those who held secret assemblies for rehgious purposes shoidd be punished with death, that all sacred books and writings should be publicly burnt, and the property of the Church confiscated. Freeborn Chris- tians were debarred from honours or employment, Christian slaves from all hope of emancipation. Scarcely, how- ever, was the edict posted in Mcomedia when it was torn down by the hand of a Christian, who paid the penalty of his Efe. He was arrested and roasted to death over a slow fire. Diocletian's alarm at the approbation expressed at the act was further increased by his palace being dis- covered to be on fire twice within fifteen days — a deed, of course, attributed to Christian malice. Accordingly, his scruples were silenced, and the bloody work of persecu- tion began. Some opposition and slight disturbances in the execution of this edict increased his indigna- tion, and led to the publication of further and severer edicts, directing the arrest of all ecclesiastics, and the Christian Church iti first Four Centuries 29 employment of any severity to reclaim Christians from their rebellion against the gods, and their treason to the Empire. Even inmates of the palace and high officials were compelled to abjure Christianity, or were put to death. The Bishop of Nicomedia was beheaded. Many Chris- tians were burnt alive, many thrown into the sea with stones round their necks. From the capital the persecu- tion spread into the provinces, where they were assailed by the united forces of the government, the pagan priest- hood, the mob, and the philosophers. Gaul alone in a measure escaped, thanks to the humanity, or (if we may beheve Eusebius) the Cliristian sympathies of Constan- tius Chlorus, It is the worst evil of religious, perhaps of all persecution, that in order to succeed it must have re- course to always increasing severities, and be prepared to go all lengths, even to extermination. There is only one alternative, the acknowledgment of failure. Hence, in the present case, edict succeeded edict, each more barbarous than the preceding, as Christian courage and heroism rose higher. The illness and abdication of Dio- cletian even aggravated the evil. For Galerius in the East was more implacable than Diocletian in his hatred of Christianity ; and Maxentius in the West, driven to stand on the defensive against the risiag ambition of the young Constantiue, purchased the support of his pagan subjects by persecution of the Christians, whom they de- tested. It is no wonder that throughout the Empire the churches began to turn their eyes with hope towards the West and Gaul, for the enemies of Christianity were the enemies of Constantine. His mother Helena, they may well have remembered, was a Christian, and his father, Constantine, had at least not wholly yielded to the in- human poHcy of Diocletian and Galerius. To him, there- fore, they naturally began to look as a possible protector, ^ 30 History of tJie Roman Empire Toleration under Galerius and Constantine. — Meanwhile persecution, which had thinned the numbers and fallen heavily on the leading members of the Chris- tian body, had not dimmed the faith, nor blunted the devotion of the mass of believers. And now they were about to enjoy a well-deserved triumph. Galerius, in the 1 8th year of his reign, was attacked, like Herod the Great and Philip II. of Spain, by a loathsome and agonising disease. From his dying bed he pubKshed an edict, acknowledging the failure of the severities he had advised against the Christians, permitting the free exercise of their religion, and finally imploring their prayers for their suffering Emperor. The news, of course, spread rapidly. Prison doors were thrown open. Mines gave back to life and light their labourers. Churches were repaired, and, ere long, filled with thi-ongs of thankful worshippers. The reaction was complete, when the victorious Constantine avowed himself a Christian, and by the famous edict of Milan (a.d. 313) gave to Christians, as well as to all otJiers, free toleration to foUow whatever religion they pleased. All buildings and churches previously confiscated were restored, the Emperor himself giving large sums of money to build new and rebuild old or ruined churches. He even attempted to adjust disputes within the Church, was present at synods, and presided at the first oecumenical council at Mcsea (a.d. 325). The triumph of Christianity was still further assured by the rise of the new capital (a.d. 330), which, if not distinctly Cliristian, certainly was not pagan. As yet, no doubt, and almost to the end of the century, the two religions stood side by side, pagan temples side by side with Cliristian churches ; yet the great influence of Cluistianity can scarcely be doubted, when we know that the amphitheatre of Constantinople was never from its foundation disgraced by the bloody Christian Church in first Fottr Centuries 31 spectacle of gladiators, and that to accommodate the num- ber of Christian worsliippers the Basilicse, or " Halls of Justice," in many towns were consecrated to their use. Christianity the dominant State Religion — ABOUT A,D. 380. — One attempt, and only one, was made to galvanise the dying paganism into renewed life by the Emperor Julian (a.d. 361-3) ; but its ill success served to show how deeply the roots of Christianity were planted, and that paganism was practically dead. Perhaps no happier event could have befallen the world than Jxdian's death in the heart of Persia, apparently so unfortunate and ill-timed. Had he Hved to persecute it would have been at the peril of his fame, and success could hardly have been obtained except by civil war. This, happily, was not to be. In the reign of Theodosius (a.d. 379-395) Christianity became the recognised State religion, and it is hardly surprising that in the hour of victory the aggressive side of the now dominant religion hitherto repressed by force began to show itself, and the heathen party in the Empire to feel the heavy hand of go- vernment as the Christians had felt it before. Almost the first act of Theodosius was an edict commanding universal obedience to the Catholic faith ; his last edict went far towards exterminating paganism, by insisting on the destruction of temples and idols, the alienation of temple revenues, the cessation of priestly privileges, and by proclaiming the ancient worship a treasonable and capital crime. Thus the unity of the Empire, which (as we have seen) had been gradually attained by uniformity of government and law, was further secured by uniformity of religion. And this unity, was not only in the judgment of early Christian writers but in reality, a primary con- dition as well as the most efficacious means of spreading Christianity. When Gaul, and African, and Italian, and 32 History of tJie Roman Empire Egyptian were all members of one great political body, governed by the same laws, using the same language for legal and pohtical purposes, moved by the same ideas, then, and not tiU then, was it possible to include nations so many and diverse "within a common church. Influence of Christianity on the Empire? — But the question may possibly here be asked, " What influ- ence did Christianity exercise on the Empire ? Did not the religion which converted it to a purer faith and uni- form worship, thereby infuse also some vigour into the decaying body ?" Eor at first sight it seems strange that an Empire thus consolidated should have fallen so easy a prey to enemies from without as it afterwards did. In truth, however, there were, and for centmies had been, evils lying at the root of society, which were inveterate from long standing, and had eaten away the very pith and marrow of Eoman probity and manliness — evils which even Christianity could only cope with in individuals, and some of which lay entirely out of its province to correct. There were even some, by contact with which Christian purity and simplicity were seriously impaired. Moral Evils deep-seated when Christianity- was introduced. — The lustre of an unbroken series of foreign conquests for 130 years (b.c. 26G-133) dazzled men's eyes, and blinded them to the evils which were silently accumulating at home. To later generations, the period after the fall of Carthage seemed the golden age of Eome ; in reality (as has been well said) it was the "calm before a storm." The tide of luxury and immo- /-fality which set in from Greece and the East was begin- ning to sap and undermine the old discipline and adminis- trative justice for which Eome had once been famous. ]^ot only had war destroyed the flower of the population of Italy, but war taxes had raised prices, and impoverished Christian ChiircJi in first Four Centuries 33 the already tliinned middle classes to such a degree that they were either driven into the towns, or gladly sold their properties and worked as tenants and labourers for the capitalists who had bought them out. Prisoners of war supplied slaves in abundance — those " living chattels" who could be bought like cattle, and when no longer serviceable, be sent off to the slave-market. And the number of slaves was always increasing, because slave labour was thought to be cheap, while the number of free farmers Avas alwaj^s diminishing. In fifty years (between B.C. 252 and 204) the Eoman citizens capable of bearing arms sank from 298,000 to 214,000; while Gibbon estimates, though the estimate is open to question, that in the early days of the empire the slaves numbered as many as the free citizens and provincials put together. Still, if it be true that the long Avars with Carthage ruined and decimated the population, it is also true that the Eoman capitalists had their share in reducing the vigour and numbers of the Italians, by substituting slave labour for free. Latifundia j^erdidere Italiam. And slave labour not only reduces the slave to the level of a beast, but demoralises the society Avhich employs it. Slave labour attaches discredit to free labour, and so raises a false standard of honour in the community, making idleness respectable. Slavery is the fruitful parent of vice, and directly fosters the more selfish and brutal side of the slave-OAvner's character. Meanwhile there was rising in Eome itself, and probably in other large places also, that " city rabble," whose cry was, imnem et circenses, to pacify whom the government deranged the commerce of Italy, by importing and selling wheat below cost price, and to gain whose support candidates for office half ruined themselves by extravagant gladiatorial shows. The country Avas left to the occupation of hordes of slaves and of the villiciis, ROM. EMP. 34 History of the Roman Empire ur resident steward. The cities were filled with absentee landlords, — rich men, able and willing to purchase luxury, pleasure, office, — and with a mob of artisans, tradesmen, and bankrupt farmers eager to sell their vote and influence. What room was there here for the ancient Roman virtues % Religion languished more and more ; education was neg lected ; liberty and independence ceased to be anything more than names. The conflict was impending which is ^'•"''^ways inevitable when the middle classes vanish, — the ^conflict between those who have and those who want, be- tween rich and poor. If we remember, further, that there ■\vBs now an instrument ready to the hand of any man who knew how to use it, in the shape of a standing army, which the mihtary reforms of Marius had converted into a " pro- fessional machine," we shall scarcely wonder that the political virtues vanished amid factions, violence, intrigue, and riot, and that riot before long passed into open civil war, which desolated Italy for nearly 100 years. The re- sult was " the Empire." Speak as one will of the evils of despotism (and it is hardly possible to speak too strongly), the Empire certainly did secure to Italy and the world blessings which at that period could hardly have been obtained otherwise. Exhausted by internecine struggles, the Roman world longed for one thing, and that one thing was peace. Peace and unity were secured to it, at least for a while, by the Empire. Effect of Christian Morality. — And now into this vast mass of wealth and oppression on the one hand, of degradation and misery on the other, — with its out- side pomp and grandeur, and the festering sore of slavery and corruption within, — was silently introduced a little germ, destined by-and-by to grow and overspread the earth, A Little band of despised Jews, disciples of One who had died the death of a slave, " undertook (we Christia7i Church in first Four Centuries 35 may say almost in the words of Tacitus) to convert an Empire, and did convert it." The victory was a slow one, as men measure time, for it took 300 years to gain ; and it was gained by the strange weapons of purity, charity, and moral courage. It speaks weU, however, for human nature that the mere spectacle of these virtues in men who shrank from the unutterable depravities around them, and were not ashamed to help the poor and sick, nor afraid to face even death rather than do what they thought wrong, should have had so great an attraction. Doubtless to the wretched the good news of a happier life hereafter was enough in itself to arrest attention, just as the new doctrine of the equal rights and brotherhood of aU men appealed irresistibly to women and slaves ; but the mere proclamation of future happiness or of natural equaUty Avill gain no credence of itseK, unless credit attach to him who proclaims them. It is a question of moral influence. And it is to the honour of the Christian Church that, in a world demoralised by sensuality, idleness, and violence, the first apostles and preachers could insist, and insist successfully, on the sanctity of marriage, the duty of labour, the Avisdom of self-restraint ; and that by these means they should have gathered in converts from north and south, and east and west, rm-til all the Eoman world was (at least nominally) Christian. Excellent Organisation of the Christian Church. — But these means were not all. A society which is to grow and show signs of vigorous life must have organi- sation as well as principles ; and it remains now to sketch the organisation of the early Church, which enabled it, in the first place, to have a corporate existence of its own ; and, secondly, to wage war against the evil of the world. The earliest Christian communities were founded by the apostles, in whose absence from time to time they were 2,6 History of the Roman Empire ruled by presbyters or bishops (for tlie terms were at first convertible), and below the presbyters were deacons. So it was in the churches of Ephesus and Philippi. At (^ a very early period, however (the apostles and first teachers ' being practically missionaries, and so always moving from place to place), we find in the several churches a single bishop or overseer (eTrto-KOTros), holding a position suj)erior to that of the presbyter bishops. It matters little how the custom arose ; it certainly existed. And origin- ally popidar election, in the widest sense, was the rule for that and other oftices. There was at first no essential dis- tinction between clergy and laity ; all alike were members of the same congregation. But it is easy to see how rapidly a line of demarcation might arise between the more eminent, zealous, or religious members, and the rank and file. They were ordained to their office to teach as well as rule ; they admitted new members to the body by the initiatory rite of baptism ; they presided in the adminis- tration of the Lord's supper. It would have been strange had men in such a position not become a sacred order ; equally strange, in that case, had not the reverence of their fellow-Christians and their own esprit de corps insensibly increased the distance between them and those to whom they ministered. Thus gradually, from mere force of cir- cumstances, the presbyters became a priestly caste, bishops became pontiffs, and the foundations were laid of a long series of ecclesiastical usurpations, which have ever since obscured and troubled Cluistianity. When once this natural reverence began to assert itself towards the natural leaders of the society, there was no limit practically to the lengths to which such reverence might lead men. Further, the more the churches grew in numbers and influence, the more difficult and necessary became the duties of their rulers. Men began to be Cliristians, not only, as at first, Christian CJiurch in first Four Centuries ^y from conviction, but from selfish interest, from love of novelty, or because their parents were Christians. Ad- mission and expulsion, therefore, from the Christian body became a very responsible duty. In such a body, moreover, dissensions, perhaps sects, would arise, needing firmness and authority to repress. Nothing could be more natural than that the Cluistians of the second and third centuries should regard their bishops and presbyters with almost exaggerated reverence, and that the gulf between clergy and laity, rulers and ruled, became impassable. It is quite in accordance "vvith this that the mode of election began to change. A bishopric was a prize, an object of ambition ; some members of each chiirch, at least, would be open to pressure or bribery ; the right of election, therefore, was gradually withdrawn from congregations and presbyters, and replaced by nomination at the hands of the Emperor. Again, congregations became united into dioceses, espe- cially in cities, and the dignity of bishop at once rose in proportion. Thus in Rome, at the begmning of the fourth century, there were more than forty churches in subordina- tion to the Bishop of Eome, Or, again, dioceses were united into a provmce, under one metropolitan, with suifragan bishops beneath him. Or, lastly, provinces were united under a single bishoji, called Patriarch, standing but little below the level of the Emperor himself. The difl'erence between the wealth, rank, and influence of the patriarch of Antioch or Alexandria in the fourth century, and the comparative obscurity of a bishop of the first century, will serve as a measure of the way in which the hierarchy of the Church had developed, and of the extended ideas which had arisen in the interval as to its sanctity and separateness. Contemporaneously with the rise of metro- politan bishops, synods began to be convened, at first in the East, and of bishops only; afterwards, throughout 38 History of the Roman Empire Christendom of the whole body of clergy. They met once or twice a year, and the metropolitan presided. Lastly, there were general councils, meetings of bishops and clergy from aU parts of Christendom, — instrumen- tal beyond anything else in defining the creed and main- taining the unity of the Church. The first general council, recognised as oecumenical, was that of Nicayi, in A.D. 325, in which the Emperor Constantine presided. It will enable us to realise the ever increasing power of the clergy, if Ave reflect on the position of a heretic or schismatic who dared to stand aloof. As in the Empire, so in the Church, a rebel was one who had no place of refuge where the strong arm of authority could not reach him. And exactly in proportion as the triumphs of ortho- doxy over heterodoxy increased, and uniformity of dis- cipline and doctrine grew more rigid with each triumph, so it became less and less possible to dissent with impunity. Submission or excommunication were the only alterna- tives. A caste or order, wielding such powers as these, challenged no longer mere respect and reverence as being the most pious or intelligent members of a congregation, but would claim submission and implicit obedience as of right, which it had ample power to enforce. The use of such absolute power, indeed, was perhaps a possibility rather than a fact in the early centuries of the Church's history ; but the feelings of both clergy and laity increas- ingly tended in that direction from the moment when first the two orders were separated. And these feelings were further increased by the pomp, wealth, and dignity which the recognition of Christianity conferred on the officials of the Church, not less than by the charitable uses to which they devoted their wealth, and the un- doubted austerity and purity of their lives. Not that the celibacy of the clergy was as yet insisted on, nor was Christian CJmrcJi iti first Four Centuries 39 any regulation on the subject enforced during the first three centuries. But it was (so to speak) "in the air,'' and was little by little defended, recommended, urged, and at last, in the teeth of opposition and urgent remon- strance, peremptorily commanded. And the feeling on this subject worked undoubtedly for good as well as for evil. If, on the one hand, the enforced celibacy of the clergy led to evasions, secret marriages, and other customs often denounced after the middle of the third century, on the other hand it cut a priest free from the distrac- tions of domestic life ; it gave him liberty to devote liim- self and his time unfettered to the cause of God (such was the beautiful ideal!); it secured him a vantage ground in dealing with the most pressing evil of imperial times, the facility of divorce, and the consequent low tone on moral questions. -' , Christianity the State Church. — The various powers of the priesthood were vastly enhanced when the civil power allied itself to the ecclesiastical, and Church and State were one. Heresy became a crime, and by Theodosius was declared a capital offence, punishable by the civil power ; but, as has been well said, " the Christian hierarchy bought the privilege of persecution at the price of Christian independence." Bishops became officers of State as well as Church; but unlike civil offices, theirs were gained, for the most part, not by favour and intrigue, but by ability and activity, and could be discharged with- out fear. Moreover, the Church possessed within herself a principle of liberty, which gradually reacted on the Em- pire. She professed to be, and was, independent of any authority upon earth. Indeed, it is difiicult to realise without an effort, the profound effect which such a sight as Athanasius confronting Constantine, or Ambrose re- buking Theodosius, must have had on minds blinded by 40 History of the Roman Empire the passive submission of generations to the possibility of successful resistance. It cannot but have increased the respect already inspired by the undoubted virtues and sacred character of the clergy. And in the West this effect was still further increased when the court and government migrated to Milan or Constantinople. The Bishop and clergy of Rome, eclipsed before by the splendour and con- sequence of the civil officers around them, and having been (as it had happened) men for the most part of little mark, rose suddenly to the rank of great functionaries. The bishop became " the first Christian in the first city of the world ;" and as the elections to bishoprics and ecclesiastical offices had become matters of State ; so the election to the Eoman bishopric, the greatest see of the West, became the most important State business of the West. In the hands of men like Innocent and Leo in the fifth century, and Gregory in the sixth, this grand power was utilised to advance the supremacy of the See of Eome over Western Christendom. It may be conceded that the effect on the Church lierseK was not wholly good ; that as fashion or indifference, or timidity, brought in crowds of converts from the palace or the street, human passions and lower motives — ambition, jealousy, tyranny — began to influence the ever growing body, and that the simple moral standard of the earher Church was insensibly lowered, and in a measure replaced by quite another standard, orthodoxy. Neither, however, was it wholly bad. For the general tone of society was raised. Christian virtues were at least made possible to aU, and a new and noble career thrown open to those who would adopt it. Nor, indeed, is it probable that without this complete and vigorous organisation the Christian religion could have stood its ground during the succeeding times of dis- aster and violence — when it often happened that the CJiristia7i Church in first Four Centuries 4 1 Christian bishop stood firmly at his post while the Eoman officials fled, and when the clergy alone seemed undaunted by the surging barbarism around them. Lastly, it will aid us to realise the vast benefits which the Christian Church conferred upon the Eoman Empire, if we attempt to imagine what that Empire would have been without it — rotten with immorality, and debased by slavery, overrun by swarms of barbarians, and with no influence at hand, ubiquitous and powerful, to check brutality, to soften cruelty, to assimilate conflicting races, to maintain religion, to save civilisation. That and nothing less is the debt of gratitude which. Europe owes to the early Church. CHAPTER III. THE BARBARIANS ON THE FRONTIER. CENT. IV. Romans and Barbarians from the same Stock. — Around the mighty Empire, united and consolidated by the efforts of 400 years, and it might have seemed invul- nerable, lay, north and east, a vast swarm of barbarous nations, whom pressure from behind was gradually thrust- ing up to and over the frontiers. It would have seemed an insult to have told Aurelius or Decius that the bar- barians, against whom they were defending the Empire, were kinsmen of their own, sprung from the same ances- tors. And yet it would have been strictly true. The greater part of the inhabitants of the Eoman Empire, and nearly aU the barbarians who invaded that Empire, from the Persians in the south-east to Saxons in the north- west, were, in fact, without knowing it, scions of the same stock. They nearly all belonged to the Aryan family. Who were the Aryans ? — "We have, it is true, no historical proof as to when, or even where the original Aryans lived before their dispersion from the earliest home of the race ; for they lived before history (even on rocks and monuments) was written, and they appear to have led a nomad life, in which aU desire or power to write history is unknown. Yet the comparative study of k The Barbarians on the Frontier 43 languages tends to the conclusion, that in prehistoric times there must have been such a people, and that their probable home was in Central Asia, to the east and north of the Caspian Sea. The evidence of language shows that this people must have been the progenitors of Hindoos, and Persians, and Greeks, and Italians, and Germans ; the joint evidence of language, law, and traditional customs shows that even in primeval times, before they began their wanderings southward and west- ward, they were at least partly civilised, and knew how to build, and plough, and grind corn — that they had family life, and something like government and religious ideas. The name itself is a Sanskrit word, meaning " noble," " of good family ;" it appears in the inscrij)tions of Darius Hystaspis, who styles himself an Aryan, as well as in the modern name of Persia, Iran. It can even be traced with some probability westward, in the track of the Aryan migrations, tliough with decreasing frequency, so far as Thrace, the old name of which is said to have been Arya, and the Vistula, where was a German tribe called Arii. The theory is that, as this people grew and multiplied, a migration became necessary, and that successive leaves or swarms of population moved southwards and westwards, relieving the pressure on their brethi-en whom they left be- hind ; and that in the course of generations they conquered or peopled Southern and Western Asia and Europe — con- quered if it was already occupied, peopled if it was empty. Semitic and Turanian Races. — There were other races also, with whom at various times and in different places they came in contact, Semitic and Turanian, and with whom here and there they combined. The former comprised Phcenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs; the latter all those scattered peoples, both in Europe and Asia, which were neither Aryan nor Semitic, such as Basques, Finns^ 44 History of the Roman Empire Lapps, Huns, Turks, and the like. In Europe, they were driven by the Aryans into the remoter corners. In Asia, they encircled them with a vast though widely-scattered ring of populations, which constantly encroached on their grazing and hunting grounds, and in the end drove them headlong upon the Roman Empire. Aryan Migrations — Kelts — Teutons — Slaves. — The Aryan migrations began before the beginnings of his- tory, and appear to have taken a twofold direction, south- ward and westward. Thus separated from the first, and gradually changed in appearance and customs by the in- fluence of climate and mixture with other races, the two great branches diverged so far as to lose almost all vestige of relationship. The southern portion were the fore- fathers of the Hindoos and Persians, and occupied little by httle Hindostan and all the country lying between I^dia and the Euphrates ; while the western branch gradually moved into Europe by way of Southern Eussia, or the Black Sea, wave after wave, tribe after tribe, until in the course of perhaps centuries the whole Continent was occupied by them and their descendants. The first wave of Aryan emigrants which broke over Europe, and swept before them certain non- Aryan tribes already settled there, was the Kelts. Of this there can be little doubt ; for Gaul and Britain, and parts of Spain and Italy, were inhabited by Kelts when authentic history begins ; and the records of history describe the way in which they in- vaded and conquered, or were themselves conquered, absorbed, or pushed westwards by later Aryan tribes. Just as the Kelts pushed on the non- Aryan tril)es in front of them, so the second Aryan wave of Teutons — the fore- fathers of Germans, and English, and Scandinavians — pressed in turn upon the Kelts and drove them west- wards ; so that partly from this cause, partly from having The Barbarians on the Frontier 45 been absorbed in and transformed by the Roman Em- pire, pure Kelts and the Keltic tongue are now found only in Brittany and parts of Great Britain. And, fur- ther, as the Aryan Kelts had pushed the non-Aryan Basques into a corner of Spain and Gaul, so the Aryan Teutons in Scandinavia found a non-Aiyan population in their way, the Finns and Lapps, whom they gradually dispossessed and drove to the north. The last wave of Aryans which moved westwards from Asia was the Slaves and Lithuanians, who occupied the east and north- east of Europe, — the most numerous and hitherto least important of all the intruding peoples. Relations between Empire and Barbarians — Cent. L-IV. — The history of these Aryan nations is the history of Europe, and its most important section is the history of Eome. Eor all previous empires were merely preludes to the Eoman; almost aU later kingdoms were outgrowths from it. And of this marvellous history there is, perhaps, no epoch of deeper interest than that in which the elder Aryan population, the civilised Christian Em- pire, was for the first time brought face to face with the younger and less civilised peoples of its own family, and forced to fight for bare existence. All along the frontier of the Ehine and Danube, in the fourth century, lay tribe after tribe of Aryan wanderers, eager to ravage the fertile lands and pillage the rich inliabitants of Greece, and Italy, and Gaul ; while on the Euphrates another Aryan people, the Persians, had defeated the old enemies of Eome, the Turanian Parthians, and founded an empire destined to last for 400 years (a.d. 226). Ah-eady the pressure in the far north-east of Slaves and Tm-anians, Huns and Alans, had driven in Ostrogoths upon Visigoths, and Gepidse upon Quadi and Marcomanni. Already urged by that pressure, and nothing loth, the Daci had in 46 History of the Roman Empire Domitiaii's reign (a.d. 81), burst across the Danube and ravaged Mcesia. The Marconianni and Quadi, in Aure- lius's reign, had desolated Ehoetia and jN'oricum (a.d. 167). The new Persian dynasty of the Sassanidos had signalised its "\dctory over the Parthians (a.d, 226) by aggressions upon Eome, and a defeat of Alex. Severus (a.d. 232). The short reign of Decius (a.d. 249-251) had been one long struggle against Goths, on the Danube and in Moesia, with varying success ; while Valerian (a.d. 253-260), whose armies were scarcely able to make head against in- roads of Franks in Gaul and Spain, and Alemanni even in Italy, and Goths in Asia Minor, was himself defeated and taken prisoner by Sapor the Persian, in a battle near Edessa. "Within fifteen years (a.d. 268-284) formidable invasions of Goths, Alemanni, Alani, Franks, and Sar- matians, in Moesia, Italy, Asia Minor, Gaul, and lUyricum, bore witness to the growing weakness of the Empire, and the military energy of the barbarians. The immediate danger was arrested, though only for a time, by the abilities of Claudius (a.d. 268), Aurelian (a.d. 270), and Probus (a.d. 276) ; while the internal reforms of Dio- cletian and Constantine helped to secure for the Empire a new, if a short lease of life. From the time of Diocletian (a.d. 285) to the death of Theodosius (a.d. 395), Eome preserved her frontiers and her unity intact. Tribes lying on Roman Frontiers. — The order of facts in the history of the barbarian invasions of the Em- pire depends so much on the position of the barbarians themselves upon the frontiers, that it will be wcU to de- scribe exactly their relative situations along the Danube and Ehine at the end of the fourth century. Beginning from the Euxine, and running the eye along the line of the above rivers, there will be seen a bewildering succes- sion of unfamiliar names, from which, however, seven The Barbarians on the Frontier 47 stand Milt as of prominent importance, viz., Gotlis, Van- dals, Burgundians, Franks, Saxons, Lombards, and Huns. The first six belong to the Teutonic branch of the Aryan family ; the seventh to the Ugrian or Finnish branch of the Turanian ; and as the condition of the Gothic and Vandal tribes at the time above mentioned depended in a great measure on the power of the Huns, it will be weU to begin with the Hunnish Empire, and give a brief sketch of its rise and history. Huns. — The vast plain of Europe lying between the Ural Mountains and the Volga, the Danube, the Ehine, and the Baltic, — the scene of the great movements of the fourth •and fifth centuries, — was unequally divided between tribes of Teutonic and tribes of Finnish descent, between Aryans and Turanians. Foremost among the latter was the confederation of the Huns. It had been seated since the second century on the Volga and the slopes of the Ural, and probably comprised Turkish races in the East, Finnish races in the West, and, dominating aU, a great Mongol tribe. In physiognomy, customs, and character, they differed wholly (according to contemporary writers) from the Aryans of the West. They lived by theft, by hunting, by the produce of their flocks. In ferocity they surpassed any barbarians of whom Eoman soldiers had had experience, while to the civilised eye their ugliness was revolting. Of the habits of civilised life they were utterly ignorant, even of the use of fire for cook- ing, and of covered huts. Their days were spent almost whoUy on horseback. Their chief weapon of offence was bone-tipped arrows. Eeligion, or form of worship, it is said, was unknown. Such is the account of Ammianus Marcellinus, written about a.d. 375 j and making aU allowances for the passionate language of hatred and fear, it is clear they were a very terrible foe 48 History of the Roman Empire to face, with nothing to lose by defeat but their lives' and everything to gain by success. But contact with more civilised tribes modified their customs, if not their characters, and they quickly learned to build villages and live in huts, and adopt some of the habits of civUised life. The empire of the confederation gradually spread. In A.D. 374 the Huns fell on the Alani, Turanians like them- selves, and destroyed or absorbed them. The next victims were the Goths of Ermanaric's Empire. The Ostrogoths were absorbed into the ranks of the victors, the Gepidae pushed north, the Visigoths west and south; and by the end of the century the confederates had established a vast empire reaching from the Volga to the Theiss, and from the Black Sea nearly to the Baltic, — an empire before which weaker tribes were forced in upon the territories of the Eoman Empire, and in the minds of whose leaders was presently developed the ambitious idea of sharing the world with Eome. We shall see hereafter how in Attila this idea greAV into a dream of universal dominion. The Teutonic Races. — The tribes that suffered from the pressure of the Hunnish confederation were of a differ- ent and more civilised type. The sketch of the Germans given by Tacitus was written with a purpose, and is therefore not entirely trustworthy; but their salient charac- teristics described by him and attested by other writers, are both remarkable and credible. Independent, chaste, faithful, warlike, hospitable, yet fierce and often cruel, the Teutons of those days were not very unlike the Teutons of these. They were marked by blue eyes, light hair, and large frames. In the day of battle, squadrons and battalions fought side by side, drawn from the