Back to Chapter Listing
Continue Reading
Part III.
The
Romans had long experienced the daring valor of the people of Lower Germany. The union of their strength threatened
Gaul with a more formidable invasion, and required the presence of
Gallienus, the heir and colleague of
Imperial power.
75
Whilst that prince, and his infant son
Salonius, displayed, in the court of
Treves, the majesty of the empire its armies were ably
conducted by their general,
Posthumus, who, though he afterwards betrayed the family of
Valerian, was ever faithful to the
great interests of the monarchy. The treacherous language of panegyrics and medals darkly announces a long series of victories.
Trophies and titles attest (if such evidence can attest) the fame of
Posthumus, who is repeatedly styled the
Conqueror of the
Germans, and the Savior of
Gaul.
76
Footnote 75: Zosimus, l. i. p. 27.
Footnote 76: M. de Brequigny (in the Memoires de l'Academie, tom. xxx.) has given us a very curious life of Posthumus. A
series of the Augustan History from Medals and Inscriptions has been more than once planned, and is still much wanted.
But a single fact, the only one indeed of which we have any distinct knowledge, erases, in a great measure, these monuments of
vanity and
adulation. The
Rhine, though dignified with the title of
Safeguard of the provinces, was an imperfect barrier against
the daring spirit of enterprise with which the Franks were actuated. Their rapid devastation stretched from the river to the foot
of the
Pyrenees; nor were they stopped by those mountains.
Spain, which had never dreaded, was unable to resist, the inroads
of the Germans. During twelve years, the greatest part of the reign of
Gallienus, that opulent country was the theatre of unequal
and destructive hostilities.
Tarragona, the flourishing capital of a peaceful province, was sacked and almost destroyed;
77 and
so late as the days of
Orosius, who wrote in the fifth century, wretched cottages, scattered amidst the ruins of magnificent cities,
still recorded the rage of the
barbarians.
78 When the exhausted country no longer supplied a variety of
plunder,
the Franks
seized on some vessels in the ports of
Spain,
79 and transported themselves into
Mauritania. The distant province was
astonished with the fury of these barbarians, who seemed to fall from a new world, as their name, manners, and complexion,
were equally unknown on the coast of
Africa.
80
Footnote 77: Aurel. Victor, c. 33. Instead of Poene direpto, both the sense
and the expression require deleto; though indeed, for different reasons, it is alike difficult to correct the text of the best, and of
the worst, writers.
Footnote 78: In the time of Ausonius (the end of the fourth century) Ilerda or Lerida was in a very ruinous state, (Auson. Epist.
xxv. 58,) which probably was the consequence of this invasion.
Footnote 79: Valesius is therefore mistaken in supposing that the Franks had invaded Spain by sea.
Footnote 80: Aurel. Victor. Eutrop. ix. 6.
II. In that part of Upper
Saxony, beyond the
Elbe, which is at present called the Marquisate of
Lusace, there existed, in ancient
times, a sacred wood, the awful seat of the superstition of the
Suevi. None were permitted to enter the holy precincts, without
confessing, by their
servile bonds and
suppliant posture, the immediate presence of the sovereign
Deity.
81 Patriotism
contributed, as well as devotion, to consecrate the
Sonnenwald, or wood of the Semnones.
82 It was universally believed,
that the nation had received its first existence on that sacred spot. At stated periods, the numerous tribes who gloried in the
Suevic blood, resorted thither by their ambassadors; and the memory of their common extraction was perpetrated by
barbaric
rites and
human sacrifice. The wide-extended name of
Suevi filled the interior countries of Germany, from the banks of the
Oder to those of the
Danube. They were distinguished from the other Germans by their peculiar mode of dressing their long
hair, which they gathered into a rude knot on the crown of the head; and they delighted in an ornament that showed their ranks
more lofty and terrible in the eyes of the enemy.
83 Jealous as the Germans were of military
renown, they all confessed the
superior valor of the Suevi; and the tribes of the Usipetes and Tencteri, who, with a vast army, encountered the dictator
Caesar, declared that they esteemed it not a disgrace to have fled before a people to whose arms the immortal gods themselves
were unequal.
