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Wilkie Collins - "LITTLE NOVELS"

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The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

E >> Edward Gibbon >> The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire




[Footnote 74: Socrates (l. vii. c. 21) mentions her name,
(Athenais, the daughter of Leontius, an Athenian sophist,) her
baptism, marriage, and poetical genius. The most ancient account
of her history is in John Malala (part ii. p. 20, 21, edit.
Venet. 1743) and in the Paschal Chronicle, (p. 311, 312.) Those
authors had probably seen original pictures of the empress
Eudocia. The modern Greeks, Zonaras, Cedrenus, &c., have
displayed the love, rather than the talent of fiction. From
Nicephorus, indeed, I have ventured to assume her age. The
writer of a romance would not have imagined, that Athenais was
near twenty eight years old when she inflamed the heart of a
young emperor.]

[Footnote 75: Socrates, l. vii. c. 21, Photius, p. 413 - 420.
The Homeric cento is still extant, and has been repeatedly
printed: but the claim of Eudocia to that insipid performance is
disputed by the critics. See Fabricius, Biblioth. Graec. tom.
i. p. 357. The Ionia, a miscellaneous dictionary of history and
fable, was compiled by another empress of the name of Eudocia,
who lived in the eleventh century: and the work is still extant
in manuscript.]

[Footnote 76: Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 438, 439) is copious
and florid, but he is accused of placing the lies of different
ages on the same level of authenticity.]

[Footnote 77: In this short view of the disgrace of Eudocia, I
have imitated the caution of Evagrius (l. i. c. 21) and Count
Marcellinus, (in Chron A.D. 440 and 444.) The two authentic dates
assigned by the latter, overturn a great part of the Greek
fictions; and the celebrated story of the apple, &c., is fit only
for the Arabian Nights, where something not very unlike it may be
found.]
[Footnote 78: Priscus, (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 69,) a
contemporary, and a courtier, dryly mentions her Pagan and
Christian names, without adding any title of honor or respect.]
[Footnote 79: For the two pilgrimages of Eudocia, and her long
residence at Jerusalem, her devotion, alms, &c., see Socrates (l.
vii. c. 47) and Evagrius, (l. i. c. 21, 22.) The Paschal
Chronicle may sometimes deserve regard; and in the domestic
history of Antioch, John Malala becomes a writer of good
authority. The Abbe Guenee, in a memoir on the fertility of
Palestine, of which I have only seen an extract, calculates the
gifts of Eudocia at 20,488 pounds of gold, above 800,000 pounds
sterling.]

The gentle mind of Theodosius was never inflamed by the
ambition of conquest, or military renown; and the slight alarm of
a Persian war scarcely interrupted the tranquillity of the East.
The motives of this war were just and honorable. In the last
year of the reign of Jezdegerd, the supposed guardian of
Theodosius, a bishop, who aspired to the crown of martyrdom,
destroyed one of the fire-temples of Susa. ^80 His zeal and
obstinacy were revenged on his brethren: the Magi excited a cruel
persecution; and the intolerant zeal of Jezdegerd was imitated by
his son Varanes, or Bahram, who soon afterwards ascended the
throne. Some Christian fugitives, who escaped to the Roman
frontier, were sternly demanded, and generously refused; and the
refusal, aggravated by commercial disputes, soon kindled a war
between the rival monarchies. The mountains of Armenia, and the
plains of Mesopotamia, were filled with hostile armies; but the
operations of two successive campaigns were not productive of any
decisive or memorable events. Some engagements were fought, some
towns were besieged, with various and doubtful success: and if
the Romans failed in their attempt to recover the long-lost
possession of Nisibis, the Persians were repulsed from the walls
of a Mesopotamian city, by the valor of a martial bishop, who
pointed his thundering engine in the name of St. Thomas the
Apostle. Yet the splendid victories which the incredible speed
of the messenger Palladius repeatedly announced to the palace of
Constantinople, were celebrated with festivals and panegyrics.
From these panegyrics the historians ^81 of the age might borrow
their extraordinary, and, perhaps, fabulous tales; of the proud
challenge of a Persian hero, who was entangled by the net, and
despatched by the sword, of Areobindus the Goth; of the ten
thousand Immortals, who were slain in the attack of the Roman
camp; and of the hundred thousand Arabs, or Saracens, who were
impelled by a panic terror to throw themselves headlong into the
Euphrates. Such events may be disbelieved or disregarded; but the
charity of a bishop, Acacius of Amida, whose name might have
dignified the saintly calendar, shall not be lost in oblivion.
Boldly declaring, that vases of gold and silver are useless to a
God who neither eats nor drinks, the generous prelate sold the
plate of the church of Amida; employed the price in the
redemption of seven thousand Persian captives; supplied their
wants with affectionate liberality; and dismissed them to their
native country, to inform their king of the true spirit of the
religion which he persecuted. The practice of benevolence in the
midst of war must always tend to assuage the animosity of
contending nations; and I wish to persuade myself, that Acacius
contributed to the restoration of peace. In the conference which
was held on the limits of the two empires, the Roman ambassadors
degraded the personal character of their sovereign, by a vain
attempt to magnify the extent of his power; when they seriously
advised the Persians to prevent, by a timely accommodation, the
wrath of a monarch, who was yet ignorant of this distant war. A
truce of one hundred years was solemnly ratified; and although
the revolutions of Armenia might threaten the public
tranquillity, the essential conditions of this treaty were
respected near fourscore years by the successors of Constantine
and Artaxerxes.