same families and clan. They showed a deep reverence for women (being almost the only barbarians content with one wife), and a genuine if somewhat mystical religious The Barbarians on the Frontier 49 feeling. Their government was popular, for while on minor matters the chiefs deliberated alone, the whole tribe debated in a body questions of greater moment. Slaves were treated with far more consideration than in the civilised Empire, and to strike or bind them was as rare as it was thought dishonourable. The Groths. — The first nation that suffered from the encroachments of the Huns was the Goths, of all the Teutonic tribes the largest and most important. In the earliest historic times their home appears to have been Scandinavia and the shores of the Baltic, which they pro- bably abandoned in consequence of intestine struggles. From the shores of the Baltic to the shores of the Euxine they gradually made their way through the midst of the Slaves, as far as the valley of the Dnieper, the direc- tion of their wanderings being probably determined by the position and relative strength of other tribes. At any rate they settled on the Dnieper, the Ostrogoths to the east, the Visigoths to the west, and the Gepidse to the north; and there they waxed in power and numbers until theu' Empire reached almost to the Baltic, and under Ermanaric included nearly all South Russia, Lithu- ania, Courland, Poland, and part of Germany. But the Empire had been won by force of arms, and was held together by no tie but force. So when the Huns were invited by the Eoxolani, a tribe subject to the Ostro- goths, to come and help them, and the invitation, was accepted, the Gothic Empire fell to pieces at once. After a few fruitless struggles, the Ostrogoths submitted, and were incorporated for a while in the Hunnish Confedera- tion, while the Visigoths fled before the storm to take refuge behind the Pruth. Even here, however, they did not feel safe. The pagan minority went off under Atha- naric into the Carpathian Mountains, wliile at the sugges- ROM. BMP. D 50 History of the Roman Empire tion of Bishop Ulfilas, who had converted a large part of the nation, the Christian majority resolved to place the Danube between themselves and their dreaded foes, and to offer their services to the Roman Emperor. The offer was made and refused, unless they would consent to adopt certain definite views regarding the second person in the Trinity, which owed their origin to Arius, a Presbyter of Alexandria (about a.d. 320), and were widely held in the Eastern part of the Empire. Time pressed. The lives of men and the honour of women were at stake. The con- cession, it might be thought, was a small one. So Ulfilas yielded; and the Visigothic nation, now become Arian, crossed the river with arms in their hands. They crossed as friends. But the treachery, licentiousness, and avarice of the Eoman officials charged with the duty of receiving and settling them, infuriated the only half-civilised bar- barians, who took a fearful revenge. Falling suddenly on the defenceless province of Mtesia, and ravaging far and near, they defeated and slew the Emperor Valens in a pitched battle at Adrianople (a.d. 378), and overran the whole country between the Euxine, ^gean, and Adriatic for nearly a year. Indeed the defeat was more fatal to the Empire than Cann?e had been to the Eepublic. The loss from the latter, both of men and prestige, was speedily repaired: while after Adrianople the Empire was never again wholly freed from barbarians. Theodosius, it is true, by mingled firmness and diplomacy, succeeded in confining the Visigoths within definite Kmits, hut it tvas south of the Danube; and after his death, a very few years of the feeble rule of his sons left Alaric, or men like Alaric, practically masters of the Empire. The Vandals. — From the Goths we pass to the Vandals, divided also into two nations, the Vandali proper and the Vandali Silingi, though apparently never wholly TJu Barbarians oti the Frontier 5 1 separated, as were tlie Ostrogoths and Visigoths. Their name in history has suffered a strange misfortune, having become a synonym for all that is harbarous and destruc- tive : whereas in reality they are said to have been among the noblest and least ferocious of the barbarians, given to commerce and agriculture, until in their case, as in that of the Goths, the perfidy of the Eoman government exas- perated and called out the fiercer elements of the bar- barian character. Their earhest settlement in Europe was apparently between the rivers Elbe and Vistula; from Avhence they were dislodged by the Lombards about the Christian era. By the year a.d. 150 they had wandered as far south as Bohemia, and probably formed part of the great confederation which for thirteen years taxed the energy and resources of Aurelius to resist (a.d. 167-180). In the reign of Probus they were on the Danube (a.d. 276-282) and the Theiss, but coming in contact with the Visigoths, and being defeated by them, begged and received permission from Constantino to settle in Pan- nonia. There they remained for seventy years, and were converted to Christianity, not moving thence until famine compelled them, like so many others, to join the great westward migration of 406 into GauL The Burgundians were like the Vandals in their aptness for civilised and commercial Hfe; unlike them in that tbey wandered but comjDaratively a little way from their earliest home. About the middle of the fourth century they were seated on both sides of the Elbe; at the end of it on the Main, In a.d. 406 they joined in the migration of the Vandals into Gaul, where they foimd a permanent home on the banks of the Ehone and Saone, and about the middle of the century embraced with ea^er zeal the rehgion of the Eomans, whose God alone seemed able to save them from the terrible Huns. 52 History of the Roman Empire The Franks belonged to the Low Dutch branch of the Teutonic races, as it is called — that is, the branch which occupied the Lowlands of Germany between the Rhine and the shores of the Baltic. They were in reality a confederation of eight tribes, the Chauci, Sicambri, Attuarii, Bructeri, Chaniavi, Catti, Salii, and Cherusci, who appear to have taken the name of Franci or " Free- men" about the middle of the third century, and to have possessed the greater part of Westphalia, Hanover, and the !N"etherlands. Many of these tribes had fought bravely against Drusus (b.c. 12-9), and Germanicus (a.d. 15, 16); and the Confederation had maintained a long struggle against the Roman Empire in the times of Valerian (a.d. 256), Probus (a.d. 277), and Julian (a.d. 356-9). At the end of the fourth and beginning oE the fifth century they began that movement towards the west and south, which was the first step in the formation of their after- wards mighty Empire. The Saxons, low Dutch like their neighbours the Franks, occupied for centuries the country lying between the Ems and the Oder, forming the Eastern frontier of the Frankish kingdom. Their name still survives in the kingdom of the German Empire called Saxony, a very different district, it must be remembered, from the Saxonia of Roman and Frank times. They were divided into three tribes, Ostphalians, AYestphalians, and Angarians. Lying as they did along the shores of two seas, and in a barren country of forests, moors, and morasses, but inter- sected by large rivers falling into those seas, it is not sur- prising that they were a seafaring rather than an agricul- tm-al or pastoral people. No shore was safe from their depredations. In the reign of Valentinian (a.d. 371), the maritime provinces of Gaul suffered grievously from their attacks; and scarcely a century later the withdrawal of The Barbarians on the Frontier 53 the Eoman forces in Britain enaHed them to find another and larger outlet for their surplus population, and in company with Angles and other cognate tribes to lay the first foundations of what was afterwards the kingdom of England. The Lombards. — To the East of Franks and Saxons lay a tribe, the Langobardi or Lombards, whom Tacitus speaks of as scanty in numbers, but of extraordinary valour. Certainly their influence on the course of history was out of all proportion to their importance among the German tribes. When first we hear of them about the time of Augustus, it was" as with so many other Teutonic tribes in the district between the Elbe and the Oder, and probably, therefore, allied with or subject to the Saxons. They gradually moved or were driven southwards, until at the end of the fourth century they were in the centre of Europe, and at the beginning of the sixth on the Danube, preparatory to their descent some fifty years later into Italy. There were, of course, other tribes and confederations, many and various, lying between the Volga, the Danube, the Ehine, and the Baltic, at the end of the f oui-th century, besides the seven thus briefly described. But few if any were mixed up with Eoman history in so special a way as these : none produced more remarkable men, or affected so largely the subsequent course of events : none left sach marked traces of their influence in Italy, Spain, France, and England. Summary of First Three Chapters. — Briefly to sum up the contents of the first three chapters, we see two vast groups of Aryan populations on either side of the Danube and the Ehine gradually approach, touch, and at last clash with one another along the whole line of ^hose rivers. One group had probably been settled in 54 History of the Ro7nan Empire its first home before a part of tlie other even hegan its wanderings. One was now civilised and Christian; the other semi-civiHsed or barbarous, and for the most part pagan. One group was bound together in the equalising grasp of a centralised despotism; the other shifting and mobile as the waves of the sea, or the sand of the shore, with no bond of cohesion beyond occasionally common interests and similar customs. At the moment when this history begins, they had already touched, and at points the frontier had been passed by the barbarians. The crisis was approaching. And for all men of foresight, who could appreciate the danger, it must have been an anxious question whether the Empire, with its vast frontier line, would be able, in spite of centralised power, adminis- trative miity, and disciplined armies, to make head against the dimly looming swarms of warriors from behind the Danube, whose numbers seemed to increase with every year. I^or were they more than vaguely conscious of the fatal weakness within the Empire, which made the battle, as far as they were concerned, a lost one before it began. !* CHAPTER IV. CHURCH AND STATE IN CONSTANTINOPLE, EUTROPIUS, AND CHRYSOSTOM. Death of Theodosius — a.d. 395. — The Emperoi Theodosius the Great died on January 17, 395. On his death-bed he dictated a will, proclaiming a general am- nesty, and entrusting the care of his sons, Arcadius and Honorius, to Stilicho the Vandal, who had married his niece Serena. Thus passed away the last great Cajsar, too soon for the happiness of the world. After his death the Western Empire went through a series of misfortunes, till it fell wholly into barbarian hands ; while the fate of the East, if less tragic, was hardly less sad. The succes- sors of Theodosius at Constantinople were, with few ex- ceptions, mere cyphers in the hands of wives or favoiuites; and their history is little but the barren record of in- trigues, by which those favourites won or lost their power. Of this state of things the first ten years of Arcadius' reign are an excellent instance ; when the greedy atnbition of a Eufinus or a Eutropius, and the im- periousness of a Eudoxia threw an empire into confusion, and when, not for the first or last time, the dauntless seK- sacritice of a priest, such as Chrysostom, was the one ray of light in the surrounding darkness. Sons of Theodosius. — The gap which was left in 56 History of the Roman Empire the political world by the death of Theodosius might well have seemed irreparable. A man of energy and expe- rience was replaced by two feeble and ignorant boys, unworthy sons of a noble father. Arcadius, the elder, who inherited the Eastern Empire, was only eighteen ; Honorius was but eleven. The elder was weakly in body and in mind — a character both dull and timid, which had been spoiled by the flatteries of a court. The younger, more attractive, yet capricious and uncertain, was fiercely jealous of the elder brother, to whom he had been sub- ordinated from infancy, and for whose slights he longed to take vengeance. Each was ruled by a will stronger than his own ; Honorius by Stilicho, Arcadius by Eufinus the Gaul ; and the hostility of the IMinisters aggravated the jealousy of the Emperors. The two men were singularly unlike. Both were intelligent and well edu- cated ; but Stilicho possessed the best qualities of the soldier, Rufinus the worst vices of the diplomatist. Each was ambitious, but in a difi'erent way; Rufinus aimed at power for his own advancement, Stilicho merged his per- sonal interests in devotion to the State. Though a Van- dal by birth, he was a Roman at heart, and valued the historic glories of his adopted country far more deeply than did the degenerate Italians, who despised him. He had the rare merit of justice, which won for him the dis- like of many, the respect of a few. Rufinus, on the other hand, possessed graces which Stilicho lacked. His wit and good taste, his versatility and complaisance ensured him a welcome in all societies, even in the highest ; but at the core he was selfish, insincere, and unscrupulous. Such an one, moreover, makes enemies of men, whom in his up- ward course he outstrips, offends, or ruins ; and when Rufinus, blinded by ambition, sought to marry liis daugh- ter to Arcadius, and to become himself an Emperor's Church and State in Constantinople 57 colleague, these enemies combined to ruin him. By a stratagem of Eutropius, to which he was himself a party, the Emperor was married to Eudoxia the Frank; and Eufimis was murdered at the very feet of Arcadins during a military review. Rise of Eutropius.- — The ringleader of these enemies was Eutropius, the Chamberlain, who stepped into his fallen rival's place, and for four years disputed with the Empress the direction of the Emperor and the Empire. He was the son of slave parents, and born in Armenia. He was himself more than once sold as a slave ; and being turned out of doors by an elegant and capricious mistress, because he was no longer young, was saved from starva- tion by a kind-hearted officer, who enrolled him among the slaves of the palace. There lais intelligence and ap- parent piety soon attracted observation, especially that of Theodosius, who ere long attached him to his own person, and often sent him on confidential embassies. Thus the slave's fortune was made. But previous hardships had spoiled his temper and ruined his character. He was greedy, cunning, bitter; and hated the world that had ill used him. For one person, and one only, had he any tenderness in his heart, and that was his sister. Allies of Eutropius. — It is a curious illustration of the difference of sentiment between East and West, that the custom of having effeminate slaves about the house- hold, which was regarded with horror in Italy, was thought proper and fashionable in Constantinople. Hence the rise of Eutropius to be the Emperor's Chamberlain and confidante was viewed with disgust in Eome, but in the East thought worth only a jest or a passing smile. Nor was this all. Not only was the eunucli's high jjosition looked on as an amusing freak of fortune, rather than a portent, but when he became the minister of Arcadius, 58 History of the Roman Empire and his rival Eufinus was dead, then in every household throughout the East there were numerous members who felt a sort of pride in Eutropius' elevation, and were eager to become agents or spies in his interest. Woe to the master who during those four years dared in his slave's presence to hint dissatisfaction with the course of affairs. It was at once reported at headquarters. In the palace, indeed, the chamberlain was wise enough to dissemble, and to gild as far as possible the imperial fetters, though his power was none the less absolute. Little by little Arca- dius was isolated from his court, his officers, and even his wife, untd his thoughts and daily life, and very pleasures were dictated by Eutropius. But the eunuch was not satisfied with supremacy. He knew that he, too, must have enemies, and that if he would be secure he must be feared — must have, in short, the means at hand for striking a rapid and decisive blow. His enemies, therefore, must not be able to escape him, either by flight or by taking sanctuary in a church ; and this reason it was which led to the famous law of a.d. 397, which caused so much sensation among the clergy. Right of Asylum — a.d. 397. — The right of asylum, of taking shelter in a sanctuary from the pursuit of jus- tice, was a pagan custom, which in the latter days of the Eepublic had fallen into discredit, owing to its abuse ; but with Christianity it once more revived. Christian churches succeeded to Pagan temples as places of refuge for criminals, with the difference, that the superior sanc- tity attaching to the Christian clergy made the asylum more secure than it had been before, while the abuses were as great as ever. Debtors, bankrupts, criminals of aU kinds fled for once in their lives to the interior of a church to evade justice, and so escaped. In September, however, an imperial decree was issued, inspired by Eutro- Church a7id State in Constantinople 59 pius, which practically, though not verbally, "withdrew the right, especially from debtors and " State criminals ;" and State criminals were defined to be those who con- spired, not only against the Emperor and his family, but also against his ministers and officers, including, of course, Eutropius. The punishment was death, confiscation of property, and outlawry of children. Well might the great man think himself secure with such a weapon in his hands ; and the irony of fortune was complete, when three years later he sought and found safety for a while in that very right of asylum which his own law had denied to others ! Chrysostom : Life atAntioch — a.d. 397-8. — The next year (a.d. 398) brought upon the scene another actor whose public life was a perpetual conflict with both Eutropius and the Empress. This was John of Antioch, the Golden-Mouthed (Chrysostom), afterwards archbishop of Constantinople. He was at this time fifty years old. Though a Christian born, he had been a favourite pupil of the Pagan Libanius, and was so distinguished for his im- petuous flow of ideas and language, that his teacher looked to him as a possible successor. But the passion of asceti- cism had arisen in his, as in so many hearts, and led him to court solitude, first in his home, then in a convent, then in the desert ; and to practise such fasting and watching as permanently injured his health. From the desert he returned suddenly to Antioch, for he was almost too con- scious of his own powers, and was ordained deacon and priest. Like, yet far greater than, Savonarola at Florence, he became a distinct "power" in the state. He di-ew the wealthy and the educated to listen to him, no less than the poor and the ignorant, — the sinner no less than the saint. And among these casual hearers, as it hap- pened, had been Eutropius. 6o History of the Romaii Empire Death of Nectarius — a.d. 397. — On September 17, 397, Nectarius died, who for sixteen years had been arch- bishop of Constantinople. A fierce struggle at once arose as to his successor, for the archbishopric was a post of growing importance, involving great influence in matters of both church and state. The election was in the hands of the people and clergy of the city, and of the " Honorati," who had filled high offices of state, and the electors were canvassed and unblushingly bribed by the various candi- dates and their friends. The clergy were anxious to secure the prize for one of themselves ; but there was an in- fluence at work, which bade fair to overpower all resist- ance, and to seat an outsider on tlie archiepiscopal throne. It happened that a number of foreign bishops were assem- bled at Constantinople, when Nectarius died. It hap- pened also, that Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, was one of them ; and being anxious, for purposes of his own, to forward the promotion of a certain Isidore, presbyter of Alexandria, he seciued the interest of a majority of the bishops, who claimed to direct or control the electors in their choice. Isidore was suspected of being in possession of a highly compromising letter of Theophilus, which he had written in duplicate during the struggle between the Christian Theodosius and the Pagan Maximus (a.d. 394), and given to Isidore to deliver to whichever of the two might be victorious. Theodosius was victor, and Isidore handed him one of the letters of congratulation ; the other, he said, had been stolen from him, though he was suspected of having reserved it for his own use in the future. Hence the anxiety of Theo2)hilus to shut his mouth by a golden bribe ; Avhile such an appointment would, at the same time, present himself in the light of patron of the see of Constantinople, and therefore superior to its archbishop ; for Theophilus was as ambitious as he CJinnh and State in Constantinople 6i was unscrupulous, and not more unscrupulous tlian lie was learned and able. Learning, however, with him was only a means towards gratifying ambition, — abilit}'' a means of evading dangers or realising wishes. Eutropius appoints Chrysostom. — But amid all the turmoil of canvassing, one part of the electors, the people, became weary of the struggle, and resolved that the nomination should be left unreservedly to the Emperor. Of course, it was Eutropius who made it. He remem- bered the wonderful preacher whom he had once heard at Antioch, and determined that he was the man to be appointed. It was no easy task, however. Once already he had declined a bishopric ; and even if liis scruples were overcome, would Antioch consent to part with him or Constantinople to receive him? Secrecy and rapidity were alike essential to success. Orders were accordingly sent to the Count of the East, resident at Antioch, to secure and despatch Chrysostom at once under safe guard to the capital. The order was obeyed. Chrysostom was invited by the Count to a conference outside the city, — was then seized, and committed to a military escort with- out a word of explanation, and finally arrived at Con- stantinople more like a criminal for trial than an arch- bishop designate. His arrival was like the springing of a mine beneath the feet of the bishops and clergy, while the people applauded the unexpected choice. The bishops, indeed, protested against this interference with freedom of election, while Theophilus even refused to ordain Chrysostom. But a whisper from Eutropius led him to see matters in a different light, and the episcopal opposi- tion could be safely disregarded. Clirysostom was or- dained by Theophilus, and enthroned as archbishop on February 2, a.d. 398. Character of Chrysostom. — But the character of 62 History of the Roman Empire the archbishop was not such as to be an element of peace in the heated political atmosphere of the capital. With all his knowledge and genius, his simplicity and unselfishness, his eloquence and energy, Clirysostom was imperious and somewhat impracticable, — more apt to drive than to per- suade men to what ne himself thought right. Hib tender- ness for the poor was almost exaggerated into intolerance of the rich. In such a position as his, it was not wise to reverse all at once the hospitable customs of his predeces- sor, or to cut down as much as possible the expenditure of his household^ and certainly it was not prudent to isolate himself (even at meals) from all society. JSTot only did he thereby lose some opportunity of influence for good over the upper classes, but, in attempting to force his clergy to conform to his example, forfeited much of their loyalty and attachment to himself. His efforts at reform were at once despotic and premature. Nor was he sparing of the frivolities of the court, against which he protested, at first privately and in writing, then openly and in public. Wliat wonder if courtiers, ladies, clergy, and the less strict and honourable of all classes, ere long combined against the self-opinionated churchman, who wished, as it seemed, to set everybody right, and to reverse all that had been usual under the beloved ]S"ectarius. Hatred of Eutropius — a.d. 399. — If Chrysostom was disliked, he was also respected. But towards Eutro- pius there was no feeling, save mingled hatred and con- tempt ; and in a.d. 399 a variety of circumstances united against the minister all his isolated enemies, and gave them the opportunity of striking a blow. He had been so unwise as to restrict still further the right of asylum ; a step which arrayed against him aU the clergy, with Chrysostom at their head. His enemies were overjoyed at the good fortune, which gave them so firm and power- Church and State in Constantinople 6t, ful an ally ; still more so, when the Empress, with a woman's rapid insight, threw her weight into the scale, made overtures of alliance to the archbishop, and gave proofs of her sincerity by an excessive though short-lived devotion. Eutropius, however, was blind to his danger, and even assumed the consulship, — a usurpation which seemed only ludicrous to the East, but sent a thriU of indignation throughout the West. It seemed a revolting sacrilege, that a eunuch and a slave should hold the oldest and grandest historic office of the Eoman world. Quarrel between Eutropius and the Empress. — One act of supreme insolence sealed liis fate. Conscious at last of the tide of opposition and hatred rising around him, he lost the equanimity which had characterised him. Being aware of the Empress' intrigues with Chrysostom, and meeting her one day accidentally in the palace, he ventured to upbraid her with ingratitude, and to threaten, that he who had raised her to the throne could also banish her from it. The barbarian spirit rose within her. Motion- ing Eutropius aside, she rushed to her apartments, caught up her two little daughters in her arms, and hastened to the Emperor's presence. For some minutes indignation choked her utterance, while the children, frightened by their mother's emotion, filled the palace with cries and sobs. At last she mastered her passion sufficiently to make the terrified Arcadius understand what had happened, and the outrage she, his Empress, had suffered at the hands of a slave! Even the Emperor was roused by' such an insult. Eutropius was immediately summoned to his presence, and before he had time to defend himself, or even realise the state of affairs, heard himself condemned to disgrace and degradation. He was stripped of all his offices, his property was confiscated, and he was bidden to leave the palace at once. Eutropius did not deceive him- 64 History of the Roman Empire self as to the extent of tlie catastrophe. He knew that this was ruin. He passed rapidly through tlie halls and chamhers where only an hour hefore his smile had meant fortune, and his frown destruction, and leaving the palace by a private door hastened to the great church, not far distant, pursued, at Eudoxia's orders, by some soldiers and palace servants. At the door he stooped, and seizing a handful of dust placed it on his head, as a sign of mourn- ing, then rapidly strode on to the sanctuary, lifted the veil separating it from the body of the church, and falling on his knees clasped suppliantly one of the pillars sup- porting the altar, and there awaited the archbishop's coming. Outside the sanctuary, meanwhile, surged to and fro an ever-increasing crowd, while the tramp of soldiers' feet and the clash of arms was heard, and presently loud cries for the archbishop. But Chrysostom was already on the spot, prepared to vindicate the right which he had supported even against this very Eutropius, that the sanctity of the Church was sufficient protection for the very greatest criminal. Seizing him by the hand, he led the trembling minister to the sacristy, and concealed him there for the moment among the sacred vessels, and then returned to confront the troops, who were threaten- ing to intrude into the holy place. " Bishop," they cried, as Chrysostom appeared, " Eutropius is concealed here, and we have orders to seize him. Deliver him up." But the man before them was not so easily daunted. He for- bade them to violate the sanctity of the place ; he bared his chest when they ventured to threaten, and dared them to do their worst ; he demanded to be led to the Emperor's presence. Great was the amazement in the streets, when Chrysostom was seen escorted by a guard of soldiers towards the palace, — hardly less great than the exultation in the amphitheatre, where, at the news of the minister's Church and State in Constantinople 65 downfall, the whole audience rose to their feet as one man and demanded the head of Eatropius. Interference of Chrysostom. — The firmness of Chrysostom triumphed over the vacillation of Arcadius. For the moment, at least, he assented to the archbishop's demand, that the sanctity of the church should be re- spected, and the criminal, however guilty, be spared ; and even the soldiers were persuaded, though not with- out difficulty, to obey orders and leave the wretched Eutropius where he was. Thus a slight resi)ite was gained; the claims of the Church were for a while con- ceded ; and it was the very man who would have refused those claims who owed his personal safety to their assertion. His famous Sermon. — The nest day was Sunday. From daybreak the church was filled with eager throngs, anxious to hear what the archbishop would say on the all absorbing topic. Every class of society, all shades of feeling were there represented ; but there was one feeling shared by all alike, a sincere hatred of Eutropius, and an. overpowering curiosity to see how it would all end. And again, we are reminded of Savonarola, when we think of Chrysostom mounting the pulpit of the great church on that Sunday to address the vast multitude below, and to teach them the meaning of what they saw. Both alike were animated with the idea, that in their day and through ilioAr means, God's cause was triumphing over the powers of earth. Both alike thought they could see the finger of God working by them in the events of which they were a part. All was hushed as the preacher motioned with his hand for silence. It Avas the perfect hush of high-wrought expectation. But he did not at once break the silence. An impression yet more profound was in store for that expectant crowd. He would aj^peal to eye no less than 66 History of the Roman Empire to ear. A tlirill of deep emotion passed througli the vast congregation Avhen the curtain of the sanctiiary was sud- denly drawn back, and Eutropius was seen clinging to the altar, pale and trembling. Then the archbishop turned to his hearers. " Vanity of vanities," he cried, " all is vanity ! Where now are the splendours and banquets, the acclamations of the streets, the flatteries of the am- phitheatre % Where are the false friends, the swarms of parasites'? Gone — gone for ever!" Presently, turning to Eutropius, " Did I not tell thee," he continued, " that riches had wings % thou wouldest not believe ! — that friends were false % thou wouldest not believe ! Thou didst persecute the Church, and the Church opens her arms to receive thee !" Then he went on to speak of the contrast between the past and the present, and of all the horrors of death which were agonising the wretched man's heart ; and, as the climax of his sermon, touched on that which to him was the central point of interest, the glory to the Church of protecting so great a criminal, so bitter a foe. Last of all, he invited his audience to accompany him to the palace, and to join him in imploring pardon for Eutropius. But in this he overshot the mark, and mis- took his own power over a susceptible but vindictive and passionate audience. The chamberlain had been too over- bearing, unscrupulous, and selfish in his day of greatness to awaken any active sympathy in his fall. Condemnation of Eutropius. — Eutropius remained in sanctuary for some days, and then suddenly disap- peared. It was presently known that he had left the church under a promise of his life being spared, if he would go quietly on board ship and allow himself to be con- veyed to Cyprus ; and, meanwhile, a commission of in- quiry was named, under the presidency of the praetorian prefect, Aurelian, before which evidence was laid to show ChiircJi and State in Constantinople 6y that tlie minister had been guilty of high treason, espe- cially in ucing imperial insignia during his consulate. The legal punishment was death. At first, however, Areadius felt genuine scruples as to authorising the exe- cution of such a sentence, in face of the promise which alone had drawn Eutropius from his refuge. Eut his council were urgent that the promise only extended to Constantinople itself, not to other parts of the Empire ; while Eudoxia pressed eagerly for the punishment of death, feeling that as long as Eutropius lived her power was not assured, over either the Empire or her husband. Overpowered by this joint pressure Areadius yielded. An imperial decree was shortly published, deposing Eutropius from all his dignities, contiscating his property to the treasury, and ordering the demolition of all the statues of him in every town and village. Finally, a vessel was sent to Cyprus to bring him home for punishment. He was brought to Chalcedon and there beheaded. Sequel of his Do-wnfall. — Areadius, however, had only exchanged one tyrant for another — the acute and supple man of the world for an imperious and hot-headed woman. Eudoxia was now mistress of the situation, sur- rounded with favourites both male and female, seeing with their eyes and hearing with their ears. It was not long before her pride and self-will brought her into conflict with Chrysostoni, and occasioned that famous struggle which involved the whole East in confusion, and dur- ing which the archbishop was twice exiled and twice condemned, St Sophia was reduced to ashes, and Con- stantinople was half destroyed. It remains to trace the lii.story of this conflict between the Empress and the arch- bishop in the next chapter. CHAPTER V. CHRYSOSTOM AND THE EMPRESS EUDOXIA. Diffictilties of Chrysostom. — After tlie fall of Eutropius the Eastern Empire was ruled ty a woman. Arcadius— less than thirty, yet prematurely old — was too timid and too indolent to resist Eudoxia's superior force of character; and she far too imperious and ambitious to be content with any tiling short of absolute power. There was, perhaps, only one human being whom the Emperor feared not less than he feared the Empress, and that was Ihs archbishop. l^ot only was he sincerely afraid of embroiling himself with the Church generally, but Chry- sostom was the recognised patron of the poor and the lower classes, and on the few occasions on which he had visited the palace it had been almost without exception to prefer complaint against the injustice or corruptions of the court, and to threaten ecclesiastical censures ; and on each occa- sion Arcadius had been forced to yield. The Empress soon discerned in this bold and eloquent priest a rival, whose influence might be fatal to her own; and selfish ambi- tion led her ere long to become the centre of a vast intrigue, whose object was Chrysostom's destruction. There was no lack of willing allies, for there were few classes, save the very poor, whose susceptibilities he did not succeed Ib offending. Fashionable ladies, pagans, monks, even priests Chrysostom and the Empress Eiidoxia 69 and deaconesses were arrayed against liim from one cause or another ; and as he was peculiar in his habits, im- petuous, and terribly in earnest, there were plenty of stories, ill-natured or amusing, for the world at large to spread and discuss, which were carefully told and doubt- less imi:)roved in the telling to court circles. Three great ladies in particular were, beside the Empress, his sworn enemies, — Marsa, Castricia, and Eugraphia, — for he was merciless to their special foibles. In his passionate ten- derness for the poor he could hardly find words of scorn strong enough to express his contempt for the luxuries and follies of the rich, and, whether in the drawing-room or the pulpit, did not mince matters. He almost con- descended to personalities. That wealthy ladies of middle age should take the lead in society, not by alms and sim- plicity of life, but by flirtations and intrigues, by rouge and false hair, and by setting outrageous fashions, seemed to him scandalous ; and when he mounted the amho and fixed his eyes on the ladies' gallery running round the nave, and inveighed against the indelicate dresses and ordinary fashions of high society, it is intelligible that the allusions were relished by the crowd below, and. gave great offence to those whom he all but named. Nor were the mendicant monks, who thronged the streets of the capital, and degraded the service of religion by grotesque cos- tumes and unworthy buffooneries, less hostile to Chrysos- tom. He had tried to suppress their convents, or to compel the monks to labour and to adopt a more seden- tary life. He had tried, but failed. And as the attempt exasperated, so the failure encouraged them in their hos- tility. The pagan party, meanwhile, watched the struggle with curiosity. Though indifferent to Eudoxia, yet they disliked the narrowmindedness, as they thought it, of Chrysostom, and naturally sympathised with the less yo History of the Roman Empire formal and precise views of the court and the fashionable world. Chrysostom unpopular ■with the Clergy. — Xor was the archbishop less unpopular among the ministers of the Chiirch itself. Prom the first he had set his face like a flint against the luxury, greed, and avarice of the clergy, and thus raised up a host of enemies among those by whom he was daily siu'rounded. And indeed there were vices prevalent among them calling for the sharpest reform. It was not with Chrysostom as with those pre- lates of a later age, who fought a long and arduous battle against the marriage of the clergy, and by sheer exercise of despotic power won a victory over human Aveakness. He had, indeed, like them, to face an inveterate custom of long standing, in defence of which all sorts of feelings were enlisted against him ; but it w^as a custom, which, though innocent in its origin and capable of innocent use, wr,s also open to terrible abuse. It had become the practice within comparatively recent times for the clergy to introduce into their houses a "beloved sister" (dya- Tnjr-q), to be an associate in all good works, and to Hve with them. But too often in this world " noblest things find vilest using;" and what was in theory a beautiful and innocent fashion, suited to a society whose tone should be too lofty for human passion and weakness, de- generated in practice into a mere excuse for idleness, worldliness, and sensuality. Marriage, indeed, was a re- cognised and honourable estate, which had its safeguards as Avell as temptations; but the relation just described had temptations without safeguards. If nothing worse, the priest certainly could not give that undivided atten- tion to clerical duties, which, his celibacy implied that he would. His moral tone was gradually lowered. He would be tempted (it is Chrysostom's own accusation) to CJirysostom and the Empress Eitdoxia 7 1 waste time and energy in tittle-tattle and sliopping. He would become enslaved to petty interests, or need money to support his household, and feel it no shame to lay hands on Church funds to which he had access, or on legacies or alms for the poor. Finally, too often, even before he suspected danger, he would be surprised by pas- sion and tempted to live in open sin. It was clearly a dangerous custom. Yet Chrysostom's attack upon it raised against him a host of enemies, whose interests were bound up in defeating the projected reform. Unpopular with the Rich. — ISTor was Chrysostom's tenderness for the poor a source of popularity, except among the poor themselves. He held those peculiar views Avith regard to the duties and responsibilities attaching to wealth, which were not more popular with the wealthy then thaa they are now. He was " tribune of the people " almost as much as "priest." If he was pained by the suffer- ings of the poor, he was not less shocked at the inequalities of society. In his eyes the selfishness and cowardice of the rich was only equalled by the marvellous goodness and unselfishness of the poor. It was poverty which had inspired Elijah with courage to rebuke Ahab, John the Baptist to rebuke Herod, and, as every one might infer, Chiysostom to rebuke Eudoxia and her luxurious coiut. Even his private habits and most innocent practices were sneered at and misrepresented by his enemies. The asceticism of his earlier years had produced a permanent weakness of digestion, which prevented his entering into society \ he was often ill and dared not touch wine ; yet because he always dined alone, for there was hardly any- thing which he could eat with impunity, and refused all invitations, even to the palace, he was accused of indulg- ing in solitary orgies. ISTo man was more charitable than Chrysostom ; yet his immense charities did not save him 72 History of the Roman Empire from the accusation of stinginess or avarice, because his Kfe was so simple. He founded hospitals for the sick ; he urged the wealthy to contribute to them ; he even de- sired that every house should have its vacant room, in which to shelter the poor and homeless. " Christ is at your doors," he says in one of his sermons ; " open to Him. You ought to give Him your best chamber, but He only asks for the least corner. Place Him where you will, in the attic with your servants, in the cellar, in the stable with your horses. Only take Him in." And yet the rancour of his enemies accused him of avarice and gluttony ! The Friends of Chrysostom.