The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Эдвард Гиббон

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СКАЧАТЬ Critique de l’Etablissement de la Monarchie Françoise, tom. i. p. 189-424, throws great light on the state of Gaul, when it was invaded by Attila; but the ingenious author, the Abbé Dubos, too often bewilders himself in system and conjecture.

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      Victor Vitensis (de Persecut. Vandal. l. i. c. 6, p. 8, edit. Ruinart) calls him, acer consilio et strenuus in bello; but his courage, when he became unfortunate, was censured as desperate rashness, and Sebastian deserved, or obtained, the epithet of præceps (Sidon. Apollinar. Carmen. ix. 181 [leg. 280]). His adventures at Constantinople, in Sicily, Gaul, Spain, and Africa are faintly marked in the Chronicles of Marcellinus and Idatius. In his distress he was always followed by a numerous train; since he could ravage the Hellespont and Propontis and seize the city of Barcelona.

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      Reipublicæ Romanæ singulariter natus, qui superbiam Suevorum, Francorumque barbariem immensis cædibus servire Imperio Romano coegisset. Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 34, p. 660.

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      This portrait is drawn by Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus, a contemporary historian, known only by some extracts, which are preserved by Gregory of Tours (l. ii. c. 8, in tom. ii. p. 163). It was probably the duty, or at least the interest, of Renatus to magnify the virtues of Aetius; but he would have shewn more dexterity, if he had not insisted on his patient, forgiving disposition. [See further the panegyric of Aetius by Merobaudes, ed. by Bekker. Cp. above, vol. iv. Appendix 5, p. 350-351.]

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      The embassy consisted of Count Romulus; of Promotus, president of Noricum; and of Romanus, the military duke. They were accompanied by Tatullus, an illustrious citizen of Petovio [Pettau] in the same province, and father of Orestes, who had married the daughter of Count Romulus. See Priscus, p. 57, 65 [p. 84, 91]. Cassiodorius (Variar. i. 4) mentions another embassy, which was executed by his father and Carpilio, the son of Aetius; and, as Attila was no more, he could safely boast of their manly intrepid behaviour in his presence.

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      Deserta Valentinæ urbis rura Alanis partienda traduntur. Prosper. Tironis Chron. [ad ann. 440] in Historiens de France, tom. i. p. 639. A few lines afterwards, Prosper observes that lands in the ulterior Gaul were assigned to the Alani. Without admitting the correction of Dubos (tom. i. p. 300), the reasonable supposition of two colonies or garrisons of Alani will confirm his arguments and remove his objections. [Cp. Dahn, Kön. der Germanen, i. 264. Von Wietersheim argues for only one settlement in the neighbourhood of Orleans, Völkerw. ii. p. 213 (ed. Dahn). The gratuitous correction of Dubos was Aurelianae urbis.]

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      See Prosper Tiro, p. 639. Sidonius (Panegyr. Avit. 246) complains, in the name of Auvergne, his native country,

      Litorius Scythicos equites tunc [leg. tum] forte subacto

      Celsus Aremorico, Geticum rapiebat in agmen

      Per terras, Arverne, tuas, qui proxima quæque

      Discursu, flammis, ferro, feritate, rapinis,

      Delebant, pacis fallentes nomen inane.

      Another poet, Paulinus of Perigord, confirms the complaint: —

      Nam socium vix ferre queas, qui durior hoste.

      See Dubos, tom. i. p. 330.

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      Theodoric II., the son of Theodoric I., declares to Avitus his resolution of repairing or expiating the fault which his grandfather had committed.

      Quæ noster peccavit avus, quem fuscat id unum,

      Quod te, Roma, capit. ——

      — Sidon. Panegyric. Avit. 505.

      This character, applicable only to the great Alaric, establishes the genealogy of the Gothic kings, which has hitherto been unnoticed. [The reference to Alaric is clear; cp. Luetjohann in his ed. of Sidonius, p. 418. But avus is used loosely. If Theodoric I. were Alaric’s son, the fact must have been otherwise known.]

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      The name of Sapaudiae, the origin of Savoy, is first mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus [xv. 11, 17]; and two military posts are ascertained, by the Notitia, within the limits of that province: a cohort was stationed at Grenoble [Gratianopolis] in Dauphiné; and Ebredunum, or Iverdun, sheltered a fleet of small vessels, which commanded the lake of Neufchâtel. See Valesius, Notit. Galliarum, p. 503. D’Anville, Notice de l’Ancienne Gaule, p. 284, 579.

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      Salvian has attempted to explain the moral government of the Deity; a task which may be readily performed by supposing that the calamities of the wicked are judgments, and those of the righteous, trials.

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      —— Capto terrarum damna patebant

      Litorio; in Rhodanum proprios producere fines,

      Theudoridæ fixum; nec erat pugnare necesse,

      Sed migrare Getis. Rabidam trux asperat iram

      Victor; quod sensit Scythicum sub mœnibus hostem,

      Imputat; et nihil est gravius, si forsitan unquam

      Vincere contingat, trepido —.

      — Panegyr. Avit 300, &c.

      Sidonius then proceeds, according to the duty of a panegyrist, to transfer the whole merit from Aetius to his minister Avitus.

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      Theodoric II. revered, in the person of Avitus, the character of his preceptor.

      —— Mihi Romula dudum

      Per te jura placent, parvumque ediscere jussit

      Ad tua verba pater, docili quo prisca Maronis

      Carmine molliret Scythicos mihi pagina mores.

      — Sidon. Panegyr. Avit. 495, &c.

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      Our authorities for the reign of Theodoric I. are: Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 34, 36, and the Chronicles of Idatius, and the two Prospers, inserted in the Historians of France, tom. i. p. 612-640. To these we may add Salvian de Gubernatione Dei, l. vii. p. 243, 244, 245, and the Panegyric of Avitus, by Sidonius.

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      Reges Crinitos [super] se creavisse de primâ, et ut ita dicam nobiliori suorum familiâ (Greg. Turon. l. ii. c. 9, p. 166, of the second volume of the Historians of France). Gregory himself does not mention the Merovingian name, which may be traced, however, to the beginning of the seventh century as the distinctive appellation of the royal family, СКАЧАТЬ