 chapter 31 part 6 of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, volume 3 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Lizzie driver chapter 31 invasion of Italy occupation of territories by barbarians part 6 the personal animosities and hereditary feuds of the barbarians were suspended by the strong necessity of their affairs and the braver Dolphus the brother-in-law of the deceased monarch was unanimously elected to succeed to his throne the character and political system of the new king of the Goths may be best understood from his own conversation with an illustrious citizen of Narbonne who afterwards in a pilgrimage to the holy land related it to Sergio Rom in the presence of the historian Oresius in the full confidence of valor and victory I once aspired Citidolphus to change the face of the universe to obliterate the name of Rome to erect on its ruins the dominion of the Goths and to acquire like Augustus the immortal fame of the founder of a new empire by repeated experiments I was gradually convinced that laws are essentially necessary to maintain and regulate a well constituted state and that the fierce untractable humor of the Goths was incapable of bearing the salutary yoke of laws and civil government from that moment I proposed to myself a different objective of glory and ambition and it is now my sincere wish that the gratitude of future ages should acknowledge the merit of a stranger who employed a sword of the Goths not to subvert but to restore and maintain the prosperity of the Roman Empire with these specific views the successor of Alaric suspended the operations of war and seriously negotiated with the imperial court a treaty of friendship and alliance it was the interest of the ministers of Honorius who were now released from the obligation of their extravagant oath to deliver Italy from the intolerable weight of the Gothic powers and they readily accepted their service against the tyrants and barbarians who infested the provinces beyond the Alps Adolphus assuming the character of a Roman general directed his march from the extremity of Campania to the southern provinces of Gaul his troops either by force or agreement immediately occupied the cities of La Bonne Thelouse and Bordeaux and though they were repulsed by Count Boniface from the walls of Marseille they soon extended their quarters from the Mediterranean to the ocean the oppressed provinciales might exclaim that the miserable remnant which the enemy had spared was cruelly ravaged by their pretended allies yet some specious colors were not wanting to palliate or justify the violence of the Goths the cities of Gaul which they attacked might perhaps be considered in a state of rebellion against the government of Honorius the articles of the treaty or the secret instructions of the court might sometimes be alleged in favor of the seeming usurpations of Adolphus and the guilt of any irregular unsuccessful act of hostility might always be imputed within a parents of truth to the ungovernable spirit of a barbarian host impatient of peace or discipline the luxury of Italy had been less effectual to soften the temper than to relax the courage of the Goths and they had imbibed the vices without imitating the arts and institutions of civilized society the professions of Adolphus were probably sincere and his attachment to the cause of the Republic was secured by the ascendant which a Roman princess had acquired over the heart and understanding of the barbarian king Placidia the daughter of the great Theodosius and of Gala his second wife had received a royal education in the palace of Constantinople but the eventful story of her life is connected with the revolutions which agitated the Western Empire under the reign of her brother Honorius when Rome was first invested by the arms of Alaric Placidia who was then about 20 years of age resided in the city and her ready consent to the death of her cousin Serena has a cruel and ungrateful appearance which according to the circumstances of the action may be aggravated or excused by the considerations of her tender age the victorious barbarians detained either as a hostage or a captive the sister of Honorius but while she was exposed to the disgrace of following round Italy the motions of a Gothic camp she experienced however a decent and respectful treatment the authority of Jean-Andes who praises the beauty of Placidia may perhaps be counterbalanced by the silence the expressive silence of her flatterers yet the splendor of her birth the bloom of youth the elegance of manners and the dexterous insinuation which she condescended to employ made a deep impression on the mind of Adolphus and the Gothic king aspired to call himself the brother of the emperor the ministers of Honorius rejected with disdain the proposal of an alliance so injurious to every sentiment of Roman pride and repeatedly urged the restitution of Placidia as an indispensable condition of the Treaty of Peace but the daughter of Theodosius submitted without reluctance to the desires of the conqueror a young and valiant prince who yielded to Alaric in loftiness of stature but who excelled in the more attractive qualities of grace and beauty the marriage of Adolphus and Placidia was consummated before the Goths retired from Italy and the solemn perhaps the anniversary day of the nuptials was afterwards celebrated in the house of Ingenus one of the most illustrious citizens of Narbonne in Gaul the bride had hired and adorned like a Roman Empress was placed on a throne estate and the king of the Goths who assumed on this occasion the Roman habit contended himself with a less honorable seat by her side the nuptial gift which according to the custom of his nation was offered to Placidia constituted of the rare and magnificent spoils of her country fifty beautiful youths in silken robes carried a basin in each hand and one of these basins was filled with pieces of gold the other with precious stones of an inestimable value Attalus so long the sport of fortune and of the Goths was appointed to lead the chorus of the hymenial song and the degraded emperor might aspire to the praise of a skillful musician the barbarians enjoyed the insolence of their triumph and the provincials rejoiced in this alliance which tempered by the mild influence of love and reason the fierce spirit of their Gothic Lord the hundred basins of gold and gems presented to Placidia at her nuptial feast formed an inconsiderable portion of the Gothic treasures of which some extraordinary specimens may be selected from the history of the successes of Adolphus many curious and costly ornaments of pure gold enriched with jewels were found in their palace of Narbonne when it was pillaged in the sixth century by the Franks sixty cups caps or chalices fifteen patterns or plates for the use of the communion twenty boxes or cases to hold the books of the gospels this consecrated wealth was distributed by the son of Clovis among the churches of his dominions and his pious liberality seemed to up braid some former sacrilege of the Goths they possessed with more security of conscience the famous Miss Aureum or great dish for the service of the table of Massey Gold of the weight of five hundred pounds and a far superior value from the precious stones the exquisite worksmanship and the tradition that it had been presented by Aetius the patrician to Torrismond king of the Goths one of the successes of Torrismond purchased the aid of the French monarch by the promise of this magnificent gift when he was seated on the throne of Spain he delivered it with reluctance to the ambassadors of Dagobar to spoil to them on the road stipulated after a long negotiation the inadequate ransom of two hundred thousand pieces of gold and preserved the Miss Aureum as the pride of the Gothic treasury when that treasury after the conquest of Spain was plundered by the Arabs they admired and they have celebrated another object still more remarkable a table of considerable size of one single piece of solid emerald encircled with three rows of fine pearls supported by 360 feet of gems and Massey Gold and estimated at the price of five hundred thousand pieces of gold some portions of the Gothic treasures might be the gift of a friendship or the tribute of obedience but the far greater part had been the fruits of war and draping the spoils of the empire and perhaps of Rome after the deliverance of Italy from the oppression of the Goths some secret counselor was permitted amidst the factions of the palace to heal the wounds of that afflicted country by a wise and humane regulation the eight provinces which had been the most deeply injured Campania, Tuscany, Paquenum, Samnium, Apolia, Calabria, Bratium and Lucania obtained an indulgence of five years the ordinary tribute was reduced to one fifth and even that fifth was destined to restore and support the useful institution of the public posts by another law the lands which had been left without inhabitants or cultivation were granted with some diminution of taxes to the neighbors who should occupy or the strangers who should solicit them and the new possessors were secured against the future claims of the fugitive proprietors about the same time a general amnesty was published in the name of honoris to abolish the guilt and memory of all the individual offenses which had been committed by his unhappy subjects during the term of the public disorder and calamity a decent and respectful attention was paid to the restoration of the capital the citizens were encouraged to rebuild their edifices which had been destroyed or damaged by hostile fire and extraordinary supplies of corn were imported from the coast of Africa the crowds that so lately fled before the sword of the barbarians were soon recalled by the hopes of plenty and pleasure and albinious prefect of Rome informed the court with some anxiety and surprise that in a single day he had taken account of the arrival of 14,000 strangers in less than seven years the vestiges of the gothic invasion were almost obliterated and the city appeared to resume its former splendor and tranquility the venerable matron replaced her crown of laurel which had been ruffled by the storms of war and was still amused in the last moment of her decay with the prophecies of revenge or victory and of eternal dominion this apparent tranquility was soon disturbed by the approach of a hostile armament from the country which afforded the daily sustenance of the Roman people Heraclean count of Africa who under the most difficult and distressed for circumstances had supported with active loyalty the cause of honoris was tempted in the year of his consulship to assume the character of a rebel and the title of emperor the ports of Africa were immediately filled with the naval forces at the head of which he prepared to invade Italy and his fleet when it cast anchor at the mouth of the Tiber indeed surpassed the fleets of Xerxes and Alexander if all the vessels including the royal galley and the smallest boat did actually amount to the incredible number of three thousand two hundred yet with such an armament which might have subverted or restored the greatest empires of the earth the African usurper made a very faint and feeble impression on the provinces of his rival as he marched from the port along the road which leads to the gates of Rome he was encountered terrified and rooted by one of the imperial captains and the lord of this mighty host deserting his fortune and his friends ignominiously fled with a single ship when Heraclean landed in the harbor of Carthage he found that the whole province disdaining such an unworthy ruler had returned to their allegiance the rebel was beheaded in the ancient temple of memory his consul ship was abolished and