— But it was also a matter of course that a man of so elevated a character, of such courage and strength of will, should attach to himself devoted friends, And the devotion of his friends compen- sated in some degree for the general atmosphere of dislike and suspicion in which he lived. There were some few, indeed, like Serapion, the Egyptian, whose devotion to him (or, perhaps, to themselves) was greater than their discretion, and who, by flattery and adroit persuasion, fostered the weaker side — the imperiousness and obstinacy of the archbishop's character. But there were others, the salt of the earth, women as well as men, who clung to him faithfully through evil and good report, and Avere the great consolation of his life. Chrysostom, indeed, was a man to make both friends and enemies ; but his friends loved him " with a love stronger than death." He has been compared to a " day in spring-time, bright and rainy, and glittering through its rain,"— a man with faults, indeed (and who has not faults 1), yet of " noble earnestness and singleness of pur- pose" — " a bright, cheerful, gentle soul .... Avith a vigour, elasticity, and sunniness of mind all his own."^ ' cf. Newman's " Historical Sketches." " Last Years of St. Clirysostom,' Chrysostoin and the Empress Eiidoxia "j^ Intrigues against Chrysostom — a.d. 401. — The war between Eudoxia and Chrj'sostoni, which ended in his banishment and death, began in the year a.d. 401. An appeal had been made to him in the previous year, while a synod of twenty-seven Asiatic bishops was sitting, under his presidency, at Constantinople, to investigate certain charges pubhcly made against one of the bishops present, Antoninus of Ephesus. The archbishop was at first unwilling to interfere ; but the charges were precise and grave, and yielding at last to the pressure of popular indig- nation, he called on the accuser, a certain Bishop Eusebius, to present his proofs before a council to be convened for the purpose." Meanwhile Antoninus died, and Ephesus at once became a prey to the bribery, intrigues, and violence of competing candidates for the bishopric. In the universal confusion there seemed to the better disposed part of the popiilation only one means of escape from the evils around them, an appeal to Chrysostom. Accord- ingly a letter was dispatched, entreating his presence. On January 9, a.d. 401, he started from Constantinoj)le for Ephesus, leaving Severianus, Bishop of Gabala, to discharge the duties of bishop during his absence. Is^ovv tills man was a type of a class especially prevalent at this time, — an adventurer, ambitious and vain, and open to corruption. He had a good presence, a real gift of eloquence, a large knowledge of Scripture. He affected a deep admiration for Chrysostom, but in heart was jealous of his fame, and like many other Asiatics, was eager to share in the glory and the more substantial advantages, wliich this eloquence had won for him. Here was an ally worth winning indeed by the enemies of Chrysostom at coiu't ; and a little judicious flattery soon won him. His sermons were pronounced by a fashionable audience superior to Chrysostora's, and the Empress even went so 74 History of the Roman Empire far as to transgress ordinary custom, and, instead of wait- ing for tlie archbisliop's return, to hasten the baptism of her lately horu son, afterwards Theodosius II., and had the ceremony performed by Severianus. But it was no mere ceremony ; the administration of the rite (according to Eastern ideas) conferred on a priest a kind of spiritual paternity, and bound him to the newly baptized by a bond that lasted through life. And thus Severianus was no longer a mere foreign bishop accidentally sojourning in Constantinople, but a prelate attached to the court and the Empress by a very special tie. For the same reason, also, he was an enemy of Chrysostom. There was yet another ally whom the court party gained during the archbishop's absence, and by means even more dubious. Acacius, Bishop of Beroea, a man far advanced in years and respected wherever he was known, had been a firm friend of Chrysostoni's, and being in Constanti- nople on business, was invited to stay at the episcopal palace. The old man had the failing of many old men, and looked forward with some complacency to the comforts and luxuries he would find there ; but he reckoned with- out his host. The archbishop's asceticism applied to his friends no less than himself. Simplicity of life was the rule for all alike within the palace; and Acacius, already piqued by what he thought his friend's want of courtesy towards an old man, was easily roused to irritation, and then dislike, and then hostility, by a dexterous insinuation from the court that such treatment was not only dis- courtesy, but studied insult. Troubles with the Arians. — Chrysostom returned only to discover the defection of his supposed friends, and to find that his difficulties were increased. Not only did his own impetuosity of temper betray him into sarcastic re- marks, the drift of which was obvious, about Jezebel and her Chrysostom and the Empress Endoxia 75 friends, but he quarrelled with Severianus, and was then forced into an oi^en, if hollow, reconciliation. A furtljer unlucky circumstance ahout this time tended to increase the prevalent feeling — so fatal when it exists, and so dif- ficult to eradicate — that Chrysostom was a stubborn and maladroit person, whose presence always meant failure if not strife. During the reign of the orthodox Theo- dosius, the Arians had not been permitted to have churches within the walls of Constantinople. They had protested, but in vain. Under the more feeble Arca- dius, however, and relying on the " barbarian" influence then so strongly felt throughout the East, the Arians hoped to regain at least toleration. At first they ven- tured only to assemble in small bodies on Sundays and feast days, under tbe various porticoes and in the streets, and so to go to their churches. Thus gradually arose formal "processions," unrecognised rather than unobserved. But while Chrysostom was absent in Asia, Severianus had winked at their growing boldness, until the weekly pro- cession had developed into something like a weekly chal- lenge to their antagonists, with chants and litanies sung as they marched, and had too often degenerated into mere provocation and insult. Immediately on his return the archbishop called upon the civil powers to stop the scandal, and when nothing was done, proceeded to organise a counter-demonstration of the faithful, with more ortho- dox litanies and chants. In effect this was a direct invi- tation to riot, if not bloodshed. When the angry contro- versialists met in the streets, and a struggle ensued, and a servant of the Empress was killed and many Avounded, and Arcadius threatened to fine the prajfect heavily if such a scene occurred again, it was perhaps not just, but it certainly was not strange, that the odium fell upon Chrysostom. To him, probably more than to any man, the 'j^ History of tJie Roman Empire whole thing was a grief and a shame ; yet he had to suffer for the evil passions of others and for his own mistake. The " Tall Brothers" of the Nitrian Desert.— It might have seemed ill fortune enough to have succeeded in. arousing the enmity of so many and such diverse enemies at once as the Arian heretics, the heathen party, the foreign bishops in Constantinople, the monks, and the world of fashion and high Ufe. But beyond this Chrysos- tom became presently entangled in the fortunes of the so-called "Tall Brothers" of Nitria, and again exposed to the intrigues of his old enemy Theophilus. These four brothers, named respectively Ammonius, I)ioscorus, Euthymius, and Eusebius, were anchorites of great repute for sanctity and learning, living in the desert of Nitria, between the ISTile and the Libyan mountains. For a long time they had been the glory of the patriarchate of Alex- andria ; the eldest had accompanied Athanasius on his exile to Eome and the West ; and Theophilus, ever alive to his own interests, had for a while carefully cultivated their acquaintance, and even tried to ordain three of them in succession bishops. But they steadily refused, much to his chagrin, and at last an obscure quarrel, origina- ting in the avarice of Theophilus and the probity of the "brothers," turned the one-sided friendship into bitter hostility. The patriarch accused the " brothers" of the heresy of Origenism, of denying the "personality" of God. They might, indeed, have been well content to be confounded with a Jerome or an Epiphanius in the anathemas of a Theophilus ; but a yet graver quarrel ensued, fraught with yet graver consequences. The enmity of Theophilus could not be satisfied without revenge. In an interview between them and himself relative to the pardon of a certain Isidore, who had offended the patriarch, he pretended to have been in- CJirysostoin and the Empress Eudoxia 77 suited, tlirew them into prison, sent them in chains to Nitria, excommunicated them, and finally, ordered the various convents, with which they were connected, to destroy at once all their books that were in any way tainted with heresy. Spies were surreptitiously intro- duced into the monasteries to watch whether the order s obeyed ; and when obedience was delayed, a pre- rted petition was got up and presented to Theo- philus, praying him to take action in the matter. This was all that was wanted. The pra^fect was requested to lend some troops for the occasion, at whose head marched the patriarch in person, like a general to battle. The expedition was timed to reach the scene of action in the darkness of night, and then ensued what to our ears sounds almost incredible, a veritable night attack on the unsuspecting convents, which, under pretence of a search for heretical books, were forcibly entered, pillaged, and in some cases even burnt to the ground. The monks fled in all directions, and Avith them the " brothers," on whose capture Theophilus was most intent. The rendezvous was to be the borders of Egypt and Syria. But among 300 who had escaped, age, fatigue, and misery wrought sad havoc. Only eighty reached the rendezvous safely, whence after some deliberation they resolved, on the advice of Isidore and the " brothers," to repair to Constantinople and lay their appeal before the Emperor and Chrysostom, never doubting to obtain justice from the former, and from the latter protection. Out of eighty only fifty reached Constantinople. The archbishop at once in- terested himself in their case, and satisfied himself of their orthodoxy. He promised to call a speedy council, or to obtain their pardon from the patriarch, meanwhile advising them to keep clear of the Emperor, and not bring an ecclesiastical matter before a civil judge. As for him- y8 History of the Roman Empire self he could not, he said, receive them under his own roof or at his table while still under excommunication, but they might lodge in the cloisters of the church. The great alarm of Chrysostom, in fact, was that the unso- phisticated monks, in their indignation or impatience, would carry their matter straight to the Emperor, and that then the unedifying sight would be seen of the second bishop in the East placed on his trial before a lay judge. To prevent this it was that he wrote a letter to Theophilus, conjuring him to pardon the fugitives as a favour to him- self. But Theophilus was a good hater, and the advocacy of Chrysostom was to him a sufficient reason for continu- ing his persecution. He returned a curt answer to the archbishop's letter, bidding him practically mind his own business, and shortly afterwards sent an embassy, consist- ing of a bishop and four abbots, to request the Emperor to banish from Constantinople certain fugitive monks, condemned and excommunicated for rebellion, heresy, and magic. The last word was an artful addition to a false accusation. Magic was " high treason," and regarded with horror, as implying evil intentions towards the head of the state. It was a crime to be investigated by a special commission, and punishable with banishment or death. To represent these poor monks as a band of magi- cians, therefore, was a master-stroke of policy, and was certain to arouse against them popular indignation, the suspicion of the Emperor, and the hostility of all time- servers. The charge was false indeed, and known to be false ; but that made no diherence. The Patriarch of Alexandria was too great a man in Constantinople for his words to be slighted ; for Alexandria fed Constantinople, and a large part of the population of the capital were Egyp- tians, engagcid in the corn trade — that is, spiritual subjects and political dependants of the patriarch. To ofiend the Chrysostom and the Empress Endoxia 79 patriarch therefore was no light matter. The " brothers," indignant at the false charges brought against them, and the scorn to which they were subjected, and finding no help in Chrysostom, who recoiled from exposing a brother bishop to a civil court, resolved at last to appeal to Arca- dius. The enemies of Chrysostom exulted, and strained every nerve to widen the breach, and encourage the exiles to throw themselves on the mercy of the Emperor, and even more of tlie Empress. In short, the "brothers" became the fashion, and were run after by all the great people of Constantinople. Presently a meeting was arranged, apparently accidental, between them and the Empress at a church in the suburbs, at wliich, while imploring their prayers and blessing, she promised to use all efforts to obtain the convocation of a synod and the arraignment of their enemy ; nor had many days passed before a synod was convoked, and Theophilas summoned to appear. Intrigues of Theophilus. — The strategy of Theo- philus to escape the danger was admirable. Two points seemed clear to him, — first, tliat Chrysostom was probably at the bottom of the matter; and, secondly, that it would be well to secure an ally for the impeading battle. If possible, therefore, a counterblow must be aimed at Chrysostom. An ally he secured in Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis. Epiphanius was a man whom the patriarch had attacked years before as a heretic. He was now more than eighty years of age, and with advancing years had lost something of the generous earnestness of earlier days, while a long pre-eminence in the Church as a doctrinal authority had someAvhat impaired the balance of his own judgment, and his respect for the judgment of others. He was within a little of being a tyrant, and had all the air of infallibility. On such a vain and simple nature the patriarch knew well how to play. First, he professed 8o History of the Roman Empire sorrow at ever having Leen misled into Origenism, and expressed gratitude to his friend through -vvhom he had seen his errors. I^ext, he suggested that the real question at issue in the coming council would be the truth or error of Origen's views, and urged him, therefore, in concert with his suffragans in Cyprus, to draw up a statement of the orthodox doctrine thereon, and forward a copy to the archbishop, who, as a friend of the " brothers," was pre- sumably a partner in their false notions. Could the idea fail to occur to the mind of Epiphanius, so dexterously insinuated, that the glory might be before him of con- verting Chrysostom, as it appeared he had converted Theophilus, and that he might be able once again to guide, perhaps preside over the decisions of a great council ! And yet the poor old man was only a cat's- paw. Chrysostom returned a cold answer to Epipha- nius' statements of doctrine, and the old man was irritated. His authority was questioned, and he resolved to go to Constantinople and recall the archbishop to his duty. But when he arrived, he was so ill-advised as to make peace impossible, first, by ordaining off-hand a deacon of whom he knew nothing, and that in another man's diocese ; and, secondly, by refusing to reside in the palace unless the archbishop would excommunicate the "brothers" and interdict the writings of Origen. But Chrysostom steadily refused to anticipate the decision of the pending council, and so the enmity between them was aggravated. It was not, however, for long. The excitement of the actual conflict, and an interview with the " brothers," in which he discovered that he had in ignorance been %vronging them, determined the aged bishop to abandon a strife to which he was no longer equal, and to turn his back on the capital. He hastened to set sail, but it was only to die on the voyage homewards. CJirysostoin and the Empress Etidoxia 8 1 Council of the Oak — a d. 403. — Meantime Theo- philus was on his way to the capital, and was met at Chalcedon by twenty-eight bishops from various parts of the East summoned to attend the council in July (a.d. 403). The Emperor assigned a palace in Pera for his use, and the patriarch lost no time after his arrival in conciliating or securing the goodwill of the court ladies by presents of silks and scents. The lower orders were not so easily won ; and indeed so great was the agitation among Chry- sostom's friends, the artisans and labouring classes, that it was deemed hardly safe to hold the council in the city, and a suburb of Chalcedon, on the opposite side of the Bosporus, was fixed upon. Hence the name of the " Council of the Oak." There were eighty bishops present at the time in Constantinople, but no more than forty-five were ever present at the council, the residue remaining with Chrysostom on the other side. The Patriarch of Alexandria presided. The first witness summoned was Chrj^sostom's arch- deacon, an official who, presiding over the external ad- ministration of the diocese, was supposed to be specially behind the scenes. This man owed Chrysostom a grudge, and now trumped up a series of charges against him, which were only serious from the position of the man who made them. The accusations comprised personal violence, in- sult, violation of the canons, theft, immorality; and a citation was presently served on the archbishop from the council summoning him to appear before them. It ran as follows : — " The Holy Synod assembled at the Oak to John. "VVe have received a schedule of accusation against thee, denouncing thee as guilty of an infinity of crimes. "We require thee to appear here before us, and bring with thee the priests Serapion and Tigrius, for we have need of them." To this curt and insolent letter, omitting even ROM. EMP. p 82 History of tJie Roman Empire the archbishop's title, two answers were at once returned: one from the bishops of Chrysostom's party, warning Theophihis not to interfere in another man's province ; the other from Chrysostom himself, protestinsj against their place of meeting (which by every rule should have been the city of Constantinople), but nevertheless agreeing to appear before them, provided that his personal enemies — the Patriarch Theophilus, Acacius of Bereea, Antiochus of Ptolemais, and Severianus of Gabala — were not present. Hereupon the soi-dlsant council despatched two priests of the church of Constantinople to cite the archbishop once more by word of mouth. " Why delayest thou 1" they said; "the council expects thee, and thou hast to clear thyself, if thou canst, of the crimes alleged against thee." It was a studied insult to cite an archbishop thus by the mouth of two of his own clergy, and Chrysostom felt it to be such. He immediately returned a verbal answer by three of his own bishops, protesting against such a step. But the council was already in a ferment after the receipt of his first reply; and when the three emissaries appeared and delivered their message, an extraordinary scene ensued. The reverend fathers rose from their seats and condescended, some to menaces and insults, some even to violence. One unfortunate ambassador received a severe blow; another had his clothes torn to ribbons; while the third, yet more unhappy, was graced with the chain originally intended for the archbishop's neck, had he been rash enough to appear, was dragged out of the church, thrown mto a boat, and committed to the more tender mercies of winds and waves. Twice again was Chrysostom summoned to appear before the council; and twice he returned the same answer as before. At last, foiled in his efforts to entice the archbishop over the water, and so to secure his person, Theophihis re- Chrysostom and iJic Empress Endoxia 83 solved if possible to enlist the Emperor's feelings in the struggle. Condemnation of Chrysostom. — "With this idea, an addition was made to the previous charges, to the eftect that the archbishop had publicly insulted the Em- press in his sermons, comparing her to Jezebel and Hero- dias. At its twelfth sitting the council i^roceeded to judgment, in the absence of the accused. Eorty-five bishops were present and voted. Chrysostom was con- demned to deposition from the archbishopric, of which immediate notice was sent to the metropolitan elergy; and a full report (I'elatio) of the acts of the council and the grounds of condemnation was dispatched to the Emperors Arcadius and Honorius, The execution of the sentence was left to the civil power. Sermon against the Empress. — Three days passed, and Chrysostom was still in occupation of his church and palace, notwitlistanding that the Imperial assent had been given to the sentence. All was confusion and indecision in Constantinople. Ever and anon an Imperial officer appeared at the palace, requiring the archbishop to pre- pare to go. The order was always disregarded, and the officer retired. Meanwhile Arcadius shrank from using force; for vast crowds of people voluntarily mounted guard night and day round the palace; force Avould have been resisted and blood shed. The universal cry was for " a general council" — a larger synod to try the cause again. A single rash act brought matters to a crisis. Seveiianus of GabaJa, two days after the condemnation, was bold enough to cross the water, enter a church, and deliver an address on recent events, commenting severely on Chry- sostom's pride. The audience rose upon him in such fury that he had difficulty in escaping. N^or was the arch- bishop himself less angry, believing the attack to have 84 History of the Roman Empire been really imagined and directed by tbe Empress Eudoxia ; and bis anger found relief in a famous sermon wbicb sealed bis fate. After describing tbe storms and waves wbicb threatened to engulf bim, be bade bis bearers not be discouraged, for tbat Cbrist would never forsake His Cburcb. " And do you know, my bretliren," be con- tinued, "wby it is tbey seek my destruction? It is because I bave no ricb bangings, no grand dinners, no open bouse. . . . Herodias, too, is here; and Herodias dances, and demands tbe bead of Jobn ! My bretbren, it is a time for tears; for everytbing is tending to dishonour (aSo^Lo). Money alone gives bonour and glory. Yet bear wbat David says, 'If ricbes increase, set not yourbearts upon tbem,' And wbo was David 1 Was be not a man raised to a king's tbrone — but," again almost naming Eudoxia (eiSotta), " be never sbowed bimself tbe slave of a woman! woe, woe to women, who close tbeir ears to tbe warn- ings of Heaven, and, drunk not with wine but with avarice and hate, besiege their husbands with evil counsels." Deportation of Chrysostom to Chalcedon. — There was a woman in tbe palace bard by whose husband was her very slave, and whose character belied her name, a second Herodias to a second Jobn, to whose ears these harsh words were carried at once. And at once the blow fell. The next day an Imperial officer of high grade pre- sented bimself, and ordered the archbishop, in the Em- peror's name, to quit tbe town immediately. And this time there was no liesitation. A vessel was ready, and in case of need a military force at band. To spare needless bloodshed Chiysostom acquiesced. Leaving the cloisters bv a private door, he lay concealed with a guard until nightfall, and was then conducted by retired streets to tbe harbour and placed on board a vessel, which instantly weighed anchor. Tbe Propontis was crossed, and their Chrysostom and the Empress Eiidoxia 85 prisoner landed not fiii from Chalcedon, while they re- turned. But this was to be within grasp of his enemies. It was still night, and the exile hired a boat, put out to sea again, and coasting southward to the Gulf of Astacus, landed near the little town of Prsenetus, where a friend of his had a villa, and there concealed himself. Riot and Earthquake in Constantinople. — That was a sad night for Constantinople. Half alarmed, half indignant, vast crowds flocked to the churches when these events became known; and when the churches were filled, formed meetings in the streets and colonnades. But there was no violence, only a hushed and foreboding despondency. And the next day was yet sadder. Theo- philus, flushed with triumph, crossed from Chalcedon, recommended the various priests, his friends, to take possession of their respective churches, and himself essayed to force an entrance into the archiepiscopal basilica. But force was met with force. A veritable battle ensued. Presently, to make the matter yet worse, soldiers appeared on the scene. Blood was freely shed. Churches were piled with dead bodies — were barricaded, besieged, and stormed like fortresses. And as the excitement rose higher, and bloodshed whetted the thirst for blood, the massacre became indiscriminate, innocent victims were cut down in the streets, and even monks were slain and their con- vents sacked. A day of horror was followed by a night of terror; for Constantinople was shaken from end to end by a shock of earthquake, and even the Imperial sleep disturbed. In an agony of fright at this manifest display of the wrath of Heaven, Eudoxia besought her husband to recall the archbishop, and with her own hand wrote him a letter repudiating all share in his banishment. Chrysostom Recalled. — Before daybreak a hurried envoy was dispatched, and then a second, and yet a third, 86 History of the Roman Empire to deliver this letter, and to urge Clirysostom to return at once, and save the city from destruction. He returned, and his progress was one scene of triumph and rejoicing. Despite his own wishes, the exultant people compelled him to repair to his own church without delay, and with violent though loving hands lifted him to the pulpit and implored him to address and bless them. To his adver- saries there remained only flight or concealment. Indeed the council broke up the same day without finishing its business. Theophilus set out for Alexandria, Severianus for Gabala; and an Imperial decree, at the instance of Chrysostom, was signed and issued for a new council. Statues of the Empress. — But fear is not as last- ing as pride or hate, and with its caases the Empress' fear passed away. Isot so her dislike to her old enemy, which, ere two months had passed, circumstances fanned again into a furious flame of hostility and persecution. Whether suggested by her own pride or the servility of her courtiers, an idea presented itself to the mind of the Empress as foolish as it was unprecedented. She succeeded in in- ducing Arcadius to allow statues of herself to be set up in the empire and '■'■ adored," as were those of the Emperor. To the West this seemed simply monstrous, and even to the East strange, and rather ridiculous. The Emperors were incarnations, so to say, of the gr^^at Eoman people, and as such, iu a sense, divine ; but Empresses — what were they beyond being wives and mothers of Emperors ? Eudoxia, however, insisted; and Arcadius gave way. Above all, she set store by a silver statue of herself, erected on a porphyry column, and placed in the centre of the Forum, where, with the church of St Sophia on one hand, and the senate-house on the other, the palace be- yond, and the busiest street of Constantinople at her feet, she might seem, as it -were, to dominate palace, church. Chrysostom and the Empress Eudoxia 87 and city, and even to inspire the wisdom of fhe senate, Tlie statue was inaugurated with rejoicings worthy of the occasion, which lasted for several days. But the austere soul of Chrysostom was disgusted with the scenes that went on just outside his church, and with the inter- ruptions of services and sermons caused by the music and shouting. He complained to the prefect. But the pre- fect was too wise a man of the world to offend an Em- press needlessly, and referred the archbishop to Eudoxia. !N^ext day the noise and interruption was even greater, and Chrysostom deeming it, perhaps not unnaturally, a bravado and provocation, not only of the prefect, but of the higher powers, ascended the pulpit, and once more, as so often before, inveighed against all who took part in or countenanced such doings. His personal allusions were soon the talk of the town, and duly reported to Eudoxia, ■who hastened to the palace and demanded from the Em- peror " vengeance " on her enemy; and the Emperor, deeply offended, declared that it was time to put an end to such factious insidts ! Once more, then, the court be- came the centre of intrigues directed against the arch- bishop's peace and life ; once more his old enemies ap- peared upon the scene, and insidious suggestions were heard to the effect that the councd which Chrysostom so earnestly desired might, perhaps, by good management turn out to his ruin. Indeed, all efforts were now directed to this end, that the council should be held in Constantinople, that is, under the eye and influence of the court, and that it should not rescind, but repeat and confiroi the decisions of the Council of the Oak. Arca- dius, meanwhile, refused to hold any intercourse with the archbishop, or even to communicate at his church (as was the immemorial custom) on Christmas day (a.d. 403). Council of Constantinople — a.d. 404. — The coun- 88 History of the Roman Empire cil assembled in January a.d. 404, and as before, fell at once into two parties; and its difficulties began at once. How could it reconsider the decisions of a former council without going into details % How go into details when many of the accusers and witnesses were dead, or far away ? Worst of all, how face the eloquent indignation of Chrysostom, who would have to be heard % Were these not reasons for temporising and delay? At this juncture an Egyptian bishop, and w^e know in whose spirit he spoke, suggested a preliminary question — was it in their power, or indeed in that of any ecclesiastical tribunal, to try the archbishop's case at all % By virtue of ecclesiastical law, he was no longer either bishop or priest ; and the speaker proceeded to quote two canons passed at a council held at Antioch in a.d. 341, under the presidency of the Emperor Constantius, of which the former declared that a bishop deposed by a council, and taking upon himself to resume his functions without reversal of sentence, or without being reinstated by his judges, should be iiDSo facto excommunicate ; the latter, that a bishop or priest thus excommunicate, and continuing to excite trouble in the Church, should be dealt with by the secular power. If, therefore, the canons of Antioch applied to this case, it would seem that the archbishop, who had been deposed by the Council of the Oak, and had resumed his position without their authority, was ex- communicate thereby, and not in a position to appeal to another council, being practically out of the Church. Chrysostom, however, was as well acquainted with Church history as his enemies, and succeeded in placing them in a disagreeable dilemma. The Council of Antioch was a council of Arians, presided over by an Arian Emperor, and its object was the deposition of the orthodox Athana- sius ; its canons, therefore, were Arian and heretical. CJirysostom and the Empress Eudoxia 89 "With what grace, then, coiikl an orthodox council ap- peal to the canons of a heterodox council, if they cared to preserve their orthodoxy % And further, whether orthodox or heterodox, the canons quoted did not apply to his case, for he had not heen deposed by a genuine council, hut by a packed meeting of his private enemies, who had condemned him unheard, and not even conveyed to him theu" own sentence of deposition. The question thus raised by Chrysostom as to the orthodoxy of the Council of Antioch became at once the general topic of conversa- tion in public and private circles, and was hotly discussed without much effect. At length a committee of twelve was nominated — six from each side — to discuss the question in the Emperor's presence, — a struggle in which the spokes- man on the archbishop's side gained a ready victory by inviting his ojjponents to declare their faith to be that of the council whose canons they relied on. They shrank from declaring themselves heretics, and so the discussion ended. Chrysostom forbidden to Leave the Palace. — Meanwhile a straw began to show which way the tide was turning — the fashionable world began to desert the archbishop's sermons ; and he felt it acutely, and touched on it severely more than. once. Nay more, Easter was approaching with its grand series of services and ceremonies, and more than 3,000 catechumens M-ere awaitmg their baptism at the archbishop's hands on Easter Eve. The Emperor chose this solemn time to forbid his entering the church, and ordered him to con- fine himself to the palace adjoining. Chrysostom obeyed, but it was with a heavy heart, and with painful uncer- tainty as to whether it was his duty to obey. Further reflection convinced him it was not ; and he resolved at last to brave consequences, and to perform in person the duties whicli were rightly his. 90 History of the Roman Empire His Disobedience. — On the morning of Easter Eve the archbishop left his invokmtary prison and proceeded to St. Sophia. The officers in charge of him had strict orders to use no violence; so that, baffled by his firmness, and unable to persuade where they could not prevent, they had nothing to do but to hasten to the palace and re- port to the Emperor what was happening. Arcadius was both irritated and alarmed, and at the same time at a loss what to do, for he shrank from using force at such a season. Ikit his counsellors, especially the Bishops An- tiochus and Acacius, were at no loss. Careless of conse- qiiences, they took on their own heads the responsibility of his condemnation before the council, and urged Arcadius to act at once. And so the flood-gates of vio- lence and riot were once more thrown open. The services at St. Sojihia had begun, the catechumens were succeeding each other in order at the font, when a noise was heard at the doors, and a body of troops, sword in hand, marched into the Basilica. The archbishop first was seized and dragged off". The soldiers then divided, and, so to say, swept the church. Men, women, children, were struck, knocked down, and even wounded, and the sanctuary itself dese- crated. The frightened crowds fled, and reassembled to conclude their service in the Baths of Constantius. But there, too, after a short delay, they were followed and ejected with more bloodshed and greater violence. Even some few, who still persevered and tried to finish in the country what they had begun in the city, were tracked, plundered, beaten, and dispersed. And then began a more odious persecution stiU. House after house was visited by police in search of " Joannites," as Chrysostom's followers were named ; and the prisons were filled to overflowing with clergy and laity, whose only crime was fidelity and love. CJirysostovi and the Empress Eiceioxia 91 The Council Ratifies his Condemnation. — The council in the meantime, whose existence had been almost overlooked during the last few days, concluded its busi- ness, and, as everybody had foreseen, bowed to the sinister influences all around, and signified its ratification of the acts of the Council of the Oak. "John had been deposed, and having thereupon resumed his functions without license, was ipso facto excommunicate. Let the civil power therefore now act." In accordance with this recommendation Chrysostom was kept a close prisoner in his palace, from Easter to Whitsuntide, preparatory to sterner measures. Chrysostom Appeals to the West. — Despairing of any further justice from his brethren in the East, he used the interval in composing and dispatching his famous " Appeal to the West," and specially to the three great bishops of Italy, — Innocent of Rome, Venerius of Milan, and Chromatius of AquQeia. It detailed the disorders of the Church in the East, and described the fearful scenes in St. Sophia, concluding with an earnest request that his cause might be fairly tried before an Qicumenical Council. Four bishops and two deacons were the bearers of these letters, who would also be able to attest as eye-witnesses the truth of what was stated. Innocent was profoundly impressed, though his immediate reply was calm and dignified. He ordered a solemn fast throughout the Eoman Church, and prayers to be oflered for the restora- tion of peace and unity to the East. At the same time he wrote two letters — one to Theophilus, announcing his intention of summoning a general council ; the other to Chrysostom, sympathising with and consoling him under his afflictions. More than this, he used his great influence with Honorius to induce him to espouse Chrysostom's cause with his brother Arcadius. 