 CHAPTER 8 PART 1 OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. VOLUME 1 by Edward Gibbon. CHAPTER 8. STATE OF PERSIAN AND RESTORATION OF THE MONARCHY. PART 1 OF THE STATE OF PERSIA AFTER THE RESTORATION OF THE MONARCHY by Artaxerxes. Whenever Tacitus indulges himself in those beautiful episodes in which he relates some domestic transaction of the Germans or of the Parthians, his principal object is to relieve the attention of the reader from a uniform scene of vice and misery. From the reign of Augustus to the time of Alexander Severus, the enemies of Rome were in her bosom, the tyrants and the soldiers, and her prosperity had a very distant and feeble interest in the revolutions that might happen beyond the Rhine and the Euphrates. But when the military order had leveled in wild anarchy, the power of the prince, the laws of the senate, and even the discipline of the camp, the barbarians of the north and of the east who had long hovered on the frontier boldly attacked the provinces of a declining monarchy. Their vexatious inroads were changed into formidable eruptions, and after a long vicissitude of mutual calamities, many tribes of the victorious invaders established themselves in the provinces of the Roman Empire. To obtain a clearer knowledge of these great events, we shall endeavor to form a previous idea of the character, forces, and designs of those nations who avenged the cause of Hannibal and Mithridates. In the more early ages of the world, whilst the forests that covered Europe afforded a retreat to a few wandering savages, the inhabitants of Asia were already collected into populous cities and reduced under extensive empires the seat of the arts of luxury and of despotism. The Assyrians reigned over the east till the scepter of Ninus and Semiramis dropped from the hands of their enervated successors. The Medes and the Babylonians divided their power and were themselves swallowed up in the monarchy of the Persians, whose arms could not be confined within the narrow limits of Asia. Followed, it is said, by two millions of men, Xerxes, the descendant of Cyrus, invaded Greece. Thirty thousand soldiers, under the command of Alexander, the son of Philip, who was entrusted by the Greeks with their glory and revenge, were sufficient to subdue Persia. The princes of the House of Seleucus usurped and lost the Macedonian command over the east. About the same time, that by an ignominious treaty, they resigned to the Romans the country on this side of Mount Tarras, they were driven by the Parthians, an obscure horde of Scythian origin from all the provinces of Upper Asia. The formidable power of the Parthians, which spread from India to the frontiers of Syria, was in its turn subverted by Ardshir, or Artexerxes, the founder of a new dynasty, which under the name of Sassanides, governed Persia until the invasion of the Arabs. This great revolution, whose fatal influence was soon experienced by the Romans, happened in the fourth year of Alexander Severus, 226 years after the Christian era. Artexerxes had served with great reputation in the armies of Artaban, the last king of the Parthians, and it appears that he was driven into exile and rebellion by royal ingratitude, the customary reward for superior merit. His birth was obscure, and the obscurity equally gave room to the aspersions of his enemies and the flattery of his adherents. If we credit the scandal of the former, Artexerxes sprang from the illegitimate commerce of a tanner's wife with a common soldier. The latter represent him as descended from a branch of the ancient kings of Persian, though time and misfortune had gradually reduced his ancestors to the humble station of private citizens. As the lineal heir of the monarchy, he asserted his right to the throne and challenged the noble task of delivering the Persians from the oppression under which they groaned above five centuries since the death of Darius. The Parthians were defeated in three great battles. In the last of these, their king, Artaban, was slain, and the spirit of the nation was forever broken. The authority of Artexerxes was solemnly acknowledged in a great assembly held at Baalch in Corasan. Two younger branches of the royal house of Arsassis were confounded among the prostrate satchaps. A third, more mindful of ancient grandeur than of present necessity, attempted to retire with a numerous train of vessels towards their kinsmen, the king of Armenia. But this little army of deserters was intercepted and cut off by the vigilance of the conqueror, who boldly assumed the double diadem and the title of King of Kings, which had been enjoyed by his predecessor. But these pompous titles, instead of gratifying the vanity of the Persian, served only to admonish him of his duty, and to inflame in his soul and should the ambition of restoring in their full splendor the religion and empire of Cyrus. During the long servitude of Persia under the Macedonian and the Parthian yoke, the nations of Europe and Asia had mutually adopted and corrupted each other's superstitions. The Arsassides, indeed, practiced the worship of the Magi, but they disgraced and polluted it with a various mixture of foreign idolatry. The memory of Zoroaster, the ancient prophet and philosopher of the Persians, was still revered in the East, but the obsolete and mysterious language in which the Zandavesta was composed opened a field of dispute to seventy sects, who variously explained the fundamental doctrines of their religion, and were all indifferently derided by a crowd of infidels who rejected the divine mission and miracles of the prophet. To suppress the idolaters, reunite the schismatics and confute the unbelievers by the infallible decision of a general council. The pious Artexerxes summoned the Magi from all parts of his dominions. These priests, who had so long sighed in contempt and obscurity, obeyed the welcome summons, and on the appointed day appeared to the number of about eighty thousand. But as the debates of so tumultuous an assembly could not have been directed by the authority of reason, or influenced by the art of policy, the Persian Synod was reduced by successive operations to forty thousand, to four thousand, to four hundred, to forty, and at last to seven Magi, the most respected for their learning and piety. One of these, Erdoveraph, a young but holy prelate, received from the hands of his brethren three cups of soporiferous wine. He drank them off, and instantly fell into a long and profound sleep. As soon as he waked, he related to the king and to the believing multitude, his journey to heaven, and his intimate conferences with the deity. Every doubt was silenced by this supernatural evidence, and the articles of the faith of Zoroaster were affixed with equal authority and precision. A short delineation of that celebrated system will be found useful, not only to display the character of the Persian nation, but to illustrate many of their most important transactions, both in peace and war with the Roman Empire. The great and fundamental article of the system was the celebrated doctrine of the two principles, a bold and injudicious attempt of Eastern philosophy to reconcile the existence of moral and physical evil with the attributes of a beneficent creator and governor of the world. The first and original being, in whom or by whom the universe exists, is denominated in the writings of Zoroaster, time without bounds. But it must be confessed that this infinite substance seems rather a metaphysical abstraction of the mind than a real object endowed with self-consciousness, or possessed of moral perfections. From either the blind or the intelligent operation of this infinite time, which bears but too near an affinity with the chaos of the Greeks, the two secondary but active principles of the universe were from all eternity produced, Ormust and Ariman, each of them possessed of the powers of creation, but each disposed by his invariable nature to exercise them with different designs. The principle of good is eternally absorbed in light, the principle of evil eternally buried in darkness. The wise benevolence of Ormust formed man capable of virtue and abundantly provided his fair habitation with the materials of happiness. By his vigilant providence, the motion of the planets, the order of the seasons, and the temperate mixture of the elements are preserved. But the malice of Ariman has long since pierced Ormust's egg, or in other words, has violated the harmony of his works. Since that fatal eruption, the most minute articles of good and evil are intimately intermingled and agitated together. The rankest poisons spring up amidst the most salutary plants. Deluges, earthquakes, and conflagrations attest the conflict of nature, and the little world of man is perpetually shaken by vice and misfortune. Whilst the rest of humankind are led away captives in the chains of their infernal enemy, the faithful Persian alone reserves his religious adoration for his friend and protector, Ormust, and fights under his banner of light in the full competence that he shall, in the last day, share the glory of his triumph. At that decisive period, the enlightened wisdom of goodness will render the power of Ormust superior to the furious malice of his rival. Ariman and his followers, disarmed and subdued, will sink into their native darkness, and virtue will maintain the eternal peace and harmony of the universe. End of Chapter 8, Part 1. Chapter 8, Part 2, of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Chapter 8, State of Persian and Restoration of the Monarchy. Part 2. The theology of Zoroaster was darkly comprehended by foreigners, and even by the far greater number of his disciples. Chapter 8, of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Chapter 8, State of Persian and Restoration of the Monarchy. Chapter 8, State of Persian and Restoration of the Monarchy. Chapter 8, State of Persian and Restoration of the Monarchy. Part 2. disciples. But the most careless observers were struck with the philosophic simplicity of the Persian worship. That people, said Herodotus, rejects the use of temples, of altars, and of statues, and smiles at the folly of those nations who imagine that the gods are sprung from, or bear any affinity with, the human nature. The tops of the highest mountains are the places chosen for sacrifices. Hymns and prayers are the principal worship. The supreme God, who fills the wide circle of heaven, is the object to whom they are addressed. Yet, at the same time, in the true spirit of a polytheist, he accuses them of adoring earth, water, fire, the winds, and the sun and moon. But the Persians of every age have denied the charge, and explained the equivocal conduct which might appear to give a color to it. The elements, and more particularly fire, light, and the sun, whom they called Mithra, were the objects of their religious reverence because they considered them as the purest symbols, the noblest productions, and the most powerful agents of the divine power and nature. Every mode of religion, to make a deep and lasting impression on the human mind, must exercise our obedience by enjoining practices of devotion for which we can assign no reason, and must acquire our esteem by inculcating moral duties analogous to the dictates of our own hearts. The religion of Zoroaster was abundantly provided with the former, and possessed a sufficient portion of the latter. At the age of puberty, the faithful Persian was invested with the mysterious girdle, the badge of the divine protection, and from that moment all the actions of his life, even the most indifferent, or the most necessary, were sanctified by their peculiar prayers, ejaculations, or genuflections, the omission of which, under any circumstances, was a grievous sin, not inferior in guilt to the violation of the moral duties. The moral duties, however, of justice, mercy, liberality, etc., were in their turn required of the disciples of Zoroaster, who wished to escape the persecution of Araman, and to live with Ormuzd in a blissful eternity, where the degree of felicity will be exactly proportioned to the degree of virtue and piety. But there are some remarkable instances in which Zoroaster lays aside the prophet, assumes the legislator, and discovers a liberal concern for private and public happiness seldom