romansocietyinla00dilluoft

ROMAN SOCIETY
LAST CENTURY OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
ROMAN SOCIETY FROM NERO TO

MARCUS AURELIUS
Second Edition.
MACMILLAN AND
%vo.
i$s. net.
CO., LTD.,
LONDON.
BOMAN SOCIETY
IN
THE
LAST CENTUEY OF THE WESTEEN
EMPIEE
BY
SAMUEL
DILL,
v^N
M.A.
PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN QUEEN'S COLLEGE, BELFAST

SOMETIME FELLOW AND TUTOR OF CORPUS
CHRISTI COLLEGE, OXFORD
SECOND EDITION, REVISED
MACMILLAN AND
ST.
CO.,
LIMITED
MABTIN'S STEEET, LONDON

1910
D5
.
First Edition (8w) 1898.
Second Edition (Ex. Crown Zvo)
Reprinted (8vd)
1905, 1906, 1910
PEEFACE TO SECOND EDITION

THIS second edition of a work, which has met with such
a generous reception both from the educated public and
from learned
critics,
has not been fundamentally altered.
It is possible that materials, so
from so
many
sources,
arranged in an
reader.
On
fragmentary and gleaned
might here and there have been
order more satisfactory to the critical
the other hand,
it is
not improbable that
something of the freshness of the original impression

derived from the authorities might be lost in an effort to
obtain a more perfect sequence.
At the same time the
opportunity of a reprint has been used to
many minor changes.

sion has been
An
make
amended; statements which seemed too
strong or incautious have occasionally been toned
and some
a good
occasional looseness of expres-
slips as
to fact, or the
have been corrected.
down
form of proper names,
few additional references have
been inserted in the notes, especially to Friedlander's

Sittengeschichte JKoms, which, although it deals only
the
society of the first
and second
centuries,
with
may
be
instructively used for purposes of comparison with the
ROMAN SOCIETY
vi
society of the later Empire.
Lastly, a table of the
more
important dates of the period has been added, with the

object
of facilitating
some knowledge
assumed.
6th July 1899.
of
the perusal
of a
the general history
book in which
is
necessarily
PEEFACE
A
FEW words
of preface
seem
to be necessary to explain
the object of this book, and the limits within which the
writer has wished to confine
it.
It is perhaps superfluous
to say that nothing like a general history of the period

That is a task which has been
has been attempted.
The subject of
already accomplished by abler hands.
work is mainly what it professes to be, the inner life

and thoughts of the last three generations in the Empire
If external events are referred to, it is only
of the West.
this
because men's private fortunes and feelings cannot be

severed from the fortunes of the State.
The
of the
period covered by this study of

have
not
been arbitrarily chosen.
The
society
hundred years of the Western Empire seem marked
limits
Koman
last
off
both by momentous events, and, for the student of
by the authorities at his command. The commencement of the period coincides roughly with the
society,
passage of the Gothic hordes across the Danube, the

accession of Gratian and Theodosius, the termination of
truce between paganism and the Christian
and
the reopening of the conflict which, within
Empire,
twenty years, ended in the final prohibition of heathen
the
long
ROMAN SOCIETY
viii
It closes, not only with the deposition of the last
rites.
shadowy Emperor of the West, but with the
Eoman power
extinction of
practical
in the great prefecture of the
Perhaps even more obvious are the lines drawn

by the fullest authorities for our subject. The earliest
extant letters of Symmachus, which describe the relations
Gauls.
of the last generation of great pagan nobles, belong to

j./>
376390.
the years
The
literary
of Ausonius coincides with the
poems we
and
same
political activity
years,
and from
his
derive an invaluable picture of a provincial
society in the reigns of Gratian
and Theodosius.
thrown on the same generation by

searching light
some of S. Jerome's letters, by the Saturnalia of Macrois
bius,
and by many
we
our period
Inscriptions.
At the other end
The works of Apollinaris Sidonius
mation.
of
are almost equally fortunate in our inforof
Auvergne
are a priceless revelation of the state of society, both in
Eome and
in Gaul, from the accession of Avitus
till
the
triumph of the Visigothic power.

is there wanting a certain bond of union among
these and other scattered materials when they are closely
final
Nor
'
At the beginning of the period, Eoman

indeed
society
sharply divided in a determined religious
and
the
sharpness of the contrast is rendered
struggle,
more decided by the increasing fervour of asceticism.
scrutinised.
is
But
at the hottest
moment
of the conflict there
was a
mass of scepticism, lukewarmness, or wavering conformity,

between the confines of the opposing creeds.
The influences which inspired that attitude had not spent their
force at the close of the fourth century.
When the
terrors of the anti-pagan laws had produced an outward
submission, the Christianity of
many
of the noble
and
PREFACE
ix
lettered class seems to have been far
The
from enthusiastic.
was a powerful rival of the

who had had that training were steeped
discipline of the schools
Church.
Men
in the lingering sentiment of paganism,
and looked with
distrust, or even with contempt, on the severer form of
One can
Christian renunciation.
doubt that
scarcely
of his
early manhood, and some
friends down to the fall of the Western Empire, would
Sidonius,
in
his
have been
far
Symmachus
or
more
at
home
in
the
of
company
Flavianus than in that of
S.
Paulinus
of Nola.
It would, of course, be impossible to treat of society
in such a period without
some reference
who
to those
devoted themselves to the higher ideals of the Christian

life.
in
/But they belong rather to the future. Our interest

these pages must be concentrated o^__those__whose
greatest pride
was
it
tions of the past.
give
to preserve
and transmit the
The main purpose
of this
work
tradiis to
some account of that worldly society which, in its

tone and external fortunes, had undergone but
ideals,
little
.change
between the reign
of
Gratian
and the
dethronement of Eomulus Augustulus.

The period is an obscure one, and the materials are
The
widely scattered.
an orderly view
is
difficulty
not slight
conscious that a critical eye
of arranging
and the writer
may
is
them
in
painfully
easily discover omis-
His only claim is that

sions and faults of treatment.
he has made an honest attempt to answer a question
which has often presented itself to his own mind
How
were
men
living,
and what were
their thoughts
and private fortunes, during that period of momentous

change
/^
ROMAN SOCIETY
only remains for the author to express his

warmest thanks to his old pupil and friend, the Eev.
It
Charles Plummer, Vice-President and Librarian of Corpus

Christi
College, Oxford, for
the kind care with which
he has gone over the proof-sheets.

Uh
October 1898.
TABLE OF DATES
EMPERORS OF THE WEST
Reign of Valentinian
Valentiiiiauli
Gratian
Theodosius 1
Honorius
.......
Valentinian III
Maximus
Avitus
Majorian
Severus
Anthemius
Olybrius
Glycerins
Julius Nepos
Romulus Augustulus
364-375
375-392
375-383
379-395
395-423
425-455
455
455-456
457-461
461-465
467-472
472
473
474-475
475-476
KINGS OF THE VISIGOTHS

395-410
Reign of Alaric
Ataulphus
Wallia
Theodoric
4lti-4T5
415-419
419-451
451-453
453-466
466-485
Thorismond
Iheodoric II
Eunc
Birth of D.
S.
Magnus Ausonius
Martin
,,
Ammianus Marcellhms
,,
Sext. Petron. Probus
Virius
.....
Nicomachus Flavianus
...
circ.
310
,,316
,,
330
,,334
334
ROMAN SOCIETY
Birth of Q. Aurelius
,,
,,
S.
Jerome
S.
Paulinus
.....
Symmachus
S.
........
Birth of Sulpicius Severus

Ausonius, tutor of Gratian
Praetextatus, Praef. Urb

Sext. Petron. Probus, P. P. of Illyricum
S.
Consul
,,
,,
Jerome in the desert of Chalcis
Episcopate of S. Ambrose
Hesperius, son of Ausonius, Procos. of Africa
Flavian us, Yicarius of Africa
.
Birth of Paulinus Pellaeus
The Goths cross the Danube
.
Consulship of Ausonius
Anti-pagan legislation of Gratian
.
.
Jerome, secretary to Pope Damasus
Affair of the Altar of Victory
.
Symmachus, Praef. Urb.
Praetextatus P. P. of Italy
Death of Praetextatus Cos. designatus
S. Jerome and Paula migrate to Bethlehem
S. Paulinus retires to Barcelona
.
Death of Probus
Flavianus P. P. of Italy
.
_Symmachus, Praef. Urb.
Anti-pagan laws of Theodosius
S.
Usurpation of Eugenius
Ausonius writes to S. Paulinus
.
Battle of the Frigidus
Death of Theodosius
Ascendency of Stilicho
Claudian the poet
.....
Scarcity and sedition at Rome

Consulship of Olybrins and Probinus
Gildonic war
->
.......
Orientius
Death of
S.
Macrobius (author of the Saturnalia) Vicarius of Spain

Birth of Salvianus
S.
"...
Martin
Praetorship and games of the younger

Battle of Pollentia
Triumph of Honorius
Death of Paula at Bethlehem
Last poem of Claudian
Invasion and defeat of Radagaisus
.
Symmachus
..
....
......
.
The Sueves and Vandals cross the Rhine

Death of Stilicho
Catholic reaction and rise of Olympius
....
379'
381
382
382-392
384
384
385
386
390
.
circ. 391
389-391
391
391, 392
392
393
394
395
395-408
.
flor. 395-408
395
395
397, 398
399
circ. 400
flor. 400-439 ?
circ. 400
401
403
404
.
404
.
404
405
406
408
408
.
.
.
.......
,,353
340
340
354
364
365
.
circ. 367
367
368
371
374-378
374-397
376
.
376
376
376
Augustine
Vettius Agorius Praetextatus, Procos. of Achaea
,,
arc.
TABLE OF DA TES
xiii
Anti-pagan legislation of Honorius
408
408
Second siege Attains emperor
409
Third siege and capture of Rome
410
The Goths under Ataulphus enter Gaul
412
Rutilius Namatianus, Praef. Urb.
413
S. Augustine begins the City of God
413
414
Marriage of Placidia and Ataulphus
414
Occupation of Bordeaux by the Goths
Paulinus Pellaeus, Count of the S. Largesses under Attalus
414
Orosius arrives at Hippo
414
The Goths at war with the Vandals and Sueves in Spain
415-418
Return of Rutilius Namatianus to Gaul
416
The Goths under Wallia settle in Aquitaine
419
Death of S. Jerome
420
Aries besieged by the Goths and relieved by Aetius
425
The Vandals cross to Africa
428
.
Aetius recovers the Rhineland from the Franks
428
.
Death of S. Augustine, and siege of Hippo by the Vandals
.
430
Death of S. Paulinus
431
Birth of Apollinaris Sidonius
tire. 430
S. Prosper Aq
flor. 430-455
Aetius defeats the Burgundians
436
Narbonne besieged by the Goths and relieved by Litorms
436
Litorius defeated and captured by the Goths
439
.
Peace with the Goths
439
The Vandals surprise Carthage
.
439
.
The Vandals ravage Sicily
440
Death of Placidia
450
circ. 450
Marriage of Sidonius
Attila invades Gaul
451
.
Tonantius Ferreolus, P. P. of Gaul
453
Murder of Aetius by Valentinian III
454
Sack of Rome by the Vandals
455
.
456
Panegyric of Sidonius on Avitus
The Goths under Theodoric II. at war with the Sueves in Spain
on behalf of the empire
457
458
Panegyric on Majorian
Eucharisticos of Paulinus Pellaeus composed
459
Narbonne surrendered to the Goths
462
Visit of Sidonius to Rome
.
467
Prosecution of Arvandus
468
.
.
468
.
.
.
Panegyric on Anthemius
468
Sidonius, Praef. Urb
Mam. Claudianus composes De Statu Animae,
circ. 470
.
Sidonius becomes Bishop of Auvergne
.
.
470
Mission of Epiphanius to Euric
,
.
474
Final surrender of Auvergne to Euric
.
.
475
.
475
Imprisonment of Sidonius at Li via
Victorius Governor of Auvergne
475
Death of Sidonius
circ. 479
First siege of
Rome by
Alaric
...
.
......
.
.......
.
CONTENTS
BOOK
THE TENACITY OF PAGANISM
CHAPTER
THE PAGAN ARISTOCRACY AND THE CONFUSION OF PARTIES

Obstinate attachment to paganism both among the vulgar and the
educated Causes of this Influence of Eastern cults Philosophic
Patriotism and antiquarian sentiment Roman feeling
shocked by the ascetic spirit which turned its back on public duty
Yet the line between Christian and pagan in the fourth century was
not sharply drawn Intermixture of opposing creeds in the same
monotheism
family, and in general society The latter illustrated by the circle of

Q. Aur. Symmachus Its leading members both Christian and pagan
Character of Symmachus of Praetextatus of Flavianus Some
German
Attalus
......
chiefs
S.
Ambrose
Sext. Petron. Probus
CHAPTER
Jovius
Prisons
Pages 3-26
II
THE LAST CONFLICTS OF PAGANISM WITH THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE

The long
series of anti-pagan laws down to 439

Practical toleration till
the reign of Gratian The removal of the altar of
Victory and the
protest of the Senate Symmachus represents their views to the
Emperor His speech Symmachus and Flavianus still high in
ROMAN SOCIETY
Decided legislation of 392 Yet apostasy was
imperial favour in 391
frequent Why the pagan cause did not seem hopeless The usurpation of Eugenius Flavianus heads the pagan reaction The battle
on the Frigidus Yet the Senate is still obstinately pagan LegisHow anti-pagan laws were defeated by the
lation of Honorius
negligence of governors and inferior officers Yet this semi-pagan
sentiment had a good effect in checking the destruction of temples
and works of art The tolerant policy of Stilicho Outbreak of pagan
Christian
feeling on the appearance of Alaric and Radagaisus
calumnies against Stilicho Olympius and the Catholic reaction
Brief triumph of paganism under Attalus Fate of Claudian, the
poet of the pagan Senate
The poem
of Rutilius Namatianus, another
Tone of Rutilius His hatred of Jews and monks

Magic, astrology, the theatre, and the games are the last strongholds
of paganism Tuscan diviners offer their services against Alaric
pagan poet
Rome Legislation against the magic

Neoplatonism gives its countenance to them The diviners
under the government of Attalus The gladiatorial shows They had
been exhibited by the best emperors, and defended by men of high
character Their abolition in the reign of Honorius The passion of
Romans for the theatre Character of later legislation on the subject
Attitude of Innocent, bishop of
arts
How
the taste
still
lasted in the age of the Invasions
CHAPTEE
8.
Pages 27-58
III
AUGUSTINE AND OROSIU8 ON THE CAPTURE OF ROME
Fhe moral
minds
effect of the
Was
it
capture of Rome by Alaric on pagan and Christian

to desertion of the gods of Rome ?
Why have
due
Christians suffered in the sack of the City? The controversy

keenest in Africa Doubts of Volusianus and bis friends S.
is
AugusAugustine
The City of God begun in 413 How S.

tine's answer
deals with the catastrophe The old religion did not protect its
It did not give prosperity
votaries
It was impotent for good and
fruitful of evil
Orosius arrives in Hippo His historical task, to

far greater calamities than the Christian
prove that past ages suffered
Empire had endured Orosius' mode of dealing with history His \^

curious omissions and gross exaggeration
Both S. Augustine and
^
Orosius addressed an educated class, which must have been numerous &
and formidable
.
.
,
59-73
'
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
xvii
IV
SOME CAUSES OP THE VITALITY OF THE LATER PAGANISM

The character of the native religion of Rome,
spiring The real living paganism was of
formal, scrupulous, uninPower of

foreign origin
foreign cults in the fourth century Evidence of the Inscriptions

Growing influence of Eastern religions under the Empire The charIsis
The character of Mithra-worship
The Taurobolium in the fourth century
Mithra the great enemy of Christianity Moral and devotional effects
acteristics of the
The mysteries
worship of
of Mithra
Illustration from the initiation of Lucius in the

of such worships
mysteries of Isis described by Apuleius The procession to the sea
The launching of the sacred bark The prayers in the temple The
communion His baptism and initiation

Plutarch's monotheism and devout
His prayer of thanksgiving
Illusfeeling The monotheistic tendency in the later paganism
trated from the Saturnalia of Macrobius The tendency to syncretism
and monotheism How the Romans identified foreign deities with
preparation of Lucius for
their
own
under one
The
rule,
influence of the Empire, by bringing so

tended to amalgamation of worships
many peoples
and a vague
The
creed of the pagan Maximus of Madaura in the

time of S. Augustine The influence of philosophy Plutarch the
monotheism
movement Neoplatonism at Rome Fascination of

Degeneracy of Neoplatonism in the reign of Julian Yet
Julian's moral aims were high Why Neoplatonism was committed
to a defence of paganism, partly by traditional sentiment, partly by
the instinct of philosophic freedom How the system of Emanation
lent itself to a support of paganism
The justification of myth The
Divine can only be expressed by fiction The superstition of the
later Alexandrines founded on the doctrine of daemons and of secret
affinities linking all parts of the universe together
Yet even in the
last age the purer influences of Neoplatonism were not extinct
Illustration of this from the commentary of Macrobius on the Dream
of Sdpio Its characteristics It combines physical and astronomical
speculation with an ethical and devotional purpose The Supreme
father of the
Plotinus
One
The universe God's temple The fall of man through the seven
The immersion of the soul in the material world The soul
spheres
must not quit

fresh the
its
prison in the body but await its release, and keep

of its Divine source
Virtue the only hope of
memory
eternal felicity The different degrees of virtue

man may serve
"
"
his country and yet seek a
citizenship which is in heaven
Pages 74-112
ROMAN SOCIETY
Kviii
BOOK
II
SKETCHES OF WESTEEN SOCIETY FROM

SYMMACHUS TO SIDONIUS
CHAPTER
THE INDICTMENT OP HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN MORALISTS

satirists and moralists on the morality of an age must
be accepted with caution Characteristics of Roman satire, especially
that of Juvenal History proves that it was extravagant In the last
age of the Empire asceticism condemned the world en masse It dealt
The views of
as hardly with Christian as with pagan morality
The judgment of
Marcellinus, a pagan, on the character of his age He is

honest, but perhaps rather hard and narrow He accuses the upper
class of pride, frivolity, and luxury, rather than of gross vice
Ammianus
His connection with high society His

must bo accepted with reserve
His ascetic spirit and plain speaking illustrated from the letter to
Demetrias de Virginitate He does not attack the morals of leading
pagans like Praetextatus, but he reveals some of the perils to virtue
in Roman life Corrupting influence of slaves Female extravagance
('Judgment of
S.
Jerome
Why his
female friends
censures
Danger in fashionable gatherings Dangers of the banquet

view compared with the picture in the Saturnalia of
S. Jerome deals most hardly with the professedly
Macrobius
in dress
S. Jerome's
religious
Worldliness
among the higher
clergy
Their
luxury,
and doubtful relations with women Clerical and monkish

The
Agapetarum pestis" Painful pictures of female
Salvianus on the morals of Southern Gaul after the
hypocrisy
invasions Account of his career The theme of the De Gubematione
DeiThQ calamities of the time due to Roman profligacy and oppression of the poor by the rich The corruption of the governing class
The frenzy of deThe passion for the theatre and the circus
bauchery in the crisis of the invasions Aquitaine wholly abandoned
to vice Can Salvianus be believed ? No confirmation to be found in
Symmachus, Ausonius, or Sidonius The key to his unconscious
exaggeration He is a preacher and ascetic enthusiast Pages 115-142
cupidity,
avarice
' '
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
THE SOCIETY OF
The family
Q.
xix
II
AURELIUS SYMMACHUS
Aurelius Sjmmachus His position and fame as an

of information on public affairs in his letters Position
of the Senate
Rome no longer the seat of government Proud
of Q.
Lack
orator
reticence of the upper class Yet Symmachus gives glimpses of the

dangerous state of the city from the failure of the corn-supply in the
war with Gildo The wealth of the senatorial class Estimate of
senatorial incomes
Profuse expenditure illustrated by the prepara-
games to be given in honour of the praetorship of the

younger Symmachus The stiff ceremonious etiquette of life at Rome
The charms of country life felt as a relief Passion for literature
and learning in the circle of Symmachus, Praetextatus, and Flavianus
Literary affectation and ambition Knowledge and critical study
of the great authors combined with great degeneracy of style
Influtions for the
ence of cliques
Mutual
flattery
passion for rhetorical exhibitions
Yet there was a genuine love
still
strong
of literature in the
upper class How letters gave a man a career Palladius, Marinianus,

Ausonius There are glimpses of selfishness and cruelty in the society
But both he and ^Macrobius^xleave the impression
of Symmachus
that the life of the upper class is regular and decent Testimony of
Macrobius as to the decrease of luxury and drunkenness Stricter
ideas about dancing and acting
Family affection of Symmachus
Humane
feeling towards slaves

in the position of women
the intellectual companions of men,
Change
under the Empire Became more

cultivated, taking a leading part in
believed in the old
about his children
him
Symmachus'
etc.
charity,
Symmachus
Roman
conception of woman's place His anxiety

Care of his son's education Reads Greek with
last letters
Goths are in the valley of the Po
His journey to
.
CHAPTER
Milan while the

.
Pages 143-166
III
THE SOCIETY OF AQUITAINE IN THE TIME OF AUSONIUS

The value of the poems of Ausonius
has preserved the portraits of a provincial circle Family loyalty
of Ausonius
Portraits of his grandfather, an Aeduan astrologer,
who casts his horoscope His father, the Stoic physician His female
The literary career of
relatives, characterised by a Puritan quietude
The wealth and peacejrf Aquitaine
He
ROMAN SOCIETY
The
Ausoiiius
Gallic renaissance of the fourth century Thirty years

rise in the world
Yet he is always faithful to
His
a professor
letters
His old age at Bordeaux Love of the country growing
Ausonius hates the town Pleasures of country life Visiting and
The eccentric Theon

The society of Aquitaine
correspondence
depicted in the Eucharisticos of Paulinus Pellaeus, the poet's grandson
His account of his youth, temptations, taste for sport
His
Reforms the management of his wife's estates His love of
and luxury A "sectator deliciarum" The ascetic movement
in Gaul
Influence of S. Martin His Life by Sulpicius Conversion
of S. Paulinus and Sulpicius Severus
How the ascetic movement was
opposed even by the clergy Influence of S. Jerome His fame as a
Biblical critic The charm of the Holy Places drew great numbers of
marriage
ease
pilgrims to the East Description of a pilgrimage given by Sulpicius

Severus The visit of Postumianus, a Gallic monk, to Bethlehem
and the monasteries of Egypt S. Jerome's correspondents in Gaul
Descended from a Druidical family Its academic members

Hedibia's questions as to the narratives of the Resurrection
Questions of Algasia "Pray that your flight be not in the
winter"
Pages 167-186
Hedibia
CHAPTER
IV
THE SOCIETY OF APOLLINARIS SIDONIU8

The family of Apoll. Sidonius
.
His career
Publication of his letters
(jGreat changes in the interval between Ausonius and Sidonius Yet

the condition of the upper class remains unaltered Sidonius tells
little of the middle and lower
classes-^His interest centres in his own
order /-Its exclusive tastes
Minute faithfulness with which ho

life
His wide circle of
own society Monotony of its

acquaintance The ideal of the Roman noble
describes his
Pride of birth
Imperial
there
office
as sketched
by Sidonius
birth considered even in episcopal elections

generally sought for its external distinction Yet
High
of men possessing high administrative

Duties of the Pretorian prefect
the prefectures, etc.
Gallic nobles were becoming farmers on a large scale
must have been a number
capacity to
fill
But many
Instance of Syagrius A country squire on good terms with the

Germans Extent of senatorial estates That of Ausonius at Bazas,
The villa a
The arrangements
about 1000 acres

tion of it
houses
visits
community in itself Descripof a great house Avitacum Great

Mode of travelling Country house
little
fortified
Roads unsafe
Voroangus and Prusianum
Position
of
women
They
are
Daily
life
treated with
at a country
great
houseFew
respect
CONTENTS
xxi
Picture of the parasite exceptional

allusions to gross immorality
General_decency of morals The real vices of Gallo-Roman society,
cultivated selfishness, want of high public spirit, absence of ideals
These the result of bureaucratic government and of education which
cultivated only
The Christian movement in Gaul
rhetorical^skill
Hidden saints Picture oT Vectius, the ascetic grand seigneur
Sidonius called to the episcopate Great change in his life The
His multifarious duties

position of a bishop in the fifth century
classes of bishops, the monastic and the aristocratic
the
Why
Twp
aristocratic~bisF6p was a necessity of the times

tions
Sidonius when bishop of Auvergne, aided
Two
episcopal elec-
by Ecdicius, defends
independence against the Visigoths Bishop Patiens saves a large
population from famine
Learning and eloquence of the Gallic
bishops S. Remi the apostle of the Franks Lupus of Troyes
Faustus of Riez His career and character His heresies His book
on the corporeal nature of the soul Reply by Mam. Claudianus
its
Sidonius equally friendly with both His tolerance His reverenge

Visit to Le"rins Intercourse with monks
for the monastic ideal
.....
Thembnk Abraham
by
his deathbed
in Auvergne
The
BOOK
III
Visigothic governor stands

Pages 187-223
THE FAILUEE OF ADMINISTRATION, AND THE

RUIN OF THE MIDDLE CLASS, AS KEVEALED
BY THE THEODOSIAN CODE
CHAPTER
THE DISORGANISATION OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE

General view of the social and administrative disorganisation of the period
The government with the best intentions strove to find a remedy
-^-The sense of responsibility expressed by the later emperors The
rhetorical tone of the later legislation The hereditary guilds of Rome
The corporal bound to their functions, but constantly trying to evade
them
Failure of the corn-supply through desertion or evasion on the

part of the navicularii ^Different modes of evasion Wholesale desertion in 455
Disorganisation in the army Frequent enactments de re
militari in Stilicho's time
Failure of recruits Money accepted from

the great proprietors instead of men Aversion to military service
Self-mutilation to escape it Frequency of desertion- -Concealment of
ROMAN SOCIETY
deserters heavily punished
The frontier garrisons melt away
arms in 406 Disorganisation of the posting service
called to
great roads
Abuse of
evectio
Officers
bound
Slaves
on the
to the service desert
The animals
curiosi
Growth
are not properly fed The tyranny and corruption of the

They have to be peremptorily removed from large districts
of brigandage Character of the shepherds of S. Italy
Shepherd and brigand almost synonymous

in collusion with the criminals
out seven provinces of Italy
Agents on remote states
The
use of horses forbidden throughDeserters from the army become
dangerous banditti Signs of the growth of poverty Sale of children

in the famine of 450
Plunder of tombs Decay of public buildings
Poor exiles from Africa allowed to practise in the Italian courts
Pages 227-244
CHAPTER
II
THE DECAY OF THE MIDDLE CLASS AND THE AGGRANDISEMENT

OP THE ARISTOCRACY
Roman wealth
chiefly in jp.nd
Decay of commerce from the third century
Depressed condition of the merchant class in the later Empire
Two classes of landed proprietors, the senatorial and the curial
Senators exempt from municipal burdens
Decay of the municiThe curia now composed of owners of
palities in the fourth century
at least 25 jugera of land Enormous liabilities of the curiales They

had to assess and collect the land-taxes of their district Liable for
all deficits
recruit its
The curial class was being depleted without being able to

numbers from below The emperors devote great attention
192 enactments de Decurionibus The flight of the

Their attempt to obtain admission to the senatorial class
Means of doing so In the fifth century this movement was peremp-
to the curia
curiales
torily stopped
public service
Persons of curial descent recalled from places in the

curial's position became a hereditary servitude
The
His personal freedom curtailed on every side He could not go abroad

or dispose of his property The whole force of law exerted to prevent
his escape How he did escape
Often by placing himself under the
patronage of a great landowner *As the curial class shrank in numbers,
became heavier-^l'or^the ^bcTe sEows that the tax-
their liabilities
bearing area was contracting And there was an appreciation in gold,

which, since a large proportion of the taxes had to be paid in gold,
rendered the liability heavier Tendency of the large proprietors to
absorb the smaller very marked The ruined farmer takes refuge on
the senatorial estate Growth of this form of patronage Attempts to
check it by legislation ineffectual How the great proprietor got the
small farmer in his grasp
Secret or fraudulent sales
The
senatorial
CONTENTS
xxiii
growing in power They evade taxation, and by social

and corruption obtain connivance at evasion in others
Their agents a corrupt class In league with brigands Mortgage
class steadily
influence
estates surreptitiously
Illegitimate influence brought to bear on
Measures taken to protect the purity of the bench
judges
How the great landowners
Grievances of the province of Africa
evaded their burdens Every branch of the revenue service had
become corrupt Frauds and cruel over-exaction cf the susceptores

and numerarii The provincials are helpless against the tax-gatherer
The enormities of the discussores, described in an edict of Valen-
ghe efforts of government to check these abuses were

by the power of the aristocracy and the contumacy of
All these evils summed up in the edict of Majorian in 458
tinian III.
frustrated
officials
Examples of the humane
spirit of the latest imperial legislation
Remission of taxes over large areas Governors ordered to visit the

prisons Prisoners to be brought up for trial within a year Status
protected by a term of prescription Redeemed captives protected
against the redemptor Exposed infants of the servile class saved from
servitude Limit within which fugitive coloni could be reclaimed
Pages 245-281
BOOK
IV
THE BARBARIANS AND THE FUTURE OF

THE EMPIRE
CHAPTER
THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE INVASIONS

this book : thejeeling of Romans as to tha
the condition of the Empire General character of the Invasions
Why the Romans were not so much startled by them as we should
Main subject of
expect The Invasions were nothing new Invasions of the third and
fourth centuries apparently overwhelming, yet triumphantly repelled
Their effects not lasting In the fifth century the Roman generals
show no
fear of the invaders
The barbarians were not impelled by

They were ready to
any common purpose or by any hatred of Rome
Barbarian troops in the Roman

fight for Rome against their brethren
army for ages Received lands on military tenure The Laeti of Gaul
Peaceful settlement of barbarians within the frontier from the days
of Augustus Examples German officers in the Roman
army from
the third century Examples in the fourth century Some brilliant
ROMAN SOCIETY
xxiv
among them
figures
barbarian dress in
Honorius
They have
great social influence
Fashion of
Rome
has to be restrained by law in the reign of

Immense number of barbarians settled on estates as colpni
Examples The Invasions of the fifth century not of a uniform and

overwhelming character Estimated strength of the Visigoths, BurgunInvasions differed in character and
dians, and Franks in Gaul
objects Somemerely for plunder, others for regular settlement In
the latter case the chief acts aslTRoman official, and carries on the
Roman
administration
-culture, religion,
Wide
differences
and moral character
among the
invaders in
Example from Noricum in the

thus complex and various in
time of S. Severinus The Invasions,

character, produced very different impressions
on
different minds*
Pages 285-302
CHAPTER
II
ROMAN PEELING ABOUT THE INVASIONS AND THE FUTURE OP

THE EMPIRE
( The
first terror
on the approach of the Goths
Flight to places of security
wif.h AUrin
TVi m/wi
shock caused by the capture of Rome LameBMiinir" *f & T^^mp
His picture of the Invasions Flight of the guildsmen of Rome Fate
The alarm did not
last long
Negotiati
who fled to Africa Cruelties of Count Heraclian

Actual_damageinflicted by the Goths probably not very great
The feelings of Kufilin~~Namatianus about Rome iqCJj
His passionate ^love of her and confidence in her destiny The views of
makes light of the invasions Hopes for a rapprochement
_
Ôrosius-j-He
between Roman and barbarian Yet the Empire may pass away
Rome has given order to the world, but at a great cost to the proof aristocratic exiles
Strong provincial feeling in Orosius What the poems Ad

Uxorem, De Providentia Divina, and the Commonitorium of Orientius
tells us of the Invasions
Pictures of devastation and ruin Moral
vinces
Gaul Loss of faith in Providence Growth of atheistic

Salvianus wrote to refute the same scepticism in his
pessimism^
day Salvianus maintains that the calamities of Rome were due
to Roman vices The barbarians were superior both in private and
effects in
public virtulP^'Oppression made many welcome the rule of the

barbarian chief Orosius and Salvianus compared They alone faced
the problems of the time Roman feeling is stronger in Orosius,

although he has no horrorôfjhe^barbarians âlvianus has lost faith
in Roman society, which he thinks hopelessly rotten The future
new races Views and feelings of Apollinaris Sidonius

represents a different world from that of Salvianus His advan-
belongs to the
He
tages,
through his family connections, especially with Avitus,
for a
CONTENTS
xxv
brilliant pictures in Sidonius

Tho
The Goths, Saxons, and Franks Wedding
procession of Sigismer Description of Theodoric II. and his court
This written with a political purpose The party of Gallic independence With the help of the Visigoths they raise Avitus to the throne
study of the barbarians
Huns
On
Many
The Burgundians
the
fall
Marcellinus
the prefect
of Avitus, the party
make another
effort in
support of
Triumph and clemency of Majorian The intrigues

Arvandus with Euric Sidonius probably not a party
of
to
Changed attitude of the Goths Description of society at Rome

Deputation from Gaul on the accession of Anthemius
Journey of Sidonius described Classical reminiscences Ravenna
Rome, after the Vandal sack, apparently little changed The city en
Leaders of Roman society Avianus
ftte for the marriage of Ricimer
and Basilius Sidonius attaches himself to Basilius, who proposes
that Sidonius should celebrate the new Emperor in verse The Panegyric on Anthemius is rewarded with the Urban prefecture Not a
word in Sidonius' letter about the dangers of the Empire It is in
the Panegyrics of Sidonius that his views on the condition of the
Empire are to be found In spite of the union of Roman and Visi-
them
in 467
goth, the Panegyric on Avitus reflects the general gloom Humiliation of Rome The need of a warlike prince There is yet hope, but
the hope is in Gaul The services of Avitus He can bring the force
of the Visigoths to the help of Rome Tone of the poem on Majorian
not so pessimistic Africa beseeches Rome for help against the Van-
The might of Rome is only slumbering The achievements of

Majorian, and the hopes of his success Yet the discontent of Gaul
once more breaks out She is ignored and crushed by taxation Fate
dals
of Majorian
throne
Sidonius in
pride
before
The appeal to Leo, who recommends Anthemius for the

is to marry his daughter
Difficulties of the task of
writing the Panegyric on Anthemius Shock to Roman
Ricimer
Hatred of Constantinople
Expressed by Claudian
Sidonius does not disguise the weakness of

conquests have passed to her rival The Empire
But
division need not
mean
discord
Rome
is finally
All jealousy
fifty
years
Her Eastern
divided
must be forgotten
in the effort to crush the Vandal power

Ricimer has already made
head against the invaders He is hated by the Vandal king But
only an emperor can cope with the danger Recapitulation of these
various views
.....
CHAPTER
\ SSx-^
Pages 303-345
III
fe"
^*
RELATIONS OF ROMANS WITH THE INVADERS

jfubject of this chapter/; the relations of Gallo-Romans with the invaders
from the first appearance of the Visigoths in Gaul till their conquest
ROMAN SOCIETY
xxvi
of
Auvergne
in 474
The
Eucharisticos of Paulinus Pellaeus
He
was
General character of the poem Paulinus

interest in public affairs, yet his poem has a great value
a grandson of Ausonius
has
little
temporary occupation of Bordeaux by

the Visigoths in 414 Their movements from 412 till 414 They supHis
port Jovinus and then overthrow him Ataulphus at Narbonne
It is the sole authority for the
marriage with Placidia, the sister of Honorius How Ataulphus came

Paulinus
to occupy Bordeaux, and proclaim Attalus as Emperor
obliged to accept the office of Count of the Largesses The Goths
leave Bordeaux
is
besieged
Paulinus loses everything and flies to Bazas, which

A servile revolt breaks out in Bazas
by the Goths
Paulinus determines to appeal for aid to the king of the

The
Strange interview
serving with the Goths
deserts the Goths, who decamp The subsequent fortunes
He thinks of becoming a monk Falls into poverty
is
Alans,
who
Alan king
of Paulinus
Fate of his
In his old age receives unexpectedly from an unknown Goth

the price of some portion of his estates at Bordeaux Light which the
Eucharisticos throws on the attitude of the Goths to Rome Fluctuations of Gothic policy in the lifetime of Apollinaris Sidonius
They
sons
sometimes support the Empire, sometimes they are at war with it

Auvergne long left in peace Family of Sidonius on friendly terms
with Theodoric II. Sidonius also on good terms with the Burgundians Their settlement at Lyons Chilperic magister militum
The Burgundians a kindly race, but their personal habits offend the
taste of Sidonius
Change in the attitude of the Visigothic power on
the accession of Euric
Causes of this Roman maladministration

His encroachments
Overthrows the
Euric an intolerant Arian
Breton troops in Berry
Assails
Auvergne
Gallant defence
made
Ecdicius, brother-in-law of Sidonius Moral influence of Sidonius

He fortifies the courage of the people by solemn religious services
by
-
The Rogations introduced by Mam. Claudianus
of
Vienne
Embassy
They
of Epiphanius to Euric Negotiations of the four bishops

surrender Auvergne to Euric Indignant protest of Sidonius
How
Euric treated the Catholics Sees left vacant Churches falling into
ruins This policy subsequently mitigated, probably through the
Count Victorius, a
influence of Leo, Euric's Roman minister
Catholic, appointed governor of Auvergne Sidonius banished for a
time to the fortress of Livia Leo obtains his release His stay at
Bordeaux His flattery of Euric and the queen He is restored to
his diocese Attitude of the Gallo-Roman nobles to the Germans
Some seclude themselves and fortify their houses Yet they had
probably not much to fear except from irregular bands Some take
service under the
German king
as administrators
"Why they were
Position and character of Leo, the secretary of Euric The

Their sinister arts described by Sidonius While
tribe of delators
the Germans wished to maintain order, there are signs of suspicion
needed
CONTENTS
and insecurity
What
Sidonius
Roads watched
tells of
xxvii
to be stopped
Couriers liable
the condition of the lower classes
Dangers
from brigandage A woman carried off by the Vargi and sold into
slavery A poor squatter on episcopal lands Raids of the Breton
Great famine after the inroads of the
troops in Auvergne
Relieved by the munificence of Bishop Patiens and
Visigoths
Ecdicius
Pages 346-382
BOOK V
ROMAN EDUCATION
AND CULTURE IN THE FIFTH CENTUEY
CHARACTERISTICS OF
Subject of this book : the culture of pagan tradition Attitude of the

Church to the ancient literary culture By many Churchmen in the
West
Hellenism hostile to
it was long viewed with suspicion
Christianity But in the fourth century the Church determines to
use the ancient discipline for its own purposes Attitude of SS.
"
Jerome and Augustine S. Jerome's love of learning
Spoiling the
"
to
sacred
forms
of
literature
Ancient
applied
subjects
Egyptians
Juvencus Proba The two Apollinares No hard and fast line
between classical and mediaeval literature Singular permanence of
the school tradition Example in the case of Ennodius of the time of
His declamations on hackneyed themes
Failure of
Theodoric
Singular barrenness of three
original power after the Silver Age
centuries
Deadening effect of academic conservatism Its pagan
Opposition between Hellenism and serious Christianity

in the conversion of S. Paulinus
His correspondence with
his old professor Ausonius shows the gulf between the ascetic and the
spirit
Example
Influence of imperial authority and

spirit of the time
patronage in perpetuating the school system Academic endowments
under the Empire Julian claims control over academic appointments
The stipends of professors fixed in 376 Position and emoluments
of professors as described by Ausonius Some of the rhetors men of
academic
and high social standing

Profession of letters greatly
honoured
Literary enthusiasm of the aristocracy, especially in
Gaul The great schools of Gaul from the earliest times Marseilles,
wealth
The literary renaissance of the fourth century Its centres

were Treves and the schools of Aquitaine, especially Bordeaux
Fame of Bordeaux in the Roman world The subjects of academic
etc.
Jurisprudence at Aries and Narbonne Philosophy decaying

the fourth century Platonists in the time of Sidonius But
study
in
ROMAN SOCIETY
xxviii
probably little serious study of philosophy Examples of superficial

treatment of the subject in Sidonius and Martianus Capella Serious
The semistudy of philosophy found only among ecclesiastics

The controversy between Faustus and Mam.
Pelagian school
Claudianus on the nature of the soul Claudianus shows philosophic
grasp and knowledge Academic study confined to Grammar and
Rhetoric Greek and Latin grammarians But the study of Greek was
evidently declining Meaning of Grammar What the grammarian
taught An tiquarianism Traces of literary appreciation Criticism of

Virgil in the Saturnalia of Macrobius Virgil the favourite author
Next in popularity, Terence and Horace The influence of Statius
Cicero not popular in the fifth century Pliny a favourite model
Sallust the most admired prose writer Opposition between literary
and antiquarian modes of study Dry-as-dust scholars at Bordeaux
Grammar might have developed
into a systematic liberal education,
The rage for declamatory

displays in the fourth century The triumph of the rhetor Palladius
The character of the rhetorical training How it had degenerated
into a mere display of conventional skill in dealing with unreal subbut came to be
far inferior to rhetoric
The moral and intellectual results of this discipline Abject

submission to authority whether political or literary It produces a
tendency to insincere flattery Example from the Actio Gfratiarum
of Ausonius And from the Panegyrics of Sidonius on Avitus and
jects
The interchange of flattery in literary coteries Its

The passion for literary fame
absurd exaggerations illustrated
even in an ascetic like S. Jerome The anxious literary ambition of
Sidonius Yet, in spite of the idolatry of style, there was a manifest
Anthemius
decadence, of which Sidonius was fully conscious Failure of mental

energy Dreams of history which was never written Why Sidonius
did not write the history of the invasion of Attila The fifth century
can only show meagre chronicles
Their
Prosper and Idatius
characteristics
The poverty of imagination in poetic art vainly
supplemented by mythological ornament Examples from Sidonius

His epithalamium for the wedding of Polemius and Iberia His prose
style is as full of literary faults as his poetry The men whom he
flatters probably had the same literary vices as himself
The crowd
of brilliant literary people in his time
Yet they have left no
trace
Pages 385-451
BOOK
CHAPTER
THE PAGAN ARISTOCRACY AND THE CONFUSION OF PARTIES

IN
spite of the
moral force which ensured the future to
the Christian faith, its final triumph was long delayed.

Religious conservatism is, of all forms of attachment to
It
the past, probably the most difficult to overcome.
has its seat in the deepest and most powerful instincts of
human nature, which, when they have once twined
themselves around a sacred symbol of devotion, are only

torn away after a long struggle.
|But this form of
attachment is peculiarly obstinate when it is identified,
as religion has so often been, with patriotic reverence for
the glory of an ancient state, which in the omens of its
election of its magistrates, the daily work of

or in the stress of war, and the
administration,
peaceful
exultation of conquest, has for many ages recognised the
birth, the
same divine sanction and help.

charm of sacred
the seductive
Superstitious fancy, or
may keep the
festivals,
vulgar constant to the old faith / but the class which in

high office has been specially charged with the safety of
the State, and which, by a chain of real or imagined
ancestry, is
more
closely
identified
with
its
career, is
penetrated with a deeper conservatism than that of the
common
herd. / Antiquarian and literary culture also

reinforce religious sentiment, or replace it, when it has
BOOK
Even the sceptical epicurean, to whom all

decayed.
faiths are alike, will prefer that which has the refined
charm of immemorial possession, and which has received
an added dignity and glory from the magic touch of
genius, and the reverence of heroic characters.
For nearly a hundred years the emperors had intermittently denounced the practice of the
Yet the edict 1 which closes
heathenism.
I
of
rites
the long
anti- pagan laws shows, by the fierceness of

and
the severity of the penalties with which it
tone,
threatens the offender, that the spirit of paganism was
not yet crushed. I In the very years in which Theodosius
was issuing the laws which were to extinguish the
ancient superstition, men were reviving a prophecy that
the religion of the Cross was about to reach its final
2
term, and the most solemn pagan rites were publicly
of
series
its
fiftlfthrated.
At
tfre
qlflge.
Senate
the
of
the
of
were
fourth
little
majority
4
Christian faith, although the
j
{ffinûry^
touched
by
the
the
wives and daughters of
had adopted
of them
Staunch adherents of paganism
some
its
still
most
ascetic
form.
held the Urban or
Pretorian prefecture in the reign of Honorius.

They
might still meet, apparently with no thought of the immi-
nent triumph of the Church, to hear one of their number

5
expound the sacerdotal lore of Eome, and another set
the
forth
or
Stoic
Alexandrian interpretation of the
command
of augural science possessed by

Their
Virgil.
great poet, as if he were writing in the
of
age
Augustus, could invite the Christian Emperor
myths, or the
6
Honorius to survey the shrines of the gods, which still
in all their old splendour surrounded the imperial palace
Nov. Th.
tit. iii.
Aug. de
Civ. Dei, xviii. 53.