92 History of the Roman Empire Second Exile of Chrysostom — a.d. 404. — But events were march.ing rapidly at Constantinople. Two attempts were made to assassinate the archbishop, and barely failed. The population was growing more and more excited; his enemies more and more earnest to induce Arcadius to act. Again they undertook to bear the whole responsibility of his deposition. Thus urged, and perhaps eager to buy a little peace at any price, the Emperor yielded. Riot and Burning of St Sophia. — On the 20th of June A.D. 404, early in the morning, strong detachments of soldiers took up positions round the church and the archbishop's palace, and about mid-day an Imperial officer presented himself before Chrysostom, and delivered a letter ordering his immediate departure. Fearing the re- sult of delay or refusal, the archbishop took a hasty fare- well of the bishops and deaconesses, and leaving the church by the eastern door, while the crowd was expecting him at the western, surrendered himself to the soldiers there posted. The people, however, became suspicious. Some ran to the harbour, where they saw the vessel con- taining Chrysostom and his few companions already cross ing the Bosporus. Others penetrated into the church, which, however, they found already occupied by troops. Blows followed, and cries were heard; while those outside, thinking some harm was being done to the archbishop, attacked the closed doors and forced their way in. The soldiers at once used their weapons; oaths and shouts filled the air, mingled with the groans of wounded and dying. Presently a fearful storm burst over the city, with an awful darkness that added to the confusion; and while men's minds Avere thus overwrought, and as though the anger of Heaven were to be yet more clearly mani- fested, the church itself on a sudden was discovered to be in flames, which soon mastered the whole building, and, 1 Chrysostom a?id the Empress Eudoxia 93 fanned by the gale, swept across the Formn, enveloped and destroyed the senate-house, and even threatened the Imperial palace. Such were the omens which accom- panied the final departure of the archbishop from Con- stantinople. Chrysostom Conveyed to Cucusus. — He and his companions — two bishops, named Eulysius and Cyracius, and certain priests of his own church — had been landed at Chalcedon, and ignorant alike of their own destination and of what had happened in Constantinople, were pro- ceeding sadly towards !Nic£ea, escorted by Prtetorian guards, when they were overtaken by a small body of cavalry soldiers, the officer of which had orders to bring back the archbishop's companions on a charge of complicity in the burning of St. Sophia. Then, for the first time, the little party learned to their dismay all that had taken place; and then, for the first time, torn from his friends, Chry- sostom was left alone. And so he set off into exile. His destination, he discovered at last, was Cucusus, a place lying on the military road from Constantinople to Meso- potamia, and about 120 miles north of Antioch. The three years which he spent there (a.d. 404-407) were the most glorious, perhaps the happiest of his life. In exile, his faults were forgotten, his vu'tues remembered, and he himself had no fears for the future. He kept up a close connection with his own church of Constantinople and his many friends within it, and maintained a corre- spondence with many and distant provinces. Removal to Pityus. — But there were dangers to be faced even there from marauding Isaurians, and hard- ships to be undergone from the severities of the climate, — dangers and hardships which his enemies at home, it seems, hoped might end his ha teful life. But whensuch was not the case, and he lived on through three weary 94 History of the Roman Empire winters, liis enemies petitioned the Emperor, and obtained a "rescript" ordering his immediate removal to Pityus. This was a town lying at the remotest frontier of the lioman Empire, on the shore of the Enxine and at the foot of the Caucasus, once a large and flourishing place, but at that time rained by the gradual westward ad- vance of the barbarians, \nth a surrounding nomad population, and peopled almost solely by a garrison as barbarous as they. Probably all alike were pagans. In this wild place it was hoped he might die, and at the least his eloquent tongue would be silent. But he was not destined ever to reach it. The two soldiers respon- sible for his safe conduct took the road from Cucusus northwards, which would lead through Sebaste to !N"eo- C^esarea, and so to the coast; and for three months they toiled on, through rain and sunshine, careless of his suffer- ings, anxious only to be rid of their buixlen. Death at Comana in Pontus — Sept. 14, 407. — They reached Comana in Pontus, and there fatigue, ex- posure, and illness relieved them of their wearisome task, for Chrysostom died on September 14. " When he got to the shrine of the martyr Basiliscus," says Palladius, his biographer, " he asked for white vestments suitable to the tenor of his past life, and taking off his clothes of travel, he clad himself in them from head to foot, being still fasting, and then gave away his old ones to those about him. Then, having communicated in the symbols of the Lord, he said his customary words, ' Glory be to God for all things,' and having concluded with his last Amen, he stretched forth those feet of his which had been so beautiful in their running, whether to convey salvation to the penitent or reproof to the hardened in sin And being gathered to his fixthers, and shaking off this mortal dust, he passed to Christ." CHAPTER VI. ALARIC AND THE VISIGOTHS— A D. 396-419. State of Italy — a.d. 400. — The foremost man in the Western Empire at the "beginning of the fifth century was Stilicho the Vandal. Able and experienced — barbarian by birth and Roman in feeling — he was better able, per- haps, than any man to understand the needs of Italy, and to enforce the discipline and forbearance which was so necessary for peace. His very name was a terror to evil- doers, and for a while a guarantee against invasion. His position was fiu'ther strengthened by his own marriage to Serena, the niece of Theodosius, and by the marriage of his daughter Maria to Honorius. But the difficulties of government were such as might have taxed the wisdom and energy of even a Constantine or an Augustus. In all the Eoman world, "West and East alike, there was the same decay of political principles and public spirit ; but Italy and the West presented special difficulties of their own besides. If there were still pagans and heretics in the East, they were a small and powerless minority; while the paganism of Italy, and specially of Eome, where every street and almost every building were memorials of an antiquity wholly pagan, Avas a distinct power and influence of which every statesman must take account, and a centre round which heretics and Jews, and all the discontented 96 History of the Roman Empire memlDers of a large and divided society miglit rally. It was this party which had revolted against Theodosius in A.D. 394, and so nearly defeated him in the hattle of Sept. 6, at the foot of the Julian Alps ; it was still hostile to his family. It was at the same time a coalition of much that was noble and much that was base, of noble senators and aristocratic philosophers, with fanatics, scoffing unbelievers and plotting conspirators, who had one common watch word indeed, "religious liberty," but whose real interests were so diverse that their power was limited to simple opposition. To them, as to so many " coalitions," success would have been fatal. Fronting them stood the great and united Catholic party, headed by the court and the bishops — a party conscious of its strength, intolerant of opposition, and disposed to tyrannise in the hour of vic- tory. Between them, and identified wdth neither, was the Eegent of the "West, armed with the amnesty which on his deathbed Theodosius had charged him to publish, and both able and willing to enforce it. ^Nevertheless the peace thus enforced was felt to be nothing but an armed neutrality, and perhaps was only maintained in con- sequence of the disquieting rumours which reached Italy from the north-east; for the Visigoths were moving, and no one knew precisely where the storm might burst. It was indeed nothing but the precautions taken by Stilicho, in the summer of the year a.d. 400, in raising levies and strengthening fortifications in the north of Italy, especially Brescia, Aquileia, and Eavenna, that saved the country from the horrors which it suff'ered eight years later. For in the autumn Alaric did actually cross the Alps, but finding everything ready for resistance, returned to Illy- ricum whence he came. Alaric the Visigoth. — The questions at once occur, Who was Alaric ? How did he come to be in lUyricum? Alaric and tue Visigoths 97 and in what capacity was lie tliere ? The Visigoths, as Ave have seen (chap, iii.), driven before the advancing Huns, had been compelled to cross the Danube, and after winning a great victory and defeating a Roman Emperor (a.d. 378), had been settled by Theodosius in Moesia. The ascendancy of his character won their loyalty ; and when he left Constantinople in a.d. 394 to engage the insurgent forces of Arbogastes in Italy, a large body of their best soldiers joined his army. Among them was ^a young chieftain of the family from whom the Visigoths always chose their kings, hitherto unknown to fame, named Alaric, but afterwards not the least famous of those bar- barians whom contact with Eome and Romans trans- formed into civilised men. He was still young ; yet he had seen and taken part in all the tragic events of the twenty previous years — in the flight before the Huns, in the passage of the Danube, in the battle of Adrianople, in the ravaging of Thrace and Macedonia. It would have been strange had his eyes not been opened to the disorganisa- tion of the Empire, and the secret of its weakness ; or to the chance of success for an active and able adven- turer. Political hatred threw in his way the opportunity which otherwise he might long have waited for. It was a question of property in provinces. Province of Eastern lUyTicum. — Up to the reign of Theodosius Greece and Macedonia had been p)art of tlie western half of the Empire, as though annexed to Italy, under the name of Eastern Illyricum, separated from AVestern Illyricum, which lay between it and Italy, by tlie river Drinus, a tributary of the Save. It was an unnatural arrangement ; for between Greece and Italy there was community neither of language nor feeling, while the language and literature of Greece had been adopted throughout the East. Identity of interest, there- 98 History of the Roman Empire fore, seemed to mark this Illyricum as naturally a pro- vince of the East. Moreover, when the Emperor Gratian summoned Theodosius from Spain to retrieve the disaster of Adrianople, he had handed over to his special charge this very province then overrun with victorious Goths, in common with the eastern half of the Empire, of which he named him Emperor. It was, doubtless, meant as a temporary arrangement to meet a temporary danger ; hut by his will Theodosius, in dividing the Empire be- tween his sons, assigned Eastern Illyricum (Epirus, Mace- donia, Thessaly, and Achaia) to the share of Arcadius, and thus completed its severance from the West. The assignment was hailed with equal annoyance in Italy and exultation at Constantinople, and increased the already Tiitter feeling existing between the Imperial brothers and their ministers, Stilicho and Rufinus. There even seemed reason to fear that Honorius or his ministers might try to regain by force a province whose loss they so much re- sented. Accordingly, Euiinus kept urging Arcadius to take military possession of the province at once, and so anticipate the danger. But this was easier said than done. A large part of the army of the East was in the hands of Stilicho. Hence the repeated despatches ad- dressed by Arcadius to Honorius, claiming the return of these troops. Hence the agitation of both Arcadius and Eufinus when Stilicho declared his intention of handing them over to Arcadius in ^>erso?^. Hence the means vfhich they adopted to secure the troops, but to keep Stilicho at a distance, and tlie vengeance which the latter took on Eufinus by the hands of Gainas the Goth. But before all this actually happened, Eufinus had bethought him of possible allies in the Visigoths of Moesia, and opened communications with Alaric for that purpose, meanwhile sending on two agents of his own to replace Alaric and the Visigoths 99 tlie governors of Achaia and Thessaly. Alaric was only too eager to seize the opportunity for action. Without ilelay, and massing together his own people, and some Hunnish and Sarmatian allies from the north of the Danube, he burst through the pass of Succi in INIonnt Haimus, and descended into Thrace, his advanced guard even appearing before the walls of Constantinoi^le. The whole province and capital were panic-stricken, and asked in terror what it could mean. It is hard to realise that it was only a piece of cunning diplomacy, intended to secure the influence and personal safety of Eufbius. Yet so it was. Alaric was to approach the capital in warlike guise, and Eufinus to have the credit of persuading or bribing him to turn away from it. The protection of Eufinus would thus seem essential to the safety of Arcadius. Alaric in lUyricum. — All turned out as arranged ; and when Eufinus suggested that the Visigoths should retire, not to Moesia, but to Eastern Illyricum, and occupy that, it was, of course, with the idea of placing a strong barrier between himself and Stilicho, and it mattered little to him that they treated the province as a conquered land, and fell to pillaging. Stilicho prepares to Attack. — The news created a profound impression in Italy. i*^ot only was a province which the Italians looked upon as by rights their own oppressed by barbarians, but it was a province actually touchiaig theu' frontier. Another step and Alaric would be in Italy ! But Stilicho was alive, not only to this danger, but to the fact that Alaric in this case Avas a puppet in the hands of Eufinus. His resolution, there- fore, was soon taken, to carry the war into the enemy's country, to drive Alaric out of Greece, and confine him once more to Moesia, and then to settle matters with Eufinus in person at Constantinople. No time was to bo 100 History of the Roman Empire lost. Although it was winter, Stilicho crossed the Alps, descended the Ehine to its mouth, inspected the garrisons, and withdrew such troops from Gaul, and even from Britain, as he thought might safely be spared. Bitterly was their loss regretted a few years later when Picts and Scots descended upon Britain, and Vandals, and Burgun- dians, and Goths swept through Gaul ; but for the moment, when he returned with a powerful army at his back, all Italy was exultant, and the troops of West and East, so lately enemies, fraternised in common devotion to Stilicho. Alaric, meantime, was overrunning ISTorthern Greece and levymg requisitions. From Macedonia, which was exhausted, he had repaired to Thessaly, and there Stilicho came up with him (a.d. 396). But while the two armies lay confronting each other a letter reached Stilicho from Arcadius, calling upon him to abandon Illyricum, to leave Alaric alone, and to send the money and troops belonging to Arcadius at once to Constantinople. Stilicho, unwilling to injure a son of Theodosius, detached Gainas vv^ith the soldiers and the money for Arcadius, and by his means revenged himself on Rufinus. Weakened, however, by the withdrawal of a large part of his army, Stilicho for the moment was unable to cope with Alaric, who, breaking up from his intrenched camp, marched at leisure through Thermopylae and Phocis into Attica. At Athens the magistrates were politic enough to disarm his hostility by submission, to humour his superstitious fears of offending their goddess, to flatter his vanity by splendid entertainments. And thus Athens, her temples, and works of art escaped the pillage which, we are told, the Christian monks urged upon Alaric. Alaric and Stilicho in Peloponnesus. — Eleusis was not so fortunate. Town and temple ahke were Alaric mid the Visigoths lOl sacked. The Istlimus was passed with the connivance of Gerontius, the governor of Achaia nominated by Kufinus ; Corinth was in ashes ; and Alaric was in full march upon Argos and Sparta, when Stilicho, who had returned to Italy after the break-up of his army to collect reinforcements, was despatched by Honorius once more at the urgent demand of the Corinthians, and landed in the Peloponnesus. He was too late to save Corinth; but overtook Alaric in the valley of the Eurotas, defeated him in a pitched battle, and succeeded eventually in sur- rounding the Goths in ]\Iount Erymanthus, north of Olympia and Pisa. But Pisa proved the Capua of Stilicho and his army. The generals feasted and amused them- selves ; the soldiers deserted ; so that Alaric found no difficulty in breaking through their lines, and making his escape by way of Corinth and the Isthmus. Mean- while, in pursuance of what was now traditional policy, Eutropius had offered Alaric the post of " Master-General of Eastern lUyricum," on condition of his ceasing hostili- ties and retiring at once to Epirus. Thus armed with full powers, no sooner did Alaric find himself on the north side of the Isthmus than he issued orders as master-general of the province to Stilicho to evacuate it, and Stilicho, baffled, was forced to acquiesce. But it was a fatal blov/ to his reputation. All hope now of reaching Constanti- nople, and making himself regent of the two Empires, was at an end, Alaric had gained the right of bidding Stilicho evacuate Peloponnesus ; and Stilicho, if he refused, would be a "rebel." He embarked with precipitation, and landed in Italy. But it was a step which exposed him to both ridicule and direct attack. In the East he was laughed at; in the West he was accused of "treason." And there can be no doubt that Alaric's success did reveal to the barbarians the extent of their own power. 102 History of tJie Rojuaii Empire Revolt of Gildo Suppressed. — And now Eutropiiis, who had thus cleverly set up a barrier between Italy and Constantinople, between Stilicho and himself, was not only dreaming of launching these same Goths upon Italy, but also of further troubling that unhappy country by involving her in war with Africa — his object still being, like that of Rufinus, to keep Stilicho so far occupied at liome, that he should have no time-to interfere at Constan- tinople. Gildo the Moor, Count of Africa, was secretly encouraged by Eutropius to transfer the allegiance of the province of Africa from the Western to the Eastern Empire. Gildo {with ulterior designs of transferring Africa to himself) assented, seized the corn Heet about to sail for Italy, and threatened to destroy Carthage if he were attacked. Eome was at once a prey to terror and indignation, and Stilicho's energy taxed to the utmost. But the danger was met witliout much diffi- culty; Africa was recovered; Gildo was captured, and destroyed himself in prison; and the influence of Stilicho in Italy was increased rather than weakened by the tact and activity which he showed in meeting the emergency. Threatened Invasion of Italy. — Nevertheless there were clearly dangers threatening in the immediate future greater than any yet faced. Alaric was watching his opportunity to descend upon Italy, and Eutropius urging him to do so. The province of lUyricum was nearly exhausted by constant requisitions; while the political troubles consequent on the faU of Eutropius (a.d. 399) left the court of Constantinople neither time nor will to trouble itself about the Visigoths. Alaric meanwhile was as restless as a wild beast in a cage, a prey to opposite feelings. The grandeur of Stilicho exasperated him. AVhv was it Stiliclvo rather than himself ! At Alaric and the Vislgolhs 1 03 one time he was possessed with the idea of falling upon Italy, violating the eternal city, and making himself an awful name by some terrible deed. At another, the majesty of Eome subdued him, and he yearned to be a Eoman, the foremost of Eomans ! But beneath all moods there was the same agitation and excitement — an agitation which spread wherever he went, and in the barbarian world was like fire in stubble. Disquieting rumours filled the air, and Stilicho was thoroughly alarmed. Urgent orders were sent to Gaul for reinforce- ments, the walls of Eome were repaired, and the forti- fications of Eavenna prepared to shelter the Emperor and his court in case of need. Perhaps the worst sign of aU was the attitude of the Italian population. Courage and patriotism seemed to have vanished. The calm despair of the Christians was not so sj)iritless as the abject terror of the superstitious, who saw signs and portents ever}-- where, or as the craven selfishness of the well-to-do, who Avithdrew in crowds, anxious only to be quit of Italy ! Even Honorius was only deterred by the personal influ- ence of Stilicho from placing the Alps between himself and Alaric, and from inaugurating a new capital at Aries or Lyons. In the meantime (spring of a.d. 402) disturbances had already broken out among the barbarian levies in Ehoetia, fomented by Alaric ; and the war there languished during the summer; for Alaric was on the alert, and Stihcho, whose presence alone could have finished the matter, was afraid to leave MUan and the Emperor unde- fended while he crossed the Alps. At last he had nd longer any choice. Leaving Milan strongly garrisoned, he hastened across the Alps, pacified the province by his mere name and presence, and returned by forced marches to Italy with strong reinforcements, hoping to arrive before Alaric had time to hear of his absence. Alaric 104 History of tJic Roinaji Empire had spies in plenty ; and no sooner was he informed of Stilicho's departure, than he passed the Julian Alps — passed hy the towns of Venetia and Upper Italy, and made a rapid dash upon Milan. His hope was to capture Honorius. But rapid as were his movements, StiHcho was yet faster. The Visigoths had not yet crossed the Adda, when he descended the southern slopes of the Alps ixuder the cover of night, and in the thousand watch- fires that gleamed like stars across the plain helow him, read the story of Alaric's advance and Honorius's danger. Pushing on with a small escort, he dashed through the river under a shower of darts from the enemy's sentinels (which in the darkness happily missed their aim), and hy morning light was under the walls of Milan. Claudian, his friend and panegyrist, describes the cries of triumph which welcomed him, and the joy at the sight of the well-known grey head ; for the city was now safe. Alaric retreated with as much speed as he had come, not halting till he reached Venetia ; while Stilicho provided, as best he could, for the immediate protection of Italy by con- veying the Emperor to the shelter of the impregnable morasses of Ravenna, and by covering the roads to Eome. Eut it was impossible for the Visigoths to remain in Venetia, where the towns were shut against them, and the country inundated. Eetreat or advance they must — retreat to Illyricum, or advance where fortune led them ! Battle of PoUentia — a.d. 403. — In spite of opposi- tion and warning, Alaric resolved to advance — moved by the conviction (if we may believe Claudian) ^ that he was ^ Non soiiinia nobis Nee volucres, sed clara paliim vox edita luco est : " Rumpe omnes, Alarice, moras : hoc impiger aiiuo A.lpibus Italiffi ruptis penetrabis ad Urbem." bt Ld. Get. v. 544. Alaric and the Visigoths 1 05 destined to see liome. He professed to have heard a voice bidding him march without delay. Breaking up from Venetia he moved westward, avoiding Milan, and followed at a short distance by Stilicho. He entered Liguria, crossed the Po, and at last halted at Pollentia, about twenty-five miles south-west of Turin, whence he could march either east or west — on Eome if victorious in the coming battle, on Gaul if defeated. On April 5th, 403, the two armies faced one another, Alaric's flanks and rear being protected by a forest, which then lined the banks of the river Tanarus, and by a little stream strangely named "Urbis,"^ while Stilicho lay between him and Gaul. The next day was Easter Sunday ; and, as though by mutual consent, a suspension of arms seemed to be agreed upon between the leaders, when on a sudden the silence was broken by shouts and cries, and fighting was seen to have begun. In StUicho's army was a con- tingent of Goths, led by a pagan named Said; and it appears that, moved either by contempt for their Christian scruples, or a deshe to take vengeance on his renegade Christian countrymen, or a fear of losing so favourable an opportunity of attack, Saiil had fallen suddenly on the Visigoths in his front, reckless of consequences. The battle once begun soon became general, and raged along the whole line. It was, however, very nearly lost by Stilicho at the outset. Por the leader of a contingent (^f Alani, whose fidelity was mistrusted by Stilicho, resenting the doubt, put himself at the head of his men, and led them in a desperate charge, regardless of orders, on the very centre of the Visigoths. A furious melee ensued, from which but few escaped, their leader having barely strength sufficient to present himself before Stilicho, and drop dead at his feet. It was very magnificent, - Pervenit ad iluviiim (miri cognomiuis) Urbem. — Ih. ih. 555. io6 History of the Roman Empire but it was not "war." For Stiliclio had the utmost diffi- culty in restoring the balance of his line, and in rally- ing the fugitives from the charge. But the union of skill and obstinate courage at last won the day, and when the Eoman centre succeeded in reaching the waggons, containing the wives, children, and booty of the Goths, the day was practicall}" won; and Alaric retreated along the Tanarus towards Asta, leaving in the conqueror's hands his wife and children, — treasures of gold, and vases and statues, the spoil of Greece, with a crow. 476. — The ruin of Orestes began from the moment when he appeared to have gained his object; for he had to satisfy the demands of those who had lifted him to power. And those demands were for nothing less than a third of the soil of Italy. Was the claim indeed so unreasonable % They had deserved well of Orestes. Other tribes and nations, like themselves, had been allotted land within the Roman Empire. Visigoths and Bur- gundians in Gaul had laid hands on two-thirds of the soil ; were they not moderate in only claiming one-third % To themselves, no doubt, they seemed moderate enough ; but Orestes could realise what such a confiscation im- plied, and was not so hard-hearted or unscrupulous as calmly to inflict so much suffering on an unoffending jieople. He refused the demand. The refusal at once resulted in a meeting ; the meeting in a revolt ; and the revolters had no difiiculty in finding a leader in Odoacer (or Otochar), the Eugian, son of Edecon, whom Attila had often employed, like Orestes, as ambassador to the court of Byzantium. The dreams of ambition had already been aroused in his mind by some words of St Severinus, whom he had visited in I^^oricum when on his way to Italy, foreteUing his future greatness. Young and ener- getic, he had soon forced his way to high rank in the Italian army ; and being encumbered with few scruples, he readily promised to give what Orestes had refused, if his comrades would accept him as their chief. They con- sented ; and war was at once declared against the ungrate- ful Orestes. From aU the garrisons of Italy, and from the valley of the Danube, recruits flocked in to join the " TJie Change of Govcrnincnt'' 159 standard of Odoacer, -whom accident and force of char- acter thus enabled to verify the prediction of Severinus. Orestes threw himself into Pavia; while his brother Paulus prepared to defend Eavenna and the youthful Emperor. But it was too late. Pavia was blockaded by Odoacer for forty days, and at last fell, rather by treason from within than by force from without. The prayers of its saintly Bishop Epiphanius, glorious already for many a similar intercession, saved indeed the liberty and honour of many of its inhabitants, but Orestes was put to death (a.d. 476), From Pavia the victorious Eugian, already saluted as " king " by his soldiers, marched rapidly on Eavenna, defeated Paulus in the pine woods that covered the city in those days on the south and south-west, and entered the streets without resistance. Meanwhile, the trembhng Eomulus had thrown off the imperial insignia, and tried in vain to hide himself from the ruthless bar- barian, who had slain his father, and would hardly hesi- tate to slay the son. Odoacer, however, was no mere butcher. Moved by the fears, or the youth, or the beauty of the lad, he scorned to take his life, and allowed him to retire with his whole family to the luxurious obscurity of the villa of Lucullus on the promontory of Misenum in Campania, — once the home of Marius, and then of Lucul lus, and now of the last Eoman Emperor of the "West,— and yet to be, twenty years later, the final resting place on earth for 500 years of the body of the saint who had first warned Odoacer of his coming greatness. A Change in Form of Government. —Thus ended the long roU of Eoman Emperors in the West for 325 years. An Emperor, indeed, there was at Constantinople, and continued to be for nearly 1000 years, but his power in the West and over Italy was partial and temporary, where he was regarded with jealousy as an alien. Eome i6o History of the Roman Empire saw not another Emperor until the day when Pope Leo III. crowned Charles the Great Emperor in the basilica of St. Peter, and the Empire revived to attempt once more the great work of "Union," of Eoman and Teutonic amal- gamation (Christmas Day, a.d. 800). But we must not confound two different things. Empires can exist with- out Emperors, and there is no special virtue in a name. Although, there was no Emperor, the life of Eome and Italy continued much the same as it had been for the last fifty years ; indeed, it is remarkable how little noise among contemporaries this revolution produced, of which later historians have made so much. It was a change in the form of government, long foreseen ; and whatever change it produced among the governed was certainly a change for the better. It would be idle to compare the vigorous reigns of Odoacer and Theodoric with the anarchy pre- ceding them ; and it may well be doubted, on the other hand, whether the efiect of the revolution on the ordinary life of an Italian was comparable to that produced by the Protectorate of CromweU in England or by the Great Revolution in France. Odoacer "King" — a.d. 476. — Odoacer was "king," and for fifteen years he ruled Italy strongly and well. He respected and enforced the Imperial laws ; he retained the Imperial officers, consuls, prsefects, and the like. Though an Arian, he granted toleration to the Catholics. He protected the Italian frontiers from the barbarians of Germany and Gaul. He even crossed the Adriatic to recover Dalmatia, and passed the Alps to reconquer Nori- cum. But years of decay are not to be repaired by so brief a period of peace; and the state of Italy was only less miserable than it had been. Difficulties in and out of Italy. — Ever since the days of Tiberius, slavery and absenteeism had been Avork- " Tlie CJiaiige of Government'^ i6i ing their deadly effect. Population had steadily declined, as the means of subsistence became scarcer, and had been further diminished by the incessant wars and disorders of 200 years; while the loss of Egypt and Africa had sud- denly cut off the ordinary supply of corn for the great cities. Pope Gelasias now repeated the complaint made eighty years before by St. Ambrose, that whole districts in the Eomagna and Tuscany were ruined and depopu- lated. And now, to crown all, one-third of the soil was wrested from the impoverished landowners, and be- stowed (as in the times of Sulla and Augustus) on rude soldiers, who did not, like the Visigoths in Gaul, bring wives and children and cattle with them, and so form a genuine " colony," but being unused to husbandry and settled life, soon tired of their bargain, and abandoned or sold what they did not care to keep. It seemed, therefore, that many a farmer had been ruined to no purpose ; for the soldiers who dispossessed them were soon as poor as they — men to whom revolution could mean nothing but gain, and who were, therefore, ripe for re- volution. For the moment, however, the danger was evaded by the astuteness of Odoacer. There were two quarters from which he might anticipate interference — from the Visigoths in Gaul, and from Constantinople. The former he pacified by ceding to them !N"arboniie, the last reHc of Roman dominion beyond the Alps. The alliance of the Emperor Zeno (a.d. 474-491) he won by a deeper stroke of policy. Zeno was very anxious to interfere in the "West, and there were two men at least who were equally anxious to aid him in so doing. One of these was Julius Nepos, the ex-Emperor of the "West, who had fled to Dalmatia, and was eager to regain his crown; the other was Theodcric the Ostrogoth. Theod- oric was the son of Theodemir, of the royal race of the 1 62 History of the Roman Empire Amall (the Immaculate), and had been brought up as a hostage at the Court of Byzantium. Educated, indeed, he was not ; for he never even learned to write ; but con- tact with civilisation awoke and stimulated his native genius, and produced that happy combination of energy and wisdom, of power of will and respect for law, which marked soon afterwards his peaceful reign in Italy. As yet, however, all this was in the future, and Theodoric was only an ambitious man, with a consciousness of latent power which he longed to use — a dangerous enemy, how- ever, should opportunity offer. Odoacer Subordinate to the Emperor. — With this trio of unquiet spirits Odoacer had to cope — with Zeno, jealous of the independence of the West; with !N"epos, ever importuning him to act; with Theodoric, eager for some field of action. And Odoacer was equal to the occasion. He too had an ex-Emperor in reserve in the person of Eomulus Augustulus. At Odoacer's dicta- tion, Romulus instructed the Eoman Senate to send an embassy to Constantinople, declaring that Italy was weary of two Emperors, and asking Zeno to resume the Imperial power, and to name Odoacer " patrician " and representa- tive of the Emperor in Italy. At the same time, as though an affirmative answer were certain, the Imperial insignia, diadems, and purple, the heirlooms of four cen- turies, were dispatched to Constantinople to adorn per- haps some cabinet of curiosities in the Imperial palace. Zeno graciously accepted the present, and assented to the petition as far as regarded Odoacer, while reserving the rights of Nepos — a reservation which the patrician wisely ignored, and which was rendered useless by the murder of ISTepos (a.d. 480). For a time Odoacer was master of Italy. And to Italy he presently added Sicily, which ho bought from the Vandals. " 77z^ Change of Govcrnmcjit " 1 63 Theodoric sent to reduce Italy to Obedience — A.D. 488. — But it was only for a time. After a peace- ful reigu of some ten or twelve years Odoacer was van- quished, and Italy oppressed by a sudden irruption of Theodoric and the whole Ostrogothic nation. It would be alike useless and wearisome to narrate in detad the varying relations of Zeno and Theodoric, and the wretched intrigues and cabals of the Eastern Court. Suffice it to say that, after a dozen quarrels, and as many reconcilia- tions, the enmity and the friendship of the Ostrogoth became equally burdensome to the Emperor of the East, who welcomed greedily, at last, a proposal made twice before and twice rejected, that Theodoric should release the province of Italy from the " oppression " (as it was styled) of the too independent Odoacer. That Theodoric was ambitious has already been said; but ambition was not now his only incentive. He was regarded as a natural leader, not only by his own Ostrogoths, but by many another people inhabiting the valley of the Danube; and while the Ostrogoths were chafing at the misery and inaction of their life in IMossia, and bitterly exclaiming against their king's luxurious and ignoble life at court, Rugians, Herulians, and others were calling on him to avenge them upon the Italianised Odoacer, who had ven- tured to attack and defeat them on their own side of the Alps. Ambition, shame, and anger, therefore, combined to urge Theodoric to immediate action, while Zeno's assent relieved the East of a troublesome and domiL.eering neigh- bour. The vast host, numbering (it was said) 200,000 fighting men, besides women and children, cattle and waggons, set out on its westward migration in the autumn of A.D. 488; and once again (as so often before, and so often since in her luihappy history) Italy was to be tlio prize of battle. 