The Dark Ages. David Hume

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ who was threatening Rome. Perhaps what Honorius was to do in return for the proffered assistance was to permit the sovran of Gaul to assume the consulship. In any case it was suspected that Constantine aspired to add Italy to his realm as he had added Spain, and that the subjugation of Alaric was only a pretext for entering Italy, as it might have been said that the subjugation of the Vandals and their fellow-invaders had been only a pretext for his entering Gaul. Hellebich, Master of Soldiers (equitum), was also suspected of favouring the designs of the usurper, and the suspicion, whether true or false, cost him his life; Honorius caused him to be assassinated. When this occurred Constantine was already in Italy, and the fact that when the news reached him he immediately recrossed the mountains, strongly suggests that the suspicion was true, and that he depended on this general’s treason for the success of his Italian designs.

      Constans had left his general, Gerontius, a Briton, in charge of Spain. Barbarian federates, known as Honorians, had been used for the conquest of Spain by Constans, and to these was entrusted the defence of the passes of the Pyrenees. It was an unfortunate measure. The Spanish regular troops, who now acknowledged the authority of Constantine, thought that the charge ought to have been entrusted as before to the national militia, and they revolted.50 The Honorians betrayed or neglected their trust. It was the autumn of A.D. 409, and on a Tuesday, either September 28 or October 5, the host of barbarians who had been oppressing western Gaul for more than two years — the Asdings under King Gunderic, the Silings, the Sueves, and the Alans — crossed the mountains and passed into Spain.51

      Constans imputed the troubles in Spain to the incapacity of Gerontius, and he returned from Gaul to supersede him and restore order. But Gerontius was not of a spirit to submit tamely. He seems to have come to terms with the legions, and he made some sort of league with the barbarians, by which a large part of the land was abandoned to them.52 He renounced the authority of Constantine, and though he did not assume the purple himself, he raised up a new Emperor, a certain Maximus, who was perhaps his own son.

      Thus at the beginning of A.D. 410 there were six Emperors, legitimate and illegitimate, acknowledged in various parts of the Empire. Besides Honorius and his nephew Theodosius, there was Attalus at Rome, there were Constantine and Constans at Arles, and there was Maximus at Tarragona.

      Constans soon fled before Gerontius and his barbarian allies to Gaul, and after some time — the chronology is very obscure — Gerontius, leaving Maximus to reign in state at Tarragona, marched into Gaul against the father and son who had once been his masters. It was apparently in A.D. 411 that Constans was captured and put to death at Vienne, and then his father Constantine was besieged at Arles.

      But Honorius, now that Alaric was dead, although the Goths were still in Italy, was able to bethink him of the lands he had lost beyond the Alps, and he sent an army under two generals Constantius and Ulfila, to do what Sarus had failed to do and win back Gaul. Constantius was an Illyrian, born at Naissus, the birthplace of Constantine the Great, and for the next ten years the fortunes of Honorius were to depend upon him as before they had depended upon Stilicho. We may consider it certain that when he led the troops of Italy to Gaul he had already been raised to the post of Master of Both Services.53 We have a slight portrait of his appearance and manners. He had large eyes, a broad head, and a long neck; he leaned low over the neck of his horse, and as his eyes shot swift glances right and left he seemed to beholders a man who might one day aim at the throne. On public occasions his look was stern, but in private, at table and at wine-parties, he was genial and agreeable. He was superior to the temptations of money, though at a later stage of his career he was to fall into the vice of avarice. His ambition was associated with love. He was passionately attached to the Emperor’s step-sister Galla Placidia, who was now a captive in the hands of the Goths.

      When Constantius and his Gothic subordinate Ulfila advanced along the coast road of Provence against Arles, the blockading army of Gerontius fled before the representatives of legitimacy. Gerontius returned to Spain and there his own troops turned against him. The house in which he took refuge was besieged; he and his Alan squire fought long and bravely for their lives; then the house was set on fire, and at length in despair he slew his squire and his wife at their own request and then stabbed himself.54 Maximus fled to find safety among some of the barbarian invaders who had supported his throne.

