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Part II.
The death of
Claudius had revived the fainting spirit of the Goths. The troops which guarded the passes of Mount Haemus, and
the banks of the Danube, had been drawn away by the apprehension of a
civil war; and it seems probable that the remaining body
of the
Gothic and
Vandal tribes embraced the favorable opportunity, abandoned their settlements of the
Ukraine, traversed
the rivers, and swelled with new multitudes the destroying host of their countrymen. Their united numbers were at length
encountered by
Aurelian, and the bloody and doubtful conflict ended only with the approach of night.
20 Exhausted by so many
calamities, which they had mutually endured and inflicted during a twenty years' war, the
Goths and the
Romans consented to a
lasting and beneficial
treaty. It was earnestly solicited by the barbarians, and cheerfully ratified by the legions, to whose
suffrage the prudence of Aurelian referred the decision of that important question. The Gothic nation engaged to supply the
armies of Rome with a body of two thousand auxiliaries, consisting entirely of
cavalry, and stipulated in return an undisturbed
retreat, with a regular market as far as the
Danube, provided by the emperor's care, but at their own expense. The treaty was
observed with such religious
fidelity, that when a party of five hundred men straggled from the camp in quest of
plunder, the
king or general of the barbarians commanded that the guilty leader should be apprehended and shot to death with darts, as a
victim devoted to the sanctity of their engagements.
* It is, however, not unlikely, that the precaution of Aurelian, who had
exacted as hostages the sons and daughters of the
Gothic chiefs, contributed something to this pacific temper. The youths he
trained in the exercise of arms, and near his own person: to the damsels he gave a liberal and Roman education, and by
bestowing them in marriage on some of his principal officers, gradually introduced between the two nations the closest and
most endearing connections.
21
Footnote 20: Zosimus, l. i. p. 45.
Footnote *: The five hundred stragglers were all slain. - M.
Footnote 21: Dexipphus (ap. Excerpta Legat. p. 12) relates the whole transaction under the name of Vandals. Aurelian married
one of the Gothic ladies to his general Bonosus, who was able to drink with the Goths and discover their secrets. Hist. August.
p. 247.
But the most important condition of peace was understood rather than expressed in the treaty. Aurelian withdrew the Roman
forces from
Dacia, and tacitly relinquished that great province to the
Goths and
Vandals.
22 His manly judgment convinced
him of the solid advantages, and taught him to despise the seeming disgrace, of thus contracting the frontiers of the
monarchy.
The Dacian subjects, removed from those distant possessions which they were unable to cultivate or defend, added strength and
populousness to the southern side of the
Danube. A fertile territory, which the repetition of barbarous inroads had changed
into a desert, was yielded to their
industry, and a new province of Dacia still preserved the memory of Trajan's conquests. The
old country of that name detained, however, a considerable number of its inhabitants, who dreaded exile more than a Gothic
master.
23 These
degenerate Romans continued to serve the empire, whose allegiance they had renounced, by introducing
among their conquerors the first notions of
agriculture, the useful arts, and the conveniences of civilized life. An intercourse
of
commerce and
language was gradually established between the opposite banks of the
Danube; and after Dacia became an
independent state, it often proved the firmest barrier of the empire against the invasions of the savages of the North. A sense of
interest attached these more settled barbarians to the alliance of Rome, and a permanent interest very frequently ripens into
sincere and useful friendship. This various
colony, which filled the ancient province, and was insensibly blended into one great
people, still acknowledged the superior renown and authority of the Gothic tribe, and claimed the fancied honor of a
Scandinavian origin. At the same time, the lucky though accidental resemblance of the name of Getae,
* infused among the
credulous Goths a vain persuasion, that in a remote age, their own ancestors, already seated in the Dacian provinces, had
received the instructions of
Zamolxis, and checked the victorious arms of
Sesostris and
Darius.