1 64 History of the Roman Empire March of Theodoric— a.d. 488-9.— The line of march chosen hy Theodoric was not the ordinary one by the valley of the Save and the Julian Alps, but the shorter and more southern road leading through lUyricum to Dyrrachium. He hoped thus to escape the hardships of a winter march over difficult ground; and knowing that there were vessels in abundance on the coast, he expected to be able to seize them, to transport his people across the Adriatic, while Odoacer was awaiting him in the l^orth, and thus to be master of Central and Southern Italy, and perhaps of Eome, before his enemy could attack him. To this clever plan nothing was wanting but good fortune. "When the Goths, however, arrived on the Eastern coast, they found all the vessels on which they had counted withdrawn, and the people bitterly hostile. To retrace their steps, or to foUow the coast Line and so march to Italy, seemed almost equal madness; while to remain in Dalmatia was certain destruction. The second alternative was finally adopted. And so in the dead of winter (a.d. 488-9) amid snow and frost, over mountain ranges, across rivers and torrents, in the face of enemies, and harassed by hunger and illness, the great host held its way obstinately northwards, until they struck the valley of the Save near Emona. They crossed the Alps, and halted to recover health and strength in the plain between the rivers Sontius (Isonzo) and Frigidus (Wip- pach) before attacking Odoacer. Struggle between Odoacer and Theodoric — A.D. 488-493. — The struggle between Odoacer and Theod- oric lasted for more than four years, and was marked by three desperate battles, and a siege of nearly three years — a struggle in which the material resources seem to have been mostly in Odoacer's hands, and only for- feited by his own recklessness, while it brought out into " The Change of Government " 1 65 strong relief the daring and energy of Theodoric, and gave him without dispute the foremost position in Italy. The first blow was struck by Theodoric (August 28, 489). Odoacer had formed an intrenched camp on the Isonzo — as famous a battle field of Italy as Leipsic has be'tiU of Germany — where Maximin had been defeated and slain in a.d. 238 ; and Theodosius had conquered Eugenius in a.d. 384 ; and Attila had destroyed Aquilei;* in A.D. 452. The intrenchments were carried, and Odoacer fled to Verona. Theodoric lost no time in fol- lowing his enemy. On September 27 a pitched battle •was fought on the east bank of the Athesis (Adige), in which, after desperate fighting, the Goths were again vic- torious; the Italian centre was driven in and routed, their right wing was pushed into the river, Verona was taken, and Odoacer found refuge in Eavenna. Fifteen years afterwards the plain was still white with the bones of the dead, to whom the Ostrogoth had forbidden burial. Theodoric now styled himself " King of Italy," and then followed a paper war of proclamations, recriminations, and appeals, each "king" striving to enlist on his own side the hopes and fears of the peoj^le. The sympathies of Italy were undoubtedly with Odoacer, rather than with his antagonist. Theodoric had come unasked to interrupt a period of unwonted peace; and as for Zeno, who was this pseudo-Csesar, that treated Italy and Eome like a piece of private property to be passed from hand to hand ! In spite, therefore, of many just causes of complaint, the Italians clung to Odoacer; until in a fit of anger, because the Komans refused to admit him to the city, and wished to stand neutral in the strife, he ravaged the whole adjoining country, and alienated the loyalty of his former friends. But for this he might have weathered the storm; for what with the treachery 1 66 History of tJie Roman Empire of allies, and the disparity of strength, Theodoric's posi- tion became so precarious, that he was reduced to ask for support from his kinsmen, the Visigoths in Gaul. Odoacer had even felt himself strong enough to hesiege Theodoric in Pavia after sacking Milan. A third great battle, however, was fought between the rival kings on the Adda, near Milan (August 11, 490), in which the Ostrogoths were again victorious, and Odoacer again was forced to flee to Eavenna, with its sheltering marshes and pinewoods. Here for nearly three years he was blockaded by Theodoric — a blockade only interrupted by one spirited attempt (which failed) to carry off Theodoric bodily in the dead of night. IJ^either could exhaust the patience of the other; each was harassed by famine and disease. Convention of Ravenna — a.d. 493. — At last, on February 27, 493, a convention was concluded, through the mediation of the Bishop of Eavenna, by which it was agreed that the two kings should share the kingdom of Italy, either dividing the territory between them, or ruling in turn after the ancient form of Consular Govern- ment. Theodoric entered Eavenna on the 5th of March, the two armies and the two kings occupying different quarters of the city. Murder of Odoacer. — It was, however, only a brief truce. Between two such men, in such a position, peace was ia fact impossible. Jealousy begot suspicion. There were meetings of officers, rumours among soldiers and townspeople. Mischief was evidently brewing, which nothing but loyal sincerity between Theodoric and Odo- acer could prevent. And this was wanting. A few daj'S after his entry into Eavenna, Theodoric invited Odoacer, his son, and principal officers to a grand banquet, at which they were all murdered in cold blood, Odoacer by " The CJiange of GovernincnV^ 167 Theodoric's own hand. And these murders were fol- lowed by a general massacre of all Odoacer's friends where- ever they were found. Theodoric was undisputed " King of Italy." It is difficult to form a just judgment of so dreadful a Leginning of a glorious reign. Murder is never defen- sible; but the guilt of murder varies indefinitely. Bar- barians think lightly of bloodshed: and Theodoric was more than half barbarian. In him lofty and almost heroic aspirations, and an intellectual admiration of the higher virtues of civilisation, were grafted upon the in- stincts of a savage. Attila was more merciful than Theod- oric in his fiercer moods; while his justice, toleration, and firmness as a ruler were worthy of Trajan, The murder of Odoacer by Theodoric seems less odious in our eyes than the judicial murder of Servetus by Calvin, in the name of conscience {a.d. 1553), far less wicked than that of the Due d'Enghien by !N'apoleon, on the plea of self-defence (a.d, 1804). A man must be judged by the standard of his own day; and neither to the Italians, who were familiarised with horrors by years of war and revolution, nor to the Germans, who had been used to human sacrifices, and still valued human life by a money standard, would Theodoric's act probably have seemed worse than a questionable deed wrought in self-defence. Undoubtedly it is more to his glory to have risen above the standard of his age in respect of toleration and poli- tical wisdom, than it is to his shame to have sunk down to that standard in his regard for human life. Prosperous Reign of Theodoric — a,d, 493-526, — Theodoric was " King of Italy " during thirty-three years, — the happiest thirty years which that country knew between the age of the Antonines (a.d. 138-180), and the time of Charles the Great (about 800). While acknow- 1 68 History of the Roman Empire ledging in words a nominal dependence on the Eastern Empire, lie was in reality an independent sovereign, and regarded himself as rightful heir of the Empire of the West — "haeres Imperii, semper Augustus." As Emperor in fact, though not in name, he addressed words of counsel, encouragement, or remonstrance to the neighbouring kings ; while he carefully cultivated their alliance — himself marrying the sister of Chlodwig, and giving one daughter in marriage to the King of the Visi- goths, and another to the King of the Burgundians. His sister married the King of the Vandals, and his niece the King of the Thuringians. His greatness is shown by these alliances, by the embassies which visited his court from far distant countries, by the memory that was long cherished of his name and deeds. He reduced to order the troubled districts of Pannonia and Noricum ; he re- pulsed an attack upon Italy of the Emperor Anastasius (a.d. 509) ; he maintained a close friendsliip with the Visigoths, and even saved them from destruction at the hands of Clilodwig (a.d. 507). From Sicily to the Danube, from Sirmium to the Loire, the influence of Theodoric was paramount, and Italy for a generation was exempt from the ravages of war. That portion of the soil, which had been confiscated by Odoacer, was given to the Ostrogoths — no mere army of occupation, but a "people" with arms in their hands, men with wives and children and cattle, who meant to live in their hard-won homes. In the government of Italy he made little or no change; the functions and names of the old officials were carefully preserved ; and he used the services of the ablest Italians in all but military duties. Eome and the great cities enjoyed in his reign order and plenty, while their works of art and famous buildings were carefully protected. But in nothing perhaps was the general pros- ** The Change of Government " 169 perity more strikingly shown than in the sudden increase of wealth, and the great development of industry. Agri- culture revived ; mines were opened and worked ; the Pontine marshes were drained and cultivated. These were the signs of government of a high order — so high, indeed, that we are driven to ask, why the work of a man so just and impartial, so wise and tolerant, was after all so transitory, that it was in part undone hefore his death, and that in thirty years hardly a trace of it was to be found? The answer to this question is threefold. Although Theod- oric's avowed object was to fuse Teutonic vigour with Eoman civilisation, a complete fusion of such diverse elements must be a work of time, and needs mutual inter- course, intermarriage, and community of religious faith to produce it; whereas the Ostrogoths in Italy were a dis- tinct nation, an aristocracy of conquest, whose separation from the conquered was as jealously maintained as that of the !N^ormans from the English by William the Con- queror. And they were Arians, whom good Catholics were boimd to hate. If it required a century and a half to fuse English and !N"ornians, Goths and Italians could scarcely be amalgamated in thirty years ! For, deplore it as we may, rehgious differences are more in- delible than any others; and, however they may be silenced for a while by a strong hand, are a constant source of danger. Men who feel sure they are right in their views are often strangely bhnd to the rights of others. Lastly, Theodoric's was a single life, and his work lacked continuity, which is indeed the special draw- back of the rule of one man. The more we praise the wisdom which triumphed over exceptional difficulties, the more in such a case is it certain that the difficulties will recur, when the great man is gone, and the wisdom to cope ■\\'ith them is withdrawn. I/O History of the Roman Empire Close of Theodoric's Reign— a.d. 523-6.— The last three years of a glorious reign were emhittered by religious dissensions and political persecution. Five years before the aged and tolerant Anastasius was suc- ceeded on the throne of Constantinople by the Dacian peasant Justin (a.d. 518), whose accession put an end to a schism of thirty-five years between East and West, and whose orthodoxy acknowledged the supremacy of the Eoman See. It was the signal for a persecution of the Arians in the East, and even in Gaul. Italy alone was exempt. But Theodoric could hardly see unmoved the rise of a spirit, which he had done his best to hold in check; he was at once indignant and alarmed, and addressed strong expostulations on the subject to Justin. At the same time vague rumours began to reach Eavenna of a conspiracy against himself, involving the whole Eoman Senate — rumours only too likely to be true, when their place of origin was Eome, and religious jealousy was running liigh. Theodoric's heir, too, was a child, whose only guardian would be a woman; while there was danger to be dreaded from the known ambition and orthodoxy of Justin's heir, Justinian. The future, therefore, looked doubtful enough to justify suspicion, which unhappily aroused the darker side of Theodoric's character. Sum- mary and cruel vengeance was taken upon the leading members of the Senate. Boethius, the greatest of living Italians, was imprisoned, tortured, and beaten to death, Symmachus was executed Even Pope John died in prison. But it is best to draw a veil over the last sad days of a really great man, in whom a fine intellect was enfeebled and a generous temper soured by unforeseen anxieties, and by what seemed to be the ingratitude of men for thirty years of uninterrupted benefits. No man is made better by despotic power, be he ever so good or " The Change of Government " 171 able; and while we lament the fierce deeds which have left a stain upon his memory, we may well saj'- of Theod- oric, with the Gothic historian Procopius, that " though he was called a usurper and a tyrant, he was every inch a king." \ CHAPTER X. THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN— A.D. 527-565. Contrast of Bast to West. — We pass abruptly from West to East — from a scene of vivid if rude and barbarous energy, to a life better ordered, yet on the whole less noble. Intrigue takes the place of war. The story of a Chrysostom or a Theophilus, a Eudoxia or a Eutropius, is repeated till we are weary, while barbarous chiefs patronise or tyrannise over a feeble Emperor, too weak to resist and too indolent to resent it. From Arca- dius to Justin (a.d. 395-518) it is the same tale with slight variations, whose ignoble course it is as useless to follow as it is uninteresting to read. But in Justinian we come once more to a man whose thoughts and life affected all after ages. It is not with elected as it is with hereditary princes, who are for the most part cast in the same mould. Elected rulers are in the majority of cases "great men," embodiments in a sense of their own age, who represent in miniature, yet with deliniteness, the vague and inarticulate tendencies of thousands of their fellows. Great men, as Carlyle says, are " profitable company." Justinian. — And was Justinian great 1 Certainly, if the man who can conceive vast ideas and carry them to a successful issue be great, Justinian deserves the name. The Emperor Justinian I73 To him was due the glory of the codification of Eoman. law, of the recovery of Italy and Africa to the Empire, of the reptdse of attacks from Persians and Bulgarians, The character of Justinian was a strangely mixed one, it is true. It piques our curiosity. It is not necessary to believe half that the malicious " Anecdotes" of Procopius recount of the weakness of Justinian, or of the shameless vice of Theodora; and the deeds of his reign are before us to speak for themselves as to his energy, industry, and perspicacity. Yet he was at once rapacious and prodigal, ambitious and cowardly. Though a peasant born, and of barbarian blood, he had very little of barbarian independ- ence or peasant hardiness, being guided by his wife's more masculine spirit. He had far-reaching ideas, and chose the fittest instruments to carry them into eflect; but was too timid or too jealous to allow them independence of action. In an age of great warriors and ceaseless war, he had no military instincts, though (like Philip the Second of Spain) he serenely appropriated the glory and the fruits of struggles in which he took no part. However keen was his intellect, and incredible his energy, yet his character leaves on the mind an impression of pettiness; for he was neither liberal nor generous to his best friends — a man to be neither much loved, nor much hated, nor much respected, yet undeniably " great" intellectually. Justinian's Rise. — The fortunes of Justinian arose out of the favour of his uncle Justin. Tho latter, born in Illyricum, and probably a Goth, had migrated to Byzan- tium about A.D. 474. He enlisted in the Imperial guard, rose rapidly from grade to grade, and on the death of Anastasius (a.d. 518) adroitly secured his own election as Emperor. Thus favoured by fortune, he lost no time in summoning to court his sister Beglenitza, her husband Istok, and their son Uprauda, — which barbarous names, 1/4 History of tJie Roiiian Empire too harsh for polite ears, were presently exchanged for Vigilantia, Sabbatius, and Justiuianus. The young man, stimulated by the new and polished life around hiro, tlu'ew himself with ardour into his uncle's plans, and astonished his masters by his intelligence, curiosity, and untiring activity of mind. Poetry and music, law and theology, architecture and strategy — he studied, if he did not master them all. To Justinian knowledge was a passion. But there was a stronger passion even than knowledge, which mastered him before his uncle's death (a.d. 527), and to which he remained subject all his life. He fell in love with the famous dancer Theodora, whose dubious character and enchanting beauty were alike the talk of the town. But in spite of her repute, in spite of his mother and uncle, and in the teeth of the law which for- bade such marriages, he married her, and remained her de- voted husband ever after. She repaid him, indeed, with no small benefits. If her life had been vicious, if she was still a proud and domineering woman, yet she possessed a keen intellect, a powerful judgment, and a rapidity of deci- sion, which more than once stood Justinian in good stead. Description of Justinian. — Justinian was above middle height, with regular features and a high colour. His manner was self-possessed and gracious; his life was temperate, or even ascetic. Indolent and irresolute in action, he was restlessly diligent in business. Being troubled with sleeplessness, he devoted great part of the night to the affahs of Church and State, or paced up and down the galleries of the palace, shaping the great ideas which it was his good fortune to see realised. It is hardly strange that the popular imagination saw in him a demon in human form, who needed neither sleep nor food. He was an indefatigable builder both of palaces and churches, notably of the famous church of St. Sophia. He strength- TJie Emperor Jnsllnlan 175 enod and increased the fortifications of the Empire, especially on the Danube and the Persian frontier. He had hardly mounted the throne before he began his great work of legislation, which both in importance and in the effects it produced, far surpassed the brilliant victories of his generals. It was a work much needed, to analyse and codify the mass of law and legal opinions which had grown up in 1000 years. The attempt had been made more than once, but with only partial success. It was reserved for Justinian to complete it. The matter was intrusted to a large commission, presided over by the famous lawyer Tribonian, and was begun in the Emperor's first year, a.d. 528. The first section of the business, the Code, was in fact a revision of the imperfect code pub- lished in A.D. 430 by Theodosius II., the lapse of a century having rendered addition and retrenchment alike necessary, and it was accomplished in fourteen months. This was followed by the Digest or Pandects, containing the gist of the opinions and writings of the most eminent Eoman lawyers, the continuous labour of three years (a.d. 530-33). Most important of all were the Institutes, dealing with the elements or first principles of Eoman law. These three — the Code, the Digest, and the Institutes, together with the Novellte or successive supplements to the Code (a.d. 534-565) — formed the " Corpus Juris Civilis " (Civil Law). The Nika Riot — a.d. 532. — In spite, however, of the unremitting efforts of the Emperor and of the glories of his reign, his home government was as weak as that ot any of his predecessors or successors. One crowning in- stance will serve as a specimen — a mere city riot, arising from a trivial cause, which nearly cost him his throne. The drivers of the chariots in the Hippodrome were divided into "factions/' distmguished by their colours — 176 History of iJie Roman Empire the " white," " red," " green," and " blue." The " green " faction had been identified with the cause and the scarcely orthodox opinions of the late EmiDeror Anastasius; the " blue" was strictly orthodox, and devoted to Justinian. Hence between the two was bitter rivalry, extending, moreover, from the drivers to their relations and friends. The whole city was divided into hostile camps, until at last the "blues" ventured, under cover of favour at court, to proceed to open violence. They paraded the streets in bands at night. Ere long, joined by all the dissolute youth of a great capital, they j)lundered, beat, even murdered their enemies. The example spread. A dan- gerous spirit of lawless violence became the fashion. Terrorism was brought to bear on private enemies, on creditors, on judges, on masters. The unhappy "greens," meanwhile, persecuted by their enemies and unprotected by the laws, were forced to resist in self-defence, whilst any magistrate who was just enough to shelter them with his protection had soon reason to repent of his untimely zeal. The Empress had an ancient grudge against the "green" faction from her theatrical days, and she neither forgot nor forgave an insult. From the Court, therefore, they could expect no favour. At last (a.d. 532) an un- fortunate accident set the smouldering animosity in a blaze, which laid a great part of the capital in ruins, and cost the lives of hundreds of citizens. It is a scene almost worthy of the great French Eevolution — almost as chaotic and bewildering. The Emperor was seated in the Hippodrome celebrating the festival of the Ides of January (1 3th). But the games were perpetually interrupted by the clamour of the " green" faction, until exasperated almost to madness, the "blues" rose from their seats as one man, and the "greens" fled for their lives. At this moment of frenzy, the mutual hatred of tu.e factions was turned into TJie Emperor Justinian 177 a common "hatred of the government by a passing accident. Two murderers condemned to death, but rescued from fate by the breaking of a rope, were hurried into " sanc- tuary" by the monks of a neighbouring convent. One of them was " blue," the other " green." The rival factions, united for the moment by a similar indignation, and each anxious to save its man, made common cause, delivered their prisoners, opened the prisons, burnt the Prasfect's palace, and did not scruple to attack the troops sent to repress the riot. The fire spread, and reached even the cathedral. Women took a ferocious part in the struggle, showering stones from roof and window. So threatening, indeed, was the state of affairs, that many wealthy families escaped across the Bosporus from the horrors of a five days' street fight, and that even Justinian contemplated flight and abdication. From this fatal step he was saved by the firmness of Theodora, and in hardly a less degree by the military promptitude of a great general, Belisarius. A terrible lesson was given to a fickle popula- tion, by a general massacre in the Hippodrome, and by the execution of a score of nobles who had tried to use the opportunity for restoring the family of Anastasius. The Hippodrome itself was closed, to hear no more for several years the watchword of "victory" (vt/ca) of the rival factions which gave its name to this riot. Belisarius compared to Marlborough. — The name of Belisarius recalls us to whrt in the eyes of his contemp- oraries was probably the great glory of Justinian's reign, the African and Italian campaigns. For Belisarius as " signally retrieved" the glory of the Empire in the sixth century as Marlborough that of England in the eighteenth. There is, indeed, a strange likeness between tlie two men, not only of character, but even in their very lives. Each was the devoted husband of an imperious, passionate, and lyS History of the Roman Empire ambitious "vvoman. Each felt the bitterness of disgrace, though Marlborough probably deserved to suffer what Belisarius suffered undeserved. Each triumphed over jealousy and obstructions by the same qualities of calm- ness, and good sense, and a serene temper. Each was perfectly fearless and unflurried in the face of danger, the very life and soul of the armies which they led. We may say with truth, that each seemed to combine two characters in one person; for in each case he who in the field was calm, clear headed, and more than a match for every foe, was in civil life infirm and pusillanimous, greedy alike of honours and of money, a friend whose fidelity was doubtful. If Marlborough was the greater soldier of the two, Belisarius was the purer character. It could not indeed be said of him, as it was of Marlborough, that he never besieged a fortress which he had not taken, nor fought a battle which he had not won, yet neither could he be accused of having enriched himself by base means, or of having sold State secrets to his sovereign's enemies. African Campaign of Belisarius — a.d. 533. — Beli- sarius (Eeli-tzar, the White Prince) was probably of Slavonian origin, and born in a little village of IlljTia, called " Germania." At an early age he entered on military life in the "Guards" of Justinian. Entrusted with an independent command in Armenia, he was the first to turn the tide of victory against the Persians, and with far inferior numbers to defeat a foe flushed ■oith conquest, and to relieve the province of Syria from in- vasion (a.d. 529-532). It Avas a great exploit, significant of powers above the common; and when the African ex- pedition was in preparation (a.d. 533), the name of Beli- sarius was in all mouths as the fittest leader of so grave an vmdertaking. Indeed, the African campaign was one The Emperor Justinian 1 79 of those things which are only justified by success. The Emperor in proposing it met with general opposition. Old men, still living, could remember the shame and the losses of the expedition of Basiliscus (a.d. 468), and feared a repetition of the blunder. Troops, wearied with five campaigns against the Persians, shrank from the thought of a long sea voyage, and of a climate and enemy alike unknown ; while ministers of finance calculated with apprehension the heavy expenses of so immense an under- taking, and the dubious possibilities of meeting them. To these various objections Justinian opposed a superior knowledge, or a superior obstinacy, based i;poii a truer insight into the facts of the case. And his wisdom was proved by success. Yet prior to the event few under- takings could have seemed less likely to succeed, and to succeed with such rapidity and ease. Position of the Vandals. — When Genseric died in A.D. 477, the Vandals were absolute masters of the splendid province of Africa. They had sacked Eome. They swept the Mediterranean with their fleets. They even threatened Constantinople. There was no barbarian nation that seemed to have so commanding a position, so glorious a future. Yet in the fifty years that elapsed between Genseric and Justinian, their Empire, which still looked as powerful as ever, had become honeycombed by luxury, inaction, and religious and social strife. To the Vandals Carthage became a second Capua. When the strong hand was withdrawn, that had kept up the healthy stir of battle and the excitement of conquest, they relapsed into the vices of semi-civilised life. In religion they were fanatics, and persecuted the orthodox Catholics, thus preparing for their enemies eager allies in the time of need. Lastly, to prevent the strife of brothers so common in the division of an inheritance, Genseric had i8o History of the Roman Empire ordained in his will, that the eldest male memher of the royal family for the time being should sit upon the Vandal throne, just as the law of Turkey ordains now. His kinsmen, the English, were wiser in Britain, when they made the English kingship elective, but restricted the election as a rule to a particular royal family. For Genseric's plan failed as wholly as the English plan suc- ceeded. It issued almost of course in jealousies and assassination. Thus Huneric succeeded Genseric in a.d. 476, and steadily set himself at once to prepare for his own son's succeeding him, by destroying all who might stand in his way. And in a.d. 523, when Trasimund died, who had married Amalafrida, the daughter of the great Theodoric, and was succeeded by Hilderic, the eldest member of the family, Amalafrida, unable to bear the pros- pect of private life, tried to seize the throne; but was de- feated, imprisoned, and, after her father's death (a.d. 526), beheaded,— a fate which was shared by many of her country- men. Hilderic, however, was incompetent. Brought up at the Byzantine court, he was more Greek than Vandal, and shrank from war and the fierce persecuting spirit of his subjects.. A friend of Justinian, and tolerant to Catholics, he was no friend of Arian Vandals; and Gelimer, the next heir, easily supplanted him (a.d. 530). Africa Reduced in Three Months. — ]S"o doubt Justinian was well aware of this weakness Avhich political and religious dissension had brought upon the Vandal kingdom, and adroitly used Gelimer's usurpation as a pretext for interference. A force of 10,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry, of 500 transports and 20,000 seamen, was collected, and set out from Constantinople in June (a.d. 533). By the close of the year the Vandal Empire was at an end, and Africa was once more a province of the Eoman Empire for 150 years. It was a curious mixture The Emperor Justinian 1 8 1 of races which. Belisarius led to the conquest of the once terrible Vandals, — Greeks and Goths, Alani and Par- thians, Huns and Syrians. It was a proof of military genius in itself to maintain the discipline and combine the operations of such an ill-assorted host. Three months, however, after leaving the capital, the fleet sighted the coast of Africa, having touched in passing at the coasts of Messenia and Sicily. It is a strange fact, which needs explanation, that it was allowed to reach Africa without attack. Heavy laden transports, and soldiers little used to the sea, would have fallen an easy prey. Why were the Vandals so remiss? Why did not the Ostrogoths help their brothers in distress % The answer is short and ready. The Ostrogoths, indignant at the murder of Amalafrida and her friends, were eager for revenge, and ready therefore to aid, not Gelimer, but Belisarius; while Gelimer had detached his brother with 5000 veteran troops to reduce Sardinia, At the critical moment, there- fore, he was without his best troops and without allies, while the friends of Hilderic and the orthodox Cathohcs were his all but open enemies. IS.0 wonder that the struggle was virtually over in three months. The army landed on September 22 at Caput Vada, on the coast of Byzacium, five days' march to the south of Car- thage. A proclamation of Belisarius, that he had come as a " liberator," and the discipline of his troops, won the people's good will, and made the advance safe and easy to within ten miles of Carthage. The capital at this time had no fortifications. A battle in its defence, therefore, was imperative. But Gelimer's army was beaten in detail, and fled in confusion towards Numidia; while Belisarius entered Carthage in triumph the next day, the feast of St Cyprian, its patron saint. It was a marvellous revo- lution, yet so quietly accomplished, that trade did not l82 History of the Roman Empire cease for a day, nor Tvas a shop shut. Meanwhile Gelimer hurriedly recalled his brother from Sardinia, and prepared for the decisive struggle. His numbers were vastly superior, but they were more than outweighed by the genius of Belisarius. The battle was fought on the banks of a rivulet, twenty miles south-west of Carthage, and was fiercely contested; but was in the end so decisive, that Gelimer fled alone from the field, his army was scattered to the winds, and the camp taken, with all the women, children, and treasure. From December to March a.d. 634, Gelimer was an outcast in Xumidia, until at last, after sustaining with a few faithful followers a hard siege in a mountain fastness, he surrendered at discretion, and being carried to Carthage, was transported by Belisarius, with