[Footnote 80: Theodoret, l. v. c. 39 Tillemont. Mem. Eccles tom.
xii. 356 - 364. Assemanni, Bibliot. Oriental. tom. iii. p. 396,
tom. iv. p. 61. Theodoret blames the rashness of Abdas, but
extols the constancy of his martyrdom. Yet I do not clearly
understand the casuistry which prohibits our repairing the damage
which we have unlawfully committed.]

[Footnote 81: Socrates (l. vii. c. 18, 19, 20, 21) is the best
author for the Persian war. We may likewise consult the three
Chronicles, the Paschal and those of Marcellinus and Malala.]
Since the Roman and Parthian standards first encountered on
the banks of the Euphrates, the kingdom of Armenia ^82 was
alternately oppressed by its formidable protectors; and in the
course of this History, several events, which inclined the
balance of peace and war, have been already related. A
disgraceful treaty had resigned Armenia to the ambition of Sapor;
and the scale of Persia appeared to preponderate. But the royal
race of Arsaces impatiently submitted to the house of Sassan; the
turbulent nobles asserted, or betrayed, their hereditary
independence; and the nation was still attached to the Christian
princes of Constantinople. In the beginning of the fifth
century, Armenia was divided by the progress of war and faction;
^83 and the unnatural division precipitated the downfall of that
ancient monarchy. Chosroes, the Persian vassal, reigned over the
Eastern and most extensive portion of the country; while the
Western province acknowledged the jurisdiction of Arsaces, and
the supremacy of the emperor Arcadius. ^* After the death of
Arsaces, the Romans suppressed the regal government, and imposed
on their allies the condition of subjects. The military command
was delegated to the count of the Armenian frontier; the city of
Theodosiopolis ^84 was built and fortified in a strong situation,
on a fertile and lofty ground, near the sources of the Euphrates;
and the dependent territories were ruled by five satraps, whose
dignity was marked by a peculiar habit of gold and purple. The
less fortunate nobles, who lamented the loss of their king, and
envied the honors of their equals, were provoked to negotiate
their peace and pardon at the Persian court; and returning, with
their followers, to the palace of Artaxata, acknowledged Chosroes
^! for their lawful sovereign. About thirty years afterwards,
Artasires, the nephew and successor of Chosroes, fell under the
displeasure of the haughty and capricious nobles of Armenia; and
they unanimously desired a Persian governor in the room of an
unworthy king. The answer of the archbishop Isaac, whose
sanction they earnestly solicited, is expressive of the character
of a superstitious people. He deplored the manifest and
inexcusable vices of Artasires; and declared, that he should not
hesitate to accuse him before the tribunal of a Christian
emperor, who would punish, without destroying, the sinner. "Our
king," continued Isaac, "is too much addicted to licentious
pleasures, but he has been purified in the holy waters of
baptism. He is a lover of women, but he does not adore the fire
or the elements. He may deserve the reproach of lewdness, but he
is an undoubted Catholic; and his faith is pure, though his
manners are flagitious. I will never consent to abandon my sheep
to the rage of devouring wolves; and you would soon repent your
rash exchange of the infirmities of a believer, for the specious
virtues of a heathen." ^85 Exasperated by the firmness of Isaac,
the factious nobles accused both the king and the archbishop as
the secret adherents of the emperor; and absurdly rejoiced in the
sentence of condemnation, which, after a partial hearing, was
solemnly pronounced by Bahram himself. The descendants of
Arsaces were degraded from the royal dignity, ^86 which they had
possessed above five hundred and sixty years; ^87 and the
dominions of the unfortunate Artasires, ^* under the new and
significant appellation of Persarmenia, were reduced into the
form of a province. This usurpation excited the jealousy of the
Roman government; but the rising disputes were soon terminated by
an amicable, though unequal, partition of the ancient kingdom of
Armenia: ^** and a territorial acquisition, which Augustus might
have despised, reflected some lustre on the declining empire of
the younger Theodosius.