See Seeck's Symmachus, cxviii.
8
S.
'
LL
T-
T-
'
Seeck's
V1 - 512
'
Sym. HT.
Zos. iv. 59.
For the opposite view cf. Prud.

i.
666 Ambros. Ep 17,
10 Rauschen, Jahrbucher der Chr.
* Sym.
Kirche. p. 119.
>
Mac?ob. Sat.
Claudian, de Sex. Cons Hon.
44.
CHAP,
THE PAGAN ARISTOCRACY
Another pagan poet, who

of the city, a quarter of a century after
with a divine guardianship.
had been prefect

the death
Christian
5
1
Theodosius, could pour contempt on the

profession, and rejoice at the sight of the
of
villagers of Etruria gaily celebrating the rites of Osiris in

Magic and divination of every form had
the springtime.
Yet a prefect of
long been under the ban of the State.
Honorius proposed to employ the Tuscan sorcerers, 2 who
offered the aid of their arts against Alaric, and Litorius,
fighting against a successor of Alaric in Gaul, consulted
the pagan seers before his last battle, under the walls of
3
In the last years of the Western Empire, the
Toulouse.
diviners of Africa were practising their arts among the
nominal Christians of Aquitaine. 4
/Long
after the external rites of
heathenism had been

its hold
suppressed, the pagan tone and spirit retained
on men's imaginations. /The obstinate, unchanging conservatism of the Eoman character never displayed itself
than in the age when Eoman institutions
more^strikingly
were tottering. / That race, so tenacious of the past,
yet so bold and aggressive, always strove to disguise
fundamental changes, and to retain the charm of old
associations under altered circumstances.
In this, as in
other respects, the Church carried on the tradition of
The prejudices and attachments of a
pagan Eome.
thousand years, which might be proof against the fervid
dialectic of S. Augustine, were gently trained by pious
5
arts to turn to other objects of love and devotion.
She
followed the advice of the great pontiff, to break the
idols and consecrate the churches.
The cycle of the
Christian year was in
calendar.
The
many
cult of
lished at the very altars

1
2
3
4
Rutil. Namat.
Zos. v. 41.
i.
440, 375.
Prosp. Chron. 439.

Apollin. Sidon. E$.
points adapted to the pagan
and martyrs was estabwhere incense had been offered

saints
For a specimen see S. Paulin.

the
Carm. 27, 548 - 580
principle of accommodation is stated
in S. Aug. Ep. 47,
3.
Nol.
viii. 11.
BOOK
At Naples, lamps burning before

the image of the Virgin took the place of those before
2
the family gods.
The worship of the Virgin mother
weaned the Sicilian peasant from the worship of a
Mars
to
or Bacchus.
goddess of less immaculate fame.

Many a literary noble of Aquitaine
in
the
fifth
century was probably as
pagan as the peasant

His
who bowed
on Mount Eryx.
grandfather in the days of Ausonius may have conformed
to Christianity; some of his friends might have sold
their lands, and followed S. Paulinus to Kola or S.
Jerome to Bethlehem
but he himself was often as
really
before the old altar
little
men who,
of a Christian as the
before him,
three generations
to leave the
had pleaded with the Emperor
Altar of Victory in the Senate-house.

Like Ausonius,
he might pay a cold and perfunctory homage to Christ, 8
and visit the neighbouring town for the Easter festival
but the whole tone of his thoughts and life was inspired
by the memories of the heathen past. With no belief in
the old gods, he was steeped in the literary spirit and
culture of paganism. ) The Eoman schools had moulded
him far more than the teaching of the Church. / The
unbroken academic tradition of eight hundred years,
coming down from the age of the great sophists, was a
and it was a force which repelled
tremendous force
all novelty, and all idealism which looked to the future
All the literature on which he
rather than to the past.
had been nourished was created in the atmosphere of
paganism, and teemed with mythological allusionsN His
;
;|C
fllQ
Jgachqra Tyere. saturate^ wjift TTftnp.m'aifl, Jffbjfih

-"vend mamtemed a cold and distant attitude to Christian
devotion.
From his earliest years his gaze was turned
|
'
^^^ô
the great deeds of Eoman heroes

.-.,
-.-Q<>a<9Bini<KtM<MÎ>i|<. >_^^âwJg.*!-:,
i.
Ozanam, La
Civ.
au
V* si&de,
Maury, La Magie,
17
231.
p. 152.
had worshipped
who
g ^**^***
**
-%
M **i'*'''''*
Auson. Ephem.
;
Idyll. 11, 88.
ii.
15
Ep.
10,
CHAP,
who had read the fate of their

Jupiter,
in
the
flash
of lightning or the flight of birds
campaigns
or the entrails of the victim at the altar, who had con-
Mars and
sulted the Chaldaean seer about their objects of ambition

2
or their hour of death.
If he could not rival the
achievements of these great sons of Kome, he could still

add his name to the Fasti in which theirs appeared.
He
could maintain the stately forms of the past, and
the literary and antiquarian tradition which he regarded

as the finest essence of the national life.
I
In the
stand which paganism made against

and the polemic of the Church, many
were arrayed.
Sensuality and gross
final
imperial edicts
different forces
superstition in the degraded masses clung to the rites

of magic and divination, to the excitement of the circus,
and the obscenities of the theatre. | And these base
influences long maintained their hold.

a
mistake to suppose that the
But
it
old
faith rested
would .be
grave
only on ignorant superstition and sensuality, or on the
hard formalism of the old Eoman mythology.
For
many generations the cults of Eastern origin, the worship
8
of the Great Mother, and Mithra, had satisfied

devotional feelings which could find little nourishment
in the cold abstractions of old Eoman religion, or the
of Isis,
brilliant
The
anthropomorphism of Greece.
of the fourth century reveal the enduring

4
Syrian or Egyptian worships.
They
ecstatic
devotion, and
gave
S Augustine had a genuine

admiration for great Romans of the
early ages, e.g. Regulus, de Civ.
Of. S. Jerome's Up.
Dei, i. c. xv.
relief
6
hStorke?
^ The grandfather of Ausonius
was himself an astrologer. Parent.
iv.
17
remorse for
sin.
tu coeli numeros et conscia sidera fati

callebas, studium dissimulanter agens.
60,
5, quid memorem Romanes
duces quorum virtutibus quasi qui-
to
inscriptions
power of these
cultivated an
S.
Aug. had consulted the books of
astrologers (libris genethliacorum

deditus) in his youth.
Conf. iv. 3.
3
i.
c.
4
See R ev ille, Rel. unter den Sev.

2 and 3, pp. 52, 59, 76.
C.I.L.
504.
&79
Cf.
;
vi.
512, 749-754, 499-
Renan, M. AurMe,
infra, p. 64.
p.
BOOK
They had
their mystic brotherhoods and guilds, with

1
initiatory baptismal rite.
They had their rules and
periods of fasting and abstinence from all the pleasures
an
of
sense.
They had a priesthood
set apart
from the
world with the tonsure and a peculiar habit.
And,
in
profound impression was
initiation to their mysteries, a
made on the imagination and
of the
feelings
novice.
The baptism of blood, of which many a stone record

remains, was the crowning rite of the later paganism,
the guilty conscience, and regarded as a new
relieving
2
It can hardly be doubted that, while these cults

not have supplied the moral tone and discipline,
which was the great want in all heathen systems, they
stimulated a devotional feeling which was unknown to
birth.
may
the native religions of Greece and Rome.

There was,
moreover, in this later pagan movement, penetrated as it
was by syncretism, a decided tendency to monotheistic
8
faith.
Praetextatus held the most prominent place
among the
Mithra,
last generation
Hecate,
and
who openly worshipped

Mater.
Magna
Yet,
in
Isis,
the
Saturnalia, he is put forward to explain that, under the

many names of the Pantheon, it is the attributes of one
Great Power which are really adored. 6
The inner monotheism of the loftier minds in paganism

was the fruit of a millennium of the freest and most disinterested philosophic movement in history.
More than
five centuries before Christ, Greek speculation had lifted
men's minds to the conception of a mysterious Unity

behind the phantasmagoria of sense. 6
In the fifth
century after Christ, Macrobius, at once Pagan and
Neoplatonist, holds fast to the doctrine of the Infinite
1
Apul. Met. xi. c. 23 ; Tertull.
de JBaptismo, c. 5, nam et sacris
quibusdam per la vacrum initiari tur,
Isidis alicujus et Mithrae.
Cf.
Juv. vi. 522 ; Porpliyr. de Abst. iv.
p.
367.
a
3
Prudent. Peristeph.
ReViHe,
c.
ii.
C.I.L.
Macrob. Sat.
vi.
1779.
Arist. Met.
rb Iv flvai
<j>r)<n
i.
x. 1021.
10, p. 285.
i.
5,
17.
Se
rbv 0e6v.
CHAP,
1
One, from whom, by a chain of successive emanations,
If this lofty conception of the
the Universe proceeds.
Divine Nature often lent itself to the support of systems

which seemed to degrade and fritter away the central
idea
of
pure
the
religion
philosophic
supporter
of
He would
paganism was ready with an explanation.
have said the Infinite can neither be known nor expressed
Yet the human spirit instinctively
by finite powers.
turns with reverence to the Father of
all spirits,
and, in
helplessness, can only find utterance for its yearnings

in symbolism of word or act.
Plato sought an image of
its
the
Infinite
Good
in
the Sun. 2
Common
worshippers
under the names of Jupiter, Apollo, Isis, or

Mithra. 3
The Great Reality can by any human soul be
only dimly conceived, and expressed only in a rude
We see the Divine One in religious
fragmentary way.
adore
it
"
Yet, if we purge
myths as through a glass darkly."
of
of
fancies
the
rude
gross
mythology
ages, the myths
may
be used as
a consecrated language
of
devotion.
They are only faint shadows of the Infinite One, from

which we are separated by an impassable gulf ; yet they
represent the collective thought and feeling of the past
about
God.
They are only symbols, but a religious

doubly sacred when it has ministered to the
devotion of many generations.
In some such way the
symbol
is
philosopher reconciled himself to the ancient worships.

Yet although, like Longinianus,4 a correspondent of S.
Augustine, he might believe that the ancient sacred rites

had a real value, he believed also that the one "great,
and ineffable Creator" was to be

approached only by the way of piety, truth, and purity
incomprehensible,
word and deed.

Philosophy and the mysticism of the East had given
in
Macrob. Com. in Som. Scip.
i.
17, 12.
2
p.
Rep. bk.
176.
vi. p.
508
cf.
Hcllenica,
3
Pint, de Is. c. 67 ; cf. Vacherot's
exposition of the creed of Porphyry,
ficole d'Alexandrie, ii. pp. Ill, 112.
4
S.
Aug. Ep. 234.
10
new
to the religion of
life
But
Kome.
BOOK
old
Eoman
patriotic feeling>7as perhaps the most powerful support

of paganism in its final conflict with the Church.
Men
Uke Symmachus, Flavianus, and Volusianus were often

sceptics at heart.
They may have believed vaguely in
some Divine Power, and were ready to admit that He
might be approached by many ways; but their real
devotion was to Koma Bea, 1 the idealised genius of the
Latin race, with
/
i
\
/
its
twelve centuries of victorious warfare
I
In every step of
that marvellous career, their ancient gods had been their
were inexThe forms of its
partners.
Ancestral religion
2
of
fabric
the State.
the
whole
intertwined
with
tricably
and
worldwide organisation.
skilful
law, language, literature, the

the people, her ancient worship
Imbedded^jLn
deepest
seemed
The
true
of
Eome.
from
the
inseparable
very identity
not
be
faith
his
even
Koman,
might
very
though
religious
deep or warm, inherited the most ancient belief of his
race that the gods of a city were sharers in all its
fortunes.
Apostasy from them was identified with a
languid patriotism, and was regarded as the cause of
3
public calamities. ^he complete and literal acceptance
instincts
of
of the Christian faith
seemed
to
mean
form the duties of citizen or soldier,
ment
a refusal to per.abandon-
a_ scornful
of the old traditions of culture, even a loss of faith
4
in the mission of Eome.
In that
age, as in our
conceptions of the
own, there were widely different
meaning of the Christian
profession.
There can be little doubt that there was a vast mass of

interested and perfunctory conformity to the religion
which had become the established religion of the State.

The philosophic scepticism and worldly tone of the
cultivated pagan were often not much altered when he
1
Claudian, de Bell. Gild. 46 de

50 Rutil. Namat. i. 47;
Bell. Get.
132.
a
Sym.
Eel. 3, ergo
Itomanae
re-
ligiones ad
tinent
Romana
jura non per-
Ib. 3, sacrilegio exarnit
Auson. Ep. xxv. 44-74.
annus.
CHAP,
11
transferred his nominal allegiance from his ancestral gods

1 There
was a worldliness and easy selfChrist.
to
indulgence in the higher rank of nominally Christian

society, which moved alike the indignation of the ascetic
and the good-humoured ridicule of the pagan observer. 1

But a large and growing class took the claims of Christ
To carry out to the letter the precepts
more seriously.
of the Sermon on the Mount, in the midst of a society
penetrated with individualism and easygoing sensuality,
The aspiration aftert
seemed a hopeless attempt. 2
|
'
Christian perfection could be satisfied only by a withd'rawal from the, contamination of thg world, and a
complete renunciation of the duties of citizenship. ( This
spirit
has_b^_some modern historians been made respon-
sible for the resignation of the defence of the Empire_to

barbarian mercenaries, for the decay of industry and
wealth, for the decline of letters and art, and the darkness
of a thousand years. 3
And there is some of the religious
literature of that period which gives a colour to part of
In the very years when the great

indictment.
invasions were desolating the provinces of the West, and
when the hosts of Kadagaisus and Alaric were threatening
this
the heart of the Empire, S. Paulinus wrote a remarkable

a soldier who felt himself drawn to the higher
letter to
Christian
life.
In
this
the
epistle
ascetic
ideal
is
expounded with a breadth and absence of qualification

The
which shock and amaze the modern reader.
evangelical counsels of perfection are construed in the
sternest and most uncompromising fashion.
Christian
1
Hieron.
c.
Johann. Hierosol.
8,
raisevabilis Praetextatus qui designatus consul est mortuus, homo
sacrilegus et idolorum cultor, solebat

ludens beato papae Damaso dicere :
" facite me Romanae ecclesiae
episcopum et ero protinus Christianus."
As a comment on this mot of Praetcxtatus read the reflections on the
conflict for the papal seat in 367 in

Marc. 27, 3, 14.
Amm.
J Eenan
^nn NM
2g p
ql[ *
fi
3
'
'
JI>7/ Pn 627
607
Aurele
'
>
'
^ ^wrtte, 595,
humame ^ suspendue pour
>
millc ans
4
'
? e nan
la vie
'
cf'
pp.
S. Paulin.
Ep. xxv.
603,
12
is
of
The love
boldly represented as inconsistent with the

citizenship and the relations of family life.
obedience
duties
BOOK
of father or mother, of wife or child, the desire
\ror riches or honour, devotion to one's country, are all so

many barriers to keep the soul from Christ. There is
J
not a word to indicate that a Christian
life,
worthy of
made compatible with the performance

The rich are condemned for ever, in
of worldly duties.
1
The soldier is a
the words of prophet or evangelist.
8
2
mere shedder of blood, doomed to eternal torment.
the name, could be
There
no possibility of serving both Christ and Caesar.

way in which secular life was regarded by
is
This was the
the voluntary exiles who followed S. Jerome, in the last

years of the fourth century, to the convents at Bethlehem,
or
who
islands
to the Syrian or Egyptian deserts, the

Tuscan
Sea, and the hermitages in the
tl\e
a
Such
movement might well seem to
Gau|)
retired
of
woods of
an old-fashioned Koman
citizenship, but of
and
"
life,
was
and
\j
It
social
all
as a renunciation, not only of

the hard- won fruits of civilisation
If this
life.
was the highest form of Christian
as its devotees proclaimed it to be, then Christianity

the foe, not only of the old religion, but of the social
political order which Eome had given to the world.
hardly to be wondered at that the monks were
is
4
by the mob and by the cultivated pagan
îaleqi alike
noble.
it would be a mistake to suppose that in general

line Between the two camps was siiarpiy drawn.
the
society
a matter of factr there" was on eitEer side a large
Yet
AT
.wavering
1
class, half-hearted, sceptical, or formalist.,/
S. Paulin.
Ep. xxv.
2, et
iterum
per prophetam ait, "Exterminati

sunt omnes qui exaltati fuerant
In Evangelic
auro et argento."
" vae vobis
quoque clamat
.
divitibus," etc.
3
Ib.
3, mortis minister est.
Ib.
1,
quod
si
We
maluerimus
Caesari mill tare quam Christo

ad Gehennara transferemur.
4
Hieron. Ep, 39,
5, quousque
genus detestabile non urbe pellitur t
non lapidibus obruitur?
6
Rutil. Namat. i. 440.
.
CHAP,
13
1
know, on the testimony of Libanius, that there were
many sham converts to Christianity, whose conformity
was due either to fear or motives of selfish ambition.
Such men were ready to return to their old faith as
Apostasy to
lightly as they had conformed to the new.
heathenism became so frequent that Gratian and Theo-
bound to
The upper class were
the old social and
dosius felt
divided
by
religious
2
by severe legislation.
generations far more united by
restrain
for
literary
it
that\ they were

of
friends
tradition
were
There
belief.
Sidonius living at the close of the Western Empire who

were at heart as pagan as Symmachus who saw paganism
3
\In truth, the line between Christian
and pagan was long wavering and uncertain.
We find
adherents of the opposing creeds side by side even in the
same family at the end of the fourth century. Mixedv
marriages (imparia matrimoma) were evidently not
uncommon.
Any one acquainted with the life of S.
Jerome will remember Paula, the great Eoman lady, who
was the leader of the aristocratic exodus to the Holy
Places. 4
She gave up all her vast wealth to maintain
the religious houses which she founded at Bethlehem. 6
Her whole soul was absorbed in the study of the
6
Yet
Scriptures, and in the thought of the life to come.
Paula was united in early youth to a noble named Julius
7
Toxotius, who boasted of his descent from Aeneas, and
who refused to abandon the worship of his ancestors.
finally proscribed.
Their son, the younger Toxotius, who, at any rate in his

8
youth, was also a staunch pagan, was married to Laeta,
another devout friend of S. Jerome, to whom he addressed
a letter on the proper education for a Christian maiden.
1
Orat. pro Templis, ed.
Reiske,
Th. xvi. tit. 7

cf. Godefroy's note to xvi. 7, 1 ; Eauschen,
0.
Ib.
30,
testis est
unum quidem minimum
p. 176.
;
Jahrbiicher, p. 153.
8
Apollin. Sid. JEp. viii. 9
4
Hieron. Ep. 108.
viii. 11.
Jesus, ne
ab ea
filiae
relictum.
6
Ib.
26.
Ib.
pp. 26, 27.

8
Ib. 107,
Thierry's S. Jerome,
1.
'
14
BOOK
offspring of a mixed marriage,

a Christian, and her father was one of
the most distinguished chiefs of the pagan aristocracy,
Publilius Caeonius Albinus. 1 The affectionate relations
Laeta herself was the
Her mother was
seem
have been quite undisturbed

S.
among its members.
Jerome speaks of Albinus in a friendly tone as a most
learned and distinguished man, and sketches a pleasant
picture of the old heathen pontiff listening to his little
of this household
by the
of
difference
to
creed
singing her infant hymns to Christ.

many of his class in that day, was plainly
in
tolerant
matters
of religion ; yet he was a colleague of
\[
in
the
pontifical college, and he figures in the
Symmachus
grand -daughter
Albinus, like
Saturnalia of Macrobius as a great master of the anti2

quarian lore of old Kome.
flê cultivated sceptic or pagan

have
often
maintained a friendly intimacy
appears
even with the most uncompromising champions of the
Church, The correspondence of S. Augustine reveals the
I
singular freedom and candour with which the great
religious questions of the time were debated between the
cultivated members of the two parties.
Among the
VD. general society
to
friends of the great bishop was Volusianus, brother of

that Laeta to whom we have just referred. 3
Volusianus,
4
although he is said to have been afterwards converted,
was
at this time, if not a decided pagan, like his father

pontiff, at any rate little disposed to accept the
fundamental tenets of the Christian faith.
He seems to
the
which debated not only the old

but
those doctrines of the Christian
philosophical questions,
have lived in a
circle
creed which present the greatest obstacles to the reason.

1
His restoration of a ruined
Capitol at Thamugad in Numidia
is commemorated in an inscription
of the time of Valentinian and
Valens, C.I.L. viii. 2388 cf. C.I.L.
viii. 6975, \vhich contains the dedication by him of a chapel to Mithra
;
cf.
Macrob. Sat.
1.
Ep. 107,
2
Macrob. Sat.
8
S.
Sym.
4
i.
15
2,
Hieron.
i. iii.
Aug. Ep. 132
cf.
Seeck's
clxxix.
Baron. Annal. Eccl. v. 728

(quoted in Seeck's Sym. clxxix.).
CHAP,
At one
of
these
gatherings
15
the
difficulties
and
of the Incarnation
of
the
miraculous conception of Christ,

the omnipresent Euler of the Universe in a single
human form, subject to all the changes, wants, and limiAnd Volusianus, in a
tations of humanity, were raised.
of
of
full
letter
deferential
admiration
and learning, asks
character
for
for
some
Augustine's
on these
light
In another letter, 2 Marcellinus, who

puzzling questions.
was a friend of both, submits, on behalf of Volusianus,
some other problems as to the apparent inconstancy of

the Deity in abrogating the Jewish law which He had
Himself given, and the possibility of obeying the precepts
of the
Sermon on the Mount
dominant
state.
On
in the
both sides there
government of a
is
the ancient culture in foe fierce

samelboneis conspicuous in the
correspondencô^the^paân
3
Their letters
philosopher Longinianus and Augustine.
seem to show that the two men were on terms of friendly
and although Longinianus cannot give a

"
What think you of
answer
to the question,
satisfactory
Christ?" a devout monotheism supplied some common
ground with the Christian bishop, who deals in a singularly gentle tone with the philosopher's lingering and
vaguely expressed attachment to ancient mystic rites.
VA.ugustine's letter to Lampadius on fatalist superstitions
4
Yet Lampadius
displays even more startling tolerance.
was a devotee of the pagan belief in astrology and divinaintercourse,
tion.
ment
He was
Pretorian prefect intrie shorT-lived govern409 by the old senatorial party, 5 withi/
established in
Attalus as emperor and Alaric as master of the forces,

which was the last attempt of the old pagan spirit to
regain the sceptre.
1
9
8
S.
<"
Aug. Ep. 135.
Ib. 136.
Ib. 233, 234,
235.
Jb. 246.
Zos. vi. 7.
16
In the
Symmachus, which
circle of
us than any other of that time, there
known
better
is
is
BOOK
to
a striking inter-
mixture of pagan and Christian, with a reticent suppression of all differences on religious questions! J^jyvrek
Symmachus was
the chief of the pagan aristocracy,

the most gallant defender of the old religion in its last
His ancestors had held the
struggles for toleration.
lius
highest office since the days of Constantine, and he himself had added fresh lustre to the honours of his house.
He was
regarded as the finest product of the literary
tradition of Borne,
judgments were
Senate.
an arbiter elegantiarum whose

the
infallible,
Probably, like so
many
critical
greatest orator of the

of his class for ages, he
was a sceptic whose inner creed was a vague monotheism.

But he cherished a sentimental, or a statesmanlike,
religion.
The fortunes and the dignity
his eyes
of
The
guardian deities.
grandeur and beneficence of her career were for ever
associated with the religion of the old Fabii, Decii, and
inseparably
,/"
Eoman
Rome were in
attachment to the ancient forms of the

linked
with
her
There are, indeed, but few direct references to

Scipios.
religion in his private letters, none to Christianity or the
internecine war of faiths which was raging around him.
Like Claudian and Macrobius, he seems to shut his eyes
which in
to the spiritual revolution
his closing years
was
sending the world of Western Europe on a new orbit.

To the very end of the legal existence of paganism, he
maintained the same tranquil, old-world tone about
religion.
He
records the meetings of the Sacred College,
and the recurrence of the

mentions in his
festival of
terrifying prodigies,
consul suffectus being thrown from his car,
1
Seeck's
Sym.
Auson. Idyll, x.
Ep.
Prudent, c. Sym. i. 632
;
xvii.
somewhat
Tullius
tern,
He
such as the
in
Roraani decus eloquii, cui cedat et ipse
xl.
O linguam
Mater.
Magna
letters
miro verborura fonte fluen-
Ambros. Ep. 18,

3
Sym. Rd. 3.
4
Ep.
vi.
40
2.
i.
49
ii
34.
CHAP,
manner
the
of
Virgins prayed
the
for
early annals.
leave to erect a
1
Agorius
Praetextatus,
deepest knowledge
When
of sacred things,"
the
Vestal
statue to Vettius
"
man who
the
17
possessed the
probably the best
and most devout pagan of that age, and a dear friend of

Symmachus, he resisted the proposal, partly on the
ground of propriety, partly as a violation of ancient
usage.
Personally the most kindly and humane of men,
he demanded of the prefect that an erring Vestal should
be surrendered to pontifical authority, to be punished in
Eoman fashion. 2 He once or twice laments
the cruel old
the growing neglect of the ancient worship, 3 and prays

the gods to pardon it, although he cannot help feeling
that it is sometimes due to an unworthy subservience to
the feelings of the Court.
It seems as if Symmachus
was incapable of imagining that the Roman State could
I
ever finally disown the gods in
whom
the
men
Jf-
of her
great ages had believed. \

Yet the correspondence of
Symmachus shows that he

and even affectionate intimacy,
not only with nominal Christians, but with determined
lived on terms of friendly

foes of the
jud
religion.
Inthe
list of
v.
his friends, indeed,
almost every shade of belief or of indifference is repreand there is no better way of understanding the
sented
religious condition of that time than to study some of the
;
men with whom
the great pagan noble was intimate, from

Praetextatus the heathen mystic, to S. Ambrose the great
champion of Cathnlin orthodmrp
Praetextatus was probably the truest representative of

the last gen erajionj)f paganism.
The inscriptions which
commemorate his virtues and distinctions are a proof
of the space he filled in the eyes of contemporaries. 4
1
Ep.il
Ib. ix. 147.
Ib,
i.
36.
51,
Romanos genus
nunc
aris
C.I.L.
vi.
1779,
2145.
The
latter refers to a monument erected

to him by the Vestals.
deesse
est ambiendi.
18
BOOK
He was
proconsul of Achaea in the reign of Julian, and,

2
after a long retirement of fifteen years, he held the
Pretorian prefecture in the reign of Theodosius, and was
designated for the consulship in 385, when he died in
Praetextatus combined all the

sixtieth
year.
qualities which then constituted the ideal of the Eoman
He was devoted to letters, had emended MSS., 8
noble.
his
and translated
Aristotle.
His house
is
the scene of the
As
learned conversations of the Saturnalia*
a states-
law of Valentinian I. against

5
nocturnal rites, which seemed intolerable to his proWhen he was prefect of the
vincial subjects in Greece.
man, he
resisted
the
6
he gained universal popularity, without offending
any party, although he had the difficult duty of maintaining order when, in the furious struggle for the papal
throne, the rival factions of Damasus and Ursinus were
slaughtering one another on the pavement of the
city
churches.
On
his death, even S. Jerome,
who
consigns
nim
to outer darkness, agrees with Marcellinus that he

received the tribute of a universal mourning from the
'
Praetextatus was the most learned
populace of Eome.
most
enthusiastic devotee in the ranks
and
the
theologian
J^/
of the last pagan nobles./ His monument describes him
as augur, priest of Vesta, priest of the sun, curial of

Hercules, devoted to Liber and the Eleusinian deities,
neocorus, hierophant, pater patrum, cleansed by the rite of

9
His wife, Fabia Aconia Paulina, was
the Taurobolium.
his partner in all sacred things, and was famous in the
Koman world
friends to
1
Amm.
Seeck's
whom
Marc. xxii.
Sym.
Sym. Ep.
Zos. iv. 3.
53;
7, 6.
of.
Seeck,
Amm.
jb. xxvii. 3, 12.
Marc, xxvii.
^ ^
Urbs UniverSa
i.
It is note-
almost the only one of his

the reticent Symmachus mentions the
is
Ixxxviii.
i.
Macrob. Sal
eminence.
for her religious
worthy that Praetextatus
ad cujug
commota
1.
9
C.I.L.
vi.
9, 8.
1779.
est '
CHAP,
19
although even the pious Praetextatus

seems to have sometimes forgotten his sacerdotal duties
subject of religion,
in the repose of his country-seat in Etruria.

When, as
Urban prefect, Symmachus announced his death to the
3
Emperor, he described Praetextatus, with the assent of
the whole people, as a model of all private and public
virtue.
jinother name ainong the pagan friends of SyTYirrmnlnis

deserves special mention.
Yirius Nicomachus Flavianus,
a
member
of the great Anician house,* was son of a

after long obscurity, rose to prominence in
who,
the
Flavianus was a young man

pagan reaction of Julian.
of twenty-seven when Julian came to the throne, and*
5
along with Venustus his father, and his cousin Sym-
For twelve
machus, obtained a provincial governorship.
of
the
of
Valentinian
I.
Flavianus
was in
years
reign
retirement but in the reign of Gratian, he, along with
;
Symmachus, shared in the extraordinary ascendency

which the circle of Ausonius enjoyed for some years.
Flavianus received the vicariate of Africa, Hesperius, the
poet's son, being proconsul of the province at the same
After the manner of
time.
the pagan or indifferent
governors of the age, Flavianus showed indulgence to

the heretics of his district, 7 and incurred a rebuke from
In the reign of Theodosius he

the orthodox Emperor.
favour
the
of
the
Court, and was made prefect
regained
1
Sym. Ep. i
2b
/j x !Q
The a rr
4 TT, O
to
it;
6
47, 48, 51.
45
10
Symmachi
cf.
Amm.
Seeck,
io
also
cii.,
-K
belonged
and the
Marc. xxm. 1,4, Venusto
yicariam commisit Hispaniae. This

is the Venustus of Macrob. i. 5, 13,
Flavianus mirando viro Venusto
patre praestantior.
6
Cf.
the efforts of the Priscilhave their cause brought
lianists to
before a friendly governor in Spain,

Sulp. Sev. Chron. ii. 49.
7 S.
a
8, to
Aug. Ep. 87,
Donatist bishop, describes Flavianus
ag
rae
ves
^
homo
Cf>
partis
rA x 6 , 2 addressed to Flavianus
in 377, ordering him to suppress
Anabaptism
and
xvi.
5,
4,
378,
Hesperius, in which the continuance of heretical worship is

" dissimulatio
attributed to
judicum>
But the date of the law is
doubtful.
Cf. Godefroy's notes and
Seeck's Sym. cxiv.
to
man
*
20
BOOK
383, his two sons also being elevated to

After a brief interval, he
governorships of provinces.
once more rose to favour and held the prefecture in
1
3 9 1.
But his career was drawing to a disastrous close.
of Italy in
Although he wielded such power under the Emperor who

finally proscribed the heathen ritual, Flavianus wagLjm
in religion.
He became the heart
obstinate
reactionary
and soul of the brief pagan restoration under Eugenius.
>
He
obtained the restoration of the altar of Victory to the

2
Senate-house, and of their endowments to the sacred
By
colleges.
advancement,
Christians
and promises
or
weak-kneed
tempted
of official
lavish hospitality,
to
he
the cause
desert
indifferent
of Theodosius
and the
Church^> All the arts of ancient divination were brought

4
into/^lay by the greatest living master of the science.
And
a prophetic verse was recalled or invented which
foreshadowed the end of the Christian superstition three
hundred and sixty-five years after the Passion. 5 The

reckoning seemed to tally exactly with the crisis of
But the gods proved false to their faithful
events.
champion the illusions of the past only led Flavianus

and his party to their doom. Amid the tempest which
raged over the battle on the Frigidus and gave the
;
victory to Theodosius, Flavianus more,
majorum died by
had
staked
all
on
success of tbe
the
^le
to
and
lost.
Yet, strange
say, his memorypapan cause
was respected, and even honoured, by the victors. His
6
confiscated estates were afterwards restored to Ins sons.
The Emperor in a message to the Senate deplored the
loss to the State and to himself.
Nearly forty years
own
his
hand.
See Seeck's note, 579 ; RausJahrb. pp. 150 and 337.

Rauschen controverts Seeck's view
(Prol. cxvii.) that Flavianus was
discovered at the end of a MS.

of Prudentius) quoted by Seeck,
praef. praet. in 389.
&Kpipovv \oyffi[j.fvos
chen,
Paulin.
2(5.
3
vit.
Ambros.
Ss* the Carm. Paris,
c.
viii.
cxviii.
4
SairTJs
5
(a
poem
Sozom.
vii.
22,
TO.
fj.4\\oyra
^T
pavTeias.
Civ. Dei, xviii. 53, 54.
De
Sym. Ep,
iv. 19.
CHAP,
21
on the Frigidus the Emperors Valentinian

and Theodosius did justice to the virtues and distinction
1
of Flavianus in a monument which is still extant.
A
master of augural lore, a learned historian, and a
philosopher, he was one of that band who, when
paganism and letters were perishing, united in a single
2
love the literature and the religion of the past.
after the battle
Several of the great German chiefs, who wielded

'such power in that age, were among the most intimate
friends of Symmachus.
these some boldly adhered to
ry
(Of
the
religious
practices
hindrance to their
without any
Others conformed to
of their ancestors
advancement.)
the Church, with more or less intensity of faith.

With
Stilicho, the autocrat of the early years of Honorius,
Symmachus was naturally on the most friendly footing.
We
can well believe that there would be strong bonds of

sympathy between the chief of the party who claimed
toleration for paganism, and the statesman who strove to
modus vivendi between Eoman and Goth, Catholic
find a
and Pagan, and who
incurred
anathemas
the
of
the
8
and of
bigots of both parties, of Eutilius Namatianus
4
Orosius.
another
friend
of
Eichomer,
Symmachus, a
Frank chief of the highest character, who never

abandoned his ancestral faith, 5 is a remarkable example
of the religious confusion of the time.
He was on terms
of the most friendly character with Libanius, the last of
the Hellenists, and yet he rose to be consul and magister
militum under a prince engaged in extirpating heathenism. 6
He was a personal friend of Arbogastes and Eugenius, the
chiefs of the pagan reaction of 394 yet he was
designated^
to
command
C.I.L.
vi.
the cavalry of Theodosius against
'
i6 '
Itin.
1783.
Peter's Gesch. Litt. iiber die

Horn. Kaiserzeit, ii. 32 ; cf. i. 137 ;
Seeck's Sym . cxv. ; Macrob. Sat.
Oros.
5Liban
vii. 38.
'
%^
them when
^26
a Sua l
>
P-
"P*^'
l **>
f'
e 'the authorities collected in
iheProsopographia of the C. Th. ed.

ii.
41.
Ritter.
'
22
BOOK
Another Frank, Bauto,

he was overtaken by death. 1
2
whatever his own religion may have been, took care to
have his daughter, the future Empress Eudoxia, brought
up a devout
Catholic.
the correspondents of Symmachus there are

Christians of many shades of conviction, from the great
Bishop of Milan to the trimmers who were ready to
Among
acquiesce in a pagan
authority of Attalus.
restoration
under the shadowy
The Ambrosius
of the letters of
almost
certainly the illustrious saint

and pastor who, by the force of genius and character,
wielded a greater power than any other man in the
Symmachus
is
8
paganism with the Christian Empire.
The man who confronted fearlessly the Arianism of
4
Justina, and who forced Theodosius to do penance for
5
the massacre of Thessalonica, threw the whole energy of
a powerful nature into the conflict, so long wavering and
doubtful, which gave the final victory to the Church
before he died. [When Symmachus, as deputy of the
Senate, appealed to the Emperor to restore to their house
of assembly the altar of Victory, the most venerable
last
struggle
of
symbol of the pagan Empire,
Ambrose
S.
resisted the
proposal with all the arts of a rhetoric, trained, like that of

6
his opponent, in the ancient schools.
The two men
were the chosen champions of the opposing hosts, and

they fought with an equal energy of sentiment or conviction.
But although they were so sharply opposed in
i
>>'
\/
matters of religion, they were connected both by blood

culture.
Symmachus writes to the bishop in the
In one
tone of an assured and unruffled friendship. 7
and
Zos. iv. 55.
Seeck, Sym. cxl., makes him a

Christian on the strength of a singular participle in one of S. Ambrose's
Cf. Rauschen, Jahrb. der
Epistles.
Christ. Kirclie unter dem K. Theod.
4
n.
S. Ambros. Ep. 57.
;
p. 204,
8
Seeck's Sym. cxxviii. ; Ambros.
de Sat. JExcessu, i.
note in Migne's ed.
4
mto
32.
But
cf.
Paulin>
Ambr.
8.
iv.
c.
12.
5
lb
Ib
'
Cl
V11>
c - viii
Sym. Ep.
R ox
^'
26
iii.
$7-
33, 34.
Rel
3.
CHAP,
23
he even claims his good offices on behalf of a man

served under the usurpation of Eugenius. _SL_
Ambrose on his side speaks of Symmachus in a tone of
respect for the sincerity of his pagan zeal, and admiration
letter
who had
fojLthe skill of his^ rhetoric.

There are one or two other decided Christians in the
list, such as that Vincentius, who, while prefect of Gaul,
2
strove to cultivate the friendship of S. Martin.
But
most of the other so-called Christian friends of Symmachus
had
common with
Ambrose.
waverers
and sceptics to whom a religious profession was only a
The most distinguished
means, .of safety or of ambition.
friend of Symmachiia~-_iii the high official world was
Sextus PetroniusvJProbus^.,^ Descended from a long line
3
of consuls, Probus was regarded as the greatest glory of
the Anician house. 4
Proconsul of Africa in his twentysecond year, he held the Pretorian prefecture four times,
in one case for a term of eight years, and was colleague
of the Emperor in the consulship of 371.
His rank and
virtues are commemorated in many inscriptions, and in a
5
poem of Ausonius addressed to Probus, when he wielded
little
So_me of
in
them belonged
the enthusiasm of
S.
to that large class of
at Sirmium a power second only to that of the Emperor.

His wife and his sons were devoted Christians 6 his granddaughter Demetrias took the vow of virginity.
Probus himself was only baptized on his deathbed.
Ammianus Marcellinus more than hints ^that love of
wealth and power was his strongest passion. 8 Caecilianus,
who bore a great part in the negotiations with Alaric, was
/
x/
a great friend of
1
ille
Ambros. Ep.
S.
9
Augustine as well as of Symmachus.
57, 2, functus est
partibus suis pro studio etcultu
suo.
3
Sulp. Sev. Dial. i. 25,

Seeck's?/m xci
1752 1753
1756.
1752,
1753, 1756
4
Hieron. Ep. 130,
3.
C.LL.
vi.
3.
vi
% C
1751-6 ; Auson. Ep.

xvi. ; cf. Amm. Marc, xxvii. 11, 1.
6
Prudent, c. Sym. i. 551 ; Hieron.
EP> 130,
6.
OIL
C.LL. 1756,
munere Christi.
senior
Aug. Ep. 151,
14.
donatua
-KX&*
24
But
tian
lie
;
BOOK
appears to have been a rather lukewarm 'Chris-
for the saint remonstrates
with him
for
being con-
tent at his age to remain a catechumen.

On a lower level than Probus and Caecilianus are two
men, among the familiar friends of Symmachus, who had

an ephemeral distinction in the years of Alaric's invasion.
Their attitude to religion represents that of many of their
The Jovius of the letters of Symmachus
contemporaries.
probably the believer in chance and the superstitions

whom S. Paulinus laboured to convert from
is
of astrology
1
Yet he began his public career by over2

He is
turning the temples of heathenism at Carthage.
his errors.
3
praised by Symmachus for his high principle and virtue;
but the account which the historian gives of his career
seems to convict him either of fickleness or treachery.

a personal friend of Alaric, and, on the fall of
He was
.Olympius,
the leader
of the
reaction, Jovius
Catholic
succeeded him, 4 and resumed the tolerant religious policy

of Stilicho, along with an attempt to conciliate Alaric by
conceding some of his demands.
Having
failed to obtain
the Emperor's assent to his views, he suddenly took up

an attitude of determined hostility to the Gothic chief. 5
Yet within a very short time we
find Jovius in the office
of Pretorian prefect under Attains,6 the puppet emperor

whom Alaric had set up. In the breach between Attains
and his patron, Jovius deserted Attains, as he had

deserted Honoring. 7
The believer in mere chance, as the
ruling force in the universe, seems, on the more charitable
own life to be governed

only a faint glimmering of any higher
principle in his career, when occasionally he showed a
certain faith in the Gothic power.
hypothesis, to have allowed his
by
it.
There
is
Another great
1
2
3
4
figure in the events of those puzzling
Paulin. Nol. Ep. xvi.

Aug. de Civ. Dei, xviii. 54.
S.
Syra. Ep. viii. 30

Zos. v. 46, 47.
Ib. v. 49
7 oa v
Sozora. ix. 7.
ix. 59.
7
Olympiod. Frag.
13.
CHAP,
25
1
He was of Asiatic origin.
years was Prisons Attalus.
His father had a great literary reputation, was the friend
2
and correspondent of Libanius, and rose to high office.
Attalus possessed the superficial literary and rhetorical

he could deliver elaborate
arts which were then in vogue
;
orations, write
pretty verses,
As
and accompany them on
he was a Hellenist, with no

faith either in the old system or the new, but with a
Yet his brilliant
sentimental attachment to the past. 4
him
a
foremost
place in the
accomplishments gave
senatorial ranks, and when the city was hard pressed by
the lyre.
to religion,
Alaric he was one of the envoys chosen to lay before the

6
The
Emperor at Eavenna the miseries of the capital.
mission failed
but Attalus accepted the
office
of count
of the sacred largesses, 6 and shortly afterwards that of

When Alaric, so long mocked by the
prefect of the city.
mingled weakness, perfidy, and insolence of the court at

Eavenna, seized the magazines at Ostia, and ordered the
Senate, as the price of their safety, to depose Honorius
and elect a new chief of the State, their choice fell on
And
Attalus. 7
spectacle
than
surely there was never a more curious

sceptical Hellenist received
when the
8
baptism at the hands of an Arian bishop, to please his
Gothic masters, while he gave his sanction to reactionary
dreamers like Lampadius and Tertullus, who revived for
moment
the arts of divination and the pagan ceremonies
of the old Eepublic.

These men, of such various shades of enthusiasm or
appear to have lived together in perfect

The urbane senator, in whose friendship they
amity.
are united for the study of the historian, seems to have
indifference,
found no more difficulty in his relations with Ambrose

1
For the authorities as to his

Seeck'sSymmachus, clxx.
career see
2
3
*
Amm.
Marc, xxviii.
Olympiod. Frag.
Sozom. ix. 9.
4, 3.
Zos. v. 44.
jj
T
lb
24.
*
44 an(j 45
v>
'
,.
V1 * 7 '
Sozom.
ix. 9.
26
BOOK
and Probus than with Flavianus or Praetextatus. They

were all during the life of Symmachus united in the
of
service
prefecture
the
or
^Pronounced pagans held the

consulship under Theodosms and
State.
the
1
It was
Honorius, and were even their trusted counsellors.
8
till 41 6 thafr tfrey wereformallv excluded fironTofSce.
of these pagan officials hacrror years in their hands

enforcement of laws against superstitions or heresies
Many
with which they themselves sympathised,

yin the^lopg
truce between the hostile âmps, the pagan,
the^sceptic,
even the formal, lukewarm Christian, may have come to

dream of a mutual toleration which would leave the
ancient forms undisturbed. ^But sucli men, living in a
world of literary and antiquarian illusions, knew little of
the inner forces of the
chiefs of the
new
The
mould from
Christian movement.
Church were of a very
different
the chiefs of the Senate.

1
Symmachus was consul in 391 ;
Flavianus was prefect of Italy in
391 his son was proconsul of Asia
in 383 (Rauschen, p. 148); Richomer
was consul in 384 (Rauschen, p.
172).
Macrobius, author of the
Saturnalia, was probably Praef.
Praet. of Spain in 399, Procos. of
Africa in 410, and Praepositus S.
Cubiculi in 422 (G. Th. xvi. 10, 15
;
xi. 28,
doubt.
vi. 8).
Of.
But there is some
Godefroy on
xi.
28, 6,
n. 6
Jan, Prol. ad Macrdb.
Teuffel, Rom. Lit. ii. p.

i.
142.
Gesch.
Litt.
453
v. vi.
Peter,
Rutilius
Namatianus was prefect of the City
in 414 (Itin. i. 157).
His father,
Lachanius, had been Consularis
Tusciae (ib. i. 579).
2
G. Th. xvi. 10, 21, qui profano
Pagani ritus errore seu crimine
polluuntur, nee ad militiam admittantur, nee Administratoris vel
Judicis honorc decorentur.
CHAPTEE
II
THE LAST CONFLICTS OF PAGANISM WITH THE

CHRISTIAN EMPIRE
THE
sixteenth book of the Theodosian Code contains a
series of
twenty -five edicts against the practice of pagan

It begins with a curt command that superstition
"
shall cease and
the insanity of sacrificial rites shall be
rites.
abolished."
It closes,
more than eighty years
after-
wards, with denouncing
the penalty of death against

who
still
to
take part in "the damnable
any
presume
"
2
so
forbidden
practices
long
by the State. I It is true
423 the Emperor seems sanguine

3
almost extinct, and he somewhat
"
who are still
mitigates the penalties against those
in
the
accursed
of
daemons.""/ There
entangled
worship
is even a curious note of toleration in the law of the
that in the edict of
that heathenism
same
is
which imposes a heavy fine on any person

Jews or pagans who lived in quietBut this
obedience to the law.
In country
clemency was probably misunderstood.
places, sometimes with the connivance of indifferent
officials, the old
temples were still frequented, and
year,
offering violence to
ness and outward
0.
Th.
perstitio
iusania.
2
8
2,
cesset su-
sacrinciorum
aboleatur
xvi.
10,
qui suporsunt, quanquam jam nullos

esse credamus, legum jaindudum
prescripta compescant.
Ib. xvi. 10, 25.
Ib. xvi. 10,
22 and 23, paganos
Ib. xvi. 10, 24.
28
BOOK
after
still offered more than
fifty years
fierce
tone
of
the
;^fe^deatE~of
greaT^^doMug^^.|The
of 439 proves that legislation had not
yet finally subdued the obstinacy of old superstition.
sacrifices
were
The closing enactment in the Code, against the obstinate

1
In
and hated remnant, is the most vehement of all.
that strange rhetorical tone of the
after
infuriated Emperor,
referring
ostentatious
of
terrors
contempt
the
laws,"
of
pagans
asks
"
why
later
to
Code, the
almost
the
for
"the
the
springtime
thousand
has
wonted charm, why the summer with its

resigned
mocks the hopes of the toiling husbandharvests
scanty
the
man, why
rigours of winter have condemned the
"
It must be the vengeance
fruitful soil to barrenness ?
its
The violated majesty

of JNature for continued impiety.
of the Heavenly Power demanded expiation and revenge.
Probably the timid devotees, who still clung to their
found the explanation of these calamities in
But here, so far as open
the impiety of the Emperor.
is
with the Empire
ritual
the
conflict
concerned,
pagan
rustic altars,
Tbg_final triumph over the devotional attachwas reserved for the dialectic
closes.
^ments
or .the
of a thousand years
accommodating arts_QfJthe_Ghurch.
The
secret of the long conflict is not to be sought

exclusively in the obstinacy of immemorial custom, and
I
the conservatism of a race wedded to ancient usage.