many of his countrymen and with vast treasures, to adorn the first triumph ever seen in the city of Constantine. " Vanity of vanities ! all is vanity," such is said to have been his comment on what he had seen. And indeed it is the fittest comment on the Vandal history. Gelimer was allowed to retire to an estate in Galatia, and nume- rous Vandals were drafted into the armies of the East. But the Vandal nation, numbering before the war 600,000 persons, vanishes henceforth from history; and Africa, like Italy, was ruled by an "Exarch" from Constantinople. Pretext for the Invasion of Italy. — Two years elapsed, and once more the great general of Justinian was engaged in a struggle, more arduous and not less glorious, with the Ostrogoths in Italy. In the ten years which had elapsed siace the death of Theodoric, the same causes had been at work to undermine the Gothic power which had undermined the Vandal power in Africa. As in Africa so in Italy, Catholics hated Arians and Arians hated Catholics. In Italy as in Africa jtohtical dissensions The Emperor Justiiiian 183 paralysed national strength. Amalasontha, daughter of Theodoric, had been regent for her son Athalaric, whom she loved only too well, and strove to train for his future great- ness. But he was dull and self-willed; and as he grew older was easily led into resenting a woman's dictation, and breaking away from her influence, flung himself into debauchery, which speedily killed him. But Amalasontha had enemies besides her son. And when, after his death, she married her cousin Theodatus, but retained in her own hands the substance of the regal power, keeping her husband in the background, he was led by evil counsellors and his own jealous resentment into conspiring against her. This able daughter of a great father, the victim of spite and jealousy, was arrested, imprisoned in an island of the lake of Bolsena (Etruria), and finally strangled in her bath (April 30, 535). Theodatus was king at last; but the insecurity of his position may be realised by reflecting on the crimes which had placed him there, the avarice and cowardice of his character, and the disaffection of his Catholic subjects. Belisarius Reduces Sicily and South Italy — A.D. 536. — Meanwhile Justinian eagerly caught at this excuse for intervention, this opportunity of reclaiming yet another province for the Empire. His ambassador to Italy loudly protested against the murder of Theodoric's daughter, while he observed with satisfaction the dissen- sions of the Goths, and doubtless reported to his master the ripeness of the times. Once more Belisarius steered westwards. Hardly had he cast anchor off Catana before he discovered that the whole island of Sicily was like a ripe apple ready to fall into his hands; and this, the first province of the Eoman Republic, was reincorporated with the Empire without a blow. A second time Belisarius appeared as " liberator," to set free Eomans from the yoke 1 84 History of the Roman Empire of barbarians, Catholics from the tyranny of Arians. A few brief and fruitless negotiations were followed by the invasion of Italy. Leaving garrisons in Palermo and Syracuse, Belisarius landed at Ehegium, and marching 300 miles along the coast through a well-affected popula- tion, besieged and took Naples. From Naples he was invited by the clergy and Senate to occupy Eome, — a matter of no difficulty, as Theodatus had been murdered, and the scattered Gothic forces had retired to Ravenna and the north to concentrate for the linal struggle. Eeli- sarius entered Eome on December 10, a.d. 536, and the keys of the city were sent to Justinian. Siege of Rome by the Ostrogoths — a.d. 537. — But the triumph was short-lived. In the following March Vitiges returned with 150,000 Goths, and crossing the Apennines, appeared before the walls of Rome. The numbers were so unequal, the time for preparation had been so short, that everything seemed lost; but it was at a crisis such as this that the resource and coolness of Belisarius were most marked. Of him it might well be said, that his presence was worth 100,000 men. He had but a few thousand men in the city, and what volunteers he could inspire with his own enthusiasm and courage, to guard fortifications, whose extent was at least twelve miles. The walls themselves in parts were in ruins. Yet Rome held out successfully for more than a year, thanks to the strong arm, clear head, and unfailing calmness of one man, and one man only, who united strategical genius and mastery of detail to dashing and audacious bravery in the field. The Gothic numbers were not sufficient to surround the city, the blockade reaching only from the Vatican to the Proenestine Gate; and on this side it was that on the nineteenth day of the siege (March 31, a.d. 537) a simultaneous attack was directed on seven points at The Emperor jfiistiinan 185 once. Eepeated assaults were met by an obstinate resist- ance; and only once, near the gate of Proeneste, did the defence waver for a moment. At nightfall the Goths retu-ed, with a loss (it was said) of 30,000 men. Whether this were so or not, it is clear that the result was a heavy blow to the besiegers; for it was the first and last assault attempted, and the siege became little more than an indolent blockade. Nevertheless the siiperiority of numbers told outside. Porto fell. Entrenched camps were established by the enemy to the north and south of the city. Provisions became scarce; and the frequent sallies, though mostly successful, contributed little beyond honour. And with distress began disaffection within the walls, and with disaffection came treachery. A letter was intercepted, which promised the Gothic king that the Asinarian Gate should be opened to his troops. J^or was this all. The dangerous discontent within the walls was adroitly used by Antonina, Belisarius' wife, to forward the wishes of the Empress. Pope Silverius had thwarted Theodora; and was now accused of'treasonable corre- spondence with the Goths, and degraded; while an un- scrupulous and ambitious deacon, Vigilius, was placed upon the Papal throne, who would probably be more compliant. At last, after urgent demands, reinforcements reached Belisarius from Constantinople of some 7000 men; and negotiations began in consequence, which were the pre- cursors of the raising of the siege. At the same time the general felt himself strong enough to detach 2000 cavalry to operate in Picenum against the Gothic communications with Eavenna, and to seize if possible the many families and large treasures there deposited. Siege Raised — a.d. 538. — This last blow was deci- sive; and Vitiges, after one more attempt to surprise and I S6 History of the Roman Empire storm the walls, wliicli was vigorously repulsed, with- drew hurriedly across the Tiber and along the Flaminian Eoad. So great was the demoralisation of the once vast army, that even Ariminum, of which Vitiges formed the siege as he passed northwards, and which was defended only by a low rampart and shallow ditch, held out against him long enough to be relieved by Belisarius in person. The Goths fled in confusion to Eavenna; and all Italy, south of the Po, gave willing allegiance to Justinian. Pall of Ravenna — a.d. 539. — Italy was virtually regained; and the power of the Ostrogoths would soon have been destroyed, but for the mutual jealousy of the Eoman generals. Belisarius was too great to escape envy, too great also to resent it : yet the violence of a Constan- tine, and the interference or independence of a Narses, paralysed the operations of the Eoman army, and gave the Goths time to rally what force they could ; wliile a sud- den inroad into JSTorth Italy of 100,000 Franks, under Theodebert their king, added to the general confusion. As before, however, so now, Belisarius triumphed over difficulties. Jealousies were smoothed over. Eivals were pacified. Town after town was besieged and taken, which had still been held by the Goths. Finally, Eavenna itself was blockaded. Gradually reduced to extremities, yet lost in admiration of their victor, the Ostrogoths (ignoring Vitiges their king) opened negotia- tions with Belisarius, and promised to support him, if he would throw Justinian over, and seize the crown of Italy. Belisarius saw his opportunity, and promised to consider the matter. Meanwhile a day and hour was fixed for the surrender of Eavenna: a fleet laden with food was sent in to relieve immediate wants; and at the time fixed the Eoman army marched in unresisted, and took possession of the capital, without their general being in any way The Emperor Jiistinian 1B7 pledged (December, a.d. 539). It was then too late to oppose what they had themselves invited. Eelisarius de- clined the proffered honour, perhaps had never intended to accept it : Vitiges was sent to Constantinople : the flower of the Gothic warriors was enlisted in the Imperial ser- vice; the residue were dismissed to the south provinces; and an Italian colony was planted in Eavenna. The example of the capital was speedily followed by the smaller towns, that still held out, with the exception of Pavia ; and thus the whole of Italy was reincorporated with the Empire. Recall of Belisarius. — It was a wonderful reverse of fortune, which ten years before would have been thought impossible; and yet the great man to whom it was mainly due was pursued by envy and calumny, and was recalled by Justinian from a sphere "no longer (it was said) worthy of his presence." The Gothic spoil was appro- priated for the Imperial palace, and Belisarius was denied a second triumph; yet it is satisfactory to know that the hearty admiration of the people made up for the chilling civility and faint praises of Court circles. For indeed it was no common thing which Belisarius had done. It was something to have maintained military discipline, without losing the affection of his soldiers : it was more to have won the respect and admiration of populations among whom he came as conqueror. In an age not dis- tinguished for virtues, either political or social, he was just, liberal, modest, and chaste. He was daring without rashness, prudent without fear; and by the combination of the highest qualities of a general had recovered in little more than six years the provinces of Africa and Italy. Revolt of the Goths — a.d. 544. — Belisarius was recalled, and sent to the East; and the settlement of 1 88 History of the Roman Empire Italy was left to his successors. But three years' experi- ence of the tender mercies of Greek "governors" was more than enough ; and when Totila (Todilas, " the death- less") issued from Pavia to reclaim the Gothic kingdom, town after town from north to south welcomed him as dehverer. Once more at the Emperor's command Beh- sarius turned his face westwards. But Imperial jealousy or parsimony refused him the sinews of war: Rome was twice taken (a.d. 546-549), once under his very eyes; and once recovered by him, though but for a while (a.d. 547). For the most part, he was left with the hopeless task of calculating what he could do, if he had the neces- sary force; or of collecting forces, when it was too late to use them. In a.d. 548 he returned to Constantinople, leaving Totila master of Italy, and with the mortification of abandoning what he knew could be so easily recovered. But although he was jealous of his general, Justinian was not incHned to acquiesce in the loss of Italy, so lately recovered. Narses in Italy — a.d. 552. — A fresh force was raised, and entrusted first to Germanus, the Emperor's nephew, and on his death to ISTarses, the eunuch, who marched into Italy, defeated Totila in a pitched battle about mid- way between Eome and liavenna, in which Totila was mortally wounded (a.d. 552), and besieged and took Eome. One more campaign against Teias, the last king of the Ostrogoths — one more victory in Campania, and the work was accomplished. Italy was for the third time reunited to the Empire; and ISTarses was for fifteen years (a.d. 554-568) Exarch of Eavenna, lieutenant of the Eastern Empire in Italy. Conclusion. — Henceforth the Ostrogotliic nation dis- appears from history ; and the glory of the name " Goth " is reserved for the Visigoths. Twice before had the sama The Emperor Justinian 189 thing happened. Etruscans and Carthaginians vanished from the earth as separate nations, leaving little beliind them but a few medals and inscriptions. Only, we must remember, it is the vanishing of a name, and not necessarily of a nation — the bearers of the name being absorbed in the population which they have ceased to rule. This absorption or conquest of the Goths in Italy was to a great degree the work of the Catholic clergy — one of the early steps in that fatal policy of the Papacy, which has always resisted the union of Italy under one native kingdom, whether Gothic, Lombard, JSTorman, or Piedmontese. And whatever may have been the con- spicuous merits of the generals who achieved it, it is the opinion of an Italian authority that greater evil was inflicted upon Italy by the Grecian reconquest, than by any other invasion. ^ It was disastrous in its immediate and more remote consequences. The country was worse, not better governed ; and in after years, the irruption of the Lombards, the invasion of the Franks, the usurpa- tion of the Popes, and tbe separation of Eastern and Western Christendom, are events for which it was in- directly responsible. ^ Gibbon, Milman's Edition, vol. iv. p. 150, note. CHAPTER XL THE EMPIRE IN RELATION TO THE BAR- BARIANS OF THE EAST— A.D. 450-650. Subject of the Chapter. — The relations of the Eoman Empire of the East to the barbarous nations on its northern, eastern, and south-eastern frontiers, during the two centuries following Attila's death, will be the subject of this chapter. It is a chequered story of fre- quent disaster, illumined at intervals by heroic deeds. "We have names yet more barbarous, barbarians yet more brutal than any hitherto met with; but the knowledge of their origin and fortunes is important, because in some cases they occupied lands which their descendants still possess, and in almost all cases they largely aifected the subsequent history of Europe. Results of the Death of Attila— a.d. 453.— The death of Attila (a.d. 453) was followed by a struggle of several years for mastery between the Aryan and Turanian portions of his Empire. Though the question at issue was too vital to be settled by a single battle, yet the victory of Netad did virtually decide that Europe was to belong to Aryans, by rolling backwards the threatening wave of blank barbarism for a while, and by giving the nobler races time to consolidate their forces, and to assimi- late the civilisation of Western Europe, before another Relation to the Barbarians of the East 191 struggle was necessary. But the Turanians did not quietly acquiesce in their defeat. More than once the Huns attacked the Gepidse and Ostrogoths, though always without success. They were compelled to yield to superior strength ; and the sons of Attila — Dengizikh, Hernakh, and Emnedzar — became kings of tliree separate Hunnish nations, reaching from the Lower Danube to the Carpathians, and from thence to the Don (Tanais). They were sometimes at peace, more often at war with their Roman neighbours to the south. The death of Dengizikh (about a.d. 470) was the signal of universal confusion among the tribes to the north of the Danube, and of a general rearrangement of their mutual rela- tions. We have tribes with familiar names occupying new ground, and new tribes with strange names appear- ing on the scene, and pressing westward and southward. Dangers on the Frontiers — a.d. 500. — If we take the boundaries of the Eastern Empire about a.d. 500 — the Danube, the Euxine, the Caucasus, Armenia, and the Euphrates — there was scarcely a point in this immense frontier which was not threatened by some enemy, and needed constant watching. And there was not strength enough in the Empire for successful resistance. Again and again Moesia, Illyricum, Greece, were overrun by destroying hordes. More than once Constantinople was threatened, attacked, besieged. Armenia was a constant battletield. And in the south-east Persia, ruled by an ambitious dynasty, was always encroaching on the frontier. The Middle Danube. — The middle Danube was now a German river. In Pannonia were Ostrogoths, reaching from Vienna to Belgrade (Singidunum) and Illyricum. On the eastern and northern banks, as far as the Car- pathians, lay the Gepidse and the Lombards. On the northern banks of the river to the east of Singidunum, and 192 History of the Rovian Empire ■within the territory of the Gepidre, "was a large population of different origin. They were the descendants of the old Eonian colonists, who had flocked there 400 years hefore, after Trajan's conquest of Dacia, and whose children had refused to leave their homes when Aurelian abandoned the province (a.d. 270). These men had endured with sullen persistence the tender mercies of successive bar- barians, but clung through them all to their land — the land which their children still occupy. They called them- selves Eomans; but as in Britain, so in Dacia, the Ger- man conquerors called these "men of a strange tongue," "Wealh or Welsh, And hence came the double name of their country, Roumania and "Wallachia. Eastern Danube and North Coast of the Euxine. — In Avhat is now the Dobrudscha, near the mouth of the Danube, and Irom thence as far as the Dnieper (Danapris) was a mixed horde of Huns, the remnant of Attila's host, and of a cognate Finnish race, the Bulgarians (Voulgar). The Empire had good cause during the seventh century to shudder at this name, the synonym for all that was brutal and treacherous. The original home of the people, where indeed the bulk of them were still settled, was the upper waters of the river Etel, called afterwards by their name, the Volga. But, already in the days of the great Theodoric, one of their hordes had been met and defeated by him in the plain of the Dniester (Danaster) ; and it must have been clear to all who had eyes to see, that there was danger to the Empire in that quarter. The very religion which they professed was of the lowest type. It was that ^ " Sham- anism," which still prevails, as the sole religion of thou- sands in North-Eastern Asia — a religion, or more properly speaking a " terror," inspired by the awful phenomena of ^ Cf. Kennau's Tent Life in Siberia, cap. 20. Relation to the Barbarians of the East 193 nature, among which they live, and consisting in the pro- pitiation of the evil spirits supposed to be embodied therein, the spirits of ice and wind, of volcanoes and aurora. As in the religion, so in the people, there was something almost diaboHcal and less than human. Their ferocity and treachery were alike unparalleled. And by their side the Huns, who had been in contact with Eonian ci^alisation for nearly a century, seemed civilised. Huns on the Tanais. — Beyond the Dnieper, and on each side of the Don (Tanais), were settled two hordes of " white " Huns, called respectively Cutriguri and Utiguri, in all probability a fusion of Finns and Ugrians (Igours or Ogors): to the latter of whom, and their terrible reputation in less barbarous countries, we owe the familiar " Ogres " of our children's story books. The Slavonians. — To the north and north-west of Huns and Bulgarians, between the Dnieper, the Car- pathians, and the Baltic, lay a scattered though numerous population, who were called "Slaves" (Sclavi, Sthloveni, 2/ but in angels and genii— the former of which are exempt from, wliile the latter are subject to the frailties of humanity, and both alike created out of fire. The Koran. — The third article of faith is belief in the Koran (Al-Koran — the Book) as divinely revealed tlirough the Prophet. It was certainly compiled after Moham- med's death, diu'ing the Caliphate of Abu Bekr; yet its general integrity is universally acknowledged. It is the Mohammedan code of civil as well as religious law. Mohammedans swear by it, take omens from it, study it. In some mosques it is read through daily. The Creed. — Mohammedans believe further in 200,000 prophets, of whom six are pre-eminent — Adam, ]!^oah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed; in the resurrection and final judgment; in a heaven and hell, whose joys and horrors are detailed with singular minute- ness; last, and not least,jn__predestination, so that every event has been predetermined from all eternity, and every man's destiny and hour of death have been irrevoc- ably fixed, a doctrine as potent on the battle-field as it is fatal in the time of peace. Practical Religion. — There are four articles of religious practice — prayer, alms, fasting, and pilgrimage. Five times a day is prayer enjoined with preHminary ablution, in which the words, posture, and gestures are carefully prescribed, while the eyes are to be turned towards Mecca. Friday is the sacred day of rest, with a sermon in the mosque. Alms must be given by every "ood Mohammedan to the extent of at least one-tenth of MoJiammcd and MoJiammedanism 225 his income. Fasting is practised for thirty days in each year during the month of Eamadhan, implying abstinence between sunrise and simset from meat and drink, baths, and all bodily gratifications. As to pilgrimage, every ^ believer is bound to visit Mecca once in his life, either ' personally or by proxy. Was Mohamraedanisin Original ? — A moment's reflection on the beliefs and practice of Mohammedanism shows that no religion was less originah Sabgeism, Ma- gianism, Judaism, Christianity — Mohammed borrowed from all impartially ; while in the four rehgious " prac- tices " there was nothing new. The grand central idea of Islam was common to it with Judaism, and a protest against Oriental idolatry on the one hand, and Trinitarian Christianity on the other. Its angels were Biblical; its genii Eastern. Even its legends may be traced to the Talmud, or the Apocryphal Gospels. The one starthng novelty in the creed of Islam was the divine mission of Mohammed himself. " It was this " (says Dean Milman), " forced as a divine revelation into the belief of so large a part of mankind, which was the power of Islam— the principle of its unity, its fanaticism, its propagation, its victories, empire, and duration." To the question, whether Mohammed deceived himself prior to deceiving others, or was moved by indignation at his people's idolatry, or was filled with a lofty political ambition, or was a single- minded reformer, a preacher of righteousness; or whether rather his character was not a mixed one, made up of these and other conflicting elements — we may best an- swer in the favourite phrase of Islam, " God knows." Certainly in one point which has been laid to the charge of the prophet, his sanction of polygamy and of slavery, it is weU to remember that it had been the established usage of Arabia, and that Mohammed did not enlarge 226 History of t]ic Roman Empire hut restricted the privilege. It is well to rememher that men who have heen born and bred amid particular cus- toms, whether polygamy, or slavery, or suttee, or human sacrifice, are not easily convinced of the wrong of them; and that Mohammed's own indulgence in polygamy may be quite as justly ascribed to his anxiety for male issue to succeed him as to licentiousness. In short, if we judge Mohammed by the standard of the nineteenth Christian century, we shall misjudge him. Compare him with the men of his own day and country — ascribe to him what ambition, fanaticism, violence, inconsistency we will — there will yet remaia enough of grand and good to rank him among the genuine " heroes " of the world's history. Mohammedan Conquests — a.d. 632-711. — Mo- hammed died on June 8th, 632. The disunion, wMcli would have destroyed his empire almost before its founda- tion, was happily deferred for a while, Not until three caliphs — Abu Bekr, Omar, and Othman — had cemented union by foreign conquest in Syria, Persia, and Egypt, did the struggle for the caliphate begin between Ali aud Moamja. In seven years from the prophet's death Syria was Mohammedan (a.d. 632-9), to remain so for fully 500 years. The Christian opposition was of the feeblest, for Christian virtues in the East were passive rather than active, and a religious war was as yet undreamt of; so far Islam had a distinct advantage. Boman armies were defeated in two pitched battles. Damascus, Emessa, Baalbec, and even Jerusalem were besieged and taken ; its inhabitants were reduced to a subject caste, and the Mosque of Omar was built on the site of the Temple. By the middle of the century the Sassanian dynasty had fallen, and the Persian Empire as far as the Oxus was Moham- medan — a success to be pushed before the end of the century to tlie very confines of India. Meanwhile, in the MoJuwnncd and Mohainmedaiiisni 227 opposite direction, Egypt also had succumbed to the arms of Amrou (a.d. 639-641), and the conquest of Africa was gradually though less rapidly effected (a.d. 647-698). The beginning of the eighth century saw the Moham- medans masters of a large part of Spain, invited there (a dubious tradition says) by the Christian Count Juhan to avenge the wrongs inflicted on his daughter by Roderic, the Gothic king (a.d. 711). Thus, in less than a century from the Prophet's secret flight to Medina, not only was the Caliph sovereign, but the rehgion of jNIohammed was dominant from the Indus to the Atlantic, in Persia, Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Northern Africa, and part of Spain, Christianity did not indeed die out; but Christian divi- sions and bickerings paved the way for the triumph of Islam, and not a few Christians found refuge from their perplexities in the simple creed of the divine unity, even at the cost of acknowledging Mohammed; while polygamy at the outset had a constant tendency to increase the relative numbers of the Mohammedan popu- lation at the expense of the Christians. Nor was Mo- hammedanism itself unaffected by the philosophy, the religion, the culture of the Asiatic, Greek, and Koman worlds with which it clashed. Architecture, poetry, science, philosophy, transformed Islam into something very difl'erent from the stern and narrow creed of Moham- med; until in the middle of the last centmy a learned enthusiast of Central Arabia, named Wahliab, undertook the self-imposed task of restoring Islam to its true and original type — a task which has met (if we may believe travellers) with but limited success. CHAPTER XIII. THE POPES AND THE LOMBARDS IN ITALY— A.D. 540-740. Gregory the Great. — The reconquest of Italy to the Eastern Empire by Eelisarius and ISTarses (a.d. 536-552) was only the prelude to its final revolt. The causes of that revolt were as patent, as its effects were deep and lasting; and it is inseparably connected with the name of Gregory the Great. Amidst the confusion and panic consequent on the feebleness of the Imperial rule in Italy and the ferocity of the Lombards, it was Gregory who became "the father of the mediaeval Papacy," and by his energy, resolution, and wisdom resuscitated a power " on which (humanly speaking) hung the life and death of Christianity " — a power capable of resisting Byzantine encroachments, of overawing barbarous Franks, of leading the struggle against j\Iohammedanism, of reconstituting (it might be hoped) the liberty and independence of Italy. Unhappily, that is the last thing of which the Papacy has ever dreamed. State of Italy after its Conquest — a.d, 540-590. — The reconquest of Italy by the Eastern Empire was to a great extent the work of the Catholic clergy, who disliked the foreign Goths and hated their Arianism ; but it brought little good to Italy. The country was exhausted The Popes and the Lombards in Italy 229 by the drain of money, men, and food dnring a long war. In Picenum alone 50,000 labourers are said to have died of hunger, and a yet larger number in the south. Acorns became a common article of food. The reviving pros- perity which had residted from Theodoric's pohcy and the gradual fusion of Goths and Italians was rudely extinguished. A just and vigorous rule was supplanted by feebleness and reckless tyranny. The "Exarch" at Eavenna, as the Imperial governor was styled, was expected to need but little support. The less he asked for, and the more he sent home, the better was the home government pleased. Of "policy," strictly speaking, there was none beyond that of clinging convulsively to the province and its revenues. But of all Italians per- haps the Bishop of Eome suffered the deepest indignity. At Eome now, as for years at Constantinople, the highest ecclesiastical honour became the sport of female intrigues. Pope Sylverius was degraded (a.d. 537), banished, per- haps murdered. Vigilius was appointed by Belisarius at the nomination of Theodora (a.d. 544); Pelagius simi- larly (a.d. 554) by Justinian. "The period" (says Mil- man) " between the accession of John III. and that of Gregory I. (a.d. 560-590) is the most barren and obscure \ in the annals of the Papacy." And meanwhile the Lomba rds were already in the north of Italy, ready to profit by all this weakness and dissension. The Lombards. — The Lombards, who in the days of I Augustus and Trajan had been settled between the Oder and the Elbe, had been invi ted by Jus tinian from the centre of Europe to occupy Pannonia, and to act as a check upon the Gepidse. For thirty years they had sus- tained an unequal contest. Its conclusion was a veritable tragedy. Alboin, the Lombard king, had deeply insulted Rosamond, the daughter of Cunimund, King of the 230 History of tJie Roman Empire Gepidse. "War Lroke out, and the Lombards were de- feated. Stung with vexation, Alboia invited the Avars, his terrible neighbours, to help him and take the land of his enemies, promising them in addition a moiety of the spoils and captives. They gladly acquiesced, and the nation of the Gepidse was practically destroyed (a.d. 566). Thus the valleys of the Save and Drave fell into Avar hands; while the Lombards, not unwilling perhaps to escajDe from the presence of friends so powerful, were soon creeping over the Alps, threatening North Italy, and ready to accept any alliance which might offer. Tke fame of Alboin attracted numerous followers, — Gepidae, P.ulgarians, Bavarians, Saxons; and an unexpected ally presently appeared upon the scene. Parses had been Exarch for fifteen years, and had stained the virtues of an otherwise good administration by avarice and exactions. The groans of the province reached the ears of Justin, and Longinus was sent to supersede is arses. The latter, indignant, withdrew to Naples; and if he did not invite him, at least he gave Alboin clearly to understand that the kingdom of Italy was within his grasp. Lombard Conquest of Italy — a.d. 567. — The whole country, indeed, from the Alps to Rome fell into his hands almost -without a blow. One city alone, which the Goths had fortified, withstood the Lombards for three years ; and I?avia, when taken, became the Lombard capital. And very terrible (if we may believe Italian A\'itnesses) was this new irruption of barbarians, who burned chiu-ches, destroyed cities and castles, farms and monasteries, and left the land a desert. To many, even to Gregory himself, it seemed a sign of the approaching judgment day. In the legends of the time, dealing with the virtues of bishops and monks, it is always a Lombard who persecutes; and (as was natural) the general terror TJie Popes aiid the Lombards in Italy 231 passed gradually into a rooted detestation, of which sub- sequent Popes wisely availed themselves. As regards the Lombards themselves, it is useless to dwell on the con- fusion Avhich followed the murder of Alboin in a.d. 573, or to write in succession the names of kings who for 200 years were masters of a great part of Italy, and not more than one or two of whom were of any note (a.d. 573- 774). There are two things, however, which it will be well to notice briefly in passing, — foreshadowings of customs which were destined to exercise a deep and last- ijj^ influence on mediasval Europe. In the Lombard laws, as in those of other Teutons, we begin to observe the marked difference made between the ermies of nobles and of inferior classes — a difference estimated by a different mulct according to the social rank of the injured person ( Welirgeld). And not only do we find this practically " feudal" idea existing among Ostrogoths and Lombards, but an actual feud al custom, the very basis of feudalism ■ itself, in force among the Lombards. In the reign of Autharis (a.d. 584-590) the various '' dukes " (duces) of Italy engaged to follow him to war, and to furnish troop»s, 1 as tfie price of their duchies being made independent and liereditary (subject to forfeiture for felony), and revertible to the Crown only if there were no male heir. Territorial Limits of the Exarchate. — For 200 year s Italy was unequally divided between the Lombards and the Exarchate of Eavenna. The limits of the latter it is most important to remember, as it afterwards became in part the " pa trimony of St. Peter." It comprised the modern Eomagna, the valleys of Ferrara and Commacchio, and the district lying between Eimini and Ancona, the Adriatic and the Apennines. There were also three sub- orduiate provinces of_Venice, Eome, and Naples; and the \ outlying districts of Calabria, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, i 232 History of the R ma n E nip ire All else of Italy was Lombard. The Pope meanwhile held the anomalous position of being within the exarchate and subject to the Emperor, while semi-independent and with an undefined jurisdiction. It was clear that the relations between the Papacy and Italy on the one hand, and the Eastern Empire on the other, were open to revision, and would be revised as soon as a man of decision and judgment was Pope. Such a man appeared in Gregory the Great. Gregory I. — Gregory was the son of Gordian and Sylvia, born about a.d. 540. He united every qualifica- tion that could gain the respect of Eomans. He was the descendant of senators and ecclesiastics, and his family was wealthy. But the wealth no sooner came into his own hands than he devoted it to religious uses, — in alms, and in building and endowing monasteries; one of which, St. Andrew's, on the Coelian Hill, he entered as a monk, throwing to the winds his dignity as " Praetor," and his worldly prosjDects. It was 250 years since the great Athanasius had introduced to the West the ascetic monas- ticism of the East — scarce 100 years since its first great revival by St. Benedict; but there was not now a single country of the West in which monasteries were not plen- tiful. And Western monasticism was different from ^Eastern. It was practical, missionary, aggressive. If a man was haunted with a sense of sin or of his own weak- ness, or of the evil of the world, he retired into a monas- tery; but it was to perform regular duties, to observe an austere ritual, to maintain severe toil. The three great virtues of the Benedictine rule were silence, humility, and obedience, — poverty had not yet become a necessity; the three occupations of life were worship, reading, and manual labour. Nor was this all. A monastery in the West became a centre and an example to all its neigh- The Popes and the Lombards in Italy 233 bourhood of contentment and industry, a place of refuge for the timid and feeble, a support to the poor and old, a means of evangehsation to all. Whatever of poetry was yet left in human life amid the misery and ferocities of the time, gathered round the men and women who flocked into monasteries, and was (so to say) precipitated in the shape of miracle and legend. Gratitude and admiration passed into something not unlike worship. Angels and demons were at every corner. Miracles abounded. Of course a man like Gregory, thoroughly a type of his own age in all except that resolute energy which placed him on a level with the great of all ages, was ascetic from con- viction, — equally, of course, his self-devotion and boundless charity became the marvel of his contemporaries, the subject of miracles. They show at Eome a marble table at which he fed daily twelve beggars, among whom on one occasion appeared unbidden a thirteenth, — an angel unawares. Or again, when Rome was devastated by pestilence, and Gregory, with many another good man, was instiint with alms and jirayers, and in his efforts to alleviate the evil, a legend tells how at the head of a procession, chanting- a solemn litany, he was approaching the mausoleum of Hadrian, and saw the angel of death sheath his sword as the procession drew near. Or again, his charity was once tried by an angel in sailor's guise, whose repeated visits drained Gregory's small store, till he had nothing left but a silver cup used by his mother. He gave it, and the angel at once revealed himself. But these stories, though characteristic, are illustrations rather than instances. In his love for children we tread on firmer ground; while his tenderness for slaves, and his noble efforts to soften their hard lot, were no less significant. Interview of Gregory with English Slaves. — Both traits of his character are well seen in the fine story 234 History of the Ro^nan Empire {traditione majorum) told of liim by Baeda •} — " One day" (says the monk) "Gregory went out with the crowd to the Forum to see the wares of merchants just arrived; and amongst them saw some fair-skinned lads for sale, with beautiful faces and noble heads of hair, presumably there- fore of noble birth. He asked from what land they came. ' From Britain,' was the answer. He asked again, 'Were they Christians or pagans?' 