to be found among the groveling or visionary schemes of superstition. Fasting and celibacy, the common means of purchasing the divine favor, he condemns with abhorrence as a criminal rejection of the best gifts of providence. The saint, in the Magian religion, is obliged to beget children, to plant useful trees, to destroy noxious animals, to convey water to the dry lands of Persia, and to work out his salvation by pursuing all the labors of agriculture. We may quote from the Zendavista, a wise and benevolent maxim, which compensates for many an absurdity. He who sows the ground with care and diligence, acquires a greater stock of religious merit than he could gain by the repetition of ten thousand prayers. In the spring of every year, a festival was celebrated, destined to represent the primitive equality and the present connection of mankind. The stately kings of Persia, exchanging their vain pomp for more genuine greatness, freely mingled with the humblest but most useful of their subjects. On that day the husband men were admitted without distinction to the table of the king and his satrups. The monarch accepted their petitions, inquired into their grievances, and conversed with them on the most equal terms. From your labors, was he accustomed to say, and to say with truth, if not with sincerity, from your labors we receive our subsistence. You derive your tranquility from our vigilance. Since therefore we are mutually necessary to each other, let us live together like brothers in concord and love. Such a festival must indeed have degenerated in a wealthy and despotic empire into a theatrical representation. But it was at least a comedy well worthy of a royal audience, and which might sometimes imprint a salutary lesson on the mind of a young prince. Had Zoroaster in all his institutions invariably supported this exalted character, his name would deserve a place with those of Numa and Confucius, and his system would be justly entitled to all the applause which it has pleased some of our divines and even some of our philosophers to bestow on it. But in that motley composition dictated by reason and passion, by enthusiasm and by selfish motives, some useful and sublime truths were disgraced by a mixture of the most abject and dangerous superstition. The Magi, or sacerdotal order, were extremely numerous, since as we have already seen, four score thousand of them were convened in a general council. Their forces were multiplied by discipline. A regular hierarchy was diffused through all the provinces of Persia, and the Archimegas, who resided at Balc, was respected as the visible head of the church and the lawful successor of Zoroaster. The property of the Magi was very considerable. Besides the less invidious possession of a large tract of the most fertile lands of Medea, they levied a general tax on the fortunes and the industry of the Persians. Though your good works, says the interested prophet, exceed in number the leaves of the trees, the drops of rain, the stars in the heaven, or the sands on the seashore. They will all be unprofitable to you unless they are accepted by the distor, or priest. To obtain the acceptation of this guide to salvation, you must faithfully pay him tithes of all you possess, of your goods, of your lands, and of your money. If the distor be satisfied, your soul will escape hell tortures. You will secure praise in this world and happiness in the next. For the distors are the teachers of religion. They know all things, and they deliver all men. These convenient maxims of reverence and implicit were doubtless imprinted with care on the tender minds of youth. Since the Magi were the masters of education in Persia, and to their hands, the children, even of the royal family, were entrusted. The Persian priests, who were of a speculative genius, preserved and investigated the secrets of Oriental philosophy, and acquired, either by superior knowledge or superior art, the reputation of being well versed in some occult sciences, which have derived their appellation from the Magi. Those of more active dispositions mixed with the world in courts and cities. And it is observed that the administration of Artaxerxes was in a great measure directed by the councils of the Saxa Dota order, whose dignity, either from policy or devotion, that prince restored to its ancient splendor. The first council of the Magi was agreeable to the unsociable genius of their faith, to the practice of ancient kings, and even to the example of their legislator, who had a victim to a religious war, excited by his own intolerant zeal. By an edict of Artaxerxes, the exercise of every worship, except that of Zoroaster, was severely prohibited. The temples of the Parthians and the statues of their deified monarchs were thrown down with ignominy. The sword of Aristotle, such was the name given by the orientals to the polytheism and philosophy of the Greeks, was easily broken. The flames of persecution soon reached the more stubborn Jews and Christians, nor did they spare the heretics of their own nation and religion. The majesty of Ormust, who was jealous of a rival, was seconded by the despotism of Artaxerxes, who could not suffer a rebel. And the schismatics within his vast empire were soon reduced to the inconsiderable number of 80,000. This spirit of persecution reflects dishonor on the religion of Zoroaster. But as it was not productive of any civil commotion, it served to strengthen the new monarchy by uniting all the various inhabitants of Persia in the bands of religious zeal. Artaxerxes, by his valor and conduct, had rested the scepter of the east from the ancient royal family of Parthia. There still remained the more difficult task of establishing, throughout the vast extent of Persia, a uniform and vigorous administration. The weak indulgence of the Arsacides had resigned to their sons and brothers the principal provinces and the greatest offices of the kingdom in the nature of hereditary possessions. The Vitax, or 18 most powerful satrups, were permitted to assume the regal title. And the vain pride of the monarch was delighted with a nominal dominion over so many vassal kings. Even tribes of barbarians in their mountains, and the Greek cities of Upper Asia, within their walls, scarcely acknowledged or seldom obeyed any superior. And the Parthian Empire exhibited, under other names, a lively image of the feudal system which has since prevailed in Europe. But the active victor, at the head of a numerous and disciplined army, visited in person every province of Persia. The defeat of the boldest rebels, and the reduction of the strongest fortifications, diffused the terror of his arms, and prepared the way for the peaceful reception of his authority. An obstinate resistance was fatal to the chiefs, but their followers were treated with lenity. A cheerful submission was rewarded with honors and riches. But the prudent Artaxarxes, suffering no person except himself to assume the title of king, abolished every intermediate power between the throne and the people. His kingdom, nearly equal in extent to modern Persia, was on every side bounded by the sea, or by great rivers, by the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Araxis, the Oxus, and the Indus, by the Caspian Sea, and the Gulf of Persia. That country was computed to contain, in the last century, five hundred and fifty-four cities, sixty thousand villages, and about forty millions of souls. If we compare the administration of the House of Sassan with that of the House of Sefi, the political influence of the Magian with that of the Muhammadan religion, we shall probably infer that the kingdom of Artaxarxes contained at least as great a number of cities, villages, and inhabitants. But it must likewise be confessed that in every age the want of harbors on the sea coast, and the scarcity of fresh water in the inland provinces, have been very unfavorable to the commerce and agriculture of the Persians, who, in the calculation of their numbers, seem to have indulged one of the nearest, though most common, artifices of national vanity. As soon as the ambitious mind of Artaxarxes had triumphed over the resistance of his vassals, he began to threaten the neighboring states, who, during the long slumber of his predecessors, had insulted Persia with impunity. He obtained some easy victories over the wild Scythians and the effeminate Indians. But the Romans were an enemy who, by their past injuries and present power, deserved the utmost efforts of his arms. A forty years tranquility, the fruit of valor and moderation, had succeeded the victories of Trajan. During the period that elapsed from the accession of Marcus to the reign of Alexander, the Roman and the Parthian empires were twice engaged in war, and although the whole strength of the Arsacides contended with a part only of the forces of Rome, the event was most commonly in favor of the latter. Macronus, indeed, prompted by his precarious situation and pusillanimous temper, purchased a piece at the expense of near two millions of our money. But the generals of Marcus, the emperor Severus, and his son, erected many trophies in Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria. Among their exploits, the imperfect relation of which would have unseasonably interrupted the more important series of domestic revolutions, we shall only mention the repeated calamities of the two great cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon. Seleucia, on the western bank of the Tigris, about forty-five miles to the north of ancient Babylon, was the capital of the Macedonian conquests in Upper Asia. Many ages after the fall of their empire, Seleucia retained the genuine characters of a Grecian colony, arts, military virtue, and the love of freedom. The independent republic was governed by a senate of three hundred nobles. The people consisted of six hundred thousand citizens. The walls were strong, and as long as concord prevailed among the several orders of the state, they viewed with contempt the power of the Parthian. But the madness of faction was sometimes provoked to implore the dangerous aid of the common enemy, who was posted almost at the gates of the colony. The Parthian monarchs, like the Mogul sovereigns of Hindustan, delighted in the pastoral life of their Scythian ancestors, and the imperial camp was frequently pitched in the plain of Ctesiphon, on the eastern bank of the Tigris, at the distance of only three miles from Seleucia. The innumerable attendance on luxury and despotism resorted to the court, and the little village of Ctesiphon insensibly swelled into a great city. Under the reign of Marcus, the Roman generals penetrated as far as Ctesiphon and Seleucia. They were received as friends by the Greek colony. They attacked as enemies the seat of the Parthian kings. Yet both cities experienced the same treatment. The sack and conflagration of Seleucia, with a massacre of three hundred thousand of the inhabitants, tarnished the glory of the Roman triumph. Seleucia, already exhausted by the neighborhood of a too powerful rival, sunk under the fatal blow. But Ctesiphon, in about thirty-three years, had sufficiently recovered its strength to maintain an obstinate siege against the emperor Severus. The city was, however, taken by assault. The king, who defended it in person, escaped with precipitation. A hundred thousand captives, and a rich booty, rewarded the fatigues of the Roman soldiers. Notwithstanding these misfortunes, Ctesiphon succeeded to Babylon and to Seleucia as one of the great capitals of the east. In summer, the monarch of Persia enjoyed at Ekbatana the cool breezes of the mountains of Medea. But the mildness of the climate engaged him to prefer Ctesiphon for his winter residence. From these successful inroads, the Romans derived no real or lasting benefit. Nor did they attempt to preserve such consistent conquests, separated from the provinces of the empire by a large tract of intermediate desert. The reduction of the kingdom of Osrone was an acquisition of less splendor indeed, but of a far more solid advantage. That little state occupied the northern and most fertile part of Mesopotamia, between the Euphrates and the Tigris. Edessa, its capital, was situated about twenty miles beyond the former of those rivers. And the inhabitants, since the time of