The truth is, that in the period of transition the laws
were administered
for the
most part by
the pagan or wavering

imperial government for a
to
class.
officials
belonging
But, above all, the
long time was only halfhearted in the war against the old religion of the State.
The policy of Constantine and his successors, till the
reign of Gratian, was, in spite of appearances, one of
practical toleration to the legitimate practice of pagan
1
Nov. Theod.
heretics,
tit.
and pagans.
3.
The law
is
directed against Jews, Samaritans,
CH.
ITS
ii
LAST CONFLICTS WITH THE EMPIRE
29
1
worship in the West. / It is true that Constantius,
Valentinian I., and Valens made the practice of the arts
and magic a political crime, 2 and

.strove to repress them with a ruthless determination.
But from 356 to 381 there is no law in the Code
In the interval
directed against public heathen rites.
they were either authorised or connived at.
Symmachus
and his colleagues still hold the meetings of the pontifical
the feasts of Magna Mater are still celebrated
college
of divination, astrology,
Even Gratian
guard the eternal fire.
did not expressly abolish the heathen worship, although
the Vestals
on
still
he declined to accept
from the sacred
His most serious \
\
1
assault on the old religion was the removal of the statue
(f^^
J
and altar of Victory from the Senate-house. 4 I The figure
of Victory, originally brought from Tarentum, was rehis accession, for the first time,
pontifical robes, and withdrew

3
colleges their estates and endowments.
the
Bom an
garded as the sacred symbol of
From
greatness.
had stood over the altar at

which twelve generations of senators had seen their
sittings opened with sacrifice, and at which they had
the days of Augustus
sworn allegiance
which .contained
Symmachus, and
at this time had
1
Cf.
a majority opposed to the innovation,

Pag.
296 ;
271,
Rauschen,
pp.
Jahrbiicher der Christ. Kirche unter
dem K. Theod. p. 127, die Opfer
dagegen, auch die blutigen, blieben
im Westreiche bis zum Gesetz des
Theodosius vom 24
Feb.
391
erlaubt
0. Th. xvi. 10, 10.
2
is
a
There
controversy as to
the laws between 341 and 356,
ii.
The
interdicting pagan worship.

most probable conclusion seems to
be that, if they were issued, they
were
Duruy,
not
vii.
rigorously
297
cf.
Magie, pp. 110-114.
(The Senate
such attached pagans as Praetextatus,
Flavianus, and which almost certainly
to the chief of the State.
La Fin du
Boissier,
it
enforced.
Maury, La
Zos. iv. 36, rCav otv
/card
rb
Fpartavy
atrîv.
statement
irpoffayaydvTUv
foi)$es
TW
ffroMjv &Trc<rd<raTo rfy

For doubts about this
see
Rauschen,
der Chr. K. p. 120, n.

4
Sym.
Sym. liii.
Ep.
x.
Gregorovius,
Middle Ages,
Cf.
Jahrb.
4.
cf.
Seeck's
liv.
i.
Seeck,
Rome
in
the
67.
Sym.
liv.
cf.
the
account of the Senate's opposition

to Theodosius in Zosimus, iv. 59
and on the other hand the boast of
Pruclentius,
Sym. 566. Ambros.
Ep. 17 affirms that the Christians
c.
i.
'
30
BOOK
resolved to petition the Emperor to rescind the decrees.

But the Christian party, through Damasus and Ambrose,
succeeded in preventing the deputation from even
1
The events which immediately
getting an audience.
followed seemed a judgment of the gods on their enemies.

Gratian fell by the assassin's hand, leaving no heirs;
and a
the granaries
famine wasted the provinces which were

2
of Italy.
The pagan party took fresh
courage, and in
384
terrible
their
and Symmachus, were

other
the
Italy,
two greatest
raised, the
that
to
of
chiefs,
Praetextatus
one to the prefecture of
the
Praetextatus
city.
by obtaining a decree for the

4
of
the spoliation of temples, and to require
prevention
of
of
had
the restitution
works
art -which
been abstracted
Once more the Senate formally
by private persons.
resolved to petition the Emperor to repeal the law of
And Symmachus, as the head of the deputaGratian.
tion, was entrusted with the task of stating their views.
The speech which he composed for the occasion is still
5
extant, and is invaluable as the last formal and public
tenure
his
signalised
It is penetrated at once
protest of the proscribed faith.
by the spirit of sceptical tolerance, and the spirit of old
Eoman
"
has
"Each nation," says Symmachus,

The Great
own gods and peculiar rites.
conservatism.
its
6
Mystery cannot be approached by one avenue alone.
But use and wont count for much in giving authority to
a religion.
Leave us the symbol on which our oaths of
were in a majority.
But, if so,
why did they not prevent the
appeal to the Emperor ? and why
were even the Christian members
of the Consistorium in favour of
yielding?
Cf.
Rauschen,
who deals
arbitrary way with
n.
10,
cf.
Boissier,
1
me
ii.
315
Ambros. Ep.
p.
119,
a rather
the evidence ;
in
Gibbon,
17, 10,
Sanctus Damasus
c.
28.
misit ad
libellum
quern Christiani senatores dederunt,

etc.
Sym. Ed.
3,
secuta est hoc
factum fames publica.

3
See the references to the 0. Th.
in Seeck, Iv.
4
Sym. Eel
Ib. 3.
21.
6
Uno itinere non potest percf.
veniri ad tam grande secretum
a similar liberal tone in the letter
of Maximus to S. Augustine, Ep,
4
16,
;
CH.
ii
ITS
31
allegiance have been sworn for so many generations.

Leave us the system which has so long given prosperity
A religion should be judged by its utility
to the State.
Years of famine have been the
to the men who hold it.
The treasury should not be

punishment of sacrilege.
of
the
wealth
the sacred colleges, but by
replenished by
And the venerable form of
the spoils of the enemy."
Kome
is
introduced,
in
of
piece
pleading for reverence for her
many
powerful rhetoric,
centuries of
life,
for
leave to follow her immemorial customs and traditions,

and the faith which had kept the Gauls and Hannibal at
According to
bay.
had a powerful
2
the
Consistory.
own
his
more
its
S.
effect
Ambrose, the oratory of Symmachus

even on the Christian members of
-Nor does the
admiration for
arts
and
its
energy
skill
great bishop
gained
disguise
But once
and power.
victory
for
the
Church.
Yet, in
spite
Symmachus and
of
of
intervals
imperial
displeasure,
kinsman Flavianus continued to

hold high place.
Flavianus was Pretorian prefect in
391, and in the same year Symmachus rose to the
Once again Symmachus was commissioned
consulship.
by the Senate
his
to ask for the restoration of the altar of
But Theodosius was thoroughly mastered by

Victory.
the powerful will of S. Ambrose, and the chief of the
pagan party was hurried from the imperial presence, and
3
set down at the hundredth
milestone from Milan.
Another effort, and the last, was made in 392.
The
Consistory again would have yielded, but the young
Valentinian stood firm, although this time
was absent from the field.
Romam mine putemus adsistere
atquehisvobiscumageresermonibus
reverenuni annos ineos. ...
.
Ambrose
The law which definitely prohibited pagan worship

West was published in the year of the consulship
the
1
S.
Ambros. Ep.
18,
2;
in
of
de Obit.
Valent. 19.
3
Prosper, de Promiss. et Praedict

Dei, iii. c. 38 ; S. Ambros. Ep. 51.
32
Symmachus. (
mined attitude
Down
BOOK
to 39.1, notwithstanding the deter-
of Gratian, the legitimate practice of the

ancient rites in the Western provinces was little interfered
'But the law of Theodosius and Valentinian
with.
forbids absolutely the offering of sacrifices,

Heavy fines are
bing of temples.
JI.
and even the

imposed on
governors and officials of every degree who shall infringe

the law, or connive at its infringement.
The law of 3 9 2
is addressed to a prefect of the East, but it is evidently
intended for the whole
Roman
No
one,
ever highly placed in respect of birth, fortune, or

is to
presume
to disobey
it.
most
how-
It is of the
world.
2
sweeping and uncompromising character.
office,
The most private worship
of the household gods, by incense, lights, or garlands, is

8
And every other mode of heathen worship
interdicted.
All
forbidden in a long and exhaustive enumeration.
and
curials
of
bound
under
cities
are
defensors,
governors,
is
heavy penalties to see to the observance of the law.

Yet the victory of the Church was not so secure as
the confident tone of legislation might seem to proclaim.
In the very year when the first of these laws was
published a votary of Mithra within the walls of Rome
received
"
the
new
birth to
eternal life
cleansing rites of the
Taurobolium.
cant
many
is
the fact that
"
through the
Even more
signifi-
persons of rank and dignity

Christian fold, and lapsing into
were deserting the

Jewish or Manichaean or pagan superstitions.
There is
no more remarkable chapter in the Code than that which
deals with apostasy. 5
Constantine and Constantius had
found it necessary to threaten severe penalties against
1
C. Th. xvi. 10, 10.

2
Ib. xvi. 10, 12, nullus omnino,
ex quolibet genere, ordine hominum,
dignitatum, vel in potestate positus,
vel honore perfunctus, etc.
3
Vel secretiore piaculo, Larem

mero Genium, Penates nidore
veneratus, acceudat lumina, im-
igne,
ponat tura, serta suspendat.
4
C.I.L. vi. 736, arcanis perfusionibus in aeternum renatus tauro-
bolium crioboliumque
fecit.
The
of the consuls are made out

to be those of 391, Tatianus and
names
Symmachus.
6
C. Th. xvi. tit. 7.
CH.
ITS
ii
who
33
Christianity to join the Jews or

The law of the elder Theodosius in 381
is the first in the Code directed against the tendency of
2
Between
nominal Christians to relapse into heathenism.
381 and 396 the Code contains six enactments, denounc-
those
forsook
Manichaeans.
of increasing severity those who have

their
baptism and betrayed the faith of Christ
profaned
to
a
return
idolatry, and withdrawing from them the
by
ing
in
tones
3
rights of bequest or inheritance.
dignity are to be degraded and
Apostates of rank and

branded with perpetual
4
and all hope of restoration by penitence is
infamy,
refused to the renegade.
Thirty years later, Valentinian
III. thought it necessary to repeat the previous edicts,
and even to add to their emphasis. 5

That men should abandon the religion
of the State in
the face of such trenchant legislation is a proof, not only

of the force of old religious associations, but also of a
paganism was not

was
the
confidence
;Nor
altogether unyet hopeless.
in
foremost
the
men
reasonable.
The
who,
place and
certain confidence that the cause of
station,~~still
ancestors,
clung
obstinately
to
Symmachus, Flavianus,
seen the reign of Constantius.

they had beheld the Church torn
which Christian charity and
the
faith
of
their
Praetextatus, had
In their early youth
or
by
conflicts, in
fierce
common humanity were
forgotten in a controversy about what to them seemed

barren verbal subtleties.
They had seen the bishops of
one another, and men of lofty

character driven into poverty and obscure exile for years,
rival sects anathematising
G. Th. xvi. 8, 1
and 7
cf.
xvi. 7,
habeant factionem
tate succedant
See Godefroy's Paratitlon.
3.
sulship of his friend

0. Th. xvi. 7, 4, testamenti
non
nulli in heredi-
a nemine scribantur
Ib. xvi. 7, 8.
Symmachus.
34
BOOK
while the military and administrative force of a govern-
ment, nominally Christian, lent itself to satisfy the

rancour of theological hatred.
They might well feel, with
1
the honest pagan Ammianus Marcellinus, that no savage

beasts could equal the cruelty of Christians to one
another.
[On the
391, had; in
to
other hand, their
own
religion,
dawn
respects, enjoyed practical tolerastill free to worship in his own
many
Every one was

fashion.
There was no interference with conscience or
the expression of opinion?) Seven Christian emperors had
2
In the
accepted the pontifical robes on their accession.
on
his
visit
to
had
shown
Rome,
year 356 Constantius,
3
in
the
of
old
interest
He
Rome.
religion
extraordinary
from
and
funds
the
allotted
had
granted
priesthoods,
Attended by the
treasury for the sacred ceremonies.
he
had
the
round
of
the
ancient temples,
Senate,
gone
in
a
their
shown
and
legends and
sympathetic curiosity
of
The
revival
Julian, brief and
pagan
antiquities.
tion.
j|
illusory as it was, may well

more enduring restoration.
have encouraged hopes of a

When he granted universal
martyrs of the Arian persecutions,

and
and preached peace
goodwill to an assembly of
to
he
seemed
for_tiie
bishops,
give paganism or Hellenism
""
toleration, recalled the
moment
position of Info&i
Yet Julian
superiority.
himself discerned keenly the real weakness of paganism

in the absence of a dogmatic system and moral discipline,
and
thp.m. 4
Charity and the pastormust no longer be a monopoly of the
The priest was to instruct his people, instead
TiftjArnvft_tQ_ai].pp1y
ate of souls
Galileans.
merely performing a part in theatrical ceremonies

The cruelties of the amphitheatre and
the obscenities of the stage were no longer to be coun-
of
before the altar.
Amm.
Marc.
xxii.
5,
hominibus bestias
nullas
sunt
sibi ferales plerique Christianorum
cf.
xxi.
for
the
16, 18,
expertus ;
historian's opinion of the theologiinfestas
lit
cal disputes of the time,

2
Ib. xvi. 10 ; Sym. Ep. x. 54.
3
4
Sym.
Eel.
Jul.
Ep. 52
Hertlein's ed.
iii.
i.
Fragm. Ep.
in
pp. 387, 389, 391.
CH.
ii
ITS
35
man who
tenanced by true votaries of the Sun-god.
had lived through such a period, and who had, under
Christian emperors, with impunity served as pontiff and
been consecrated publicly in the Taurobolium, might well
doubt whether the power, so often asserted and so con-
was destined finally to

The murder of Valentinian II.
1
and
machinations of Arbogastes,
Eugenius to the purple, seemed for
stantly defied,
triumph.
by the
the
a
hand
or
elevation
of
moment
to offer
Buried in his country
a chance of realising such dreams.
and professing to be satisfied with rural pleasures,

In spite
Flavianus was really a man of great ambitions.
of his paganism, he was a favourite at the court, and rose
Yet under all his apparent
to the highest offices.
seat,
epicurean indifference, or his study of imperial favour,

Flavianus nursed, more than any of his contemporaries,
the dream of restoring the religion and spirit of ancient
Kome.
We
pathy,
united
cannot help imagining him a man who

a crust of half melancholy, half conunder
suppressed,
temptuous pessimism, the fire of an energy which in
earlier times might have done great service to the State.
A fascinating charm, which disarmed theological antiregime,
to
burning
commanding
hatred of the
combined
ability
Christian
with
hopeless
probably the secret of his strange and tragic

He threw himself into a movement which
illusions, are
career.
seemed
pagan
for a
moment
reaction.
to promise the chance of a real

Eugenius, a Christian in name, was a
Hellenist in cultureZ-andêadily_sanctiQned the repeal of

laws.
At the instance of Flavianus, 3 the
the^ anti-pagan
alar of Victory was once more restored to its place, the

expenses of heathen rites were once more borne by the
1
Zos. iv. 54
vii. 22.
Cf.
Socr. v. 25 Sozom.
Rauschen, Jahrbucher
;
der Chr. KircJie, pp. 362-363, for a

discussion of the authorities.
2
Ib. iv. 54
cf.
Seeck's Sym.
;
cxviii.
Sozom.
vii. 22,
TIS
Eî/tos
ofy tyiws duucel/twos

doyjjui r&v XpiffTiavui'.
3
Paulin. mt. Ambros.
nepi
26.
84
T&
36
State,
and
play.
conflict
all
Two
BOOK
the curiosity of divination was allowed free

years were spent in preparations for the
On
on which so much depended.
both sides the
leaders strove to fortify the courage of their party by

Theodosius sent one of his eunuchs
prophecy or oracle.
to consult a solitary of great age
1
depths of the Thebaid.
and famous sanctity in the
Flavianus was no less active in

of the success
supernatural assurance
securing
cause, and an oracle was
circulated,
of his
which seemed
to
predict the final overthrow of the Christian faith in the

As consul of 394,
very year of the impending struggle.
he celebrated the festivals of Isis and Magna Mater
under the eyes of the usurper. 3 The pagan party were

When Arbogastes and
full of hope and confidence.
to
Milan
the
meet
army of Theodosius,
Eugenius quitted
would
return
to
that
stable their horses
boasted
they
they
Within a few days these
in the Christian basilica. 4
hopes were crushed in the battle on the Frigidus.
Flavianus by a voluntary death refused to witness the
victory of the cause he hated, or to accept the probable
The triumph of Christianity
clemency of the conqueror.
seemed complete and
Serena, the wife of Stilicho,

one of the generals of Theodosius, in the presence of the
last Vestal Virgin, took the necklace from the throat of
final.
The
Mother, and placed it on her own.
a
to
within
few
minds,
was,
sacrilege
pagan
years terribly
the
Great
6
avenged.
XÊven yet the pagan cause evidently did not seem to

In spite of the defeat
/its adherents to be hopelessly lost.
of Eugenius, the mass of the Sena^ff, were still obstinately
X>" ~-N]
>
^*VV
^- *S
aâc ^ e(^ to the faith

-
2
8
J^ttWlw^-?"^-
J1
Claudian, in Eutrop. i. 312.

Aug. de Civ. Dei, xviii. 53.
Rutin. Hist. Eccl. ii. 33 ; Carm.
Paris.
p.
which had kept the city unravaged

*'
of the last acts- -of
\ And one
*
~aTithousand years."
fo
*
"
368
cf.
Pauliii. vit.
Zos. iv. 57.

II. v. 38.
Rauschen, Jahrbiicher,
p.
t'
Ib. iv. 59
299, n.
4.
Ambros.
but
cf.
31.
Rauschen,
CH.
/r5
ii
37
was to convoke the conscript fathers ancT\-\

them to abandon their errors^ and to accept the \
which promised absolution from all sin and impiety. /
Theodosius
...
.,...-....
..
jf* y*^.
4L
appeal to
faith
According to Zosimus, the homily produced no effect, and

the Emperor had even to listen to arguments in favour of
the ancient religion of the State.

In the year following the victory
over
Eugenius,
Honorius and Arcadius found it necessary to repeat their

2
But the student
father's prohibition of all heathen rites.
in
which made
discover
this
law
the
cause
may easily
such constant iteration necessary.
It is directed speci-
and their officials,

against governors
offences against previous edicts. 3
Neglect
on the part of the inferior officers to carry out the
of provinces
ally
who condoned
4
Emperor's commands is now made a capital offence.
Theodosius had shown a similar distrust of his subordi-
nates in the law of 392. 5
And
it
appears again and
again in the legislation of this period. ( In the province

of Africa the leaders of the Church complained of the
slackness of the provincial officers in giving effect to the
We
6
may compare the
penal laws against paganism.
the Emperor in securing obedience to his
!
difficulties of
laws against heathen rites with the apparently insuperable obstacles which the government had to encounter
hundred and
fifty years, in its efforts to purge the

the
of
financial
In both cases, the
service. 7
corruption
for a
prohibitions are repeated with wearisome frequency, and

But the
pointed by threats of the severest punishment.
Emperor was met by a dead weight of official resistance

or negligence, which
apparently rendered legislation
almost nugatory.
The provincial governor and his staff
1
Zos. iv. 59,
/j.v]8evt>s
St ry irapa-
K\r)<rei ireurdfrros, K.T.\.

a
0.
Th. xvi. 10, 13.
autem
moderatores provmciarum nostrarum et his apparitio obsecundans,
etc.
Ib.
xvi.
10,
13,
sciant
Ib. xvi. 10, 13,
supplicio
cenda.
insuper capitali
officia
judicamus
L
Aug. Ep* 91
See book iii.
coer-
12
8
>
c.
cf.
97.
2 of this work.
*"""
'
38
BOOK
were often in sympathy, or in league, with the offenders.

knowledge of the history and opinions of the official to
whom the law is addressed will often explain the reason
of the necessity for its repetition.
For instance, the law
1
of 3 9 1, against the apostasy from the Christian faith of
of high birth or official rank, is addressed to

Flavianus, then Pretorian prefect, the man who, within
three years, was to be a leader in the great pagan reaction under Eugenius.
law of 40 9 2 directed another
persons
Pretorian prefect, Jovius, to take the severest measures

against those renegades who were adopting the superstition of the Heaven-worshippers.
It may well be doubted
whether Jovius, who, if he had any serious policy or faith,

believed in the tolerant policy of Stilicho, and in astrology,
was likely to display much zeal in enforcing the will of

Emperor against such heretics.
On the other hand, the pagan sentiment or the taste
of many officials sometimes influenced the Government to
restrain the fanatical Vandalism which, both in the East
and the West, was making havoc of the temples and their
It was probably the pagan author of the
treasures of art.
Saturnalia who evoked the edict of 399, 3 forbidding the
destruction of such masterpieces in Spain and Gaul, f In
the years which followed the death of Theodosius, there is
a marked effort to check the desecration of the ancient
shrines by greed or fanaticism.
S. Jerome and S. Augusthe
fir-
tine exult over the ruin of the temples of the false gods.
And there is no doubt that the Destructive energy of men
like Theophilus of Alexandria, 5 S.
Marcellus
in
Syria, had
C. Th. xvi. 7, 5.
Ib. xvi. 8, 19.
But the
imitators.
cooperta sunt
On these
colaev. Godefroy's note,

i
TL
i A
e
Ib. xv. 10, 15.
Hieron. Ep. 107,
t. 6,
Coelip. 258.
-i
squalet Capitolium.
many
Martin of Tours, and
1,
auratum
Fuligine et
aranearumtelisonmiaRomae templa
;
3,
Aug. Ep. 232,
videtis certe simulacrorum templa
sine
partim
reparatione collapsa,
partim diruta, partim clausa, etc. :
Gregorovius, pp. 58-60.
5
Sulp. Sev. vit. S. Mart. c. 13 ;
Sozom.
vii.
15
cf.
Godefroy's note
to C. Th. xvi. 10, 16.
CH.
ii
ITS
39
emperors had no wish to see the demolition of costly and

1
They might still be used as places
beautiful buildings.
meeting and resort, or consecrated to Christian

The tumultuous gatherings, headed by monks,
worship.
which wrought such deplorable havoc in the East, were
of public
by Arcadius
prohibited
2
;
and there
is
evidence that
governors of taste and sentiment seconded the imperial

will.
The Christian poet Prudentius makes Theodosius
recommend
to the Senate the preservation of the temple

marbles, as monuments of national greatness and master3
In the reign of the younger Theodosius
pieces of art.
nearly 300 temples of the gods were still standing,
although their ornaments and plates of gold had been
ransom demanded by Alaric. Many

were buried and forgotten, in the terrors of
4
But in the time of Honorius,
persecution or invasion.
and even in that of Justinian, immense numbers of them
were still preserved, both in the open spaces of the city
and in the halls of the nobles. 6
JFrom the death of Theodosius till 408, although the
torn off to swell the
works of
art
religious
conflict
was
was controlled
fierce, it
to
some
extent by the moderating influence of Stilicho.^ It is not

our purpose to disentangle the perplexed story of those
puzzling and disastrous years.
side were the

[On the one
backed by some of the great ngblesând the
officersÊoman or barbarian, of the elder Theodosius, the
party which had already won a great, though not yet
decisive victory. ) On the other was the mass of the senatorial class, with a crowd of Arians, Jews, Manichaeans,
and philosophic freethinkers, who, though divided in
bishops,
1
C. Th. xvi. 10, 15, volumus
publicorum operum ornamenta ser-
vari
2
cf.
xvi. 10, 3.
Ib. xvi. 10, 16.
Contra Sym. i. 501.

Inscriptions show that in 483 statues of
Minerva were restored by the Urban
prefect.
(7.7.
L. vi. 526, 1664.
Gregorovius,
i.
78, n. 3.
In the time of Justinian, 3785

statues remained in the city.
Gregorov. i. 79 ; cf. Notitia Ocdd. c. iv.
The curator statuarum was an officer
under the Praef. Urb. ; see Bocking's ed. p. 201.
^/r
-
40
BOOK
were united by old patriotic associations,

Stilicho, who
by the hatred of a njenacmg theocracy.
was left guardian of the young emperors,. was, or gave
religious belief,
or
himself out to be, the depositary of the last wishes of

He
Theodosius on the religious problem of the time.
1
interpreted his commission to be one of toleration, to

In
hold the balance even between the opposing factions.
the year 3 9 5 an amnesty was proclaimed, 2 and the brand
attached to
of ignominy,
obliterated.
the party of Eugenius, was

festivals in Africa received
Ancient pagan
8
The judicial power of the episcopate was

and the Senate, which was the stronghold of
pagan sentiment, was accorded an authority which it had
not enjoyed for many ages. Yet the anti-pagan laws still
in theory retained their force, and the crowd of pagans
and heretics were, at least nominally, kept in bounds. 5
Amid the fury of party feeling and fanaticism, the cool,
and probably sceptical, statesman succeeded in satisfying
neither Christian nor pagan, and'was finally execrated by
The ominous advent of Alaric and Radaboth alike. 6
Then
gaisus stimulated still further the war of religions.
legal sanction.
limited,
began
that
melancholy
of
strife
efficacy of the old gods or the
new
sophistry, as to the
to protect and prosper
their worshippers, which was only closed by the genius

of S. Augustine.
Every fluctuation of fortune was eagerly
seized upon, and skilfully used, to discredit or to glorify

What we are chiefly concerned to
Jupiter or Christ.
I
notice
time.
^
I
the force and fervour of pagan sentiment at this

Never in the early days of Borne was superstition
is
At the first tidings of the

apparently more rampant.
coming of the Gothic hosts, all the old omens of the
\^days
of the Samnite
and Carthaginian wars reappear.
Ambros. de
0. Th. xv. 14, 12.

Ib. xvi. 10, 17.
Cf. Godefroy's
Obit. Theod. 5.
23, 41.
Ib.
xvi.
11,
cf.
xvi. 2,
12,
Ib. xvi. 5, 37, 38, 39.
38
note.
4
Rutil.
;
cf.
Namat.
ii.
41
Oros.
vii.
Rauschen, Jahrbiicher der
Christ. Kirche, p. 558.
CH.
H ITS
The
41
terror of the time can still be felt thrilling in the

Men talked of dreams, of strange
verses of Claudian.
of birds, of comets and eclipses, of showers of

1
and
stones,
unearthly sounds in the silence of the night.
They watched the settling of swarms of bees, and turned
2
the leaves of the Sibylline books of fate.
They recalled
the flight of the twelve vultures which had crossed the
flights
gaze of Romulus, and, in defiance of chronology, abridged

3
When Eadagaisus
the years portended by their flight.
with his host of 200,000 Goths descended from the Alps,

the old pagan feeling defied all restraint, and the cries of
its panic and regret reached the ears of the Bishop of
4
\^
ever appeared
men said, was a diligent votary of his strange

northern gods ; and the sons of old Eome were deprived
of the help of their ancient deities, to whom they were
The most
Hippo.
terrible invader
who had
in Italy,
Meanwhile^
forbidden to offer a grain of incense.
the feeling of suspicion towards Stilicho was deepening
The clergy did not
into hatred on the Christian side.
find in him the facile instrument of persecution that they \
now
They exalted the piety and
desired.
virtues of the
weak
and worthless Honorius at the expense of the man without whose guidance Honorius was a mere cipher. 5
They circulated the myth, which was accepted also by the
6
pagan Rutilius, that Stilicho had let loose the hordes of
barbarism on the Empire, with the deep purpose of reestablishing the pagan religion, and that his son Eucherius
1
Claud, de Bell. Get. 227-247.

Ib.
231
fatidico custos
3
Ib.
tune
265
quid carmine poscat

Romani carbasus aevi.
posset ab eis, qui talia diis Romanis

sacra non facerent nee fieri a quo-
quam
reputant
et opitulantibus, quibus immolare

cotidie ferebatur, vinci omnino non
annos,
interceptoque
vultois^ciduntproperatissaeculametis.
permitterent.
Aug. Ep. 97 Hieron. Ep. 123,

7 <l uo d non vitio pnncipum, qui
;
>
.
.
\
vel reliffiosissimi sunt. sed scelere
credere, spargere, jactare paganos,
quod
ille diis
amicis protegentibus
Rutil.
Namat.
ii.
46.
42
BOOK
The
with
and
was
statesman
slackness
great general
charged
and perfidy in his campaigns against Alaric. 2
The
to
at
Pollentia
was
attributed
supernatural aid, in
victory
was
to be the Julian of another religious reaction.
spite of the sacrilegious violation of the holy time of

With reckless inconsistency the men who
Easter.
lauded the Christian clemency and reverence of Alaric,

as treachery and
the other hand, the old Eoman party still
more heartily detested the man who had borne a part in
4
the victory over Eugenius, and who relied on those
vilified
Stilicho's policy of conciliation
weakness.
On
German captains and soldiers who were now the main

The ignoble triumph of the motley
defence of Rome.
combination which overwhelmed Stilicho has been often
and need not be repeated here. The hypocritical

5
Olympius, who owed his first rise to Stilicho, attained a
brief ascendency, amid the blessings and congratulations
And the Church took
of the dignitaries of the Church. 6
an ample revenge for the interval of clemency.
The last
endowments of the old religion were withdrawn, 7 the
images of the gods were pulled down, the temples were
either confiscated or destroyed, the banquets and games
were prohibited. [All enemies of the Catholic Mth_ \geje
The feigned enthubanished from the imperial service?
told,
siasm of Olympiusôbtamed for the bishops that civil

9
jurisdiction which had been strictly limited by Stilicho.
And,
1
rege
to ensure the victory, the bishops themselves
Oros. vii. 38,

Ib. vii. 37, 2,
taceo de Alarico
cum Gothis
suis saepe victo,
virfaeive 66.va.Tov.
1.
saepe concluso seraperque dimisso.

8
Ib. vii. 39 ; de Civ. Dei, i. 1.
4
Zos. iv. 57, 59
Rutil.
Namat.
Zos.
Aug. Ep. 96, temporali vero

ad aeterna lucra te prudenter usurum minime dubitamus.
Written in 408 to Olympius.
felicitate
41.
ii.
v.
32, tv
were
Tfl
<f>aivofj^vg
0. Th. xvi. 10, 19.

Ib. xvi. 5, 42. This
mischievous
enactment, which, deprived Rome of
the services of some of her best
TUV 'Kpia-Ttavuv evXaêlg. iroXXty diroOf.

Kptirruv iv tavT$ irov-ripLav.
2, tuauphvy Kal diravOlympiod.
soldiers, is referred to in Zos. v. 46.

It was issued within three months
0p6ir<t) ffirovdfi '0\v/jnrLov 6v cuJrds T<$

ltpovs
/3a<n\et irpoffyKctoxre rbv 5id
after the death of Stilicho.

9
Ib. xvi. 10, 19 ; xvi. 2, 39.
CH.
ITS LAST CONFLICTS
ii
WITH THE EMPIRE
43
charged with the congenial duty of enforcing the laws/
which the milder or
less conscientious lay-governor
had
often allowed to sleep.

Another short-lived
and impotent pagan
reaction
occurred in 409, when Alaric, with the approval of the

Senate, set up a rival emperor to Honorius in the person
2
The leading members of this
of the dilettante Attalus.
Lampadius,
government belonged to the pagan party.
the Pretorian prefect, was an avowed believer in divination and its kindred arts, and had been honoured with a
letter from S. Augustine on the subject of this super3
Marcian, the prefect of the city, had, during

4
the brief ascendency of Eugenius, been guilty of apostasy.
Tertullus, the consul of 410, was a declared pagan of the
stition.
old school,
who
to express a
did not hesitate, in addressing the Senate,

hope that the ancient pontificate would be
revived in himself.
The treacherous or
fickle
Jovius,
6
Attalus raised to the prefecture, was a free-thinker
7
of the type common in those days of fluid convictions.
whom
Under such patronage, the Chaldaean

diviners, who had been banished by
renewed their
activity.
For the
fortune-tellers
so
many
and
emperors,
time since the
first
days of Constantine, the Ldbarum disappeared from the

1
The African bishops in October
of 408 sent a deputation to demand
the enforcement of the laws against
pagans and heretics, and S. Augusbacked up their demands by a
tine
private letter to Olympius (Ep. 97).

At the same time the pagans, on the
death of Stilicho, clamoured for the
repeal of these laws, on the ground
that they had emanated from Sti-
That they were not vigor-
licho.
enforced during Stilicho's

ascendency seems implied in the
words omnia quae in Donatistas,
Manichaeos, sive Priscillianistas,
vel in Gentiles a nobis decreta sunt
non solum manere decernimus,
verum in executionem plenissimam
ously
effectumque deduci (C. Th. xvi. 5,

Stilicho's death took place 10
the laws excluding
Kal. Sep. 408
pagans from the army, and enforcing
penalties against heretics, are dated
See
18 and 17 Kal. Dec. 408.
Godefroy's note to C. Th.xvi. 10, 19.
43).
ôs. vi. 7.
Aug. jfy 246.

t
'
s procos.
'
>
^;.
42
Zos. vi. 8.
Paulin. Nol. Ep. 16.
Sozom.
ix.
otfre
Oft
8,
^dvrea-i. dt
'AXaplxv
vvaxOds,
1uoted39^
>
'
O ros vn
-
r
of Africa in
78
<**"* Pa
gee
n 588
Se eck
ivcl<r(hi.
44
BOOK
Attalus, in a speech of ornate rhetoric, charmed

the Senate with the picture of a reunited empire of both
coins.
East and West, and held out the hope of a speedy restoration of the festivals and temple services of their ancestors.
It was the last attempt of the old pagan. spirit to assert
openly in the Empire of the West. ) jt was made

Attalus
with the support of a German and Arian chief
had, in deference to Alaric, received baptism at the hands of
itself
Sighe-Sar, an Arian bishop.

the head of a party, some of
Yet he was for the moment

whom dreamed of a return
to the tolerant policy of Constantine or of Valentinian I.,

with the support of the Gothic power; while others may
have even nursed the hope that the hated faith was already
doomed.
Attalus was a worthy representative of such
And the great chief, who had been his sole
illusions.
was within a few months laid

4
grave in the bed of the Busentus.
stay,
to rest in the secret
With
Stilicho probably fell his friend and brilliant

the
He had, beyond a doubt, a
eulogist,
poet Claudian.
in
that
of
which
he is the sole literary
society,
high place
glory.
last
Yet
man
it
is
of letters,
curious that, about the history of the

who has something of the manner and
He had,
inspiration of the great age, so little is known.
5
in his days of prosperity, assailed in a biting epigram
the cupidity of an Egyptian compatriot, who rose high in
the imperial service, and became Pretorian prefect after
6
can only conjecture the fate of the
Stilicho's death.
We
7
poet, from an epistle addressed to this dignitary, imploring his mercy by an appeal to the examples of pity consecrated in Grecian legend,
blaudian's great crime waa
"
a most obstinate
that, in the words of Orosius, he was
Eckhel, Doctr.
Num.
(quoted
2
,
3
Zos. vi. 7
Sozom.
ix.
8 and
Sozom.
ix. 9.
Jordan, de Reb. Get. 30.
Claud. JBpigr.
3^5
insomnia Pharius sacra, profana rapit.
in Thierry's Alaric, p. 413).
6
9.
0. Th. xv. 14, 13.

n. 944
Sym. clxxxvi.
4 | 0>
^ Ep'\.
Of. Seeck'a
;
Teuffel,
ii.
CH.
ii
ITS
pagan."

What
his
religious convictions really
45
were we
can never know.
Probably his deepest religious attach"

ment was to Eoma dea, the mother of arts and arms,"
who has gathered the vanquished into her bosom, who
has given her citizenship to the world, whose dominion
1
Born on the banks of the Nile,2 he
shall have no end.
was yet a Eoman of the Komans, and had a mingled
hatred and contempt for the new Borne on the Bosphorus,
3
The
with its mushroom and effeminate civilisation.
.
verve of Juvenal reappears in his bitter raillery of the

eunuch minister of the Eastern Empire, and of the cring4
It is little wonder
ing servility of the Byzantine nobles.
5
that Claudian was the favourite of the Eoman Senate,
pagan to the core, and profoundly jealous of the

His powers were lavished on the achievements of Stilicho, whose policy was to humour the Senate
still
Eastern capital
by a
politic
deference
to
its
antiquated
prerogatives.
and patroness,6
and is said to have arranged a wealthy match for the
On all this circle he expends the traditional ornapoet.
ment of Greek and Eoman mythology. Nor does he
hesitate to do the same for the Christian princes, Theodosius and Honorius, who were pledged to the extirpation
There is hardly a hint in Claudian that
of Paganism.
the Eoman world has officially adopted a faith hostile to
Serena, Stilicho's wife,
was
his great friend
He appears placidly unconscious

pagan dreams.
the great revolution, and recalls Honorius to the
7
Penates of the Palatine, as if Borne was still the Borne
all his
of
of Augustus.
few years
after the eclipse
1
Oros. vii. 35, 21, poeta eximius
sed paganus pervicasissimus ; Aug.
de Civ. Dei, v. 26 ; Gesner's Prol.
to Claud, v. ; Rauschen, Jahrbucher
der Christ. Kirclie, pp. 555-9 ; cf.
Claud. de Cons. Stil. iii. 136-160
de Bell. Get. 50 sqq.
2
Claud, ad Oennad. 3, et nostro
;
of Claudian,
cognite Nilo ; cf. Ep.

* Claud.
inEutrop.
4
6
Ib.
ii.
we have
1, 56.
ii.
326-341.
137.
an inscription dedicated
poetarum
pepraegloriosissimo
See
tente Senatu, C.I.L. vi. 1710.

6
Claud. Ep. 2.
7
Ib. de VP Cons. Honor. 407.
46
glimpse for a
/
who
is
now
BOOK
of another pagan man of letters,

known,\but who is the last genuine
moment
little
representative of the old pagan tone in literature.

Kutilius Namatianus was one of the Gallic aristocracy
who had remained untouched by the great Christian
His father l had held

2
high imperial office, and he himself had been Urban
8
prefect in 414, only six years after the trenchant law
had been published, which condemned to final ruin the
He had lived in
temples and images of the old gods.
intimate friendship with the greatest Eoman nobles and
the fragment of his poem which we possess comes to us
enthusiasm aroused by
S.
Martin.
It is
as a solitary revelation of their deeper feelings.
the tale of his homeward voyage to Gaul in the year
4
416, when he was reluctantly compelled, by the ravages
which his paternal estates had suffered from the invaders, 5
to leave the city, to whose gilded fanes he looks back
with religious veneration and patriotic regret.
The poem has great interest from a purely literary
But we are at present concerned only
point of view.
Brief
with the author's attitude to the opposing creeds.
and fragmentary as it is, it discloses more of the inner
pagan sentiment of the aristocratic .class than the much
more voluminous poetry of Claudian. Cdaudian's paganism
more purely
is
Virgil,
as
literary
He
supremacy.
if
Symmachus
Eoman
1
has the air of anûnchallenged

if he belonged to the age of
had never existed. On the

time he shows the calm reticence
Christianity
religious conflict of his
of
it
writes as
Namat.
i.
595 cf. 575
been consularis Tusand Praef. Urb. (G. Th. vi.
Rutil.
He had
sqq.
ciae,
26, 8).
2
lb.
Ib.
i.
He
or Macrobius.
pride to recognise the
157, 473.
L 157-160, 473 cf. C. Th.

xiii. 5, 38, which is addressed to
Albinus, Praef. Urb. in 416.
;
new
4
is
either too full of
faith, or too cultivated
This
Namat.
i.
is
inferred
135
from Rutil.
quamvis sedecies denis et mille peractis

annus praeterea jam tibi norms eat
The capture of
(i.e. 1169 A.U.C.).
Toulouse is mentioned in i. 496.
5
Rutil. Namat. i. 25
:
praesentes lacrimas tectis debemus avitia.
'
CH.
ii
ITS
to hate
it.)
Eutilius
is
man
of different mould.
47
He
lets us see plainly the working of his own mind on religious subjects, and the feelings of his class towards
those
who
rejected the old religion of their country.
\That
%.,
such^ a poem should_have_ been published under the

Christian empire, and that its author should have held
the highest office, is a startling proof of the persistence of
the old Koman practical toleration of freedom of
thought.^)
Kutilius is faithful to the old religion, but he is not
1
Sometimes he will uphold the literal truth of

Sometimes he will use the language of Euhemerism or Deism. ('He displays in fact that mixture of
scepticism and credulity, of conformity and free thought,
which characterised the cultivated pagan for many ages
But there is no hesitation in the tone
before his time.
In
in which he speaks of the enemies of Paganism.
some scathing lines, 2 he gives vent to the concentrated
hatred which was felt by his caste for the memory of
Stilicho.
The impious traitor, who burnt the Sibylline
its slave.
a myth.
books and, for his
own
selfish ends, laid
and citadel of the Empire to the
open the hearth
tribes of the North, is
Nothing
consigned to the lowest depths of Tartarus.
could surpass the almost brutal contempt which Eutilius
3
feels for the Jews, with one of whom he had an encounter
in his wanderings ; for their obscene rite of initiation, for
the listless sloth of their Sabbath, spent in commemoration of a
God who was weary
But when he speaks

its
conquerors,"
of
"
of his
work
of creation.
the conquered race that crushes

little doubt that he has in
there can be
The
view the religion which was crushing out his own.
islands of the Tuscan Sea, which he passed in his voyage,
1
Kutil.
Namat.
i.
255
cf. i.
73.
Ib.
septima quaeque dies turpi damnata
Ib. IL 41.
Ib.
veterno,
tamquam
i.
384-398
humanis animal
dissociale cibis.
Ib. \.
lassati mollis
398
imago Dei.
victoresque suos natio victa premit.
48
BOOK
who had forsaken family

and public duty for a life of prayer and solitary asceticism.
The monks in those days were hardly judged even by
swarmed with monkish
their
own
exiles,
the daughter of a great
At the
co-religionists.
Eoman
funeral of Blaesilla,
house, who had with-
drawn from the world and was believed
have shortened
broke into
shouts of execration against what they regarded as an
her
by her austerities, the
life
inhuman
mob
The aversion
fanaticism.
man
of
to
Eome
to the ascetic
life,
is expressed in
by
more urbane form by Ausonius in his letters of expostuBut that feeling probably never
lation to S. Paulinus.
found more pointed utterance than in the lines of Kutilius
the cultivated
felt
of the world,
In the eyes of the pagan

they are wretches who wish to
on the hermits of Capraria.
Koman
noble and
patriot,
screen themselves from too observant eyes, who make

themselves miserable to avoid misery, who, while they
flee from the ills of life, are incapable of enjoying its
8
Eutilius had little conception of the force
and destiny of the movement which he derided.
In the practice of those arts which professed to control nature and to forecast the future, in the excitement
or obscenity of the theatre and the circus, the heathen
spirit found a shelter long after its public ritual had
blessings.
ceased.
The belief in the arts of magic, divination, and astrology was probably the most living and energetic force in
These practices had
the pagan sentiment of the time.
4
The culalways been suspected by Eoman statesmen.
under
the
severest
of
tivation
them was condemned
1
Rutil.
Namat.
i.
440:
se Capraria tollit.
squalet lucifugis insula plena viris.
jam
Hieron.
dolet
(mater) filiam jejuniis interfectam.
Quousque genus detestabile
Ep.
39,
Of. the reference (518) to a friend
who has become a recluse, "perditus

hie vivo funere civis erat."
Monachorum non urbe

3
5,
quaenamperversi rabies tamstultacerebri,

dum mala formides nec bona P SSe pati '
Rutil.
Namat
445
pellitur
:
sqq.
See Maury's
La
Magie, p. 70
CH.
ii
ITS
49
by the legislation of the fourth and fifth cenYet it was never really suppressed, and, in its
strange terrors and seductions, it perpetuated the power
penalties
turies.
of heathenism far into the Christian ages.

Its fascim
cultivated
and
both
over
the
class
the
tion,
vulgar, was
never more powerful than in the first decade of the fifth

There is no more singular episode, in that tiim
century.
,
and uncertain party lines, than that in

the year 408, when some Tuscan adepts in the secret
arts offered their services to Pompeianus, prefect of Rome,
8
to save the city from the Goths.
They told the prefect
of unstable beliefs
how, a short time before, they had by their spells called

down the lightning, 4 and driven the Goths away from the
The prefect consulted the

and
was
pontifical books,
evidently inclined to try the
effect of the ancient arts.
But the practice of them was
5
and
a recent law had laid a special
sternly prohibited,
on
the higher magistrates, and on the
responsibility
walls of a beleaguered town.
bishops, to enforce the prohibition.

Pompeianus in his
difficulty sought the advice of Innocent, Bishop of Eome.
who was also a great patriot,6 did

oppose his own opinion to the wishes of
This great pontiff,
not
see
the
fit
to
people at such a crisis, but he stipulated that the magic

rites should be performed secretly.
The Tuscans, however, insisted that the ritual would only be efficacious if
publicly performed on the Capitol and in the open spaces
of the city, in the presence of the Senate.
It has been
suggested that Innocent, foreseeing this, gave his consent

under a legally impossible condition, to save the Christian
cause from an outburst of popular hatred.
How the
matter ended
1
C.
Th.
Maury,
3
is
uncertain.
ix. tit. 16.
pt.
i.
c.
The Christian
Ib. v. 41 ; Sozom. ix. 6.

