 section 36 of the great events by famous historians 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 the great events by famous historians volume 3 edited by Charles F. Horne, Rossiter Johnson and John Rudd the Huns and their Western migration AD 374-376 Marcelinus the Huns whose incursions into Europe constituted the first yellow peril were a nomadic Mongolian race in the fourth century before Christ they successfully invaded China from that country about AD 90 they were driven by Hiongnu and the Huns then proceeded joined by hordes of their fellows from the steppes of Tartary to make their way to the Caspian Sea previous to the incursion of the Huns another Tartar tribe the Alani the first of that race known to the Romans had ravaged media and Armenia AD 75 carrying off a vast number of prisoners and an enormous booty they later settled themselves in the country between the Volga and the Taneis at an equal distance from the Black Sea and the Caspian the Huns having crossed the Volga drove the Alani before them to the Danube Valens the then Emperor of the East was a weak incapable ruler he failed to recognize the peril by which his empire would air long be threatened and permitted the Alani to find a refuge in his dominions these were in turn followed and absorbed by the Huns and the whole Roman Empire was finally faced by Mongol foes the historian Amienus Marcellinus wrote racially of these events at the time of their occurrence the swift wheel of fortune which continually alternates adversity with prosperity was given Bologna the furies for her allies and arming her for war and now transferred our disasters to the east as many presages and portents foreshowed by undoubted science for after many true prophecies uttered by diviners and augurs dogs were seen to recoil from howling wolves and the birds of night constantly uttered quarrelous and mournful cries and lurid sunrises made the mornings dark also at Antioch among the tummels and squabbles of the populace it had come to be accustomed for anyone who fencing himself ill treated to cry out in a licentious manner may Valens be burned alive and the voices of the criers were constantly heard ordering wood to be carried to warm the baths of Valens which had been built under the superintendents of the emperor himself all which circumstances all but pointed out in express words that the end of the emperor's life was at hand besides all these things the ghost of the king of Armenia and the miserable shades of those who had lately been put to death in the affair of theodora's agitated numbers of people with terrible alarms appearing to them in their sleep and shrieking out verses of horrible import last of all when the ancient walls of calcedon were thrown down in order to build a bath at Constantinople and the stones were torn asunder on one squared stone which was hidden in the very center of the walls these Greek verses were found engraved which gave a full revelation of what was to happen but when young wives and damsels blithe in dances that delight shall glide along the city streets with garlands gaily bright and when these walls with sad regrets shall fall to raise a bath then shall the huns in multitude break forth with might and wrath by force of arms the barrier stream of Easter they shall cross or sci-fi ground and mision lands spreading this may and loss they shall penani and horsemen brave and Gaelic soldiers lay and not but loss of life and breath their course shall ever stay the following circumstances were the original cause of all the destruction and various calamities which the fury of Mars roused up throwing everything into confusion by his usual ruinous violence the people called huns slightly mentioning the ancient records live beyond the sea of azov on the border of the frozen ocean and are a race savage beyond all parallel at the very moment of their birth the cheeks of their infant children are deeply marked by an iron in order that the usual vigor of their hair instead of growing at the proper season may be withered by the wrinkled scars and accordingly they grow up without beards and consequently without any beauty like eunuchs though they all have closely knit and strong limbs and plump necks they are of great size and bow lagged so that you might fancy them to lag beasts or the stout figures which are hewn out in a rude manner with an axe on the posts at the end of bridges they are certainly in the shape of men however uncouth but are so hearty that they neither require fire nor well-flavored food but live on the roots of such herbs as they get in the fields or on the half raw flesh of any animal which they merely warm rapidly by placing it between their own thighs and the back of their horses they never sheltered themselves under roofed houses but avoid them as people ordinarily avoid sepulchres as things not fitted for common use nor is there even to be found among them a cabin thatched with reed but they wonder about roaming over the mountains in the woods and accustomed themselves to bear frost and hunger and thirst from their very cradles and even when abroad they never enter a house unless under the compulsion of some extreme necessity nor indeed do they think people under roofs as safe as others they wear linen clothes or else garments made of the skins of field mice nor do they wear a different dress out of doors from that which they wear at home but after a tunic is once put around their necks however much it becomes worn it is never taken off or changed till from long decay it becomes actually so ragged as to fall to pieces they cover their heads with round caps and their shaggy legs with the skins of kids their shoes are not made on any lasts but are so unshapely as to hinder them from walking with a free gate and for this reason they are not well suited to infantry battles but are nearly always on horseback their horses being ill shaped but hardy and sometimes they even sit upon them like women if they want to do anything more conveniently there's not a person in the whole nation who cannot remain on his horse day and night on horseback they buy and sell they take their meat and drink and there they recline on the narrow neck of their steed and yield to sleep so deep as to indulge in every variety of dream and when any deliberation is to take place or any weighty matter they all hold their common counsel on horseback they are not under the authority of a king but are contented with the irregular government of their nobles and under their lead they force their way through all obstacles sometimes when provoked they fight and when they go into battle they form in a solid body and utter all kinds of terrific yells they are very quick in their operations of exceeding speed and fond of surprising their enemies with a view to this they suddenly disperse then reunite and again after having inflicted vast loss upon the enemy scatter themselves over the whole plane any regular formations always avoiding the ford or an entrenchment and in one respect you may pronounce them the most formidable of all warriors for when at a distance they use missiles of various kinds tipped with sharpened bones instead of the usual points of javelins and these bones are admirably fastened into the shaft of the javelin or arrow but when they are at close quarters they fight with the sword without any regard for their own safety and often while their antagonists are warding off their blows they entangle them with twisted cords so that their hands being fettered they lose all power of either riding or walking none of them plow or even touch a plow handle for they have no settled the boat but are homeless and lawless perpetually wandering with their wagons which they make their homes in fact they seem to be people always in flight their wives live in these wagons and their weave their miserable garments and here too they sleep with their husbands and bring up their children till they reach the age of puberty nor if asked can any one of them tell you where he was born as he was conceived in one place born in another at a great distance and brought up in another still more remote in truces they are treacherous and inconstant being liable to change their minds at every breeze