Alexander, were a mixed race of Greeks, Arabs, Syrians, and Armenians. The feeble sovereigns of Osrone, placed on the dangerous verge of two contending empires, were attached from inclination to the Parthian cause, but the superior power of Rome exacted from them a reluctant homage, which is still attested by their medals. After the conclusion of the Parthian war under Marcus, it was judged prudent to secure some substancia, pledges of their doubtful fidelity. Forts were constructed in several parts of the country, and a Roman garrison was fixed in the strong town of Nisibis. During the troubles that followed the death of Komodas, the princes of Osrone attempted to shake off the yoke. But the stern policy of Severus confirmed their dependence, and the perfidy of Caracalla completed the easy conquest. Abgaras, the last king of Edessa, was sent in chains to Rome, his dominions reduced into a province, and his capital dignified with the rank of colony. And thus the Romans, about ten years before the fall of the Parthian monarchy, obtained a firm and permanent establishment beyond the Euphrates. Prudence, as well as glory, might have justified a war on the side of our Dexerxes, had his views been confined to the defense or acquisition of a useful frontier. But the ambitious Persian openly avowed a far more extensive design of conquest, and he thought himself able to support his lofty pretensions by the arms of reason as well as by those of power. Cyrus, he alleged, had first subdued and his successors had for a long time possessed the whole extent of Asia, as far as the Propontis and the Aegean Sea. The provinces of Caria and Ionia, under their empire, had been governed by Persian satchaps, and all Egypt to the confines of Ethiopia had acknowledged their sovereignty. Their rights had been suspended but not destroyed by a long usurpation, and as soon as he received the Persian diadem, which birth and successful valor had placed upon his head, the first great duty of his station called upon him to restore the ancient limits and splendor of the monarchy. The great king, therefore, such was the haughty style of his embassies to the emperor Alexander, commanded the Romans instantly to depart from all the provinces of his ancestors, and yielding to the Persians, the empire of Asia, to contend themselves with the undisturbed possession of Europe. This haughty mandate was delivered by four hundred of the tallest and most beautiful of the Persians, who by their fine horses, splendid arms and rich apparel, displayed the pride and greatness of their master. Such an embassy was much less an offer of negotiation than a declaration of war. Both Alexander Severus and Artexerxes, collecting the military force of the Roman and Persian monarchies, resolved in this important contest to lead their armies in person. If we credit what should seem the most authentic of all records, an oration still extent, and delivered by the emperor himself to the senate, we must allow that the victory of Alexander Severus was not inferior to any of those formerly obtained over the Persians by the son of Philip. The army of the great king consisted of one hundred and twenty thousand horses, clothed in complete armor of steel, of seven hundred elephants, with towers filled with archers on their backs, and of eighteen hundred chariots armed with scythes. This formidable host, the like of which is not to be found in eastern history, and has scarcely been imagined in eastern romance, was discomforted in a great battle in which the Roman Alexander proved himself an intrepid soldier and a skillful general. The great king fled before his valour. An immense booty and the conquest of Mesopotamia were the immediate fruits of this signal victory. Such are the circumstances of this ostentatious and improbable relation, dictated as it too plainly appears by the vanity of the monarch, adorned by the unblushing servility of his flatterers, and received without contradiction by a distant and obsequious senate. Far from being inclined to believe that the arms of Alexander obtained any memorable advantage over the Persians, we are induced to suspect that all displays of imaginary glory was designed to conceal some real disgrace. Our suspicions are confirmed by the authority of a contemporary historian who mentions the virtues of Alexander with respect, and his faults with candor. He describes the judicious plan which had been formed for the conduct of the war. Three Roman armies were destined to invade Persia at the same time, and by different roads. But the operations of the campaign, though wisely concerted, were not executed either with ability or success. The first of these armies, as soon as it had entered the marshy plains of Babylon, towards the artificial conflicts of the Euphrates and the Tigris, was encompassed by the superior numbers and destroyed by the arrows of the enemy. The alliance of Kostros, king of Armenia, and the long tract of mountainous country in which the Persian cavalry was of little service, opened a secure entrance into the heart of Medea, to the second of the Roman armies. These brave troops laid waste to the adjacent provinces, and by several successful actions against Artexerxes gave a faint color to the emperor's vanity. But the retreat of this victorious army was imprudent, or at least unfortunate. In repassing the mountains, great numbers of soldiers perished by the badness of the roads and the severity of the winter season. It had been resolved that whilst these two great detachments penetrated into the opposite extremes of the Persian dominions, the main body, under the command of Alexander himself, should support their attack by invading the center of the kingdom. But the unexperienced youth, influenced by his mother's councils, and perhaps by his own fears, deserted the bravest troops, and the fairest prospect of victory. And after consuming in Mesopotamia an inactive and in glorious summer, he led back to Antioch, an army diminished by sickness and provoked by disappointment. The behavior of Artexerxes had been different, flying with rapidity from the hills of Medea to the marshes of the Euphrates. He had everywhere opposed the invaders in person, and in either fortune had united with the ableist conduct the most undaunted resolution. But in several obstinate engagements against the veteran legions of Rome, the Persian monarch had lost the flower of his troops. Even his victories had weakened his power. The favorable opportunities of the absence of Alexander and of the confusions that followed that emperor's death presented themselves in vain to his ambition. Instead of expelling the Romans, as he pretended, from the continent of Asia, he found himself unable to rest from their hands the little province of Mesopotamia. The reign of Artexerxes, which from the last defeat of the Parthians lasted only 14 years, forms a memorable era in the history of the east, and even in that of Rome. His character seems to have been marked by those bold and commanding features that generally distinguish the princes who conquer from those who inherit an empire. Till the last period of the Persian monarchy, his code of laws was respected as the groundwork of their civil and religious policy. Several of his sayings are preserved. One of them, in particular, discovers a deep insight into the constitution of government. The authority of the prince, St. Artexerxes, must be defended by a military force. That force can only be maintained by taxes. All taxes must, at last, fall upon agriculture, and agriculture can never flourish except under the protection of justice and moderation. Artexerxes bequeathed his new empire and his ambitious designs against the Romans to Sappor, a son not unworthy of his great father. But those designs were too extensive for the power of Persia, and served only to involve both nations in a long series of destructive wars and reciprocal calamities. The Persians, long since civilized and corrupted, were very far from possessing the martial independence and the intrepid hardiness, both of mind and body, which have rendered the northern barbarians masters of the world. The science of war that constituted the more rational force of Greece and Rome, as it now does of Europe, never made any considerable progress in the east. Those disciplined evolutions which harmonize and animate a confused multitude were unknown to the Persians. They were equally unskilled in the arts of constructing, besieging, or defending, regular fortifications. They trusted more to their numbers than to their courage, more to their courage than to their discipline. The infantry was a half-armed, spiritless crowd of peasants, levied in haste by the allurements of plunder, and as easily dispersed by a victory as by a defeat. The monarch and his nobles transported into the camp the pride and luxury of the Saraglio. Their military operations were impeded by a useless train of women, eunuchs, horses, and camels, and in the midst of a successful campaign the Persian host was often separated or destroyed by an unexpected famine. But the nobles of Persia in the bosom of luxury and despotism preserved a strong sense of personal gallantry and national honor. From the age of seven years they were taught to speak truth, to shoot with the bow, and to ride. And it was universally confessed that in the two last of these arts they had made a more than common proficiency. The most distinguished youth were educated under the monarch's eye, practiced their exercises in the gate of his palace, and were severely trained up to the habits of temperance and obedience in their long and laborious parties of hunting. In every province the satrap maintained a like school of military virtue. The Persian nobles, so natural is the idea of feudal tenures, received from the king's bounty lands and houses on the condition of their service in war. They were ready on the first summons to mount on horseback with a marshal and splendid train of followers, and to join the numerous bodies of guards who were carefully selected from among the most robust slaves, and the bravest adventurers of Asia. These armies, both of light and of heavy cavalry, equally formidable by the impetuosity of their charge and the rapidity of their motions, threatened as an impeding cloud the eastern provinces of the declining empire of Rome. End of Chapter 8, Part 2 State of Germany until the barbarians Part 1 The state of Germany till the invasion of the barbarians in the time of the emperor Desius. The government and religion of Persia have deserved some notice from their connection with the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. We shall occasionally mention the Scythian or Sarmatian tribes, which with their arms and horses, their flocks and herds, their wives and families, wandered over the immense plains which spread themselves from the Caspian Sea to the Vistula, from the confines of Persia to those of Germany. But the warlike Germans, who first resisted, then invaded, and at length overturned the western monarchy of Rome, will occupy a much more important place in this history, and possess a stronger, and if we may use the expression, a more domestic claim to our attention and regard. The most civilized nations of modern Europe issued from the woods of Germany, and in the rude institutions of those barbarians, we may still distinguish the original principles of our present laws and manners. In their primitive state of simplicity and independence, the Germans were surveyed by the discerning eye, and delineated by the masterly pencil of Tacitus, the first of historians who applied the science of philosophy to the study of facts. The expressive conciseness of his descriptions has served to exercise the diligence of innumerable antiquarians and to excite the genius and penetration of the philosophic historians of our own times. The subject, however various and important, has already been so frequently, so ably, and so successfully discussed, that it has now grown familiar to the reader, and difficult to the writer. We shall therefore content ourselves with observing, and indeed with repeating, some of the most important circumstances of climate, of manners, and of institutions, which rendered the wild barbarians of Germany such formidable enemies to the Roman power. Ancient Germany, excluding from its independent limits the province westward of the Rhine, which had submitted to the Roman yoke, extended itself over a third part of Europe. Almost a whole of modern Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Livonia, Prussia, and the greater part of Poland were peopled by the various tribes of one great nation, whose complexion, manners, and language denoted a common origin, and preserved a striking resemblance. On the west, ancient Germany was divided by the Rhine from the Gallic, and on the south by the Danube, from the Illyrian provinces of the Empire, a ridge of hills rising from the Danube, and called the Carpathian Mountains, covered Germany on the side of Dachia, or Hungary. The eastern frontier was faintly marked by the mutual fears of the Germans, and the Sarmatians, and was often confounded by the mixture of warring and confederating tribes of the two nations. In the remote darkness of the north, the ancients imperfectly described a frozen ocean that lay beyond the Baltic Sea, and beyond the peninsula or islands of Scandinavia. Some ingenious writers have suspected that Europe was much colder, formerly, than it is at present, and the most ancient descriptions of the climate of Germany tend exceedingly to confirm their theory. The general complaints of intense frost and eternal winter are perhaps little to be regarded, since we have no method of reducing to the accurate standard of the thermometer, the feelings, or the expressions, of an orator born in the happier regions of Greece or Asia. But I shall select two remarkable circumstances of a less equivocal nature. 