'Pagans,' they said. Then heaving a deep sigh, ' Alas ! ' he cried, ' that the prince of darkness should possess youths of so bright a face, that so graceful a presence should conceal a heart devoid of grace within!' When told that they were Angli (English), 'Well said,' he rejoined, with a play upon the word, 'for they have angelic faces, and such ought to be co-heirs of angels in heaven. And what is the name of the pro'V'ince whence they comel' ' They are Deiri,' was the answer ; that is, they were from the ' Dearne-rice,' the land between Tyne and Humber. ' Well called Deiri,' replied Gregory, ' for they have been snatched from wrath (de ird erufi) and called to mercy. And what is their king's name?' 'Aelli,' they said. 'Alleluia,' he cried; 'the praise of God their Creator must be sung in those parts.' " It is a quaint story, but singularly true to nature. Gregory prevented from going to England. — Gregory had resolved to go as missionary to Britain, but all liome resolved that he should not. He had wrung a reluctant consent from Pope Pelagius, and advanced three days' journey along the Flaminian Eoad. They had stopped to rest at noon, and Gregory was reading, when suddenly a locust leaj^ed upon his book. His quaint playfulness was as ready as his courage. " Eightly is it called locusta," lie said; " it seems to say, ' Loco sta.' I see we shall not 1 Bocda, Hist. Eccl., ii. 1. The Popes and tJic Lombards in Italy 235 be able to finish our joiirney." He had hardly spoken when a hurried messenger recalled him to Eome, where the Pope's life had been endangered by a mob, furious at Gregory's departure. He returned, to enter on public aBairs, to conduct an embassy to Constantinople, to be Papal secretary, much against his will to be Pope (a.d. 590 ). But the plan, which he had vainly tried to carry out as a monk, he saw as Pope successfully carried out by another. The conversion of the English in Britain was begun by St. Augustine. Sketch of English History— a.d. 410-596.— The Eoman province of Britain had been lieltic and Christian, the Britain of Augustine was to a great extent English and Pagan; what had happened in the intervening two centuries % The independence of the province had been acknow- ledged by Honorius in a.d. 409, and was maintained with some difficulty till the middle of the century against encroaching Picts and Scots. At last, harassed and plun- dered, hemmed in between enemies in the north and the sea in the south, the Kelts (so runs the story) begged for help from their Teutonic neighbours across the German Ocean; and those who came to help remained to conquer. In reality, however. Teutons had come to Britain many years before, certainly before the end of the fourth century. Even in the third century the depredations of Saxon pirates on the shores of Gaul and Britain had been such as to compel Diocletian to appoint a special ofi&cer for their protection (Comes Littoris Saxonici).^ It is probable, therefore, that the Teutonic conquest of Britain was rather an immediate consequence of the cessation of Eoman protection than the result of invitation. There were doubtless many Teutonic tribes which took part in 2 Cf. Lappenberg's Anglo-Saxon Kings, vol. i. p. 44. 236 History of the Roman Empire the invasion; but the three most important were the Jutes, Saxons, and Angles. They were all akin appa- rently, and came from the district of J^orth- Western Europe, which Kes between the Rhine and Denmark. Of the Saxons we hear first; the Angles were most numer- ous ; and the Jutes least numerous, occupying only Kent, the Isle of Wight, and part of Wessex. Hence " Saxon" was the name given to the English by the Kelts, while "Englaland" became the name of the country. They were all pagans and robbers. And though the struggle was long, in the end they drove before them or nearly extirpated the Keltic population, and with it whatever remained of Christianity and of Eoman civilisation. A small proportion they retained as slaves. The Teutonic conquest of Britain, therefore, was different from the Teutonic conquests in other parts of the Roman Empire; for the English did not (like Vandals or Goths or Lom- bards) simply sit down as a conquering aristocracy amidst a vast surrounding population, in whose mass they were presently lost; neither did they adopt the religion of the vanquished, or their language, or their civilisation. In Britain a civilised people was swept away by a barbarous, a Christian people by a pagan. At first (as was natural) there was but little union among the several tribes, and probably not a little strife, until the necessities of self- defence led to " federation," and seven kingdoms (the so- called " Heptarchy") emerged from the obscurity, — Kent, Essex (or East Saxons), Sussex (South Saxons), Wessex (West Saxons), East Anglia, Mercia (men of the " March" or frontier), and Northumberland, which stretched from the Humber to the Firth of Forth. To give one instance of " federation," the Anglian kingdom of Mercia, in the centre of England, comprised West Saxons north of the Thames, Hwiccas in Gloucester and Worcester, Magessetas TJic Popes and tJic Lombards in Italy 237 in Hereford, Gainas and Lindisfaras in Lincoln. It was not uncommon, moreover, for the king of some one of the kingdoms, by arts or arms, to acquire a certain ill-defined supremacy over the rest, which Bseda terms " Imperium," and the holder of wliich the Saxon chronicle calls " Bret- walda" (later " Brytenwalda "). Eight kings are men- tioned, of six different kingdoms, who gained this predominance, including Ecgberht of Wessex, who not only gained, but retained it, and handed it on to his descendants (a.d. 828). From that time the " imperium" remained with Wessex, which in the sixth and seventh centuries had been mostly held l)y Northumberland, and in the eighth by Mercia, St. Augustine — a.d. 597. — It was to these Pagan Eng- lish that Pope Gregory, unable to go himself, sent Augus- tine from his own monastery of St, Andrew, with forty followers. They had reached Provence, when they began to hear awful rumours of that " savage, fierce, and unbe- lieving people, whose language even they did not under- stand," and sent back Augustine to beg Gregory to excuse them their dangerous task. But the Pope was inflexible, and they were forced to continue their journey. At this time, happily for the missionaries, ^Ethelberht (who had married Berhte, a Prankish princess, and a Christian) was king of East Kent and Bretwalda, as far as the Humber. When, therefore, they landed "with their Frank inter- preters in the little isle of Thanet (separated in those days from Kent by a branch of the Stour about one-third of a mile in breadth), they were courteously welcomed by the king, who presently gave them audience, and listened to theii' message. His answer was no less courteous, declining indeed for himself to abandon abruptly the customs of his forefathers, but allowing them to stay among his people, and to preach as they would. He 238 History of the Roman Empire further assigned them a house iii Canterbury. There accordingly they lived, leading a simple apostolic life, and using Queen Berhte's venerable church of St. Martin outside the gates, which dated from Eoman times. At- first their converts were few ; but rapidly uicreased, when .^thelberht himseK was baptised, moved thereto by the sight of their pure lives, and (says Bseda) their many miracles. Shortly the king retired from Canterbury to Regulbium (Reculver), leaving his palace and an adjacent church to Augustine, the second Constantiae of a second Sylvester, and here was built " Christ Church," the new cathedral, and very near to it the great monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul, afterwards known by Augustine's own name. Effects of Christianity in England. — But it was not all peace that the Eoman missionaries brought with them. Fierce quarrels arose between the English clergy and the British Christians in Wales on various minor points, in which the latter followed the Eastern, rather than the Latin custom (such as the time for keeping Easter, the mode of tonsure, the marriage of priests, and the like), and preferred to do so ; while the former urged the paramoimt authority of St. Peter and his See. And then there was the constant danger of relapse, and of war between Pagans and Christians, for Latin Chris- tianity was but feebly rooted in England as yet. ^Ethel- berht's reign in Kent and Eadwine's in l^orthumberland, were in each case followed by a return to paganism. In the latter case, indeed, it was not for long. In a few years Northumbria became once more Christian, at the preaching of the Scottish Aidan, whom King Oswald invited from the monastery of Hii (lona), and made Bishop of Lindisfarn; and the progress of Christianity, from north to south, would doubtless have been more The Popes and the Lombards in Italy 239 rapid, Ibut for the obstinate heatlienisiu and Avarlike genius of Penda the Mercian. As it was, little was effected for the general Christianisation of England until after his death (a.d. G55). Then the Christian Oswio overran Mercia and East Anglia, and presently became Bretwalda ; and the wave of Christian civilisation, which , had flowed from Scotland, and lifted I^orthumbria to the highest place among English kingdoms, before long touched even the southern kingdoms, and last of all the South Saxons. Then followed two centuries of brilliant missionary and intellectual activity, especially as contrasted with the heathenism and darkness of Danish times to follow. There was a constant stream of missionaries to the Con- tinent, of pilgrims to Eome. Learning, poetry, the arts began to flourish. Basda, Ceedmon, Benedict, Biscop, Aidan, Ceadda, Wilfrith, Aldhelm, Winfrith (St. Boni- face) are names which attest the fact. But not only did Christianity stimulate the intellects of our English fore- fathers, and bring them into constant and elevating con- tact with foreigners, especially with Eome; it also mollified the general tone of thought. Wars of extermination ere long ceased; and the Christian English were content with the political subjection (instead of the extirpation) of the Christian Welsh. Indeed, it seems hardly too much to say, that the stimulus of Christianity contributed not a little to that general elevation of political ideas, which resulted in the union of England under Ecgberht, first "King of the English" (a.d. 828). Gregory as Bishop, Pope, and (virtual) King. — But the conversion of England, though to England itself it was the beginning of a new life, and resulted remotely in the conversion^ of Germany, was but a small •* C"'. Milman's Latin Cliristiauity, book iv. cap. 5. 240 History of the Roman Empire part of the life work of Gregory tlie Great — to his own age probably the smallest. He was Bishop of Eome, and ruled his diocese with diligence. He vigilantly superintended the Church ritual and music, and the dis- tribution of Papal charities. He administered the Church property with equal strictness and justice. He was also Pope/ " Father of Fathers," and as such exercised super- vision over bishops and clergy, not only in Italy, but in Greece, Gaul, and Spain, This supremacy was a claim certainly not yet acknowledged in words, yet continually acknowledged in deeds — a claim tacitly made, sometimes resisted, more often allowed. When the Patriarch of Constantinople openly assumed the title of "Universal Bishop," as being bishop of the capital, Gregory protested vehemently against the assumption of such a title both to the Emperor and Empress, partly as derogating from the just rights of St. Peter's See, partly as a mark of pride. " Xo one in the Church" (he writes to the Patriarch himself), "has yet sacrilegiously dared to usurp the name of Universal Bishop. Whoever caUs himself Universal Bishop is Antichrist." This protest, however, was, in fact (however much Gregory may have deceived himself), only a protest against the use by others of a title which the Bishops of Eome were slowly learning to arrogate to themselves. The claim to supremacy, which began in the fourth century, culminated in Innocent III, (about a.d. 1200), and Gregory was but one link in the long chain of Popes who, consciously or unconsciously, aimed at despotic power. That it was a usurpation gTounded in the political troubles of the times may be true enough ; but none the less it was a usurpation. As Patriarch of the West, Gregory saw the downfall of Arianism in both Gaul and Spain, and the conversion, as of the English, so of the 4 Cf. Stanley's Eastern Church, p. 98. TJie Popes and the Lombards in Italy 241 Lombards through his influence with Queen Theodelinda. But Gregory was not only Bishop and Pope ; he was in influence, though not avowedly, a temporal sovereign. And here it must be admitted this position was thrust upon him rather than of his own seeking. The natural defenders of the Imperial city were unable or unwilling to defend her ; and the Pope had the best of titles in the love and good-wiU of his subjects. During liis pontifi- cate Gregory found food in Sicily for a famishing people, already decimated by plague, and he encouraged the Romans to stand a siege from Autharis, the Lombard king (a.d. 593). Constantinople was very far away; and to men who had no visible rulers before their eyes, but the fierce Lombard at Pavia, and the wretched Exarch at Eavenna, it is no wonder that Gregory seemed a natural leader, a king with the best of credentials. It is most important, therefore, to remember (as a clue to after history) that Gregory was not only Pope, but that his high character won for him a position as Patriarch of the West not reached by any of his predecessors ; and that this and political circumstances combined, gave him the position, though not the name of king. Gregory II. — a.d. 716. — Gregory the Great died March 10, A.D. 604 ; and the preponderating influence of the Papacy in the West increased rather than diminished. Eome became increasingly the centre of the faith. I^ow, however much this may have been due to the feebleness of the Emperors who reigned between Heraclius and Leo III. (a.d. 641-718), — and this was really only one cause among many, — it was certainly not due to the greatness or the character of the Popes. In the century which elapsed between the death of Gregory the Great and the accession of Gregory II. no less than twenty-four Popes fiUed the Papal Chair, few of whom rose above utter KOM. EMP. 242 History of the Roinaji Empire obscurity (a.d. 604-716). The high-handed persecution and miserable death of Martin I. at the hands of Con- stans II. (a.d. 654) might fairly be matched against the extraordinary \'icissitudes and pitiless cruelties of the Emperor Justinian II. (a.d. 685-711). AVith the acces- sion, however, of Pope Gregory II. (a.d. 716) and of the Emperor Leo. III. (a.d. 710), we enter on a new phase of the history of Italy and of Christendom. Rise of Iconoclasm. — In the eighth century a reli- gious question arose — Iconoclasm — quite different to all previous religious questions. It was nothing less than an attempt on the part of an Emperor to modify the religion of his subjects, by his own mere fiat — to change the universal daily worship of the Christian world. It was an attempt to proscribe the reverence — or worship — of images. At the same time it differed from previous con- tests, in that it originated with the Emperor himself — that it was probably suggested to his mind from without and not from within, by acquaintance perhaps with Jewish and Mohammedan ideas upon the subject — that it was a question, not of speculative belief, but of daily ritual, affecting the inmost and inveterate feelings of every age and class and sex — that it admitted, therefore, of no argument, but only of appeals to force — lastly, that it was a purely negative doctrine, a sort of premature Rationalism. A small minority in the Empire, headed by the Emperor, conceived the idea (no matter how or whence) that it was ivrong to reverence, much more to worship, aU images or pictures of sacred subjects ; and having conceived it, they tried to enforce it on the immense majority of their fellow-Christians, of whose lives the deepest reverence, and in the case of the great mass, the actual worship of these images had become an inseparable part. The Church indeed in this, as in similar matters, had The Popes and the Lonbards in Italy 243 shown great practical wisdom, and in order to win the ignorant had adopted from Paganism certain universal, harmless, perhaps beautiful customs, which, however, tended to superstition. Such a custom was the use of altars, flowers, candles, processions, holy water, incense, votive off'erings, shrines at cross roads, and the like. Such, too, was the use of images and pictures. But what was symbolism to the educated, a beautiful aid to devotion, had become idolatry in the uneducated, downright wor- ship of the material image — an idolatry which tended to localise, and therefore limit, divine power, and from which the history of 1000 years, and the sharp teaching of a seventy years' captivity, could scarcely wean the Jews. It was in spite of Christianity that such idolatry lingered (and still lingers) in a Christian Church. ^Nevertheless, the attempt to uproot it by force in the eighth century was an anachronism and a mistake. Leo III. the Isaurian — a.d. 717-741. — Leo III. became Emperor in a.d. 717. His father had migrated from Asia ]\Iinor to Thrace, and the son first saw mihtary service in the guards of Justinian II. Like Tiberius and Justin, and the great Theodosius, the glory won in war raised him to the throne, on which he sat for twenty-four years, and handed down the purple to the third generation. In the second year of his reign he successfully defended the capital for tliirteen months against 120,000 Arabs and Persians under Moslemah, the brother of the Caliph, his success being not a little due to the fataP " Greek fire," which for 400 years was the main defence of the Empire. And this defeat of the Saracens by Leo (hke the defeat of their brethren at Tours by Charles Martel, in a.d. 732) was one of the greatest events in history ; for had the Saracens in either ^ Cf. Gibbon, Milman's ed. vol. v. cap. 52, p. 182. 244 History of the Roman Empire case been victorious, it is hard to see how Christian civilisation could have withstood the shock. Attempts to force Iconoolasm upon Christen- dom — A.D. 726. — Leo, to us, however, is mainly interest- ing as the " Iconoclast." He had been nine years on the throne, when he published his first edict against (as yet only) the loorsliip of statues and images (a.d. 726). In four or five years (before a.d, 731) a more severe edict followed, commanding their total destruction, and the white-washing of all churches. It is difficult to imagine how a man with even Leo's energy, courage, and prestige, could begin so rash a contest. Riots at once broke out in the capital, in Greece, and the -5i]gean, In Constan- tinople an officer was beaten to death by women while defacing an image of the Saviour. Iconoclastic Controversy in the East — a.d. 726- 842. — The monks throughout the Empire openly insti- gated rebellion. And for once the Bishops of Rome and Constantinople were agreed. The arrival of the Imperial edict in Ravenna (a.d. 728) was the signal for instant insurrection against the Exarch Scholasticus, of which the Lombard Luitprand availed himself to besiege and seize the city, and to overrun the Pentapolis. In vain did the Pope write two letters to the Emperor of mingled defiance and expostulation. In vain did the learned John of Damascus publish three orations in defence of image worship. The Emperor Leo and his son Constantine (a.d. 717-775) were not men to recede lightly from a position deliberately adopted; indeed, it would seem as if they had overawed or convinced a large number of the eastern clergy, for the third Council of Constantinople was attended by 348 bishops, Avho unanimously condemned the worship of images (a.d. 746). And not only so ; Constantine inaugurated, and his sub- TJie Popes and the Lombards in Italy 245 jects apparently abetted liim in a cruel persecution of the monks; and had succeeding emperors held the same views and possessed similar resolution, the eighth century- might have seen the final destruction of image worship in the East. But in a.d. 780, the Empire fell into the hands of a woman, the Empress Irene, who was at once ambitious and superstitious. Her heart was set upon restoring image worship at any cost; and by persistent intrigue for five years, she succeeded in convoking a council of about 370 ecclesiastics at Nic£ea (a.d. 785), who proclaimed the lawfulness of images and pictures as " holy memorials, to be worshipped and kissed," and anathematized all who called images idols. Nor was her heart less set upon retaining power; for in a.d. 797, in order to oust her son Constantine, she had him seized and brutally blinded, so that he almost died. Images were finally re-established as legal in the Eastern Church by the Empress Theodora (a.d. 842). Attitude of the Popes in the West. — a.d. 726- 740. — In the "West, meanwhile, matters were progressing at a rapid pace. In a.d. 730, a council was held by Gregory II. at Eome, which renounced communion with the Emperor. The first act of Gregory III. (a.d. 731-741) was to acquaint the Byzantine court with his adherence to his predecessor's views; and his next to decree, by a council at Eome (a.d. 732), that " whoever should overthrow, &c., the images of Christ and the glorious Virgin, of the blessed apostles and saints, was banished from the unity of the Church." The Pope himself set the example of image worship on the grandest scale. In the same year, moreover, the last great effort on the part of the Eastern Empire to reduce Italy and the Pope once again to subjection, ended in utter failure. A large combined fleet and army on its way to Italy was 2.j6 History of the Roman Empire caught ia a violent storm in the Adriatic and utterly i destroyed. For twenty years more, indeed, the Exarch '■ maintained a precarious position in Eavenna, finally abandoning it for Naples; and the Empire learned to acquiesce in an inevitable loss. But to the Pope this virtual victory over the Empire might well seem to involve a virtual subjection to the hated Lombards — hated even though they were no longer Arians. A new barbarian kingdom seemed on the point of absorbing all Italy. Gregory looked round for help, being cut ofi" in reality (though not in name) from all connection with Constantinople, and found it across the Alps. The alliance, now begun, between the Papacy and the Franks was a "Eevolution," fruitful in consequences little foreseen and not yet exhausted, which have affected all subsequent history. bout A.D. 60 aetw^een fh e GTeck Em EXARCHATE. ISTRIA . VENICE . MAPLES . ROME . CALABRIA . SICILY. SARDINIA . CORSICA . REST OF ITAL it^ Chap. xiii. i: ^ ITALY from nbout AD. 600-750, ^^°°^^u^sX^ -X \ fli^vs lis tiivided between the l,omhal-(ls A.- Ilie Greek Empire ■-4 ■ tc^^T?" ^4 NAPLES SICILY ' life ^^K^^^^^^ SARDINIA y: \ 1-. ^ tf> J^'>- \ ^^ LOMBARDS -REST OF ITALY. m ^Si V~T r,. ,11,.,0-Alc Cl„p Xili. ^ffi.' 1 A,^ T-^^ \' ^S.. , life} ^^*f^.^6^ ay{a"i)^-ff "^^'-^ ^ '-( Y { ' C;^ V ^fi ._._-^ ^ i v>^ ^lA> W I c^?*^ ^ w ^ 3 1 CHAPTER XIV. THE FRANKS AND THE PAPACY.— a.d. 500-800. The Franks. —In the middle of the eiglith jcentury the Imperial power in Italy was dead, and the Pope and the Lombards were left alone face to face. But the exaggerated, if not entirely unfounded, horror with which the Church regarded the Lombards rendered peace be- tween them impossible; and when Luitprand's conquests tlireatened Eome and aU Italy with, subjection, Gregory IIL, A.D. 731-741 (treading in the footsteps of Gregory II.), appealed for aid to the mighty Frank beyond the Al ^s, Charles Martel, whose name was in every mouth as the saviour of Europe from the hitherto invincible Mohammedans. A clear understanding of the history of / the Franks in Gaul, and of their relations to the Papacy, j is an essential introduction to the study of the history of 1 Germany, Italy, and France; and the a ppeal of Greg;ory t o ' Charles marks the moment when the dignity and power of "Eoman Emperor" was about to pass into quite other hands, and with other prerogatives than heretofore. Gaul under the Romans. — For 400 years Gaul was a province of the Roman Empire, incorporated with it more entirely, perhaps, than any other province. Its con- quest had been thorough in the first instance, and the Jioman system had been applied with success, The sur- 24S History of the Roman Empire face of the country was covered with more than 100 municipia; schools were widely estahlished by Augustus and by Claudius; many writers of eminence were born and lived there; wealth abounded. But, below a bril- liant surface, there were causes of decay similar to those which were the ruin of Italy. The sentiment of nation- ality was gradually destroyed when Gaiil became only a part of a vast empire, and was not replaced by any feeling of " loyalty," which the Empire indeed was hardly calculated to arouse.^ When the Emperor Honorius, in the fifth century, tried to galvanise into life the Gallic patriotism by reviving the annual "diet" at Aries, no response whatever was made to the proposal. The Keltic language and religion retreated into Brittany before the Roman tongue and Eoman Christianity. The Imperial system, moreover, spoiled the municipal; and its taxa- tion, at once crushing and unfairly assessed, impoverished the farmers and landed proprietors. And the same latifundia which had ruined Italy ruined Gaul also, and for similar reasons. But in Gaul, as in Italy, one class of men increased in influence, as all around them decayed. However intolerant or grasping they may have been, the Christian clergy — brave, moral, and educated — stepped into the place of the fading Empire, resisted it when tyran- nical, wielded its powers when decrepit, and alone pre- sented a courageous front to wrong, vice, and barbarism. Invasion of Roman Gaul — a.d. 406. — Such (briefly) was the state of the province, when it was suddenly over- whelmed at the beginning of the fifth century by the long- dreaded inroad of barbarians from beyond the Ehine and the Alps. Vandals, Suevi, Burgundians, Visigoths, Franks, together or successively, swept across or occupied the un- happy province. The two first passed on into Spain and ^ Cf. Guizot's Hist. Civilisation, vol. i. p. 31. TJie Franks and the Papacy 249 Africa, the others remained to subdue and eventually divide Gaul between them, though but little is known of their mutual relations until the end of the century. Gaul divided between Visigoths, Burgundians, and Franks. — Speaking generally, by the year ajd^ 490 the Visigoths were masters of the country between the Rhone, the Loire, the Atlantic, and the Garonne; the Burgundians of that between the Ehone, the Saone, and the Alps ; and the Franks of nearly all the rest {with the exception of the Keltic Armorica or Brittany) as far as the mouth of the Ehine. But the Frank Empire was not only on the west of the river, but comprised a large, though ill-defined tract between the Ehine and the Weser, which touched the Saxons on the north and the Alemanni on the south. Amidst this drifting mass of diverse peoples — of High Dutch and Low Dutch, of Eomans, Kelts, and Basques — there was no controlling central power until the time of Chlodwig (Clovis, Ludwig, Lewis, a.d. 486-511). Chlodwig and the Merwing Dynasty — a.d. 486- 752. — By a fortunate marriage with the orthodox Chlothild of Burgundy, which resulted in the conversion of himself andjbisjpeogle, and secured to him the support of^tbe Catholic clergy, and by a series of successful struggles with successive foes, Chlodwig became practical lord of the whole of Gaul and of all Franks between the "Weser and Garonne, and virtual founder of the Merwing (Merovingian) nilers in Francia, both Eastern and Western; for Francia comprised , twovery different pop_ulations. On the eastern side* of the Scheldt and the Marne (Austrasia) were pure Franks ofi the old stock, who spoke German and followed German customs; on the western side (Neustria) were Franks, modified by contact with Eoman civilisation and more settled life. Among the latter, as was natural, despotic ideas of centralisation became predominant; among the 250 History of the Roman Empire former aristocratical ideas. Hence followed strong feel- ing and jealous rivalry; and, indeed, the story of the 180 years which followed the death of Chlodwig (511-687), is the story of a constant struggle for power between ISTeustria and Austrasia, which was settled in favour of the latter by the battleof Testry. The reduction, how- ever, by Chlodwig of Burgundy (a.d. 500) and Aquitaine (a.d. 507) was rather an irruption than a conquest, for they were lost almost as soon as won, the Merwing dominion consisting properly of Western Germany and JSTorthern Gaul, The glory of the family culminated in Dagobert I. (a.d. 628-638), whose influence touched Brittany on one side and the Pyrenees on the other. AUied with Lombards in Italy and Visigoths in Spain, he sent an embassy to Heraclius at Constantinople,^and chastised the aggressions of Slavonians and Bulgarians in Germany, while he chose able men to help him govern. However, in spite of one or two bright exceptions, the Merwings were mere barbarians compared with the Karlings who followed. The warlike energy of the nation, indeed, backed by the unhesitating support of the Church, carried their victorious arms over half Europe; but there was the same lack of organisation and discipline in the subjects, of fixed purpose and policy in the kings, which marked the early records of the Northmen in the ninth and tenth centuries. Rise of the Mayors of the Palace. — Almost all their kings were mere cyphers, surrounded by a number of fierce territorial chieftains, overshadowed more and more by the rising power of the " Major-do mias," who, being at first only the master of the royal household, rose to com- mand the Antrustions - (the Principes of Tacitus), and at last to preside over the dukes, counts, and bishops of the great council. Such powers in the hands of a series of ^ Cf. Tacitus' Germania, caps. vii. and xi. to xiv. The Franks and the Papacy 251 able men (like the family of Pippin) soon obscured those of the merely nominal cyning (king), or leader of the people, who was reserved (as Eginhard tells us) for the merely formal duties of kingship. The power of these " mayors " reached its highest pitch in Pippin of Heristal, the Austrasian, and his sons. They secured the supremacy of Austrasia over Neustria, and the reversion of royal power for themselves. Charles Martel— Battle of Tours— a. d. 732.-- Charles, the son of Pippin, indeed gained a glory all his own. He defeated the Saracens at Tours (a.d. 732). The bareness of such a statement ill reflects the true import of such a conflict, or its vast consequences. It was but a century since Mohammed had died; yet half the old Eonian Empii-e was Mohammedan, and from the Oxus to the Pyrenees the Ai'abs had conquered almost without a check. As yet, moreover, they were at amity among themselves; and the Saracen armies in. Spain and Gaul were led by an experienced general, A.bderrahman. In A.D. 732 he crossed the Pyrenees with a force of 100,000 men (not for the first time), and met with little serious resistance in the south of Gaul. His African light cavalry (like Hannibal's Numidians) were equally serviceable for battle, for pillage, or for reconnoitring, and carried the terror of the Saracen name as far north as the Loire. Count Eudes ia Aquitaine attempted resistance, but was swept away in the torrent. And Charles, meanwhile, the Austrasian Mayor, was busy with a Saxon war far away. But the pressing danger, the panic of Christian Gaul, ]tresently recalled him. The two armies met on the banks of the Loire near Tours, and even Arab historians admit that the defeat of their forces was complete, "a disgraceful overthrow." For one whole day the battle raged with no decisive result, night parting the com- 252 History of tiie Roman E^ipire batants. It was renewed at the following dawn. But a too long course of unbroken victory had shaken the steadiness and lowered the morale of the Arab armies. In the midst of the struggle a rumour ran, like an electric current, through the Mohammedan lines, that a division of Franks was attacking and spoiling their camp, in which was piled great store of wealth, the plunder of Aquitaine. At once a large body of Arab horsemen rode off to save their booty. To their comrades it looked like flight, and the rest of the army began to waver. It was the critical moment, which comes in every battle, when one army becomes conscious of its moral inferiority to the other as a whole, and, despite the courage and exertions of indi- viduals, is already virtually beaten. In vain did Abderrah- man strive to check the confusion. He was pierced by a Prankish spear, and feU, and his faU was the signal for a general flight. We need not admit the preposterous estimates of monkish chroniclers as to the relative losses on either side, in order to perceive that Tours was to Europe a " crowning mercy." 1 Results of Charles' Victory. — The defeat of the Saracens at Tours, even more than theu' repulse from Constantinople, meant the salvation of Christendom from an enforced return to the lethargy, sterility, and arrested development which has always marked Mohammedanism. Had the Franks been defeated, there was no power strong enough to arrest the Arab progress ; and what has been said with truth of the victory of Arminius over Varus (a.d. 9), is said with equal truth of the victory of Tours, that it was " one of those signal deliverances which have affected for centuries the happiness of mankind."