the remains of his private fortune not exceeding the moderate sum of four thousand pounds of gold but granted to the brave Constantius who had already defended the throne which he after was shared with his feeble sovereign Honorius Vowd with supine indifference the calamities of Rome and Italy but the rebellious attempts of battleous and Heraclean against his personal safety awakened for a moment the torpedo instinct of his nature he was probably ignorant of the causes and events which preserved him from these impending dangers and as Italy was no longer invaded by any foreign or domestic enemies he feasibly existed in the palace of Ravana while the tyrants beyond the Alps were repeatedly vanquished in the name and by the lieutenants of the son of Theodosius in the course of a busy and interesting narrative I might possibly forget to mention the death of such a prince and I shall therefore take the precaution of observing in this place that he survived the last siege of Rome about 13 years the usurpation of Constantine who received the purple from the legions of Britain had been successful and seemed to be secure his title was acknowledged from the walls of Antoninus to the columns of Hercules and in the midst of the public disorder he shared the dominion and the plunder of Gaul and Spain with the tribes of barbarians whose destructive progress was no longer checked by the Rhine or Pyrenees stained with the blood of the kinsmen of Honorius he exhorted from the court of Ravana with which he secretly corresponded the ratifications of his rebellious claims Constantine engaged himself by a solemn promise to deliver Italy from the Goths advanced as far as the banks of the Poe and after alarming rather than assisting his Pusillanimus ally hastily returned to the palace of Arles to celebrate with intemperate luxury his vein and ostentatious triumph but this transient prosperity was soon interrupted and destroyed by the revolt of Count Garantius the bravest of his generals who during the absence of his son Constance a prince already invested with the imperial purple had been left to command in the provinces of Spain for some reason of which we are ignorant Garantius instead of assuming the diadem placed it on the head of his friend Maximus who fixed his residence at Taragonia while the active count pressed forwards through the Pyrenees to surprise the two emperors Constantine and Constance before they could prepare for their defense the son was made prisoner at Vienna and immediately put to death and the unfortunate youth had scarcely led her to deploy the elevation of his family which attempted or compelled him sacrilegiously to desert the peaceful obscurity of the monastic life the father maintained a siege within the wars of Arles but these walls must have yielded to the assailants had not the city been unexpectedly relieved by the approach of an Italian army the name of honoris the proclamation of a lawful emperor astonished the contending parties of the rebels Garantius abandoned by his own troops escaped to the confines of Spain and rescued his name from oblivion by the Roman courage which appeared to animate the last moments of his life in the middle of the night a great body of his providious soldiers surrounded and attacked his house which he had strongly barricaded his wife a valiant friend of the nation of the Alani and some faithful slaves was still attached to his person and he used with so much skill and resolution a large magazine of darts and arrows that above 300 of the assailants lost their lives in the attempt his slaves when all the missile weapons were spent fled at the dawn of day and Garantius if he had not been restrained by conjugal tenderness might have imitated their example till the soldiers provoked by such obstinate resistance applied to fire and all sides to the house in this fatal extremity he complied with the request of his barbarian friend and cut off his head the wife of Garantius who conjured him not to abandon her to a life of misery and disgrace eagerly presented her neck to his sword and the tragic scene which terminated by the death of the count himself who after three ineffectual strokes drew a short dagger and sheathed it in his heart the unprotected Maximus whom he had invested with the purple was indebted for his life to the contempt that was entertained of his power and abilities the Caprice of the barbarians who ravaged Spain once more seated this imperial phantom on the throne but they soon resigned him to the justice of honoris and the tyrant Maximus after it been shown to the people of Ravana and Rome was publicly executed the general Constantius was his name who raised by his approach the siege of Arles and dissipated the troops of Garantius was born a Roman and this remarkable distinction is strongly expressed by the decay of military spirit among the subjects of the empire the strength and majesty which were conspicuous in the person of that general marked him in the popular opinion as a candidate worthy of the throne which he afterwards ascended in the familiar intercourse of private life his manners were cheerful and engaging nor would he sometimes disdain in the license of convivial mirth to vie with the pantomimes themselves in the exercise of their ridiculous professions but where the trumpet summoned him to arms when he mounted his horse and bending down the such was his practice almost upon the neck fiercely rolled his large animated eyes around the field Constantinius then struck terror into his foes and inspired his soldiers with the assurance of victory he had received from the court of Ravana the important commission of extropating rebellion in the provinces of the west and the pretend Emperor Constantine after enjoying a short and anxious respite was again besieged in his capital by the arms of a more formidable enemy yet this interval allowed time for a successful negotiation with the Franks and Almoni and his ambassador Eddobick soon returned at the head of an army to disturb the operations of the siege of Arles the Roman general instead of expecting the attack in his lines boldly and perhaps wisely resolved to pass the Rhone and to meet the barbarians his measures were conducted with so much skill and secrecy that while they engaged the infantry of Constantinus in the front they were suddenly attacked and surrounded and destroyed by the cavalry of his lieutenant Alphilus who had silently gained an advantageous post in the rear the remains of the army of Eddobick were preserved by flight or submission and their leader escaped from the field of battle to the house of a faithless friend who too clearly understood that the head of his obnoxious guest would be an acceptable and lucrative present for the Imperial general on this occasion Constantinus behaved with the magnanimity of a genuine Roman subduing or suppressing every sentiment of jealousy he publicly acknowledged the maritime services of Alphilus but he turned with horror from the assassin of Eddobick and sternly intimated his commands that the camp should no longer be polluted by the presence of an ungrateful wretch who had violated the laws of friendship and hospitality the usurper who beheld from the walls of Arles the ruin of his last hopes was tempted to place some confidence in so generous a conqueror he required a solemn promise for his security and after receiving by the imposition of hands the sacred character of a Christian presbyter he ventured to open the gates of the city but he soon experienced that the principles of honor and integrity which might regulate the ordinary conduct of Constantius were superseded by the loose doctrines of political morality the Roman general indeed refused to sully his laurels with the blood of Constantine but the abdicated emperor and his son Julian was sent under a strong guard into Italy and before they reached the palace of Ravana they met the ministers of death at a time when it was universally confessed that almost every man in the empire was superior in personal merit to the princes whom the accident of their birth had seated on a throne a rapid succession of usurpers regardless of the fact of their predecessors still continued to arise this mischief was peculiarly felt in the provinces of Spain and Gaul where the principles of order and obedience had been extinguished by war and rebellion before Constantine resigned to the purple and in the fourth month of the siege of Arles intelligence was received in the imperial camp that Jovinus had assumed the diadem of ments in the upper Germany at the instigation of Gaul King of the Alani and of Gunterius King of the Burgundians and that the candidate on whom they had bestowed the empire advanced with a formidable host of barbarians from the banks of the Rhine to those of the Rhine every circumstance is dark and extraordinary in the short history of the reign of Jovinus it was natural to expect that a brave and skillful general at the head of a victorious army would have asserted in a field of battle the justice of the cause of Honorius the hasty retreat of Constantius might be justified by weighty reasons but he resigned without a struggle the possession of Gaul and Ardanus the pre-atorian prefect is recorded as the only magistrate who refused to yield obedience to the usurper when the Goths two years after the siege of Rhine established their quarters in Gaul it was only natural to suppose that their inclinations could be divided only between the emperor Honorius with whom they had formed a recent alliance and the degraded Attalus whom they reserved in their camp for the occasional purpose of acting the part of a musician or a monarch yet in a moment of disgust for which it is not easy to assign a cause or a date a Dulfas connected himself with the usurper of Gaul and imposed on Attalus the ignominious task of negotiating the treaty which ratified his own disgrace we are again surprised to read that instead of considering the Gothic alliance as the firmest support of his throne Jovinus upbraided in dark and ambiguous language the officious impotunity of Attalus that scorning the advice of his great ally he invested with the purple his brother Sebastian and that he most imprudently accepted the service of Saras when that gallant chief the soldier of Honorius was provoked to desert the court of a prince who knew not how to reward or punish a Dulfas educated among a race of warriors who esteem the duty of revenge is the most precious and sacred portion of their inheritance advanced with a body of 10,000 Goths to encounter the hereditary enemy of the house of Balti he attacked Saras at an unguarded moment when he was accompanied only by 18 or 20 of his valiant followers united by friendship animated by despair but at length oppressed by multitudes this band of heroes deserved the esteem without exciting the compassion of their enemies and the lion was no sooner taken in the toils than he was instantly dispatched the death of Saras dissolved the loose alliance which Adolphus still maintained with the usurpers of Gaul he again listened to the dictates of love and prudence and soon satisfied the brother of Placidia by the assurance that he would immediately transmit to the palace of Ravena the heads of the two tyrants Jovinus and Sebastian the king of the Goths executed his promise without difficulty or delay the helpless brothers unsupported by any personal merit were abandoned by their barbarian auxiliaries and the short opposition of Valentia was excavated by the ruin of one of the noblest cities of Gaul the emperor chosen by the Roman Senate who had been promoted degraded insulted restored again degraded and again insulted was finally abandoned to his fate but when the gothic king withdrew his protection he was restrained by pity