[Footnote 82: This account of the ruin and division of the
kingdom of Armenia is taken from the third book of the Armenian
history of Moses of Chorene. Deficient as he is in every
qualification of a good historian, his local information, his
passions, and his prejudices are strongly expressive of a native
and contemporary. Procopius (de Edificiis, l. iii. c. 1, 5)
relates the same facts in a very different manner; but I have
extracted the circumstances the most probable in themselves, and
the least inconsistent with Moses of Chorene.]

[Footnote 83: The western Armenians used the Greek language and
characters in their religious offices; but the use of that
hostile tongue was prohibited by the Persians in the Eastern
provinces, which were obliged to use the Syriac, till the
invention of the Armenian letters by Mesrobes, in the beginning
of the fifth century, and the subsequent version of the Bible
into the Armenian language; an event which relaxed to the
connection of the church and nation with Constantinople.]

[Footnote 84: Moses Choren. l. iii. c. 59, p. 309, and p. 358.
Procopius, de Edificiis, l. iii. c. 5. Theodosiopolis stands, or
rather stood, about thirty-five miles to the east of Arzeroum,
the modern capital of Turkish Armenia. See D'Anville, Geographie
Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 99, 100.]
[Footnote *: The division of Armenia, according to M. St. Martin,
took place much earlier, A. C. 390. The Eastern or Persian
division was four times as large as the Western or Roman. This
partition took place during the reigns of Theodosius the First,
and Varanes (Bahram) the Fourth. St. Martin, Sup. to Le Beau,
iv. 429. This partition was but imperfectly accomplished, as
both parts were afterwards reunited under Chosroes, who paid
tribute both to the Roman emperor and to the Persian king. v.
439. - M.]

[Footnote !: Chosroes, according to Procopius (who calls him
Arsaces, the common name of the Armenian kings) and the Armenian
writers, bequeathed to his two sons, to Tigranes the Persian, to
Arsaces the Roman, division of Armenia, A. C. 416. With the
assistance of the discontented nobles the Persian king placed his
son Sapor on the throne of the Eastern division; the Western at
the same time was united to the Roman empire, and called the
Greater Armenia. It was then that Theodosiopolis was built.
Sapor abandoned the throne of Armenia to assert his rights to
that of Persia; he perished in the struggle, and after a period
of anarchy, Bahram V., who had ascended the throne of Persia,
placed the last native prince, Ardaschir, son of Bahram
Schahpour, on the throne of the Persian division of Armenia. St.
Martin, v. 506. This Ardaschir was the Artasires of Gibbon. The
archbishop Isaac is called by the Armenians the Patriarch Schag.
St. Martin, vi. 29. - M.]