of every fresh hope which presents itself giving themselves up holy to the impulse and inclination of the moment and like brute beasts they are utterly ignorant of the distinction between right and wrong they express themselves with great ambiguity and obscurity have no respect for any religion or superstition whatever are immoderately covetous of gold and are so fickle and irascible that they very often on the same day that they quarrel with their companions without any provocation again become reconciled to them without any mediator this active and indomitable race being excited by an unrestrainable desire of plundering the possessions of others went on ravaging and slaughtering all the nations in their neighborhood till they reached the Alani who were formerly called the masagete and from what country these Alani came or what territories they inhabit since my subject has led me so far it is expedient now to explain after showing the confusion existing in the accounts of the geographers who at last have found out the truth the Danube which is greatly increased by other rivers falling into it passes through the territory of the Soromate Scythians which extends as far as the river Don the boundary between Asia and Europe on the other side of this river the Alani inhabit the enormous deserts of Scythia deriving their own name from the mountains around and they like the Persians having gradually subdued all the bordering nations by repeated victories have united them to themselves and comprehended them under their own name of these other tribes the Nurei inhabit the inland districts being near the highest mountain chains which are both precipitous and covered with the everlasting frost of the north next to them are the Bodenei and the Jelani a race of exceeding ferocity who flay the enemies they have slain in battle and make of their skins clothes for themselves and trappings for their horses next to the Jelani are the Agathursi who die both their bodies and their hair of a blue collar the lower classes using spots few in number and small the nobles broad spots clothes and thick and of a deeper hue next to those are the Melan clan a anti-anthropophagy who roam about upon different tracks of land and live on human flesh and these men are so avoided on account of their horrid food that all the tribes which were their neighbors have removed to a distance from them and in this way the whole of that region to the northeast to come to the Chinese is uninhabited on the other side the Jelani again extend to the east near the territories of the Amazons and are scattered among many populace and wealthy nations stretching to the parts of Asia which as I am told extend up to the Ganges a river which passes through the country of the Indians and falls into the Southern Ocean then the Jelani being thus divided among the two quarters of the globe the various tribes which make up the whole nation it is not worthwhile to enumerate although widely separated wonder like the nomads over enormous districts but in the progress of time all these tribes came to be united under one generic appellation and are called Alani they have no cottages and never use the plow but live solely on meat and plenty of milk mounted on their wagons which they cover with a curved awning made of the bark of trees and then drive them through their boundless deserts and when they come to any pasture land they pitch their wagons in a circle and live like a herd of beasts eating up all the forage carrying as it were their cities with them in their wagons in them the husband sleep with their wives in them their children are born and brought up these wagons in short are their perpetual habitation and wherever they fix them that place they look upon as their home they drive before them their flocks and herds to their pastures and about all other cattle they are specially careful of their horses the fields in that country are always green and are interspersed with patches of fruit trees so that wherever they go there's no dirt either a food for themselves or fodder for their cattle and this is caused by the moisture of the soil and the number of the rivers which flow through these districts all their old people and especially all the weaker sex keep close to the wagons and occupy themselves in the lighter employments but the young men who from their earliest childhood are trained to the use of the horses think it beneath them to walk they are also all trained by careful discipline of various sorts to become skillful warriors and this is the reason why the Persians who are originally of Scythian extraction are very skillful in war nearly all the Elani are men of great stature and beauty their hair is somewhat yellow their eyes are terribly fierce the likeness of their armor renders them rapid in their movements and they are in every respect equal to the hunts only more civilized in their food and their manner of life they plunder and hunt as far as the Sea of Azov and the Symerian Bosphorus ravaging also Armenia and media and as ease is a delightful thing to men of a quiet and placid disposition so danger and war are a pleasure to the Elani and among them that man is called happy who has lost his life in battle for those who grow old or who go out of the world from accidental sicknesses they pursue with bitter reproaches as degenerate and cowardly nor is there anything of which they boast with more pride than of having killed the men and the most glorious spoils the esteem the sculpts which they have torn from the heads of those whom they have slain which they put as trappings and ornaments on their war horses nor is there any temple or shrine seen in their country or even any cabin thatched with straw their only idea of religion being to plunge a naked sword into the ground with barbaric ceremonies and they worship that with great respect as Mars the presiding deity of the regions over which they wonder they presage the future in a most remarkable manner for they collect a number of great twigs of Osir then with certain secret incantations they separate them from one another on particular days and from them they learn clearly what is about to happen they have no idea of slavery and as much as they themselves are all born of noble families and those whom even now they appoint to be judges are always men of proved experience and skill in war but now let us return to the subject which we propose to ourselves the Huns after having traversed the territories of the Elani and especially of that tribe of them who border on the Gurthunjai and who are called Tanayte and having slain many of them and acquired much plunder they made a treaty of friendship and alliance with those who remained and when they had united them to themselves with increased boldness they made a sudden incursion into the extensive and fertile districts of Ermenricus a very warlike prince and one whom his numerous gallant actions of every kind had rendered formidable to all the neighboring nations he was astonished at the violence of this sudden tempest and although like a prince whose power was well established he long attempted to hold his ground he was at last overpowered by a dread of the evils impending over his country which were exaggerated by common report till he terminated his fear of great danger by a voluntary death after his death the thimeris was made king he for some time maintain the resistance to the Elani relying on the aid of other tribes of the Huns whom by large promises of pay he had won over to his party but after having suffered many losses he was defeated by superior numbers and slain in battle he left an infant son named Videricus of whom Alatheus and Saphrax undertook the guardianship both generals of great experience improved courage and when they yielding to the difficulties of the crisis had given up all hope of being able to make ineffectual resistance they retired with caution till they came to the river Dniester which lies between the Danube and the Nipper and flows through a vast extent of country when Athenarik the chief magistrate of the Thuringians had become informed of those unexpected occurrences he prepared to maintain his ground with a resolution to rise up in strength should