84
Footnote 81: Tacit. Germania, 38.
Footnote 82: Cluver. Germ. Antiq. iii. 25.
Footnote 83: Sic Suevi a ceteris Germanis, sic Suerorum ingenui a servis separantur. A proud separation!
Footnote 84: Caesar in Bello Gallico, iv. 7.
In the reign of the emperor
Caracalla, an innumerable swarm of Suevi appeared on the banks of the Mein, and in the
neighborhood of the Roman provinces, in quest either of food, of plunder, or of glory.
85 The hasty army of volunteers
gradually coalesced into a great and permanent nation, and as it was composed from so many different tribes, assumed the
name of
Alemanni,
* or
Allmen; to denote at once their various
lineage and their common
bravery.
86
The latter was soon felt by the Romans in many a hostile inroad. The
Alemanni fought chiefly on horseback; but their
cavalry was rendered still
more
formidable by a mixture of
light infantry, selected from the bravest and most active of the youth, whom frequent exercise
had inured to accompany the horsemen in the longest march, the most rapid charge, or the most precipitate retreat.
87
Footnote 85: Victor in Caracal. Dion Cassius, lxvii. p. 1350.
Footnote *: The nation of the Alemanni was not originally formed by the Suavi properly so called; these have always preserved their own name. Shortly afterwards they made (A. D. 357) an irruption into Rhaetia, and it was not long after that they were reunited with the Alemanni. Still they have always been a distinct people; at the present day, the people who inhabit the north-west of the Black Forest call themselves Schwaben, Suabians, Sueves, while those who inhabit near the Rhine, in Ortenau, the Brisgaw, the Margraviate of Baden, do not consider themselves Suabians, and are by origin Alemanni. The Teucteri and the Usipetae, inhabitants of the interior and of the north of Westphalia, formed, says Gatterer, the nucleus of the Alemannic nation; they occupied the country where the name of the Alemanni first appears, as conquered in 213, by Caracalla They were well trained to fight on horseback, (according to Tacitus, Germ. c. 32;) and Aurelius Victor gives the
same praise to the Alemanni: finally, they never made part of the Frankish league. The Alemanni became subsequently a centre
round which gathered a multitude of German tribes.
Footnote 86: This etymology (far different from those which amuse the fancy of the learned) is preserved by Asinius
Quadratus, an original historian, quoted by Agathias, i. c. 5.
Footnote 87: The Suevi engaged Caesar in this manner, and the maneuver deserved the approbation of the conqueror, (in
Bello Gallico, i. 48.)
This
warlike people of Germans had been astonished by the immense preparations of Alexander
Severus;
they were dismayed by the arms of his successor, a barbarian equal in valor and fierceness to themselves. But still hovering on
the frontiers of the empire, they increased the general disorder that ensued after the death of
Decius. They inflicted severe
wounds on the rich provinces of
Gaul; they were the first who removed the veil that covered the feeble majesty of
Italy. A
numerous body of the Alemanni penetrated across the
Danube and through the Rhaetian
Alps into the plains of
Lombardy,
advanced as far as
Ravenna, and displayed the victorious banners of barbarians almost in sight of
Rome.
88
Footnote 88: Hist. August. p. 215, 216. Dexippus in the Excerpts. Legationam, p. 8. Hieronym. Chron. Orosius, vii. 22.
The insult and the danger rekindled in the
senate some sparks of their ancient
virtue. Both the emperors were engaged in far
distant wars,
Valerian in the East, and
Gallienus on the Rhine. All the hopes and resources of the Romans were in themselves.
In this emergency, the senators resumed the defense of the
republic, drew out the
Praetorian Guard, who had been left to
garrison the capital, and filled up their numbers, by enlisting into the
public service the stoutest and most willing of the
Plebeian.
The Alemanni, astonished with the sudden appearance of an army more numerous than their own, retired into Germany, laden
with
spoil; and their retreat was esteemed as a victory by the unwarlike Romans.
89
Footnote 89: Zosimus, l. i. p. 34.