^ Gregory III. Appeals to Charles — a.d^_J 738. — The fame of Charles " The Hammer " was measured by ^ Arnold's Rom. Commonwealth, ii. p. 317. The Franks and the Papacy 253 the previous panic of Christian Europe. He might seem even the Protector of Christianity itself. It was little wonder that Pope Gregory TIL, hopeless of aid from any other source, and plundered and insulted by the Lorn-/ bards, should have sent a letter of piteous entreaty I imploring Charles' aid. It seems, indeed, that Gregory deserved his fate; for he had encouraged a Lombard Duke of Spoleto to rebel against King Luitprand, in revenge for which the king wasted the Papal territory, and even probably plundered St. Peter's itself. On the other hand, it is impossible that Gregory shoidd have realised the full importance of his own appeal; for it was nothing less than the first step in a gigantic revolution, from Avhich the Pope was to emerge as a temporal sovereign, and the Prankish king as " Holy Roman Emperor." In Gregory's appeal was involved the very kernel of mediaeval history. The actual offer made by the Pope was perhaps inten- tionally vague. He sent the very keys of the tomb of St. Peter. He named Charles Patrician and Consul. But were these mere bribes, or actual symbols of an allegiance transferred from the Greek to the Frank? Which they were, it is hard to say ; yet two things are clear, that at this stage of the matter neither of the parties was at all alive to the consequences of their new relation ; while, on the other hand, indefinite jealousies, claims, and encroachments were possibly involved. Gregory Succeeded by Pope Zacharias — a.d. 741. — Both Charles and Gregory, however, died in the autumn of A.D. 741 ; and the new Pope Zacharias (a.d. 741-752) was a different man to Gregory. He combined a majesty and a gentleness truly apostolic, with a far greater insight into character than his predecessors. Where Gregory had quailed before Luitprand, Zacharias led him with threads of 254 History of tJie Roman Empire silk. The Lombard was warlike and ambitious ; but he was also sincerely religious, witli the religion of a superstitious and illiterate barbarian. Twice did the Pope interfere between Luitprand and his cherished plans of aggrandise- ment, imploring, threatening, almost forbidding; and twice the Lombard yielded. It is indeed essential to remark how rapidly the influence of the Church was growing among the new-formed nations, thanks to the intelligence, firmness, and moral purity of the clergy; as well as to note the fact that Church authorities were begin- ning to use their enormous, though undefined, power for purposes purely secular. ALready kings were abandon- ing the throne for the monastery, as a purer and happier sphere. Carloman did so, the son of Charles IMartel — a king in all but the name ; Eachis, the Lombard, did so; and when Pippin, Carloman's brother, supplanted the Merwing by the Karling dynasty, nothing seemed more natural than that the wretched Chilperic should retire to the peaceful obscurity of a monastery. Coronation of Pippin, — a.d. 752. — This great revolution was scarcely perceived in passing. Pippin was elected, as by ancient Frankish custom, by the clash of arms and elevation on a buckler; but the election was sanctioned by the Pope, and Christian bishops wefe^standing round, and the holy oil, the symbol of divine right, was poured on his head by the ^iglish Boniface, Archbishop of Mentz (A.p. 752). It was the first time in history, but not the last, that the Church sanctioned the transfer of a crown ; and on this the first occasion her motives were transparently secular, if not selfish. Sanction on the one side was bartered for pro- tection on the other. Pippin and Pope Stephen — a.d. 753-55. — And the protection was soon sorely needed. Luitprand was The Franks and the Papacy 255 dead, and Astolph was king of the Lombards, a man of energy little burdened with scruples. He entered the Exarchate and seized Ravenna. He quarrelled with the Pope and advanced on Eome, deaf alike to threats and entreaties. Stephen in despair, for Zacharias was now dead, fled to Gaul and implored, not in vain, the aid of Pippin. But Astolph, aware of the coming storm, per- suaded Carloman to leave his convent and claim the Austrasian crown, hoping to sever the alliance between Stephen and his brother. It was a vain attempt, and only ended in the lifelong imprisonment of Carloman, as a monk who had broken his vows. Pippin and Stephen crossed the Alps, and Astolph was shut up in Pavia, and made to swear to restore all Eoman territory. But such vows are "writ in water." No soonerwere the Alps between the Franks and himself, than Astolph marched once more upon Rome, aud demanded the surrender of the Pope. Once, and yet a second time, did Stephen send agonized letters imploring Pippin's instant return. Victory over all barbarian nations was the promised reward, and eternal life. But there was terrible delay. The Frank did not come. And at last, in a paroxysm of terror (it is the only conceivable defence), Stephen sent a letter pur- porting to have been written by St. Peter himself, adjur- ing Pippin, in the name of the " Mother of God," to save her beloved Rome from the detested Lombards, and pro- mising again protection and victory in this life, certain salvation in the next. Pippin delayed no more, and recrossed the Alps; while Astolph, forced to throw him- self hastily into Pavia, was there besieged and reduced to 3rield to all demands. Pippin's "Donation" to the Papacy. — The Exar chate was wrested with impartial violence from Eastern Empire and Lombard king, and bestowed by the 256 History of the Roman Empire sword of the stronger on the Bishop of Eome, who thus became a temjioral sovereign, with all a sovereign's preroga- tives, taxation, justice, and the like. The "donation" was presently increased by the voluntary surrender of the Duchy of Spoleto, and afterwards confirmed by Charles the Great to Pope Hadrian, and increased to comprise a large part of Italy. On the other hand, Pippin received the title of Patrician of Eome, a name implying powers both vague and extensive. The Lombard Astolph did not long survive this last humiliation, and with his death the weakness inherent in the Lombard kingdom, whose numbers were comparatively few, and whose central government was comparatively feeble owing to the turbu- lence and independence of the great chieftains, rapidly resulted in its ruin. Desiderius, the last of the Lombard kings (a.d. 757-774), was at intervals, indeed, at peace and amity with the Pope, and an ally of Charles, who married his daughter Hermingard; but the alliance and the amity were alike short-lived, and both Lombards and Italians were absorbed ere long into the " Eoman Empire " resusci- tated by Charles the Great. Charles Succeeds Pippin — a.d. 768-774. — Pippin died in a.d. 768, and divided his dominions (accord- ing to custom) between his sons Charles and Carloman. Happily for the peace of Francia, the latter died within three years (a.d. 771), and Charles restored or usurped the undivided kingdom of his father. The widow and the sons of Carloman at once took refuge with Desiderius, for Charles had divorced Hermingard oidy a year after his marriage, to wed the Suabian Hildegard, and Desiderius was eager for revenge. On which side was Pope Hadrian to range himself % His predecessor Stephen had protested against Charles' marriage with Hermingard at all — not, indeed, on the Christian ground that he was married The Franks and the Papacy 257 already, but on the mi-Christian ground that any alliance between "noble" Frank and " foetid, leprous" Lombard was abominable, detestable, devilish. And now the claims of righteousness might likewise seem to call for disapproval of the usurping adulterous Charles, and a hearty support of Carloman's sons and their friend De- siderius. But Hadrian was wise in his generation, and steadily declined to commit himself. The Pope's hesita- tion, and the murder in Eome of one of his own partisans, incensed the Lombard into ravaging Eomania (the Eo- magna), and even advancing on Eome. But Hadrian was neither a coward like Stephen, nor an apostle like Zacharias. He gathered troops, strengthened fortifica- tions, barricaded the Vatican, and sent off hasty appeals to Charles for help ; and then fell back on his spiritual weapons, threatening Desiderius with excommunication if he dared to attack him. The Lombard, blind to his danger, refused all negotiations; his son, Adelchis, even defeated a Frank army in the Alps. But it was only de- ferring the evil day. The Lombards were but a handful in the midst of a native population, who looked on the Pope as their "head," and the Franks as their "de- liverers." Charles passed the Alps, and in a moment (as it were) was master of all North Italy, except the cities of Pavia and Verona, in which Desiderius and Adelchis respectively were blockaded (a.d. 774). Charles Increases the "Donation," — At Easter he went on to Eome, and being there welcomed with such honours as became so orthodox and useful a champion, added to and ratified the donation of land made by his father Pippin. For Pavia had fallen; Desiderius was in a monastery; Adelchis had fled to Constantinople; and the whole territory of the Exarchate, and a part of that of the Lombards, was confirmed as the possession of the ROM. EMP. R 258 History of the Roman Empire Pope; and however obscure may have been the conditions of the Papal tenure, it is no less clear that tliis donation was the basis and foundation of that " temporal power" which has so deeply affected the cbaracter and history of the Eoman Church. Charles Crowned Emperor of the West — a.d. 800. — But even the protection of the great Frank did not save the Popes from troubles. The Archbishop of Eavenna refused submission to Hadrian (a.d. 775), and the Lombards rebelled against him (a.d. 787). Leo III. was set upon during a solemn procession by two nephews and an armed train, beaten, mutilated, half-murdered (a.d. 799). It seemed indeed more than ever necessary to hold fast a powerful protector by strong chains. In the next year Charles crossed the Alps in the late autumn, and Leo, after a solemn trial, was acquitted of certain charges brought against him. And Charles and Leo, Franks and Italians, nobles, clergy, people were assembled at Rome in crowds to celebrate Christmas. All had met together for the solemn service. The Basilica of St. Peter's was crowded. The Pope himself chanted high mass. At its close he advanced from liis throne in the centre of the apse, and in the sight of the vast congregation placed on Charles' head, as he knelt in prayer by the altar, the diadem of the Ccesars, while the great chiu'ch rang with the shout, " Karolo Augusto, a Deo coronato magno et pacifico Imperatori, vita et victoria." In spite of the assertion that Charles disliked the proceeding, and had he known the intentions of the Pontiff would not have entered the church, it is difficult to believe in the spon- taneity of the spectacle, or to doubt that it was prearranged between Leo and Charles. But whether prearranged or spontaneous matters little ; the fact remains. The current of the world's history was changed. TJic Franks and the Papacy 259 Results of Coronation. — What, then, was the meaning of this apparently simple act of gratitude ? and in what results did it end 1 It was certainly an act of gratitude (as well as something else) on the part of the Romans, and of Leo their representative, who despised the Greeks and hated the Lombards, and might expect in the future, as they had experienced in the past, the friendship and protection of the Franks. But it was more than this. It was a recognition of the " logic of facts," that the Eastern Empire was a defuuct power in Italy, and that the political " centre of gravity" had shifted. For (be it remembered) neither the title nor the office of Emperor was new, nor was the actual power of Charles in any way increased, but only its character clianged. And the change was a striking one. Once more the Imperial city gave an Emperor to the West; and that Emperor was neither Eoman nor Italian, but German. I^o longer were charters to be dated or money to be coined in the name of a titular " Eoman Emperor" at Constantinople, but of one who was not only patrician, like Pippin and Pippin's father, or king, like Theodoric, but actual Emperor of the West, like Theodosius. Power was recognised as being w here in reality it ^oas. One new factor, however, was intro- daced into the matter, whose powers were unfortunately mdefinite. It was clear to all that the Imperial crown had been bestowed by the hands of the Pope. The ques- tion arose in after days. Did he give it as of right; and if so, whence came the right? For the time indeed the question did not even suggest itself, so humble and weak was the Pope, so immeasurably great was the Emperor; but the greatness of the Emperor was personal and com- mensurate only with his life, whde the humdity of a Pope detracted nothing from the growing majesty of the Papacy. The prescriptive prerogatives of even an Emperor were 26o History of the Roman Empire relatively weak when men thought of the Pope as God's mouthpiece upon earth ; but for the present the two powers were incommensiu'able ; and the idea which arose in Otto's day (a.d. 936-973) of two co-ordinate powers, Emperor and Pope, ruling under God over the temporal and spiritual affairs of men, woidd in Charles' day have been an anachronism. It remains to speak shortly of Charles himself — his conquests and character — as of a man Avho, while he handed down to his successors the dubious advantage of the Imperial title, was himself the first founder of German unity, — a man who was so " great" in every sense, that he took captive (like Attila) the imaginations of the men of his own and succeeding ages, and became the typical hero of mediaeval romance^ Conquests of Charles the Great. — The conquests of Charles were the foundation of the great German king- dom. His wars lasted almost without interruption for forty-six years, during which he swept across Europe from the Ebro to the Oder, from Brittany to Hungary, — never meeting, it may be, with any really serious antagonist, yet always needing skill, perseverance, and sleepless energy. Aquitaine he pacified in six months. The Lombards he reduced in less than two years. Against the Avars, by himself or his lieutenants, he waged eight successive campaigns (a.d. 791-9), against the Saxons no less than thirty two, — the latter a "religious war," and waged with all the tender mercies that distin- guish such anomalies. The Frank arms were seen in Slavonia, Brittany, Bavaria, Bohemia, Southern Italy, and Spain. In the last-named country alone, and against the Saracens, he met with little success; Saragossa was besieged * See an interesting article on Carlovingian Romance, in tlie Edin- burgh Review for April 1862. TJie Franks and tJie Papacy 261 in vain; and as he returned through the Pyrenean passes to more important matters in Gaul, the combined Arabs and Basques fell upon his rear at Eoncesvalles and inflicted a loss which romance has magnified into a serious defeat. In fact, the kingdom of Pippin was nearly doubled by the victories of his son. Eginhard enumerates Aquitaine and Gascony — the Pyrenees and Spain to the Ebro — Italy from Aosta to Calabria — Saxonia, " a country" (he says) "twice as large as Francia" — Pannonia, Dacia, Dalmatia, Istria — and lastly, whatever barbarous tribes were to be found between the Rhine, the Danube, the Vistula, and the ocean, as so many additions to the Empire. His Policy. — Not that all this success was achieved by mere activity. Charles showed the qualities which all great generals show; he improved his war material, his armour, his breed of horses; he out-generalled his enemies by superior tactics, as in his first campaign against the Avars, when he adopted a double base of operations,^ and anticipated the strategy of Napoleon's famous cam- paign of Austerlitz (a.d. 1805); he combined self-reliance mth reliance on his subordinates ; he did not forget poKcy on the battle-field, but in Italy as in Spain was the cham- pion of vanquished against victors, of oppressed against oppressors. He conciliated the aff'ection of his German subjects by maintaining German institutions. He com-ted the alliance of neighbouring kings, of the Kings of Scots and the Asturias, of Ofla of Mercia, and Ecgberht of Wessex, as well as that of more distant and powerful rulers like the Emperor at Constantinople, or the Cahijh at Bagdad. He remained from first to last a staunch friend of the Church, its too liberal benefactor; gomg far, by the immunities and privileges which he granted, to 5 Cf. Thierry — Histoire d'Attila, vol. ii. p. 156 ; Alison's Europe, vol. ix. cap. 4U. 262 History of the Rojiian Empire make claims possible which only his own commanding vigour and wisdom could resist. The untiring energy of his policy and his wars is to be seen no less in his adminis- tration. None but energy almost superhuman could have devised or attempted to carry out the gigantic system of " Missi dominii," regulated by a law of a.d. 802. They were a sort of king's messengers deputed to visit every corner of the Empire — to observe, to inquire, to order, to regulate, to punish — organs of a central authority, to whom they sent in an annual report of the wants and condition of every class. And this is only one instance out of many. Character and Person of Charles. — It sometimes adds life and definiteness to our ideas of a man, if we can picture to ourselves his appearance and personal charac- teristics ; and in Charles' case this is comparatively easy with the minute account left us by Eginhard (or Einliard), his Minister of Public Works. He was every inch a king. Tall and robust, he had a dome-like head, large and piercing eyes, white hair, and an expression full of grace and dignity; and so excellent was his constitu- tion, that until he was seventy he did not know what ill- ness meant. He was passionately devoted to riding, hunting, and swimming ; for which latter reason he made Aachen, with its natural warm springs, his favourite home ; and bathing parties were one of the common amusements of his court, in which 100 persons or more would take part at a time. He had a quaint humour, and appreciated it in others, as ^ when on a day of storm and rain he made his courtiers, all in furs and silk, ac- company him in a sudden hunting frolic; or concocted a scheme with a Jew pedlar for palming off on some bishop an embalmed rat, as an animal till then unknown. So ^ Cf. Steplitiu's Lect. Hist. Fr., i. 87. \ • EUROPE CHARLES THE GREAT IJie Franks and the Papacy 263 intense, in fact, was the mere animal life in Charles, that he seemed to throw all his energy into whatever he was doing, and to do it better than anything else, far better than any one else. His dress and his habits were equally simple. Drunkenness, the bosom sin of his countrymen, was not one of his; while the chastity, however, which distinguished them, was by him more honoured in the breach than the observance. He loved to be read to at meals, especially from St. Augustine, or from those " Barbara et. antiquis- sima carmina," which were the backbone of the Nibelung- enlied.^ He was a clear and fluent speaker, having perfect command of Latin, and understanding Greek — an eager student of logic and astronomy. His one insuperable difficulty was writing, which no efforts enabled him to master. His generous nature led him to scatter charity broadcast; poor Christians received his alms even so far afield as Syria, Egypt, Carthage. It is hardly needfid to add that the Popes were loaded with presents, rich and unnumbered. On the whole, of all the men whom the world has agreed to call " great," it will be hard to find more than one or two, who can equal, much less surpass, Charles the Frank. He was as energetic and undaunted as Frederick of Prussia, as eager a civiliser as Peter of Eussia; hardly less successful than Alexander or Napo- leon, yet greater than any of them, more generous, more simple, more superior to all his contemporaries, Perhaps one man only in laistory has been the equal of Charles in energy, courage, wisdom, and success, while morally far superior, and that was the English Aelfred.* General Summary. — We have thus traced the his- tory of 400 years, which have an interest peculiarly their own. Change of some sort is a matter of course in so long a period of every nation's life — change of thought, ^ Cf. Chapter viii. ^ Cf. Freeman's Norraau Conquest, vol. i. p. 53. 264 History of the Roman Empire manners, and laws. The Greece of the Achaean League differed from that of Themistocles, as the Eome of Csssar from that of the Decemvirate, or the England of the nineteenth century from that of the fifteenth; but it was not the same kind of difference as existed between the Eome of Caesar and the Eome of Theodoric, or of Gregory, or of Charles. It is no longer the same people, living in the same land, whose ideas and customs change as they conquer or are conquered by other nations, or as the balance of wealth and power is transferred from one class of society to another. We are concerned with an " Empire " — many nations, not one only — and that an Empire whose jDopulation itself was far more deeply modi- fied (if not wholly changed) than the institutions or customs which rided it. Look at it in the fourth century, and it might seem that a State, so welded together by a far- reaching, all pervading uniformity had nothing to fear from the attacks of barbarians. Look at it in the ninth century, and a hasty glance hardly detects any relics of the old Imperial State. Amid Christians and Moham medans — between Greeks, Italians, Lombards, Avars, Goths, and Franks — all seems confusion, disunion, strife. But this book will have been written in vain if it has not shown a " continuity of history" even in these con- fused 400 years. The Imperial Government in the West passed away, it is true, but Imperial ideas survived. Barbarian kings bore sway; but in theory they were lieutenants of the Emperor at Constantinople; till one among them revived what was only in abeyance, the Eoman Empire of the West, to drag on a lingering exist- ence even into our own century. As Greece took cap- tive the conquering Eoman, so Eome took captive the conquering barbarian, and gave him her language, ideas, laws, and religion. What looked in the fifth century like The Franks and the Papacy 265 the ruin of all that was worth preserving, the veritable " end of a world," was, in fact, only a transference of power to those who already possessed its reality. It was a change of form, not of essence; and the men who swayed Europe in the eighth and ninth centuries strove to do so on the principles and in the spirit of the old Empire. Thus, from first to last, it was one idea under varying forms which ruled the minds of men — the idea of one great Eoman Empire, which in becoming Christian had become " Holy." " Eome alone (it has been well said) founded an Universal Empire, in which all earlier history loses itself, and out of which all later history grew." 9 " Freeman's General Sketch, cap. i. p. 16. SYNOPSIS OF HISTORICAL EVENTS. GENEALOGY OF FAMILY OF THEODOSIUS. — Theodosius I. (379-395.) _ (Elia Flacilla (1st wife). 1 Galla (2d wife). 1 1 1 1 CI. Ataulphus. Gratian. Pulcheria. Arcadius. Honorius. Placidia= j t'. Iconoclasm. (Gregory III. 732 Battle of Tours. 732 Final attempt (and failure) of Eastern Empire to reconquer Italy. 7'jS \ Grofcory III. appeals to Franks v. Lom- bards. 741 Comtantine V. (Copronymus). 75J Lombards conquer Exarchate. Pope Zacharias sanctions deposition ofi Chilperic by Pippin = Karlings vice^ Merwings. ) 754 Council of Constantinople condemns " all visible symbols of Christ except in Eucharist." 75o Pippin's " Donation " to Pope Stephen= Foundation of Temporal Power. 771 Charles the Great. (771-814.) 775 Leo IV. 780 Constantine VI. (i'Orphyrogenitus). 797 Irene. 800 Charles crowned by Leo III. in .% Peter's Empekou of the West. (797-802.) INDEX Abderrahman .... 251 Acacius (Bp. of Bertea) . 74 Adda, Battle of the . . 166 Adelchis 257 Adrianople, Battle of . . 50 Aelfred .... 140, 263 Aelli 234 Aethelbert .... 237-8 Aetius quarrels with Boni- face, 119 ; banished to Pannonia, 127 ; saves Ganl from Attila, 148- 151 ; murdered by Valen- tinian III., 120, 156 Africa, conquered by Van- dals,125-8; byArabs,227 Agnatio 16 Aldan 238-9 Alani . . 105, 123, 151, 181 Alaric, the Visigoth, at Bat. Adrianople ; with Theo- dosius in Italy, 97 ; oc- cupies Illyricum, 98-9 ; in Peloponnesus, "Mas- ter-General," 101 ; in- vades Italy, 104; de- feated at PoUentia, 105 ; second invasion of Italy, 111 ; sacks Rome, 116 ; buried inFl. Basentinus, 116 Alboin, the Lombard . . 230 Aldhelm 239 Alexander, Charles com- pared to 263 Ali .... 218, 219, 226 Amalafrida 180 Amalasontha, d. of Theo- doric 183 Amrou 227 Auastasius, Emp. of East 168, 170, 176, 196 Angles 236 Anglia, East .... 236 Anianus, Bp. of Orleans 122, 138, 148 Antes, a ti'ibe of Slaves . 193 Anthemius, Emp. of West 120, 131 Antioch, Arian Council of 88 Antonina 185 Antoninus, Bp. of Ephesus 73 Antrustions 250 AquUeia 152, 165 Arabia . 212, 213, 214, 220 Arcadius, Emp. of East 56, 57 Ardshir (Artaxerxes) . 195 Arians . 50, 75, 88, 170, 182 Ariminum 186 Arminius, victory of, over Varus 252 Armorica (Brittany) 249, 250 Arpad, the Magyar . . 142 Aryans, who were they ? 42, 43 ; two divisions of; migrations of Kelts — of Teutons, 44 — of Slaves, 45; encroach on Rom. Emp. A.D. 81-285, 46 Aspar 127, 131 Astolph, the Lombard, 255-6 Asylum, Pdght of . . 58, 62 Ataulf, the Visigoth . . 117 Athalaric, the Ostrogoth . 183 Athanasius, St 232 Athens 100 Attains, Emp. of West 113, 114 Attila, the Hun, 136 ; le- gends of, Gallo-Roman, 137 ; Gothic, 139 ; W. German and Scandina- vian, 140 ; Hungarian, 142 ; Empire of, 143 ; compared to Theod. II. , 2/0 Index 144 ; claims Princess Honoria, 146 ; invades Gaul, 147 ; re[iulsed from Orleans, 149 ; defeated at Chalons, 150 ; ravages N. Italy, 152, 165 ; in- terview with Pope Leo I.; death of, 153; re- sults of death, 155-6 Augustine, Bp. of Hippo 122, 126, 263 Augustine, Missionary to the English . . 235, 237-8 Augustus (.T>., formerly Bishop of Peterborough. New Edition. i8mo. \s. 6d. With twelve Coloured Illustrations. Square cr, 8vo. ^s. 6d. LONDON, OXFORD, AND CAMBRIDGE. 6 MESSRS. RIVINGTOlSrS [ENGLISH. ENGLISH ENGLISH SCHOOL-CLASSICS With Introductions and Notes at the end of each Book. 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Barrett, Mus. Bac, Oxon, of St. PauPs Cathedral, Author of ^^ Floiuers and Festivals." Second Edition. Square l6mo. is. 6d. LONDON, OXFORD, AND CAMBRIDGE. [Specimen Page, No. i.] 6 THOMSON'S SEASONS Now, while the drowsy world lies lost in sleep, Let me associate with the serious night, And contemplation, he*- sedate compeer ; Let me shake off the intrusive cares of day, And lay the meddling senses all aside. Where now, ye lying vanities of life ! Ye ever-tempting, ever-cheating train ! 2ia Where are you now ? and what is your amount ? Vexation, disappointment, and remorse : Sad, sickening thought ! and yet deluded man, A scene of crude disjointed visions past. And broken slumbers, rises still resolved. With new-flushed hopes, to run the giddy round- Father of light and life ! thou Good Supreme ! O teach me what is good ; teach me Thyself ! Save me from folly, vanity, and vice, From every low pursuit ; and feed my soul 220 With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure — Sacred, substantial, never-fading laliss ! The keener tempests come ; and fuming dun From all the livid east, or piercing north. Thick clouds ascend ; in whose capacious womb A vapoury deluge lies, to snow congealed. Heavy they roll their fleecy world along : And the sky saddens with the gathered storm. Through the hushed air the whitening shower descends. At first thin-wavering ; till at last the flakes 230 Fall broad, and wide, and fast, dimming the day With a continual flow. The cherished fields Put on their winter robe of purest white. 'Tis brightness all ; save where the new snow melts Along the mazy current. Low, the woods Bow their hoar head ; and, ere the languid sun. Faint from the west, emits his evening ray, Earth's universal face, deep-hid and chill. Is one wild dazzling waste, that buries wide The works of man. Drooping, the labourer-ox 240 Stands covered o'er with snow, and then demands The fruit of all his toil. The fowls of heaven, Tamed by the cruel season, crowd around The winnowing store, and claim the little boon Which Providence assigns them. One alone, The redbreast, sacred to the household gods, [English School Classics.— 5"« Pages 6 and 7.] {.specimen Page, No. 2.] NOTES 33 187 Thatched. Properly speaking covered, now applied to one form of covering. A. S. ' Theccan,' to cover. German, 'dach,' a roof, 'decken,' to cover. Latin, ' tego,' to cover, ' tectum,' a house. Greek, (TTiyeiv, to cover, (jTi-^t], a roof. 191 An appeal to imagination and superstition. To heighten the hon^orsof the scene, and the misery of the wanderer's position. 195 Lords it. It, used impersonally and generally. Cf. the frequent use of ' le ' and ' en ' in French : En etre, Ten porter, &c. 197, 198 Psalm civ. Milton, Paradise Lost, ii. 263. The hush in the storm at nightfall gives opportunity for thought (202). Moral reflections {2001). Prayer for guidance (2,i(i) 202 The weary clouds. An instance of the pathetic fallacy ; the closing in of clouds into night (not a very true description) occurs already in line 79. 206 Compeer. Cum-par. So pair; disparage, which means to move from a state of equality. 209 Ye. Used properly only in the nominative and voca- tive. 210 Ever-cheating. Fr. 'echoir,' to fall. Eng. 'escheat.' ' Escheaters,' the officers who secured for the Crown properties falling to it — an odious office, equivalent to pettifoggers and rascals. So to cheat. 211 Amount. What do you come to after all. 214 Crude. Raw, undigested, therefore unassimilated. 216 Neiv-flushed. Filled with new vitality, connected with Ger. ' fluss, ' a river. Primary sense, ' flow,' so a flow of blood flushes the cheek. You flush a drain ; a river is flush or level with its bank. 219 Folly. Fr. 'fol'or'fou. ' Welsh, 'ffol.' Cf. Ps. cxviii. in old psalter of Corbie, quoted in Renouard, 'De tes commande- mens ne foliai,' ' I have not wandered from thy commandments.' Cf. Fr. ' feu follet,' Will-o'-the-wisp. 221 Conscioiis. Here = of conscience. Contrast with use in line 133. Return to the subject. The third form of storm, snoao (223) : its effects on the animal creation (240) ; on flocks in a snow-drft (265). The peasant lost amid the snow-drifts (276). 224 Livid, piercing. Epithets appealing to different senses are not well used thus coupled. 228 Saddens. Observe how constantly, in English, verbs arc used in both active and neuter sense. 229 Whitening. Cf. 140. 232 C/ifm/z^t/ = carefully tended. Fr. 'cher.'de.v- [English School Classics—^-?.? Pages 6 and 7.1 [Specimen Page, No. 3.] 196 History of French Literature that religion itself is made ridiculous. To this we would answer, that it is not reality and sincerity in religion which Molifere attacks, but unreality and hyjDocrisy, and that such vices are legitimate objects of moral satira There were plenty of Tartufes in the Paris of Molifere's day, and the piece is but another campaign of that war Pascal had waged eleven years before. The mode of warfare and plan of attack of the two men were indeed diverse; and Pascal in his cloister fought as a fervent Catholic, whilst Moliere, a pupil of Gassendi, came into the field an unbiassed philosopher; yet the powers of both were directed mconsciously to the same end, that of stripping the irreligious and hypocritical of their assumed garb of holiness. Moliere' s glory is that he was the poet of human nature. He was the first of his age to attack with that weapon most terrible of all to Frenchmen — ridicule — the foUies of his day, and his personifications of vice and weakness are true for all time, types of which every age will furnish antitypes. Boileau replied to Louis XIV. 's question who was the gi'eatest poet of the age? '■'■Cest Moliere" and the ad- miration of succeeding generations has gone far to endorse this opinion. His countrymen claim for him the first place amongst comic poets, and there is little doubt that he outdid his model Plautus, and at least disputes the pre- eminence with Terence. Boileau. — Boileau, whom we have just mentioned deciding for the king on the comparative merits of rival poets, set himself the task of guiding public taste gene- rally. Before he rose up to judge with his critical good sense between bad and good, Scud^ry had been admired by the side of Corneille, and Voiture by that of Mal- herbe. The end of Mademoiselle de Scudery's long life [Historical Handbooks— .5V^ /iz^a 2, 3, and a,^ [Specimen Page, No. 4.] ^ Practice. 157 thus : if the articles had cost £1 each, the total cost would have been ;^2 478 ; .-. as they cost i of ^i each, the cost will be £^^^, or £41^. The process may be written thus : 2s. 4i/. is I of ;i^i I £2478 = cost of the articles at £1 each. ^^413 = cost at 3J-. 4^. . . . Ex. (2). Find the cost of 2897 articles at ;£2. 12s. gd. each. 7 . 0.0 = cost at ^i each. £2 is is 2 x^i ^oi£i lOS. 2S. IS \ of lOS. %d. is 1 of 2S. id. is i of Zd. 5794 . 0.0= £2 . 1448 . 10 • o = los.. 289 • 14 • O = 2S. . 96 . 1 1 . 4 = Zd. . 12 . 1.5= ^d. . £7640 . 16 . 9 ..^3.I2J, gd. each. Note, — A shorter method would be to take the parts thus : los. = \ o{ £\ ; 2s. 6d. = ^ of ioj. ; 2)d. = y^ of 2s. 6d. Ex. (3). Find the cost of 425 articles at ^2. iSs. 4^/. each. Since ^2. iSs. 4d. is the difference between ;^3 and IS. Sd. (which is -^ of ;^i), the shortest course is to find the cost at ;j^3 each, and to subtract from it the cost at \s. Sd. each, thus : £3 is 3x^1 Tf. 8^. is Y2 of ^i £ 425 0.0 = cost at ^i each. 1275 35 0.0 = 8 .4 = £3 •■■• is. 8d. each. ;^I239 , II . 8 = £2. 18s. 4d. each. [RiviNGTONs' Mathematical S^RiEsSee Pages (), 10, a;ic/ 11.] [Specimen Page, No. 5.] le A YEAR'S BOTANY. of all of them open by two slits turned towards the centre of the flower. Their stalks have expanded and. joined together, so as to form a thin sheath round the central column (fig. 1 2). The dust- spikes are so variable in length in this flower, that it may not be possible to see that one short one pj^ ^o comes between two long ones, Dust-spikss of gorse (tnUrgedX though this ought to be the case. The seed-organ is in the form of a longish rounded pod, with a curved neck, stretching out beyond the dust-spikes. The top of it is sticky, and if you look at a bush of gorse, you will see it projecting beyond the keel in most of the fully-blown flowers, because the neck has become more curved than in fig. 12. Cut open the pod ; it contains only one cavity (not, as that of the wall-flower, two separated by a thin partition), and the grains are suspended by short cords from the top (fig. 13). These grains may be plainly seen in the seed-organ of even a young flower. It is evident that they are the most important part ^'s- i^. . Split seed-pod of gorse. of the plant, as upon them depends its dmu- sion and multiplication. We have already seen how carefully their well-being is considered in the matter of their perfection, how even insects are pressed into their service for this purpose ! Now let us glance again at our flower, and see how wonderfully contrivance is heaped upon contrivance for their protection ! First (see fig. 10, p. 14), we have the outer covering, so covered with hairs, that it is as good for keeping out rain as a waterproof cloak ; in the buttercup, when you pressed the bud, it separated into five leaves ; here there are five leaves, just the same, but they are so tightly joined that you may press till the whole bud is bent without making them separate at all, and when the bud is older, they only separate into two, and continue to enfold the flower to a certain extent till it fades. When the flower pushes back its waterproof cloak, it has the additional shelter of the big [A Year's Botany— 6V 22 Gcdge (J. W.), Young Churchman's Companion to the Prayer Book . 29 Gepp (C. G.), Latin Elegiac Verse . 15 Girdlestone (W. H.), Arithmetic . 11 Goulburn (Dean), Manual of Con- firmation 29 Greek Testament, by Dean Alford 23 by Clir. Wordsworth 23 Green (W. C), Aristophanes . . 24, 27 Gross (E. J.), Algebra, Part II.. . 10 — Kinematics and Ki- netics 10 Herodotus (Stories from), by J. Surtees Phillpotts 19 by H. G. Woods . . 24, 27 Heslop (G. H.), Demosthenes . . 22, 26 INDEX. PAGE Historical Biographies, edited by M. Creighton •••••,.*.•• ^ Historical Handbooks, Edited by Oscar Browning ....•• 2-4 Holmes (Arthur), Demosthenes . . 22, 26 Rules for Latin Pronunciation •••••• ^4- Homer for Beginners, by T. K. Arnold ,- • =' Homer's Iliad, by T. K. Arnold . 21 — by S. H. Reynolds . 21, 27 Horace, by J. M. Marshall . . .17. ^7 loPHON ^9 Isocrates, by J. E. Sandys . . .22, 27 JKBB (R. C), Sophocles ... • 24. 26 _ Supremacy of Athens 4 Juvenal, by G. A. Simcox . . .17. 26 Keys to Christian Knowledge 30 Kitchener (F. E.), Botany for Class Teaching . . . . ••,•,• " . (Frances Anna), a Year s Botany ^3 Latin Pronunciation, Rules for, by Arthur Holmes ..... 14 Latin Sentence Construction. . . 14 Laun (Henri Van), French Selections 3 1 Laverty's (W. H.), Astronomy . . 12 Livy, Selections from, by R. Saward and E. Calvert '5 Lucian, by Evelyn Abbott ... 18 M advig's Greek Syntax, by T. K. Arnold ^- • • '^ Mansfield (E. D.), Latin Sentence I Construction • • ^4 Manuals of Religious Instruction, edited by J. P. Norris .... 28 Marshall (J. M.) Horace . . . -17,27 Moberly (Charles E.), Shakspere . 8 Alexander the Great in the Punjaub . . • ••,••. * ^^ Moore (Edward), Aristotle s Ethics. 23 Norris (J. P.), Key to the Four Gospels r \ : 3° to the Acts of the Apostles •.•••,.• 3° Manuals of Reli- gious Instruction ••...•• Child's Catechism. 29 OviDiAN^ EcLOG^, by T. K. Arnold " Papillon (T. L.), Terence . . • 17. 27 Pearson (Charles), English History in the XIV. Century ■ •• ■ 3 Pelham (H. F.), The Roman Revo- lution . . • •,••.•; * ^ Phillpotts (J. Surtees), Stones from Herodotus ....... '9 . Shakspere's Tempest 8 Pretor (A.), Persii Satirae . . .17. ^7 Reynolds (S. H.), Homer's Iliad . 21, 27 Richardson (G.), Conic Sections • n Rigg (Arthur), Introduction to Chemistry '3 Rigg (Arthur), Science Class-books 12 Rivington's Mathematical Series % g Rogers (J. E. T.), Aristotle's Ethics 23 Sandys (J. E.), Isocrates . . .22, sj Sargent (J. Y.) and Dallin (T. F.), Materials and Models, &c. . . i5, 21 . Greek Version of Selected Pieces ...... Latin Version of (60) Selected Pieces Saward (R.), Selections from Livy . Science Class Books . • ,• • ■ Shakspere's As You Like It, Mac- beth, and Hamlet, by C. E. Moberly . Coriolanus.byR.White- law Tempest, Phillpotts . . . Sidgwick (Arthur), Greek Plays by J. S. Scenes from Introduction to Greek Prose Composition ... 18 Simcox (G. A.), Juvenal . . . . i7. 25 Thucydides . . .23, 26 Simcox (W.H.), Tacitus. . . .17,27 Smith (J. H.), Arithmetic . _. • Key to Arithmetic . . Elementary Algebra . Key to Elementary Algebra . . • . • . • * * * Enunciations . Exercises on Algebra. Hydrostatics . Geometry .... Statics ^ Trigonometry . . . (Philip v.). History of English Institutions .-•.•••„* ^ (R. Prowde), Latin Prose Ex- crciscs •••••*'** ^ Sophocles, by T. K. Arnold ... 24 —1 by R. C. Jebb . . . 24, 26 Storr (Francis), English School Classics English Grammar . Greek Verbs . . 6,7 18 Tacitus, by W. H. Simcox . . .17, 27 Terence, by T. L. Papillon . . • 17, 27 Thiers' Campaigns of Napoleon, by E. E. Bowen 3i Thucydides, by C. Bigg . . • • 25, 26 by G. A. Simcox . . 25, 26 Way of Life . ' • • * , V * ^"^ Whitelaw (Robert), Shakspere s Co- riolanus •••;'. vt" * WiUert (F.), Reign of Louis XI. . A Wilson (R. K.), History of English Law Wilson's Lord's Supper .... Woods (H. G.), Herodotus . . .24, Wordsworth (Bp.), Greek Testament Young (Sir G.),History of the United ;^^7V'-- •••'■■■ 3^/ University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 305 De Neve Drive • Parking Lot 17 • Box 951388 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. 158 00765 3180 ffi)Sra.?»A.LMBRARyp.c,L,Ty , Jf AA 001130 746 9 I