1. The Great Rivers which covered the Roman provinces, the Rhine and the Danube, were frequently frozen over, and capable of supporting the most enormous weights. The barbarians who often chose that severe season for their inroads transported without apprehension or danger their numerous armies, their cavalry, and their heavy wagons over a vast and solid bridge of ice. Modern ages have not presented an instance of a like phenomenon. 2. The Reindeer that useful animal from whom the savage of the North derives the best comforts of his dreary life is of a constitution that supports and even requires the most intense cold. He has found on the rock of Spitzburg within 10 degrees of the pole. He seems to delight in the snows of Lapland and Siberia, but at present he cannot subsist, much less multiply in any country to the south of the Baltic. In the time of Caesar, the reindeer as well as the elk and the wild bull was a native of the Harsinian forest which then overshadowed a great part of Germany and Poland. The modern improvements sufficiently explain the causes of the diminution of the cold. These immense woods have been gradually cleared, which intercepted from the earth the rays of the sun. The morasses have been drained and in proportion as the soil has been cultivated the air has become more temperate. Canada at this day is an exact picture of ancient Germany. Although situated in the same parallel with the finest provinces of France and England, that country experiences the most rigorous cold. The reindeer are very numerous. The ground is covered with deep and lasting snow and the Great River of St. Lawrence is regularly frozen in a season when the waters of the Sain and the Thames are usually free from ice. It is difficult to ascertain and easy to exaggerate the influence of the climate of ancient Germany over the minds and bodies of the natives. Many writers have supposed and most have allowed though as it should seem without any adequate proof that the rigorous cold of the North was favorable to long life and generative vigor that the women were more fruitful and the human species more prolific than in warmer or more temperate climates. We may assert with greater confidence that the keen air of Germany formed a large and masculine limbs of the natives who were in general of a more lofty stature than the people of the South gave them a kind of strength better adapted to violent exertions than to patient labor and inspired them with constitutional bravery which is the result of nerves and spirits. The severity of a winter campaign that chilled the courage of the Roman troops was scarcely felt by these hearty children of the North who in their turn were unable to resist the summer heats and dissolved away in languor and sickness under the beams of an Italian son. Chapter 9 Part 2 There is not anywhere upon the globe a large tract of country which we have discovered destitute of inhabitants or whose first population can be fixed with any degree of historical certainty. And yet, as the most philosophic minds can seldom refrain from investigating the infancy of great nations, our curiosity consumes itself in toilsome and disappointed efforts. When Tacitus considered the purity of the German blood and the forbidding aspect of the country, he was disposed to pronounce those barbarians indigent or natives of the soil. We may allow with safety and perhaps with truth that ancient Germany was not originally peopled by any foreign colonies already formed into a political society, but that the name and nation received their existence from the gradual union of some wandering savages of the Hercinian woods. To assert those savages to have been the spontaneous production of the earth which they inhabited would be a rash inference condemned by religion and unwarranted by reason. Such rational doubt is but ill-suited with a genius of popular vanity. Among the nations who have adopted the mosaic history of the world, the Ark of Noah has been of the same use as was formally to the Greeks and Romans the Siege of Troy. On a narrow basis of acknowledged truth an immense but rude superstructure of fable has been erected, and the wild Irishmen as well as the wild Tartar could point out the individual son of Jaffet from whose loins his ancestors were linearly descended. The last century abounded with antiquarians of profound learning and easy faith who, by the dim light of legends and traditions of conjectures and etymologies conducted the great grandchildren of Noah from the Tower of Babel to the extremities of the globe. Of these judicious critics one of the most entertaining was Oas Rudbeck, professor in the University of Upsall. Whatever is celebrated either in history or fable this zealous patriot ascribes to his country from Sweden which forms so considerable a part of ancient Germany that Greeks themselves derived their alphabetical characters their astronomy and their religion. Of that delightful region for such it appeared to the eyes of a native the Atlantis of Plato the country of the hyperborians the garden of the Hesperides the fortunate islands and even the Elysian fields were all but faint in imperfect transcripts. A climb so profusely favored by nature could not long remain desert after the flood. The learned Rudbeck allows the family of Noah a few years to multiply from 8 to about 20,000 persons. He then disperses them into small colonies to replenish the earth and to propagate the human species. The German or Swedish detachment which marched if I am not mistaken under the command of Askenaz the son of Gomor the son of Shafet distinguished itself by a more than common diligence in the prosecution of this great work. The northern hive cast its swarms of the greatest part of Europe Africa and Asia and, to use the author's metaphor the blood circulated from the extremities to the heart. But all this well labored system of German antiquities is annihilated by a single fact too well attested to admit of any doubt and of too decisive a nature to leave room for any reply. The Germans in the Age of Tacitus were unacquainted with the use of letters and the use of letters is the principal circumstance that distinguishes a civilized people from a herd of savages incapable of knowledge or a reflection. Without that artificial help the human memory soon dissipates or corrupts the ideas entrusted to her charge and the nobler faculties of the mine no longer supplied with models or with materials gradually forget their powers the judgment becomes feeble and lethargic the imagination languid or irregular. Fully to apprehend this important truth let us attempt in an improved society to calculate the immense distance between the man of learning and the illiterate peasant. The former by reading and reflection multiplies his own experience and lives in distant ages in remote countries whilst the latter rooted to a single spot and confined to a few years of existence surpasses but very little his fellow laborer the ox in the exercise of his mental faculties. The same and even a greater difference will be found between nations then between individuals and we may safely pronounce that without some species of writing no people has ever preserved the faithful annals of their history ever made any considerable progress in the abstract sciences or ever possessed in any tolerable degree of perfection the useful in agreeable arts of life. Of these arts the ancient Germans were wretchedly destitute they passed their lives in a state of ignorance and poverty which it has pleased some declaimers to dignify with the appellation of virtuous simplicity. Modern Germany is said to contain about 2,300 world towns. In a much wider extent of country the geographer Ptolemy could discover no more than 90 places which he decorates with the name of cities though according to our ideas they would but ill deserve that splendid title. We can only suppose them to have been rude fortifications constructed in the center of the woods and designed to secure the women, children and cattle whilst the warriors of the tribe marched out to repel a sudden invasion. Potassitus asserts as a well-known fact that the Germans in his time had no cities and that they affected to despise the works of Roman industry as places of confinement rather than of security. Their edifices were not even contiguous or formed into regular villas each barbarian fixed his independent dwelling on the spot to which a plain a wood or a stream of fresh water had induced him to give the preference. Neither stone nor brick nor tiles were employed in these slight habitations. They were indeed no more than low huts of a circular figure built of rough timber thatched with straw and pierced at the top to leave a free passage for the smoke. In the most inclement weather the hearty German was satisfied with a scanty garment made of the skin of some animal. The nations who dwelt towards the north clothe themselves in furs and the women manufactured for their own use a coarse kind of linen. The game of various sorts with which the forests of Germany were plentifully stocked supplied its inhabitants with food and exercise. Their monstrous herds of cattle less remarkable indeed for their beauty than for their utility formed the principal object of their wealth. A small quantity of corn was the only produce exacted from the earth. The use of orchards or artificial metals was unknown to the Germans. Nor can we expect any improvements in agriculture from a people whose prosperity every year experienced a general change by a new division of the arable lands and who in that strange operation avoided disputes by suffering a great part of their territory to lie waste and without tillage. Gold, silver, and iron were extremely scarce in Germany. Its barbarous inhabitants wanted both skill and patience to investigate those rich veins of silver which have so liberally rewarded the attention of the princes of Brunswick and Saxony. Sweden, which now supplies Europe with iron was equally ignorant of its own riches and the appearance of the arms of the Germans furnished a sufficient proof how little iron they were able to bestow on what they must have deemed the noblest use of that metal. The various transactions of peace and war had introduced some Roman coins chiefly silver among the borderers of the Rhine and Danube but the more distant tribes were absolutely unequainted with the use of money carried on their confined traffic by the exchange of commodities and prized their rude earthen vessels as of equal value with the silver vases the presence of Rome to their princes and ambassadors. To a mind capable of reflection such leading facts convey more instruction than a tedious detail of subordinate