[Footnote 85: Moses Choren, l. iii. c. 63, p. 316. According to
the institution of St. Gregory, the Apostle of Armenia, the
archbishop was always of the royal family; a circumstance which,
in some degree, corrected the influence of the sacerdotal
character, and united the mitre with the crown.]
[Footnote 86: A branch of the royal house of Arsaces still
subsisted with the rank and possessions (as it should seem) of
Armenian satraps. See Moses Choren. l. iii. c. 65, p. 321.]
[Footnote 87: Valarsaces was appointed king of Armenia by his
brother the Parthian monarch, immediately after the defeat of
Antiochus Sidetes, (Moses Choren. l. ii. c. 2, p. 85,) one
hundred and thirty years before Christ. Without depending on the
various and contradictory periods of the reigns of the last
kings, we may be assured, that the ruin of the Armenian kingdom
happened after the council of Chalcedon, A.D. 431, (l. iii. c.
61, p. 312;) and under Varamus, or Bahram, king of Persia, (l.
iii. c. 64, p. 317,) who reigned from A.D. 420 to 440. See
Assemanni, Bibliot. Oriental. tom. iii. p. 396.

Note: Five hundred and eighty. St. Martin, ibid. He places
this event A. C 429. - M.]

Note: According to M. St. Martin, vi. 32, Vagharschah, or
Valarsaces, was appointed king by his brother Mithridates the
Great, king of Parthia. - M.]
[Footnote *: Artasires or Ardaschir was probably sent to the
castle of Oblivion. St. Martin, vi. 31. - M.]

[Footnote **: The duration of the Armenian kingdom according to
M. St. Martin, was 580 years. - M]

Chapter XXXIII: Conquest Of Africa By The Vandals.

Part I.

Death Of Honorius. - Valentinian III. - Emperor Of The East.
- Administration Of His Mother Placidia - Aetius And Boniface. -
Conquest Of Africa By The Vandals.

During a long and disgraceful reign of twenty-eight years,
Honorius, emperor of the West, was separated from the friendship
of his brother, and afterwards of his nephew, who reigned over
the East; and Constantinople beheld, with apparent indifference
and secret joy, the calamities of Rome. The strange adventures of
Placidia ^1 gradually renewed and cemented the alliance of the
two empires. The daughter of the great Theodosius had been the
captive, and the queen, of the Goths; she lost an affectionate
husband; she was dragged in chains by his insulting assassin; she
tasted the pleasure of revenge, and was exchanged, in the treaty
of peace, for six hundred thousand measures of wheat. After her
return from Spain to Italy, Placidia experienced a new
persecution in the bosom of her family. She was averse to a
marriage, which had been stipulated without her consent; and the
brave Constantius, as a noble reward for the tyrants whom he had
vanquished, received, from the hand of Honorius himself, the
struggling and the reluctant hand of the widow of Adolphus. But
her resistance ended with the ceremony of the nuptials: nor did
Placidia refuse to become the mother of Honoria and Valentinian
the Third, or to assume and exercise an absolute dominion over
the mind of her grateful husband. The generous soldier, whose
time had hitherto been divided between social pleasure and
military service, was taught new lessons of avarice and ambition:
he extorted the title of Augustus: and the servant of Honorius
was associated to the empire of the West. The death of
Constantius, in the seventh month of his reign, instead of
diminishing, seemed to inerease the power of Placidia; and the
indecent familiarity ^2 of her brother, which might be no more
than the symptoms of a childish affection, were universally
attributed to incestuous love. On a sudden, by some base
intrigues of a steward and a nurse, this excessive fondness was
converted into an irreconcilable quarrel: the debates of the
emperor and his sister were not long confined within the walls of
the palace; and as the Gothic soldiers adhered to their queen,
the city of Ravenna was agitated with bloody and dangerous
tumults, which could only be appeased by the forced or voluntary
retreat of Placidia and her children. The royal exiles landed at
Constantinople, soon after the marriage of Theodosius, during the
festival of the Persian victories. They were treated with
kindness and magnificence; but as the statues of the emperor
Constantius had been rejected by the Eastern court, the title of
Augusta could not decently be allowed to his widow. Within a few
months after the arrival of Placidia, a swift messenger announced
the death of Honorius, the consequence of a dropsy; but the
important secret was not divulged, till the necessary orders had
been despatched for the march of a large body of troops to the
sea-coast of Dalmatia. The shops and the gates of Constantinople
remained shut during seven days; and the loss of a foreign
prince, who could neither be esteemed nor regretted, was
celebrated with loud and affected demonstrations of the public
grief.
[Footnote 1: See vol. iii. p. 296.]