he be assailed as the others had been at last he pitched his camp at a distance in a very favorable spot near the banks of the Dniester and the valleys of the Gruthangai and Saint Mudarik who afterward became Duke of the Arabian Frontier with Lager Emanus and others of the nobles with orders to advance for 20 miles to reconnoiter the approach of the enemy while in the meantime he himself without delay marshaled his troops in line of battle however things turned out in a manner very contrary to his expectations for the Huns being very sagacious in conjectures suspecting that there must be a considerable multitude farther off contrived to pass beyond those they had seen and arrange themselves to take their rest where there was nothing at hand to disturb them and then when the moon dispelled the darkness of night they forded the river which was the best plan which presented itself and fearing lest the pickets at the outpost might give the alarm to the distant camp they made all possible speed and advanced with the hope of surprising Afanarik himself he was stupefied at the suddenness of their onset and after losing many of his men was compelled to flee for refuge to the precipitous mountains in the neighborhood where being wholly bewildered with the strangeness of this occurrence and the fear of greater evils to come he began to fortify with lofty walls all the territory between the banks of the river proof and the Danube where it passes through the land of the Taifalay and he completed this line of fortification with great diligence thinking that by this step he should secure his own personal safety while this important work was going on the Huns kept pressing on his traces with great speed and they would have overtaken and destroyed him if they had not been forced to abandon the pursuit from being impeded by the great quantity of their booty in the meantime a report spread extensively through the other nations of the Goths that a race of men hitherto unknown had suddenly descended like a whirlwind from the lofty mountains as if they had risen from some secret recess of the earth and were ravaging and destroying everything which came in their way and then the greater part of the population which because of their want of necessaries had deserted a thanaric resolved to flee and to seek a home remote from all knowledge of the barbarians and after long deliberation where to fix the rebode the resolve that a retreat into Thrace was the most suitable for these two reasons first of all because it is a district most fertile in grass and also because by the great breadth of the Danube it is wholly separated from the barbarians who were already exposed to the thunderbolts of foreign warfare and the whole population of the tribe adopted this resolution unanimously accordingly under the command of their leader Elevevis they occupy the bank of the Danube and having sent ambassadors to Valens they humbly and treated to be received by him as his subjects promising to live quietly and to furnish a body of auxiliary troops if any necessity for such a force to arise while these events were passing in foreign countries a terrible rumor arose that the tribes of the north were planning new and unprecedented attacks upon us and that over the whole region which extends from the country of the Marcomenei and Querae to Pontus a barbarian host composed of different distant nations which had suddenly been driven by force from their own country was now with all their families wondering about in different directions on the banks of the river Danube at first this intelligence was slightly treated by our people because they were not in the habit of hearing of any wars in those remote districts till they were terminated either by victory or by treaty but presently as the belief in these occurrences grew stronger being confirmed to by the arrival of the foreign ambassadors who with prayers and earnest entreaties begged that the people thus driven from their homes and now encamped on the other side of the river might be kindly received by us the affair seemed a cause of joy rather than a fear according to the skillful flatterers who were always extolling and exaggerating the good fortune of the emperor congratulating him that an embassy had come from the farthest corners of the earth unexpectedly offering him a large body of recruits and that by combining the strength of his own nation with these foreign forces he would have an army absolutely invincible observing further that by the yearly payment for military reinforcements which came in every year from the provinces a vast treasure of gold might be accumulated in his coffers full of this hope he sent forth several officers to bring these ferocious people and their wagons into our territory and such great pains were taken to gratify this nation which was destined to overthrow the empire of Rome but not one was left behind not even of those who were stricken with mortal disease moreover having obtained permission of the emperor to cross the Danube and to cultivate some districts in Thrace they crossed the stream day and night without seizing embarking in troops on board ships and rafts and canoes made of the hollow trunks of trees in which enterprise as the Danube is the most difficult of all rivers to navigate and was at that time swollen with continual rains a great many were drowned who because they were too numerous for the vessels trying to swim across and in spite of all their exertions were swept away by the stream in this way through the turbulent zeal of violent people the ruin of the roman empire was brought on this at all events is neither obscure nor uncertain that the unhappy officers who were entrusted with the charge of conducting the multitude of the barbarians across the river though they repeatedly endeavored to calculate their numbers at last abandoned the attempt as hopeless and the man who would wish to ascertain the number might as well as the most illustrious of poets says attempt to count the waves in the african sea or the grains of sand tossed about by the sapphires let however the ancient annals be accredited which record that the persian host which was led into Greece was while encamped on the shores of the helispont and making a new an artificial sea numbered in battalions at the riscus a computation which has been unanimously regarded by all posterity as fabulous but after the innumerable multitudes of different nations diffused over all our provinces and spreading themselves over the vast expenses of our planes who filled all the champagne country and all the mountain ranges are considered the credibility of the ancient accounts is confirmed by this modern instance and first of all tritijurnas was received with alivivis and the emperor assigned them a temporary provision for their immediate support and ordered lands to be assigned them to cultivate at that time the defenses of our provinces were much exposed and the armies of barbarians spread over them like the lava of mount adna the imminence of our danger manifestly called for generals already illustrious for their past achievements in war but nevertheless as if some unprecious deity had made the selection the men who were sought out for the chief military appointments were of tainted character the chief among them were lupicinus and maximus the one being count of threes the other a leader notoriously wicked and both men of great ignorance and rashness and their treacherous covetousness was the cause of all our disasters for to pass over other matters in which the offices of force had or others with their unblushing connivance display the greatest profligacy in their injurious treatment of the foreigners dwelling in our territory against whom no crime could be alleged this one melancholy an unprecedented piece of conduct which even if they were to choose their own judges must appear wholly unpardonable must be mentioned when the barbarians who had been conducted across the river were in great distress from want of provisions those detested generals conceived the idea of a most disgraceful traffic and having collected hounds from all quarters with the most insatiable capacity they exchanged them for an equal number of slaves among