circumstances. The value of money has been settled by general consent to express our wants and our property as letters were invented to express our ideas and both these institutions by giving a more active energy to the powers and passions of human nature have contributed to multiply the objects they were designed to represent. The use of gold and silver is in a great measure factitious but it would be impossible to enumerate the important and various services which agriculture and all the arts have received from iron when tempered and fashioned by the operation of fire and the dexterous hand of man. Money in a word is the most universal incitement iron the most powerful instrument of human industry and it is very difficult to conceive by what means a people neither actuated by the one nor seconded by the other could emerge from the grossest barbarism. If we contemplate a savage nation in any part of the globe a supine indolence and a carelessness of futurity will be found to constitute their general character in a civilized state every faculty of man is expanded and exercised and the great chain of mutual dependence connects and embraces the several members of society. The most numerous portion of it is employed in constant and useful labor the select few placed by fortune above that necessity can however fill up their time by the pursuits of interest or glory by the improvement of their estate or of their understanding by the duties the pleasures and even the follies of social life. The Germans were not possessed of these varied resources. The care of the house and family the management of the land and cattle were delegated to the old and the infirm to women and slaves the lazy warrior destitute of every art that might employ his leisure hours consumed his days and nights in the animal gratifications of sleep and food and yet by a wonderful diversity of nature according to the remark of a writer who had pierced into its darkest recesses the same barbarians are by turns the most indolent and the most restless of mankind they delight in sloth they detest tranquility the languid soul oppressed with its own weight anxiously required some new and powerful sensation and war and danger were the only amusements adequate to its fierce temper the sound that summoned the German to arms was grateful to his ear it roused him from his uncomfortable lethargy gave him an active pursuit and by strong exercise of the body and violent emotions of the mind restored him to a more lively sense of his existence in the dull intervals of peace these barbarians were immoderately addicted to deep gaming and excessive drinking both of which by different means the one by inflaming their passions the other by extinguishing their reason alike relieve them from the pain of thinking they gloried in passing whole days and nights at table and the blood of friends and relations often stained their numerous and drunken assemblies their debts of honor for in that light they have transmitted to us those of play they discharged with the most romantic fidelity the desperate gangster who had staked his person and liberty on a last throw of the dice patiently submitted to the decision of fortune and suffered himself to be bound chastise and sold into remote slavery by his weaker but more lucky antagonist strong beer a liquor extracted with very little art from wheat or barley and corrupted as it is strongly expressed by tacitus into a certain semblance of wine was sufficient for the gross purposes of german debauchery but those who had tasted the rich wines of italy and afterwards of gall sighed for that more delicious species of intoxication they attempted not however as has since been executed with so much success to naturalize the wine on the banks of the Rhine and Danube nor did they endeavor to procure by industry the materials of an advantageous commerce to solicit by labor what might be ravished by arms was esteemed unworthy of the german spirit the intemperate thirst of strong liquors often urged the barbarians to invade the provinces on which art or nature had bestowed those more envied presence the Tuscan who betrayed his country to the Celtic nations attracted them into italy by the prospect of the rich fruits and delicious wines the productions of a happier climate and in the same manner the german auxiliaries invited into France during the civil wars of the 16th century were allured by the promise of plenteous quarters in the provinces of Champagne and Burgundy drunkenness the most illiberal but not the most dangerous of our vices was sometimes capable in a less civilized state of mankind of occasioning a battle a war or a revolution the climate of ancient Germany has been modified and the soil fertilized by the labor of 10 centuries from the time of Charlemagne the same extent of ground which at present maintains in ease and plenty a million of husbandmen and artificers was unable to supply a hundred thousand lazy warriors with the simple necessities of life the Germans abandoned their immense forest to the exercise of hunting employed in pastureage the most considerable part of their lands bestowed on the small remainder a rude and careless cultivation and then accused the scantiness and sterility of a country that refused to maintain the multitude of its inhabitants when the return of famines severely admonished them of the importance of the arts the national distress was sometimes alleviated by the emigration of a third perhaps or a fourth part of their youth the possession and the enjoyment of property are the pledges which bind a civilized people to an improved country but the Germans who carried with them what they most valued their arms their cattle and their women cheerfully abandoned the vast silence of their woods for the unbounded hopes of plunder and conquest the innumerable swarms that issued or seemed to issue from the great storehouse of nations were multiplied by the fears of the vanquished and by the credulity of the succeeding ages and from facts thus exaggerated an opinion was gradually established and has been supported by writers of distinguished reputation that in the age of Caesar and Tacitus the inhabitants of the north were far more numerous than they are in our days a more serious inquiry into the causes of population seems to have convinced modern philosophers of the falsehood and indeed the impossibility of the supposition to the names of Marianna and of Machiavelle we can oppose the equal names of Robertson and Hume a war-like nation like the Germans without either cities, letters, arts, or money found some compensation for this savage state in the enjoyment of liberty their poverty secured their freedom since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism among the Suions says Tacitus riches are held in honor they are therefore subject to an absolute monarch who instead of entrusting his people with the free use of arms as his practice in the rest of Germany commits them to the safe custody not of a citizen or even of a freedman but of a slave the neighbors of the Suions the Citones are sunk even below servitude they obey a woman in the mention of these exceptions the great historian sufficiently acknowledges the general theory of government we are only at a loss to conceive by what means riches and despotism could penetrate into a remote corner of the north and extinguish the generous flame that plays with such fierceness on the frontier of the Roman provinces or how the ancestors of those Danes and Norwegians so distinguished in latter ages by their unconquered spirit could thus tamely resign the great character of German liberty some tribes however on the coast of the Baltic acknowledged the authority of kings though without relinquishing the rights of men but in the far greater part of Germany the form of government was a democracy tempered indeed and controlled not so much by general and positive laws as by the occasional ascendant of birth or valor of eloquence or superstition civil governments in their first institution are voluntary associations for mutual defense to obtain the desired end it is absolutely necessary that each individual should conceive himself obliged to submit his private opinions and actions to the judgment of the greater number of his associates the German tribes were contented with this rude but liberal outline of political society as soon as a youth born of free parents had attained the age of manhood he was introduced into the general council of his countrymen solemnly invested with a shield and spear and adopted as an equal and worthy member of the military commonwealth the assembly of the warriors of the tribe was convened at stated seasons or on sudden emergencies the trial of public offenses the election of magistrates and the great business of peace and war were determined by its independent voice sometimes indeed these important questions were previously considered and prepared in a more select council of the principal chieftains the magistrates might deliberate and persuade the people could only resolve and execute and the resolutions of the Germans were for the most part hasty and violent barbarians accustomed to place their freedom in gratifying the present passion and their courage in overlooking all future consequences turned away with indignant contempt from the remonstrances of justice and policy and it was the practice to signify by a hollow murmur their dislike of such timid councils but whenever a more popular orator proposed to vindicate the meanest citizen from either foreign or domestic injury whenever he called upon his fellow countrymen to assert the national honor or to pursue some enterprise full of danger and glory a loud clashing of shields and spears expressed the eager applause of the assembly for the Germans always met in arms and it was constantly to be dreaded lest an irregular multitude inflamed with faction and strong liquors should use those arms to enforce as well as to declare their furious resolves we may recollect how often the diets of Poland have been polluted with blood and the more numerous party has been compelled to yield to the more violent and seditious a general of the tribe was elected on occasions of danger and if the danger was pressing and extensive several tribes concurred in the choice of the same general the bravest warrior was named to lead his countrymen into the field by his example rather than by his commands but this power however limited was still invidious it expired with the war and in time of peace the German tribes acknowledged not any supreme chief princes were however appointed in the general assembly to administer justice or rather to compose differences in their respective districts in the choice of these magistrates as much regard was shown to birth as to merit to each was assigned by the public a guard and a council of a hundred persons and the first of the princes appears to have enjoyed a preeminence of rank and honor which sometimes tempted the Romans to complement him with the regal title the comparative view of the powers of the magistrates in two remarkable instances is alone sufficient to represent the whole system of German manners the disposal of the landed property within their district was absolutely vested in their hands and they distributed it every year according to a new division at the same time they were not authorized to punish with death to imprison or even to strike a private citizen a people thus jealous of their persons and careless of their possessions must have been totally destitute of industry and the arts but animated with a high sense of honor and independence end of chapter nine parts one and two chapter nine part three of the decline and fall of the roman empire volume one this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox.org the decline and fall of the roman empire volume one by edward gibbon chapter nine state of germany until the barbarians part three the germans respected only those duties which they imposed on themselves the most obscure soldier resisted with the stain the authority of the magistrates the noblest use blush not to be numbered among the faithful companions of some renowned chief to whom they devoted their arms and service a noble emulation prevailed among the companions to obtain the first place in the esteem of their