or contempt from offering any violence to the person of Attilus the unfortunate Attilus who was left without subjects or allies embarked in one of the ports of Spain in search of some secure and solitary retreat but he was intercepted at sea conducted to the presence of Honorius led in triumph through the streets of Rome or Revena and publicly exposed the gazing multitude on the second step of the throne of his invincible conqueror the same measure of punishment with which in the days of his prosperity he was accustomed of menacing his rival was inflicted on Attilus himself he was condemned after the amputation of two fingers to a perpetual exile in the Isle of Lippery where he was supplied with the decent necessaries of life the remainder of the reign of Honorius was undisturbed by rebellion and it may be observed that in the space of five years seven usurpers had yielded to the fortune of a prince who was himself incapable either of counsel or of action end of chapter 31 part 6 chapter 31 part 7 of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire volume 3 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Lizzie Driver chapter 31 invasion of Italy occupation of territories by barbarians part 7 the situation of Spain separated on all sides from the enemies of Rome by the sea by the mountains and by the intermediate provinces had secured the long tranquility of that remote and sequestered country and we may observe as a sure symptom of domestic happiness that in a period of 400 years Spain furnished very few materials to the history of the Roman Empire the footsteps of the barbarians who in the reign of Gallienus had penetrated beyond the Pyrenees was soon obliterated by the return of peace and in the fourth century of the Christian era the cities of Emerita or Meridia of Cadubar, Seville, Bracara and Tarragona were numbered with the most illustrious of the Roman world the various plenty of the animal the vegetable and the mineral kingdoms was improved and manufactured by the skill of an industrious people and the peculiar advantages of naval stores contributed to support an extensive and profitable trade the arts and sciences flourished on the protection of the emperors and if the character of the Spaniards was enfeebled by peace and servitude the hostile approach of the Germans who had spread terror and dissolution from the Rhine to the Pyrenees seemed to rekindle some sparks of military order as long as the defense of the mountains was entrusted to the hardy and faithful militia of the country they successfully repelled to the frequent attempts of the barbarians but no sooner had the national troops been compelled to resign their post to the Honorean bands in the service of Constantine then the gates of Spain were treacherously betrayed to the public enemy about 10 months before the sack of Rome by the Goths the consciousness of guilt and the thirst of raping prompted the mercenary guards of the Pyrenees to desert their station to invite the arms of the Suervis the vandals and the Alene and to swell the torrent which was poured with irresistible violence from the frontiers of Gaul to the Sea of Africa the misfortunes of Spain may be described in the language of its most eloquent historian who was concisely expressed the passionate and perhaps exaggerated declamations of contemporary writers the eruption of these nations was followed by the most dreadful calamities as the barbarians exercised their indiscriminate cruelty on the fortunes of the Romans and the Spaniards and ravaged with equal fury the cities in the open country the progress of famine reduced the miserable inhabitants to feed on the flesh of their fellow creatures and even the wild beasts who multiplied without control in the desert were exasperated by the taste of blood and the impatience of hunger boldly to attack and devour their human prey pestilence soon appeared the inseparable companion of famine a large proportion of the people were swept away and the groans of the dying excited only the envy of their surviving friends at length the barbarians satiated with carnage and raping and afflicted by the contagious evils which they themselves had introduced fixed their permanent seats in the depopulated country the ancient Galicia whose limits included the kingdom of old Castile was divided between the Suervy and the Vandals the Alani were scattered over the provinces of Carthengena and Lusitania from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean and the fruitful territory of Byetica was allotted to the Selenghi another branch of the Vandalic nation after regulating the partition the conquerors contracted with their new subjects some reciprocal engagements of protection and obedience the lands are again cultivated and the towns and villages were again occupied by a captive people the greatest part of the Spaniards was even disposed to prefer this new condition of poverty and barbarism to the severe oppressions of the Roman government yet there were many who still asserted their native freedom and who refused more especially in the mountains of Galicia to submit the barbarian yoke the important present of the heads of Jovinus and Sebastian had approved the friendship of a Dullfus and restored gall to the obedience of his brother Honorius peace was incompatible with the situation and temper of the king of the Goths he readily accepted the proposal of turning his victorious arms against the barbarians of Spain the troops of Constantius intercepted his communication with the seaports of Gaul and gently pressed his march towards the Pyrenees he passed the mountains unsurprised in the name of the emperor the city of Barcelona the fondness of a Dullfus was Roman bride was not abated by time or possession and the birth of a son so named from his illustrious grandchild Theodosius appeared to fix him forever in the interest of the Republic the loss of that infant whose remains were deposited in a silver coffin in one of the churches near Barcelona afflicted his parents but the grief of the Gothic king was suspended by the labours of the field and the cause of his victories was soon interrupted by domestic treason he had imprudently received into his service one of the followers of Saras a barbarian of a daring spirit but of a diminutive stature whose secret desire of avenging the death of his beloved patron was continually irritated by the sarcasm of his insolent master the Dullfus was assassinated in the palace of Barcelona the laws of the succession were violated by a tumultuous faction and a stranger to the royal race Syngeric the brother of Saras himself was seated on the Gothic throne the first act of his reign was the inhuman murder of the six children of a Dullfus the issue of a former marriage whom he tore without pity from the feeble arms of a venerable bishop the unfortunate Placidia instead of the respectful compassion which you might have excited in the most savage beasts was treated with cruel and wanton insult the daughter of the Emperor Theodosius confounded among a crowd of vulgar captives was compelled to march on foot above 12 miles before the horse of a barbarian the assassin of her husband whom Placidia loved and lamented but Placidia soon obtained the pleasure of revenge and their view of her ignominious sufferings might rouse an indignant people against the tyrant who was assassinated on the seventh day of his usurpation after the death of Syngeric the free choice of the nation bestowed the Gothic scepter and Wallier whose warlike and ambitious temper appeared in the beginning of his reign extremely hostile to the Republic he marched in arms from Barcelona to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean which the ancients revered and dreaded as the boundary of the world but when he reached the southern promontory of Spain and from the rock now covered by the fortress of Gibraltar contemplated the neighbouring and fertile coast of Africa Wallier resumed the designs of conquest which had been interrupted by the death of Alleric the winds and waves again disappointed the enterprise of the Goths and the minds of a superstitious people were deeply affected by the repeated disasters of storms and shipwrecks in this disposition the successor for Dulfas no longer refused to listen to a Roman ambassador whose proposals were enforced by the real or supposed approach of a numerous army under the conduct of the brave Constantius a solemn treaty was stipulated and observed Placidia was honorably restored to her brother six hundred thousand measures of wheat were delivered to the hungry Goths and while they are engaged to draw his sword in the service of the empire a bloody war was instantly excited among the barbarians of Spain and the contending princes are said to have addressed their letters their ambassadors and their hostages to the throne of the Western Empire exhorting him to remain a tranquil spectator of their contest the events of which must be favorable to the Romans by the mutual slaughter of their common enemies the Spanish war was obstinately supported during three campaigns with desperate valor and various success and the martial achievements of Wallier diffused through the empire the superior renown of the Gothic hero he exterminated the Selenghi who had irretrievably ruined the elegant plenty of the province of Beatica he slew in battle the king of the colony and the remains of those Scythian wanderers who escaped from the field instead of choosing a new leader humbly sought a refuge under the standard of the vandals with whom they were ever afterwards confounded the vandals themselves and the swervy yielded to the efforts of the invincible Goths the promiscuous multitude of barbarians whose retreat had been intercepted were driven into the mountains of Galicia where they still continued in a narrow compass and unbarren soil to exercise the domestic and implacable hostilities in the pride of victory Wallier was faithful to his engagements he restored his Spanish conquests to the obedience of Honorius and the tyranny of the imperial officers who reduced an oppressed people to regret the time of their barbarian servitude while the event of the war was still doubtful the first advantages obtained by the arms of Wallier had encouraged the court of Ravenna to decree the honors of a triumph to their feeble sovereign he entered Rome like the ancient conquerors of nations and if the monuments of servile corruption had not long since met with the fate which they deserved we should probably find that the crowd of poets and orators of magistrates and bishops applauded the fortune the wisdom and the invincible courage of the emperor Honorius such a triumph might have been justly claimed by the ally of Rome if Wallier before he repassed the Peronese had extropated the seeds of the Spanish war his victorious Goths 43 years after they had passed the Danube were established according to the faith of treaties in the possession of the second Aquitaine a maritime province between the Garonne and the Law under the civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Bordeaux that metropolis advantageously situated for the trade of the ocean was built in a regular and elegant form and its numerous inhabitants were distinguished among the Gauls by their wealth their learning and the politeness of their manners the adjacent province which had been fondly compared to the garden of Eden is blessed with a fruitful soil and a temperate climate the face of the country displayed the arts and the rewards of industry and the Goths after their martial toils luxuriously exhausted the rich vineyards of Aquitaine the Gothic limits were enlarged by the additional gift of some neighboring diocese and the successes of Alloric fixed their royal residence at the