whom were several sons of men of noble birth about this time also witheric the king of the grithungi with ala theus and saffrex by whose influence he was mainly guided and also with pharnobius approached the bank of the danu and sent envoys to the emperor to entreat that he also might be received with the same kindness that ala vivas and fritigern had experienced but when as seemed best for the interests of the state these ambassadors had been rejected and were in great anxiety what they should do a thaneric fearing similar treatment departed recollecting that long ago when he was discussing a treaty with valence he had treated that emperor with contempt in affirming that he was bound by a religious obligation never to set his foot on the roman territory and that by this excuse he had compelled the emperor to conclude a piece in the middle of the war and he fearing that the grudge which valence bore him for this conduct was still lasting withdrew with all his forces to cocalandes a place which from the height of its mountains and the thickness of its woods is completely inaccessible and from which he had lately driven off the sarmatians. End of section 36 section 37 of the great events by famous historians volume three this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the great events by famous historians volume three edited by Charles F. Horn, Rosseter Johnson and John Rudd final division of roman empire the disruptive intrigues 83.95 by J.B. Burry part one when Theodosius the first sir named the great was elevated to power as ruler of the east that part of the empire was distracted in consequence of wars with the Visigoths who flying from the Huns had been granted a refuge in the roman provinces of Mercia and Thrace ill-treatment by the romans drove the Visigoths to revolt and valence then emperor of the east set out with an army to punish them in the battle of Aegean opal august 9378 the roman army was defeated and then the retreat valence was killed the Visigoths pressed on ravaging the country even to the foot of the walls of Constantinople and the doom of the empire seemed to be at hand at this juncture gracious emperor of the west who also upon the death of valence succeeded him as ruler of the east sent for Theodosius then a roman general living in retirement in Spain made him his colleague in the east and placed him 83.79 at the head of an army for the suppression of the gothic outbreaks Theodosius enabled his soldiers to regain their lost confidence by waging a successful guerrilla war with the marauding Goths but having less shown his mastery over their struggling bands he did not undertake to drive them out from roman territory but weakened them by causing them to quarrel among themselves then showing himself as their friend he gave them lands and settled them with indefinite limits to the Visigoths or west Goths he gave Thrace to the Austragoths or east Goths who would also now poured into the roman provinces he assigned Pannonia by this policy Theodosius established his authority in the east and restored the empire to something of its earlier power except during the last four months of his life when he was sole emperor his direct authority was confined to the east but he exerted a potent influence upon the affairs of the whole empire both temporal and spiritual he warred steadily against paganism and heresy he took the side of Trinitarian orthodoxy against Arianism which had previously triumphed in the east and restored religious unity to the empire by making the Athanasian doctrine the faith of Constantinople as it was that of the west this policy was ratified by the second ecumenical council called by Theodosius at Constantinople in 381 when the orthodoxy first promulgated by the council of Nicaea in 325 was substantially reaffirmed it was also largely through the influence of Theodosius who was the friend of Ambrose Archbishop of Milan that the roman senate by a great majority voted 388 to abolish the worship of Jupiter and to adopt the worship of Christ thus making Christianity the state religion and the debate which preceded this transition the eloquence of Simacus on the pagan side was overmatched by the arguments of Ambrose aided by the powerful support of Theodosius in person in his further dealings with the Visigoths Theodosius following a precedent already established enlisted in the roman service a separate Gothic army of 40 000 soldiers but this policy as the event proved was fatal to the permanency of his hitherto successful control of these alien elements for they soon gathered strength to take the mastery into their own hands Theodosius died in 395 after publishing a decree for partition of the empire between his two sons Honorius to rule on the west and Arcadius in the east he meant not to establish two independent jurisdictions but that there should be one commonwealth whose two rulers should be colleagues and co-agitors in its defense this new disposition of the empire was followed by dissensions and intrigues against which the weak sons of Theodosius were helpless in the hands of able and unscrupulous self-seekers the result of which was the final separation of the empire into two distinct governments and the weakening of the powers of resistance of both against those ever-increasing encroachments of the barbarians which eventually caused the fall of both empires one of the few men in history who have won the title of great the emperor Theodosius the first who had by his policy at once friendly and firm pacified the Goths who had confirmed the triumph of Athanasian over Aryan Christianity who had stamped out the last frames of refractory paganism represented by the tyrant Eugenius died on the 17th of January AD 395 his wishes were that his younger son Honorius then a boy of 10 years should reign in the west where he had already installed him and that his eldest son Arcadius whom he had left his regent in Constantinople when he sat out against Eugenius should continue to reign in the east but he was not willing to leave his youthful heirs Arcadius was only 18 without a protector and the most natural protector was one bound to them by ties of relationship accordingly on his deathbed he commanded them to the care of the Vandal Stilico whom he had raised for his military and other talents to the rank of commander-in-chief and deeming him worthy of an alliance with his own family had united to his favorite niece Serena we can hardly doubt that it was in this capacity as the husband of his niece and a trusted friend not as a general that Stilico received Theodosius's dying wishes it was as an elder member of the same family that the husband of their cousin could claim to exert an influence over Arcadius and Onorius of whom however the latter it would appear was more specially committed to his care not only as the younger but because Stilico being magister militum of the armies of Italy would come more directly into contact with him than with his brother Arcadius with whom we are especially concerned was about 18 at the time of his father's death he was a short stature of dark complexion thin and inactive and the dullness of his wit was portrayed by his speech and by his eyes which always seemed as if they were about to close and sleep this smallness of intellect and his weakness of character made it inevitable that he should come under the influence good or bad of commanding personalities with which he might be brought in contact such a potent personality was the Praetorian Prefect Rufanus a native of Aquitaine who in almost every respect presented a contrast to his sovereign he was tall and manly and the restless movements of his keen eyes and the readiness of his speech signified his intellectual powers he was a strong worldly man ambitious of power and sufficiently unprincipled avaricious too like most ministers of the age he had made many enemies by acts which were perhaps somewhat more than usually unscrupulous but we cannot justly assume that in the overthrow of certain rivals he was entirely guilty and they entirely innocent as is sometimes represented it is almost certain that he formed the scheme and cherished the hope of becoming joint emperor with Arcadius this ambition of Rufanus