The
name of the place appears variously
by
conjec-
ture, Narnia.
,
tf
Zos. v. 41.
historian says
as Neveia, Larnia, and,
&
tfi,irpo<r6V
ix> 16> 3>
rty
T?}S
rrjs
7r6Xews
oliceias
ffwryplav
jrot'riffdfj.evos
Sbfrs \dOpq. tyrjKf-v ay-rots icoulv aVe/>

?<ra<rw.
Zos. I.e.
60
BOOK
that the rites were performed, but that they proved un1
The pagan Zosimus affirms that the aid of the
availing.
/IQ&
Tuscans was declined.
Jn any
case, the incidentêveals
the persistent force of pagan superstition.

The proposal of Pompeianus was a gross violation of
2
The conlaws, from the time of Constantine.

sultation of a seer, diviner, or any professor of the magic
many
was made by Constantius an offence punishable by

8
A similar penalty was denounced against the
tribe of Eastern fortune-tellers
by Valentinian and
art,
death.
Valens,
and, in spite of the general toleration of heathen
worship which characterised the rule of these Emperors,

a ruthless war was waged with the secret arts, which
were suspected as lending themselves to conspiracy

5
One law especially of that time,
against the Emperor.
6
relating to offenders of the senatorial class, reveals what

was probably a real political danger. The persecution to
which philosophers and professors of Hellenism were
subjected in the reign of Valens may have had some

connection with the later Neoplatonic cultivation of
magic and dark
superstitions.
condemned the magic
arts.
The
But it
earlier
is
well
Alexandrines
known
that,
in the later stages of Neoplatonism, the power to wield

the forces of nature, and to predict the future, was more
Fasting, prayer, and mystical
elation were thought to bring the votary into communicaThe influence of the
tion with the supernatural powers.
and more openly claimed.
stars
on the fortunes of human
life,
5
which was denied by
Amm.
Sozom. ix. 6 ; cf. Zos. v. 41.

G. Th. ix. 16, 1 and 2.
Constantine, however, permitted public
13 gives an idea of the grounds of

the Emperor's suspicion of these
sacrifices of divination
practices.
qui vero id
vobis existimatis conducere, adite
aras publicas atque delubra.
3
lo.
ix.
perpetuo
16,
4,
sileat
divinandi
Etenim supplicium
omnibus
'
ix
toribu s m&le
7
curiositas.
capitis
gladio ul tore prostratus, etc.
4
Ib. ix. 16, 8.
Q Th
Marc. xxvi.
feret
ii.
{i
Maui7> La
3.
Zos. iv.
16 10 "de Sena
^3.'''
Ma9,
P- 121.
Vacherot, L'tfcoled'Alexandrie,
p. 115, where the opinions of
Porphyry are
set forth
cf.
ii.
147-
CH.
ii
ITS
51
became an article of faith with many of his

1
In the hands of Maximus and Chrysanthius,
Plotinus,
successors.
and the men who surrounded Julian, Neoplatonism lost

2
philosophic purity and elevation, and tended more
and more to absorb the more materialistic conceptions of
8
The theurgic virtues, miracle and magic,
paganism.
overshadowed the detached and lofty idealism of the
4
S. Augustine,
with his keen
earlier Alexandrines.
its
sense,
practical
strikes
at
degraded Platonism as
this
the very heart of the heathen position, and particularly

at its doctrine of daemons, which was the founda-
and magic.
The
between
the gods, who dwell apart in the highest heaven, and
5
mortal men.
Along with certain divine qualities, the
daemons have all the passions of humanity; 6 they are
irritated by neglect, or soothed and propitiated by gifts
and sacrificial rites. 7 From them comes the knowledge
of the future by augury and dreams, and the power to
command the elements, by occult arts, songs, incantations,
The noteworthy thing is that, in conand potions.
baleful
this
superstition, the Christian often
demning
showed that he had quite as much faith in daemonic
tion
the
of
belief
in
incantations
daemons were the powers acting
Macrob. Somn. Scip. i. 19, 27,

pronunciat nihil
vi vel potestate eorum hominibus
et Plotinus
evenire.
2
Vacherot,
ii.
145,
where the
as mediators
where lamblichus is said to have

10 cubits from the earth
In the
during prayer (cf. p. 15).
life of Maximus, an image of Hecate
breaks into smiles under the influrisen
logical development of the belief

in magic arts, etc., is traced from
ence of incantation
the fundamental principles of the

school ; Plotinus and Porphyry
recoiled from these consequences.
But the doctrine of the universe,
as a "sympathetic whole" bound
Vacherot,
Magie, p. 87.
together
by
affinities,
inevitably
led to theurgy on the one hand

and magic on the other (Vach. ii.
8
Ib. ii. 148 ; cf. Eunap. vit.

Tamblich. p. 13 (Boissonade's ed.),
De
(p. 51).
Civ. Dei, viii. 14 sqq.
De
ii.
Civ. Dei,
127
viii.
Maury,
14,
La
habent
enim cum diis communem immortalitatem corporum,
cum hominibus
7
î
animorum autera
passiones.
/j
dicit (Platonicus)
a d eos pertinere divinationes augurum, aruspicum, vatum atque
somniorum, ab his quoque esse
miracula magorum.
52
BOOK
1
Constantius threatens with
powers as the pagan had.
death those who dare to disturb the elements, or to call
the
forth
spirits
of
the
dead
by magic
spells.
S.
Augustine regarded these beings as spirits banished from

heaven for unpardonable sin, who, by diabolic deceit, had
8
persuaded men to give them divine honours.
The law of 409, ordering the expulsion of the
Mathematici from Eome, and all cities of Italy, was
4
probably suggested by Pope
Innocent,
to
prevent
repetition of that painful scene of superstitious observance

at which he may have had to connive.
But the threats
5
may have driven many of the

and sorcerers into remote country
places, utterly failed to extinguish the superstition, and
men even in high station Ion? continued to practise the
forbidden rites with impunity. ) The leading members of
the government, established by the order of Alaric, were
of Honorius,
crowd
of
while they
diviners
Attains, the new Emperor,

nominal Christianity; but he
belonged to the crowd of sceptics, whose only real faith
When
was in Hellenism and astrology or magic.
Alaric wished to send troops over to Africa in order
devoted to the black
was ready
arts.
accept a
to
crush Heraclian, the adherent of Honorius, Attalus

more on the promises of diviners, 6 who told him
that he could become master of Africa without a conto
relied
flict,
than on the counsels of a serious statesmanship.
Lampadius, the Pretorian prefect in this singular government, was, as we have seen, the friend and correspondent
1
p.
Maury,
458.
p.
99
Friedlander, iii.
doctors were
The Christian
only following the Hebraic tradition

a
on this subject.
C. Th. ix. 16, 5,
in hoc sibi congrao velut

carcere praedamnati sunt.
4
Zos. v. 41.
Ib. ix. 16, 12
sionis
multi magicis
artibus ausi elementa turbare, vitas

insontium labefactare non dubitant,
etc.
Th.
0.
Zos.
vi.
merito
/t&os, K.T.\.
/cal
T&
7,
\Tti<riv
d/tax^ri
transgres-
non solum
12,
Roma,
De Civ. Dei, viii. 22, quia de

caeli superioris sublimitate dejecti
inregressibilis
16,
sed etiam omnibus

civitatibus pelTi decernimus.
urbe
fjtAvT<nv
ix.
rats
tirl
eavrbv
irepnroLyaeadai
irepl
At/Jifyv HiravTa.
Sozom. ix. 8.
rots
CH.
ii
ITS
53
of S. Augustine, who laboured to convert him from his

1
mass of the Koman aristocracy,
belief in astrology.
(The
with the illustrious exception of the great Christian

2
house of the Anicii, rejoiced in the advent to power of
strange alliance of Arian Christianity, dilettante
Hellenic culture, and Chaldaean superstition. I Doubtless,
as we shall see in a later page, there was a purer and
more respectable element in the force of the last pagan
L^
this
There was a real patriotic feeling, a real

and a philosophic theology, which,
reaction.
religious
devotion,
however arid and,
to our minds, uninspiring, yet enabled

the nobler sort to maintain their hold on the faith of the
past, while
they put out of sight
its
grosser elements.
But the baser form of ancient superstition was' probably

the most tenacious and energetic.
No penal legislation
could eradicate the belief, held alike by the most_ediicated
and thejnost ignorant, that there was a lore which could
control_the operations of nature, and compel the future to
unveil its_secets. In the very year when the last of th
anti-pagan laws was published, Litorius, the lieutenant of
Actius, in his conflict with the Visigoths, was led to his
destruction under the walls of Toulouse by trusting (to
use the words of the Chronicle) " in the responses of seers
and the monitions of daemons." 3
Only a year or two
4
before the fall of the Western Empire, Lampridius, an
accomplished man of letters at Bordeaux, and one of the
most admired and trusted friends of Sidonius, the bishop
of Auvergne, consulted a troop of African sorcerers as to
the hour of his death.
In the cruel sports of the arena and the impurities of

the stage the Christian Fathers for ages recognised that
paganism had
the
people.
Aug. Ep. 146.
Zos vi 7
Prosp.
its
S.
Chron. ad
strongest and most enduring hold on

Cyprian said that "idolatry was the
a.
439,
dum
aruspicum responsis et daemonum

significationibus fidit, pugnam cum
Gothis imprudenter conseruit, etc.
4
Sid. Ep. viii. 11.
54
BOOK
Diana presided over the hunting

scenes, the god of war was the patron of the gladiatorial
1
combats.
When the bloody strife had closed, a figure,
representing the powers of the under world, gave the
finishing stroke to the wretches who were still lingering.
The Eomans, under the most Christian Emperors
Theodosius and Honorius, were still gloating over
spectacles which their ancestors established to do honour
2
to the manes of departed relatives.
The amphitheatre
mother
of
games."
gave a sort of consecration to the old savage instinct for

cruelty,
desires.
the theatre gratified the pruriency of low

It is difficult for us to conceive the fascination
as
which those awful holocausts of human life exercised, not

only on characters hardened by voluptuousness, but on
8
A philosophic friend of
the cultivated and humane.
4
S. Augustine, who was half inclined to be a Christian,
and who on principle detested such spectacles, once
At
allowed himself to be drawn into the fatal circle.
first he resolved to close his eyes to the ghastly horrors
of the scene.
Presently, at the applause raised by some
crisis in the conflict, his eyes opened and would not be
withdrawn.
The fumes of the carnage seemed to
intoxicate his senses
he lost his identity, and became
one of the bloodthirsty crowd.
He went away eager to
;
return.
Men
can
find a justification for any established

and
these cruel displays were defended, even
institution,
and
eminent men, 5 as the virile amusements of a
by good
No
warlike race, accustoming it to make light of death.
such defence was possible in the last years of the Empire,
when the Roman army was
1
Tertull. de Spectaculis, 9, 10 ;
Apol. 15, 12 ; cf. Friedlander, ii. p.
216.
2
Suet. Jul. 26 ; Valer. Max. ii.
4, 7 ; Liv. Epit. 16.
8
Plin. Panegyr. Traj. 33, visum
est spectaculuni inde non enerve
recruited and
nee
fluxum,
officered
nee
quod
by
animos
virorum molliret et frangeret, sed

quod ad pulcra volnera contemp-
tumque mortis
4
5
Aug. Con/,
Plin.
41.
17,
accenderet.
vi. 8.
Traj. 33
Cic. Tusc.
ii.
CH.
77^
II
55
1
Germans and when Eomans would mutilate themselves,

and bury themselves in any retreat to escape military
;
service.
YeMbhijLnerveless
been indulged by successive emperors with these revolt^
Even the greatest and best princes had

ing atrocities.
to satisfy the cravings of a proletariat, which probably
had more of "the ape and tiger" than any that ever
Trajan, with the approval of the
his Dacian victories, sent
existed.
after
had,
the
into
gladiators
arena.
M.
humane Pliny,
down 10,000
in the per-
Aurelius,
4
formance of social duty, gave gladiatorial shows himself,
and attended them, though in a prefunctory and reluctant
But the people were offended when he turned
fashion.
away to read or pen despatches in the amphitheatre;

and when he enrolled the gladiators for the Marcomannic
war,
men
with a sneer, that he had diminished the

people in order to convert them to
said,
of the
pleasures
The Emperor Constantine, in the year of

philosophy.
6
the Council of Nicaea, restrained, by an ambiguous edict,
amusement in the Eastern Empire. But in

went on almost unchecked. Valentinian,
forbade Christians to be condemned to the
this
cruel
the
West
indeed,
it
gladiatorial school as a punishment for crime.

367, members of the Palatine service were also
And, in
exempted
But the elder Theodosius did not
9
abolish the inhuman spectacle, when he interdicted the
from this
fate.
peaceful worship of the pagan temples.

In_Jbhe last
10
fourth
of
the
years
century
Symmachus had, at great
1
Th.
O.
Murcis"
vii.
12, 3.
2
0. Th. vii. tit.
3
Dion
13,
Amm.
cf.
Cass.
10,
" de
Marc.
xv.
c.
M. Ant. 6
Capitolin.
Capitolin. Ant. P. c. 12;
5
c.
'
15,
ical
cf.
Vop.
33.
M. Ant.
23,
.'
'
quod populum
Aurel.
quiete non placent.

7
7&. ix. 40 8.
IS passim.
Ixviii.
6
O. Th. xv. 12, 1, cruenta spectacula in otio civili et domestica
See Godefroy s refutation of

Baronius on this subject, in the
note to xv. 12, 1.
10
On
sublatis voluptatibus vellet cogere
Ixxii.
ad philosophiam.
place
the date, see Seeck's Sym.
The games did not take

till
401.
56
BOOK
and expense, 1 arrangedjfor a gladiatorial combat

at the games which were to celebrate his son^^preetbrship.
But the band of Saxons who had been brought from the
' trouble
shores
of the Baltic
gratify the
mob
refused
the festival,
to grace
to
of Koine
by a public exhibition of their

preferred a quiet death in their
powers, and
In the year 404, the inauguration of the sixth
cells.
consulship of Honorius was to be celebrated by the
fighting
customary
Prudentius pleaded with the
sacrifice of life.
Emperor to abolish the ghastly rite, as his father had

The poet's
stopped the sacrifice of animals at the altar.
prayer was answered, not by the will of Honorius, but by
the martyrdom of the heroic monk, who flung himself
and died amid the curses of the mob,

whose cruel pleasures he had dared to interrupt.
But even when the cruelties of the arena were
abolished, the circus and the theatre maintained for a
into the arena,
long time their dangerous attractions. iThe Eoman passion

The
for these spectacles was of marvellous intensity.
austere pagan,
Ammianus
Marcellinus, relates that, at a
when famine was threatening, and when foreigners,

including the "professors of the liberal arts," were
ordered to withdraw from the city, three thousand dancing
time
were allowed to remain. Long after the time of

which Ammianus wrote, the passion for the lubricity of
the stage defied all the authority and moral influence of
Orosius and Salvianus regarded
the Christian Church. 4
the theatre as a more serious danger than even the invaS. Augustine had to complain
sions of the barbarians.
that the African churches were often emptied by the attracgirls
tions of these spectacles.

1
Sym. Ep. ii.

Contra Sym.
6
Sidonius, late in the century,
B
46.
ii.
1124
v.
illeitrbemvetuittaurorum sanguine tingi;

tu mortes miserorum liominum prohibeto
Amm.
Salv. de Gub. Dei, vi.
Marc. xiv.
seu
Carm.
xxiii.
264
sqq., esp.
Ledam quis
ephebum
agit
Phrygemque
aptans ad cyathos facit Tonanti

suco nectaris esse dulciorem.
litari.
Sid.
286
6, 19.
88.
Cf. Tertull. de
Sped. 10, 17.
CH.
ii
ITS
57
describes the doubtful exhibitions of mythological pantoas if they were still in full life and vigour.
mime
of the imperial legislation with regard to

at once the degradation of the Eoman stage
stubborn attachment of the people to the
The whole
actors
shows
and the
indescribable enormities perpetrated in the name of art.

The worst social curse of the Lower Empire, the heredi-
tary character of nearly all callings, had left perhaps its

Treated as the
deepest brand on the actor's profession.
of mankind, yet the indispensable minister to the
pleasures of the people, he was chained to his calling
from generation to generation. 1
The Church fought one
vilest
unhappy slaves of a
and the hand of S. Ambrose is
of its noblest battles to release these
cruel
voluptuousness;
some of the laws issued during his

The bishops of Africa, where the
great episcopate.
8
allurements of the theatre were most powerfully felt,
never failed to press the claims of humanity and morality
But their efforts seem to have
on the stolid Honorius.
distinctly seen
in
2
been ill rewarded, for, in 413, the Emperor orders the

"
"
at Carthage to recall to their
Tribune of Pleasures
wretched trade the actresses who had, by " imperial kind4
From the time of
ness," been previously released.
Valentinian I. (371) the Church had indeed gained a
5
The actress who, in articulo mortis, asked
great victory.
for, and received, the last sacraments, was not to be
dragged back again, in case of recovery, to her hateful
life.
But the operation of the law is guarded by careful
provisions to prevent a feigned conversion depriving the
6
Even the law, which was
people of an attractive artiste.
extorted
the
probably
by
energy of S. Ambrose in 380,
provides that actresses,

1
0. Th. xv. 7, 4 ;
Paratitlon and notes
L'Esclavage,
2
v.
;
who have not professed Christianity,
Godefroy's
of.
Wallon,

n Thtl' XV 7'' 1L6q
'
69.
'
iii.
See Godefroy's note to 0. Th.
xv. 7, 4.
4
5
&-
See Godefroy's note, t
xv.
7, 1.
v. p. 412.
58
shall
mands
have no
that
if
And
release.
an
actress,
law
the
of
BOOK
381 com-
professing Christianity, has

but has relapsed into vice,
by
secured her
emancipation,
she shall be recalled to theatrical servitude for ever; and
the cold, cruel, hardness of the language of this law
whom
shows an inhuman contempt for a class

doomed to vice, and punished for being
would be amusing, if it were not painful,
care with which the Emperor regulates
2
with but little care for their
actresses,
they can steal into the Church by means
society
vicious.
It
to notice the
the dress
of
morals, unless
of the sacra-
The Emperor's sense of dignity, or perhaps a

ments.
3
lingering consciousness of divinity, causes him, in 394,
to banish all pictures of theatrical performers from the
"
"
But the
sacred
statues.
neighbourhood of his own
theatre and the circus were too dear to the people to be
sned by any authority but the growing"power of the
And even the' Church found it a Mrd task to
Church.
crush them.
pris.
and he has a parti

of notorious fact his testimony
And he assures us that Christians
Salvianus
is rhetorical
But on matters
must be
accepted.
were indulging in the madness of the circus and the

wantonness of the theatre, when the arms of the Vandals
were ringing round the walls of Carthage and Cirta and
that the applause of the spectators was mingled with the
4
groans of the dying and the battle-cries of the besiegers.
;
1
G. Th. xv. 7, 4, given at Milan ;
see Godefroy's note.
Ib. xv. 7, 8,
detracta in pulpitum sine spe absolutionis ullius ibi eousque permaneat donee anus ridicula, senectute deformis, nee tune quidem
absolutione potiatur, cum aliud

quam casta esse non possit ; cf.
Rauschen, Jahrliicher der Christ.
Kirche, pp. 68, 91.

2
C. Th. xv. 7, 11, his quoque
vestibus noverint abstinendum quas
Graeco nomine a Latino

vocant, etc. ;
adjicimus ut
cf.
xv.
mimae
7, 12,
Crustas
his illud
publico habitu
earum virginum quae Deo dicatae

sunt non utantur.
8
lb xv
-
,_
'
7 > 1Z
"
De Gub.
Dei, vi.
69, 71,
fragor, ut ita dixerim, extra muros
et intra muros praeliorum et ludi-
crorum, confundebatur vox morieii-
tium voxque bacchantium
CHAPTEE
S.
III
AUGUSTINE AND OROSIUS ON THE CAPTURE OF ROME
HITHERTO we have been occupied with the efforts^ of \

legislation, often baffled for more than a hundred yjarg^
to suppress the
open practice of heathen
Persecu-
rites,
j
any opinion or religious practice, however false,

sheer force, is not a pleasant subject of contemplation
tion of
by
to the
that
And
modern mind.
we
it is
with a feeling of
relief
turn from the threats of exile and death in the
anti-pagan laws, to the more potent efforts of Christian

dialectic to conquer the ingrained moral and intellectual
habits of so
many
generations of pagan devotion.
We
may think that in this controversy rhetoric sometimes

does duty for logic, that the reasoning is often sophistical,
that the facts of history are coloured and perverted to
serve a controversial purpose. \ Yet
a religious struggle, when the
in
rather than to mere force
a great advance
appeal is to reason
it is
and we may well believe that
the City of God, and even the treatise of Orosius, had an

influencejm many pagans who were obdurate in the face
of threatening edicts.
_)
The Emperor might compel a per-
functory conformity to the will of the State ; S. Augustine

probably won many a wavering, restless spirit to the ideals
of the
Church which was
to
dominate the future.
capture of Eome by Alaric produced a profound

on the minds both of Christian and pagan. 1
IThe
effect
1
S.
For
its effect
on Christians see
Jerome's Ep. 126,
2,
Ezechielis
volumen olim aggredi volui

sed in ipso dictandi
exordio
ita
,-,
60
BOOK
Following so soon upon the confiscation of the temples

and sacred revenues by Honorius, it gave fresh poignancy
to the feelings of numbers who were still attached to the
old faith,
who had
and many
of
suffered in fortune
whom
had
fled
by the invasion,
1
into remote exile.
The
|
bitterness of the religious conflict was intensified, and

the causes of the unexampled catastrophe became the
subject of the last great controversy between the opposing

\ From the time of M. Aurelius, the pagan con-
\^
creeds.
were in the habit of attributing public

2
calamities to apostasy from the national faith.
On the
occurrence of a famine or pestilence, the mob broke into
7troversialists
(
threats
and execrations against the Christians. The war

had gone on, with ever varying subtlety,
of sophistry
according to the fortunes of the Empire at the time.

inclined to judge a religion by Jts
8
material results.
His gods were expected to be of use
The true Roman was
who purchased their help and favour

by sacrificial gift and observance. He could not under4
.Ntand the Christian theory, that calamity might be sent
Hence, he
Jay Heaven for thft good of the flufforgr.
to their worshipper,
^naturally attributed the growing troubles of the Empire

to neglect
of
the
ancient rites;
and,
when
the
last
the sack of the city, which

unimaginable horror came,
he fondly believed to be destined to endless dominion,
the votary of the old gods found an irresistible argument
against the pestilent superstition which had first suppressed
his worship,
and so soon afterwards had, by
its
impiety,
brought the imperial city to the dust.

It is perhaps difficult for us to conceive the impression
animus meus
occidentalium provinciarum, et maxime urbis Romae

vastatione confusus est, ut, juxta
vulgare
quoque
diuque
proverbium,
proprium
vocabulum
ignorarem
:
tacui,
sciens
lacrimaram.
1
Hieron. Ep. 128,
esse
4,
tempus
proh nefas,
orbis terrarum ruit. . .

Urbs
inclyta et Romani imperil caput uno
hausta est incendio.
Nulla est
regio quae non exules Romanes
habeat.
.
2
8
4
Tertull. Apol. 40.

Zos. iv. 59 ; Sym. Eel. 3.
De Civ. Dei, i. 8.
CONTROVERSY ON CAPTURE OF ROME
CH. in
61
which the capture of Borne made on both the heathen

and the Christian world.
Even the rude barbarian,
bred on the Danube or amid the forests of Thuringia, felt
a strange awe of that city, so distant, yet so omnipresent
in its power, which to his imagination, in her world- wide
dominion and marvellous
We
force.
know how
drawn on by an
vitality,
Alaric,
irresistible
was
while
he
superhuman
felt
himself
spell to sack the Eternal

1
City, still almost trembled at the prospect of success,

and how, as he drew near Eome, his Goths were scattered
by the lightnings that shot round the walls of

The barbarian was impressed chiefly by the
power of Eome in imposing her laws on the world. But
to~the Koman, whether "^Christian or pagan, she was also
the heir of Greece, the seat of culture and letters, of all
humanising influences for more than five centuries./ She
was to Prudentius and Orosius, as well as to Claudian
and Eutilius, the beneficent power which had been the
mother of peaceful arts, which had made of so many
warring races one country, which had spread peace and
in panic
Narnia.
order wherever her eagles flew.
And
the belief in her
bficomeân^ unquestioned article of
eternityjbad
faith.
The uniformity of law, language, and administration,

which spread with such quiet power over all geographical
barriers, seemed to have become part of the order of
nature, as irresistible and as enduring as the laws of the
material world.
|
\To the minds therefore both of Christian and pagan,''-,

the news of the capture of Eome by Alaric came as a
great moral shock.) (in the sack of the city Christians
had fared no better than unbelievers. 4 /Their houses had
1
Sozom.
ix. 6
Socr. vii. 10
cf.
Claud, de B. Get. 507.

1
Zos. v. 41.
Prudent, contra
Oros.
Stilich.
v.
iii.
2,
154
ii.
640 ;
de Cons.
Rutil. Nainat. i.
Sym.
Claud,
63, 83, 133 ; cf. S. Jerome's outburst on hearing of the capture of

Rome, Ep. 127,
12, capitur urbs
quae totum cepit orbem ; cf. Fried-
lander,
4
De
ii.
p. 4.
Civ. Dei,
i.
9.
62
BOOK
been burnt or pillaged, their daughters violated l many

of the churches had been despoiled of their sacred
;
treasures. 2
The
faith
of
Christians
many
[But far more crushing was the
shaken.
was rudely
effect
of the
calamity on those to whom Eome was the hearth of the

old religion, attachment to which was identified with
patriotism.
They had again and again warned the
Emperor of the danger of forsaking the gods under whose
Eome had
protection
Now
x
such
enjoyed
long
prosperity.
and warnings had been terribly confirmed.

"Eome had perished in the Christian times."}/
The State had forfeited the protection of the gods, or was
iThe cultivated epicurean,
suffering from their anger.
who had little sympathy with either pagan or Christian
their
fears
enthusiasm, contributed his doubts to the cause of the

If he believed in any gods at all, he
ancient religion,
f
did not believe that they interfered in the affairs of men.
Eoman, he may have thought the new

which made men indifferent
to the earthly commonwealth, and in a world of fierce passions and wild forces acted up to the ideal of the Sermon on
8
the Mount, was responsible for the national humiliation.
The province of Africa was still, in spite of its long
But
as a patriotic
spirit of Christian renunciation,
Christian tradition, a stronghold of heathen superstition *

or "cultivated scepticism,6 which not all the eloquence
and energy
force
of S. Augustine,6
of the
invasion of
backed by the persecuting

had been able to overpower/ The
Alaric and the capture of the city drove
crowds of the
towns
of
State,
Eoman
Africa. 7
aristocracy to seek a refuge in the

It may readily be imagined how,
De Civ. Dei, i. 16.

AS to the precise amount of
damage done see Gregorovms, Eome
in the Middle Ages, i. 159.

3
Cf. the letter of Marcellinus to
S.
2.
Augustine, Ep. 136,
4
Aug. Ep. 232 ; cf. 0. Th. xvi.
10, 20.
Aug. Ep. 16, 234.

93
97 cf
^^^ ^cok E
note
43 of
7
See the description of the
way
which they were received by

Count Heraclian in Hieron. Ep
in
130,
7.
CH. in
when they
63
arrived with their excited tales of the desecra-
tion of the imperial city by the Goths, grief and indignation broke forth, how old hatred, terrified into silence,
would be kindled once more, how sceptical acquiescence

in the new regime would have its old doubts revived.
1
Volusianus, one of the great family of the Albini, a son

of that old heathen pontiff described by S. Jerome, and
himself a pagan of the gentler sort, was in 412 in a

company in which the discords of philosophy and the
claims
of Christianity were canvassed.
In particular
Volusianus proposed the question, 2 whether the precept

about turning the other cheek to the smiter could be
reconciled with the policy of a dominant state, whether,
in fact, Christianity was not the cause of the decadence
Eome. The discussion was reported to S. Augustine

by Marcellinus, a friend of Volusianus, and drew from
3
The letter in which
the bishop an elaborate reply.
Augustine strove to remove the doubts of Volusianus and
of
his friends has a great interest as containing the
germ
of
famous work which Augustine commenced in the

The Gospel, he says in effect, is
following year.*
So far
opposed to war waged justly and mercifully.
from its doctrines being hostile to the stability of the
State, if they were practised by public servants and
citizens of every degree, they would prove the salvation
the
of the State.
The decay
of the
Eoman commonwealth
began long before the coming of Christ in the decay of

the old Eoman morality, in the spread of venality and
licence, which are described in scathing terms by heathen
and
moralists
this tide of
human
Whither, he asks, might not

depravity have borne us if there had
satirists.
not been planted above

1
Seeck's
Ep. 107,
8
3
4
Sym.
clxxix.
it
Hieron.
1.
2.
Aug. Ep. 136,
Ib. 138,
16.
Ebert, Lit. des Mittelalters,
all
the Cross,
by
clinging to
223.
Its composition occupied the
years 413-426 ; cf. Aug. detract, ii.
43, 1.
5
i.
He
quotes Sail. B. Jug.
urbem venalem,
etc.
c.
35,
64
BOOK
/ which we might save ourselves from being swept into

/ abyss ?
In this morass of vice, this decay of
{
the
the
ancient discipline, there was need for authority from on

high to bring home the lesson of voluntary poverty,
chastity, benevolence, justice, concord, real piety, all the
brightness and strength of virtue ; and that not merely
conduct of this life, nor to secure com-
for the virtuous

\
plete
harmony
obtain
eternal
commonwealth which
^citizenship we
So, as long as
commonwealth, but
in the earthly
salvation and
admission
know no
shall
to
end,
also to
celestial
to
whose
are joined by faith, hope, and charity.

we are strangers and sojourners, we must
endure, if we cannot amend, those who wish to establish

the State on the foundation of an impunity of vice
.
whereas the early Kornans founded and gave it greatness

by their virtues. They did not indeed possess a knowledge of the true God, to guide them to the Eternal City.
Yet did they hold fast to a certain inbred probity, which
might
suffice to
glory and
establish the earthly city, and give it

God thus desired to show in the
safety.
wealthy and glorious empire of Kome how much availed

the civic virtues, even without true religion, in order to
'
V\\
make men understand that, when that was added, men

might become citizens of another state, of which the king
is truth, the law is love, and eternity the bourn.
s
The City of God dedicated to Marcellinus, wasJbegun
/ in 413, and not finished till 426, 1 fouiTyears before the
It has some of the faults which we
V flTrfchpr'a dp.ath.
\might expect from what S. Augustine tells us of the
distractions of his daily life
2
;
but
vastness of range
its
and conception gives us the measure, not only of the

writer's genius,
thrown.
1
Retract,
All
ii.
43.
but of the force of the enemy to be overthat wealth of learning and subtlety of
teret et me prius ad solvendum
quod opus per aliquot annos

me tenuit, eo quod alia multa intercurrebant, quae differre non oporI.e.
cf. Possid. vit. Aug.

and Serm. 302, quoted in
occupabant
c.
19,
Hurter's ed.
CH. in
65
would not have been wasted by a busy and

in trampling out the embers of an exploded
practical
So far as the work is polemical, it is an
superstition.
first place, upon the political view of the
in
the
assault,
Eoman religion, and, in the next, on the philosophical
The circumstances which
attempt to rehabilitate it.
in its opening pages,
the
work
are
described
suggested
from which we can easily revive the debates which the
disquisition
man
humiliation of the great city excited. ^The fall of Eome,

exclaims S. Augustine, due to Christianity ?
Why, the
conqueror was a Christian, and respected the altars of

1
the Christian basilicas;
whereas your great poet describes Priam slaughtered at the shrine, which could not
2
have the Christians suffered as well

3
Because suffering is a
you ask ?
a Christian and a pagan. 4>\ To the one
Why
protect him.
as the pagans, do
different thing to
grievous, to the other it
it is
ment
may
be joyous, a chastise-
The history of Eome is full of crimes

which the gods have either caused or
for his good.
and calamities
How have the old gods guarded Eome ? 5

permitted.
Do the memories of the Caudine Forks and Cannae, and
another day of calamity and despair, suggest no
doubts about their power or will to guard her ?
The
6
truth is that the old religion did not give real prosperity,
many
elements which were fatal to character

And conquest, unsupported by justice,
and happiness.
7
Yet here S.
may be only brigandage on a large scale.
Augustine seems guilty of a patriotic inconsistency. JSe
for it contained
is,
flft.P.r
a.1],
fr-np.
He
T?.mnan at heart.
isjyroud of the
Eome, and
of the qualities which had given

her her place in^ the world. 8
God made choice of the
great past of
De
Civ. Dei,
39.
2
3
4
6
6
i.
cf.
Oros.
vii.
stint
?
Ib.
i.
2.
cinia
Ib.
Ib.
Ib.
i.
9.
Oros. v.
i.
10.
iii.
17,
Ib. iv. 26.
remota itaque justitia

regna nisi inagna latroiv. 3, 15 ; iii. 10
cf.
Ib. iv. 4,
quid
cf.
1, 4.
omnibus artibus
tamquam vera via nisi sunt ad
honores imperium gloriam . .
Ib. v. 15, his
66
BOOK
Latin race to establish an empire which should weld the

nations of the world into one people.
The Latin race
chose honour and dominion for
its portion, and they had

purely civic virtue deserved.
But the heathen daemons had never brought good to
Eome, as they had never warded off evil from her.
the reward which
They aided the
their
cruel Marius to reach a seventh consul-
they allowed the pious Eegulus to be put to the

2
If they did not save the city
extremity of torture.
ship
from being taken by the Gauls, 8 when

at
its
highest point,
neglect of their rites
why
Eoman
virtue
was
that
the
we fancy
should
has caused the capture
by the
And yet S. Augustine attributes to these

Goths ?
daemons vast powers for evil, while he will not allow
them any power for good. They promised success to
Sulla,
but they never, with their powers of prevision,

avert his crimes.
Their power or example
to
tried
Eoman
corrupted the ancient virtue of the

6
legends,
which were lessons in cruelty and
people by
Their
lust.
worship has created the horrors of the amphitheatre and

In their name the empire of Eome has been
the stage. 6
swelled to an unwieldy bulk by incessant wars.
During
the centuries from the peaceful reign of Numa to the
accession of Augustus, a single year in which the gates
war were closed is noted as a miraculous event. 7

While Augustine was engaged in preparing this final
8
assault on pa^ganism, his fifth book being completed, a
young Spanish priest arrived at Hippo about 414. His
native country was being devastated by the Sueves and
of
imperil sui leges imposuerunt multis

gentibus
Perceperunt mereedern suam ; cf. v. 21.
.
De
&
Ib.
num
Civ. Dei,
i-
ii.
ii.
22, sed
Ib.
Ib
ii.
capta et
24.
'
cf'
ij-
prava
5'
docent, turpibus gaudent.
15.
tamen haec numi-
cum, longe
corrumperentur
turba ubi
antequara
23.
Roma
a Gallis
incensa est ?
antiqui,
mores
erat,
lbt
Ib.
ii.
iii.
25
Up. 169,
same
of.
ix
6, ix. 3.
9.
letter,
13
cf.
and Ep. 166,
1 of the
2.
CH. in
67
He
escaped from their snares or violence, and

sought a refuge in Africa, which as yet was considered
safe from the invaders.
SÂugustine was struck with"
Vandals.
zeal, readiness, and enthusiasm, and determined to

engage him in a historical composition which should
serve as a kind of supplement to the City of God. <^The
his
task which was assigned to Orosius was to refute, by an

examination of history, the pagan assertion that the fall
of
Eome was
old
religion.^)
a consequence of her abandonment of her

Home has been taken by a barbarian chief,
ief,
said the pagans ; her prosperity has for the first time met
with a disastrous check.
Under her old gods she had an
unbroken career of success, resulting in the establishment

of equal laws, and a serene and bountiful civilisation
among scores of peoples who in former ages were degraded
and desolated by continual feuds. It is only a few years
since the religion of the Nazarene was made binding on
and within fifteen years from the death of
all Eomans
;
Theodosius, the destroyer of the ancient faith, the hitherto

inviolate seat of Eoman government has been desecrated.
"
Kome
has perished in the Christian times."

of Orosius had a great popularity in the
The work
Middle Ages, 3 and from some modern critics it has received

too flattering notice as the first attempt to found a philoThis description of it can only be
sophy of history.
if
the
words "philosophy of history" is
accepted,
by
meant an arbitrary and uncritical handling of the facts to
suit an a priori theory, or a temporary theological purpose. ( Orosius himself would hardly have claimed for
his work any such character.
His researches were not
His
authorities
are probably limited to
very profound.
the Bible, Livy, Tacitus, Suetonius, Justin, Eutropius, and
1
Idat. Chron. ad a. 410, debacchantibus per Hispanias barbaris,
etc.
2
Oros,
iii.
20, 5, 0.
See the Prol. of Orosius.
King Alfred had Orosius transThe MSS.

from the seventh century are numelated into Anglo-Saxon.
rous, v. Teuffel,
ii.
p. 475.
68
BOOK
He
perhaps S. Jerome's version of Eusebius's Chronicle.
was not writing for a remote generation, with a theory of
human evolution which would stand the test of scientific
criticism.
He was
convinced
of
his
man
thesis
of his
before
own
his
age, thoroughly
researches
began,
He cares
thoroughly practical, and not over-scrupulous.
for
of
historical
the
inner
movements, so
nothing
springs
|
far as
The chain
they are merely human.
His eye
causes has no interest for him.
is
of natural
fixed
on the
external fortunes and vicissitudes of the great races who

have occupied the stage of history.
It is fixed also
rather on their calamities and reverses than on anything
which might mitigate the tale of " mourning, lamentation,
and woe," which has been the portion of the human race
before the coming of Christ.
His business was to collect
in an ordered narrative from the annals of the past, before
the final triumph of the Cross, all the tales of misery
from war, famine, and pestilence that the human race had
suffered, all that
and volcanic
He
was
fires,
all
and desolating in
startling
floods
the horrors of monstrous crime.
convinced that the carnage and ravages of war, the

stress of plague and dearth, the convulsions of nature,
is
were more tremendous in the pagan times. 2

Nature her8
like
of
the
the
has
self,
Goths,
temper
grown milder with
the advent of a purer faith among men Lin the process,
!
of proving his thesis, Orosius treats

same respect as authentic history.
Amazons
mere legend with the

The exploits of the
are as useful for his purpose as the invasion

In the long catalogue of
Gauls of Brennus.
of the slain, and
wars
he
numbers
the
deadly
magnifies
seems almost to exult in the carnage of pre-Christian
of
the
1
He mentions other writers, but
probably only at second hand. He
knew
little
of Greek authorities
Morner, de Oros. vita, p. 50, and

Peter's Die Geschichtliche Ltit. ilber
cf.
die
R&m,
Kaiserzeit,
ii.
158, 255.
The world in
Ores, iv. Praef.
is as it were only nocturnis pulicibus titillatus
414
..
Jb
'
Ib.
" 14 3
i.
15,
4.
...
'
'
1O
19
CH. in
69
He has seldom a word to say of the objects

which the victims fell.
The glories of peaceful times
have no interest for his determined, historical pessimism.'
There is not a word of the splendour of the age of
1
Pericles.
Demosthenes is only referred to as an orator
battlefields.
for
It is difficult to conceive
purchased by Persian gold.
that such a collection of the gloomiest episodes in history
or myth, selected for a single controversial purpose which
is
everywhere apparent, should have influenced any mind

and cultivated circle of the pagan friends
in the learned
of
Symmachus.
[Orosius constantly complains of the double exaggeration! by which the

pagans magnified the prosperity and
own
glory of past ages, and the disasters of their
day.
The charge is probably true. The immediate effects of

the invasion may have easily been painted in too sombre
colours.
The capture of Eome^so disordered men's
J
imaginationsTand awoke such bitterness of
that a calm estimate of the facts was hardly possible.
Orosius^ however, is guilty of the grossest exaggeration
on the__other_-îde.
In his retrospect he surveys the
history of the world from the creation, with a determina-
tion to see nothing that does not lend itself to his controIt is characteristic of the peculiar
purpose.
versial
method and
fairness of this
work
that, in painting the
bloody wars of the regal period, the name of Numa is

never mentioned.
The sack of the city by Brennus 5 was
more
terrible and destructive than her capture by

Hardly a Eoman senator escaped the violence of
the Gauls.
Hardly one lost his life at the hands of the
6
Goths.
In old times Sicily was constantly laid waste
far
Alaric.
mentioned once as
general, along with Sophocles, i. 21,

15 ; cf. a somewhat similar and
to the great age

of Greece in Prosp. Chron.
2
Oros. iii. 16, 1.
Pericles is
amusing reference
e.g.
i.
Ib.
ii.
Oros,
Ib.
21, 17
4
ii.
ii.
iv.
Morn.
Praef.
p. 37.
19.
19,
13, ibi
vix
quam inventum Senatorem,
quem-
qui vel
absens evaserit, hie vix queniquam
70
BOOK
by the convulsions of nature and the ravages of war. In

the present quiet and prosperous times, even Etna, which
once spread ruin in field and city, sends up only a column
of harmless smoke to remind the world of its former
1
Eome was founded in bloodshed, and her career
energy.
There is
has corresponded to the omens of her birth.
2
hardly a break in the monotonous tale of incessant wars,
until the universal peace of the reign of Augustus was
In like
given to the world by the coming of Christ.
fall of Athens, the overthrow of Spartan
8
supremacy, the conquests of Philip and Alexander, are
described with a determined exaggeration of the slaughter
manner, the
The absurdity, perhaps,

culminates, when Orosius inveighs against those who
complain that a cowardly brigand (it is thus that Alaric
and misery which they caused.
described) has outraged a single corner of a world

4
The
is enjoying generally a secure tranquillity
is
which
author occasionally shows some flashes of insight into the

position of Eome, and her relation to the barbarian races,
to
which we
But as to
shall refer in another chapter.
it is difficult to acquit him of
the main drift of his book
a deliberate distortion of the facts of history.
These two works, of such unequal merit, are noticed

here chiefly for the purpose of showing the latent force
of the pagan sentiment which they were intended to
S. Augustine and Orosius are
magnitude of their task, and of the
It was not the ignorant superstistrength of the enemy.
disarm and
.
silence.
Both
fully conscious of the
tion of the masses, blindly clinging to the religious usages

of their ancestors, which they set themselves chiefly to
require, qui forte ut latens perierit ;
cf. de Civ. Dei, iii. 29 ; Socr. Hist.
Ecd.
vii. 10, says that many senators were tortured and slain.
1
Oros.
tune
ii.
cum
14,
Aethna ipsa, quae

urbium atque
excidio
agrorum crebris eraptionibus aestuabat, nunc tantum innoxia specie
ad praeteritorum fidem fumat

2
3
iii.
11.
iii.
8.
2b. iii. 14 : ii. 16, 13 ; iii. 2, 10 ;

13, 11.
Ib. iii. 20, 9, et nos perpetuae
haesurum putamua
recordationi
quod plurima orbis parte secura
unum angulum fugax latro violavit.
CH. in
discredit
hayp
and overthrow.
seen, in a
company
The controversy began,
71
as
we
of lettered rnen7whose smoulder-
ing doubts about the policy of the religious revolution of

Theodosius, flashed out and found expression on the
capture of Eome in 410. j Both works are addressed to
the educated
class,
who
still
clung to paganism, either as
the ancestral faith of Eome, under the protection of which

her great mission had been accomplished, or as enshrining
the venerable and imaginative symbols of the lofty and
comprehensive theory of God and the Universe, expounded
<j
The Cityyf God assails the

by the school of Alexandria.
paganism both of the patriot and the philosoÊerr^îs
addressed to a class capable of following the most subtle
reasoning, acquainted with the history and antiquities of
Eome, or saturated with the metaphysics of Plotinus and
The_ trâîse_jiLJIkQsiiia..is addressed only to
Porphyry.
the anxious patriot, and it has none of the depth and
range and subtlety of S. Augustine's great work.. Yet
even Orosius could hardly have been read by any one
who had not been trained in the higher discipline of the
Eoman schools.
From this point
of view the controversy has a profound interest for the historian. It is true that the voices
of the champions of paganism reach us only, as it were,
by echoes from the pages of their assailants. Hardly a
word has come
to us directly
from that crowd of philo-
sophic sceptics, conservative dreamers, or devotees, who

call
called forth the full strength of the great bishop of Hippo,
/Itiis admitted that the City of God dealt a deathblow at
I
the cause of paganism, and, by its learning and dialectic,

ftf\YY\
completed the work of anti-pagan legislation. ' Its occasional sophistry, which may irritate the modern reader,
would probably, in the heat of

to the
enemy
be as damaging
If its
appeals
show the helplessness of the gods to protect

worshippers from evil fortune often seem to us
to history to
their
conflict,
as its sounder arguments.
72
BOOK
unfair and weak, its exposure of the moral evil in the

ancient cults is irresistible.
absence of the moral
|The
corruption of Eoman
character by the games and festivals which were sanctioned
or enjoined by the old faith, is S. Augustine's most
powerful reply to the argument that Eome owed her
influence
paganism, and the
in
material success to her gods. [^Julian saw the mojral

helplessness of the system, to which he gave a momentary
and illusive revival in the years when S. Augustine was
But Julian's life was short, and it may be
an, infant.
doubted whether, if it had been longer, his efforts to effect

a moral and philosophic renovation of paganism could
have given real life to that which was rotten at the
root.
Yet,
when we
look merely at the narrower issue, on

controversy began, there is a
which the momentous
strange feeling of pathos in reading the often sophistical

recriminations as to the supernatural causes of a world-
wide convulsion.
The ancient majesty of the imperial
city had been violated, and the magic of that great name
was vanishing amid agonies of regret.
Some of the
fairest provinces of the "West had been occupied by the
German invaders.
Four years after the completion of
S. Augustine's great work, the Vandals will have overrun
Koman Africa, and the saint's last hours will be disturbed
1
The
by the roar of battle under the walls of Hippo.
mutual recriminations of Christian and pagan as to the
causes of the great catastrophe may to some
seem small and frivolous, in comparison with the interests
which were at stake; to others perhaps rather coarse and
materialistic in their conception of the office and value of
"We have been trained to seek for the causes
religion.
religious
of the fall of
class
under
Eome
fiscal
in the exhaustion of the municipal
burdens, in bad and cruel administra-
tion, in the decline

1
of public spirit
Possid. vit.
Aug.
c.
and courage.
29.
Some
CH. in
73
even those bred in the traditions of the
historical critics,
Catholic Church, are almost ready to take the pagan side

in the quarrel, and to find the causes of the collapse in
the ascetic spirit, which, by contemning wealth and
refusing to bear the burdens of civil society, undermined
1
The controversial
its economic and political stability.
part of the City of God will probably have the fate of all
polemics inspired by the needs or passions of the moment.
But
and constructive
its spiritual
side,
which
lies
beyond
the scope of this work, will be a permanent possession of

It lifts the eye from the mundane level on
the race.
which the
are
relative material advantages of opposing creeds

or fiercely contrasted.
\Eternity__ia__jiot
balanced
promised by the Christian's God to anything earthly.