[Footnote 2: It is the expression of Olympiodorus (apud Phetium
p. 197;) who means, perhaps, to describe the same caresses which
Mahomet bestowed on his daughter Phatemah. Quando, (says the
prophet himself,) quando subit mihi desiderium Paradisi, osculor
eam, et ingero linguam meam in os ejus. But this sensual
indulgence was justified by miracle and mystery; and the anecdote
has been communicated to the public by the Reverend Father
Maracci in his Version and Confutation of the Koran, tom. i. p.
32.]

While the ministers of Constantinople deliberated, the
vacant throne of Honorius was usurped by the ambition of a
stranger. The name of the rebel was John; he filled the
confidential office of Primicerius, or principal secretary, and
history has attributed to his character more virtues, than can
easily be reconciled with the violation of the most sacred duty.
Elated by the submission of Italy, and the hope of an alliance
with the Huns, John presumed to insult, by an embassy, the
majesty of the Eastern emperor; but when he understood that his
agents had been banished, imprisoned, and at length chased away
with deserved ignominy, John prepared to assert, by arms, the
injustice of his claims. In such a cause, the grandson of the
great Theodosius should have marched in person: but the young
emperor was easily diverted, by his physicians, from so rash and
hazardous a design; and the conduct of the Italian expedition was
prudently intrusted to Ardaburius, and his son Aspar, who had
already signalized their valor against the Persians. It was
resolved, that Ardaburius should embark with the infantry; whilst
Aspar, at the head of the cavalry, conducted Placidia and her son
Valentinian along the sea-coast of the Adriatic. The march of
the cavalry was performed with such active diligence, that they
surprised, without resistance, the important city of Aquileia:
when the hopes of Aspar were unexpectedly confounded by the
intelligence, that a storm had dispersed the Imperial fleet; and
that his father, with only two galleys, was taken and carried a
prisoner into the port of Ravenna. Yet this incident,
unfortunate as it might seem, facilitated the conquest of Italy.
Ardaburius employed, or abused, the courteous freedom which he
was permitted to enjoy, to revive among the troops a sense of
loyalty and gratitude; and as soon as the conspiracy was ripe for
execution, he invited, by private messages, and pressed the
approach of, Aspar. A shepherd, whom the popular credulity
transformed into an angel, guided the eastern cavalry by a
secret, and, it was thought, an impassable road, through the
morasses of the Po: the gates of Ravenna, after a short struggle,
were thrown open; and the defenceless tyrant was delivered to the
mercy, or rather to the cruelty, of the conquerors. His right
hand was first cut off; and, after he had been exposed, mounted
on an ass, to the public derision, John was beheaded in the
circus of Aquileia. The emperor Theodosius, when he received the
news of the victory, interrupted the horse-races; and singing, as
he marched through the streets, a suitable psalm, conducted his
people from the Hippodrome to the church, where he spent the
remainder of the day in grateful devotion. ^3

[Footnote 3: For these revolutions of the Western empire, consult
Olympiodor, apud Phot. p. 192, 193, 196, 197, 200; Sozomen, l.
ix. c. 16; Socrates, l. vii. 23, 24; Philostorgius, l. xii. c.
10, 11, and Godefroy, Dissertat p. 486; Procopius, de Bell.
Vandal. l. i. c. 3, p. 182, 183, in Chronograph, p. 72, 73, and
the Chronicles.]