chief amongst the chiefs to acquire the greatest number of valiant companions to be ever surrounded by a band of select youths was the pride and strength of the chiefs their ornament in peace their defense in war the glory of such distinguished heroes diffused itself beyond the narrow limits of their own tribe presence and embassies solicited their friendship and the fame of their arms often ensured victory to the party which they espoused in the hour of danger it was shameful for the chief to be surpassed in valor by his companions shameful for the companions not to equal the valor of their chief to survive his fall in battle with indelible infamy to protect his person and to adorn his glory with the trophies of their own exploits were the most sacred of their duties the chiefs combatted for victory the companions for the chief the noblest warriors whenever their native country was sunk into the laziness of peace maintain their numerous bands in some distant scene of action to exercise their restless spirit and to acquire renown by voluntary dangers gifts worthy of soldiers the warlike steed the bloody and even victorious lance were the rewards which the companions claim from the liberality of their chief the rude plenty of his hospitable board was the only pay that he could bestow or they would accept war, rapine, and the free will offerings of his friends supplied the materials of this beneficence this institution however it might accidentally weaken the several republics invigorated the general character of the germans and even ripened amongst them all the virtues of which barbarians are susceptible the faith and valor the hospitality and the courtesy so conspicuous long afterwards in the ages of chivalry the honorable gifts bestowed by the chief on his brave companions have been supposed by an ingenious writer to contain the first rudiments of the fiefs distributed after the conquest of the roman provinces by the barbarian lords among their vassals with a similar duty of homage and military service these conditions are however very repugnant to the maxims of the ancient germans who delighted in mutual presence but without either imposing or accepting the weight of obligations in the days of chivalry or more properly of romance all the men were brave and all the women were chaste and notwithstanding the latter of these virtues is acquired and preserved with much more difficulty than the former it is ascribed almost without exception to the wives of the ancient germans polygamy was not in use except among the princes and among them only for the sake of multiplying their alliances divorces were prohibited by manners rather than by laws adulteries were punished as rare and inexpeable crimes nor was seduction justified by example and fashion we may easily discover that tacitis indulges in honest pleasure in the contrast of barbarian virtue with the dissolute conduct of the roman ladies yet there are some striking circumstances that give an air of truth or at least probability to the conjugal faith and chastity of the germans although the progress of civilization has undoubtedly contributed to assuage the fiercer passions of human nature it seems to have been less favorable to the virtue of chastity whose most dangerous enemy is the softness of the mind the refinements of life corrupt while they polish the intercourse of the sexes the gross appetite of love becomes most dangerous when it is elevated or rather indeed disguised by sentimental passion the elegance of dress of motion and of manners gives a luster to beauty and inflames the senses through the imagination Luxurious entertainments, midnight dances, and licentious spectacles present at one's temptation and opportunity to female frailty from such dangers the unpolished wives of the barbarians were secured by poverty, solitude, and the painful cares of a domestic life the german huts open on every side to the eye of indiscretion or jealousy were a better safeguard of conjugal fidelity than the walls, the bolts, and the eunuchs of a persian haram to this reason another may be added of a more honorable nature the germans treated their women with esteem and confidence consulted them on every occasion of importance and finally believed that in their breast resided a sanctity and wisdom more than human some of the interpreters of fate such as Valida in the Batvian war governed in the name of the deity the fiercest nations of Germany the rest of the sex without being adored as god goddesses were respected as the free and equal companions of soldiers associated even by the marriage ceremony to a life of toil of danger and of glory in their great invasions the camps of the barbarians were filled with a multitude of women who remained firm and undaunted amidst the sound of arms the various forms of destruction and the honorable wounds of their sons and husbands fainting armies of germans have more than once been driven back upon the enemy by the generous despair of the women who dreaded death much less than servitude if the day was irrevocably lost they well knew how to deliver themselves and their children with their own hands from an insulting victor heroines of such a caste may claim our admiration but they were most assuredly neither lovely nor very susceptible of love whilst they affected to emulate the stern virtues of man they must have resigned that attractive softness in which principally consists the charm and weakness of woman conscious pride taught the german females to suppress every tender emotion that stood in competition with honor and the first honor of the sex has ever been that of chastity the sentiments and conduct of these high spirited matrons may at once be considered as a cause as an effect and as a proof of the general character of the nation female courage however it may be raised by fanaticism or confirmed by habit can be only a faint and imperfect imitation of the manly valor that distinguishes the age or country in which it may be found the religious system of the germans if the wild opinions of savages can deserve that name was dictated by their wants their fears and their ignorance they adored the great visible objects and agents of nature the sun and the moon the fire and the earth together with those imaginary deities who were supposed to preside over the most important occupations of human life they were persuaded that by some ridiculous arts of divination they could discover the will of the superior beings and that human sacrifices were the most precious and acceptable offering to their altars some applause has been hastily bestowed on the sublime notion entertained by that people of the deity whom they neither confined within the walls of the temple nor represented by any human figure but when we recollect that the germans were unskilled in architecture and totally unacquainted with the art of sculpture we shall readily assign the true reason of a scruple which arose not so much from a superiority of reason as from a want of ingenuity the only temples in germany were dark and ancient groves consecrated by the reverence of succeeding generations their secret gloom the imagined residents of an invisible power by presenting no distinct object of fear or worship impressed the mind with a still deeper sense of religious horror and the priests rude and illiterate as they were had been taught by experience the use of every artifice that could preserve and fortify impressions so well suited to their own interest the same ignorance which renders barbarians incapable of conceiving or embracing the useful restraints of laws exposes them naked and unarmed to the blind terrors of superstition the german priests improving this favorable temper of their countrymen had assumed a jurisdiction even in temporal concerns which the magistrate could not venture to exercise and the haughty warrior patiently submitted to the lash of correction when it was inflicted not by any human power but by the immediate order of the god of war the defects of civil policy were sometimes supplied by the interposition of ecclesiastical authority the latter was constantly exerted to maintain silence and decency in the popular assemblies and was sometimes extended to a more enlarged concern for the national welfare a solemn procession was occasionally celebrated in the present countries of mecklenburg and pomerania the unknown symbol of the earth covered with a thick veil was placed on a carriage drawn by cows and in this manner the goddess whose common residence was in the isles of rugan visited several adjacent tribes of her worshipers during her progress the sound of war was hushed quarrels were suspended arms laid aside and the restless germans had an opportunity of tasting the blessings of peace and harmony the truce of god so often and so ineffectually proclaimed by the clergy of the eleventh century was an obvious imitation of this ancient custom but the influence of religion was far more powerful to inflame than to moderate the fierce passions of the germans interest and fanaticism often prompted its ministers to sanctify the most daring and the most unjust enterprises by the approbation of heaven and full assurances of success the consecrated standards long revered in the groves of superstition were placed in the front of the battle and the hostile army was devoted with dire execrations to the gods of war and of thunder in the faith of soldiers and such were the germans cowardice is the most unpardonable of sins a brave man was the worthy favorite of their marshal deities the wretch who had lost his shield was alike banished from the religious and civil assemblies of his countrymen some tribes of the north seem to have embraced the doctrine of transmigration others imagined a gross paradise of immortal drunkenness all agreed that a life spent in arms and a glorious death in battle were the best preparations for a happy futurity either in this or in another world the immortality so vainly promised by the priest was in some degree conferred by the bards that singular order of men has most deservedly attracted the notice of all who have attempted to investigate the antiquities of the Celts the Scandinavians and the Germans their genius and character as well as the reverence paid to that important office have been sufficiently illustrated but we cannot so easily express or even conceive the enthusiasm of arms and glory which they kindled in the breast of their audience among a polished people a taste for poetry is rather an amusement of the fancy than a passion of the soul and yet when in calm retirement we peruse the combats described by Homer or Tasso we are insensibly seduced by the fiction and feel a momentary glow of martial ardor but how faint how cold is the sensation which a peaceful mind can receive from solitary study it was in the hour of battle or in the feast of victory that the bards celebrated the glory of the heroes of ancient days the ancestors of those warlike chieftains who listened with transport to their artless but animated strains the view of arms and of danger heightened the effect of the military song and the passions which attended to excite the desire of fame and the contempt of death were the habitual sentiments of a German mind such was the situation and such were the manners of the ancient Germans their climate their want of learning of arts and of laws their notions of honor of gallantry and of religion their sense of freedom impatience of peace and thirst of enterprise all contributed to form a people of military heroes and yet we find that during more than 250 years that elapsed from the defeat of Varys to the reign of desius these formidable barbarians made few considerable attempts and not any material impression on the luxurious and enslaved provinces of the empire their progress was checked by their want of arms and discipline and their fury was diverted by the intestine divisions of ancient Germany it has been observed with ingenuity and not without truth that the command of iron soon gives a nation the command of gold but the rude tribes of Germany alike destitute of both those valuable metals were reduced slowly to acquire by their unassisted strength the possession of the one as well as the other the face of a german army displayed their poverty of iron swords and the longer kind of lances they could