24
Footnote 22: Hist. August. p. 222. Eutrop. ix. 15. Sextus Rufus, c. 9. de Mortibus Persecutorum, c. 9.
Footnote 23: The Walachians still preserve many traces of the Latin language and have boasted, in every age, of their Roman
descent. They are surrounded by, but not mixed with, the barbarians. See a Memoir of M. d'Anville on ancient Dacia, in the
Academy of Inscriptions, tom. xxx.
Footnote *: The connection between the Getae and the Goths is still in my opinion incorrectly maintained by some learned
writers - M.
Footnote 24: See the first chapter of Jornandes. The Vandals, however, (c. 22,) maintained a short independence between the
Rivers Marisia and Crissia, (Maros and Keres,) which fell into the Teiss.
While the vigorous and moderate conduct of
Aurelian restored the Illyrian frontier, the nation of the Alemanni
25 violated
the conditions of peace, which either
Gallienus had purchased, or
Claudius had imposed, and, inflamed by their impatient
youth, suddenly flew to arms. Forty thousand horse appeared in the field,
26 and the numbers of the infantry doubled those of
the cavalry.
27 The first objects of their avarice were a few cities of the Rhaetian frontier; but their hopes soon rising with
success, the rapid march of the Alemanni traced a line of devastation from the
Danube to the
Po.
28
Footnote 25: Dexippus, p. 7 - 12. Zosimus, l. i. p. 43. Vopiscus in Aurelian in Hist. August. However these historians differ in
names,) Alemanni Juthungi, and Marcomanni,) it is evident that they mean the same people, and the same war; but it requires
some care to conciliate and explain them.
Footnote 26: Cantoclarus, with his usual accuracy, chooses to translate three hundred thousand: his version is equally
repugnant to sense and to grammar.
Footnote 27: We may remark, as an instance of bad taste, that Dexippus applies to the light infantry of the Alemanni the
technical terms proper only to the Grecian phalanx.
Footnote 28: In Dexippus, we at present read Rhodanus: M. de Valois very judiciously alters the word to Eridanus.
The emperor was almost at the same time informed of the irruption, and of the retreat, of the
barbarian hoards. Collecting an active
body of troops, he marched with silence and celerity along the skirts of the Hercynian forest; and the Alemanni, laden with the
spoils of
Italy, arrived at the Danube, without suspecting, that on the opposite bank, and in an advantageous post, a Roman army
lay concealed and prepared to intercept their return. Aurelian indulged the fatal security of the barbarians, and permitted
about half their forces to pass the river without disturbance and without precaution. Their situation and astonishment gave him
an easy victory; his skilful conduct improved the advantage. Disposing the legions in a semicircular form, he advanced the two
horns of the crescent across the Danube, and wheeling them on a sudden towards the center, enclosed the rear of the German
host.
The dismayed barbarians, on whatsoever side they cast their eyes, beheld, with despair, a wasted country, a deep and rapid
stream, a victorious and implacable enemy.
Reduced to this distressed condition, the Alemanni no longer disdained to
sue for peace. Aurelian received their ambassadors
at the head of his camp, and with every circumstance of martial pomp that could display the greatness and discipline of Rome.
The legions stood to their arms in well- ordered ranks and awful silence. The principal commanders, distinguished by the
ensigns of their rank, appeared on horseback on either side of the
Imperial throne. Behind the throne the consecrated images
of the emperor, and his predecessors,
29 the golden eagles, and the various titles of the legions, engraved in letters of gold,
were exalted in the air on lofty pikes covered with silver. When Aurelian assumed his seat, his manly grace and majestic
figure
30 taught the barbarians to revere the person as well as the purple of their
conqueror. The ambassadors fell prostrate
on the ground in silence. They were commanded to rise, and permitted to speak. By the assistance of interpreters they
extenuated their perfidy, magnified their exploits, expatiated on the vicissitudes of fortune and the advantages of peace, and,
with an ill-timed confidence, demanded a large subsidy, as the price of the alliance which they offered to the Romans. The
answer of the emperor was stern and imperious. He treated their offer with contempt, and their demand with indignation,
reproached the barbarians, that they were as ignorant of
the art of war as of the laws of
peace, and finally dismissed them with
the choice only of submitting to this
unconditional mercy, or awaiting the utmost severity of his resentment.