      Meanwhile Constantine, with his second son Julian, was being besieged in Arles by the army of Italy which had replaced the army of Spain. The siege wore on for three months, and the hopes of the legitimised usurper depended upon the arrival of his general Edobich, who had been sent beyond the Rhine to gain reinforcements from the Alamanni and Franks. Edobich at length returned with a formidable army, but a battle, fought near the city, resulted in a victory for the besiegers. Edobich was slain by the treachery of a friend in whose house he sought shelter, and Constantine, seeing that his crown was irrecoverably lost, thought only of saving his life. He stripped off the Imperial purple and “fled to a sanctuary, where he was ordained priest, and the victors gave a sworn guarantee for his personal safety. Then the gates of the city were thrown open to the besiegers, and Constantine was sent with his son to Honorius. But that Emperor, cherishing resentment towards them for his cousins, whom Constantine had slain, violated the oaths and ordered them to be put to death, thirty miles from Ravenna”55 (September, A.D. 411).

      § 3. The Tyranny of Jovinus and the Reign of Athaulf in Gaul (A.D. 412-415)

      It was not long after the fall of Constantine that a new tyrant was elevated in Gaul. Jovinus, a Gallo-Roman, was proclaimed at Moguntiacum. This city, which had been wrecked by the barbarians five years before, was now in the power of the Burgundians, and it was their king, Gundahar, and Goar, the Alan chief (who, it will be remembered, had been enlisted in the service of Honorius), to whom Jovinus owed the purple. Constantius and Ulfilas, having done their work in overthrowing the tyrant of Arles, had returned to Italy, and the subjugation of Jovinus was reserved for the Visigoths.

      It has already been related that the Visigoths, under the leadership of King Athaulf, crossed the Alps early in A.D. 412. They took with them their captive Galla Placidia and the deposed Emperor Attalus. They had come to no agreement with Ravenna; if any agreement had been made, the restoration of Placidia would have been a condition. Athaulf was probably more inclined to side with Jovinus against Honorius than with Honorius against Jovinus. Circumstances decided him to champion the cause of legitimacy.

      Attalus, from some motive which is not clear, persuaded him to offer his services to Jovinus. But it appears that the arrival of this unexpected help was not welcome to the tyrant. Perhaps his Burgundian friends did not look with favour on the coming of a people into Gaul who might prove rivals to themselves. Perhaps the terms which Athaulf proposed seemed exorbitant. Then Sarus, the Visigoth who had been in the service of Honorius, and who was the mortal enemy of Athaulf just as he had been the mortal enemy of Alaric, appeared on the scene with above a score of followers to attach himself to the fortunes of Jovinus, because Honorius had refused to grant him justice for the murder of a faithful domestic. Athaulf was incensed when he heard of his approach, and advanced with ten thousand to crush twenty men. Sarus did not shirk fighting against such appalling odds, and having performed deeds of marvellous heroism he was taken and put to death. This incident did not tend to smooth the negotiations with Jovinus, and when the tyrant proclaimed his brother Sebastian Augustus, against Athaulf’s wishes,56 the Visigoth entered into communication with Dardanus the Praetorian Prefect, the only important official in Gaul who had not deserted the cause of Honorius. Envoys were sent to Ravenna, and Honorius accepted the terms of Athaulf, who promised to send him the heads of the two tyrants. Sebastian was defeated and slain immediately, and Jovinus fled to Valence, which, so recently besieged by Gerontius, was now to undergo another siege. It seems to have been taken by storm; Jovinus was carried to Narbonne and executed by the order of Dardanus (autumn, A.D. 413).57 For the moment the authority of Honorius was supreme in Gaul.

      It may be wondered why Constantius having suppressed Constantine did not СКАЧАТЬ