seldom use their frame as they called them in their own language were long spears headed with a sharp but narrow iron point and which as occasion required they either darted from a distance or pushed in close onset with this spear and with a shield their cavalry was contented a multitude of darts scattered with incredible force or an additional resource of the infantry their military dress when they wore any was nothing more than a loose mantle a variety of colors was the only ornament of their wooden or austere shields few of the chiefs were distinguished by curuses scarcely any by helmets though the horses of germany were neither beautiful swift nor practiced in the skillful evolutions of the roman manage several of the nations obtained renowned by their cavalry but in general the principal strength of the germans consisted in their infantry which was drawn up in several deep columns according to the distinction of the tribes and families impatient of fatigue and delay these half armed warriors rushed to battle with dissonant shouts and disordered ranks and sometimes by the effort of native valor prevailed over the constrained and more artificial bravery of the roman mercenaries but as the barbarians poured forth their whole souls on the first onset they knew not how to rally or to retire a repulse was a sure defeat and a defeat was most commonly total destruction when we recollect the complete armor of the roman soldiers their discipline exercises evolutions fortified camps and military engines it appears a just matter of surprise how the naked and unassisted valor of the barbarians could dare to encounter in the field the strength of the legions and the various troops of the auxiliaries which seconded their operations the contest was too unequal till the introduction of luxury had innervated the vigor and a spirit of disobedience and sedition had relaxed the discipline of the roman armies the introduction of barbarian auxiliaries into those armies was a measure attended with very obvious dangers as it might gradually instruct the germans in the arts of war and of policy although they were admitted in small numbers and with the strictest precaution the example of civilice was proper to convince the romans that the danger was not imaginary and that their precautions were not always sufficient during the civil wars that followed the death of nero that artful and intrepid betavian whom his enemies condescended to compare with hanibal and satorius formed a great design of freedom and ambition eight betavian cohorts renowned in the wars of britain and italy repaired to his standard he introduced an army of germans into gall prevailed on the powerful cities of trevies and langurus to embrace his cause defeated the legions destroyed their fortified camps and employed against the romans the military knowledge which he had acquired in their service when at length after an obstinate struggle he yielded to the power of the empire civilice secured himself and his country by an honorable treaty the betavian still continued to occupy the islands of the rine the allies not the servants of the roman monarchy the strength of ancient germany appears formidable when we consider the effects that might have been produced by its united effort the wide extent of country might very possibly contain a million of warriors as all who were of age to bear arms were of a temper to use them but this fierce multitude incapable of concerning or executing any plan of national greatness was agitated by various and often hostile intentions germany was divided into more than 40 independent states and even in each state the union of the several tribes was extremely loose and precarious the barbarians were easily provoked they knew not how to forgive an injury much less an insult their resentments were bloody and implacable the casual disputes that so frequently happened in their tumultuous parties of hunting or drinking were sufficient to inflame the minds of whole nations the private feuds of any considerable chieftains diffused itself among their followers and allies to chastise the insolent or to plunder the defenseless were alike causes of war the most formidable states of germany affected to encompass their territories with a wide frontier of solitude and devastation the awful distance preserved by their neighbors attested the terror of their arms and in some measure defended them from the danger of unexpected incursions the brook terry it is tacitus who now speaks were totally exterminated by the neighboring tribes provoked by their insolence allured by the hopes of spoil and perhaps inspired by the tuchelur deities of the empire above 60 000 barbarians were destroyed not by the roman arms but in our site and for our entertainment may the nations enemies of rome ever preserve this enmity to each other we have now attained the utmost verge of prosperity and have nothing left to demand of fortune except the discord of the barbarians these sentiments less worthy of the humanity than of the patriotism of tacitus express the invariable maxims of the policy of his countrymen they deemed it a much safer expedient to divide than to combat the barbarians from whose defeat they could derive neither honor nor advantage the money and negotiations of rome insinuated themselves into the heart of germany and every art of seduction was used with dignity to conciliate those nations whom their proximity to the rine or danube might render the most useful friends as well as the most troublesome enemies chiefs of renown and power were flattered by the most trifling presence which they received either as marks of distinction or as the instruments of luxury in civil dissensions the weaker faction endeavored to strengthen its interest by entering into secret connections with the governors of the frontier provinces every quarrel among the germans was fomented by the intrigues of rome and every plan of union and public good was defeated by the stronger bias of private jealousy and interest the general conspiracy which terrified the romans under the reign of marcus antonius comprehended almost all the nations of germany and even samarshi from the mouth of the rine to that of the danube it is impossible for us to determine whether this hasty confederation was formed by necessity by reason or by passion but we may rest assured that the barbarians were neither allured by the indolence nor provoked by the ambition of the roman marnarch this dangerous invasion required all the firmness and vigilance of marcus he fixed generals of ability in the several stations of attack and assumed in person the conduct of the most important province on the upper danube after a long and doubtful conflict the spirit of the barbarians was subdued the quadi and the marcomani who had taken the lead in the war were the most severely punished in its catastrophe they were commanded to retire five miles from their own banks of the danube and to deliver up the flower of the youth who were immediately sent into britain a remote island where they might be secure as hostages and useful as soldiers on their frequent rebellions of the quadi and the marcomani the irritated emperor resolved to reduce their country into the form of a province his designs were disappointed by death this formidable league however the only one that appears in the two first centuries of the imperial history was entirely dissipated without leaving any traces behind in germany in the course of this introductory chapter we have confined ourselves to the general outlines of the manners of germany without attempting to describe or to distinguish the various tribes which filled that great country in the time of caesar of tacitus or of ptolemy as the ancient or as new tribes successively present themselves in the series of this history we shall concisely mention their origin their situation and their particular character modern nations are fixed and permanent societies connected among themselves by laws and government bound to their native soil by arts and agriculture the german tribes were voluntary and fluctuating associations of soldiers almost of savages the same territory often changed its inhabitants in the tide of conquest and emigration the same communities uniting in a plan of defense or invasion bestowed a new title on their new confederacy the dissolution of an ancient confederacy restored to the independent tribes their peculiar but long forgotten appellation a victoria state often communicated its own name to a vanquished people sometimes crowds of volunteers flocked from all parts to the standard of a favorite leader his camp became their country and some circumstance of the enterprise soon gave a common denomination to the mixed multitude the distinctions of the ferocious invaders were perpetually varied by themselves and confounded by the astonished subjects of the roman empire wars and the administration of public affairs are the principal subjects of history but the number of persons interested in these busy scenes is very different according to the different condition of mankind in great monarchies millions of obedient subjects pursue their useful occupations in peace and obscurity the attention of the writer as well as of the reader is solely confined to a court a capital a regular army and the districts which happen to be the occasional scene of military operations but a state of freedom and barbarism the season of civil commotions or the situation of petty republics raises almost every member of the community into action and consequently into notice the irregular divisions and the restless motions of the people of germany dazzle our imagination and seem to multiply their numbers the profuse enumeration of kings of warriors of armies and nations inclines us to forget that the same subjects are continually repeated under a variety of appellations and that the most splendid appellations have been frequently lavished on the most inconsiderable objects end of chapter nine part three chapter ten part one of the decline and fall of the roman empire volume one this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox.org recording by lizzie driver the emperor's desius gallus milianus valerian and galley ennis the general enruption of the barbarians thirty tyrants from the great secular game celebrated by philip to the death of the emperor galley ennis there elapsed twenty years of shame and misfortune during that calamitous period every instant of time was marked every province of the roman world was afflicted by barbarious invaders and military tyrants and the ruined empire seemed to approach the last and fatal moment of his dissolution the confusion of the times and the scarcity of authentic memorials oppose equal difficulty to the historian who attempts to preserve a clear and unbroken thread of narration surrounded with imperfect fragments always concise often obscure and sometimes contradictory he is reduced to collect to compare and to conjecture and though he ought never to place his conjectures in the rank of facts yet the knowledge of human nature and of the short operation of its fierce and unrestrained passions might on some occasions supply the want of historical materials there is not for instance any difficulty in conceiving that the successive murders of so many emperors had loosened all the ties of allegiance between the prince and the people that all the generals of philip were disposed to imitate the example of their master and that the caprice of armies long since habituated to frequent and violent revolutions might every day raise to the throne the most obscure of their fellow soldiers history can only add that the rebellion against the emperor philip broke out in the summer of the year 249 among the legions of mercia and that a subaltern officer named marinus was the object of their sedacious choice philip was alarmed he dreaded lest the treason of the mercian army should prove the first spark of a general conflagration distracted with the consciousness of his guilt and of his danger he communicated the intelligence to the senate a gloomy silence prevailed the effect of fear and perhaps of disaffection till at length desius one of the assembly assuming a spirit worthy of his noble extraction ventured to discover more intrepidity than the emperor seemed to possess he