31 Aurelian had
resigned a distant province to the
Goths; but it was dangerous to trust or to pardon these perfidious barbarians, whose
formidable power kept Italy itself in perpetual alarms.
Footnote 29: The emperor Claudius was certainly of the number; but we are ignorant how far this mark of respect was
extended; if to Caesar and Augustus, it must have produced a very awful spectacle; a long line of the masters of the world.
Footnote 30: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 210.
Footnote 31: Dexippus gives them a subtle and prolix oration, worthy of a Grecian sophist.
Immediately after this conference, it should seem that some unexpected emergency required the emperor's presence in
Pannonia. He devolved on his lieutenants the care of finishing the destruction of the Alemanni, either by the sword, or by the
surer operation of
famine. But an active despair has often triumphed over the indolent assurance of success. The barbarians,
finding it impossible to traverse the Danube and the Roman camp, broke through the posts in their rear, which were more
feebly or less carefully guarded; and with incredible
diligence, but by a different road, returned towards the mountains of Italy.
32 Aurelian, who considered the war as totally extinguished, received the mortifying intelligence of the escape of the
Alemanni, and of the ravage which they already committed in the territory of
Milan. The legions were commanded to follow,
with as much expedition as those heavy bodies were capable of exerting, the rapid flight of an enemy whose
infantry and cavalry
moved with almost equal swiftness. A few days afterwards, the emperor himself marched to the relief of Italy, at the head of a
chosen body of auxiliaries, (among whom were the hostages and cavalry of the Vandals,) and of all the
Praetorian Guard who
had served in the wars on the
Danube.
33
Footnote 32: Hist. August. p. 215.
Footnote 33: Dexippus, p. 12.
As the light troops of the Alemanni had spread themselves from the Alps to the Apennine, the incessant vigilance of Aurelian
and his officers was exercised in the discovery, the attack, and the pursuit of the numerous detachments. Notwithstanding this
desultory war, three considerable battles are mentioned, in which the principal force of both armies was obstinately engaged.
34 The success was various. In the first, fought near
Placentia, the Romans received so severe a blow, that, according to the
expression of a writer extremely partial to Aurelian, the immediate dissolution of the empire was apprehended.
35 The crafty
barbarians, who had lined the woods, suddenly attacked the legions in the dusk of the evening, and, it is most probable, after the
fatigue and disorder of a long march. The fury of their charge was irresistible; but, at length, after a dreadful
slaughter, the
patient firmness of the emperor rallied his troops, and restored, in some degree, the honor of his arms. The second battle was
fought near Fano in
Umbria; on the spot which, five hundred years before, had been fatal to the brother of
Hannibal.
36 Thus
far the successful Germans had advanced along the Aemilian and Flaminian way, with a design of sacking the defenseless
mistress of the world. But Aurelian, who, watchful for the safety of Rome, still hung on their rear, found in this place the
decisive moment of giving them a total and irretrievable defeat.
37 The flying remnant of their host was exterminated in a
third and last battle near Pavia; and Italy was delivered from the inroads of the Alemanni.
Footnote 34: Victor Junior in Aurelian.
Footnote 35: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 216.
Footnote 36: The little river, or rather torrent, of, Metaurus, near Fano, has been immortalized, by finding such an historian
as Livy, and such a poet as Horace.
Footnote 37: It is recorded by an inscription found at Pesaro. See Gruter cclxxvi. 3.
