II. BOOK eleven years for the multos annos which Gildas notes to have intervened between the invasion after Maximus and its suppression. THE querulous narration adds, that the Romans ordered the natives to build a wall between the two seas, in the north of Britain, to deter the invaders, and to protect the natives; that the irrational vulgar, having no director, constructed it of turf instead of stone. 33 THIS narration has the appearance of being an ignorant account of the construction of one of those famous walls, which have so deservedly attracted the curiosity of antiquaries. GILDAS states, that this legion having returned home, the plunderers came again. 34 A passage in Claudian verifies the fact, that the legion quitted the wall soon after the successes of Stilicho, and diffuses a ray of light, which determines the chronology of the incident. WE have mentioned the pacification which Alaric extorted from the eastern government: it might seem to them a release from anxiety; it was made by Alaric an interval of earnest preparation for as it makes 399 the year in which Honorius was preparing the expeditions alluded to in the lines: Domito quod Saxone Tethys Mitior, aut fracto secura Britannia Picto 33 Gildas, s. 12. In Eutrop, p. 196. 34 Gildas, s. 13. The peculiarity of style in which he indulges himself is remarkable: "Rabid robber wolves, with profound hunger and dry jaws, leaping into the sheep-fold," are the invaders who are brought over by "the wings of oars, and the arms of rowers, and sails swelling in the wind." VII. more fortunate warfare. He surveyed the state of CHA P. the world with the eyes of prophetic penetration, and discerned the vulnerable part, in which the genius of Rome might be fatally assailed. About the year 400, he suddenly marched from his eastern settlements to the Julian Alps, and poured his forces into Italy. The emperor of the West fled at his approach, when Stilicho again interposed the shield of superior talents. To meet the destructive Goths with a competent force, he summoned the Roman troops out of Germany and Gaul into Italy: even the legion which had been stationed to guard the wall of Britain against the Caledonians was hastily recalled, and attended the imperial general at 35 Milan. In the battle of Pollentia, Alaric discovered the inferiority of his troops, and made a bold but ruinous retreat. 36 THE battle of Pollentia was fought in March, 403. We must allow time for the troops to have travelled from the north of Britain to Milan, and may date this departure of the Roman legion in the year 402. No one can disbelieve that in their absence the habitual depredators would return. GILDAS proceeds to inform us, that embassadors went to Rome with rent garments, and with ashes on their heads, to implore further aid." However we may be inclined to ascribe the costume of the embassy to the imagination of the author, we cannot dispute the probable fact, that the pro 35 Claudian, in his poem de Bello Getico, p. 169. : Venit et extremis legio prætenta Britannis, 36 Gibbon, iii. 147–155. 37 Gildas, s. 14. BOOK Vince solicited and obtained the protection of its II. sovereign. We have no direct evidence from the imperial writers that Stilicho sent back the legion, after the battle of Pollentia, into Britain, but it must have been there before 406, because we read of soldiers then choosing and deposing emperors in the island. Their presence must have been attended with its usual effect on the Picts and Scots. 38 BEFORE We state the next sentence of Gildas, it will be proper to narrate the incidents, which, as he does not notice, though of principal importance, we may presume he never knew: they occurred between this last defeat of the Picts and Scots, and the final departure of the Romans. THE unwearied genius of Claudian has resounded the praise of Stilicho in poetry, which, though sometimes defective in taste, yet has too much energy and felicity to perish. The acts which the general achieved, justify his bard, and raise the minister above his degenerate countrymen. But it may be said of human virtue, as Solon pronounced to Croesus of human happiness, that we should wait until the life is closed, before we pronounce decisively upon it. Stilicho for a while was the saviour of the Roman empire; he ended his career its most destructive scourge. He excited invasions, which he wished to have the merit of repressing; he introduced the barbarian hordes into the provinces, who quitted them no 39 For the origin and history of these two nations, the reader may usefully consult Mr. Pinkerton's Inquiry into the early history of Scotland. VII. more; he occasioned rebellions which completed CHAP. the debility of the imperial government; and paved the way for the extinction of the western empire. tion of WHEN Alaric menaced Italy, Stilicho drove Desolaoff the tempest; but he wanted to have his son Gaul. invested with the imperial dignity, and he hoped to extort the concession from the trembling Honorius, by the terror of impending evils. To effect this, he excited the German nations to invade Gaul.39 Fatal contrivance of unprincipled 39 Orosius, lib. vii. c. 38. and c. 40.; and from him Isidorus. Wandal. Grotius, p. 732. expressly affirm the treason. Jerom Ep. ad Ager. exclaims against the semi-barbarian traitor, who armed, against his adopted country, its worst enemies. Prosper says, that saluti imperatoris tendebat insidias, p. 50.-Marcellinus more explicitly says of him, "Spreto Honorio, regnumque ejus inhians, Alanorum, Suevorum, Wandalorum que gentis donis pecuniisque illectas contra regnum Honorii excitavit, Eucherium filium suum paganum, et adversum Christianos insidias molientem, cupiens Cæsarem ordinare." Chron. p. 37. added to Scaliger's Euseb.-If these authors are not sufficient to make the imputation credible, the point seems to be decided by the evidence of a contemporary, who, being a pagan, gives more weight to an opinion, in which he and the Christians coincide; I mean Rutilius, whom Gibbon does not mention; he says, Quo magis est facinus diri Stilichonis acerbum, Proditor arcani quod fuit imperii. Romano generi dum nititur esse superstes, Crudelis summis miscuit ima furor : Dumque timet, quidquid se fecerat ipse timeri, Immisit Latiæ barbara tela neci. Visceribus nudis armatum condidit hostem, Illatæ cladis liberiore dolo. Ipsa satellitibus pellitis Roma patebat, Itinerarium, lib. ii. v. 41-50. II. BOOK ambition! 40 A most formidable irruption of the tribes between the Rhine and Danube, Alani, Suevi, Vandali, and many others, burst over the mountains, and deluged the western world. A portion of these, under Radagaisus, perished before Stilicho in Italy", and furnished him with the laurels he coveted. The remainder crossed the Rhine, which, if the charge of treason be true, was purposely divested of its protecting troops, and overwhelmed Gaul and its vicinity. "The consuming flames of war spread from the banks of the Rhine over the greatest part of the seventeen provinces of Gaul; that rich and extensive country, as far as the ocean, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, was delivered to the barbarians, who drove before them, in a promiscuous crowd, the bishop, the senator, and the virgin, laden with the spoils of their houses and altars." 42 THIS disaster spread consternation through Britain. Inflamed with their success, the invaders menaced this island. It is expressly asserted by Zosimus, that their devastations alarmed the army in Britain. Apprehensive of their further progress, and to exert an energy adequate to the crisis, the troops created an emperor for themselves. One Marcus was their first choice: finding his councils 40 Gibbon attempts to defend Stilicho, but the weight of evidence must prevail. Du Bos, p. 190., accredits his guilt. How fatal the scheme was to Rome, we may judge, when we recollect, that "le dernier Decembre, 406, fut la journée funeste où les barbares entrerent dans les Gaules, pour n'en plus sortir." Du Bos, 194. 41 For the expedition of Radagaisus, see Gibbon, iii. 163173., and Mascou, 404 42 Gibbon, iii. 171. 411. |