treated the whole business with contempt as a hasty and inconsiderate tumult and philip's rival as a phantom of royalty who in a very few days would be destroyed by the same inconsistency that had created him the speedy completion of the prophecy inspired philip with a just esteem for so able a counselor and desius appeared to him the only person capable of restoring peace and discipline to an army whose tumultuous spirit did not immediately subside after the murder of marinus desius who long resisted his own nomination seems to have insinuated the danger of presenting a leader of merit to the angry and apprehensive minds of the soldiers and his prediction was again confirmed by the event the legions of mercy are forced to their judge to become their accomplice they left him only the alternative of death or the purple his subsequent conduct after that decisive measure was unavoidable he conducted or followed his army to the confines of italy with a philip collecting all his force to repel the formidable competitor whom he had raised up advanced to meet him the imperial troops were superior in number but the rebels formed an army of veterans commanded by an able and experienced leader philip was either killed in the battle or put to death a few days after at verona his son and associate in the empire was massacred at rome by the pre-etorian guards and the victorious desius with more favorable circumstances than the ambition of that age can usually plead was universally acknowledged by the senate and provinces it is reported that immediately after his reluctant acceptance of the title of augustus he had assured philip by a private message of his innocence and loyalty solemnly protesting that on his arrival on italy he would resign the imperial ornaments and return to the condition of an obedient subject his professions might be sincere but in the situation where fortune had placed him it was scarcely possible that he could either forgive or be forgiven the emperor desius had employed a few months in the works of peace and the administration of justice when he was summoned to the banks of the danube by the invasion of the goths this is the first considerable occasion in which history mentions that great people who afterwards broke the roman power sacked the capital and reigned in gall spain and italy so memorable was the part which they acted in the subversion of the western empire that the name of goths is frequently but improperly used as a general appellation of rude and warlike barbarism in the beginning of the sixth century and after the conquest of italy the goths in possession of present greatness very naturally indulge themselves in the prospect of past and of future glory they wished to preserve the memory of their ancestors and to transmit to posterity their own achievements the principal minister of the court of ravena the learned casiodorus gratified the inclination of the conquerors in agothic history which consisted of 12 books now reduced to the imperfect abridgment of drunandes these writers passed with the most artful consciousness over the misfortunes of the nation celebrated its successful valour and adorned the triumph with many asiatic trophies that more properly belonged to the people of sythia on the faith of ancient songs the uncertain but the only memorials of barbarians they deduced the first origin of the goths from the vast island or peninsula of scandinavia that extreme country of the north was not unknown to the conquerors of italy the ties of ancient consanguinity had been strengthened by recent offices of friendship and a scandinavian king had cheerfully abdicated his savage greatness that he might pass the remainder of his days in the peaceful and polished court of ravena many vestiges which cannot be ascribed to the arts of popularity attest to the ancient residents of the goths in the countries beyond the rine from the time of the geographer tolamy the southern part of sweden seems to have continued in the possession of the less enterprising remnant of the nation and a large territory is even at present divided into east and west gothland during the middle ages from the ninth to the twelfth century whilst christianity was advancing with the slow progress into the north the goths and the swedes composed two distinct and sometimes hostile members of the same monarchy the latter of these two names has prevailed without extinguishing the former the swedes who might well be satisfied with their own fame in arms have in every age claimed the kindred glory of the goths in a moment of discontent against the court of rome charles the twelfth insinuated that his victorious troops were not degenerated from their brave ancestors who had already subdued to the mistress of the world till the end of the eleventh century a celebrated temple subsisted at upassal the most considerable town of the swedes and goths it was enriched with the gold which the scandinavians had acquired in their piratical adventurers and sanctified by the uncouth representations of the three principal deities the god of war the goddess of generation and the god of thunder in the general festival that was solemnized every ninth year nine animals of every species without accepting the human were sacrificed and their bleeding bodies suspended in the sacred grove adjacent to the temple the only traces that now subsist of this barbaric superstition are contained in the edda a system of mythology compiled in iceland about the 13th century and studied by the learned of denmark and sweden as most valuable remains of their ancient traditions notwithstanding the mysterious obscurity of the edda we can easily distinguish two persons confounded under the name of odin the god of war and the great legislator of scandinavia the latter the great muhammad of the north instituted a religion adapted to the climate and to the people numerous tribes on either side of the Baltic were subdued by the invincible valour of odin by his persuasive eloquence and by the fame which he acquired of a most skillful magician the faith that he had propagated during a long and prosperous life he confirmed by a voluntary death apprehensive of the ignominious approach of disease and infirmity he resolved to expire as become a warrior in a solemn assembly of the swedes and goths he wounded himself in nine mortal places hastening away as he asserted with his dying voice to prepare the feast of heroes in the palates of the god of war the native and proper habitation of odin is distinguished by the appellation of asgard the happy resemblance of that name with asberg or as of words of a similar signification have given rise to an historical system of so pleasing a contexture that we could almost wish to persuade ourselves of its truth it is supposed that odin was the chief of a tribe of barbarians who dwelt on the banks the lake meotis till the fall of mithridates and the arms of pompe menace to the north with servitude that odin yielding with indignant fury to a power which he was unable to resist conducted his tribe from the frontiers of the asiatic semasia into sweden with the great design of forming in that inaccessible retreat of freedom a religion and a people which in some remote age might be subservient to his immortal revenge when his invincible goths armed with martial fanaticism should issue in numerous swarms from the neighborhood of the polis circle to chastise the oppressors of mankind if so many successive generations of goths were capable of preserving a faint tradition of their Scandinavian origin we must not expect from such unlettered barbarians any distinct account of the time and circumstances of their immigration to cross the Baltic was an easy and natural attempt the inhabitants of Sweden were masters of a sufficient number of large vessels with ores and the distance is little more than 100 miles from Kalsgren to the nearest ports of Pomerania and Prussia here at length we land on firm and historic ground at least as early as the christian era and as late as the age of the Antoninese the goths were established towards the mouth of the vestula and in that fertile province where the commercial cities of Thorn, Elbing, Connysburg and Danzig were long afterwards founded westward of the goths the numerous tribes of the vandals will spread along the banks of the alder and to the sea coast upon Morania and Macklinburg a striking resemblance of manners, complexion, religion and language seemed to indicate that the vandals and the goths were originally one great people the latter appear to have been subdivided into Ostrogoths, Visgoths and Gepedia the distinction among the vandals was more strongly marked by the independent names of Heruliii, Burgundians, Lombards and a variety of other petty states many of which in a future age expanded themselves into powerful monarchies in the age of the Antoninese the goths were still seated in Prussia about the reign of Alexander Severus the Roman province of Decia had already experienced their proximity by frequent and destructive inroads in this interval therefore of about seventy years we must place the second migration of the goths from the Baltic to the Yuxin but the cause that produced it lies concealed among the various motives which actuate the conduct of unsettled barbarians either a pestilence or a famine a victory or a defeat an oracle of the gods or the eloquence of a daring leader were sufficient to impel the gothic arms on the milder climates of the south besides the influence of martial religion the numbers and spirit of the goths were equal to the most dangerous adventures the use of round bucklers and short swords rendered them formidable in a close engagement the manly obedience which they yielded to hereditary kings gave uncommon union and stability to their councils and the renowned Amala the hero of that age and the tenth ancestor of the Odric king of Italy enforced by the ascendance of personal merit the prerogative of his birth which he derived from the ancestors or demi-gods of the gothic nation the fame of a great enterprise excited the bravest warriors from all the vandalic states of Germany many of whom are seen a few years afterwards combating under the common standard of the goths the first motions of the immigrants carried them to the banks of the pre-pesh a river universally conceived by the ancients to be the southern branch of the baritianis the windings of that great stream through the plains of Poland and Russia gave a direction to their line of march and a constant supply of fresh water and pastridge to their numerous herds of cattle they followed the unknown course of the river confident in their valour and careless of whatever power might oppose their progress the Bostani and the Vanidi were the first who presented themselves and the flower of their youth either from choice or compulsion increased to the gothic army the Bostani dwelt on the northern side of the Kopatian mountains the immense tract of land that separated the Bostani from the savages of Finland was possessed or rather wasted by the Vanidi we have some reason to believe that the first of these nations which distinguished itself in the Macedonian war and was afterwards divided into the formidable tribes of the Pusini the Borani and the Carpi etc derived its origin from the Germans with better authority a summation extraction may be assigned to the Vanidi who rendered themselves so famous in the Middle Ages but the confusion of blood and manners on that doubtful frontier often perplexed the most accurate observers as the Goths advanced near the Yooks in sea they encountered a pure race of summations the Giusegis the Elani and the Rocks Elani and they were probably the first Germans who saw the males of the Baristianus and of the Tannas if we inquire into the characteristic marks of the people of Germany and of Sumatia we shall discover that these two great portions of humankind were principally distinguished by fixed huts or movable tents by a close dress or flowing garments by the marriage of one or of several wives by a military force consisting for the most part either of infantry or cavalry and above all by the use of the Teutonic or of the Sclavonian language the last of which has been diffused by conquest from the confines of Italy to the neighborhood of Japan end of chapter 10 part 1