Fear has been the original parent of superstition, and every new calamity urges trembling mortals to deprecate the wrath of
their invisible enemies. Though the best hope of the
republic was in the valor and conduct of Aurelian, yet such was the public
consternation, when the barbarians were hourly expected at the gates of
Rome, that, by a decree of the senate the
Sibylline
books were consulted. Even the emperor himself from a motive either of
religion or of
policy, recommended this salutary
measure, chided the tardiness of the senate,
38 and offered to supply whatever expense, whatever animals, whatever captives
of any nation, the gods should require. Notwithstanding this liberal offer, it does not appear, that any human victims expiated
with their blood the sins of the Roman people. The Sibylline books enjoined ceremonies of a more harmless nature,
processions of priests in white robes, attended by a chorus of youths and virgins; lustrations of the city and adjacent country;
and sacrifices, whose powerful influence disabled the barbarians from passing the
mystic ground on which they had been
celebrated. However
puerile in themselves, these
superstitious arts were subservient to the success of the war; and if, in the
decisive battle of Fano, the Alemanni fancied they saw an army of specters combating on the side of Aurelian, he received a real
and effectual aid from this imaginary
reinforcement.
39
Footnote 38: One should imagine, he said, that you were assembled in a Christian church, not in the temple of all the gods.
Footnote 39: Vopiscus, in Hist. August. p. 215, 216, gives a long account of these ceremonies from the Registers of the
senate.
But whatever
confidence might be placed in ideal ramparts, the experience of the past, and the dread of the future, induced the
Romans to construct fortifications of a grosser and more substantial kind. The seven hills of Rome had been surrounded, by
the successors of
Romulus, with an ancient wall of more than thirteen miles.
40 The vast enclosure may seem
disproportional to the strength and numbers of the infant state. But it was necessary to secure an ample extent of
pasture and
arable land, against the frequent and sudden incursions of the tribes of
Latium, the perpetual enemies of the republic. With the
progress of Roman greatness, the city and its inhabitants gradually increased, filled up the vacant space, pierced through the
useless walls, covered the field of
Mars, and, on every side, followed the public highways in long and beautiful suburbs.
41
The extent of the new walls, erected by
Aurelian, and finished in the reign of Probus, was magnified by popular estimation to
near fifty,
42 but is reduced by accurate measurement to about twenty-one miles.
43 It was a great but a melancholy labor, since the defense of the capital betrayed the decline of the
monarchy. The Romans of a more prosperous age, who trusted to the
arms of the legions the safety of the frontier camps,
44 were very far from entertaining a suspicion, that it would ever become
necessary to fortify the seat of empire against the inroads of the barbarians.
45
Footnote 40: Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 5. To confirm our idea, we may observe, that for a long time Mount Caelius was a grove of
oaks, and Mount Viminal was overrun with osiers; that, in the fourth century, the Aventine was a vacant and solitary
retirement; that, till the time of Augustus, the Esquiline was an unwholesome burying-ground; and that the numerous
inequalities, remarked by the ancients in the Quirinal, sufficiently prove that it was not covered with buildings. Of the seven
hills, the Capitoline and Palatine only, with the adjacent valleys, were the primitive habitations of the Roman people. But this
subject would require a dissertation.
Footnote 41: Exspatiantia tecta multas addidere urbes, is the expression of Pliny.
Footnote 42: Hist. August. p. 222. Both Lipsius and Isaac Vossius have eagerly embraced this measure.
Footnote 43: See Nardini, Roman Antica, l. i. c. 8.
Note: But compare Gibbon, ch. xli. note 77. - M.
Footnote 44: Tacit. Hist. iv. 23.
Footnote 45: For Aurelian's walls, see Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 216, 222. Zosimus, l. i. p. 43. Eutropius, ix. 15. Aurel.
Victor in Aurelian Victor Junior in Aurelian. Euseb. Hieronym. et Idatius in Chronic
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To cite original text:
Gibbon, Edward, 1737-1794.
The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. 1st ed. (London : Printed for W. Strahan ; and T. Cadell, 1776-1788.), pp. 298-304.