The spiritual city alone does not pass away. It has no
frontiers, it draws its citizens from all races and peoples,
it
embraces
death.
all
the faithful on either side of the river of
Fundamenta
1
ejus in
montibus
Renan, Marc. Aurtle,
sanctis.
p. 603.
/A
*
^ C**"'"tfW*S
&><&aM 7
i*o- M&*i
v *
-^ *
X-1
iur*
~t
*****
^^ d **#
v>
< j
*44+us
,a
î
^
'
\
CHAPTEE
IV
SOME CAUSES OF THE VITALITY OF THE LATER PAGANISM
THE
dialectic of S.
Augustine is regarded asJijaYing_comoverthrow of the pagan cause.

Yet his
pletedthe
the old State religion of
are directed^ against
assaults
than against those cults of Egypt and

Eome,
l
which
had, for more than two centuries, practically
Syria
rather
From a controovershadowed the religion of Numa. 2

versial point of view S. Augustine was right.
Although
the native gods of Latium no longer inspired much
devotion, they were the recognised protectors of the old
Koman state.
Their cults were intertwined with the
whole fabric of public and private life.
Even the
Christian emperors, till the time of Gratian, assumed the
/
Pontifex Maximus.
The old sacred colleges still
3
for ceremonial functions in the reign of Theodosius.
festival of the Lupercalia, which was traced back
office of
met
The
to the
Arcadian Evander, was, with
savage
ritual, celebrated
down
all
its
coarse
and
to the last years of the
fifth
century.
In the fourth century the ancient religion of Latium,
while revered and defended as the symbol of national
greatness
by the conservative
He
however, to the cult
refers,
of Mater
2
Deum,
But the old
i.
c.
rites
den Sev.
3
4
5.
and festivals,
e.g. the Lupercalia and Ambarvalia,
were sedulously kept up cf. ReVille,
Rel. unter
patriot, supplied little nutri-
p. 26.
viii.
Sym. Ep. i. 51.

Gibbon, c. 36.
343.
It
Of. Virg. Aen.

was revived by Augus-
tus (Suet. Octav. c. 31). Luperci are

found in Inscriptions of Mauretania,
O.I.L.
viii.
9405, 9406.
SOURCES OF ITS VITALITY
CHAP, iv
ment
for the devotional cravings
Roman
75
of the age.
/ The
old
theology was a hard, narrow, unexpansive system
and personification, which strove to reprePantheon the phenomena of nature, the relations
of men in the state or the clan, every act and feeling and
of abstraction
sent in
its
incident in the life of the individual.

But, unlike the
mythologies of Hellas and the East, it had no native
principle of growth or adaptation to altered needs of
It was also
and the individual imagination.
The
in
and
awe
religious
mystery.
wanting
singularly
spirit which it cultivated was formal, timid, and scrupu1
lous.
It was bound up with the everyday business and
sacred colleges were not,
practical life of society,
jits
of
the
in
case
set apart from the
the
vestals,
except
world; they were simply a kind of magistracy for the
exact performance of certain sacred rites and functions.
When the ceremony was over, the celebrant returned to
ordinary civic life. |The old Roman worship was business2
The gods were partners in a contract
like and utilitarian.
with their worshippers, and the ritual was characterised
by all the hard and literal formalism of the legal system
of Rome?
Trie Worshipper performed his part to the
society
with the scrupulous exactness required in plead8

before
the praetor. \ To allow devotional feeling to
ings
transgress the bounds prescribed by immemorial custom
letter
"
Such a religion was little calculated

who had come under the spell of
Greek philosophy and the mysticism and ecstatic devotion
was
superstitio."
to satisfy generations
of the East.
(
case
1
c.
The conservative and patriotic spirit which, as in the

of_Sjmmachus and jFlavianus, clung__to_tbe old
Boissier, La Eel.
Preller, Mythol.
;
"iiier, m.
22
cf.
Rom. Introd.
Rom. (Dietz),
om i. pp. 21,
Mommsen, Rom. Hist. i. 182
.
Nat. Dear,
versum
i.
41),
as justitia ad-
deos.
PrellCT- P- 102
Bdssier
qq '
Cicero's definition of pietas (de
Boissier,
i.
p. 23.
THE LA TER PAGANISM
76
BOOK
national faith, as inseparable from the safety and dignity

of Home, was undoubtedly a serious obstacle to the final
But he would
triumph of Christianity.]
of
interpret the
confine his
ill
who should
the time
history
attention to the official paganism.
religious
which
JThe paganism
and
influenced
really living,
Jt came
souls, was that neither of Latium nor of Hellas.
from the East from Persia. Syria, "Egypt the homes of
which
was
stirred devotion
a conception of religion which was alien to the native

1
These Oriental cults
spirit both of Greece and Rome.
satisfied
emotional cravings, which found no stimulus for
devotion in the arid abstractions of the old Latin creed,

or in the brilliant anthropomorphism of Greece.
They
aroused and cultivated, often to a dangerous degree,

their mysteries, if they
intense and ecstatic feeling.
did not teach a higher moraHty, they raised the worshipper
above the level of cold, conventional conformity, and
În
some way the longing for communion with

assurance of a life beyond the grave,
and
deity,
of appeasing the troubled conscience
had
their
modes
"""ley
satisfied in
the
expiation, by ascetic abstinence, by the baptism of

In the sacred corporations, 2 such as the Isiaci
blood.
by
and 'Pastophori, they provided, what was the great want

of the times, social help and mutual encouragement, the
stimulus or the consolation of common interests and
enthusiasms.
fWhoever
will cast his eyes over the in-
scriptions of ihe closing years of the fourth century will

be struck by the number of dedications to deities of foreign
to Isis, the Sun,
origin
all, to
Mithra. )
of the
greatest
Clodius
He
Mater, and Attis, above
Magna
on these
find
will
tablets
names among the Roman

3
Hermogenianus,
Boissier, Eel. Horn. i. pp. 396

Eel. zu Eom. unter
den Sev. c. ii. Duruy. Hist. Eom.
v. 739
Friedlander, iii. p. 444.
2
Kenan, H. Aurlle, p. 577
sqq. ; R6ville,
Flavianus,
Boissier,
i.
G.I.L.
Ib
'
"
Venustus,
417.
vi.
499, a.p.C. 374.
501 > a'P' C 383 '

'
some
aristocracy,
Ib. vi. 503, a.p. C. 390.
CHAP, iv
77
a Volusianus, a Vettius Agorius Praetextatus.

If he
looks into the inscriptions of the provinces, he will discover that these worships have been carried by Roman
2
travellers or soldiers to
Gaul, Spain, Britain, to remote

of
on
the
the
African desert, or on the Ehine
camps
edge
and the Danube.
He will notice on many of these
monuments
that
the
commemorated has held
person
sacred office in a great number of these cults, that he has

been priest of Mithra the unconquered, priest of the Sun,
3
priest of Isis, and that he has performed the Taurobolium.

He will observe with interest that there is a tone of
moral and devout feeling which he had not expected to

find in a pagan epitaph.
The famous monument erected
4
Fabia
Aconia
Paulina
to her husband Praetextatus,
by
after recording his many secular and sacred honours, and
celebrating his birth, learning, and culture, speaks of his
contempt
for these transient distinctions,
And
of a blessed reunion after death.

in her gratitude for the love
and the hope
Paulina
is
fervent
and confidence with which
made her a partner in all sacred things.

Praetextatus, in a companion inscription, commemorates
his wife as the sharer of his inmost secrets, devoted to
her husband has
the temple service, a friend of the gods, pure in
body, benevolent to
These
cults,
mind and
all.
which were the
vital centre of the last
generation of paganism in the West, had found their way

to Rome long before the imperial period.
The Eastern
conquests of the Republic made the maintenance of old-
Roman
exclusiveness impossible.
In a city which was
the meeting-place of so many races, it was hopeless for
1
ib.
C.LL. vi. 512, a.p.C. 390; cf.

736, 755.
9
Ib. xii. 405, 1311 (Mater deum),
xii.
2706, 1535 (Mithra),
xii.
734,
The Taurobolium
(Isis).
appears in an immense number of
Gallic inscriptions in C.LL. xii.
cf. Renan, M. Aurde,
See
p. 579.
the provincial inscriptions to Mithra

collected in Cumont's Monuments
figures
1562
relatifs
Mithra,
3
nef
C
'
to >
i.
aux Mysteres
de
pp. 129-171.
,
,.,
several of the Inscr. referred

vi. 504.
and Particularly C.LL.

4
C.LL. vi. 1778-79.
THE LATER PAGANISM
78
BOOK
the most vigilant conservatism, however much inspired

with a suspicion of exotic modes of devotion, finally to
The attempt was made again and again,

and as often defeated.
Foreign traders, foreign slaves,
travellers, and soldiers returning from long campaigns
in distant regions, were constantly introducing religious
novelties which fascinated the lower class, always the
most susceptible of religious excitement, and then peneThe Great
trated to the classes of culture and privilege.
Mother of Pessinus found a home at Eome in the second
Punic war. 2 The Pastophori of Serapis were established
shut them out.
as early as the days of Sulla.

After repeated attempts
on the part of the government to exclude Egyptian
4
worships, the triumvirs, in 42 B.C., founded a temple of
and Serapis in the Campus Martius. 5 |The worship

of Mithra. the_solar cult which was destined to_ Jbe jth
most formidable rival of Christianity in its last struggle
with heathenism, was introduced in 70 B.C. after the
Isis
overthrow of the Cilician piratesJby_JPpmpey. 6

Under
the Flavian dynasty the religions of the East had special
7
But the Eastern cults had their great

triumph in the age of the Antonines, and under the
prominence.
Oriental princes of the third century.

of dedications to Sol Invictus,
considerable
number
and
Mithra belong to the reigns of M. Aurelius and Cornmodus. 8
Antoninus Pius erected a temple to Mithra at
9
and Commodus had a fancy to be initiated in
Ostia;
Serapis,
the Isiac mysteries, and actually took the tonsure of that

1
Boissier,
Rom.
La, Eel.
i.
Liv. xxix. 10.

3
Dion
Plut.
p.
384<
W0pav
Preiler, p. 479.
II. p. 479.
Cf. the picture of
Virg
Aen
Pomp.
ical
'
g ue t. Vesp.
Cf c- L
-
omnigenftraque deftm monstra et latmtor

Anxibis, etc.
c.
24,
Sevpo
ftfypi
AcaraSetxtfetcra TrpcDro*/
rSav ireipaT&v).
(*
the Egyptian gods arrayed against

>
Cass. xlvii. 15.
'
54
1 "*
e/cetVwi
c. 7.
vi
723 ' 727
746
8>v ij roO
8uurd>erai
VTT'
263
Rdville, p. 81.
'
>
74
CHAP, iv
79
Caracalla and Alexander Severus both added

worship.
2
to the splendour of the temple service of Isis.
Aurelian,
whose mother was a
priestess of the Sun, attributed his

to the god's favour, and built a
Zenobia
over
victory
at Eome, enriched with the spoils
him
for
stately temple
of
B almyra. 3
and pre-eminently that of Isis/

( The Egyptian cults,
had an immense Jnjnp.nnft nn jJTg _jRmria^
the whole imperial period. ( Isis was a deity with many
4
She was the goddess
'functions and many attractions.
of the springtime and of the fruitfulness of nature.) She
was the guardian of those whose life is on the sea. She
had a special care of women in the troubles of motherShe lighted souls into the world beyond death.
hood.
The ceremonies of her worship, which in many respects
-
show a singular rapprochement to those of the Catholic

Church, had a powerful effect on the imagination and the
There is a sacerdotal class set apart for spiritual
feelings.
functions and the guidance of souls, and distinguished by
There are baptismal
the tonsure and a peculiar dress. 5
of
rites
initiation,
for
which
abstinence
ascetic
is
In Egypt, on the very ground

necessary preparation.
which in the fourth and fifth centuries was to be the
home
of Christian
ascetic
monks, there was long before them the

cloister devoted to the worship of
of the
life
6
The ritual has many traces of our modem
Serapis.
of
ideas
devotion, and foreshadows in some respects that
Lamprid. Com. c. 9, sacra

ut et caput raderet et
Isidis coluit
Anubin
2
Id.
Carac.
3
portaret.
A.
Sev.
c.
26
Ael. Spart.
c. 9.
Flav'Vrm
Aiir
blav. Vop. Aur.
Preller, p.
unter den Sev.
477
o 4,
4
c.
31
31,
3Q
M
Reville, Rel.
p. 53.
cinctum pectoralem adusque vestigia strictim inject! .

capillum
derasi funditus, vertice praenitentes.
Cf. Pint, de Is. et Osir. 4 <?0' 8r V
.
rf*XK
^ vS>s tffOrfr**
r
LS
<-
f P ei s
uvorivamu
Kal
<t>opov<rtJ>.
Qhaeremon, quoted by Porphyr.
de Abstin. (Frag. Hist. Or.

497), fat8o<rw 8\ov rbv plov
edw
Oeupig. K al 8ed<rei
Apul. Met. xi. c. 10, antistites

candido linteamine
sacrorum .
tirerrjdevffav
Kal
Kar
^/cpdrctd*' re Kal Kaprepiay.
iii.
rr,
p.
TWV
THE LATER PAGANISM
80
BOOK
There are matins and vespers

which white-
of the Catholic Church.
to rouse the goddess or to lay her to rest, at
1
robed priests officiate.
Women receive a prominence
which was denied them under the old religion, and their
devotion to the ritual of Syria and Egypt was a social

2
characteristic of the early Empire as it was of the closing
3
There was indeed much

years of paganism in the West.
in these cults calculated to have a special charm for
It is a common characteristic of some
female sensibility.
of the most popular of them that the interest centres on
a divine death and resurrection.
There
is
the alterna-
tion of the passionate se'nse of loss with the passionate

joy of recovery, and the emotions, as in the mysteries of
an
earlier
time, were
scenic effects.
old
Kome
The
probably stimulated by striking
cold, calm, rigidly formal religion
of
has given place to ecstatic devotion, and the
sense of sin and error finds relief in penitential discipline
and solemn cleansing.

lln the last struggles of paganism with the Christian
Church, the cult which exercised the most, pow-erful
It gave expression to
attraction was_jtbat of Mithra.*
5
to
and to the craving
monotheism,
growmg tendency
the
support, purification, and comfort through

which
became more and more imperious in the
religion,
\ third and fourth centuries. It was at first a sun-worship
^
But its early character was greatly
of Persian origin.
for
moral
by syncretism, by accretions from other, especially

Phrygian, worships, and by natural development to meet
the devotional and moral wants of the times. jThe
altered
Apul. Met.
xi. 20.
528
/&SiS&
1532, 396! (Narbonne)
C'- L
'h
2630
u
in
vin
Devotion to Isis
(Numidia).
the time of Catullus and Tibullus
seems to have been compatible with
Catull. x. 26 ;
very loose morals.
Tibull.
i.
3,
23.
Cumont,
i.
178,
denies that women were admitted

to the mysteries of Mithra.
C.I.L.
^ville Eel.
prell
1779, 1780.
vi.
>
'
*J
U6
unter den Sev. pp.

490
8
jg
Aur&e p 676
6
See the centralisation of many
worships in tho temple of the Sun
attempted by Elagabalus, Lamp rid.
c.
cf.
c. 7.
CHAP, iv
81
worship of the Sun was the central force in Julian's

attempt to remedy the dogmatic and moral weakness of
'
In the fourth century the ancient god of

paganism.
1
the supreme Power, who is all-seeing,
has
become
light
all-pervading, who is the lord and giver of life, the
from
sin, the protector of the miserable, the

daemons and death, who assures to his
of
evil
conqueror
The
faithful worshippers the hope of immortality.
cleanser
monuments
Mithra
of
2
Koman
in
world,
all
have been found

the
of
all
over the
Italy, in
regions
Spain,
the provinces bordering on the Danube
and the Ehine, in Gaul, and in Britain.
Nothing is
Africa,
and
all
more familiar than the group in which the young warrior,

wearing a Phrygian cap and short tunic, and mantle
blown back by the wind, kneels on the back of a bull
and buries his poniard in its throat, surrounded by the
3
His worship
mystic beasts and the two Dadophori.
in
was conducted
underground grottoes, brilliantly lighted
and adorned with symbolic figures. The symbolism of
his ritual has exercised and puzzled the ingenuity of
modern archaeologists. 4
Probably it conveyed many
meanings to the devotee but the central idea in the
end seems to have been that of a Power who conquers
the spirits of darkness, leads souls from the underworld,
and gives peace by purification. The ritual was comThere was a kind of baptism
plicated and impressive.
of neophytes, confirmation, consecration of bread and
water, cleansing of the tongue with honey, and other
ablutions.
The great festival of the god was celebrated
;
p.
ments figures,
Orientaux,
i.
88
Cumont, Monu-
de Mithra, Textes
pp. 1-6. Of. Porphyr.
etc.
In his
book on Neoplatonism,
p. 56, Dr. Bigg says that the re" the
ligion of Mithra was
purest
and most elevated of all nonquoted
ib.
pp. 39, 40, 41.
interesting
Biblical religions."
2
Preller, p. 496
C.I.L.
viii.
8440
(Sitifis
in Mauretania), 9256,
1535 (Gallia Narb.) 2706,

807, 809 (Aquileia), 4283.
xii.
Cumont,
i.
v.
Of.
pp. 87-171.
See the representation of the

Vatican group in Durny, v. p. 748
;
Cumont,
cf.
ii.
iii.
passim.
cf. the
Reville, pp. 89, 90-94
materials accumulated in Cumont,
4
ii.
and
iii.
'
THE LATER PAGANISM
82
BOOK
25th of December. 1 His mysteries created a

powerful bond of union, and in this respect satisfied one
of the most urgent needs of society under the later
The initiated formed a close guild or corporaEmpire.
on the
tion presenting
many
points
resemblance to
of
Free-
The novice had to submit to a series of

masonry.
severe ordeals and ascetic exercises, prolonged fasting,
There
flagellation, passing through water and flame.
were many degrees of initiation bearing fantastic titles,8
and culminating in the dignity which bore the title of
Whatever the real moral effect of initiation may
Pater.
have been, there can be no doubt that it developed a
warm
devotion and faith in that future

to the
promised
life
which
it
pure worshipper.
The most impressive
Mithra- worship was the
rite in
baptism of blood, called the Taurobolium.
This ceremony
was apparently a sacramental repetition of the symbolic
It was
slaughter of the bull by the god himself.
and
Mother,
monuments
times,
it
earliest
the Phrygian ritual of the Great

connected with her name on many
of
part
originally
is
*
;
the religious fashion
after
but,
of
the
had been absorbed by the cult of the Sun. The

trace of the Taurobolium in the West is found
on a Neapolitan monument of the last years of Hadrian's

5
It spread far and wide through the provinces,
reign.
and traces of it are found near Lyons as early as
184 A.D. 6 The ceremonial has been described in a well1
i.
p.
Re'ville. p. 95.
But
cf.
Cumont,
* Preller,
p. 497 ; Re'ville, p. 97.
On the ordeals of initiation, see
Cumont,
3
i.
p. 27.
'ad
2,
Ep. 107,
Laetam,' where the titles of them
are given, Corax, Gryphus, Miles,
Leo, Perses, Heliodromus, Pater
v.
Cumont, i. 18, n. 1. See the
title Pater in 504, 1778 of C.I.L. vi,
4
Re'ville, p. 66; C.I.L. vi. 505,
Hieron.
506, 508,
4325.
6
68 n.
iii.
5524,
xii.
357, 1222,
Boissier, Eel. Rom.

0.1. L. xii. 1782.
i.
p. 412.
This taurobolium lasted from the 20th to the

23rd of April.
At Orange (in
Gallia Narbonensis) an inscription
was found commemorating a taurobolium pro salute Imp. M. Aurel.
Commodi, C.I.L.
xii.
1222.
taurobolium of 245 A.D. in Gall,

Narb. was performed for the imperial house on 30th Sept. xii. 1567;
cf. viii. 5524, 8263 (African Inscr.),
CHAP, iv
known
83
passage of Prudentius, and the inscriptions of his

2
The penitent was placed in

age frequently refer to it.
a trench covered over with planks having apertures
bull was led on to this platform, and
between them.
8
conducted by the priests, was
ceremonial,
slaughtered so that the blood streaming from its throat
due
with
might bathe the votary below. It was esteemed a matter

of great importance that not a drop should be wasted,
and the subject of the rite used all his efforts to enjoy
The ceremony was a
the full benefit of the sacred flood.
long and costly one, attended by great crowds, with the
Its effects were supposed to
magistrates at their head.
4
It
last for twenty years, when it was often repeated.
was believed to work some sort of spiritual cleansing and
reform, and the man who had enjoyed such a blessing
left the record of it on stone, often concluding with the
striking phrase, in aeternum renatus?
\ This
religion was the focus of the real devotion of the
It
of paganism.
lastâge
was supported with
zeaT by some oFlhe greatest senatorial houses, and

offered the most stubborn resistance to the anti-pagan
6
laws. ) The dedications to Mithra are most numerous in
when the Christian Empire was destroying

M. Eenan has declared his belief 7 that, if
the growth of Christianity had been checked by some
mortal weakness, Mithraism might have become the
With a true instinct,
religion of the Western world.
the very years
his grottoes.
the Christian controversialists, from the second century,

recognised in this cult the most dangerous spiritual foe
1
Prad. Peristeph. x. 1011.
See
a sketch of the scene in Duruy, v.
743.
2
3
C.I.L. vi. 499, 504, 509, 511.

Jb. xii. 1782 1567.
.
'
TV f ^(iterate
anrns expletis),
502.
,.
vigmti
Ib. vi. 510.

8
Ib.
vi.
751,
These
510, 500, 504, 511.
belong to the years 376-387
cf. Hieron. Ep. 107,
2, ante paucos
annos propinquus vester Graccus
cum praefecturam gereret urbanam
nonne specum Mithrae
subvert it, fregit,
excussit.
This refers
*
to the
g 76>
But cf note
ia
1778,
inscr.
'
Mine's
752,
753,
754,
'
ed. col. 868.
M. Aurtte,
p. 579.
~\v
deiiantT
/\''
THE LATER PAGANISM
84
of the
ritual
BOOK
Church, and ascribed its similarity to Christian

1
In its
the malign ingenuity of daemons.
to
expiation for sins by bloody baptism, its ascetic preparation for the holy mysteries, its oblation of the consecrated
its symbolic teaching of the resurrection, they
well
see a cunning device of the Evil One to find
might
a false resting-place for souls who were longing for the
bread,
light.
Whether such worships as we have been describing

aroused or satisfied a genuine devotional feeling in our
modern sense, is a question which it is difficult to
But
answer.
the
thoughtful
student
will
probably
he answers in the negative.

The gulf
which separates us from the world of heathen imagination is so wide, the influence
of custom and old
hesitate before
'
association in
matters
of
t/
we may
religion
is
so powerful, that
easily do injustice to the devout sentiment of
paganism.
Grotesque or barbarous religious symbols,
even those tainted in their origin with the impurity
î^ attaching
,>.
to
nature- worship,
often
sloughed
off
their
baser elements, and, with the development of a more

3
sensitive morality, and a higher conception of the divine,
may have become the vehicles of a real religious emotion,
What
the worshipper will find in a worship depends

The same symbol or rite
greatly on what he brings.
will
have various meanings and effects to different minds.

to which it is strange, it may seem to have
To the mind
no meaning at all
1
The mystery
Prud. Peristeph. x. 1008 Terde Cor. c. 15 ; de Praescrip.

;
tull.
Haeret. 40, Mithra signat illic in

frontibus milites suos ; celebrat et
panis oblationem, et imaginem resurrectionis inducit, etc. ; S. Paulin.
Nol. Poem.
Ult. 112-117.
2
The initiation of Commodus in
the mysteries of Isis and Mithra,
and the devotion of Elagabalus to
sun-worship
make one
suspicious.
of the
death of a
But there is a long interval between

these monsters and the apparently
blameless devotees of the reign of
Gratian ; cf. Lamprid. Com. c. 9 ;
Elagdb. c. 3, and C.I.L. vi. 1778,
1779.
3
Note the horror with which
the infamies of Elagabalus were
regarded by all classes, Lamprid.
El. c. 17
cf. Boissier, Rel. Rom. ii.
pp. 419 sqq.; Friedlander, iii. p. 611.
;
CHAP, iv
divine
descent to the
being, his
underworld, and his

of many of the
joyful restoration,
cults which most
was the central idea
The
antiquity.
would
expression
ritual
influenced
to
in
us
85
the
religious
which
that
of
feeling
feeling
now appear perhaps
found
shocking,
The drama of the

perhaps grotesque and absurd.
Eleusinian goddesses, if we could witness it, would
probably be a poor and tasteless show, with no spiritual
1
Yet there is no doubt that it produced a
contents.
on the devotee, and Pindar gave voice
effect
profound
when he said, 2
Happy he who has seen the spectacle he knows the
Even among
bourn of life, he knows its divine source."
those who hold the same central truths of the Christian
faith, how hard it is for the member of one sect to join
the universal sentiment of Greece
to
"
in the
ritual of
The Puritan, accustomed
another.
to
express his devotion in bare and simple forms consecrated

to him by the memories of early religious emotion, is
unable to conceive the awe and tenderness which the
Mass
its
excites in the devout Catholic,
who has
witnessed
ceremonial from infancy.
It is fortunate that we have preserved to us in the

pages of Apuleius an invaluable description of an initiation into the mysteries of Isis, which, though the scene
is laid in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, was probably
often reproduced in the closing years of paganism.

The people of Corinth are about to celebrate
the
spring festival of Isis, and the opening of the busy traffic

on the Aegean, by a religious procession to the shore,
and the offering
who
of a consecrated vessel to the goddess
cares for the toilers of the sea.
Lucius,
who
been imprisoned by evil arts in the forms of an

1
340
112
Maury, Eel. de la
;
;
Grece,
ii.
p.
Lob. Aglaoph, i. pp. Ill,

Gard. and Jevons, Greek
Antiq. p. 283.
has
ass, is
2
Find. Frag. 137 (Christ)
Soph. 0.0. 1051 Frag. 753
<i 5
iceivoi
..
_'\
fyorStv
ot TO.VTO.
^ "Aifiov.
cf.
Tp i s 5\j8ioi
Sepx0eVrs
T'Aif
THE LATER PAGANISM
86
BOOK
awaked by a dazzling light, and in a fit of devotion

cries to the Queen of Heaven, worshipped under many
In answer to
names, to deliver him from his cruel fate.
his prayer, there rose from the moonlit sea a divine and
awful form, 1 which no words could shadow forth.
Her
long rich tresses were crowned with flowers, and with a
radiant moonlike disc upheld by arching snakes on either
side.
Her robe of glistening white now changed to
saffron,
now
Her mantle
flushed into rose-like flame.
of
deepest darkness was bordered with the bickering light

"
"
of stars.
in answer to
Lo, I come," the vision said,
thy prayers, I Nature, mother of
all
things, mistress of
the elements, the primal birth of all the ages, supreme

divinity, Queen of the world of shades, first of the
inhabitants of heaven, in whom all gods have their
all
One Power adored by all the

unchanging type.
world under many a name and with many rites.
Dry thy tears and assuage thy grief: already by my
providence the dawn of a saving day is breaking. Attend
my solemn festival and await the touch of my priest
which shall set thee free. Become my servant, and live
.
by constant devotion and steadfast purity to see

glory in the world to come."
Lucius awoke with a strange gladness in the freshness
in hope
my
of the morning.
The birds are singing under the inspiration of the spring, hymning the mother of the stars
and the ages, the mistress of the universe. 2 The young
foliage is rustling in
asleep,
hardly
splendour of heaven
A
in
the southern breeze.
disturbed
great procession is
various character
by
ripple.
The sea is
The naked
not veiled by a single cloud. 8

forming, a picturesque masquerade
is
and
costume.
First
come the
belted soldier, the hunter with short tunic and hunting

1
Apul. Met.
76. xi.
parentem
totius
c.
affamine.
xi. cc. 3-6.

7,
roatrem siderum,
temporum,
orbisque
dominam blando mulcentes
Ib.,
caligine
caelum
disjecta
autem nubilosa
nudo sudoque
luminis proprii splendore candebat.
CHAP, iv
87
an effeminate figure wearing jewels and false hair,

Another
a gladiator with helmet, sword, and greaves.
follows with the well-known mantle, beard, and sandals
spears,
of the wandering philosopher.
a matron's
litter.
An
ass,
flanks, carries a feeble old
and Pegasus
robes
mixed
bear is borne along in

with wings fastened to its
to represent Bellerophon
man,
Women
to the laughing crowd.
in white
Then follows a
scatter flowers along the route.
crowd of men and women and youths in snowy
vestments, bearing torches and candles, and chanting a

Next comes the
sacred poem to the melody of flutes.
men and women, of every age

and rank, clad in white, and the priests with shaven
throng of the initiated,
1
Last of all are
heads carrying the sacred symbols.
borne the images of the great Egyptian gods, and the pix
2
On the approach of the
containing the holy mysteries.
chief priest, Lucius was restored to humanity by a magic

garland, and the miracle is made the subject of an
which he dwells on the power and the

8
"Behold," he says, "ye
goodness of the goddess.
Behold
impious doubters, and recognise your errors.
address,
in
one who has by the grace of

his
woes."
And
Lucius,
Isis
been delivered from

life may be
that his future
shielded from the cruelty of Fortune, is exhorted to join

in the holy warfare and put on the yoke of a willing
4
service.
The procession, with the favoured Lucius in
5
There
margin of the sea.
a sacred bark, resplendent with white sails and ensigns
of gold, and pictures of strange Egyptian legend, was
their midst, soon reached the
1
Apul. Met. xi. c. 7, sed antistites
sacrorum, proceres illi qui candido
linteamine
cinctum
pectoralem
ad usque vestigia strictim inject!
deum
potentissimorum
proferebant
insignis exuvias.
2
Ib. o. 11, ferebatur ab alio cista
secretorum capax, penitus celans
operta magnificae religionis.

3
Ib. c. 15, videant irreligiosi,
et erroreiu
4
Ib.,
suum
recognoscant.
tibi
quo
tamen
tutior sis
atque munitior, da nomen huic

sanctae militiae
et ministerii
subi voluntarium.
jugum
5
Ib. c. 16, uavem faberrime
.
factam, picturis miris Egyptiorum

circmnsecus variegatam summus
sacerdos .
deae nuncupavit
.
.
dedicavitque.
THE LATER PAGANISM
88
BOOK
consecrated with mystic ceremonies and solemn prayer.

Fragrant odours filled the air, libations were poured upon
The holy
which was to win the prowas launched before

and the crowd watched its voyage till it
the waves.
vessel,
tection of the goddess for the sailor,
a gentle breeze,
faded in the distance.
Then opens another scene in the drama. The procession returns to the temple.
The images and symbols
of the gods are placed in the sanctuary.
Then, standing
on the steps, the scribe summons the sacred Guild of the
vowed
Pastophori,
to the service of the deity, to a
solemn
He
reads a prayer, for the mighty prince, the

meeting.
the
Senate,
knights, the whole people of Kome, for all
the
sea, for the wealth and prosperity of all subjects.
upon
3
And
the congregation is dismissed with a solemn form,

which in its Latin equivalent remains embedded in the
name
of the
most sacred
rite
of
the Catholic Church.
Full of the thought of his former misery, and of the joy

of deliverance, the neophyte is lost in devotion. .He
remains in constant attendance before the image of the

He
loving power which has wrought his salvation.
makes her temple
his home.
Day and
night without a
He is filled with
pause are spent in prayer before her.
full
of
communion
for
the
which has
longing
supreme joy
been promised him
yet he cannot escape from the anxious

may be unable to keep the
thought that his feeble virtue

law of this spiritual service. 4
Another vision from the
goddess quiets his distrust, and stimulates his longing.

He rushes to the temple as the offices of the early morning
1
Apul. Met.
unter den Sev. p. 57.
xi. c. 16.
Cf.
note in
2*3
reguntur,
*
Aaols
etc.
&<J)<TIS.
Reville,
Rel.
etc.
abstinen tiam
'
satis
arduam>
CHAP, iv
89
The white veils of the holy image are

The holy water from the secret spring is
The litauy of the dawn is performed at the
sprinkled.
He is more fervent than ever, and begs the
altars.
But the
pontiff to admit him to the crowning rite.
are beginning.
drawn
aside.
venerable
man
gently moderates his too eager impatience.

of hell and of the path of
The goddess holds the keys

salvation, and all must wait
1
signal of her will.
He who will enjoy her secret communion must die a
voluntary death, that her grace may recall him from the
for the
very confines of death and life by a new birth, as it were,

to run a new course of salvation.
The votary must await
in patient humility the signs of her will, and
meanwhile
prepare himself for the holy mysteries by long abstinence.

At last the sign comes in the silence of the night.
dawn and
presents himself before

the priest who, having laid his hands on him, leads him
into the sanctuary.
After the morning sacrifice, the sacred
Lucius
rises before the
unknown tongue, and

2
covered with hieroglyphic symbols, are brought out.
The
books, containing a liturgy in an
is bathed and baptized, and

receives secret instructions as to his further preparation.
Ten days more he spends in fasting. And then at vespers
neophyte after solemn prayer
came the hour which was to crown his longings. The

him clad in linen vestments into the holy
What he saw and heard could never be fully
place.
All that he could tell the world was that he drew
told.
nigh the bounds of Death, and returned across the
elemental spaces.
"At midnight he saw the sun in his
priest leads
1
Apul. Met. c.21, nam et infernm
claustra et salutis tutelam in deao
maim
posita, ipsamque traditionem

ad instar voluntariae mortis et pre-
cariae salutis celebrari : quippequum

transactis vitae temporibus jam in
ipso finitae lucis limiiie constitutos .

numen deae soleat elicere
et sua providentia quodam modo
.
renatos ad novae
reponere rursus
salutis curricula,
2
sacrilicio,
22, ac matutino peracto

de opertis adyti profert
quosdam
libros, litteris ignorabili-
bus
Ib.
c.
praenotatos,
partim figuria
cujuscemodi animalium, concept!
sermonis compcndiosa verba sug
gerentes, etc.
THE LA TER PA GANISM
90
BOOK
most dazzling splendour, and came into the presence

the Powers who rule in Heaven and Hell."
of
The following morning, Lucius, dressed in gorgeous

robes embroidered with dragons and griffons, was exhibited
an admiring multitude. Yet his own
humble gratitude for the favour of the goddess was paid
in prostration before her altar and constant prayer.
Nor
to the eyes of
could he tear himself
from the scene of these sacred
without an agony of regret. 2

His feelings, as
he left the scene of his second birth, are embalmed in a
prayer which throws a curious light on the inner spirit
emotions
"
of the later paganism.

Holy one, constant saviour of
the race of men, so bountiful in cherishing them, so tender
the mother's love which thou dost bestow
in
on
the
Nor day nor night, nor shortest moment passes

unmarked by thy benefits, without the help of thy protection for men on sea and land, without thy succouring hand
outstretched to ward off the storms of life.
Powers above
and powers below alike wait on thy will.
Thou makest
wretched.
the world to revolve, thou givest his light to the sun, thou
art ruler of the universe, thou dost tread Tartarus under
thy
feet.
To thee
are due the
harmony
of the spheres,
the return of the seasons, the gladness of the gods, the

obedience of the elements.
At thy bidding the breezes
blow, the clouds gather, seeds germinate and grow. Birds
which pass across the sky, beasts which wander on the

serpents which lurk underground, the monsters
which swim the deep, all tremble before thy majesty.
But I am too feeble in mind to speak thy praise, too poor
in worldly goods to pay thee sacrifice
nor have I wealth
hills,
of utterance to tell all that I feel of thy grandeur.

thousand lips, a thousand tongues, an unbroken eternity
1
Apul. Met. xi. c. 24, inexplivoluptate simulacri divini

perfruebar, irremunerabili quippe
cabili
beneficio pigneratus.
3
...
provolutua
denique ante
conspectum deae
et facie
mea
diu
detersis
lacrimis
ejus,
vestigiia
obortis singultu crebro sermonem
interficiens . . . et verba devorans,
aio.
CHAP, iv
of unfailing praise
would not
avail.
91
What
the pious
though poor withal, may do, that will I perform.

The features of thy holy godhead will be treasured in the
thoughts of my inmost soul for ever more."
|Knsjnay_not be the expression of a modern piety.
Yet he must bo a hard and unsympathetic critic who does
soul,
not catch in this prayer the ring of a genuine religious

emotion.
When we read of the passionate devotion
aroused in Lucius by the Isiac rites, we begin to under-
stand the fervour with which Aconia Paulina, herself a

priestess of Isis, speaks, in the famous inscription on the
monument
her husband's contempt

honours of the world in comparison with
of Praetextatus, of
for the fleeting
his religious privileges,
and records her gratitude
for his
having made her a partner in his religious life.

But there is earlier evidence than Apuleius that the
worship of Isis, though unfortunately often combined
with very lax morality, was the source of real devotional
Three hundred years before
feeling in purer souls.
2
Aconia Paulina, the priestess of Hecate and Isis, breathed

8
her last in her palace on the Esquiline, Plutarch devoted
a long essay to the discussion of the ritual, and the
physical
and
and moral significance of the worship of Isis

{This treatise shows the same spiritual and
Osiris.
monotheistic tendency, the same elastic variety of physical and moral interpretation applied to the ancient
myths, the same rejection of impure tales of the gods by

a higher moral intuition, which are characteristic of the
last efforts
of pagan
Plutarch's many allegortheology.)
of the Egyptian myths may seem to
ical interpretations
modern rather wearisome. But in a passage towards

the end the very spirit of the Phaedo seems to emerge.
Men are disturbed, says Plutarch,4 when they are told, in
a
veiled priestly allegory, that Osiris rules over the dead,

1
C.I.L. vi. 1779.

fb. vi. 1780.
Seeck's Sym. Ixxxvi. n. 386.

Plut. de Is. ct Osir. 78 ; cf. 67.
9/
\<
ptf
THE LATER PAGANISM
92
BOOK
by the thought that the holy and blessed God really

dwells among the bodies of those who have passed away.
"
But He himself is far removed from earth, pure, stainand unpolluted by any nature that is liable to
less,
The spirits of men here below,
corruption and death.
encumbered by bodily affections, can have no intercourse
with God, save only as by philosophic thought they may
Him as in a dream. But when they are
faintly touch
released,
and have passed
into the world of the unseen,
God
the pure, the passionless, this
shall be their guide
and king, who depend on Him, and gaze with insatiable

longing on that beauty which may not be spoken by the
man."
(The higher devotional feeling which characterised the
paganism of the educated class from the second century
was, as we can see in the passage of Plutarch, accompanied by a decided tendency to monotheism. / iThis movement was, as we shall discover, partly due to Platonic
1
influences, partly to the chaos of religions, in which
a few of the more commanding and attractive absorbed or
assimilated the rest, and glrew men's minds to one or two
lips of
/
JK~
*>i
/ Thus in the vision seen by

which
we
have
Lucius,
described, Isis reveals herself as
a universal Power, supreme, all-pervading, worshipped
under many names. 2
"The Phrygians call me the
Mother of the Gods at Pessinus the Athenians Cecropian
Minerva; I am Paphian Venus in Cyprus; Diana
great objects of devotion.
Dictynna
to the archers of Crete, the Stygian Proserpine

To
I am the ancient Ceres at Eleusis.
;
to the Sicilians
some I am Juno, to others Hecate. Only the Ethiopians

and Arians, illumined by the sun's dawning light, and
Egypt powerful in her ancient lore, honour me with the
ritual proper to me, and call me by my true name, Queen
Isis."
In the Saturnalia
1
Rcville, Eel. wtfer
of Macrobius, a purely
den
Sev. p. 42.
pagan work
Apul. Met.
xi. c. 5.
CHAP, iv
of the
first
quarter of the
fifth
century, there
93
is
a passage
1
which applies the same syncretism, in rather a crude
"
If," Praetextatus is made to say,

form, to sun-worship.
"the sun is the ruler of the other lights of the heavens,
and
if
must then
these orbs control our destiny, the sun
be the lord and author of
simply the various
all.
The
lesser deities are
or potencies of this supreme

of
the
power.
gods, whom we reverence, are
of
different
departments of His governonly descriptions
And so
ment, who gives life and order to the universe."
2
effects
The names
one deity glides into another, as we find that his name or

attribute is only, as it were, a ray of the light which
"
Apollo is the great power who repels
lighteth all men."
3
"
And the
Healer."
disease, and is hence called the
identity of Apollo with
Loxias,
epithets
4
Pythius.
which
Delius,
the sun-god
Phoebus,
proved by the
Lycius, Nomius, or
is
To take one example, the epithet Pythius,

myth of the slaughter of the
carries in itself the
5
Python, merely describes the effects of the sun's rays
on the mists of earth.
Hence too Apollo is called
Hecebolus, the Far-darting.
By the same method, he
6
is identified with Liber or Dionysus,
who is in the
nocturnal hemisphere what Apollo is in the sphere of

Indeed the very name Dionysus (Ato? 1/01)5) shows
light.
his identity with the sun, who is the mens mundi.
7
Mercury again must be another name for the sun, if
only because, in works of art, Mercury is represented
with wings, which indicate the velocity of light.
So
8
must
be
identified
with
because
Aesculapius
Apollo,
they
have an equal claim to the sign of the serpent and to the
1
Macrob. Sat. i. 17. Thismethod
of dealing with the myths of course
is a very old one ; cf. Cic. de A'at.
Deor. ii. 23, 24, and S. Augustine's
refutation, de Civ. Dei, iv. 11 ; cf.
Lob. Aglaoph. i. p. 598.
2
Ib.i. 17. 4, diversae rotates
solis nomina dis dederunt.
8
4
6
Ib.
n, '
Ib-
i.
17, 14-16.
QI ^ '
dl
IT
;
'
i-
Sqq
17>
17, 50 sqq.
/^ ^
T
A l~
Ib
L ,19
>
'
Ib.
i.
jg, 1-15.
-
20, 1-5.
'
THE LATER PAGANISM
94
BOOK
Hercules,* the glory of Hera, the

power of divination.
power of the air, is the valour of the gods who crushed
the impious race that denied their divinity, (The myths
2
3
of Venus and Adonis, Cybele and Attis, Isis and Osiris,
In each case
receive the same physical interpretation.
the myth is the imaginative expression for the facts of

the changing seasons, or the sadness of the shortening
In each case we arrive
days, or the gloom of winter.
once more at the central worship of the

4
Finally,
sun.j
the king of the gods, who goes to visit the blameless

Ethiopians, and on the twelfth day returns to Olympus,
is
plainly the sun in his diurnal course, whilst the gods

attend him are the stars which, in their rising and
who
motion of the heavens.

For more than three centuries syncretism and the
It has been
tendency to monotheism were in the air.
setting, follow the daily
said of the
pagan theology of the third century that it

one colossal syncretism. 6 [Among the countless cults
which found a centre in the Borne of the imperial period,
there was no strife or repulsion.
They rested on myth,
is
the imaginative expression of men's feelings towards

nature or the mystery of life and death, not on dogma.
And
ways.
the myths could be interpreted in many different

(The age when each city and district had its
gods, the sectarian age of heathendom, had

passed away with the absorption of so many nationalities
in a world-wide Empire.
Travel or conquest had made
peculiar
Romans acquainted with a host of new divinities

whose attributes seemed to fill a gap in their own
system, and whose ritual stimulated devotion or aesthetic
Men from the provinces flocked to Rome,
sensibility.
bent on business, pleasure, or advancement, and prepared
the
to
reverence
1
2
*
the
Macrob. Sat.
Ib.
i.
Jb.
i.
i.
21, 1.
21, 7 s&.
gods
20, 10.
of
the
4
B
102.
imperial
city.
Ib. i. 23, 1.
Reville, Eel. unter
Julius
den Sev.
p.
CHAP, iv
95
Caesar found the deities of Gaul the same as those of

1
and the Gauls erected altars to Jupiter and

Vulcan beside those of their own Esus and Tarvus and
Nemausus, or combined the names of a native and a
Italy,
The
foreign deity as in that of Apollo-Belenus.
soldiers were the great apostles of syncretism.
as they
Eoman
Prone
were to superstition, exposed to constant danger
on the march or in distant quarters, the ingrained Eoman

of the unknown divinity made them ready to invoke
the help of the guardian gods of the regions where they
found themselves, and innumerable inscriptions remain
awe
the liberality of their faith or the blindness

8
The worship of each new god who
of their devotion.
to attest
Eoman seemed
attracted the
another avenue of approach
dim and awful Power, inaccessible Himself to

human voice and thought, but revealed and adored in
manifestations of His will and attributes
different
(numina). lln truth, the old Eoman religious spirit,
to that
which combined the most rigorous formalism with the

personification of abstractions, to which no myth or
dogma of any kind attached, lent itself better than any
other
universal
to
tolerationTI
It
invented
genii
for
emperor, the guild, the

city,
everything,
the
for
act,
every
thought, or incident of
camp,
legion,
human life. 4 Piety consisted in a scrupulous observance
for
the
the
5
of the prescribed ceremonial, not in definite beliefs or
elevation of feeling.
Many of its objects of devotion
1
De
Gall.
Bell.
vi.
17,
deum
niaxime Mercurium colunt.