In a monarchy, which, according to various precedents, might
be considered as elective, or hereditary, or patrimonial, it was
impossible that the intricate claims of female and collateral
succession should be clearly defined; ^4 and Theodosius, by the
right of consanguinity or conquest, might have reigned the sole
legitimate emperor of the Romans. For a moment, perhaps, his eyes
were dazzled by the prospect of unbounded sway; but his indolent
temper gradually acquiesced in the dictates of sound policy. He
contented himself with the possession of the East; and wisely
relinquished the laborious task of waging a distant and doubtful
war against the Barbarians beyond the Alps; or of securing the
obedience of the Italians and Africans, whose minds were
alienated by the irreconcilable difference of language and
interest. Instead of listening to the voice of ambition,
Theodosius resolved to imitate the moderation of his grandfather,
and to seat his cousin Valentinian on the throne of the West.
The royal infant was distinguished at Constantinople by the title
of Nobilissimus: he was promoted, before his departure from
Thessalonica, to the rank and dignity of Caesar; and after the
conquest of Italy, the patrician Helion, by the authority of
Theodosius, and in the presence of the senate, saluted
Valentinian the Third by the name of Augustus, and solemnly
invested him with the diadem and the Imperial purple. ^5 By the
agreement of the three females who governed the Roman world, the
son of Placidia was betrothed to Eudoxia, the daughter of
Theodosius and Athenais; and as soon as the lover and his bride
had attained the age of puberty, this honorable alliance was
faithfully accomplished. At the same time, as a compensation,
perhaps, for the expenses of the war, the Western Illyricum was
detached from the Italian dominions, and yielded to the throne of
Constantinople. ^6 The emperor of the East acquired the useful
dominion of the rich and maritime province of Dalmatia, and the
dangerous sovereignty of Pannonia and Noricum, which had been
filled and ravaged above twenty years by a promiscuous crowd of
Huns, Ostrogoths, Vandals, and Bavarians. Theodosius and
Valentinian continued to respect the obligations of their public
and domestic alliance; but the unity of the Roman government was
finally dissolved. By a positive declaration, the validity of
all future laws was limited to the dominions of their peculiar
author; unless he should think proper to communicate them,
subscribed with his own hand, for the approbation of his
independent colleague. ^7

[Footnote 4: See Grotius de Jure Belli et Pacis, l. ii. c. 7. He
has laboriously out vainly, attempted to form a reasonable system
of jurisprudence from the various and discordant modes of royal
succession, which have been introduced by fraud or force, by time
or accident.]

[Footnote 5: The original writers are not agreed (see Muratori,
Annali d'Italia tom. iv. p. 139) whether Valentinian received the
Imperial diadem at Rome or Ravenna. In this uncertainty, I am
willing to believe, that some respect was shown to the senate.]
[Footnote 6: The count de Buat (Hist. des Peup es de l'Europe,
tom. vii. p. 292 - 300) has established the reality, explained
the motives, and traced the consequences, of this remarkable
cession.]