Luz which included five populous quarters or cities within the spacious circuit of its walls about the same time in the last years of the reign of Honorius the Goths the Burgundians and the Franks obtained a permanent seat and dominion in the provinces of Gaul the liberal grant of the usurpage of Venice to his Burgundian allies was confirmed by the lawful emperor the lands of the first or upper Germany was ceded to those formidable barbarians and they gradually occupied either by conquest or treaty the two provinces which still retain with the titles of duchy and county the national appellation of Burgundi the Franks the valiant and faithful allies of the roman republic were soon tempted to imitate the invaders whom they had so bravely resisted treaves the capital of Gaul was pillaged by their lawless bands and the humble colony which they so long maintained in the district of Toxandia in Brabant insensibly multiplied along the banks of the Meuse and Skeld till their independent power filled to the whole extent of the second or lower Germany these facts may be sufficiently justified by the historic evidence but the foundation of the French monarchy by Faremond the conquests the laws and even the existence of that hero have been justly arranged by the impartial severity of modern criticism the ruin of the opulent provinces of Gaul may be dated from the establishment of these barbarians whose alliance was dangerous and depressive and who capriciously impelled by interest or passion to violate the public peace a heavy and partial ransom was imposed on the surviving provincials who had escaped the calamities of war the fairest and most fertile lands were assigned to the rapacious strangers for the use of their families their slaves and their cattle and the trembling natives relinquished with the sigh the inheritance of their fathers yet these domestic misfortunes which are seldom the lot of vanquished people had been felt and inflicted by the Romans themselves not only in the insolence of foreign conquest but in the madness of civil discord the triumfers prescribed 18 of the most flourishing colonies of Italy and distributed their lands and houses to the veterans who revenged the death of Caesar and oppressed the liberty of their country two poets of unequal fame have deplored in similar circumstances the loss of their patrimony but the legionnaires of Augustus appear to have surpassed in violence and injustice the barbarians who invaded Gaul under the reign of honoris it was not without the utmost difficulty that Virgil escaped from the sword of the centurion who had usurped his farm in the neighborhood of Mantua but Paulinus of Bordeaux received a sum of money from his gothic purchaser which he accepted with pleasure and surprise and though it was much inferior to the real value of his estate this act of raping was disguised by some colors of moderation and equity the odious name of conquerors was softened into the mild and friendly appellation of the guests of the Romans and the barbarians of Gaul more especially the Goths repeatedly declared that they were bound to the people by the tires of hospitality and to the emperor by the duty of allegiance and military service the title of honoris and his successors their laws and their civil magistrates were still respected in the provinces of Gaul of which they had resigned the possession to the barbarian allies and the kings who exercised a supreme and independent authority over their native subjects ambitiously solicited the more honorable rank of master generals of the imperial armies such was the involuntary reverence which the roman names still impressed on the minds of those warriors who had borne away in triumph the spoils of the capital while Italy was ravaged by the Goths and a succession of feeble tyrants oppressed the provinces beyond the Alps the British island separated itself from the body of the roman empire the regular forces which guarded that remote province had been gradually withdrawn and Britain was abandoned without defence to the Saxon pirates and the savages of Ireland and Caledonia the Britons reduced to this extremity no longer relied on the tardy and doubtful aid of a declining monarchy they assembled in arms repelled the invaders and rejoiced in the important discovery of their own strength afflicted by similar calamities and actuated by the same spirit the Almarican provinces a name which comprehended the maritime countries of Gaul between the Sen and the Lure resolved to imitate the examples of the neighboring island they expelled the roman magistrates who acted under the authority of the usurper Constantine and a free government was established among the people who had so long been subject to the arbitrary will of a master the independence of Britain and Almarica were soon confirmed by honorias himself the lawful emperor of the west and the letters by which he committed to the new states the care of their own safety might be interpreted as an absolute and perpetual abdication of the exercise and rights of sovereignty this interpretation was in some measure justified by the event after the usurpers of Gaul had successively fallen the maritime provinces were restored to the empire yet their obedience was imperfect and precarious the vain and constant rebellious disposition of the people was incompatible either with freedom or servitude and Almarica though it could not long maintain the form of a republic was agitated by frequent and destructive revolts Britain was irrecoverably lost but as the emperor's wisely acquiesced in the independence of a remote province the separation was not embittered by the approach of tyranny or rebellion and the claims of allegiance and protection were succeeded by the mutual and voluntary offices of national friendship this revolution dissolved the artificial fabric of civil and military government and the independent country during a period of 40 years till the descent of the Saxons was ruled by the authority of the clergy the nobles and the municipal towns one Zosimas who alone had preserved the memory of this singular transaction very accurately observes that the letters of honorees were addressed to the cities of Britain under the protection of the Romans 92 considerable towns had arisen in the several parts of that great province and among these 33 cities were distinguished above the rest by their superior privileges and importance each of these cities as in all the other provinces of the empire formed a legal corporation for the purpose of regulating the domestic policy and the powers of municipal government were distributed among annual magistrates a select senate and the assembly of the people according to the original model of the roman constitution the management of a common revenue the exercise of civil and criminal jurisdiction and the habits of public council and command were inherent to these petty republics and when they asserted their independence the youth of the city and of the adjacent districts would naturally range themselves under the standard of the magistrate but the desire of obtaining the advantages and of escaping the burdens of political society is a perpetual and inexhaustible source of discord nor can it reasonably be presumed that the restoration of British freedom was exempt from termal and faction the pre-eminence of birth and fortune must have been frequently violated by bold and popular citizens and the haughty nobles who complained that they were become the subjects of their own servants which sometimes regret the reign of an arbitrary monarch two the jurisdiction of each city over the adjacent country was supported by the patrimonial influence of the principal senators and the smaller towns the villages and the proprietors of land consulted their own safety by adhering to the shelter of these rising republics the sphere of their attraction was proportioned to the respective degrees of their wealth and populistness but the hereditary lords of ample possessions who were not oppressed by the neighborhood of any powerful city aspired to the rank of independent princes and boldly exercised the rights of peace and war the gardens and villas which exhibited some faint imitation of Italian elegance would soon be converted into strong castles the refuge in time of danger of the adjacent country the produce of the land was applied to purchase arms and horses to maintain a military force of slaves of peasants and of licentious followers and the chiefdom might assume within his own domain the powers of a civil magistrate several of these british chiefs might be the general posterity of ancient kings and many more would be tempted to adopt this honorable genealogy and to vindicate their hereditary claims which had been suspended by the usurpation of the Caesars their situation and their hopes would dispose them to affect the dress the language and the customs of their ancestors if the princes of Britain relapsed into barbarism while the cities studiously preserved the laws and manners of Rome the whole island must have been gradually divided by the distinction of two national parties again broken into a thousand subdivisions of war and faction by the various provocations of interest and resentment the public strength instead of being united against a foreign enemy was consumed in obscure and intestine quarrels and the personal merit which had placed a successful leader at the head of his equals might enable him to subdue the freedom of some neighboring cities and to claim a rank among the tyrants who infested Britain after the dissolution of the roman government three the british church might be composed of 30 or 40 bishops with an adequate proportion of the inferior clergy and the want of riches for they seem to have been poor which compel them to deserve the public esteem by a decent and exemplary behavior the interest as well as the temper of the clergy was favorable to the peace and union of their distracted country those salutary lessons might be frequently inculcated in their popular discourses and the episcopal synods were the only councils that could pretend to the weight and authority of a national assembly in such councils where the princes and magistrates set promiscuously with the bishops the important affairs of the state as well as of the church might be freely debated differences reconciled alliances formed contributions imposed wise resolutions often concerted and sometimes executed and there is reason to believe that in moments of extreme danger a pen dragon or dictator was elected by the general consent of the britains these pastorial cares so worthy of the episcopal character were interrupted however by zeal and superstition and the british clergy incessantly labored to eradicate the pelagian heresy which they aboard as the peculiar disgrace of their native country it is somewhat remarkable or rather it is extremely natural that the revolt of britain and armarica should have introduced an appearance of liberty into the obedient provinces of gull in a solemn edict filled with the strongest assurances of that paternal affection which princes so often express and so seldom feel the emperor honoreeus promulgated his intention of convening an annual assembly of the seven provinces a name peculiarly appropriated to aquitaine and the ancient abonnes which had so long exchanged their Celtic rudeness for the useful and elegant arts of italy the seat of government and commerce was appointed for the place of the assembly which regularly continued 28 days from the 15th of august to the 13th of september of every year it consisted of the pre-etorian prefect of the gulls of seven provincial governors one consular and six presidents of the magistrates and perhaps the bishops of about 60 cities and of a