placed him at once in an attitude of opposition to Stilico who was himself not above the suspicion of entertaining similar schemes not however in the interest of his own person but for his son Eucharius the position of the vandal who is connected by marriage with the imperial family gave him an advantage over Rufanus which was strengthened by the generally known fact that Theodosius had given him his last instructions Stilico moreover was popular with the army and for the present the great bulk of the forces of the empire was at his disposal for the regiments united to suppress Eugenius had not yet been sent back to their various stations thus a struggle was imminent between the ambitious minister who had the ear of Arcadius and the strong general who held the command and enjoyed the favour of the army before the end of the year the struggle began and concluded in an extremely curious way but we must first relate how a certain scheme of Rufanus had been checkmated by an obscure but wily arrival nearer at hand it was the cherished project of Rufanus to unite Arcadius with his only daughter once the emperor's father-in-law he might hope to become speedily an emperor himself but he imprudently made a journey to Antioch in order to execute vengeance personally on the count of the east who had offended him and during his absence from Byzantium an adversary stole a march on him this adversary was the eunuch Utropius the lord chamberlain a bald old man who with oriental craftiness had won his way up from the meanest services and employments determining that the future empress should be bound to himself and not to Rufanus he chose Eudoxia a girl of singular beauty the daughter of a distinguished Frank but herself of a Roman education her father Bouto was dead and she lived in the house of the widow and sons of one of the victims of Rufanus Utropius showed a picture of the Frank made into the emperor and engaged his affections for her the nuptials were arranged by the time Rufanus returns to Constantinople and were speedily celebrated April 27 395 this was a bloater Rufanus but he was still the most powerful man in the east the event which at length brought him into contact with Stilico was the rising of the Visigoths who had been settled by Theodosius and Mesian Thrace and were bound in return for their lands to serve in the army as Federati they had accompanied the emperor to Italy against Eugenius and had returned to their habitation sooner than the rest of the army the causes of discontent which led to their revolt are not quite clear but it seems that Arcadius refused to give them certain grants of money which had been allowed them by his father and as has been suggested they probably expected that favour would wane and influence decrease now that the friend of the Goths was dead and consequently determined to make themselves heard and felt to this must be added that their most influential chiefed in Alaric called Baltha the bold decided to be made a commander-in-chief Magister Militon and was offended that he had been passed over however this may be the historical essence of the matter is that an immense body of restless uncivilised Germans could not abide permanently in the centre of Roman provinces and the semi-dependent ill-defined relation to the Roman government the west Goths had not yet found their permanent home under the leadership of Alaric they raised the ensign of revolt and spread desolation in the fields and homesteads of Macedonia, Mesia and Thrace even advancing close to the walls of Constantinople they carefully spared certain estates outside the city belonging to the prefect Rufanus but this policy does not seem to have been adopted with the same motive that caused Archidamus to spare the lands of Pericles. Alaric may have wished not to render Rufanus suspected but to conciliate his friendship and obtain thereby more favourable terms Rufanus actually went to Alaric's camp dressed as a Goth but the interview led to nothing it was impossible to take the field against the Goths because there were no forces available as the eastern armies were still with Steelico in the west Arkades therefore was obliged to summon Steelico to send or bring them back immediately to protect his throne this summons gave that general the desired opportunity to interfere in the politics of Constantinople and having with energetic solidarity arranged matters on the Gaelic frontier he marched overland through Aliricum and confronted Alaric and Thessaly whether the Goth had traced his devastating path from the propontus it appears that Steelico's behaviour is quite as open to the charges of ambition and artfulness as the behaviour of Rufanus for I do not perceive how we can strictly justify his detention of the forces which ought to have been sent back to defend the provinces of Arkadius at the very beginning of the year Steelico's march to Thessaly can scarcely have taken place before October and it is hard to interpret this long delay in sending back the troops over which he had no rightful authority if it were not dictated by a wish to implicate the government of New Rome in difficulties and render his own intervention necessary we are told too that he selected the best soldiers from the eastern regiments and enrolled them in the western core if we adopted the Cassian maxim Quibon of Huaret we should be inclined to accuse Steelico of having been privy to the revolt of Alaric such a supposition would at least be far more plausible than the colony which was circulated charging Rufanus with having stirred up the Visigoths for such a supposition too we might find support in the circumstance that these states of Rufanus were spared by the soldiers of Alaric it would be intelligible that Steelico suggested the plan in order to bring Odium upon Rufanus to such a conjecture finally certain other circumstances soon to be related point but it remains nothing more than a suspicion it seems that before Steelico arrived Alaric had experienced a defeat at the hands of garrison soldiers in Thessaly at all events he shut himself up in a fortified camp and declined to engage with the Roman general in the meantime Rufanus induced Arcadius to send a peremptory order to Steelico to dispatch the eastern troops to Constantinople and depart himself once he had come the emperor resented or pretended to resent the presence of his cousin as an officious interference Steelico yielded so readily that his willingness seems almost suspicious but we shall probably never know whether he was responsible for the events that followed he can sign the eastern soldiers to the command of a gothic captain Gynus and himself departed to Solona allowing Alaric to proceed on his wasting way into the lands of Helus. Gynus and his soldiers marched by the Via Ignatia to Constantinople and it was arranged that according to a usual custom the emperor and his court should come forth from the city to meet the army in the campus Martius which extended on the west side of the city near the golden gate we cannot trust the statement of a hostile writer that Rufanus actually expected to be created Augustus on this occasion and appeared at the emperor's side prouder and more sumptuously arrayed than ever we only know that he accompanied Arcadius to meet the army it is said that when the emperor had saluted the troops Rufanus advanced and displayed a studied affability and solicitude to please toward even individual soldiers they closed in round to him as he smiled and talked anxious to secure their goodwill for his elevation to the throne but just as he felt himself very knight of supreme success the swords of the nearest were drawn and his body pierced with wounds fell to the ground his head carried through the streets was mocked by the people and his right hand severed from the trunk was presented at the doors of houses with the request give to the insatiable we can hardly suppose that the lynching of Rufanus was the fatal inspiration of a moment but whether it was proposed or approved of by Stilico or was a plan hatched among the soldiers on their way to Constantinople is uncertain one might even conjecture that the whole affair was the result of a pre-arrangement between Stilico and the party