Post hunc Apollinem et Martem
.
Jovem et Minervam. De his

eandem fere quam reliquae gentes
et
habent opinionem.
2
C.I.L.
Nemauso;
xii.
4316,
Jovi
et
Herculi Ilunno
3070,
Andose
3077 ; cf. viii. 9195. Jovi,

;
Silvano, Mercurio, Saturno, etc.
Diis Mauris
viii.
4578, Jovi,
,
Junoni,
Herculi,
Minervae, Soli Mithrae,

Marti, Mercurio, Genio
Diis
Deabusque omnibus,
Jupiter and Serapis are united,
viii. 2629
Jupiter, Juno, Minerva,
Sol, Mithras, Hercules, Genius loci,
viii. 4578 ; cf. Friedlander, iii. p.
444 sqq.
8
C.I.L. viii. 2623, 2639-2641
8834
(Dis Mauris), 9195, 8435,
(lemsal is a god's name).
4
ReVille, p. 41
Preller, p. 387
C.I.L. viii. 2529, 6945 ; xii. 1282.
5
Cic. de Nat. Deor., est enim
loci,
pietas justitia
adversum
deos,
THE LATER PAGANISM
96
BOOK
were mere names, and the same god could be addressed

under many names, or under any name which pleased
him.
(The Empire, by drawing together so many peoples

with their peculiar worships, might seem to have pro-
In reality the very multitude

duced a spiritual chaos.
and variety of these religions, combined with the spiritual
tendencies of the age, by comparison, assimilation, identito lead to unity. j
old gods seemed to
fication,
^The
welcome alien worships, and borrowed their symbols

and the ritual of their mysteries.
Altars to many deities
were gathered under one roof. 2
The worshipper was
to
from
cult
what
satisfied devout
any
ready
accept
and
or
taste
Men
made
dedications to
feeling
fancy.
)
a host of deities of every clime.

They sought initiation
in all the mysteries, those of the Eleusinian goddesses, of
4
Isis, and Mithra.
They accumulated priesthoods in
the most various cults.
If different deities
had similar
symbols or functions, the tendency was to identify them,

or to subordinate the less vigorous cults under one of
popularity. \The masses, by a blind instinct,
sought from any quarter satisfaction for vague religious
cravings, which become more and more imperious in the
second and third centuries, for moral support and puri-
greater
fication,
and
assurance of immortality.
The cultivated
found pleasure and excitement in the
for
indifferent
splendour
or
novelty of foreign
ritual,
as
a modern
an aesthetic pleasure in the ceremonial

sceptic may
of the Mass.
The general drift of serious minds was
spiritually towards more personal relations with God,
and intellectually towards a vague monotheism or
The many- coloured worships, which offered
pantheism.
find
their
symbolism to devotion, were,

1
C.l.L. vi. 110, 111.

Luc. de Syr. Dea, 35.
C.l.L. viii. 4578, 9195, 6955.
to some, clues to the
Ib. vi. 504, 1779.
Lamprid. Com.
c. 9.
CHAP, iv
97
Great Mystery, to others, distant and indistinct adumbraThe religious attitude of many devout pagans
tions of it.
in the third
and fourth centuries
in a letter of
1
Maximus, a grammarian
probably described
is
of
Madaura, to
S.
Maximus professes his

Augustine, about the year 390.
sure and certain belief in one Supreme God, the great
and
glorious
Father.
His
virtues,
diffused
throughout
we adore under many names, since his

name
we
know not. God belongs to all religions.
proper
And hence, while we address separate parts of Him in
our various supplications, we are really worshipping the
the universe,
whole, under a thousand names in a harmonious discord.

It was the task of the Neoplatonic philosophy to crystallise
formulae the vague fluid instincts of the mass of

and
to try to find a secret harmony in the discord.
men,
In the three centuries between Plutarch and Macrobius the great aim of philosophy is to reach the
intellectual ground of truth underlying the crowd of
worships which gave expression to the religious instinct
of humanity, and faith in the Unseen.
The father of
this movement is the pious and cultivated sage of
2
Chaeronea, who is probably the highest and purest
in
its
character ever produced in a heathen environment.

He
in philosophy an eclectic Platonist; but he is really
far more a moralist and theologian than a philosopher.
is
He
believes emphatically in one great, central Power, 3

who is sometimes spoken of, in Platonic language, as the
Infinite
God, sometimes as the Father of
dom and
all,
whose wis-
providence controls the universe.
Plutarch
Aug. Ep.
equidem unum
esse deum, summum, sine initio,
monotheistic tendency in the later

paganism (Neoplatonism, pp. 52,
sine
53).
16,
prole
magnum
naturae,
ceu
patrem
atque magnificum, quis

tarn demens, tarn mente captus
neget esse certissimum.
Hujus
nos virtutes per mundanum opus
diffuses, multis vocabulis invocaraus.
This letter seems to render
doubtful Dr. Bigg's denial of a real
2
ReVille, p. 112 ; Zeller, Phil.
der Or. 3rd part, pp. 141-182 ; cf.
Bigg's Neoplatonism, pp. 88-91.
*
De Is. et Osir. 67, 78 ; de Sera
Num. Vind. 5, 18 ; cf. de Pyth. Or.
21 ; on the evil principle in the
world v. de Is. 45.
THE LATER PAGANISM
98
BOOK
has a horror of the superstition which fears the wrath of

1
God, and of the atheism which denies His existence.
The gods worshipped by the various
called
by many
men are to
Maximus of Tyre,
races of
Plutarch, as they are to Celsus and

the subordinate representatives of the
names, honoured in
Supreme Governor,
many
fashions,
but
pointing the pious soul to the central object of devotion.

In his doctrine of daemons Plutarch found a refuge for
all
worship, and an explanation of oracular

He is a distant progenitor of the Neoplatinspiration.
onism of the fourth century.
polytheistic
was the great intellectual jsupport of the

^goplatonism
n spirit in the last two centuries of the Empire.
The germ of its doctrine was introduced into Eome in
time of the Antonines, and the force of that strange
mixture of superstition with lofty speculation, which
characterised the later Neoplatonism, was so enduring
and intense that S. Augustine devoted to it some of the
most powerful chapters of his City of God? The rhetor,
Apuleius, of Madaura, who had been initiated in all the
8
mysteries, and who posed as an apostle of Platonism,
harangued great audiences both in Eome and the pro"
Platonism half
fascinated them by a
vinces, and
Plotinus,
understood, mixed with fanciful Orientalism."
\
the
244.
greatest of the Alexandrians, arrived in

Crowds of senators, magistrates, and
Kome
women
in
of
high rank came to listen to the obscure eloquence of the

Egyptian mystic, who summoned them, in words which
moved the admiration of S. Augustine, " to flee to the
dear fatherland of souls, where the Father dwells."
l
But
superstition, as degrading
he regards as the
worse ; cf. Nee Posse Suav. Viv. 20,
21.
On Plutarch's belief in genii
or daemons v. Gre'ard's Morale de
the character,
Plutarque,
lander,
iii.
pp.
p.
299-304;
430 sqq. ;
ffeoplatonism, p. 95.
Fried-
Bigg's
De
Civ.
Dei,
viii.
18.
Ep. 138,
8
Apol. 55.
4
Porph. vit. Plotin.
5
De
Civ.
Dei,
ix.
14
sqq.
c. 3,
"
17,
cf.
7, 9.
ubi est
illud Plotini, ubi ait:

Fugiendum
est igitur ad carissimam patriam,
et ibi pater, et ibi onmia."
CHAP,
iv
99
The success of Plotinus was so great that he had a

dream of obtaining a settlement from the Emperor
Gallienus and founding a city in Campania, which should
1
the ideal polity of Plato.
Porphyry, a Syrian,
realise
the
of
greatest
his
and
disciples,
declared foe
of
Christianity, carried on his tradition into the first years

With lamblichus the Neoplatonic
of the fourth century.
It abandoned the
system underwent a great change.
2
detached and disinterested mysticism of its prime.
The persecution of Diocletian revealed the inextinguish-
and the danger of a

was inthrew
itself
Philosophy
force of the Christian faith,
able
religious
The
revolution.
of the schools
fate
volved in that of the temples.

without reserve into the conflict.
The great Alexandrines,

while ready to admit a kernel of truth under the husk of
3
mythological symbols, made no profession of religious

faith in them.
Their successors of the age of Julian
sank the philosopher in the ardent devotee,4 believed in
sacrifice
and
theurgic
arts.
stains
and practised magic and the

must always contract some
divination,
The
idealist
when he descends
into the arena of practical
life.
|And Neoplatonisni, while nerving paganism for its last

battle, lost much of the moral purity and grandeur of
Plotinus. | Yet an unsympathetic
critic
may easily
exaggerate the degradation
winking Madonnas and
of
will
miracles
Lourdes
not blind a candid man to the
;
And we
should not forget

Julian deluged the altars with the blood of
that,
5
victims, and countenanced the superstitious absurdities
of men like Maximus, he strove to correct vices in the
better side of Catholicism.
if
pagan system
A
1
2
8
in
one
worse than slavish superstition.

sense, he was also a daring
Porph. vit. Plotin. c. 12.

Bigg, Ncoplatonism, p. 305.
Cf.
vi. 9,
8.
infinitely
reactionary
Plotin.
9; v.
1,
Ennead,
7
iii.
6,
v.
19
8,
;
v. iv. 3,
11
cf.
Porph. de Abst.
ii.
41-43.
10
iii.
4
;
5,
For his cautious view of magic
Vacherot,
tEcoU
d'Alcx.
141.
5
Amm.
Marc.
xxii. 12, 6.
ii.
p.
THE LATER PAGANISM
100
It
innovator.
was
no
BOOK
man who dreamt
ordinary
of
regenerating the ancient worship by borrowing a dogmatic

theology from Alexandria, an ecstatic devotion from
Julian exerted his
Persia, a moral ideal from Galilee.
pontifical authority to elevate the priestly character and
make it a pattern to the people. 1 The ministers of the
gods were to be regular in their devotion, pure in mind
and body, tender in relieving the poor and

are to avoid
seen
in
all
taverns
and theatres
outcast.
They
they must never be

and they must exhort
tainted literature
and charitable. The

Sun -king are to prepare themselves for
This
the holy mysteries by fasting and contemplation.
heroic attempt to breathe a new life into paganism was
doomed to failure. But it is a narrow and hide-bound
criticism which refuses to see great qualities in the
defender of a bad cause, and which will not admit that
their
flocks to be chaste, devout,
worshippers of the
superstition
may sometimes
be united witfrCJofty moral
The effort of Neoplatonic philosophy jx^jsave poly|

theism in the fourth century is a curious chapter in the
history of opinion, f In spite of some serious metaphysical
differences, there might seem to be many affinities between Neoplatonism and Christianity in their common
of the unity of God, and their moral and
doctrine
spiritual
idealism.
On
the other hand, there might
appear at first sight an irreconcilable opposition between

the Hellenic cult of nature and sense, and a system the
was the doctrine of the Infinite and

The explanation lies in the sympathetic attachment of religious and philosophic systems to
their ancestry. (Neoplatonism could no more forget its
Hellenic origin than the Christian Church could forget
sources in the religion of Israel.
its
The school of
centre
of which
Unknowable One.
1
Frag. Ep. ed. Hertlein, rol.
Vacherot, ii. 165.
ii.
p.
385
sqq.
Ep. 62; Duruy,
vii.
341;
CHAP, iv
101
Alexandria, essentially eclectic and conservative, was

bound by a continuous chain of thought and feeling to
the whole past culture of Hellas, of which the greatest
glory in art and letters was derived from Greek legend.
their great master, while he claimed that the
Plato,
moral sense might correct the errors of licentious fancy,

never abandoned the mythology of his race.
He had
used
as he used the ancient Orphic traditions, to

it,
adorn or enforce his philosophic teaching.
Moreover, any system of philosophy which deserves jj*

name must guard its freedom. Paganism had no '
the
rigid system of dogma. Formed by the rude superstitious

fancy, and endlessly varied and glorified by the genius of
poetry, the legends of Hellas belong to a totally different
order of thought from the definitions of Christian councils^

They_were_jfoqd_fgr_ Jhe_imagination or emotions ; they
were never
articles of faith,
From
the sixth century the

3
Pindar, Plato,
greatest minds, Xenophanes, Aeschylus,
had treated them with great freedom of interpretation
and criticism, and Euripides had, year after year at a
great religious festival, for more than half a century
exerted with impunity all the subtlety of his art to lower
the dignity and
dim the splendour
of the great figures
Greek legend.
But the Christianity of the fourth
was
a
century
system complete, well articulated, demandentire
submission
of the reason.
It would not treat
ing
with philosophy even on equal terms.
Its truths must
be accepted in the form in which generations of controversy and the decisions of councils had finally left them.
of
If its dogmas did not square with philosophy, philosophy

must yield.! A system like the Neoplatonic, with its roots in
the old world, whose best thought it strove to fuse into a
whole, could not come to terms with an
1
Athen.
Ritter
2
and
Aesch.
Prof.
xi. 462,
Frag.
1.
21
cf.
Preller, Hist. Phil. p. 82.

See
Agam. 55, 160.
Murray's Ancient
Oh
Litera-
ture,
"
pp. 223, 224
of.
Hellenica,
Aeschylus," p. 16.
8
Find. 01. i. 45-85.
4
Rep. ii. p. 378 Euihyphr.
;
c. 6.
THE LATER PAGANISM
102
which claimed^ the monopoly of truth.

separating itself from paganism, while it strove
religion
BOOK
In not
to inter-
in a higher sense, the Neoplatonists were

merely treading in the footsteps of their great master.
Might it not be possible to find a niche for each of these
pret the
myths
countless gods in the temple of the inscrutable
One
religion, without any dangerous

breach with the past, be reconciled with a pure theism ?
Might not a warm devotion and assiduous attention to
Might not the popular
the ancient ritual be found compatible with the ecstatic

2
vision of God, who is in Himself inaccessible to prayer
or sacrifice, inconceivable
effort of
reason
by imagination or the highest
Neoplatonism had some advantages over Stoicism in

attempt to support or to restore the forces of
Stoicism gave philosophic expression to the
paganism.
But under the later
religious feeling of old Home.
old
as
we
have
the
seen,
Empire,
gods had fallen into
the shade, and cults of Eastern origin had acquired an
The tendency to
extraordinary power and fascination^
monotheism in some of these systems was very marked
and the ascetic preparation for their mysteries, together
with the ecstatic tone of devotion which they encouraged,
had a certain attraction for the Pythagorean and Platonic
schools.)* The Platonist Apuleius lived in an atmosphere
of magic and mystery, 8 and in his travels sought initiation in all sorts of strange cults, which stimulated
The
emotion, or promised glimpses of the unseen world.
later Alexandrians of the time of Julian found in sun[
the
4
worship the highest symbol of their esoteric doctrine.
But the great means of accommodation lay in the

1
See the exposition of the treatise

Mysteriis" in Vacherot, ii. p.
" De
121 sqq.
Apul. Apol. 55, sacrorum initia

in Graecia participavi, multijuga
sacra et plurimos ritus et varias

cerimonias studio veri et officio erga
deos didici ; cf. Bigg's Neoplatonism,
, Or. liL 2,
Julian, Or. iv, Kal ydp elju
TOU /SaoriX^wj <57ra56$ 'HXlov.
p.
629
CHAP, iv
principle of emanation.
103
enabled the Neoplatonist to
It
chasm between the one pure abstraction, 2

absolutely simple, not to be grasped by any act of thought
nor described by any attribute, and the worlds of spirit
and sense. 3 Each unity in the scale gives birth from its *\
\
inner essence to another more complex, and therefore
bridge over the
From the purely abstract One there is a

inferior.
4
graduated scale of being, unity, mind, soul, the universe
of sense, each successively engendered out of the inner
Into such a
essence of the higher and simpler form.
the gods of mythology. 6
^/
true that there are wide differences between the
it
system
It is
was not hard
and
earlier
to
fit
later Neoplatonists in their attitude to the
popular religion. Plotinus is much more of a philosopher

than a theologian,6 and while he tries to find a hidden
7
meaning in the myths, in an unsystematic way, he makes
no allusion to theurgy, and deals rather ambiguously
with the external forms of devotion. 8
Porphyry,
So, too,
while his system enabled him to find a metaphysical

content in legend, has no sympathy with the materialism
He
of worship.
holds firmly that the Supreme cannot
be approached by any avenue of sense, by sacrifice, or

God is honoured most by reverent
formal prayer.
silence
and purity
Him
To become
For the sense in which Plotinus

held this v. Zeller, die Phil, d&r
iii.
iii.
iii.
pp. 451-453.
454.
2, p. 549.
doctrine of Plotinus
;
offer
JEnnead,
cf.
Zeller,
Zeller,
;
Zeller,
iii.
2, p.
v. 8, 13.
560
Ennead,
pp. 562, 563
iii.
iii.
2,
563.
9
iii.
vi. 5, 4.
''See the elaborate system

Sallust in Vacherot, ii. p. 124 ;
Zeller, iii. 2, p. 557.
6
Vacherot, ii. p. 108.
of
/ The whole forces
v. 1, 4, 7
2,
2, p.
Macrob. Som. Scip. i. 17, 12,

gives a simple statement of the
453
11
2, p.
and
is
logians than pure philosophers.
Griech.
2
Ib.
3
II.
like
the acceptable sacrifice. (But the

of the fourth century are much more theo-
ourselves to
Platpnists
of heart. 10
of
cf.
Vacherot, ii. pp. 112-116 ; Zeller,

pp. 599-601, where the doubts
iii. 2,
of Porphyry are expounded,

10
De Abstin. ii. 34, Sea 5
KaQapfis Kal rCiv irepl avrov
tvvoiQv dp-tie Ke6o/j.ev avrbv.
Vacherot,
Porphyre
la
sans reserve
ii.
119, apres
p.
philosophie embrasse
polytheisme.
le
THE LATER PAGANISM
104
/Q
/ j
BOOK
the ancient schools were gathered up and employed to

The
give system and a rational basis to the old religion.
fictions of mythology were justified by the example of
1
who
Nature,
her secrets from
veils
the vulgar
gaze.
The Supreme One indeed, the fountain of being, must

not be profaned by human fancy.) But the lower powers
may be dimly revealed to the multitude by allegory or
fanciful tale. 2
The world itself is a great myth, which
once hides and reveals the mystery of the Divine,
ât
id the philosopher proceeds to classify the myths
According to the nature of the inner truth which they
8
Some convey the deepest theological, or, as
contain.
we should
For example, Saturn

say, metaphysical truth.
devouring his children is intelligence returning upon
4
itself.
Others of these fictions are imaginative expressions of the facts of nature.
is
the sun drawing
The names
of
Apollo slaying the Python
pestilential fogs of the marshes.

deities are simply names of natural
up the
many
5
Juno is the air, at once sister and
objects or powers.
wife of Jupiter, the lord of the upper sky.
Isis is the
earth, Osiris the sun, or the moist germ which fecundates.
6
gods
corresponding to the
hierarchy of being, and to the faculties of the human
above all is the Supreme One, the Good, to
soul.
/ High
be approached only in ecstasy,7 an effort of the soul far
^There
is
of
hierarchy
transcending any exertion of the highest reason, in which

God is the object of an immediate vision or intuition,
and the sense of personality
is lost
and swallowed up in
the rapture of union with the Divine.

Then there are
the gods of the intelligible world, transcending the world
of sense, and having no point of contact with it.
Lower
1
Vacherot,
ii.
p. 121.
Macrob. Som. Scip. i. 2, 7-19,

sciunt inimicam esse naturae apertain
etc.
the
744.
nudamque expositionem
Cf.
fifth
sui,
the views of Proclus in

century, Zeller,
iii.
2,
p.
Zeller,
iii.
Neoplatonism,
4
Vacherot,
6
2, p.
628
ii.
Ib.
ii.
p. 123.
Ib.
ii.
p.
finnead,
Bigg's
p. 122.
126
Zeller,
628.
7
cf.
p. 306.
vi. 7, 34, 35.
iii.
2, p,
CHAP, iv
105
powers of the sensible universe,

and
Lastly there are
preserving.
creating, life-giving,
1
the daemons and heroes, more nearly akin to the world
of sense, and acting as intermediaries between it and the
sphere of pure intelligence, in which reside those powers,
far above the region of the sensible, who cannot come to
in the scale there are the
us, although,
rise to
through the divine element in
us,
A
|
we may
them.
Between the pure mysticism of Plotinus and the

fanaticism and superstition of the Neoplatonists of the
fourth and fifth centuries, who justified or practised
magic, and theurgy,

But the
an
there might seem
impassable gulf.
of
which
was
the unapproachable
great system, the centre
One, really contained the germs of the most thoroughgoing superstition that the world has probably ever
The theory of emanations necessarily involved
seen.
a belief in secret sympathies and affinities, linking
Man himtogether all parts of the universe of being.
heathen
sacrifices, divination, oracles,
to be
through his various faculties and capacities, is in

touch with every link in the chain.
If, by an almost
self,
superhuman
he can
effort,
rise in
transcending any effort of the reason,

an immediate vision of the
ecstasy to
inscrutable One, he can also
communicate with, and act
And he
upon, the lower powers and forms of existence.
finds allies in the invisible world in the daemons, who
mediate between the world of pure intelligence and the
world of sense.
Thus the Neoplatonists of the fourth \.
century, having found a place in their system for the
ancient gods, found no difficulty in communicating with
them by prayer, oracle, or oblation, and even believed
themselves capable
wielding the forces of nature.

to
the old mythology,
origin
in
last
the
abandoned
the reserve of
Neoplatonism
age
Committed from
p.
\
/
of
its
Aug. de Civ. Dei, viii. 14 ;

510 Friedlander, iii. p. 432.
;
cf.
Vacherot,
ii.
p.
127
Zeller,
iii.
2,
THE LATER PAGANISM
106
its
BOOK
youth, adopted the whole pagan system, and, in an
inevitable decline, lent even the forces of philosophy to

deepen the superstition of the age.) There is a certain
sadness in thinking that Proclus, 1 the last great member of

the school, a man of high intellect and almost saintly life,
all the feast-days in the Egyptian calendar, and believed himself able to call down rain in a time of drought.
kept
(Yet it may be doubted whether, even in the last age

paganism, the purer and more elevating side of
Neoplatonic speculation had lost all influence, and been
of
completely obscured,
We
have seen evidence that there
was an enlightened class who, while they refused to

abandon the religion of their ancestors, were penetrated
with the loftier conceptions of the divine nature, which
for a thousand years Greek philosophy had kept before
Such men, repelled by the
the minds of its disciples.
baser element in heathenism, yet bound by loyalty and
to the past, might readily accept a
which
could
reconcile a belief in the meaning
system
and sanctity of ancient legend with a lofty moral tone
and a faith in the Infinite Father. Fortunately we have
old
associations
preserved to us,
among
the debris of the fifth century, a
book which shows that there were pagans who still drew
from the system of Plotinus a real moral and spiritual
support.
of Macrobius on Cicero's Dream of
dates
Scipio
probably from the end of the first quarter
of the fifth century. _) It is a curious mjxture of old
The commentary
2
Eoman
feeling with the best results of Neoplatonic

It is a devotional treatise, with a certain
speculation-!
Yet here and there, in discourses of

tinge of mysticism.
an ethical or mystical tone, we light upon purely physical
or mathematical disquisitions which have a flavour of
1
Zeller, die Phil, der Gr.
iii.
2,
Bigg, pp. 319-321.

It is best known as having
preserved to us the Somnium
p.
709
Sdpionis from bk.
vi.
of Cicero's
Republic.
On the philosophical and other

sources of the work v. Jan, Prol. xi.
8
CHAP, iv
Pythagoreanisrn.
reward awaiting
From a contemplation
virtue, we suddenly pass
107
of the heavenly
to a chapter on
point, line, superficies, and solid, and the manifold mean2

of the number seven.
ing, in man's life and destiny,
The Milky Way is the home

But it is apparently of equal
according
to
Theophrastus,
of the blessed after death.
interest to decide whether,

it
is
juncture of two
the
hemispheres, or whether Democritus is right in regarding

with stars that their
it as a tract so thickly sown
are obliterated, and they present a uniform
luminous surface to the distant gazer. After a statement
4
of the doctrine of emanation, we are launched upon a
intervals
discussion of the planetary motions and the order of the

6
The question of the influence of the heavenly
spheres.
human
mixed up with calculations

and the sun. 6 The
moon marks the limit of air and ether, of the divine and
the perishable and in the next sentence we are reminded
that our souls are of celestial origin, and that we are
bodies on
destiny
is
as to the relative size of the earth
exiles here below.
The book
is
a singular mixture of physics, morals,

is much which harmonises with the
There
metaphysics.
best Christian sentiment, side
by side with cold statements of what we should regard as scientific theory, but
which the author conceives as a theology. 8 Yet the
main purpose is to fortify virtuous purpose by the
prospect of the reward after death, and the contemplation
of the divine origin and the divine destiny of the human
The dimensions of the sun and his orbit, the
soul.
1
Macrob. Som. Scip.

Ib.
i.
45,
6,
i.
5, 5.
nam
primo
omnium hoc numero anima mundana generata
est
sicut
Timaeus
Platonis edocuit. For the references

of Macrobius to this part of the
Timaeus v. Grote's Plato, iii. p.
252
n.
Macrob. Som. Scip.
Ib.
i.
17, 12.
i.
15, 1-10.
6
7
Ib.
Ib.
Ib.
i.
18.
i.
19, 19.
i.
17
cf.
i.
21,
34,
ita
antmorum
origo caelestis est sed

lege temporalis hospitalitatis hie
exulat.
8
Ib. i. 14, 5, nunc qualiter nobis
animus id est mens cum sideribus
communis
disseramus.
sit
secundum theologoa
THE LATER PAGANISM
108
BOOK
periods of the planetary revolutions, the position of the

earth in the solar system, may seem to us subjects
strangely out of place in a treatise apparently intended
We
to stimulate devout feeling and virtuous conduct.

are conscious of a kind of chill in being asked to consider
the relations of numbers, or the vast spaces between the

heavenly spheres, side by side with lofty theories of our
origin, and earthly discipline, and our future in another
Yet the apparent incongruity may be explained.

To Macrobius and his class the Mundus, with all its
spheres, was divine, the efflux of the inscrutable Essence
which, by successive stages of generation, was the source
world.
of the orbs of the sky, of the soul of man, of the meanest

creature possessed of life. It needs an effort of sympathy
and imagination
to enter into the spirit of
any outworn
To understand that expounded by Macrobius,

theology.
must
look
you
up into the depths of the heavens on a
summer night, and try to believe that your particular
down
spark of soul has travelled

spheres from
to earth
through
all
the
source in the divine ether, and that after

its escape from the earthly prison-house it may return
again to its distant birthplace.
to
its
The commentary on the Dream of Scipio enables one

how devout minds could even to the last
understand
remain
attached to paganism.
It presupposes rather
than expounds the theology of Neoplatonism.
Its chief
motive is rather moral or devotional than speculative.
The One, supreme, unapproachable, ineffable, residing in

the highest heaven, is assumed as the source of mind and
1
penetrating all things, from the star in the highest

ether to the lowest form of animal existence.
The
life,
universe
is
God's
temple,
filled
with
The unseen, inconceivable Author

1
cf.
Macrob. Som. Scip.

i.
17, 12
14, 4.
2b.
what
i.
i.
14,
2.
may remind
And
us
he adds,
of
some
His
created
presence.
from His
phrases of S. Paul, sciatque quisquis in usum templi hujus inducitur ritu sibi vivendum sacerdotis.
CHAP, iv
109
In
pure mind, in the likeness of Himself.
1
with matter, mind degenerates and becomes
essence
contact
In the scale of being the moon marks the limit

soul.
between the eternal and the perishable, and all below
the moon is mortal and evanescent except the higher
2
principle in man.
Passing from the divine world
3
through the gate of Cancer, mind descends gradually, in

a fall from its original blessedness, through the seven
spheres, and, in
its
the divine and universal
passage,
element assumes the various faculties which make up

the composite nature of man.
In Saturn it acquires the
reasoning power, in Jupiter the practical and moral, in
Mars the spirited, in Venus the sensual element. But
in the process of descending into the body, the divine
part suffers a sort of intoxication and oblivion of the
world from which

in
others.
forms
Thus
comes, in some cases deeper than

the diffusion of soul among bodily
it
a kind of death
and the body
only a prison,
or rather a tomb, which cannot be quitted save by a
second death, the death to sin and earthly passion. 6
is
is
The soul must not terminate

flesh
by any voluntary
act,
its imprisonment in the

but purify itself, and await
the appointed hour when its release will come.

7
is not only rebellion
against the Great Master,
Suicide
also
it is
an act of passion, and the soul,8 as Plotinus teaches,

which quits this moral life with the soilure of sin upon
it, falls into an abyss from which it may not rise again.
Moreover, the heavenly reward is proportioned to the
1
Macrob. Som. Scip.
Ib.
Ib.
i.
i.
i.
14, 16.
12, 1 ; cf. Plotin.
14, 4-7.
Ennead,
iv. 3, 15.
4
Ib. i. 12, 8, unde et comes

ebrietatis oblivio illic animis incipit
jam
6
latenter obrepere.
Ib. i. 10, 9.
Cf. the
phrase
400 c
vi.
cny/xa
;
734.
rb
o-wjua,
B.
Phaed. 62
PL
6
Macrob. Som. Scip. i. 13, 6,
mori etiam dicitur cum anima adhuc
in corpore constituta corporeas inlecebras philosophia docente contemnit.

This, however, is an old
Cf. PI. Phaed. 67 D, rb
thought.
/ueX^nj/ia rGsv
Orphic
Crat.
Virg. Aen.
<f>i\o<r6<f)(i)i'
xupurfjibs tyvxfn*
fab
X&ns
(rcfytaroj
Ep. 24, ad fin.

7
Ib.
jb.
i.
i.
13, 8.
13, 9
cf.
i.
13, 16.
Kal
Sen.
THE LATER PAGANISM
110
BOOK
1
degree of perfection which we attain here below, and
therefore the mortal term should not be cut short while
our probation
is
incomplete, and so long as any

It is true that the soul
still
be made.
improvement may
should always strive to remember the source from which

2
3
Desprang, and regard the body as a sort of hell.
it
graded souls who have neglected their time of probation

4
cling to the mortal element after death, and, instead of
ascending again to the divine world, are doomed to be
imprisoned in brutish forms, and
heavenly
virtue.
origin.
Scipio's
eternal
felicity
to
who have
those
state.
utterly forget their

eternal happiness is
The only hope of

dream promised
But
protected, or saved, or aggrandised the

there are higher degrees of virtue than that
and self-sacrificing citizen.

While civic
and controls the passions, the cleansing
7
the saintly and mystic
virtues may eradicate them,
of the heroic
virtue moderates
may attain to complete forgetfulness of their

8
allurements, and, in a last victorious effort, we may even
rise to entire absorption in the Divine.
Thus, though
virtues
man will perform the duties of his earthly lot,

he will realise that the earth is but a point in the
the good
that it is the sphere of the

mortal and the transient, and he will be ready to turn
an ear to any echo which recalls the eternal harmonies of
infinitude of the universe,
the heavens.
10
Hence he
will
Macrob. Bom. Scip. i. 13, 15,

cum constet remunerationem animis
illic
esse tribuendam pro modo
perfectionis ad quam in hac vita
una quaeque pervenit

2
Ib.
jj ^ jo
Of. PI.
'
light of glory,
How near this comes
platonic ecstasy, Zeller,

549, 745.
Ib.
i.
Phaed. 81 D. B
Zeller,
6, (terra)
2,
Macrob Som Scip i. 8,

solae facmnt virtutes beatum.
quae tota
3,
'
>
6
7
Ib.
Ib.
i.
i.
4, 4.
passiones ignorare
con vincere ut nesciat irasci, cupiat
8,
9,
pp.
Ib n> 3 7 >
ma
corP us
l
defert memoriam musicae cujus
in
j
caelo fuit conscia
On tne music
of the splieres cf Ennead fr. 4f 8
'
"
16,
iii.
puncti locum pro caeli magnitudine
17.
and
mhil.
to the
Christian ascetic ideal of that age.
8 Ib. i.
Of. on the Neo8, 9.
9, 3.
i.
2 530
jjj
11
make
/A&OS
A>
apôviq,.
u Ib.
ii.
g.ffeiav
10,
iv
<j>v<riKr)
nvi
CHAP, iv
111
aim only
at the approval of conscience.

For of this
small spot in the universe, how small a part does our
race possess
The fame of Eome has not passed beyond
1
and the most splendid
the Ganges or the Caucasus;
!
fame
is
short
but
is
universe
Since
brief.
duration
the
may
all
of
human
any
be eternal, but
tradition
shows how
The
period.
flood, in regular
historic
fire
and
prevail and sweep into oblivion man and

all his works, save in a few sheltered homes of immealternations,
morial culture, like Egypt, which maintain the continuity

of the race.
In this scene of mortality and short-lived
hopes, the only
wisdom
is to
nourish the hope of a
life
to
4
come, to do one's duty to the fatherland on earth, while
ever mindful of the true fatherland of souls, which is
"
eternal in the heavens."
Itjnay be said that the commentary on the Dream of

Kt^rn^ Tp.prp.sp.nfa t,he mysticism of a small circle of philo-.
sophic dreamers, and not a general state of moral feeling.
/
Andcertainlv_the seeker
for hisJ&iical ._ truth .should, not
exaggerate the influence of ideals which in every age are

It is, however, an even
the, juide..of._Qnly a minority.
graver fault to fix one's gaze on the baser side of past
ages, and to ignore whatever there is of hope and promise in the slow and painful development of humanity.
Such
is
spirit.
not the habit of a sound and scrupulous historical

Nor is it the attitude of a truly religious mind.
shows but
the Father of all souls to

whole generations of His children
merely to the worship of devils, without any glimpse of
Himself, and to dwell on their blind aberrations of superIt
believe that
little faith in
He consigns
stition in groping
1
towards the
Macrob. Som. Scip.

Ib.
ii.
10, 9, res vero
maxima
manente nmndo et
ex parte
ii.
10, 3.
humanae
saepe occidunt
rursus oriuntur
vel eluvione vicissim vel exustione
redunte.
3 Ib.
ii. 12, 1.
light,
and on their frantic
Ib.
Aug. de
ii.
17.
Civ. Dei, ix. 17, illud

' '
:
Fugiendum est
Plotini ubi ait
igitur ad carissimam patriam, et ibi

Cf. Macrob,
pater, et ibi omnia."
in Som. Scip. i. 9, 3.
THE LATER PAGANISM
112
efforts
to
inspired
BOOK
terrors and the longings which are

the ineradicable faith in a world beyond the
calm the
by
Eather should we welcome indications that God

never utterly forsakes the creatures of His hands, and,
grave.
decay of ancient heathenism there was a

moral and spiritual life, which was to be nourished in an
that in the
unending future by the divine ideals of
Galilee.
Ni
BOOK H
SKETCHES OF WESTERN SOCIETY
FKOM SYMMACHUS TO SIDONIUS
CHAPTEK
THE INDICTMENT OF HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN MORALISTS

FEWJnquiries should be more interestingjbhan the attempt
tojorm a conception of the inner tone and life of society
in Western Europe on_.thfi- p.vft of its collapse.
^Was
it
been
as
and
effete
as
has
represented ?
corrupt
society
Were
its
vices,
as Salvianus insisted, the cause of the
triumph of the barbarians ? The judgment of the enthusiastic ascetic of Marseilles has been reproduced by successive generations of moralists
have been vehement and

direct
self-defence
and
And
pitiless.
and
The accusers
hardly a word of
historians.
from all that

and polished
It is easy to frame
self - exculpation
crowd of stately nobles, keen dialecticians,

litterateurs,
has come
down
to us.
such wholesale indictments against the silent generations

of a long past age.
It is not so easy to perform the more
useful task of realising how they actually lived, and what
answer, could they defend themselves, they might make
to their accusers.
It is never safe to trust sweeping censure of the morals
of a whole age or people.
time
What
a picture of our
might be drawn by some acrid
or
own
enthusiastic
moralist of the thirtieth century, who should dress up all

the scandals of fashionable life hinted at in society
all the tales of ruin on the Turf, all the
unsavoury revelations of our police courts and divorce
courts, and present them to his readers as a fair sample of
journals,
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
116
BOOK
II
which the English people were living in the

of
the reign of Victoria
,Yet this is the
years
fashion in which satirists or moralists have treated the
the
way
in
last
first
The
|
x
century and the last of the society of the Empire.

the reign of Domitian has left us pictures
satirist of
of depravity and extravagant self-indulgence which are

more revolting than anything in the pages of S. Jerome
or Salvianus.
If society at large had been half as corrupt
as it is represented by Juvenal, it must have speedily
Yet when Juvenal died the
perished of mere rottenness.
Roman world had entered on a period of almost unexampled peace and prosperity, a period of upright and
beneficent administration and high public virtue, culmiAn
nating in the reign of the saintly Marcus Aurelius.
of
was
hitherto
to
devotion,
it,
giving a
intensity
strange
fresh life to Eoman paganism.
was
diffusing
Philosophy
more spiritual conceptions of God, and a humaner charity
in the relations of life.
The inscriptions, the letters of
the younger Pliny, and even the pages of Tacitus, as
|
'
<
severe a moralist as Juvenal, reveal to us another world

from that of the satirist, a world of severe and elevated
virtue, in
which the men and women sustain one another
in adherence to high principle, in the pursuit of lofty

ideals of public duty, or of literary and philosophical
1
If we shudder at the enormities of Tigellinus and
studies.
Messalina, we should always remember that the same age

produced a Thrasea and a Corbulo, an Arria and a Paulina.
Roman
was perhaps the strongest and most

But its
department of Roman literature.
original
of
reserve.
must
with
a
be
taken
deal
judgments
good
It was frank and outspoken about deeds of darkness,
over which our more timorous delicacy is inclined to
throw a veil.
It was sometimes almost puritanical in its
The
moral tone and the fierceness of its censures.
moralist represents the old Eoman spirit, and draws his
1
satire
Duruy, Hist. Rom.
v.
pp. 662 sqq.
Boissier, Eel.
Rom.
ii.
p. 195.
CH.
ITS
PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN CENSORS
117
ideal from an age of simple habits before Eome was corrupted by the arts of Greece and the luxury of the con1
He is apt to forget that luxury is not a
quered East.
and that a softened tone need not imply

more apt to forget that a whole
should not be made responsible for the folly and
synonym
for vice,
effeminacy.
class
He
is still
He strikes at the monsters of

always appear so long as wealth and
luxury abound, and he leaves the impression that these
are not abnormal specimens, but types.
He ignores 2 the
mass of quiet good sense, wholesome feeling, and selfintemperance of a few.
vice,
who
will
shadow behind glaring

and shameless profligacy.
^Jgpve all, the very violence
and bitterness with which the moralist lashes the vices of
control, which, in every age lies in
his
time
is
a proof that his society
corrupt as he
depicts
it.
He
is
is
not so hopelessly
fighting for an ideal
which cannot be a ^monopoly of his own.
And when he
laments the degeneracy of his contemporaries from the

purer manners of a remote, and perhaps mythical, past, he
is often
only expressing personal contempt for the softer
habits of increasing refinement, or else he is speaking as
the organ of a quickened moral sense among the very
men whom he
judges so hardly.
y The modern inquirer needs even greater caution
in
accepting contemporaneous judgments of the character of

society in the fourth and fifth centuries than in thp. first.
In the one case an age of splendid public virtue, of great

material advancement, of higher moral ideals, succeeded an
age which we are asked to believe was a period of selfishness, frivolous extravagance, and frantic and unbridled
The Empire was never so beneficent and
debauchery.
so adored by its remote subjects 8 in many lands as it was
under the sons and grandsons of the men who are repre1
2
3
Of. Friedlander, bk.

Juv. xiii. 26.
iii.
p. 15.
See the inscriptions laboriously
collected on this subject in Fustel

de Coulanges, La GauURom. p. 177
sqq.
\
I
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
118
sented as the vilest of mankind.
It
was
still
BOOK n
proud and
erect ten generations after Juvenal and the objects of his

loathing were in their graves. (But the fifth century
Home in the West. The most spotmost heroic energy, would have availed
nothing against the forces which had undermined the
civilisation of twelve hundred years.
There can be little
doubt that there were in the last pagan generation men
who held a more spiritual creed, and had aspirations for
closes the career of
less virtue, the
a higher moral
life,
than their ancestors who conquered
Carthage and Macedonia.

the
But they represent a
failing
of a retreating host,
they
hard
the
victorious
pressed
by
energy of the Church,
which, conscious that the future belonged to it, was not
always able to do justice to the regime which was passing
are
cause;
rere- guard
away. \ It is so easy to attribute failure and calamity to

moral causes ; and Christian controversialists often failed
remember the Master's saying about those on whom

Tower of Siloam fell. {Moreover, even within their
own ranks, the new spirit of asceticism, which could find
to
the
salvation only by fleeing from the world, and which, in

the recoil from vice, set up a standard of superhuman
virtue,
was not always charitable in
of Christians,
its judgments even

who, remaining in the world to bear its
Thus that old society

burdens, did not__ejca2e_its_stains.
had not only to endure its own self-reproachful doubts
and questionings in the face of ruin, but the fierce, inj
which could often

commonwealth in the raptures
tolerant criticism of the younger society,

to the earthly
its
forget
duty
of a mystic devotion, or in the effort to escape from
temptations which may be as powerful in the wilderness
as in the
crowded
city.
And the anchoret who
thundered
against the vices of his age had been bred in the Roman
schools.
He had been nourished in his youth on Juvenal
and Persius and

literary
skill,
Tacitus.
If
he
he had within him a
had not
all
fiercer hatred
their
and
CH.
ITS
119
men than even

him
the
natural
were
to
They
offspring
1
of the daemons of the old mythology, who had, with
hellish ingenuity, corrupted whatever of natural probity
and goodness there was in the old Eoman character.
The Christian controversialist could do justice to the
of
his remote ancestors who
virile
qualities
great,
2
and
Venus.
He could hardly believe
worshipped Jupiter
aversion for the sins and weaknesses of
Juvenal had
felt.
in the virtue of contemporaries who refused to accept the

faith of Christ.
The Christian controversialists un-
doubtedly did a great service to humanity when they

held up to loathing the obscenities of the Floralia and
8
But it
the theatre, and the cruelties of the arena.
should be remembered that some of the better pagans
4
looked with little approval on these corrupting displays.
(Men
bad religion, just

below the standard of a good one. ) v
will often rise above the level of a
,s~they constantly fall
The severest censors of the morality of the fifth century

And we shall see in the
are S. Jerome and Salvianus.
sequel that the heaviest condemnation of both falls on
populations nominally Christian, or even on classes who

\
When
professed to aspire to a peculiar sanctity of life.
we read these things we ask ourselves, Can the religion
of the Cross
And
have
left
men no
better than
it
found them
we may
reasonably distrust the unmeasured

invective of a Christian writer against his co-religionists,
if
there are even stronger grounds for hesitating to accept the
judgment of an enemy, in a period of fierce controversy,

on the moral state of heathendom. În this chapter we shall
see what the accusers, whether heathen or Christian, have
1
vii.
2
Aug. de
Civ. Dei, viii. 14, 16, 22,
33.
Ib.
13,
i.
15.
Cf. S.
Jerome's
Ep. 60, 5, quid meinorem Romanes

duces quorum virtutes quasi quibusdam stellis Latinae micant historiae
3
dent.
c.
Sym.
i.
378
Tertull. de
cf.
Spectac. 10, Apol. 38.

ii.
Aug.
de.
Civ. Dei,
ii.
4,
27
Pru-
Sen. Ep. 7 and 95
Amm.
26, 7,
Juv. vi. 63
;
Marc, xxviii. 4, 29 xiv. 6,
304
3
Julian. Fraym. Ep.
;
(Hertlein's ed. ii. 389)

lander, ii. p. 243.
cf.
Fried-
o
"*
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
120
BOOK n
and then proceed to lay before the reader the

life, which can be gathered from the
of
remains
the
literary
century, extending from the reign
Gratian to the last years of ;the Western
Empire.*}
The worst that a severe pagan moralist had to say of
the moral character of society at the beginning of our
period, may be gathered from Ammianus Marcellinus.
He was born at Antioch, entered the army at an early
age, and had seen great campaigns both in the East and
West.
He fought under Julian against the Alemanni,
and he served in the expedition against the Persians in
which that Emperor met his end.
In his later years he
to allege,
actual facts of social
settled down at Rome to compose a history extending

from the principate of Nero to the death of Yalens. 1
Ammianus was an honest, high-minded man of the old
He
school.
real creed
adhered to the old religion of Rome, but his

was probably a vague monotheism with a more
decided tendency to
fatalism.
He
be
could
fair
to
Christianity, and he evidently disapproved of Julian's
exclusion
of
Christian
teachers
from
the
Schools.
equally fair to Roman society may be

has the peculiar virtues of the military
character along with its narrowness and hardness.
A
life of hardship spent on the Rhine and the Euphrates
"\Vhether he
/^questioned.
is
He
was not calculated to make a man a very indulgent,

perhaps hardly even a just critic of the splendid, but
luxurious and un warlike society among which he found
himself on his return to Rome. Ammianus has left two
elaborate pictures of the society of the capital in his
4
time.
What strikes a modern student most about them
is
i
that they might have been composed with equal truth

* ne reign of Nero or Domitian.i
The Roman noble
lias
e
2
changed
little
in three hundred years.
Peter, Die GeschichtL Litt. uber

Kaiserzeit, ii. p. 121.
Amm.
It does not
Ib. xxi. 16, 18
xxr.
Rom.
Marc,
xxiii. 5, 5.
2b. iv. 6, 7
xxviii. 4.
4,
CM.
77*5
121
surprise us to hear that the masters of the world are

possessed of vast domains in every province, from the
rising to the setting sun.
Although they have no longer
the political power of their ancestors, they have the

vanity of a pampered caste, and they wish to prolong an
inglorious name by gilded statues which commemorate
.
nothing.
They ride through the streets in lofty carriages,
adorned with a vulgar splendour of dress, which is not
redeemed even by its ingenuity.
In their progresses they
!
are attended or preceded by an army of slaves, clients,

and eunuchs. Their choicest pleasures are in swift horses,
hurrying through the streets with the speed of the post
on the great roads or in long and elaborate banquets,

which the size and weight of fish or game are recorded,
;
at
as in
Their
Juvenal's day, as a matter of historical interest.

libraries are opened as seldom as their funeral
but they rave about music and theatrical perform3

Hydraulic organs, and lyres as large as carriages,
minister to a degraded taste in music.
In a time of
vaults,
ances.
famine, when all foreigners, including the professors of

the liberal arts, were expelled from Eome, three thousand
dancing
girls
If the great
with their teachers were allowed to remain.
man
visited the public baths,
he would salute
effusively some slave of his vices, whom all decent people

would avoid. His only friendships are those of the
If a respectable man from provincial parts
gaming table.
ventures to call on the great personage, he is received at

first with effusive civility.
If the visit is repeated in all
honest confidence, he will find that his very name and
existence have been forgotten.
The effeminate noble who
takes a journey to visit a distant estate will plume him-
on the effort as if he had performed the marches of

an Alexander or a Caesar.
He will order a slave to
receive three hundred lashes for bringing him his hot water
self
Juv.
iv.
Cf. Sen.
129.
Ep. 44
Juv.
3
viii.
1-20.
Of. Sueton.
Ner.
c.
41.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
122
BOOK n
These men, who have not a particle of religious
late.
belief, are the slaves of anile superstition.

bathe or breakfast or start on a journey
They
will not
they have
consulted the calendar to find the position of a planet.
\lThe vulgar crowd of the days of Marcellinus is the
till
)same in character that it had been for four hundred

years. I Duos tantum res anxius optat, Panem et circenses.
But it was even more pampered in the reign of Honorius
The emperors of the third

oil, and pork to the dole of
little
doubt that this mass of
than in the time of Juvenal.

century had added wine,
corn.
There can be
deserters from the ranks of honest industry, maintained

in idleness by the State, was a hotbed of vice and cor-
All the social sewers drained into
its depths.
2
successive
emperors from
by
Nero to Diocletian, offered their spacious luxury at all
hours of the day to the mongrel crew who bred and
ruption.
Magnificent baths, erected
festered in the slums of the great capital of the world.