competent though indefinite number of the most honorable and opulent possessors of land who might justly be considered as the representatives of their country they were empowered to interpret and communicate the laws of their sovereign to expose the grievances and wishes of their constituents to moderate the excessive or unequal weight of taxes and to deliberate on every subject of local or national importance that could tend to the restoration of the peace and prosperity of the seven provinces if such an institution which gave the people an interest in their own government had been universally established by trajan or the antonies the seeds of public wisdom and virtue might have been cherished and propagated in the empire of rome the privileges of the subject would have secured the throne of the monarch the abuses of an arbitrary administration might have been prevented in some degree or corrected by the interposition of these representative assemblies and the country would have been defended against a foreign enemy by the arms of natives and freemen under the mild and generous influence of liberty the roman empire might have remained invincible and immortal or if its excessive magnitude and the instability of human affairs had opposed such perpetual continuance its vital and constituent members might have separately preserved their vigor and independence but in the decline of the empire when every principle of health and life had been exhausted the tardy application of this partial remedy was incapable of producing any important or salutary effects the emperor honoreeus expresses his surprise that he must compel the reluctance provinces to accept a privilege which they should ardently have solicited a fine of three or even five pounds of gold was imposed on the absent representatives who seem to have declined this imaginary gift of a free constitution as the last and most cruel insult of their oppressors end of chapter 31 part 7 chapter 32 part 1 of the decline and fall of the roman empire volume 3 this is a livery vox recording all livery vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liveryvox.org recording by jason mayoff Arcadius emperor of the east administration and disgrace of utropius revolt of gynus persecution of st john chrissostome theodicius too emperor of the east his sister pelcheria his wife eudosia the persian war and division of armenia the division of the roman empire world between the sons of theodicius marks the final establishment of the empire of the east which from the reign of Arcadius to the taking of Constantinople by the Turks subsisted 1,058 years in a state of premature and perpetual decay the sovereign of that empire assumed and obstinately retained the vain and at length fictitious title of emperor of the romans and the hereditary appellation of caesar and augustus continue to declare that he was the legitimate successor of the first of men who had reigned over the first of nations the place of Constantinople rivaled and perhaps excelled the magnificence of persia and the eloquent sermons of st chrissostome celebrate while they condemn the pompous luxury of the reign of Arcadius the emperor says he wears on his head either a diadem or a crown of gold decorated with precious stones of inestimable value these ornaments and his purple garments are reserved for his sacred person alone and his robes of silk are embroidered with the figures of golden dragons his throne is of massy gold whenever he appears in public he is surrounded by his courtiers his guards and his attendants their spears their shields their curasses their bridles and trappings of their horses have either the substance or the appearance of gold and the large splendid boss in the midst of their shield is encircled with smaller bosses which represent the shape of the human eye the two mules that drew the chariot of the monarch are perfectly white and shining all over with gold the chariot itself of pure and solid gold attracts the admiration of the spectators who contemplate the purple curtains the snowy carpet the size of the precious stones and the resplendent plates of gold that glitter as they are agitated by the motion of the carriage the imperial pictures are white on a blue ground the emperor appears seated on his throne with his arms his horses and his guards beside him and his vanquished enemies in chains at his feet the successors of Constantine established their perpetual residence in the royal city which he had erected on the verge of europe and asia inaccessible to the menaces of their enemies and perhaps to the complaints of their people they received with each wind the tributary productions of every climate while the impregnable strength of their capital continued for ages to defy the hostile attempts of the barbarians their dominions were bounded by the Adriatic and the Tigris and the whole interval of 25 days navigation which separated the extreme cold of Scythia from the torrid zone of Ethiopia was comprehended within the limits of the empire of the east the populous countries of that empire were the seat of art and learning of luxury and wealth and the inhabitants who had assumed the language and manners of Greeks styled themselves with some appearance of truth the most enlightened and civilized portion of the human species the form of government was a pure and simple monarchy the name of the roman republic which so long preserved a faint tradition of freedom was confined to the latin provinces and the princes of Constantinople measured their greatness by the servile obedience of the people they were ignorant how much this passive disposition innervates and degrades every faculty of the mind the subjects who had resigned their will to the absolute commands of a master were equally incapable of guarding their lives and fortunes against the assaults of the barbarians or of defending their reason from the terrors of superstition the first events of the reign of Arcadius and Honorius are so intimately connected that the rebellion of the Goths and the fall of Rufinus have already claimed a place in the history of the west it has already been observed that Utropias one of the principal unics of the palace of Constantinople succeeded the haughty minister whose ruin he had accomplished and whose vices he soon imitated every order of the state bowed to the new favorite and their team and obsequious submission encouraged him to insult the laws and what is still more difficult and dangerous the manners of his country under the weakest of the predecessors of Arcadius the reign of the unics had been secret and almost invisible they insinuated themselves into the confidence of the prince but their ostensible functions were confined to the menial service of the wardrobe and imperial bed chamber they might direct in a whisper the public councils and blast by their malicious suggestions the fame and fortunes of the most illustrious citizens but they never presumed to stand forward in the front of the empire or to profane the public honors of the state Utropias was the first of his artificial sex who dared to assume the character of a roman magistrate and general sometimes in the presence of the blushing senate he ascended the tribunal to pronounce judgment or to repeat elaborate harangues and sometimes appeared on horseback at the head of his troops in the dress and armor of a hero the disregard of custom and decency always betrays a weak and ill-regulated mind nor does utropias seem to have compensated for the folly of the design by any superior merit or ability in the execution his former habits of life had not introduced him to the study of the laws or the exercises of the field his awkward and unsuccessful attempts provoke the secret contempt of the spectators the Goths express their wish that such a general might always command the armies of Rome and the name of the minister was branded with ridicule more pernicious perhaps than hatred to a public character the subjects of Arcadias were exasperated by the recollection that this deformed and decrepit eunuch who so perversely mimic the actions of a man was born in the most abject condition of servitude that before he entered the imperial palace he had been successively sold and purchased by a hundred masters who had exhausted his youthful strength in every mean and infamous office and at length dismissed him in his old age to freedom and poverty while these disgraceful stories were circulated and perhaps exaggerated in private conversation the vanity of the favorite was flattered with the most extraordinary honors in the senate in the capital in the provinces the statues of utropias were erected in brass or marble decorated the symbols of his civil and military virtues and inscribed with the pompous title of the third founder of Constantinople he was promoted to the rank of patrician which began to signify in a popular and even legal acceptation the father of the emperor and the last year of the fourth century was polluted by the consul ship of a eunuch and a slave this strange and inexpeable prodigy awakened however the prejudices of the romans the effeminate consul was rejected by the west as an indelible stain to the annals of the republic and without invoking the shades of brutus and camulus the colleague of utropias a learned and respectable magistrate sufficiently represented the different maxims of the two administrations the bold and vigorous mind of ruffinus seems to have been actuated by a more sangunary and revengeful spirit but the avarice of the eunuch was not less insatiate than that of the prefect as long as he despoiled the oppressors who had enriched themselves with the plunder of the people utropias might gratify his covetous disposition without much envy or injustice but the progress of his rapines soon invaded the wealth which had been acquired by lawful inheritance or laudable industry the usual methods of extortion were practiced and improved and clodion had sketched a lively and original picture of the public auction of the state the impotence of the eunuch says that agreeable satirist has served only to stimulate his avarice the same hand which in his servile condition was exercised in petty thefts to unlock the coffers of his master now grasped the riches of the world and this infamous broker of the empire appreciates and divides the roman provinces from mount haimus to the tigress one man at the expense of his villa is made pro consul of asia a second purchases syria with his wife's jewels and a third laments that he has exchanged his paternal estate for the government of bethynia in the anti chamber of utropias a large tablet is exposed to public view which marks the respective prices of the provinces the different value of pontis of galatia of lydia is accurately distinguished lycia may be obtained for so many thousand pieces of gold but the opulence of frigia will require a more considerable sum the eunuch wishes to obliterate by the general disgrace his personal ignominy and as he has been sold himself he is desirous of selling the rest of mankind in the eager contention the balance which contains the fate and fortunes of the province often trembles on the beam until one of the scales is inclined by a superior weight the mind of the impartial judge remains in anxious suspense such continues the indignant poet are the fruits of roman valor of the defeat of antioches and of the triumph of pompay this venal prostitution of public honors secured the impunity of future crimes but the riches which utropias derived from confiscation were already stained with injustice since it was decent to accuse and to condemn the proprietors of the wealth which he was impatient to confiscate some noble blood was shed by the hand of the executioner and the most inhospitable