in Byzantium which was adverse to Rufanus and led by the eunuch Utropius but there is no evidence our knowledge of this scene unfortunately depends on a partial and untrustworthy writer who more over wrote in verse the poet Claudian he enjoyed the patronage of Stilico and his poems against Rufanus against Utropius and on the gothic war are a glorification of his patron's splendid virtues Stilico and Rufanus he paints as two opposite forces the force of good and the force of evil like the principles of the Manichaeans Rufanus is the terrible pytho the scourge of the world Stilico is the radiant Apollo the deliverer of mankind Rufanus is the power of darkness whose tartarian wickedness surpasses even the wickedness of the theories of hell Stilico is an angel of light in the works of a poet his leading idea was so extravagant we can hardly expect to find much fair historical truth it is as a rule only accidental references and illusions that we can accept unless other authorities confirm his statements yet even modern writers who know well how cautiously Claudian must be used have been unconsciously prejudiced in favor of Stilico and against Rufanus we must return to the movements of Alaric who had entered the regions of classical Greece for which he showed scant respect the commander of the garrison at Thermopylae and the procuncel of Achaia offered no resistance and the West Goths entered Boesia where Thebes alone escaped their devastation they occupied the Piraeus but Athens itself was spared and Alaric was entertained as a guest in the city of Athene but the great temple of the mystic goddesses to Meter and Persephone Ateleusius was burned down by the reverent barbarians Megara the next place on their southward route fell then Corinth Argos and Sparta but when they reached Elis they were confronted by an unexpected opponent Stilico had returned from Italy by way of Salona which he reached by sea to stay the hand of the invader he blockaded him in the plain of Foley but for some reason not easily comprehensible he did not press his advantage and set free the hordes of the Visigothic land pirates to resume their career of devastation he went back to Italy and Alaric returned plundering as he went to Illyricum and Thrace where he made terms with the government of New Rome and received the desired title of Magister Militium per Illyricum no one will suppose that Stilico went all the way from Italy to the Peloponnesus and then although he had Alaric practically at his mercy retreated leaving matters just as they were without some excellent reason if he had genuinely wished to deliver the distressed countries and assist the emperor Arcadius he would not have acted in this ineffectual manner but it's difficult to see that his conduct is explained by assuming that he was not willing by a complete extermination of the Goths to enable Arcadius to dispense with his help and future in that case what did he gain by going to the Peloponnesus at all or we might ask if he wished Arcadius to summon his assistance from year to year is it likely that he would have adopted the method of rendering no assistance whatever but above all the question occurs what pleasure would it have been to the general to look forward to being called upon again and again to take the field against the Visigoths it seems evident that Stilico and Alaric made it fully some secret and definite arrangement which conditioned Stilico's departure and that this arrangement was conducive to the interests of Stilico who was in the position of advantage and at the same time not contrary to the interests of Alaric for otherwise Stilico could not have been sure that the agreement would be carried out what the secret compact was can only be a matter of conjecture but i would suggest that Stilico had already formed the plan of creating his son Eucharius emperor and that he designed the Balkan Peninsula to be the dominion over which Eucharius should hold sway his conduct becomes perfectly explicable if we assume that by a secret agreement he secured Alaric's assistance for the execution of this scheme which the preponderance of Gothic power and Illyricum and Thrace would facilitate. It was not only the European parts of Arcadius's dominions that were ravaged in 395 by the fire and sword of barbarians in the same year hordes of Transcaucasian Huns poured through the Caspian gates and rushing southward through the provinces of Mesopotamia carried desolation into Syria Saint Jerome was in Palestine at this time and in two of his letters we have the account of an eyewitness as I was searching for an abode worthy of such a lady Fabiola his friend behold suddenly messengers rush hither and thither and the whole east trembles with the news that from the far meotis from the land of the icebound dawn and the savage massacre tie the strong works of alexander on the Caucasian cliffs keep back the wild nations swarms of hanzad burst forth and flying hither and thither were scattering slaughter and terror everywhere the roman army was at that time absent in consequence of the civil wars in italy may jesus protect the roman world in future from such beasts they were everywhere when they were least expected and their speed outstripped the rumor of their approach they spared neither religion nor dignity nor age they showed no pity to the cry of infancy babes who had not yet begun to live were forced to die and ignorant of the evil that was upon them as they were held in the hands and threatened by the swords of the enemy there was a smile upon their lips there was a consistent and universal report that jerusalem was the goal of the foes and that on account of their insatiable lust for gold they were hastening to the city the walls neglected by the carelessness of peace were repaired anteok was enduring a blockade tire feigned to break off from the dry land sought its ancient island then we too were constrained to provide ships to stay on the seashore to take precautions against the arrival of the enemy and though the winds were wild to fear a ship reckless than the barbarians making provision not for our own safety so much as for the chastity of our virgins in another letter speaking of these wolves of the north he says how many monasteries were captured the waters of how many rivers were stained with human gore anteok was besieged in the other cities past which the halis the kidnests the orantes the urfrates flow herds of captives were dragged away arabia finicia palestine egypt were led captive by fear the hans however were not the only depredators at whose hands the provinces of asia minor and syria suffered there were other enemies within whose ravages were constant while the expedition of the hans from without occurred only once these enemies were the freebooters who dwelt in the aesaurian mountains wild and untamed in their secure fastnesses amianus marcolanus describes picturesquely the habits of these sturdy robbers they used to descend from the difficult mountain slopes like a whirlwind to places on the seashore where in hidden ways and glans they lurked till the fall of night and in the light of the crescent moon watched until the mariners riding at anchor slept then they boarded the vessels killed and plundered the cruise but as the coast of aesaurial was like a deadly shore of skiron it was avoided by sailors who made a practice of putting in at the safe reports of cyprus the aesaurians did not always can find their land expeditions to the surrounding provinces of caliqi and pamphilia they penetrated an ad 403 northward to capidotia and pontus or southward to syria and palestine and the whole range of the torus as far as the compounds of syria seemed to have been their spacious habitation an officer named arbecasius was entrusted by arcadius with an office similar in object to that which four and a half centuries ago had been assigned to pompaeus but though he quelled the spirits of the freebooters for a moment arbecasius did not succeed in eradicating the lawless element in the same way as pompaeus had succeeded in exterminating the piracy which in his day infested the same regions in the years 404 and 405 capidotia was overrun by the robber bands meanwhile after the death of rufinus the