The hours that were not spent in taverns and low haunts of
debauchery were given to idle gossip about the favourites

3
in the games and races.
The energy of the once sovereign
people exploded in fierce wrangling as to the chances of
on whose success the fate of the common-
rival charioteers
wealth seemed to depend.
Probably the
mob were
never
so innocently excited as when they were backing with

hoarse cries their favourites in the race.
The obscenities
tales of abnormal depravity were
the
life,
slaughter and sufferings of the
gladiatorial combats, gratified, if they could hardly intensify, the instincts of lust and cruelty in a populace which for
of pantomime, in
which
4
reproduced to the
centuries had been

1
Spart. Sev. 23; Lamprid. Alex.
Sev. 26
35
x.
17
the State.
systematicallyjsorrupted by
cf.
Vop. Aurel. 48 Sym. Ep.

G. fh. xiv. 15, 3, xiv. tit.
Marquardt, Rom. Stoats-
132.
Lamprid. Alex. Sev. 25 ;
14
x.
Th.
C.
xiv. 5 (de
;
Ep.
verwalting,
2
cipibus
3
ii.
p.
Sym.
Man-
Themnarum).
Amm.
Marc. xiv.
6,
26
xviii.
29-32.
Suet. Nero, c. 12
Juv. vi. 63
Prudent. Peristeph. x. 221 ; Sidon.
Carm. xxiii. 281 cf. Friedlander,
ii. p. 285.
4,
CH.
77-5
123
Roman
by
The_ picture,
Yet
it
is
of
the
aristocrat
given
certainly not a pleasant one.

not so dark as the pictures of upper class life
Ammianus
Marcellinus
is
Nay,
in_the days of Lucullus. or in the days of Nero.
in many of its features it is hardly worse than might be
drawn
George
of English society in the reigns of George II. and

III.
Mutato nomine de te Fdbula narratur. ^The
which excited the disgust of the hardy
faults or vices
veteran are those of an old society, rendered vain and

effeminate by wealth, and served by an army of slaves, a
society
j/
which was not sobered by any discipline of labour,
nor elevated by public interests. /
We
may also suspect

that the description is to some extent coloured by the
temperament and habits of the old soldier, whose life had
been passed in frontier camps.
An
Indian veteran,
who
day should settle in London, after thirty

hard
service,
might not be more indulgent to our
years'
own luxurious classes. And Aminianus may have been
at the present
wounded by the haughty
indifference of one of the
exclusive castes that the world has ever seen.

society
is
most
Worldly
no time very appreciative of unostentatious
at
And Ammianus probably knew the

world
chiefly by the vulgarity and frivolity of its
great
Had he been admitted to the
least estimable members.
circle of the Symmachi and Albini, he would hardly have
merit or service.
accused a
class,
which regarded devotion
to letters as the
highest distinction of their order, of never entering their

libraries.
darker, if not truer picture of _foa^socjety
f
in the__y_ears_ when
is
given by
S.
Ammianus was composing
his history
*"
Jerome.
/S. Jerome outlived Ammianus Marcellinus probably

twenty years but they must have been at Rome about
in the middle of the reign of Theodosius. /
the same time,
J"
The saint received his education under Donatus, probably
in the reign of Julian
and, after visiting Gaul and the
;
deserts of Syria, he returned to the capital at the time
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
124
when the Church was on

;
He was
Damasus,
the eve of
its
BOOK n
final victory.
secretary and intimate friend of Pope

and for a time was one of the most influential
the
1
Kome.
He saw the inner life of the
and of those great aristocratic houses, on
of
ecclesiastics
higher clergy,
which, since the visit of S. Athanasius, the ascetic ideal
2
of the Christian life had cast its spell.
Jerome became
the director in study and devotion of a remarkable group
women Paula, Lea, Asella, Marcella, and many

who were of the very cream of the Eoman
nobility, but who deliberately cut themselves off from
of
others,
and in almost conventual seclusion

themselves to prayer and the study of the
3
Some of them were accomplished Greek
Scriptures.
and Hebrew scholars, 4 and, in their minute and careful
worldly
devoted
society,
study of the sacred books, they often taxed the erudition

5
of the great scholar to reply to their curious questions.
hear but little of their husbands and male relatives.
We
[
The majority of the Boman Sp.na.te, even so late as the

6
reign of Theodosius, was clearly pagan in sentiment, if
not in belief. There can be little doubt that the husband
was often a cultivated sceptic or pagan, while his wifejor
sister was a Christian devotee.
Moving in such a circle,
S. Jerome must have acquired a thorough knowledge of
the tone and morale of the upper class in that period of
religious transition which has been described in the first
chapter.
His evidence as
time would be invaluable

1
Ep. 123,
S. Jer.
i.
10
cf.
to the
if
Collombet's
p. 326.
2
Hieron. Ep. 127,
5 ; for the
influence of S. Athanasius's Life of
Antony, cf. S. Aug. Conf. viii. 6.
8
Hieron. Ep. 127,
7 ; cf. Ep.
24.
4
6
/&. 108,
26, 28.
Ib. 30, 34.
The
on Prud.
opposite view
c. Sym. i. 566,
is
founded
and on the
we
moral condition of his
could trust the coolness
words in Ambros. Ep. 17,

9, cum
curia Christianorum
majore jam
numero
sit referta.
But, if so,
did they not attend and prevent the Senate from petitioning
the Emperor ? If Zosimus (v. 49)
is to be believed, the Senate, even
after the defeat of Eugenius, were
still obdurate.
Cf. Seeck's Sym.
liv. and, for the
opposite view,
why
Rauschen, Jahrbucher,
p. 119.
CH.
ITS
125
and fairness of his judgment as much as his knowledge.

He was a tremendous and beneficent force in the cause
of truth and purity, and he must always be regarded
with reverence alike by the student and by the devout
In his fearless determination to ascertain the
Christian.
precise meaning of the sacred text, he offers a splendid
In his
example of rare candour and patient industry.
still more fearless denunciation of moral evil, even in the
classes with whom he was most closely associated, and
with the risk of ruin to his own reputation, he did a
service to the cause of human progress of which the
value can hardly be exaggerated. 1 /But S. Jerome is a
Eoman satirist who is sometimes carried away by the
love of startling effect and vivid phrase.
He is also the
ascetic, tortured by the consciousness of human frailty,
and again almost intoxicated with the vision of God. /
The views which S. Jerome held as to the ideal of
virtue, and especially of sexual virtue, are of the extreme^
monastic type. To him, as to so many others in that day,
the world ITso full of allurements, the flesh is so weak
and sensual, the devil is so cunning in laying snares for
the soul, that the only chance of escape lies in absolute

renunciation.
The Greek ideal of moral perfection, as a
middle state between excess and defect of passion, seems

to the ascetic impracticable or unworthy.
Avarice can
only be conquered by selling all one's possessions and
2
giving to the poor.
Luxury in dress and food must be
replaced by sackcloth and herbs, and an avoidance of the
1
Ep. 112,
;
53,
7,
20 of. JEp. 104 ; 57,

nee scire dignantur,
;
quid Prophetae, quid Apostoli senserint

sed ad sensum incongrua
:
aptant testimonia
quasi grande
sit, et non vitiosissimum docendi
:
genus, depravare sententias, et ad
voluntatem suam Scripturam
tra-
here repugnantem.
In replying to
a charge of favouring the heretical
views of Origen, he announces a
principle which, in theological con-
troversy,
is
rarely obeyed
Nee
bonis adversariorum, si honestum

quid habuerint, detrahendum est,
nee amicorum laudanda sunt vitia,
2.
For S. Jerome's
Ep. 83,
defence of his character, v. Ep. 45,
For the secret of the bitter2.
ness with which he was assailed,
v. Sulp. Sev. Dial. i. 9,
4, oderant
eum
clerici,
quia vitam eorum
sectatur et crimina.
2
Ep. 108,
19.
in-
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
126
bath.
The pleasures of love, which

must be utterly rejected
merely sensual,
the elect soul.
BOOK n
are
treated
as
as debasing to
Honourable marriage ranks below the

and the recovered chastity of
purity of intact virginity,
widowhood. 2
Nothing can exceed the extravagance
with which S. Jerome, who was an experienced man of
the world, celebrates the self-devotion of Demetrias to
state.
Her family, like so many others of the
had been ruined by the invasion of
Koman
houses,
great
3
Alaric.
Kome had been given up to fire and sword.
the virgin
The
fairest
provinces
Sueves and Goths.
were
The fame
already overrun by the

of a world-wide empire
and the hopes of

immemorial antiquity, were vanishing
amid an agony of regret, all the more pathetic, because
Yet the
hardly a voice from it comes down to our ears.
and
civilisation, the splendid traditions
senatorial houses of
devotion of Demetrias to the virgin state, according to

her eulogist, exalts her family to a higher pinnacle than
long line of consuls and prefects have ever reached
a consolation for a Eome in ashes ; Italy puts off its
mourning at the news ; the villages in the farthest
its
it is
Some of this
provinces are beside themselves with joy.
is no doubt mere rhetoric, but it is the rhetoric of a man
whose own passions had been conquered only by flight to
Syrian desert, by incessant vigils, by fasting and
4
And the whole letter to Eustochium, in which
prayer.
that well-known passage occurs, suggests other considerations which should be kept in view in reading the
criticisms of ancient moralists on their own times.
the
Probably every modern reader of that letter

1
is
Ep. 107,
Ib.
felix
9,
10
xxiii.
2.
Her father
morte sua qui non vidit
130,
3,
patriam corruentem
5.
immo
felicior
The best passage is

19.
22,
11, sufficit tibi quod primum
123,
perdidisti
virginitatis
is
lost in
gradum,
et
tertium venisti ad secundum,

id est, per officium conjugale, ad
viduitatis continentiam.
per
cf.
Ep. 22,
7.
CH.
ITS
127
it could have been possibly addressed

young woman belonging to one of the
It handles, without the
greatest families at Eome.
slightest restraint or reserve, sins and temptations of the
It is absolutely
flesh to which we now hardly allude.
astonishment that
by any man
to a
inconceivable that any moralist or preacher of our times,

however earnest or fanatical, should address a woman in
1
such a
This
style.
not said with any intention of
is
depreciating S. Jerome, whose character emerged unstained from the fiercest ordeal of malignant calumny in
own
and has borne the scrutiny of fifteen

a daring man who would charge
But we may fairly say that
S. Jerome with pruriency.
the writer of the letter to Eustochium is likely to let us
know the very worst of his generation, and that he will
not throw the veil of conventional ignorance over deeds
of darkness, which our more timorous delicacy has been
his
time,
centuries.
He would be
accustomed, at any rate until lately, to treat as nonexistent.

Whether unflinching candour or studied
|
the best tone to adopt with regard to moral
a question which need not be discussed.
But
that_ difference of tone between the ancients and our-
reserve
is
evil, is
selves..
never
should
be
forgotten
in
studying
By keeping it in mind
from Pharisaism and from an
ungenerous judgment of times which have made a selfrevelation of which we should be incapable.
(When we come to examine what S. Jerome has told
us of the moral condition of his time, we are struck with
the fact that his heaviest censure falls on those who, at
least in name, had separated themselves from the world,
the monks and the secular clergy of Eome.
It is true
that he consigns Praetextatus, the votary of Isis and
character of
a distant past.
we may be saved
alike
outer
Mithra, to
1
Ep. 22, esp.

Ib.
23,
3,
jf
the
darkness.
7, 13.
ille
quern
ante
But Praetextatus
is
paucos dies dignitatum

culmina
praecedebant
not
omnium
...
ad
~s.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
128
BOOK n
condemned on moral grounds^ but as the enthusiastic

champion of the old gods.) (On the other hand, the
pontiff Albinus, a staunch though tolerant pagan, is
1
treated by Jerome with marked respect. ) His unbelief
His wife
even made the subject of gentle raillery.
His daughter Laeta, who had succeeded
Christian.
is
was a
in converting her young husband Toxotius, was a devotee

S. Jerome speaks of Albinus as
after S. Jerome's heart.
K
a candidate for the faith," and would have hopes that

hymns to Christ, as she sits on
his little granddaughter's
the old man's knees, might win
Another great magnate,

official
great
Cerealis,
wished
distinction,
him from
a
man
to
his
errors.
of the world, of
marry one of
S.
said of the religious

views of Cerealis, but the very silence on the subject
Yet
probably shows that they were not very decided.
Jerome's ascetic friends.
Nothing
is
Jerome describes him as a man of
S.
spotless character.
Olybrius, another member of the noble class, was probably

a Christian, but like his father Probus, the great prefect,
was probably not a very ardent one. Along with his
brother Probinus, he was celebrated with all the pomp

His virtues
of pagan mythology by the poet Claudian.
as a son, a husband,
and a
citizen are not less emphatically

8
IThe saint professed to
extolled in a letter of S. Jerome.
from which
desert,
wjien
Eome
regard
as the mystic Babylon of the Apocalypse,

the true followers of Christ should flee to the
"blossoming with the flowers of Christ."
we
look for details,
we
cujus interitum urbs universa commota est, nunc desolatus et nudus,

lacteo caeli palatio, ut uxor
mentitur infelix, sed in sordentibus
tenebris continetur ; cf. c. Johann.
Hierosol. 8, miserabilis Praetextatus
homo sacrilegus, et idolorum
.
.
The condemnation of
cultor.
non in
Praetextatus
is
expressly on
the
ground of his heathen superstition.
The
inscriptions (G.I.L. 1779), in

which he and his wife Aconia
find little
&
__Yet-
Jerome
to
commemorate one
Fabia Paulina
another's virtues, reveal a religious

which explains S.
Jerome's bitterness ; cf. Seeck's
enthusiasm
Symmachus,
on the whole
Ixxxiii.
career of Vettius
textatus.
Agorius
Hieron. Ep. 107,
Ib. 127,
Ib. 130,
cv.
4
Prae-
1.
2.
3 ; cf. Seeck's Sym.

Claud. Cons. Prob. et Olyb.
Ib. 46,
11.
CH.
ITS
men
lead us to believe that the
129
of the great families,
with
whom~Paula, Marcella, and Melania associated, fell below

the moral standard of their ancestors or even below the
level of worldly respectability in our. own time.
Christian asceticism, however, like every other great
movement which has disturbed the
routine of
life,
had
its
{There were serious perils to virtue in the

household life of the fourth and fifth century, which S,
Jerome has laid bare with an unsparing frankness, though
probably also with some exaggeration.
Among .these
raison
d'etre.
the system of domestic slavery was the most fruitful ol

1
In the days of Salvianus, as in the days of
corruption.
Horace, the attractive slave-girl too often was the easy

prey of her master's lusts and amours of this kind were
;
regarded even in
Christian
families
with-
-a
tolerance
which astonishes modern sentiment. 2 V Perhaps even

more insidious was the influence of female slaves on
their
the
young
Eoman
mistresses.
The attendants who surrounded
lady at her elaborate
toilet,
and decked her
out in her silks and jewels, were often not the safest
Their class
companions for inexperienced innocence.
had often a bitter hatred of the Christian faith, 3 and

spread the most malignant rumours about its professors.
They flattered with the ease and familiarity of privileged
\T^Q picture of the greed, lubricity, and

4
spitefulness of this chattering crowd, who surrounded
the lady of noble rank, was probably a much -needed
favourites.
revelation of one of the worst
Koman
cankers at the root of
society.
IS. Jerome, like Ammianus Marcellinus, was

disgusted
with the display of wealth, which seems to have become
more ostentatious and vulgar,

decayed.
But
as artistic skill
in S. Jerome's pages
and
feeling
women arejhe
great
contentus domus inlecebris famulantibus uti.

3
Hieron. Ep. 54,
5.
Hieron. Ep. 54,

5, 6 ; cf. 107,
4
cf. Wallon, Hist, de I'Esclav.
ii.
pp. 325 sqq. ; Friedlander,i.p.328.
1 Paulinus
Pellaeus, Euch. 166,
;
Ib. 117,
8.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
130
BOOK n
Their gaudy turbans and elaborate coiffures,
offenders]
silks and liberally applied cosmetics, and

blazing wealth of jewels, are described with a scorn which
makes the minute observation of detail somewhat surpris-
their
costly
The saint often warns his female disciples against

the danger of appearing among the fashionable and showy
2
crowd.
The danger to female innocence seemed to him
ing.
so great that the only safety for a woman lay in cutting

It is hard to
herself off absolutely from the world.
believe that the reserve
and delicacy of so many generahave grown so helpless in

the warm imagination of S. Jerome
tions of social culture should
the face of
And
evil.
If we may believe
has probably exaggerated the peril.
him, the curled and essenced fop was almost irresistible
8
in those days.
touch of his hand and a glance from
have placed young women of rank and

There is probably better ground
breeding at his mercy.
for the disgust with which the appearance of the fashion4
able matron in the streets is described.
She takes her
airing in a litter surrounded by a great troop of slaves
and eunuchs, and closely attended by some foppish majordomo or favourite domestic, whose pampered air and easy
familiarity sometimes cast a shade of suspicion on his
his eye
seem
But
fame.
the
was the
mistress's
fair
banquet.
Difficile inter epulas servatur pudicitia.
hard for us
polished
Yet S
,>
to
now
danger
to realise that this should
an
with
society
in
.JprrmiAj
great
hi
It is
be true of a
ancient tradition of dignity.

a.a the
ardft^r for the agcetifi life
only path of salvation for frail humanity, places his ban

on what we should regard as innocent enjoyment of a
hospitable table. J The description of the effects, on the
hot blood of the south, of rich wines and delicate meats
1
127,
2
7.
8
Hieron. Ep. 54,
108,
15
13
107,
3.
Ib. 130,
18
54,
batulus
quilibet manum, sustentabit lassam ; et pressis digitis, aut
tentabitur aut teiitabit.

4
Ib.
117,
6,
dabit tibi bar-
Ib. 54,
Ib. 117,
13.
107,
8,
CH.
ITS
131
many courses, with the accompaniments of voluptuous

music and suggestive dancing, may represent the tone of
It would be certainly true of
certain circles of his age.
in
many
in the time of Cicero.
But
to believe
it is difficult
that the high-minded, stately, and cultivated ladies, so

1
many of whom are known to us, had been exposed to
the contamination of such grossness in their youth, or
that they could not observe the limit between harmless
natural enjoyment and sensual indulgence. f*The truth is

that S. Jerome is not only a monk but an artist in words;
and his horror
of evil, his vivid
imagination,
and his
him beyond
was much to amend in
the region of sober fact.
^Jhere
But we must not take
the morals of the Eoman world.
passion for literary effect occasionally carry
the leader of a great moral reformation as a cool and dispassionate observer.

About the time
when
this letter of S.
Jerome was
penned, Macrobius represents the leading members
of
the_pagan_aristocracy, Symmachus, Albirms7~Tlavianus,

Praetextatus, as spending the days of the Saturnalia
The mornings were given up to learned distogether.
In the
subjects.
and gayer conversation at
dinner; and our attention is expressly drawn to the
elegant moderation of that day in food and drink, and to
the banishment of the dancing girl and the buffoon from
2
the banquet.
The evidence of Macrobius, who is writing
without any parti pris, is worth at least as much as that of
S. Jerome on such a point.
And if such was the tone of
cussions on antiquarian and literary
evening they met
for lighter
the pagan aristocracy, can we believe

Christian houses would be more lax ?
1
Paula, Hieron. Ep. 108; Serena,

Claudian. Laus Serenae ; Fabia
Aconia Paulina, C.I.L. vi. 1779
Blaesilla, Hieron. Ep. 39 ; Laeta,
Zos. v. 39.
2
Macrob. Sat.
ii.
1,
iii.
13.
that
the
great
Compare with this S. Jerome's Ep.

6.
117,
Although Praetextatus
is one of the party in the Saturnalia, the scene is laid in some
year after his death in 385, as
5.
appears from the passage i. 1,
l>
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
132
But
BOOK n
Jerome deals hardly with the vices of the

worldly classes, he is perhaps even more merciless to
and it is to
those of the professedly strict and religious
the credit of his candour and sincerity that he lays bare
with such an unsparing hand the corruption in Christian
In some
society, even in the inner circles of asceticism.)
of his descriptions of ecclesiastical worldliness and corrup\
if
S.
1
And his
tion the very spirit of Juvenal is upon him.
consuming zeal for a great cause probably made him less
merciful to the failings of his own class than a man of
the world would have been.
the picture
far
away
We
freedmen and obscure
known
to
Yet, after all allowances,
feel that we are

not a pleasant one.
from the simple, unworldly devotion of the
is
the
toilers
whose existence was hardly
great world before the age of the

who lived in the spirit of the Sermon on
Antonines, and
the Mount and in constant expectation of the coming of
The triumphant Church, which has brought
their Lord.
paganism to its knees, is very different from the Church
The Bishop of
and the persecutions.
Eome has become a great potentate surrounded by
worldly pomp, and with a powerful voice in the councils
8
In the reign of Valentinian (367) the
of the State.
rival factions of Damasus and Ursinus had convulsed the
in one
city in their struggles for this sjfcid#l prize, and
on
left
day one hundred and thirty-seven corpses were
4
Ammianus
the pavement of one of the churches.
of the catacombs
Marcellinus, who describes the conflict, thinks it natural

that men should so contend for the chance of being
enriched by the offerings of Eoman matrons, of riding in
elegant apparel through the streets, and giving banquets of
more than regal splendour. The pagan Praetextatus used to
1
For the satiric vein in S.
Jerome, cf. the sketch of Gninnius,
the impotent critic, Ep. 125,[ 18 ;
and the great lady at

Basilica,
22,
32.
S.
Peter's
Kenan, AL Aurble, p. 447 cf.

pp. 55, 56; cf. Friedlander, iii. p.
533.
3
Zos. v. 41.
;
Amm.
Marc, xxvii.
3, 12.
CH.
/r5
133
say jestingly to Pope Damasus, that he might be tempted to

1
become a Christian by the prospect of being Bishop of Rome.
/" Among
ranks of the clergy corruption prevailed.
all
and captation became so grave

2
the
in
addressed
to Pope Damasus,
an
edict
that,
I. sternly prohibited monks and
Valentinian
\Emperor
ecclesiastics from entering the houses of widows or
orphan wards, and made illegal both donatio inter vwos
and testamentary bequests in favour of the Church. / It
may be doubted whether the law was strictly obeyed.
\The higher clergy generally seem to have lived in very
3
They often
im-evangelical worldly state and luxury.
entertained at sumptuous feasts great magistrates and
The clerical epicure, brought up in a hovel and
prefects.
4
fed on milk and black bread in his boyhood, develops an
/The
He
extraordinary delicacy of taste in his later years.
has the nicest judgment in fish and game, and the provinces are distinguished
by their ability to satisfy his

become
the passport to social
palate.
Holy
distinction and dangerous influence.
The doors of great
houses opened readily to the elegant priest whose toilet
was managed by a skilful valet. The clerical profession,
Orders
from imposing
so far
The
intrigue.
superstitious
women
restraint,
furnished
was admitted
priest
of the
for
facilities
to the intimacy of
world, which was
pleasant
but perilous to virtue. 6

The supple and
accomplished ecclesiastic has a great advantage among the
crowd of morning callers on the rich young matron, who
repays his flattering attentions with a present of whatever
and
lucrative,
his
covetous
wealtfr
invaded
facite
episcopum
et
all
mo Romanae
ecclcsiae
ero protinus
Chris-
tianus.
1
Th. xvi. 2, 20.

Hieron. Ep. 52,
11
far
lighted on.
[T]IP. paapirm
ranks of the clergy.
Many were
Hieron. c. Johann. Hierosol. 8,

solebat ludens beato papae Daraaso
dicere
have
eyes
evils of seduction
G.
cf.
Sulp.
Sev. Dial.
4
5
i.
21, 3.
Hieron. Ep. 52,
Ib. 52,
6
Ib, 22,
6.
5.
16,
clerici ipsi
extenta manu, ut benedicere eos

putes velle, pretia accipiunt salutandi ; and 28.
^5^
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
134
BOOK
II
1
engaged in amassing fortunes in trade. They will perform
the most disgusting and menial offices for some heirless
lady on her deathbed.
Even
the
monk
in the Nitrian
8
infected with the universal contagion, and piles

a secret hoard which his brethren are sorely troubled
desert
up
is
dispose of at his death. \ If we believe S. Jerome,

of these clerical and monkish impostors became
to
numbers
far richer than they could have been, if they had

4
remained in the world. /They go about asking for alms
to be distributed to the poor, but secretly enrich them-
making a parade of their bare feet, black cloaks,

and long unkempt hair, they creep into houses and
"
6
deceive silly women laden with sins."
Pretending to
selves
live in the greatest austerity,
they spent their nights in
and sensuality.
The picture which S. Jerome draws of female society
is so repulsive that we would gladly believe it to be
But if the priesthood with its enormous
exaggerated.
influence was so corrupt, it is only too probable that it
debased the sex which is always most under clerical
That clerical concubinage, under the pretence
influence.
of the severest sanctity, was common, cannot be doubted
secret feasting
by any one acquainted with the writers of the time. ( S.

Jerome is perfectly explicit on the subject. ^Men and
women, vowed to perpetual chastity, lived under the
same roof, 6 brazening out the miserable imposture of
1
Hieron. Ep. 52,

5 125,
16,
negotiatorem clericum, et ex inopi
divitem, ex ignobili gloriosum,
;
quasi
2
quandam pestem
Ib. 52,
ipsi
fuge.
apponunt ma-
tulam, obsident lectum, purulentiam stomach!

maim propria
Pavent ad introitum
suscipiunt.
medici trementibusque labiis an
.
commodius
.
habeant sciscitantur
simulataque laetitia mens in-
trinsecus avara torquetur.

3
Ib.
22,
33,
centum
solidos
quos lino texendo acquisierat dereliquit, etc.

4
Ib. 125,
16, non victum et
vestitum, quod Apostolus praecipit,
sed majora quam saeculi homines
emolumenta sectantes ; Ep. 60, 11,
sint ditiores monachi quam fuerant
saeculares.
6
Ib. 22,
28, et quasi longa

jejunia, furtivis noctium cibis pro-
trahunt.
6
Ib. 22,
14, eadem domo, uno
cubiculo, saepe uno tenentur lectulo;
cf. Sulp. Sev. Dial. i. 8, 4 ; i, 9, i.
CH.
ITS
135
superhuman purity under impossible
conditions.
There
Jerome's to a young lady of
written at the instance of her brother,
a curious letter of
is
S.
position in Gaul,
which is a singular illustration of the union of superstition and licence.
She makes a profession of leading a
Christian life, yet she has separated from her mother,
and has
who
installed, as
apparently, and
is
master of hei house, a

is
as equally master of her
"
brother
"
regarded by the neighbourhood,

house and of her virtue. 2
On a not much higher level are those virgins of the

8
Church, whose peculiar dress is their only title to the
name which they disgrace, and who strut about the
nodding and
streets,
In
leering.
"
so-called Christian
many
" *
who would laugh at

supple
virgin
jests of doubtful freedom, and who had a relish for spite"
ful gossip, was much more popular than the
rough and
circles the gay,
rustic
"
person whose religion was not a fraud.
Many
other sketches of female character have been left us
by
the pencil of S. Jerome

the sot who justifies her love of
wine with a profane jest,5 the great lady puffed up by
the honours of her house, and surrounded by a herd of
sycophants, the great lady who passes through S. Peter's,

attended by a crowd of eunuchs, doling out alms with
equal parsimony and ostentation, and repulsing the
importunate
blows. 6
widow with
Such
and
scenes
characters, like those in the Sixth Satire of Juvenal, one
would gladly believe
to
be
and imaginative
brilliant
If
pictures of an exceptional degradation of character.
it
becomes
a
like
tone,
they represent anything
general
1
Hieron. Ep. 117.

JJ. 117,
9.
..
M- 117'* 7 ; xxl1 l hae sunt

?\
quae per publicum notabiliter mce(hint; et furtms oculorum nutibus adolescentmm greges post se
'
Non ut ilia horrida,

siinplicitas.
turpis, rusticana, terribilis, et quae
ideo forsitan maritum non habuit,
quia invenire non potuit.
*
.
22
se mero in .
13
gurgi&veriiit, ebrietati sacrilegium

*
e a
Absit ut ego
opfllantes
Even
Christ! sanguine abstineam
worse precedes,
'
Ib.
ecoe vere
ancilla Christi, dicentes, ecce tota
22,
24-29,
Ib. 22,
32.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
136
BOOK
II
easy to understand the exodus from the second Babylon,

and the charm of the hermitage in the desert 1 "from
which are drawn the stones whereof is builded the city
of the Great King." ( It would seem that the Church, in
conquering the citadel of the Empire, had lost the freshIt had vanquished
ness and purity of its early days.
the external power of heathenism it had still to subdue
V/
It is at all
the forces of corruption within its own pa?e.
times hard for mediocre character to sincerely embrace a
lofty ideal, and the spectacle of grovelling worldliness
and materialism
tone
affecting
the
unknown
in later days.
an
of
elevated
But in the
fourth century there was found a remnant ready to
/'""spirituality is
sacrifice
not
everything at the
summons
of
'
an
imperious
The members of the proudest houses sold all that

they had, and turned their backs upon state and luxury, in
faith.
order to spend the remainder of life in works of mercy

And in reading the letters of S. Jerome we
I
prayer.
should never forgeF that he is of that elect company,

that he regards Roman society in the high light shining
from the Cross, and that the Cross to him is not the
mere symbol of a lightly held creed, but an imperious

power, demanding a surrender of will and earthly passion
The glory of
.as complete as the Great Sacrifice of all.
that age is the number of those who were capable of
such self-surrender jan d an age should be judged by its
ideals, not by the mediocrity of conventional religion
Thiss we
wj3 have always
^masking worldly self-indulgence.
with us ; the other we have not always.
ays.
The
More than
have passed away.

fifty years
of
barbarism
has
fallen on the West.
cataclysm
vinces have been ravaged, splendid cities have
been
desolated, and the imperial power has been shaken
to its
Ep. 14, 10,

floribus vernans,
desertum Christi
solitude in qua
illi
nascuntur
civitas
magni
lapides de
Pro-
quibus
regis extruitur.
CH.
base.
ITS
S.
137
Jerome, on the news of the earliest disasters
him, exclaimed, "The barbarians are strong

1
through our vices." \A.nd this is the text on which another
in
great preacher calls the Eoman world to recognise
reaching
their calamities the righteous punishment for their sins^

Salvianus. a presbyter of Marseilles, must have seen
Bom
probably at
century. )
Cologne, and educated in the School of Treves, he had
witnessed in his early youth the horrors of the great
almost the close of the
fifth
invasion which laid the cities of the Ehiueland in ashes.
From
these troubles he sought refuge in the south of

Gaul, where he lived in intimacy with some of the great
S. Eucher and S. Hilarius, and the
bishops of the time,
scholarly
and
Le'rins its
home.
iiery
ascetic
He
temperament,
society
is
man
full of
which made the Isle of

of keen sympathies and
the ascetic ideals of his time.
burning indignation against the selfishness of

yle
the wealthy and official class, and an equally passionate
feels a
in
pity for the poor and oppressed, which, had he lived
the nineteenth century, would certainly have made him
a Socialist of the extremest type. 4 ! The thesis of the

5
treatise entitled de Gubernatione Dei is very simple.
r*The unbelieving Epicureanism of the day saw in the
'
calamities of Gaul only a proof of the indifference_of_the

6
Salvianus saw in them
Deity to the fortunes of men.
1
17, nostris peccatis

Ep. 60,
nostris vitiis
Barbari fortes sunt
:
Roinanus superatur exercitus.

* Gennad. de
Scrip. EccL c.
doubts about this section
cf.
avarice
against
iii.
especially
49,
pauper
cf.
beati-
tudinem emit mendacitate, dives

67,
Ebert,
P<
'
Salv.'^. 1, adolescens quern ad

vos misi Agrippinae captus est et
de quo aliquid fortasse amplius
nisi
dicerem,
propinquus meus
esset.
4
JEcclesiam,
See passim the four books ad
supplicium
^
is
by
facilitate.
^ Romans
not alluded to
and V i8 ig ths
'
6
The effect of the calamities
shaking men's faith in Providence
may be seen in the poem de Prov.
Div. (wrongly attributed to Prosper
Aq.) vv. 25-85.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
138
the
of His
evidence
clearest
BOOK n
providential government,
to the appropriate
by leaving the sinner
punishing sin
consequences of his misdeeds. (The Koman world has

deserved its fate by its injustice and oppression, its
cupidity, its lack of hardy public spirit, its foul and
l
have
universal licentiousness.
Prefects and governors
been venal and cruel
more
The
so.
the minor
curiales, the
officials
have been even
governing
of the
order
municipalities, have been so many tyrants, laying on and

levying taxes of which the heaviest burden falls on those
them.
least able to bear
themselves to a
by imperial grace, these

not the poor, but the richest
Even those who have devoted
If,
exactions are lightened, it

8
class, who feel the relief.
is
spiritual life are tainted by the

They will be guilty of the grossest
4
If they have
they get the chance.
strict
universal contagion.
oppression when
wealth they are as ready as the most cynical worldling
to hoard their money instead of giving it to Christ's
poor, and they will actually pretend that their sacred
profession exempts
fice.
them from the duty

the
wearing
They,
dress
asceticism, will plead that Christ has

5
who
Christ,
gifts
makes
infinite pity
the
is
Him
of
such a
an
of
universal
sacri-
ostentatious
no need of their
Sufferer, whose
sharer in all the sufferings
of
His servants.
Christ, exclaims the preacher in a passage

of rhetorical power, is the most needy in the universe,
because
He
feels
|
I
the needs of
all.
doubt that the hardened venality

of the financial service, and the greed and rapacity of the
There can be
De Gub.
little
Dei, v. 25, iv. 21,
vii.
91.
2
Ib. v. 18, ubi non quot Curiales

fuermttottyrannisunt?
Ib
v.
Th.
see C.
ix.
10
35
xii.
also C.
cf. v.
1,
30 decernunt
117
Th.
xiii.
Sym. Ep.
10, 1,
on
the shifting of fiscal burdens from

potentes by collusion of the Tabulani.
4
^^
n(m fadunt
r
ant a rapma>
5
Salv.
B1 .
Hcita
et micita committlint
ad Secies,
iv.
CH.
ITS
great
landowners^jsEBie
Koman
Greek
viees
which did -most
to
a succeeding chapter, ample proofs from

^But Salvianus, like some of the old
'shall furnish, in
the
the
139
Code.
regarded the love of pleasure as

with
linked
the love of gold. ) The populations
inevitably
of the great towns, the men who were continually growing richer and more powerful by the impoverishment of
philosophers,
their neighbours,
1
able sensuality.
were
The
all alike
theatre
sunk in the most abominand the circus had been
the great corruptors of the Eoman

in spite of the thunders of the Church, and
the calamities of the times, these schools of cruelty and
lust retained all their old fascination far into the fifth
for
centuries
five
But
world.
Apollinaris Sidonius, about 460, describes, as

3
flourishing at Narbonne, that degraded pantomime,
century.
still
which the foulest
in
tales
of the old mythology were
represented in speaking gesture. The games of the circus

were held at Aries as late as 461, in honour of Majorian. 4
It
is
true
owing
that,
these
municipalities,
ceased to be held
growing poverty of the
to the
had in many places

and a self-complacent optimism took
exhibitions
credit for this as a sign of a higher moral tone.
Salvianus ruthlessly exposes the pretence.
he maintains,
character,
longer
has
means
the
is
still
of
unaltered,
its
gratifying
(But
The Koman
but
base
it
no
tastes/
Wherever, as at Home or Kavenna, the public amusements can still be kept up, the people will flock, as in
old
to
times,
renounce
"
all
The baptismal vow
witness them.
these works of the devil
?.
for
the
On the corruption
de Gub. Dei,
a
Ib. vi. 49.
Carm.
feverish
of Aquitaine,
vii. 16.
xxiii.
is
forgotten by
churches are emptied,
a nominally Christian people. The

the holy mysteries of the altar are
deserted
to
"
283
sqq.
excitement
4
contemptuously
of
the
circus.
Fauriel, Hist, dela Gaule Rom,

i.
394 ; Chaix, Apollin. Sid. i.
135.
6
Salv. de Gub. Dei, vi. 49, 50.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
140
Even the apparition
BOOK n
of the invaders could not abate the
rage of the populace for its accustomed indulgence.

Christians of Cirta and Carthage were cheering
The
rival
charioteers, or revelling in the turpitudes of the theatre,

1
their walls were surrounded by the Vandals.
when
Like the plague of Athens, 2 or the plague in the Middle

3
Ages,
the disasters and confusion of the
made men
reckless
citizens 4
and prone
fifth
century
to frantic excesses.
The
Treves, a city which bore the first

leading
and fiercest onslaught of the invaders, and was four
times, within a few years, given up to fire and sword,
of
were revelling in a frenzy of drunken debauchery when

enemy were at their gates. Scenes such as these
Salvianus had seen in his boyhood.
They had burnt
themselves into his memory, and the recollection of them
the
accounts for the almost ferocious energy and persistent

which he denounces the self-indulgence of
iteration with
his time.
But although we may believe that overwhelming

may have driven men here and there to drown
their sorrow in wild and vicious excitement, it is difficult
to credit the charge of universal and shameless immorality
which Salvianus makes against the men of his province.
disaster
That the slave-system

masters
is
dangerous
is dangerous to the morals of the

the experience of all ages.
But what is
to some, need not be fatal to all. f Yet
Salvianus makes no exception in his impeachment of

the morals of Southern Gaul.
Every estate is a scene of
5
prostitution.
Â^quitaine
is
&
T&
Salv. de Gub. Dei, vi. 69.

2
Thuc. ii. 53, irpdrbv re ^/>e KO!
r&\\a T-Q 7r6Xet irl ir\ov avopias
v6<ri}/ji.a.
Introd. to Boccaccio's Decameron.

4
Salv. de Gub. Dei, vi. 72.
Salvianus seems to have witnessed
some of these scenes with his own
eyes (vidi ego ipse, etc. ).
one vast lupanar.

6
Ib.
vii.
16,
ac divitum non
Conjugal
quis poteutum
in luto libidinia
paene unum lupanar omnium

The conquest of Spain by
the "imbelles Vandali" is accounted for solely by the imvixit
vita.
the conquered (vii.

sensuality of Koman
Africa is described in even stronger
language (vii. 70), video quasi
morality
27).
of
The
CH.
/r5

unknown.
faithfulness is
who had taken
vow
the
141
(Except in the ranks of those

of renunciation, Salviajius will
Tit is, of
not allow the existence of a decent virtue.
course, never possible to_say_ how a whole populatiojLhas

lived fTiut this is equally true of the attack aa of t.hp.
defence
moral
of
We
character.
can
only. form.,
.a
hesitating judgment on the scanty evidence which has

come_dawn_to^ usTând on general probability-based
The indictment of
on_experience of human nature.
Salvianus caôT~Be~reconciledr^witn the contemporary
which WP. ImvA in thft letters of
picture of
society
And
the Church
mass of the Gallic
There must have been no mean
people to a higher life,
between the small class who renounced fortune and
family ties at the call of Christ, and the monsters of
cruel rapacity and unbridled lust described by Salvianus.
We know minutely the state of the society of Bordeaux l
In
sixty years before the de Gubernatione Dei appeared.
Sidonius.
if
must have utterly
Salvianus
be
accurate,
failed in raising the

i
the cultivated circle there, there is

Christian belief.
Yet there is also
little
trace of ardent
little
trace of shame-
mm ar.hu a
j^he contemporary society of Sy

Rome, was severely respectable in spite of
less vice,
at
its
pagan
Aquitanian morals, in the time of
Salvianus, were so thoroughly corrupt, then, in spite of
r
If
sympathies.
the spiritual triumphs of S. Martin, in spite of the efforts

of a highly organised church, ruled by many bishops of
saintly character and great popular influence, the tone
of provincial
society
Ausonius and his
must have
fallen below the level of

and of those grave and strict
friends,
provincial senators who, ten generations before Ausonius,

were regarded by Tacitus 2 as the salt of the Eoman
scaturientem vitiis civitatem
.
cunctos vario luxus marcore per.
ditos.
illo
fuit
And
numero lam
?
quis in
innumero castus
again,
vii. 75,
Sec
Ann.
3 of this book.
c.
55, simul novi homines

e raunicipiis et coloniis atque etiain
iii.
provinciis
domesticam
in
senatum adsumpti
inparsimoniam
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
142
BOOK n
world. I Salvianus, like S. Jerome, judged the men of his

/time by a standard which might bear hardly on the most
/ respectable societies of modern Christendom/] ftalvianus

But the preacher, from his
a preacher.
is_ essentially
and
in proportion
to
his enthusiasm for
a
cannot
be
dispassionate observer. \ His
righteousness,
\ raison d'etre is to edify, not to describe or analyse with
vocation,
accuracy. ^>He will seldom refer to virtues

he will exaggerate faults which he wishes
;
Miistorical
won
already
to eradicate
he will blacken even his own past to exalt

and he will be equally
the grace that has saved him

merciless to the sins of those
raise to
a higher
The
was as
life.
whom
he is striving to
of
Salvianus, while
society
little inclined as modern
nominally Christian,
society to carry out in daily practice precepts which interfere with material success.
The men who did so then lost
)
caste, and were regarded by the polished and selfish

world very much as Horace Walpole l would have treated
an aristocratic friend who had turned Methodist.
On
the
other
hand,
the
man who
has
marl a
f,hp,
g^-at.
apt to treat the worldly class as worse

it
ia.
Its placid materialism, its bourgeois
really
for
all
ideal
f contempt
aims, irritate to madness the soul
renunciation
to
whom
is
death and the Great Judgment and the
life to
are the only realities. ( The grosser sins of a small

minority are regarded as the natural product of that
come
absorption in the things of the perishing world which is

the choice or the necessity of the mass of men at all
But the monsters
times.
of depravity in every age are
And
probably as rare as the paragons of saintly virtue.
we need not take too literally
mot of Salvianus that
te
"
the
Eoman world was
laughing
tulerunt of. xvi. 5.