extremities of the empire were filled with innocent and illustrious exiles among the generals and consuls of the east abandonsious had reason to dread the first effects of the resentment of utropias he had been guilty of the unpardonable crime of introducing that abject slave to the palace of constantanople and some degree of praise must be allowed to a powerful and ungrateful favorite who was satisfied with the disgrace of his benefactor abandonsious was stripped of his ample fortunes by an imperial re-script and banished to piteous on the uxine the last frontier of the roman world where he subsisted by the precarious mercy of the barbarians till he could obtain after the fall of utropias a milder exile at Sidon and Phoenicia the destruction of Tomasius required a more serious and regular mode of attack that great officer the master general of the armies of theodicius had signalized his valor by a decisive victory which he obtained over the goths of Thessaly but he was too prone after the example of his sovereign to enjoy the luxury of peace and to abandon his confidence to wicked and designing flatterers Tomasius had despised the public clamor by promoting an infamous dependent to the command of a cohort and he deserved to feel the increditude of Vargas who was secretly instigated by the favorite to accuse his patron of a treasonable conspiracy the general was arraigned before the tribunal of Arcadius himself and the principal eunuch stood by the side of the throne to suggest the questions and answers of his sovereign but as this form of trial might be deemed partial and arbitrary the further inquiry into the crimes of Tomasius was delegated to Saterinus and Procopius the former of consular rank the latter still respected as the father-in-law of the emperor Valens the appearances of a fair and legal proceeding were maintained by the blunt honesty of Procopius and he yielded with reluctance to the obsequious dexterity of his colleague who pronounced a sentence of condemnation against the unfortunate Tomasius his immense riches were confiscated in the name of the emperor and for the benefit of the favorite and he was doomed to perpetual exile a oasis a solitary spot in the midst of the sandy deserts of Libya secluded from all human converse the master general of the roman armies was lost forever to the world but the circumstances of his fate have been related in a various and contradictory manner it is insinuated that Utropius dispatched a private order for his secret execution it was reported that in attempting to escape from oasis he perished in the desert of thirst and hunger and that his dead body was found on the sands of Libya it has been asserted with more confidence that his son Cyagreus after successfully eluding the pursuit of the agents and emissaries of the court collected a band of African robbers that he rescued Tomasius from the place of his exile and that both the father and the son disappeared from the knowledge of mankind but the ungrateful Vargas instead of being suffered to possess the reward of guilt was soon after circumvented and destroyed by the more powerful villainy of the minister himself who retained sense and spirit enough to abhor the instrument of his own crimes the public hatred and the despair of individuals continually threatened or seemed to threaten the personal safety of Utropius as well as of the numerous adherents who were attached to his fortune and had been promoted by his venal favor for their mutual defense he contrived the safeguard of a law which violated every principle of humanity and justice one it is enacted in the name and by the authority of Arcadius that all those who should conspire either with subjects or with strangers against the lives of any of the persons whom the emperor considers as the members of his own body shall be punished with death and confiscation this species of fictitious and metaphorical treason is extended to protect not only the illustrious officers of the state and army who were admitted into the sacred consistory but likewise the principal domestics of the palace the senators of Constantinople the military commanders and the civil magistrates of the provinces a vague and indefinite list which under the successors of Constantine included an obscure and numerous train of subordinate ministers this extreme severity might perhaps be justified had it been only directed to secure the representatives of the sovereign from any actual violence in the execution of their office but the whole body of imperial dependence claimed a privilege or rather impunity which screened them in the loosest moments of their lives from the hasty perhaps justifiable resentment of their fellow citizens and by a strange perversion of the laws the same degree of guilt and punishment was applied to a private coral and to a deliberate conspiracy against the emperor and the empire the edicts of Arcadius most positively and most absurdly declares that in such cases of treason thoughts and actions ought to be punished with equal severity that the knowledge of a mischievous intention unless it be instantly revealed becomes equally criminal with the intention itself and that those rash men who shall presume to solicit the pardon of traitors shall themselves be branded with public and perpetual infamy three with regard to the sons of the traitors continues the emperor although they ought to share the punishment since they will probably imitate the guilt of their parents yet by the special effect of our imperial lenity we grant them their lives but at the same time we declare them incapable of inheriting either on their fathers or on their mother's side or of receiving any gift or legacy from the testament either of kinsmen or of strangers stigmatized with hereditary infamy excluded from the hopes of honors or fortune let them endure the pangs of poverty and contempt till they shall consider life as a calamity and death as a comfort and relief in such words so well adapted to insult the feelings of mankind to the emperor or rather his favorite eunuch applaud the moderation of a law which transferred the same unjust and inhuman penalties to the children of all those who had seconded or who had not disclosed their fictitious conspiracies some of the noblest regulations of roman jurisprudence have been suffered to expire but this edict a convenient and forcible engine of ministerial tyranny was carefully inserted in the codes of theodicius and justinian and the same maxims have been revived in modern ages to protect the electors of germany and the cardinals of the church of rome yet these sangunary laws which spread terror among a disarmed and dispirited people were of too weak a texture to restrain the bold enterprise of tribe guild the ostrogoth the colony of that warlike nation which had been planted by theodicius in one of the most fertile districts of ferigia impatiently compared the slow returns of laborious husbandry with the successful rapine and liberal rewards of alaric and their leader resented as a personal affront his own ungracious reception in the palace of constantinople a soft and wealthy province in the heart of the empire was astonished by the sound of war and the faithful vassal who had been disrecorded or oppressed was again respected as soon as he resumed the hostile character of a barbarian the vineyards and fruitful fields between the rapid marcius and the winding meander were consumed with fire the decayed walls of the cities crumbled into dust of the first stroke of an enemy the trembling inhabitants escaped from a bloody massacre to the shores of the helispont and a considerable part of asia minor was desolated by the rebellion of tribe guild his rapid progress was checked by the resistance of the peasants of pamphilia and the ostrogoths attacked in a narrow pass between the city of selge a deep morass and the craggy cliffs of mount torus were defeated with the loss of the bravest troops but the spirit of their chief was not daunted by misfortune and his army was continually recruited by swarms of barbarians and outlaws who were desirous of exercising the profession of robbery under the more honorable names of war and conquest the rumors of the success of tribe guild might for some time be suppressed by fear or disguised by flattery yet they gradually alarmed both the court and the capital every misfortune was exaggerated in dark and doubtful hints and the future designs of the rebels became the subject of anxious conjecture whenever tribe guild advanced into the inland country the romans were inclined to suppose that he meditated the passage of mount torus and the invasion of syria if he descended towards the sea they imputed and perhaps suggested to the gothic chief the more dangerous project of arming a fleet in the harbors of ionia and of extending his depredations along the maritime coast from the mouth of the nile to the port of constantanople the approach of danger and the obstinacy of tribe guild who refused all terms of accommodation compelled utropias to summon a council of war after claiming for himself the privilege of a veteran soldier the eunuch entrusted the guard of thrace and the helispont to gynus the goth and the command of the asiatic army to his favorite leo two generals who differently but effectually promoted the cause of the rebels leo who from the bulk of his body and the dullness of his mind was surnamed the a jacks of the east had deserted his original trade of a woolcomer to exercise with much less skill and success the military profession and his uncertain operations were capriciously framed and executed with an ignorance of real difficulties and a timorous neglect of every favorable opportunity the rashness of the ostrogoths had drawn them into a disadvantageous position between the rivers mellis and urimadon where they were almost besieged by the peasants of pamphilia but the arrival of an imperial army instead of completing their destruction afforded the means of safety and victory tribe guild surprised the unguarded camp of the romans in the darkness of the night seduced the faith of the greater part of the barbarian auxiliaries and dissipated without much effort the troops which had been corrupted by the relaxation of discipline and the luxury of the capital the discontent of guiness who had so boldly contrived and executed the death of rufinas was irritated by the fortune of his unworthy successor he accused his own dishonorable patience under the servile reign of a eunuch and the ambitious goth was convicted at least in the public opinion of secretly fomenting the revolt of tribe guild with whom he was connected by a domestic as well as by a national alliance when guiness passed the hellespont to unite under his standard the remains of the asiatic troops he skillfully adapted his motions to the wishes of the ostrogoths abandoning by his retreat the country which they desired to invade or facilitating by his approach the desertion of the barbarian auxiliaries to the imperial court he repeatedly magnified the valor the genius the inexhaustible resources of tribe guild confessed his own inability to prosecute the war and extorted the permission of negotiating with his invincible adversary the conditions of peace were dictated by the haughty rebel and the peremptory demand of the head of utropias revealed the author and the design of this hostile conspiracy end of chapter 32 part 1 recording by jason mayov montreal jason mayov dot voices dot com chapter 32 part 2 of the decline and fall of the roman empire volume 3 this is a libruvox recording all libruvox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libruvox.org recording by jason mayov the bold satirist who has indulged his discontent by the partial and passionate censure of the christian