BOOK his brief sovereignty, had transported to the Pontus. II. To break the strength of the barbaric myriads, who were every year assaulting the Roman state with increasing force, this emperor had recourse to the policy, not unfrequent under the imperial government, of settling colonies of their warriors in places very distant from the region of their nativity.

Voyage of

from the

Euxine.

AMONG others, a numerous body of Francs, or the Francs rather of the contiguous tribes united under that name, was transplanted to the Euxine. The attachment of mankind to the scenes of their childhood; and their ardent longing, when in foreign lands, for the country which their relatives inhabit: where their most pleasing associations have been formed; where their individual characters have been acquired, and customs like their own exist; are feelings so natural to every bosom, and so common to every age, that it is not surprising that the Frankish exiles, when removed to the Euxine, regretted their native wilds. We read therefore, with general sympathy, that they soon afterwards seized the earliest opportunity of abandoning their foreign settlement. They possessed themselves of many ships, probably the vessels in which they had been carried from the German Ocean to the Euxine, and formed the daring plan of sailing back to the Rhine. Its novelty and improbability procured its success; and the necessities which attended it, led them to great exploits. Compelled to land wherever they could for supplies, safety, and information, they

4

4 So strong was this feeling in Germany, that some of the German chiefs whom Augustus forced from their country killed themselves. 1 Mascou, 85.

1

IV.

ravaged the coasts of Asia and Greece. Reaching CHAP. at length Sicily, they attacked and ravaged Syracuse with great slaughter. Beaten about by the winds, often ignorant where they were, needing subsistence, and excited to new plunder, by the sucessful depredations they had already made, they carried their triumphant hostility to several districts of Africa. They were driven off by a force sent from Carthage; but, sailing at last to Europe, they concluded their remarkable voyage by reaching in safety their native shores. "

5

In this singular enterprise, a system to endure for ages received its birth. It discovered to themselves and their neighbours, to all who heard and could imitate, that, from the Roman colonies, a rich harvest of spoil might be gleaned by those who would seek for it at sea. It likewise removed the veil of terror, that hung over distant oceans and foreign expeditions. These Francs had desolated every province almost with impunity; they had plunder to display, which must have fired the ava rice of every needy spectator; they had acquired skill, which those who joined them might soon inherit; and perhaps the same adventurers, embarking again with new followers, evinced by fresh booty the practicability of similar attempts. On land, the Roman tactics and discipline were generally invincible; but, at sea, they who most frequent it are usually the most expert and successful. The Saxons perceived this consequence: their situation on the ocean tempted them to make the trial; they soon afterwards began their depredations, and by

5 The original authorities are Zosimus, end of book i.; Eumen. Paneg. iv. c. 18.; and Vopiscus in Probo, c. 18.

BOOK this new habit evinced the inciting and instructive effects of the Frankish adventure.

II.

Usurp

ation of Carausius.

THE piracies of the Francs and Saxons are not mentioned in the imperial writers anterior to this navigation; but they seem to have become frequent after it; for within a few years subsequent, the Francs and Saxons so infested the coasts of Belgium, Gaul, and Britain, that the Roman government was compelled to station a powerful fleet at Bologne, on purpose to confront them. The command was intrusted to Carausius, a Menapian, of the meanest origin; but a skilful pilot, and a valiant soldier. It was observed, that this commander attacked the pirates, only after they had accomplished their ravages, and never restored the capture to the suffering provincials. This excited a suspicion, that by wilful remissness he permitted the enemy to make the incursions, that he might obtain the booty on their return. Such conduct was fatal to the design of suppressing the piracies of the Francs and Saxons. It permitted the habit of such enterprises to become established; and the success of those who eluded his avarice, on their return, kept alive the eagerness for maritime depredations."

ANOTHER incident occurred to establish their propensity and power. The emperor, informed of the treasons of Carausius, ordered his punishment. Apprised of his impending fate, he took refuge in augmented guilt and desperate temerity; he boldly assumed the purple, and was acknowledged emperor by the legions in Britain. The perplexities in which the Roman state was at that time involved favoured

61 Gibbon, 362. 1 Mascou, 243.

IV.

his usurpation; and, to maintain it, he had recourse CHAP. to one of those important expedients which, originally intended for a temporary exigency, lead ultimately to great revolutions.

Saxons,

A. D.

287,

the naval

As it was only by active warfare that his sove- He teachreignty could be maintained, he made alliances with es the the Germans, and particularly with the Saxons and Francs, whose dress and manners he imitated in order to increase their friendship. To make them art. of all the use he projected, he encouraged their application to maritime affairs; he gave them ships and experienced officers, who taught them navigation and the art of naval combat. No circumstance could have tended more to promote their future successes and celebrity. They had sufficient inclination to this new path of action. They only wanted the tuition and encouragement. Fostered by this imperial alliance, and supplied with those essential requisites, without which they could not have become permanently formidable, they renewed their predatory attacks with licensed severity. Every coast which had not received Carausius, as its lord was open to their incursions. They perfected themselves in their dangerous art, and by the plunder which they were always gaining, they increased their means as well as their avidity for its prosecution, and nurtured their population in the perilous but attractive warfare. The usurpation of Carausius, and this education of the Saxons to the empire of the ocean, lasted seven years.

Magnen

SIXTY years afterwards, a similar occurrence advanced the Saxon prosperity. Magnentius, another tius allies usurper of the bloody and restless sceptre of Rome,

71 Mascou, 244. 1 Gibbon, 364.

with them.

II.

8

BOOK having murdered Constans, endeavoured to preserve the perilous dignity by an alliance of fraternization with the Francs and Saxons, whom in return he protected and encouraged. This was another of those auspicious incidents, which enhanced the consequence and power of those tribes who had been invisible to Tacitus, and who had been merely known by name to Ptolemy. But as Providence had destined them to be the stock of a nation whose colonies, commerce, arts, knowledge and fame, were to become far superior to those of Rome, and to pervade every part of the world, it cherished them by a succession of those propitious circumstances which gradually formed and led them to that great enterprise for which they were principally destined, the conquest of Ro-. manised Britain.

8 Julian Orat. cited 1 Mascou, 280.