wee emperor arcadius passed under the influence of the eunuch utopias who in unscrupulous greed of money resembled rufinus and many other officials of the time and like rufinus has been painted far blacker than he really was all the evil things that were said by his enemies of rufinus were said of utopias by his enemies but in reading of the enormities of the latter we must make great allowance for the general prejudice existing against a person with utopias's physical disqualifications utopias naturally looked on the praetorian prefix the most powerful man in the administration next to the emperor with jealousy and suspicion as dangerous rivals it was his interest to reduce their power and to raise the dignity of his own office to inequality with theirs to his influence then we are probably justified in describing two innovations which were made by arcadius the administration of the cursus publicus or office of postmaster general was transferred from the praetorian prefix to the master of offices and the same transference was made in regard to the manufacturers of arms on the other hand the grand chamberlain prepositus sacri cubicili was made in a lustrous equal and ranked to the praetorian prefix both these innovations were afterward altered the general historical import of the position of utopias is that the empire was falling into a danger by which it had been threatened from the outset and which it had been ever trying to avoid we may say that there were two dangers which constantly impended over the roman empire from its inauguration by augustus to its reintegration by diacletian a skill and corruptus between which it had to steer the one was a cabinet of imperial freedmen the other was a military despotism the former danger called forth and was counteracted by the creation of a civil service system to which hadrian perhaps made the most important contributions and which was finally elaborated by diacletian who at the same time averted the other danger by separating the military and civil administrations but both dangers revived in a new form the danger from the army became danger from the germans who preponderated in it and the institution of court ceremonial tended to create a cabinet of chamberlain and imperial dependents this oriental ceremonial so marked a feature of late Byzantism involved as one of its principles difficulty of access to the emperor who living in the retirement of his palace was tempted to trust less to his eyes than his ears and saw too little of public affairs diacletian appreciated this disadvantage himself and remarked that the sovereign shut up in his palace cannot know the truth but must rely on what his attendants and officers tell him we may also remark that absolute monarchy by its very nature tends in this direction for absolute monarchy naturally tends to a dynasty and a dynasty implies that they must sooner or later come to the throne weak men inexperienced in public affairs reared up in an atmosphere of flattering delusion easily guided by intriguing chamberlains and eunuchs under such conditions then all at cabals and chamber cabinets are sure to become dominant sometimes diacletian whose political insight and ingenuity were remarkable tried to avoid the dangers of a dynasty by his artificial system but artifice could not contend with success against nature the greatest blot in the ministry of utropias for as he was the most trusted advisor of the emperor we may use the word ministry was the sale of offices of which claudian gives a vivid and exaggerated account this was a blot however that stained other men of those days as well as utropias and we must view it rather as a feature of the tines and as a personal enormity of course the eunuchs spies were ubiquitous of course informers of all sorts were encouraged and rewarded all the usual stratagems for grasping and plundering were put into practice the strong measures that a determined minister was ready to take for the mere sake of vengeance may be exemplified by a treatment which the whole laikian province received at the hands of rufanus on account of a single individual tassium who defended that minister all the provincials were excluded from public offices after the death of rufanus the laikians were relieved from these disabilities but the fact that the edict of emancipation expressly enjoins that no one henceforward venture to wound a laikian citizen with the name of scorn shows what a serious misfortune their degradation was the unique one considerable odium in the first year of his power 396 by bringing about the fall of two men of distinction abundantious to whose patronage he owed his rise in the world and to massius who had been the commander general in the east an account of the manner in which the ruin of the latter was wrought will illustrate the sort of intrigues that responded to the Byzantine court to massius had brought with him from sardis a syrian sausage seller named bargus who with native address had insinuated himself into his good graces and obtained a subordinate command in the army the prying omniscience of utropias discovered that years before this same bargus had been forbidden to enter constantanople for some misdemeanor by means of this knowledge he gained an ascendancy over the syrian and compelled him to accuse his benefactor to massius of a reasonable conspiracy supporting the charge by forgeries the accused was tried condemned and banished to the libian oasis a punishment equivalent to death he was never heard of more utropias for seeing that the continued existence of bargus might at some time compromise himself suborned his wife to lodged very serious charges against her husband in consequence of which he was put to death whether utropias then got rid of the wife we are not informed among the adherents of utropias who were equally numerous and insincere two were of a special importance osseus who had risen from the post of a cook to be counter the sacred largesse and finally master of the offices and leo a soldier corpulent and good-humoured who's known by the sobriquet of ajax a man of great body and little mind fond of boasting fond of eating fond of drinking and fond of women on the other hand utropias had many enemies and enemies in two different quarters romans of the stamp of tomasius and aurelian were naturally opposed to the supremacy of an emasculated chamberlain as we shall see subsequently the german element in the empire represented by guiness was also inimical and it seems certain that a serious confederacy was formed in the year 397 aiming at the overthrow of utropias though this is not stated by any writer it seems an inevitable conclusion from the law which was passed in the autumn of that year assessing the penalty of death to anyone who'd conspired with soldiers or private persons including barbarians against the lives of illustrious who belong to our consistory or assisted our councils or other senators such a conspiracy being considered equivalent to treason intent was to be regarded as equivalent to crime and not only did the individual concerned incur capital punishment but his descendants were visited with disfranchisement it is generally recognized that this law was an express palladium for chamberlains but surely it must have been suggested by some actually formed conspiracy of which utropias discovered the threats before it was carried out the particular mention of soldiers and barbarians points to a particular danger and we may suspect that guiness who afterward brought about the fall of utropias had some connection with it while the unit was sailing in the full current of success at Byzantium the vandal steleco was enjoying an uninterrupted course of prosperity and somewhat less stifling air of italy the poet Claudian who acted as a sort of poet laureate to an aureus was really an apologist for steleco who patronized and paid him almost every public poem he produced is an extravagant panagiaric on that general and we cannot but suspect that many of his utterances were direct manifestos suggested by his patron and the panagiaric in honor of the third consulate of an aureus 396 which composed soon after the death of ruffinus breathes the spirit of concord between east and