emperors violates the dignity rather than the truth of history by comparing the son of theodicius to one of those harmless and simple animals who scarcely feel that they are the property of their shepherd two passions however fear and conjugal affection awaken the language soul of arcadius he was terrified by the threats of a victorious barbarian and he yielded to the tender eloquence of his wife eudoxia who with a flood of artificial tears presenting her infant children to their father implored his justice for some real or imaginary insult which she imputed to the audacious eunuch the emperor's hand was directed to sign the condemnation of utropias the magic spell which during four years had bound the prince and the people was instantly dissolved and the acclamations that so lately hailed the merit and fortune of the favorite were converted into the clamors of the soldiers and people who reproached his crimes and pressed his immediate execution in this hour of distress and despair his only refuge was in the sanctuary of the church whose privileges he had wisely or profanely attempted to circumscribe and the most eloquent of the saints John Chrysostom enjoyed the triumph of protecting a prostrate minister whose choice had raised him to the ecclesiastical throne of Constantinople the archbishop descending the pulpit of the cathedral that he might be distinctly seen and heard by an innumerable crowd of either sex and of every age pronounced a seasonable and pathetic discourse on the forgiveness of injuries and the instability of human greatness the agonies of the pale and affrighted wretch who lay groveling under the table of the altar exhibited a solemn and instructive spectacle and the orator who was afterwards accused of insulting the misfortunes of utropias labored to excite the contempt that he might assuage the fury of the people the powers of humanity of superstition and of eloquence prevailed the empress Eudoxia was restrained by her own prejudices or by those of her subjects from violating the sanctuary of the church and utropias was tempted to capitulate by the milder arts of persuasion and by an oath that his life should be spared careless of the dignity of their sovereign the new ministers of the palace immediately published an edict to declare that his late favorite had disgraced the names of consul and patrician to abolish his statues to confiscate his wealth and to inflict a perpetual exile in the island of Cyprus a despicable and decrepit eunuch could no longer alarm the fears of his enemies nor was he capable of enjoying what yet remained the comforts of peace of solitude and of a happy climate but their implacable revenge still envied him the last moments of a miserable life and utropias had no sooner touched the shores of Cyprus than he was hastily recalled the vain hope of eluding by a change of place the obligation of an oath engaged the empress to transfer the scene of his trial and execution from Constantinople to the adjacent suburb of Chalcedon the consul Aurelian pronounced the sentence and the motives of that sentence exposed the jurisprudence of a despotic government the crimes which utropias had committed against the people might have justified his death but he was found guilty of harnessing to his charnet the sacred animals who from their breed or color were reserved for the use of the emperor alone while this domestic revolution was transacted Guinus openly revolted from his allegiance united his forces at Thetira in Lydia with those of Tribeguild and still maintained his superior ascendant over the rebellious leader of the Ostrogoths the confederate armies advanced without resistance to the straits of the helispont and the Bosphorus and Arcadius was instructed to prevent the loss of his Asiatic dominions by resigning his authority and his person to the faith of the barbarians the church of the holy martyr Euphemia situate on a lofty eminence near Chalcedon was chosen for the place of the interview Guinus bowed with reverence at the feet of the emperor whilst he required the sacrifice of Aurelian and Saturnanus two ministers of consular rank and their naked necks were exposed by the haughty rebel to the edge of the sword till he condescended to grant them a precarious and disgraceful respite the Goths according to the terms of the agreement were immediately transported from Asia into Europe and their victorious chief who accepted the title of master general of the roman armies soon filled Constantinople with his troops and distributed among his dependents the honors and rewards of the empire in his early youth Guinus had passed the Danube as a suppliant and a fugitive his elevation had been the work of valor and fortune and his indiscreet or perfidious conduct was the cause of his rapid downfall notwithstanding the vigorous opposition of the archbishop he importunately claimed for his Aurean sectaries the possession of a peculiar church and the pride of the Catholics was offended by the public toleration of heresy every quarter of Constantinople was filled with tumult and disorder and the barbarians gazed with such ardour on the rich shops of the jewelers and the tables of the bankers which were covered with gold and silver that it was judged prudent to remove those dangerous temptations from their sight they resented the injurious precaution and some alarming attempts were made during the night to attack and destroy with fire the imperial palace in this state of mutual and suspicious hostility the guards and the people of Constantinople shut the gates and rose in arms to prevent or to punish the conspiracy of the Goths during the absence of Guinness his troops were surprised and oppressed seven thousand barbarians perished in this bloody massacre in the fury of the pursuit the Catholics uncovered the roof and continued to throw down flaming logs of wood till they overwhelmed their adversaries who had retreated to the church or conventical of the Arians. Guinness was either innocent of the design or too confident of his success he was astonished by the intelligence that the flower of his army had been ingloriously destroyed that he himself was declared a public enemy and that his countrymen Fravita a brave and loyal confederate had assumed the management of the war by sea and land the enterprises of the rebel against the cities of Thrace were encountered by a firm and well-ordered defense his hungry soldiers were soon reduced to the grass that grew on the margin of the fortifications and Guinness who vainly regretted the wealth and luxury of Asia embraced a desperate resolution of forcing the passage of the helispont he was destitute of vessels but the woods of the Chersonesis afforded materials for rafts and his intrepid barbarians did not refuse to trust themselves to the waves but Fravita attentively watched the progress of their undertaking as soon as they had gained the middle of the stream the roman galleys impelled by the full force of oars of the current and of a favorable wind rushed forwards in compact order and with irresistible weight and the helispont was covered with the fragments of the gothic shipwreck after the destruction of his hopes and the loss of many thousands of his bravest soldiers Guinness who could no longer aspire to govern or to subdue the Romans determined to resume the independence of a savage life a light and active body of barbarian horse disengaged from their infantry and baggage might perform in eight or ten days a march of 300 miles from the helispont to the Danube the garrisons of that important frontier had been gradually annihilated the river in the month of december would be deeply frozen and the unbounded prospect of saithia was opened to the ambition of Guinness this design was secretly communicated to the national troops who devoted themselves to the fortunes of their leader and before the signal of departure was given a great number of provincial auxiliaries whom he suspected of an attachment to their native country were profiteously massacred the Goths advanced by rapid marches through the plains of Thrace and they were soon delivered from the fear of a pursuit by the vanity of Fravita who instead of extinguishing the war hastened to enjoy the popular applause and who assumed the peaceful honors of the consulship but a formidable ally appeared in arms to vindicate the majesty of the empire and to guard the peace and liberty of saithia the superior forces of Alden king of the Huns opposed the progress of Guinness a hostile and ruined country prohibited his retreat he disdained to capitulate and after repeatedly attempting to cut his way through the ranks of the enemy he was slain with his desperate followers at the field of battle eleven days after the naval victory of the helispont the head of Guinness the inestimable gift of the conqueror was received at Constantinople with the most liberal expressions of gratitude and the public deliverance was celebrated by festivals and illuminations the triumphs of Arcadius became the subject of epic poems and the monarch no longer oppressed by any hostile terrors resigned himself to the mild and absolute dominion of his wife the fair and artful Eudoxia who is sullied her fame by the persecution of St John Chrysostom after the death of the indolent Nectarius the successor of Gregory Nezienzin the church of Constantinople was distracted by the ambition of rival candidates who were not ashamed to solicit with gold or flattery the suffrage of the people or of the favorite on this occasion Utropius seems to have deviated from his ordinary maxims and his uncorrupted judgment was determined only by the superior merit of a stranger in a late journey to the east he had admired the sermons of John a native and presbyter of Antioch whose name has been distinguished by the epithet of Chrysostom or the golden mouth a private order was despatched to the governor of Syria and as the people might be unwilling to resign their favorite preacher he was transported with speed and secrecy in a post chariot from Antioch to Constantinople the unanimous and unsolicited consent of the court the clergy and the people ratified the choice of the minister and both as a saint and as an orator the new archbishop surpassed the sanguine expectations of the public born of a noble and opulent family in the capital of Syria Chrysostom had been educated by the care of a tender mother under the tuition of the most skillful masters he studied the art of rhetoric in the school of libanious and that celebrated sophist who soon discovered the talents of his disciple ingenuously confessed that John would have deserved to succeed him had he not been stolen away by the Christians his piety soon disposed him to receive the sacrament of baptism to renounce the lucrative and honorable profession of the law and to bury himself in the adjacent desert where he subdued the lusts of the flesh by an austere penance of six years his infirmities compelled him to return to the society of mankind and the authority of malicious devoted his talents to the service of the church but in the midst of his family and afterwards on the archipiscopal throne Chrysostom still persevered in the practice of the monastic virtues the ample revenues which his predecessors had consumed in pomp and luxury he diligently applied to the establishment of hospitals and the multitudes who were supported by his charity preferred the eloquent and edifying discourses of their archbishop to the amusements of the theater or the circus the monuments of that eloquence which was admired near 20 years at Antioch and Constantinople have been carefully preserved and the possession of near one thousand sermons or homilies has authorized the critics of succeeding times to appreciate the genuine merit of Chrysostom