When
Gallienus received the
intelligence that his capital was delivered from the barbarians, he was much less delighted than
alarmed with the
courage of the
senate, since it might one day prompt them to rescue the public from domestic
tyranny as well
as from foreign
invasion. His timid ingratitude was published to his subjects, in an edict which prohibited the senators from
exercising any military
employment, and even from approaching the camps of the legions. But his fears were groundless. The
rich and
luxurious nobles, sinking into their natural character, accepted, as a favor, this disgraceful exemption from military
service; and as long as
they were indulged in the enjoyment of their baths, their theatres, and their villas, they cheerfully resigned
the more dangerous cares of empire to the rough hands of peasants and soldiers. 90
Footnote 90: Aurel. Victor, in Gallieno et Probo. His complaints breathe as uncommon spirit of freedom.
Another
invasion of the Alemanni, of a more formidable aspect, but more glorious event, is mentioned by a writer of the lower
empire. Three hundred thousand are said to have been vanquished, in a battle near
Milan, by
Gallienus in person, at the head of
only ten thousand Romans.
91 We may, however, with great probability, ascribe this incredible victory either to the
credulity
of the historian, or to some exaggerated exploits of one of the emperor's lieutenants. It was by arms of a very different nature,
that
Gallienus endeavored to protect
Italy from the fury of the Germans. He espoused Pipa, the daughter of a king of the
Marcomanni, a Suevic tribe, which was often confounded with the
Alemanni in their wars and conquests.
92 To the father, as
the price of his
alliance, he granted an ample settlement in Pannonia. The native charms of unpolished beauty seem to have fixed
the daughter in the affections of the inconstant emperor, and the bands of policy were more firmly connected by those of love.
But the haughty
prejudice of Rome still refused the name of
marriage to the profane mixture of a citizen and a barbarian; and
has stigmatized the German princess with the
opprobrious title of
concubine of
Gallienus.
93
Footnote 91: Zonaras, l. xii. p. 631.
Footnote 92: One of the Victors calls him king of the Marcomanni; the other of the Germans.
Footnote 93: See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iii. p. 398, &c.
III. We have already traced the emigration of the
Goths from
Scandinavia, or at least from
Prussia, to the mouth of the Borysthenes, and have followed their victorious arms from
the Borysthenes to the
Danube. Under the reigns of
Valerian and
Gallienus, the
frontier of the last- mentioned river was
perpetually infested by the inroads of Germans and Sarmatians; but it was defended by the Romans with more than usual
firmness and success. The provinces that were the seat of war, recruited the
armies of Rome with an inexhaustible supply of
hardy soldiers; and more than one of these Illyrian peasants attained the station, and displayed the abilities, of a general. Though
flying parties of the barbarians, who incessantly hovered on the banks of the
Danube, penetrated sometimes to the confines of
Italy and
Macedonia, their progress was commonly checked, or their return intercepted, by the Imperial lieutenants.
94 But
the great stream of the
Gothic hostilities was diverted into a very different channel.
The Goths, in their new settlement of the
Ukraine, soon became masters of the northern coast of the Euxine: to the south of that inland sea were situated the soft and
wealthy provinces of Asia Minor, which possessed all that could attract, and nothing that could resist, a barbarian conqueror.
Footnote 94: See the lives of Claudius, Aurelian, and Probus, in the Augustan History.
The banks of the Borysthenes are only sixty miles distant from the narrow entrance
95 of the
peninsula of
Crim Tartary,
known to the ancients under the name of
Chersonesus Taurica.
96 On that inhospitable shore,
Euripides, embellishing with
exquisite art the tales of
antiquity, has placed the scene of one of his most affecting tragedies.
97 The bloody sacrifices of
Diana, the arrival of
Orestes and
Pylades, and the triumph of virtue and religion over savage fierceness, serve to represent an
historical truth, that the Tauri, the original inhabitants of the peninsula, were, in some degree, reclaimed from their brutal
manners by a gradual intercourse with the
Grecian colonies, which settled along the maritime coast. The little kingdom of
Bosphorus, whose capital was situated on the Straits, through which the Maeotis communicates itself to the
Euxine, was
composed of
degenerate Greeks and half-civilized barbarians. It subsisted, as an independent state, from the time of the
Peloponnesian war,
98 was at last swallowed up by the ambition of
Mithridates,
99 and, with the rest of his dominions, sunk
under the weight of the Roman arms. From the reign of
Augustus,
100 the kings of
Bosphorus were the humble, but not
useless, allies of the
empire. By presents, by arms, and by a slight fortification drawn across the Isthmus, they effectually
guarded against the
roving plunderers of Sarmatia, the access of a country, which, from its peculiar situation and convenient
harbors, commanded the
Euxine Sea and
Asia Mino.