[Footnote 7: See the first Novel of Theodosius, by which he
ratifies and communicates (A.D. 438) the Theodosian Code. About
forty years before that time, the unity of legislation had been
proved by an exception. The Jews, who were numerous in the
cities of Apulia and Calabria, produced a law of the East to
justify their exemption from municipal offices, (Cod. Theod. l.
xvi. tit. viii. leg. 13;) and the Western emperor was obliged to
invalidate, by a special edict, the law, quam constat meis
partibus esse damnosam. Cod. Theod. l. xi. tit. i. leg. 158.]
Valentinian, when he received the title of Augustus, was no
more than six years of age; and his long minority was intrusted
to the guardian care of a mother, who might assert a female claim
to the succession of the Western empire. Placidia envied, but
she could not equal, the reputation and virtues of the wife and
sister of Theodosius, the elegant genius of Eudocia, the wise and
successful policy of Pulcheria. The mother of Valentinian was
jealous of the power which she was incapable of exercising; ^8
she reigned twenty-five years, in the name of her son; and the
character of that unworthy emperor gradually countenanced the
suspicion that Placidia had enervated his youth by a dissolute
education, and studiously diverted his attention from every manly
and honorable pursuit. Amidst the decay of military spirit, her
armies were commanded by two generals, Aetius ^9 and Boniface,
^10 who may be deservedly named as the last of the Romans. Their
union might have supported a sinking empire; their discord was
the fatal and immediate cause of the loss of Africa. The invasion
and defeat of Attila have immortalized the fame of Aetius; and
though time has thrown a shade over the exploits of his rival,
the defence of Marseilles, and the deliverance of Africa, attest
the military talents of Count Boniface. In the field of battle,
in partial encounters, in single combats, he was still the terror
of the Barbarians: the clergy, and particularly his friend
Augustin, were edified by the Christian piety which had once
tempted him to retire from the world; the people applauded his
spotless integrity; the army dreaded his equal and inexorable
justice, which may be displayed in a very singular example. A
peasant, who complained of the criminal intimacy between his wife
and a Gothic soldier, was directed to attend his tribunal the
following day: in the evening the count, who had diligently
informed himself of the time and place of the assignation,
mounted his horse, rode ten miles into the country, surprised the
guilty couple, punished the soldier with instant death, and
silenced the complaints of the husband by presenting him, the
next morning, with the head of the adulterer. The abilities of
Aetius and Boniface might have been usefully employed against the
public enemies, in separate and important commands; but the
experience of their past conduct should have decided the real
favor and confidence of the empress Placidia. In the melancholy
season of her exile and distress, Boniface alone had maintained
her cause with unshaken fidelity: and the troops and treasures of
Africa had essentially contributed to extinguish the rebellion.
The same rebellion had been supported by the zeal and activity of
Aetius, who brought an army of sixty thousand Huns from the
Danube to the confines of Italy, for the service of the usurper.
The untimely death of John compelled him to accept an
advantageous treaty; but he still continued, the subject and the
soldier of Valentinian, to entertain a secret, perhaps a
treasonable, correspondence with his Barbarian allies, whose
retreat had been purchased by liberal gifts, and more liberal
promises. But Aetius possessed an advantage of singular moment
in a female reign; he was present: he besieged, with artful and
assiduous flattery, the palace of Ravenna; disguised his dark
designs with the mask of loyalty and friendship; and at length
deceived both his mistress and his absent rival, by a subtle
conspiracy, which a weak woman and a brave man could not easily
suspect. He had secretly persuaded ^11 Placidia to recall
Boniface from the government of Africa; he secretly advised
Boniface to disobey the Imperial summons: to the one, he
represented the order as a sentence of death; to the other, he
stated the refusal as a signal of revolt; and when the credulous
and unsuspectful count had armed the province in his defence,
Aetius applauded his sagacity in foreseeing the rebellion, which
his own perfidy had excited. A temperate inquiry into the real
motives of Boniface would have restored a faithful servant to his
duty and to the republic; but the arts of Aetius still continued
to betray and to inflame, and the count was urged, by
persecution, to embrace the most desperate counsels. The success
with which he eluded or repelled the first attacks, could not
inspire a vain confidence, that at the head of some loose,
disorderly Africans, he should be able to withstand the regular
forces of the West, commanded by a rival, whose military
character it was impossible for him to despise. After some
hesitation, the last struggles of prudence and loyalty, Boniface
despatched a trusty friend to the court, or rather to the camp,
of Gonderic, king of the Vandals, with the proposal of a strict
alliance, and the offer of an advantageous and perpetual
settlement.
[Footnote 8: Cassiodorus (Variar. l. xi. Epist. i. p. 238) has
compared the regencies of Placidia and Amalasuntha. He arraigns
the weakness of the mother of Valentinian, and praises the
virtues of his royal mistress. On this occasion, flattery seems
to have spoken the language of truth.]
[Footnote 9: Philostorgius, l. xii. c. 12, and Godefroy's
Dissertat. p. 493, &c.; and Renatus Frigeridus, apud Gregor.
Turon. l. ii. c. 8, in tom. ii. p. 163. The father of Aetius was
Gaudentius, an illustrious citizen of the province of Scythia,
and master-general of the cavalry; his mother was a rich and
noble Italian. From his earliest youth, Aetius, as a soldier and
a hostage, had conversed with the Barbarians.]

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