west the writer calls upon steleco to protect with his right hand the two brothers gaminos de extra to protege fratres such lines as this are written to put a certain significance on steleco's policy and the panagiaric in honor of the fourth consulate of an aureus 398 he gives an absolutely false and misleading account of steleco's expedition to Greece two years before an account which no allowance for poetical exaggeration can defend by the same time he extols an aureus with the most absurd eulogiums and overwhelms him with the most extravagant adulation making out the boy of 14 to be greater than his father and grandfather if claudian were not a poet we should say that he was a most outrageous liar we are therefore unable to accord him the smallest credit when he boasts that the subjects in the western provinces are not oppressed by heavy taxes and that the treasury is not replenished by extortion steleco and utropias had shaken hands over the death of ruffinus but the good understanding was not destined to last longer than the song of triumph we cannot just lay blame utropias for this no minister of arcadius could regard with goodwill or indifference the desirous steleco to interfere in the affairs of new rome for this desire cannot be denied even if one do not accept the theory that the scheme of detaching lyricum from arcadius's dominion was entertained by him at his earlier date is 396 his position of master of soldier in italy gave him no power in other parts of the empire and the attitude which he assumed as an elderly relative solicitously concerned for the welfare of his wife's young cousin in obedience to the wishes of that cousin's father was untenable when it led him to exceed the acts of a strictly private friendship we can then well understand the indignation felt at new rome not only by utropias but probably also by men of a quite different faction when the news arrived at steleco purpose to visit Constantinople to set things in order and arrange matters for arcadius such officiousness was intolerable and it was plain that the strongest protest must be made against it the senate accordingly passed a resolution declaring steleco a public enemy this action of the senate is very remarkable and its signification is not generally perceived if the act had been all together due to utropias it would surely have taken the form of an imperial decree utropias would not have resorted to the troublesome method of bribing or threatening the whole senate even if he had been able to do so we must conclude then that the general feeling against steleco was strong and we must confess naturally strong the situation was now complicated by a revolt in africa which eventually proved highly fortunate for the influence of steleco 18 years before the murmur of firmus made an attempt to create a kingdom for himself in the african provinces 83.79 and had been quelled by the arms of theodosius who received important assistance from gildo the brother and enemy of firmus gildo was duly rewarded he was finally military commander or count of africa and his daughter selvina was united in marriage to a nephew of the empress alia flakilla but the faith of the murmurs was as the faith of the carthaginians gildo refused to send aid to theodosius in his expedition against eugenius after theodosius's death he prepared to take a more positive attitude and he engaged numerous african nomad tribes to support him in his revolt the strange relations between old and new roam which did not escape his notice suggested to him that his rebellion might assume the form of a transition from the sovereignty of anoreus to the sovereignty of arcadius he knew that if he were dependent only on new roam he would be practically independent he entered accordingly into communication with the government of arcadius but the negotiations came to nothing it appears that gildo demanded that libya should be consigned to his rule and he certainly took possession of it it also appears that embassies on the subject pass between italy and constantinople and that samakus the orator was one of the ambassadors but it is certain that arcadius did not in any way assist gildo and the comparatively slight and moderate references which the hostile claudius makes to the hesitating attitude of new roam indicated the government of alexandreus did not behave very badly after all we need not go into the details of the gildonic war through which stiliko won well-deserved laurels although he did not take the fields himself what made the revolt of the count of africa of such great moment was the fact that the african provinces were the granary of old roam as egypt was the granary of new roam by stopping the supplies of corn gildo might hope to starve out italy the prompt action and efficient management of stiliko however prevented any catastrophe for ships from gone from spain laden with corn appeared in the tiber and roam was supplied during the winter months early in 398 a fleet sailed against the tyrant whose hideous cruelties and oppressions were worthy of his murish blood and it is a curious fact that this fleet was under the command of meshezel gildo's brother who is now playing the same part toward gildo that gildo had played towards his brother firmus the undisciplined nomadic army of the rebel was scattered without labor at artalio and africa was delivered from the murish reign of ruin and terror to which roman rule with all its fiscal sternness was peace and prosperity the subjugation of the man whom the senate of old roam had pronounced a public enemy redounded far and wide to the glory of the man whom the senate of new roam had proclaimed a public enemy and in the meantime stiliko's position had become still more splendid and secure by the marriage of his daughter maria with the emperor and aureus 398 for which an epithelamion was written by claudian who as we might expect celebrates the father-in-law as expressly as the bridal pair the gildonic war also supplied we need hardly remark a grateful material for his favorite theme and the year 400 to which stiliko gave his name of consul inspired an enthusiastic effusion it may seem strange that now almost at the zenith of his fame the father-in-law of the emperor and the hero of the gildonic war did not make some attempt to carry out his favorite project of interfering with the government of the eastern provinces but there are two considerations which may help to explain this in the first place stiliko himself was not the man of indomitable will who forms a project and carries it through who is a man rather of that ambitious but hesitating character which momson is rebese to pompe he was half a roman and half a barbarian he was half strong and half weak he was half patriotic and half selfish his intentions were unscrupulous but he was almost afraid of them besides this his wife serena probably endeavored to check his policy of discord and maintain unity in the theodosian house in the second place it is sufficiently probable that he was in constant communication with gynus the german general of the eastern armies and chief representative of the german interests and the realm of arcadius and that gynus was awaiting his time for an outbreak by which stiliko hoped to profit and execute his designs he had no excuse for interference and he was willing to wait his inactive policy of the next two years must not be taken to indicate that he cherished no ambitious projects the germans looked up to stiliko as the most important german in the empire their natural protector and friend while there was a large roman faction opposed to him as a foreigner but as yet this faction was not strong enough to overpower him it is remarkable that his fall was finally brought about by the influence of a palace official ad 408 while the fall of his rival utropius which occurred far sooner ad 399 was brought about by the compulsion of a german general these facts indicate that the two dangers to which i have already called attention the preponderating influence of chamberlands and unix were mutually checks on each other end of section 38 recording by squeaky end of the great events by famous historians volume three edited by charles f horn rosseter johnson and john rudd