101 As long as the
scepter was possessed by a lineal
succession of
kings, they acquitted themselves of their important charge with vigilance and success.
Domestic factions, and the fears, or
private interest, of obscure usurpers, who seized on the vacant throne, admitted the Goths into the heart of Bosphorus. With the
acquisition of a superfluous waste of
fertile soil, the conquerors obtained the command of a naval force, sufficient to transport
their armies to the coast of
Asia.
102 This ships used in the
navigation of the
Euxine were of a very singular construction. They
were slight flat-bottomed barks framed of
timber only, without the least mixture of
iron, and occasionally covered with a
shelving roof, on the appearance of a
tempest.
103 In these floating houses, the Goths carelessly trusted themselves to the
mercy of an unknown sea, under the conduct of sailors pressed into the service, and whose skill and fidelity were equally
suspicious. But the hopes of
plunder had banished every idea of danger, and a natural fearlessness of temper supplied in their
minds the more rational
confidence, which is the just result of knowledge and experience. Warriors of such a daring spirit must
have often murmured against the
cowardice of their guides, who required the strongest assurances of a settled calm before they
would venture to embark; and would scarcely ever be tempted to lose sight of the land. Such, at least, is the practice of the
modern
Turks;
104 and they are probably not inferior, in the art of
navigation, to the ancient inhabitants of
Bosphorus.
Footnote 95: It is about half a league in breadth. Genealogical History of the Tartars, p 598.
Footnote 96: M. de Peyssonel, who had been French Consul at Caffa, in his Observations sur les Peuples Barbares, que ont
habite les bords du Danube
Footnote 97: Euripides in Iphigenia in Taurid.
Footnote 98: Strabo, l. vii. p. 309. The first kings of Bosphorus were the allies of Athens.
Footnote 99: Appian in Mithridat.
Footnote 100: It was reduced by the arms of Agrippa. Orosius, vi. 21. Eu tropius, vii. 9. The Romans once advanced within
three days' march of the Tanais. Tacit. Annal. xii. 17.
Footnote 101: See the Toxaris of Lucian, if we credit the sincerity and the virtues of the Scythian, who relates a great war of
his nation against the kings of Bosphorus.
Footnote 102: Zosimus, l. i. p. 28.
Footnote 103: Strabo, l. xi. Tacit. Hist. iii. 47. They were called Camaroe.
Footnote 104: See a very natural picture of the Euxine navigation, in the xvith letter of Tournefort.
The fleet of the
Goths, leaving the coast of
Circassia on the left hand, first appeared before
Pityus,
105 the utmost limits of the
Roman provinces; a city provided with a convenient
port, and fortified with a strong wall. Here they met with a
resistance more
obstinate than they had reason to expect from the feeble
garrison of a distant
fortress.
They were repulsed; and their
disappointment seemed to diminish the terror of the Gothic name. As long as
Successianus, an officer of superior rank and
merit, defended that frontier, all their efforts were ineffectual; but as soon as he was removed by
Valerian to a more honorable
but less important station, they resumed the attack of
Pityus; and by the
destruction of that city, obliterated the memory of their
former disgrace.
106
Footnote 105: Arian places the frontier garrison at Dioscurias, or Sebastopolis, forty-four miles to the east of Pityus. The
garrison of Phasis consisted in his time of only four hundred foot. See the Periplus of the Euxine. Note: Pityus is Pitchinda, according to D'Anville, ii. 115. - G. Rather Boukoun. - M. Dioscurias is Iskuriah. - G.
Footnote 106: Zosimus, l. i. p. 30.
Back to Chapter Listing
Continue Reading
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. 260-266.