the unanimously attribute to the christian orator the free command of an elegant and copious language the judgment to conceal the advantages which he derived from the knowledge of rhetoric and philosophy an inexhaustible fund of metaphors and similitudes of ideas and images to vary and illustrate the most familiar topics the happy art of engaging the passions and the service of virtue and of exposing the folly as well as the interpretive vice almost with the truth and spirit of a dramatic representation the pastoral labors of the archbishop of Constantinople provoked and gradually united against him two sorts of enemies the aspiring clergy who envied his success and the obstinate sinners who were offended by his reproofs when Chrysostom funded from the pulpit of Saint Sophia against the degeneracy of the christians his shafts were spent among the crowd without wounding or even marking the character of any individual when he declined against the peculiar vices of the rich poverty might obtain a transient consolation from his invectives but the guilty were still sheltered by their numbers and the reproach itself was dignified by some ideas of superiority and enjoyment but as the pyramid rose towards the summit it insensibly diminished to a point and the magistrates the ministers the favored eunuchs the ladies of the court the empress Edoxia herself had a much larger share of guilt to divide among a smaller proportion of criminals the personal applications of the audience were anticipated or confirmed by the testimony of their own conscience and the intrepid preacher assumed the dangerous right of exposing both the offense and the offender to the public abhorrence the secret resentment of the court encouraged the discontent of the clergy and monks of Constantinople who were too hastily reformed by the fervent zeal of their archbishop he had condemned from the pulpit the domestic females of the clergy of Constantinople who under the name of servants or sisters afforded a perpetual occasion either of sin or of scandal the silent and solitary ascetics who had secluded themselves from the world were entitled to the warmest approbation of chrysostom but he despised and stigmatized as the disgrace of their holy profession the crowd of degenerate monks who from some unworthy motives of pleasure or profit so frequently infested the streets of the capital to the voice of persuasion the archbishop was obliged to add the terrors of authority and his ardor in the exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction was not always exempt from passion nor was it always guided by prudence chrysostom was naturally of a caloric disposition although he struggled according to the precepts of the gospel to love his private enemies he indulged himself in the privilege of hating the enemies of god and of the church and his sentiments were sometimes delivered with too much energy of countenance and expression he still maintained from some considerations of health or abstinence his former habits of taking his repasts alone and this inhospitable custom which his enemies imputed to pride contributed at least to nourish the infirmity of a morose and unsocial humor separated from that familiar intercourse which facilitates the knowledge and the dispatch of business he reposed an unsuspecting confidence in his deacon syrapion and seldom applied his speculative knowledge of human nature to the particular character either of his dependence or have his equals conscious of the purity of his intentions and perhaps of the superiority of his genius the archbishop of constantan opal extended the jurisdiction of the imperial city that he might enlarge the sphere of his pastoral labors and the conduct which the profane imputed to an ambitious motive appeared to chrysostom himself in the light of a sacred and indispensable duty in his visitations for the asiatic provinces he deposed 13 bishops of lydia and phrygia and indiscreetly declared that a deep corruption of simony and licentiousness had infected the whole episcopal order if those bishops were innocent such a rash and unjust condemnation must excite a well-grounded discontent if they were guilty the numerous associates of their guilt would soon discover that their own safety depended on the ruin of the archbishop whom they studied to represent as the tyrant of the eastern church this ecclesiastical conspiracy was managed by theophilus archbishop of alexandria an active and ambitious prelate who displayed the fruits of rapine in monuments of ostentation his national dislike to the rising greatness of a city which degraded him from the second to the third rank in the christian world was exasperated by some personal dispute with chrysostom himself by the private invitation of the empress theophilus landed at constantan opal with a stout body of egyptian mariners to encounter the populus and a train of dependent bishops to secure by their voices the majority of a synod the synod was convened in the suburb of chalcedon surnamed the oak where ruffinus had erected a stately church and monastery and their proceedings were continued during 14 days or sessions a bishop and a deacon accused the archbishop of constantan opal but the frivolous or improbable nature of the 47 articles which they presented against him may justly be considered as a fair and unexceptionable panageric four successive summons were signified to chrysostom but he still refused to trust either his person or his reputation in the hands of his implacable enemies who prudently declining the examination of any particular charges condemned his contumatious disobedience and hastily pronounced a sentence of deposition the synod of the oak immediately addressed the emperor to ratify and execute their judgment and charitably insinuated that the penalties of treason might be inflicted on the audacious preacher who had reviled under the name of jezebel the empress eudoksia herself the archbishop was rudely arrested and conducted through the city by one of the imperial messengers who landed him after a short navigation near the entrance of the eucscene from wence before the expiration of two days he was gloriously recalled the first astonishment of his faithful people had been mute and passive they suddenly rose with unanimous and irresistible fury theophilus escaped but the promiscuous crowd of monks and egyptian mariners was slaughtered without pity in the streets of constantan opal a seasonable earthquake justified the interposition of heaven the torrent of sedition rolled forwards by the gates of the palace and the empress agitated by fear or remorse through herself at the feet of archaedias and confessed that the public safety could be purchased only by the restoration of christenstone the bosphorus was covered with innumerable vessels the shores of europe and asia were profusely illuminated and the acclamations of victorious people accompanied from the port to the cathedral the triumph of the archbishop who too easily consented to resume the exercise of his functions before his sentence had been legally reversed by the authority of an ecclesiastical synod ignorant or careless of the impending danger christenstone indulged his zeal or perhaps his resentment declaimed with peculiar asperity against female vices and condemned the profane honors which were addressed almost in the precincts of saint sofia to the statue of the empress his imprudence tempted his enemies to inflame the hotty spirit of udoksia by reporting or perhaps inventing the famous exhortium of a sermon herodias is again furious herodias again dances she once more requires the head of john an insolent illusion which as a woman and a sovereign it was impossible for her to forgive the short interval of a perfidious truce was employed to concert more effectual measures for the disgrace and ruin of the archbishop a numerous council of the eastern prelates who were guided from a distance by the advice of theophilus confirmed the validity without examining the justice of the former sentence and an attachment of barbarian troops was introduced into the city to suppress the emotions of the people on the vigil of easter the solemn administration of baptism was rudely interrupted by the soldiers who alarm the modesty of the naked catechumans and violated by their presence the awful mysteries of the christian worship arsaceus occupied the church of saint sofia and the archipiscopal throne the catholics retreated to the baths of constantine and afterwards to the fields where they were still pursued and insulted by the guards the bishops and the magistrates the fatal day of the second and final exile of christian was marked by the conflagration of the cathedral of the senate house and the adjacent buildings and this calamity was imputed without proof but not without probability to the despair of a persecuted faction cicero might claim some merit if his voluntary banishment preserved the peace of the republic but the submission of christian was the indispensable duty of a christian and a subject instead of listening to his humble prayer that he might be permitted to reside at cisacus or necomedia the inflexible empress assigned for his exile the remote and desolate town of cacus among the ridges of mount torus in the lesser armenia a secret hope was entertained that the archbishop might perish in a difficult and dangerous march of 70 days in the heat of summer through the provinces of asia minor where he was continually threatened by the hostile attacks of the isorians and the more impeccable fury of the monks yet christus storm arrived in safety at the palace of his confinement and the three years which he spent at cusus and the neighboring town of arabisus were the last and most glorious of his life his character was consecrated by absence and persecution the faults of his administration were no longer remembered but every tongue repeated the praises of his genius and virtue and the respectful attention of the christian world was fixed on a desert spot among the mountains of torus from that solitude the archbishop whose active mind was invigorated by misfortunes maintained a strict and frequent correspondence with the most distant provinces exorted the separate congregation of his faithful adherents to persevere in their allegiance urged the destruction of the temples of finicia and the extirpation of heresy in the isle of cyprus extended his pastoral care to the missions of persia and citia negotiated by his ambassadors with the roman pontiff and the emperor hanorius and boldly appealed from a partial synod to the supreme tribunal of a free and general council the mind of the illustrious exile was still independent but his captive body was exposed to the revenge of the oppressors who continue to abuse the name and authority of arcadius an order was dispatched for the instant removal of chrysostom to the extreme desert of piteus and his guards so faithfully obeyed their cruel instructions that before he reached the seacoast of the yuxin he expired at comana in pontus in the 60th year of his age the succeeding generation acknowledged his innocence and merit the archbishops of the east who might blush that their predecessors had been the enemies of chrysostom were gradually disposed by the firmness of the roman pontiff to restore the honors of that venerable name at the pious solicitation of the clergy and people of constantanople his relics 30 years after his death were transported from their obscure sepulcher to the royal city the emperor theodicius advanced to receive them as far as chelsedon and falling prostrate on the coffin implored in the name of his guilty parents arcadius and eudoxia the forgiveness of the injured saint end of chapter 32 part 2 recording by jason mayov bontreal jasonmayov.voices.com