The opinion
which Tacitus held, as to the
severity of morals in the provinces,
is confirmed by the picture which
;
when
it died."
Ausonius gives of his family circle

in the Parentalia.
1
p.
H. Walpole's Letters, voL

191 (to J. Chute).
iii.
CHAPTER
TEE SOCIETY OF
II
AURELIUS SYMMACHUS
Q.
'
"
-*i
._
'
"
'
_
'
L'
'
ii
__
we have reviewed the adverse

some contemporary moralists on the state
the fourth and fifth centuries.
But__ we
IN the preceding chapter

I
judgments
'
of
of
society in
*c
fortunately possess, in the other literary remains of that

age, materials for forming an estimate independent of
The letters of Q.
the
of
Aurelius Symmachus,
poems
Ausonius, and the
to
us
the life of the
Macrobius
Saturnalia of
either
Christian
or
pagan censors.
1
cultivated
upper
class,
[reveal
in
both
the
capital
and the
provinces, in the years immediately preceding the first

shock of the great invasions^jThei_pp? g P n ^ vnlimm'Tinna
correspondence of Apollinaris Sidonius form an invalur
able storehouse of information as to the tone and habits
Gallo-Eoman society, in the. years when the

shadowy emperors were appearing and disappearing
of
last
like
puppets in rapid succession at the beck of a German

master of the forces, and when a Visigothic government
had
been organised in Aûitaine. l Symmachus and

Macrobius, although they witnessed tne final triumph
of the Church, belonged to the ranks of that conservative
paganism which made a last stand in defence of the
)
old system of religion,

1
Q.
Aurel.
Symmachus
and nourished
was
probably bom not long after 340,

and died not long after 402 (Seeck,
xliv.
i.
31).
Peter, GeschicMl. Litt.

Apollinaris Sidonius was
cf.
their patriotic
and
born about 430 (he was adolescens

in the year 449, Ep. viii. 6), and
was alive " three olympiads " after
his consecration
as
bishop of
Auvergne in 472 (Ib. ix. 12).
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
144
BOOK
II
pride with the dreams of a past that was

ever.V Sidonius represents a society which,
though obstinately Eoman in culture and sentiment, had
been nominally Christian for two generations, was living
aristocratic
gone
>'
for
in close contact with the
German invaders, and was becom-
order was passing away.

ing dimly conscious that the
Q. Aurelius Symmachus belonged to a"IamiIy~wTucEr
held a foremost place in the last quarter of the fourth
oQ
was not equal
century, but
some others
to
in wealth
and
His grandfather was consul in the

antiquity.
1
His father had been prefect
reign of Constantine.
of the city in the reign of Valentinian I., and, after
holding
all
The
the high
offices,
survived in the year
still
was prolonged through a succession of

Symrnachi appear in the
distinguished descendants.
A female descendant
Fasti as consuls in 446 and 485.
of the orator was the wife of the great Boethius, and
2
the mother of the two consuls of 522.
Q. Aurelius
382.
line
Symmachus, the author
of the letters, married a daughter
Memmius
Vitrasius Orfitus, who was Urban prefect in

the reign of Constantius.
He was trained in speaking,
as so many young Komans of that age were, by a Gallic
of
and in his early youth he formed

professor of rhetoric ;
a close friendship with the poet Ausonius at the court of
4
His earliest efforts in oratory
Valentinian on the Khine.
were panegyrics on that Emperor, and on Gratian,
delivered at Treves during the campaigns against the
Alemanni.
The oratory of Symmachus was greatly
admired by his contemporaries, 5 and he was repeatedly

1
Seeck's Sym. xli.
For the
career of L. Aur. Avianius Symmachus see O.I.L. vi. 1698.
2
Rusticiana, the wife of Boethius,
boars the name of her great-greatgrandmother, the wife of Q. Aure-
liua
Symmachus
Symmachi
of the
Sym. Ep.
cf.
the
Stemma
in Seeck, xl.
ix. 88.
lb.
xvii.,
Ep.
dum
i.
in
32
Auson. Ep.
comitatu degimus
;
ambo.
6
He was entrusted with the
choice of a professor of rhetoric for
Milan ; his choice fell on S. Augus-
23 ;
Aug. Conf. v. c. 13,
Macrob. v. 1, 7 ; Prudent, c.
tine.
cf.
Sym.
i.
632.
CHAP,
THE SOCIETY OF SYMMACHUS
ii
145
to put before the Emperor the views of the

Senate on questions of the day. His speech on the
removal of the Altar of Victory is not unworthy of his
selected
and has acquired additional interest from the

of his kinsman Ambrose and the poet Prudentius.
fame,
replies
dedicated by Q. Fab. Memmius

inscription
the
to
memory of the great senator recites a
Symmachus
The
long
which he had
of offices
list
held.
He
had been
governor of several provinces, prefect of the city, pontiff

He was admittedly the chief of the Senate.
and consul.
/Yet probably no public

I
collection of letters of so
man
ever left behind
him
In an
general interest.
age of great conflicts and great changes, it is startling
to find
to his correspondents
Either the government was very
Symmachus complaining
lack of
of
little
matter.
or
reticent,
Symmachus
and
his
unobservant or careless of public
circle
affairs.
|
were
very
The Senate
treated by the emperors with ceremonious

and possessed many valuable privileges.
But
after the great reorganisation by Diocletian, it had ceased
to have any share in the government. ( Like the consulship, it remained as one of those dignified fictions by
which the Koman disguised the vastness of the change
It was
which separated him from the days of freedom.
indeed part of the policy of Stilicho to consult and pay
deference to the Senate, and in the troubled years of
Alaric's invasions that body appeared more than once to
But these were
exercise some independent authority.
only the illusions of a moment.
Occasionally the
was
still
respect,
Emperor condescended
men
of which, to
like
to send it a despatch, the arrival

of the
Symmachus, was an event
That not a moment might be lost, the

importance.
august body would sometimes be summoned before dawn
first
C.I.L.
Ep.
parentes
vi.
10
etiam
iii.
quae nunc angusta vel nulla sunt,
1699.
in familiares paginas conferebant.

3
On this government monopoly
35, at olim
patriae negotia,
cf. ii.
of
news
v.
Peter Gesch. Litt.
i.
363.
-**
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
146
to
BOOK n
hear the formal words of some despatch which may

1
little deserved such eager haste.
To be chosen to
have
read
assembled nobles was a coveted honour,
to the
it
and Symmachus,
to
whom
the task often
fell, is
full
of
gratitude at being made the interpreter of the "divine

2
But all this was purely formal Eomejbad
words."
j
Not a
long ceased to be the real seat of government.
single rescript in the time of Symmachus is dated from
When
Home.
Honorius paid his triumphal
visit in
403,
the palace of the Caesars at Eome had been practically

deserted for a hundred years.
While couriers were
arriving day and night at Milan or Eavenna,
imperial council were deliberating on the latest
and the
demands
City, the hearth of the Kornan

of its gods, in whose name the whole vast
of Alaric, the Eternal

race, the
home
system was carried on, had almost as
little
influence on
the course of government as Tibur or Praeneste.

Now
and then a feeling of neglect and desertion breaks out, as
in the appeal of Claudian to the Emperor to return to his
true
home on
the Senate
the Palatine.
soothed, as
is
Occasionally the pride of

it was consulted about
when
the war with
Gildo.
moment when
the barbarian
hopes were
Its
roused
for
conqueror raised Attains

6
to the purple.
But, as a rule, a dull, gray atmosphere
seems to brood over the high society of Eome, and we
cannot
how men
help wondering
like
Probus,
after
governing provinces larger than any kingdom of modern

Europe, could be content with the frigid dignity and the
emptiness of their lives in the capital.
1
Sym. Ep. i. 13,

albente concurrittir.
2
Ib.
i.
95.
He
nondum
asks
caelo
to
Syagrius
thank the emperors " qui humanae
voci divinas literas crediderunt."
s De
ro
7>, Sexto
e w/, Cons.
^/vc Honor.
TT
QQ 53.
39,
of the
year
397, consult! igitur in senatu
more
Sym. Ep.
iv.
5,
majorum, ingenti
causae
sententiis satisfecimus.
5
Zos. vi. 6, 7.
6
Sex. Petr. Probus
devotis
had
been
procons. of Africa, 357-58 ; praef.

Praet of Ital7> Etyn&, and Africa,
68 _ 76
of âul, 380 ; of Italy
C.LL. vi.
again, 383-84, and 387.
1752, 1753.
-
CHAP,
ii
147
Senate no doubt was impotent and ill-informed.

Yet the calm silence of Symmachus in the face of dangers
IfThe
and calamities, which must have struck the most unobis
servant,
of the
very puzzling.^ It
member
in a confidential
peril
It
Eome
of
letter,
be the proud reserve

which will not hint, even
may
of a great race,
that
the
commonwealth
is
in
may be also that unshaken faith in the destiny

which, only a few years after her capture by
Alaric, inspired the last true poet of Eome to celebrate

her beneficence and, clemency, and to predict for her an
1
feeling was shared to some extent
unending sway,
|The
2
even by Christian writers like S. Augustine and Orosius.
(There is a tendency on all sides to treat- t-Th Q ^^flîng.
troubles of the time as only a passing cloud, as necessary
incidents in an imperial career, not worse than Rome had
often surmounted in past ages.
Yet, in spite of these

a letter from Symto
read
startling
to his son in the year 402, the year of the great
it is
considerations,
machus
battles of Pollentia
the invaders.
to
nouncement
and Verona, which makes no allusion
He
confines himself to the bare an-
owing to the unsafe state

he has had to make a long detour in order
reach the Court at Milan.
There are a good many glimpses of the state of Eome
of the fact that,
of the roads,
to
But we
during the anxious years of the G-ildonic revolt.
learn more from Claudian than from Symmachus about
the meditated transfer of the African provinces to the
Eastern Empire.
/Symmachus
is
concerned chiefly with
the dignity of his order and the condition of the capital.
was a proud day when Stilicho had to report the

4
opinion of the Senate on the conduct of Gildo, and when
more majorum the traitor was voted to be a public
It
We
enemy.
1
Rutil.
have
Namat.
i.
many
illustrations of Claudian's
47-140.
'
Orosius,
ii.
2, 6.
Sym. Ep. vii. 13 cf. Seeck,

Ixiii.
The detour was made by
;
com-
Ticinum, which lay on the west, to

avoid the eueiny coming from the
east.
4
Sym. Ep.
iv. 5.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
148
1
"pascimur
plaint,
arbitrio Mauri."
BOOK
II
The African corn-
ships ceased to reach Ostia with their wonted regularity,

and the terror of famine spread among the mob of Rome. 2
The masses were becoming sullen and dangerous.

were all the signs of a coming storm.
Numbers
There
of the
higher families were flying to the safe seclusion of their

country seats, and Symmachus prepared to send away his
children from the capital.
As
the chief author of the
condemnation of Gildo, he had himself to withdraw for a

4
while to one of his villas.
The distress was temporarily
relieved by an oblatio of twenty days' supplies made by
the Senate.
And
again
Symmachus
describes the delight
on the Tiber, he saw the corn

6
arrive.
But there are few indications that he realised the grave social and economic
dangers which are revealed by the Theodosian Code.
He once casually mentions that he is debarred from the
with which, from his
fleet from Macedonia
of
enjoyment
7
his
There
villa
country seat by the prevalence of

is a slight touch of feeling in a
brigandage.
reference to the gloomy appearance of the country which
met his eyes in one of his excursions. 8 Yet one would
never gather from the passage that hundreds of thousands

of acres in once smiling districts had returned to waste.
The
letters of
Symmachus,
if
they had told us more of
public events, might have been among the

documents in historical literature.
As it
their chief
what they rather stintedly reveal of the

and tone^pf the class to which Symmachus be-
value
life
most precious
is,
lies
in
we see it for the last time apparently

the possession of enormous wealth, great administrative power, and exquisite social culture, seem-
longed.
secure
De
"Here
latrociniis suburbanites.
Bell. Gildon. v. 70.
Sym. Ep.
Ib.
Ib.
Ib.
Ib.
Ib.
vi.
14
cf. vi.
18,
ii.
8 Ib. v. 12.
6,
It should be said that he appears

have appended to some of his
vi. 26, 66, 21.

vi. 66.
to
vi. 12, 26.
letters a separate bulletin, contain-
ing the news of the day
in. 55, 82.

ii.
22, sed
nunc intuta
eat
ii.
25.
cf.
Ep.
CHAP,
ii
149
ingly without a thought of the storm which was about to

break. )
The
senatorial order
was
essentially a wealthy_jcJaaL..
considerable prohad_pjoe_to include nearly all the

1
in
and
the
And, as we shall
prietors
Italy
provinces.
It
see in another chapter, the wealth and social

as what may be
members were increasing
power
of its
called
the
rapidly declined in numbers

and pecuniary independence.
Of course there were many
of
in
ranks
of the senators. I That
the
degrees
opulence
middle
class (the curiales)
some were comparatively poor is evident from the fact

that a certain number were relieved of the full weight of
2
But we have express testimony, apart
imperial imposts.
from indirect evidence, that the wealth of others was
3
A senatorial income of the highest class,
enormous.
exclusive of what was derived from the estates in kind,
4
sometimes reached the sum of
180,000, and that at a
time when the ordinary rate of interest was 12 per cent.
More moderate incomes, such as_that of Symmachus,
Symmachus had at least
amûntedjbg^6. QJljQILaêar.
three great houses in Eome or the suburbs, and fifteen
5
He had
country seats in various districts of Italy.
The
large estates in Samnium, Apulia, and Mauretania.
tenure of a great office in the provinces gave a man the
chance of acquiring such domains.
Ammianus Marcellinus speaks of the estates of Sex. Petron. Probus as
6
scattered all over the Empire, and he broadly hints that
1
Th.
2
ii. 38
cf. Duruy, vii.
and Godefroy's Paratitlon to
Zos.
176,
p.
0.
vi. tit. ii.
0.
Th.
44
(Miill.
4
Marq. Rom. Alt. ii. p. 55; cf.
Duruy, v. p. 598, on the fortunes of
the earlier Empire.
Pallas, the
freedman of Claudius' reign, had
ef.
Friedlander,
i.
>
vi. 2, 4, 8.
Olympiod. ap. Phot.
300,000,000 sesterces =
For the various seats of Symmachus u Seeck, xlvi. some may

have come to him by his wife from
Or fit us
3,
p. 192.
200, 000,
Amm.
Marc. xxvu. 11, 1, opum

amplitudine cognitus orbi Romano,
per quern universum paene patrimonia sparsa possedit, juste an secus
non judicioli est nostri. Pliny (H.

N. xviii. 35) alleges that half of
Roman Africa was owned by six persons.
For a description of such an
estate v. Boissier, UAfr.Rvm. p. 150.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
150
BOOK n
that great noble had not always acquired them by the

means.
The elder Sallustius, when he was
fairest
vicarius of Spain about 364, probably acquired the property in that province which his son enjoyed a generaThe wealth of
tion later, in the time of Symmachus.
who abandoned it all to accompany S. Jerome

2
Bethlehem, of S. Paulinus, and many others of the
Roman nobility, is known to us from Christian sources.
Paula,
to
The fervour of asceticism may have led S. Jerome to

overdraw his picture of Eoman luxury. But there is one
department of expenditure in which the letters of Symmachus reveal an almost reckless profusion. The praetorwhich every young senator of the highest r.laaa had
8
was one of the heaviest burdens on the senatorial class, so heavy that some of them preferred to
ship,
\
to assume,
It had, like
resign their order rather than undertake it.
the consulship, long ceased to confer any power or
authority. ( It remained as a disguised form of taxation

for the pleasures of the mob of the capital. ) The younger
Symmachus was still a mere boy in the hands of a tutor,

when he was designated for this expensive honour of
The games which the
amusing the rabble of Eome.
young praetor had to provide cost his father a sum equal
4
to
So far from complaining of
90,000 of our money.
the expense, his father
is
eager to seize the opportunity
1
C.l.L.vi. 1729. The monument
records the gratitude and admiration of the Spaniards.
It is dated
in the consulship of Jovianus Aug.
and Varronianus (364). Flav. Sallustius had been cons. ord. in 363,
and praet. praef. 361-3 ; cf. Amm.
Marc. xxi.
The herds
8,
1.
Sym. Ep.
clvi.
neiP
"SS;P
qU
Greg. Tur. de Glor.

the wealth of Paula
On
Hieron. Ep. 108,
v.
0.
Th.
5.
vi. tit. iv.
with the Para-
titlon.
4
.
Seeck,
xlvi.
Probus,
shortly
after the death of

;
Honorms, in spite
enormous losses caused by the
Gothic invasion, is said to have
expended 54,000 on a similar occa*
'
2
The wealth of Paulinus
alluded to in Aus. Ep. xxiv. 115
v.
Conf. 107.
v. 56.
of horses referred to were
on the Spanish estates, Seeck,

cf. Sym. Ep. ix. 12
His wife Therasia was enormously

wealthy,
is
:
mUm lacerateque
perdominosveterisPaulliniregnafleamus.
^ ne
sion.
Maximus spent
Olympiod.
ii.
p. 21.
44;
cf.
180.000.
Friedlander,
CHAP,
ii
of gaining popularity with the crowd,

His time
scorn any idea of parsimony.
151
and rejects with

and energies are
devoted for several years to the preparations for the

spectacle which is to usher his son into the career of
life.
Symmachus, in everything a devotee of the
was nowhere more conservative than in his belief
in the ancient games.
He had put aside the conventional tone of servility in demanding from the reluctant
Theodosius the performance of what he regarded as an
3
But when the
imperious duty to the commonwealth.
occasion arrived he was ready to act up to his own prin-
public
2
past,
Many of his letters are full of the coming games.

appeals to his friends in all parts of the world to
assist him.
Lions and crocodiles from Africa, dogs from
ciples.
He
Scotland, horses from the famous studs of Spain, are
all
and the most anxious provision is made for

4
their conveyance from these distant regions.
(The gladiatorial shows had not yet been suppressed by Christian
sentiment, and Symmachus was determined to have a
band of Saxons, 5 to crown the success of his games.) He
sought
for,
puts as much seriousness into the business as if it affected

the very existence of the State. 6
His anxiety is over-
In spite, however, of all his care and profupowering.

sion, there were many accidents and disappointments.
Some of the animals arrived half dead from the hardships
of their long journey.
Many of the splendid Spanish
had either perished by the way, or were hope-
coursers
lessly disabled.
The
would not eat and had
crocodiles
to be killed.
Sicily,
1
Chariot-drivers and players, expected from

were, in spite of all searches along the coast,
Sym. Ep.
ii.
78.
Cf. ix.
126;
78.
ii.
For an example of his conservatism v. ii. 36, opposing a decision

of the pontifical college to allow the
Vestals to erect a statue to Praetex-
sed ea
misit.
4
jj 't
77 .
6 ,/
lb
'
tatus.
3
lb.
vestri
Ed.
6,
beneficia
numinis
populus Romanus expectat
jam quasi debita repetit
quae aeternitas vestra sponte pro-
9
7
^-
Cf. ltd. 9.
j v>
j x>'
..
'
58 . 60> 63
132.
AR
46
iv - 8
'
>
lb. v. 56.
60
ix>
12
75
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
152
nowhere
to be heard of.
The most
cruel
BOOK n
blow
of all
was
the loss of the Saxon gladiators, who, declining to make

sport for the rabble of Kome, strangled one another before
the hour of their humiliation in the arena arrived.
I
This
is
Symmachus
the most interesting passage in the life of

The world he
as revealed in his letters.
was the slava of old tradition and conventionality, and, with all its splendour, must have
suffered from ennui.] The great man's day, just as in
Pliny's time, was filled by a round of trivial social
observances, which were as engrossing and as obligatory
8
as serious duties.
The crowd of morning callers and
/
All the
had
to
be received as of old.
dependants
anniversaries in the families of friends had to be duly
If a friend obtained from
remembered and honoured.
belongs to
the Emperor the distinction of one of the old republican

magistracies, it was an imperative social duty to attend
his inauguration. 4
The service of the Sacred Colleges
was another social obligation, 5 although Symmachus hints
broadly that some of his colleagues in the pontifical
were inclined to flatter the Court by absenting

6
and even Flavianus and Praetextatus, who
were pagans of the pagans, sometimes excused themselves
college
themselves
country seats or at some pleasure

In nothing \verp thfl demands o
Campania.
more
etiquette
imperious than in letteirwritinff.
Again
K'and again Symmachus recalls the rule of "old-fashioned
by absence
at
their
resort in
manners," that the friend who goes from home should be

the first to write. 8
It matters not whether he has any1
2
8
JEp. yi. 42.
Ib.
ii.
Two
46.
generations
later
than
si fors Laribus egrediebantur, artabat clientum praevia

circumfusa
pedisequa
populositas,
que quidem,
Sid.
Ep.
i.
9, 3.
Sym. Ep.
jb i 47
,,'
'.
i.
-->
101.
48.
at
T I* imini
4/, 51; 11. 53,
tmimmunusinjungis: frueredehciis
nos mandata curabimua.
copiosis
;
8 2b.
vi. 60.
CHAP,
ii
153
Indeed, it is hard to see why a great

thing to say.
of these letters should have been written at all.
many
are about as interesting as a visiting card, and seem

have had no more significance than a polite attention.
The stiffness of etiquette, which was introduced into
official life by Diocletian, and which invaded the legal
They
to
style of the imperial rescripts, reigns in the correspondence

of the period, even between near relations.
The con-
servatism of Syrnmachus, indeed, revolts against the newfangled habit of prefixing titles to a friend's name in a
familiar letter. 1
Still,
his
own
son
"
amabilitas tua,"
That there were warm
"
is
and his daughter domina filia."

and a kindly unselfish nature behind
affections
artificial stiffness in
With him and
afterwards.
Symmachus we
the case of
all
this
shall see
his caste the habit of social
observance,
complicated and engrossing, had
become a second nature, without always freezing the
however
springs of natural kindliness.

Yet the cold dignity of the
life
in those palaces on
and Aventine, with its endless calls to

frivolous social duties, and its monotony of busy idleIt was not,
ness, must have grown irksome at times.
the
Caelian
the
coolness
of
Praeneste,
perhaps,
altogther
abandon
of Baiae, or the boar-hunting in the
the gay
woods of
Laurentum, that tempted the fashionable world away

from the attractions of Rome,
Symmachus loves Eome,
with all its turbulence, even in times of scarcity and
8
on the
tumult, and he will linger in a suburban villa
chance of being summoned to a meeting of the Senate
but even he feels the need of repose and emancipation
from the tyranny of society. ) At one of his country
j
houses, he
man
is
will ever
happy as such a stately self-contained

show himself, looking after the making of
as
Sym.J^p.iv.30,itaneepistularum
nostrarum simplex usus
interiit,
ut
paginis tuis lenocinia aevi praesentis

anteferas? redeamus quin ergo ad
infucatos
2
nominum
titulos.
60, 80
Ep. i. 6, 7, 10, 11, 13.
8
Ep. ii. 57, vii. 21.
II. vii.
6, vi.
cf Ruric,
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
154
BOOK n
and wine, laying down a fresh mosaic, receiving a

friend or two, or drinking in the quiet freshness of the
his oil
Laurentine woods that overhang the sea. 1

There is no
2
trace in his letters that nature has for him any of the
romantic charm which
Ausonius and Eutilius.

sportsman even in his youth.
its stillness and repose, for the
relief it gave from the monotonous strain of social duty
which was doubly oppressive to his kind and conscientious
nature.
Above all, it gave him leisure for converse with
it
had
for
He was not much of a

He loved the country for
old favourites of his library.

Among^ the best men of the pagan or semi -pagan
aristocracy of that time the passion for literature or
^
erudition was absorbing.

With many of them it took
the place of interest_in public affairs.
The company
whom Macrobius brings together in his Saturnalia were
Koman
the leaders of
Praetextatus, Flavianus,
society
two members
himself.
of the great house of the Albini, Symmachus

They are joined by other guests of lower social
rank, but equals in the literary brotherhood, Eustathius,

a Greek professor of rhetoric, and Servius, the prince
of Roman critics.
Praetextatus, the arch-hierophant,
initiated
in
all
the cults
of
and Egypt,
Syria
Flavianus is
exponent of priestly lore.
that augural art which led him to his
is
the
the master of
doom when he
espoused the cause of Eugenius and paganism against the

Church.
The Albini enlarge on the antiquarian exactness
3
of Virgil.
There was no originality in the literary
enthusiasm of these men.
It
was an enthusiasm which
force in preserving and appreciating what the

spent
of
creation
and inspiration had left behind. 4 Praeages
its
J^p.
in otio
ii.
26 iii. 23, nunc hie
nisticamur et multimodis
;
autnrnnitate defrummr
vii. 15, 18 ; vi. 44.
2
.
cf.
vii.
31
112 sqq.
Macrob. L 17, 1
4
On the tastes
3
Ib. v. 78, agri quiete delector

.
saepe oculos pasco culturis ;
Plin. Ep. i. 9 ; Friedlander, ii.
p.
labours
i.
24, 17-19.
and
learned
of
this circle cf. Peter,

Gesch. Litt. iller die Horn. Kaiserzeit^
p. 137
xxii. sqq.
i.
Jan, ProL ad Macrob.
CHAP,
ii
155
textatus, besides giving much attention to the emendation

of the classics, translated the Analytics of Aristotle. 1
Flavianus was
an erudite historian, and

volume of Annals 2 dedicated to Theodosius.
composed a
His transla-
tion of the Life of Apollonius of Tyana by Philostratus

was in vogue in the time of Sidonius, and fragments of
his de Doymatibus Philosophorum were still read in the
Middle Ages. 3
Sallustius, another great person of the
circle of Symmachus, is known to have emended the
4
text of Apuleius.
A great noble in Spain, who had a
famous stud, from which Symmachus drew a contribution for his son's games, seems to have combined in a
rare fashion a taste for horse-breeding with a taste for

and begs the orator for a copy of his speeches. 5
literature,
Symmachus had many literary friends in Gaul, most of

them mere names to us now. Among them were three
&
brothers who had been trained in the great school of
Treves.
One of them had the honour of receiving the
dedication of Claudian's
Rape of Proserpine?
Another,
Protadius, affects a great taste for sport, but is really a

litterateur, with an ambition to write the history of his
province.
Symmachus, in his friendly way, helped him
with advice and some materials from his library. 8

If the
history of Protadius was ever written, it shared the fate
of many another work of that age of which the
cruelty
or contempt of time has not left even a trace.
There
was no doubt much vanity and love of mutual admiration under all this literary activity.
But in our own
day the apotheosis

1
.
Sym. Ep.
.
libris
libenter
i.
of self-advertising mediocrity is
53, remissa
veterum
tempera
ruminandis
cf.
C.I.L. vi.
expendis
1779, d, vel quae periti condidere
carmina, vel quae solutis vocibus
aunt edita, meliora reddis quam
Seeck's Sym.
legendo sumpseras.
Ixxxvii. n. 394.
2
G.I.L. vi. 1783 ; cf. 1782, histori co disertissimo.
;
Sid.
Ep.
viii.
cf.
not
Seeck,
cxv.
4
note to the Laurentian

of Apuleius quoted in Seeck,
clvi. ; Hildebrand's Prol. ad Apv.1.
Cf. the
MS.
Ixi.
B
Sym. Ep.
iv. 60, 63, 64.
lb. iv. 18-56.
'
De Haptu Proserp.
Sym. Ep.
iv. 18.
ii.,
praef. 50.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
156
BOOK n
What literary clique can cast

altogether unheard of.
the first stone ?
And, after all, it is better to be vain of
knowledge and literary facility than of wealth or birth.
The very weakness shows a deference for ideals which
rise above the level of bourgeois self-complacency, or of
the stolid pride of inherited rank.
/
Symmachus was a good man according to his lights,
And one of his
but he was not a very strong man.
/
t^
He evidently took
weaknesses was literary affectation.
enormous pains with these letters. ) He had, as he confesses, little to say but he says if in the most elaborate
Yet he
and ingenious style of which he ia napablf*
and
of
talent
more
than
for
his
once
poverty
apologises
that
falsehood
the
and
he
of
is
amusing
phrase,
guilty
his style is unstudied. 1
To one of his correspondents
he appeals to keep the letter for his own reading, yet
in the same letter he admits that his secretaries, "per
examinis ignorantiam," are preserving copies of what he
2
writes.
Perhaps, however, this was not all vanity and
It is possible to have a modest conception
affectation.
f
of one's native talent, along with the ambition that the

fruits of elaborate care and cultivation should survive.
true
le
past,
Ghelive
)
Eoman, who reverenced the great memories of

had a passionate, though often a futile, desire
in the
memory
The
of
coming
ages.
which
in
conversations
literary
intimate friends of
some
of
the
Symmachus take part in the Saturnalia of Macrobius (although the matter is often borrowed
from Gellius and
earlier writers)
probably give a fairly
correct idea of the literary tone and interests of that

The subject will be dealt with at length in
circle.
another chapter.
For the present
1
Ep. i. 14 iv. 27, sum quidem
pauper loquendi.
2
Ib. v. 85, quare velim tibi habeas quae incogitata proferimus.
Of. his advice to his son to culti;
it
is sufficient
to say
vate a certain negligence of style

in his letters, a precept which
Symmachus did not enforce by
example,
*
vii. 9.
Peter, Gesch. Liit.
i.
p. 143.
CHAP,
ii
157
that the literary criticism iu Macrobmsjis^ far from con-
temgtiHe^^ The minute antiquarianism, indeed, may seem

But to a Eoman, like
us sometimes rather trifling.
Praetextatus, who was still loyal to the faith of his
ancestors and to the past, every scrap of the ancient
And in the minute and
lore of his race was precious.
to
often delicate appreciation, not only of the learning, but

of the literary beauties of Virgil, we are compelled to
forgive and almost to forget the blindness and perversity
of a generation who admired the great masters, and yet
wrote in a style which they would have thought utterly

And it must be confessed that there is much
grotesque.
Equipped by the study of the great masterand

the
most elaborate training, they yet came
pieces
to write a style which is in many cases a mixture of
imitation, affectation, and barbarism. \Ingenuity took
the place of originality, extravagance and exaggeration
of real force.
Style, in fact, became a mere "jargon of
the initiated were never weary of ex\And
experts."
In a letter to
the
most
fulsome flattery.
changing
his friend Ausonius about his poem on the Moselle,
Symmachus, while he gently ridicules the minute description of the fishes of that river, yet has no hesitation
1
in ranking his friend with Virgil.
The poet returned
to forgive.
by attributing to the oratory of Symforce and graces of the oratory of

2
In the year 3*78
Isocrates, Demosthenes, and Cicero.
8
a Greek rhetorician named Palladius arrived in Some.
The fashionable and cultivated world were carried away
the compliment
machus all the
"
by his declamation, his wealth of invention, his dignity

and brilliance of diction." If we are inclined to despise
such unreal displays, and such extravagant eulogy, it is
well to remember that admiration for mental power, even
1
i. 14,
ego hoc tuum carmen
Maronis adjungo.
Auson. Ep. xvii.
Ep.
libris
*
ccii.
Sym.
i.
15,
ix.
cf.
Seeck,
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
158
BOOK n
when
misapplied, is better than a Philistine contempt

for things of the mind. [.The aristocratic class in the
last age of the Western Empire had many faults, but
they treatejMadeSt and culture as at least the equals

of wealth and rank j^ and there has seldom been an
(<>
when
and culture received higher rewards.

Symmachus recommended the brilliant rhetor to the
notice of Ausonius, who was then Pretorian prefect.
rPalladius was readily enrolled in the ranks of the
imperial service, and within three or four years had
1
In
risen to the great place of master of the offices.
the same year Marinianus, another literary friend of
Symmachus, who was a professor of law, rose to the
age
talent
,?
of vicar
of
the Spanish province.
/The poet
the most brilliant example in that age of
the recognition of literary eminence by the State.
It
dignity
Ausonius
is
has been said with some truth that the reign of Gratian
was quite as much the reign of Ausonius.
Originally
jf
a humble grammarian in the school of Bordeaux, he was

Ausonius
appointed by Valentinian his son's tutor.
possessed the gifts which were then the most admired
infinite facility, the power of giving novelty and importance to trifles by ingenious tricks of phrase, the art of
flattering
'
The young Emperor
with literary grace.
re-
paid the care and recognised the talents of his teacher

8
by raising him to the quaestorship, the prefecture of the
and
in
to
the
illustrious
379
Gauls,
dignity of the consul-
ship as the colleague of Olybrius, a scion of one of the

,
proudest houses in the

1
Th.
Eoman
4 (382).
23-29.
Marinianus is the governor to whom
Gratian's constitution of 383 is
addressed (0. Th. ix. 1, 14).
He is
2
also
0.
vi. 27,
Sym. Ep.
iii.
probably the "viearius"
re-
ferred to in Sulp. Sev. CJiron. ii.

49, 3, as being preferred by the
Priscillianist heretics to Gregory
The
aristocracy.
relatives
Hence it has been

the prefect.
concluded that Marinianus was a
pagan.
3
ii.
Auson.
11,
te
Grat.
ac
Act.
patre
pro Cons.
principibus
quaestura communis et tui tantum

beueficii,
praefectura
Schenkl, Prooem. ix.
etc
cf.
CHAP,
ii
159
and friends of Ausonius shared in his advancement.

For two or three years nearly all the great prefectures
and governorships were held by members of the poet's
1
He has also left marks of his ascendency on
family.
the Code.
Ausonius, at the height of his power and his
renown, was faithful to the system of culture which had
And the famous rescript of 3V6, 2 which
moulded him.
provides for the payment of fixed stipends to the teachers
of grammar and rhetoric, was undoubtedly suggested by
the
old
There
professor of Bordeaux.
is
little
in the
which a modern reader
literary productions of that age
can admire, and they are only the wreckage of a great

mass of probably even less merit.
Yet the literary
brotherhood, of which Symmachus and Ausonius were
leaders, did a
service to humanity by their worship of

an kleal which their own productions seldom approach.
Flf the letters c^_Symmachus are to be taken as a fair
picture of the moral tone oThis class, we are bound, with
some reservations, to form a far more favourable opinion
of the state of Eoman society than that which is suggested
by S. Jerome or Ammianus Marcellinus. There are, it is
true, glimpses in
Symmachus
Koman cruelty,
common people,8 of
of the old
contempt for slaves and the

selfishness, and lack of public
of
The Saxons,
spirit.
brought at great expense from
the far north for his gladiatorial shows, killed one another
whom Symmachus had
or
the
committed
arena
suicide
arrived. 4
the
before
And
combat in
of
day
kind-hearted
the
usually
narrates the tragedy with a few words of
He and his friends fought hard to
contempt.
Symmachus
bitter
1
Seeck's
Sym.
Ixxiv.
Schenkl,
x.
2
C. Th. xiii. 3, 11.

The law
addressed to Antonius, which
a
for
mistake
Scaliger thought
Ausonius. Godefroy in his Com-
is
meutary refutes this conjecture.

Antonius was a correspondent of
Symmachus,
Ep.
i.
89-93.
Cf.
Seeck's Sym. cix.

'
Sym. Ep. vi. 8, ut est servis

familiaris improbitas.
But this
censure was probably deserved ; cf.
Salv. de Gub. Dei, iv.
26, c. 5 ;
Hieron. Ep. liv.
4
Sym.
Ib.
ii.
46.
* sfi&uy
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
160
BOOK n
avoid the levy of recruits from their estates at the crisis

and actually succeeded in arranging
1
for a composition in money.
They also showed what
of the Gildonic war,
seems an unworthy timidity in the riots caused by the

failure of the corn supplies from Africa.
They removed
their families to the country, and
preparations made for sending his
The same
selfish
wards in the
weakness
is
flight of the
Symmachus had all

own children away. 2
revealed a few years afterwealthy classes, when the

8
There is
troops of Alaric were closing round the city.
that
is
or
much, too,
revolting
contemptible in the
conduct of public men revealed in the chronicle of those
The cruelty and greed of Heraclian in his

treatment of the refugees who landed in his province of
Africa would be almost incredible if we had not the
fatal years.
of S. Jerome.
The party, led by
carried out the Catholic reaction against
the policy of Stilicho, seem to have been at once cruel,
It is difficult to say
incompetent, faithless, and corrupt.
express testimony
Olympius, who
whether blindness or perfidy
more conspicuous in the
is
Hondealings of the Eoman government with Alaric.

orius is probably responsible for some of this baseness
But the great officials who lent themstupidity.
selves to such a policy, if they did not prompt it, cannot
be acquitted.
The Gothic king was as much superior to
and
his
opponents in sincerity and insight as he was
in
material force.
Yet these vices and weaknesses

should not
in the official class
make us unjust
to that societylis" a whole.

Salvianus says that his generation flattered i'ift?f -on the
The guests in the Saturnalia of
purity of its morals?
1
Ep.
7;.
1001
Zl,
10. vi. 14,
Rutil.
tec
vi. 64.
-
Namat.
i.
331
multos lacera suscepit
fugatos.
Hieron. Ep. 130, 7. Heraclian

tlie assassin of Stilicho and the
friend Qf Olympius cf< the S pie n did
contrast of the charity of Laeta,
widow of Gratian, Zos. v. 39.
B
44.
was
aa
99.
ab
urbe
CHAP,
ii
161
Macrobius claim that their society is free from many of

the grosser forms of luxury and dissipation which pre1
The menu of the pontiff's

which Lentulus, Lepidus, Caesar, and the
Vestal Virgins were present, is treated as disgraceful in
2
Peacocks' eggs are not
its costly and fantastic variety.
8
There are no censors and
now even in the market.
consuls, like Hortensius and Lucullus, who spend a
fortune in stocking a fish pond, and who mourn the
The
death of a muraena as if it were a daughter. 4
vailed
among
their ancestors.
banquet, at
insanity
now
is
whichjansackedUand anj. sea foi^jiaw-iMnliiei

So far from buying them, we
quite unknown.
You will never see a

have forgotten their very names.
man now reeling drunk into the forum,5 surrounded by
loose companions, nor a judge on the bench so overcome
6
At
by wine that he can hardly keep his eyes open.
whose dinner party will you now ever see the dancing
?
Still less will persons of decent
themselves
breeding
indulge in that rage for the dance
which disgraced even the matrons of noble houses in the
introduced
girl
times of the Punic wars.
ment
in
There
the tone about the
the same improve-
is
actor's
profession,
even Cicero did not regard as disgraceful. 8

would nowadays associate on friendly terms
which
No
one
with
It is possible that this may be

a
the picture only of
more fastidious and refined circle,
Koscius, as Cicero did.
and that there were great houses where the festivities

were not so innocent as those described in the Saturnalia.
the testimony of Macrobius deserves at least to be
sighed
eut
against the invective of S. Jerome.
(The contempt for slaves expressed by

1
Macrob. Sat.
iii.
33
cf. iii.
II.
5
II.
8 Ib.
17,
12.
a
11-13, ipsa vero

eduliura genera quam dictu turpia ?
Ib.
iii.
13,
iii.
iii.
iii.
S.
Jerome and
15, 4.
16, 14.
16, 16,
vixprae vino
sus-
tinet palpebras.
1
Ib. iii. 14, 3-7 ; cf. ii. 1, 7.
8 Ib.
iii. 14, 11 ; cf. Friedlander,
Ib. iii. 13, 2, ova pavonum ...

quae hodie non dicam vilius sed
omnino nee veneunt.
ii.
p. 295.
,/
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
162
BOOK n
Salvianus 1
is not shared by the characters of JViacrobius.

certain Euangelus in the Saturnalia jeers at the notion
He is
that the gods should have any care for slaves. 2
taken to task by Praetextatus, the great pagan theologian

of the party.
Slaves, Praetextatus says, are
men
like
There is nothing in the name of slavery to

We are all the slaves of
excite horror and contempt.
ourselves.
.
God
The greatest in earthly state, the

Fortune.
The
in
have had to bear the yoke.
wisdom,
highest
slave is really our fellow servant, made of the same
or
elements, subject to the same chance and change, often

The real
with the spirit of the free man in his breast. 8
slave
is
the
servitude
man who
can
is in bondage to his passions.

be so shameful as that which is
No
self-
4
You should treat your slave as a man, even
imposed.
It is far better that he should love than
as a friend. 6
that he should fear you.
And how
often have these
despised wretches shown the noblest devotion to their

masters, in spite of all the cruelty and contempt with
which they have been treated
slave
has been
known
to personate his master who was in hiding, and

to submit to the stroke of the executioner in his place. 7
The
slave-girls of
Eome
once saved the honour of their
mistresses at the peril of their own, and were commemorated for ever in the Nonae Caprotinae. 8 It is quite true,
of course, that these ideas are not peculiar to the fourth
or the fifth century.
They can be traced back in some
form to Seneca, to Plato, to Euripides. 9 But they are
expressed with a sincerity and good feeling in Macrobius
1
Hieron. Ep. 54,
5; Salv. de
Gub. Dei, iv. 26, praecipitantes
nobilium
matrimoriiorum in
fastigia
cubilia obscena servarum
cf. iv.
Ib. i.
servi
amici.
47,
14.
Macrob. Sat. i. 11, 1, quasi

vero curent divina de servis.
8
4
Ib.
Ib.
turpior
i.
i.
11, 6-8.
11, 8, certe nulla servitus
quam
voluntaria.
/^
sunt?
Sen. Ep.
humiles
^^^
77i
*?'
1 1
"'
"i
36 '40.
ft
!'
** L
9
Cf.
immo
12.
11,
777 Eurip. Ion,

Helen, 730 ; cf. Boissier, Ed
Rom. ii. p. 363 Wallon, iii. p. 22.
854
PI. Leges, vi. p.
CHAP,
ii
163
which leave the impression that they are the convictions

and most thoughtful men of his time.
\ There is
nothing brighter and pleasanter in the Letters
of Symmachus than the tenderness of his family affections.
It is true that, with his ingrained conservatism,
he clings to the old Eoman idea of the womanly character.
The Koman matron from the earliest times had
secured to her by family religion a dignified and respected
She was to some extent the equal of her
position.
But the
husband in the management of the household.
of the best
sentiment of ancient
Eome
forbade her the lighter graces
She was expected to be grave,

self-contained, chiefly concerned with household duties,
In the
and the nurture of a sturdy and intrepid race.
early years of the Empire the ideal of woman's position
and character underwent a profound change.
The
change gave rise to many misunderstandings which were
the food of satire.
Biif. hp.r status, froth in law and in
and accomplishments.
fact, really rose^
There can be no doubt that the Eoman

sort, without becoming less virtuous
lady of the better
more accomplished and athad greater charm

and influence.
She became, more and more, the equal
and companion of her husband, and her influence on
The wife of the
public affairs became more decided.
and respected, became
With fewer
tractive.
far
restraints, she
1
younger Pliny, to take a typical instance, is the partner
in his -studies, she knows his books by heart, she shares
all his
there
thoughts, lln the last age of the

no deterioration in the .position
is
Western Empire
and influence of
In Christian families they cultivate sacred

and take the lead in works of charity and
sacomen^
learning,
Furiola founded a hospital. 2

Laeta, the widow
of Gratian, fed the starving populace of the Capital
mercy.
1
Pliii.
iv.
19.
He
says of his
wife, Calpurnia, accedit his
studimn
litterarum, quod ex mei
caritate
concepit.
Meos
libellos
habet,
ediscit
lectitat,
lander,
2
i.
etiam
p. 353.
Hieron. Ep. 77,
6.
cf.
Fried-
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
164
BOOK n
Serena, the
by the forces of Alaric.
wife of Stilicho, was an accomplished scholar, and was
regarded both by friends and enemies as a serious force
2
in politics.
Placidia, the mother of Valentinian III.,
during
its
siege
Gothic
after all her vicissitudes as the wife of a
chief,
probably wielded greater influence in her son's councils

than any statesman of the time.
On the pagan side,
Praetextatus has
left
an eternal memorial
an ideal
of
wedded union,
in which the wife gives not only love, but

intellectual support and sympathy to her husband. 8
The old-fashioned Symmachus would probably have

objected to his female relatives taking a prominent part
in any public movement.
He stoutly resisted the proof
the
vestals
to
a monument to his bosomraise
posal
4
He praises his daughter, when she

sends him a present of wool-work, for her likeness to the
Eoman matron of the great age, who sat among her
friend Praetextatus.
maids, directing
Symmachus,
them
for
all
at the spindle or the loom. 5

But
the
is
most
affectionate
of
that,
He
never forgets a birthday. 6

His daughter's
him
the
most
acute
gives
anxiety amid all his
cares.
her
He
sends
advice
for the care of
public
her health. 7
The nursery troubles of his little grandfathers.
illness
daughter occupy a good

solicitude
and
of his letters. 8
many
affection for his son are
But
his
even more marked.
When
the boy's first tutor dies, Symmachus takes endless

to
obtain one of equal merit, if possible a man who
pains
had been trained in the Gallic schools

1
Zos. v. 39.
Claudian, Laus Serenae, 147,
229
rV
"2,fp"f)va.v rj
Zos.
pdpovs /card
v.
pietate matris, conjugal! gratia,
38,
nexu
viro^lq.
Xa/3e
yepovcrla ola TOI)S /Sap-
TTJS 7r6\ecoj
dyayovvav.
36
Ib. vi. 67.

2b. vi. 79,
Paulina nostn pectons consortio

fomes pudoris, castitatis vinculum.
80
Ib. vi. 58;
i.
11
of. vi.
4;
vi.
48 49.
v. 33.
20. VI. 32.

'*-
dec-rum, qui maritalem torum

nectunt araicia et pudicis nexibus,
sororis, filiae modestia, etc.
*& "
fr
munus
He
of rhetoric. 9
Ep.
ix. 88.
chus had
Sy
fc
Himselff a Gallic
tutor
01,
CHAP.
II
sets himself to
165
rub up his own Greek in order to help

and he reluctantly declines an
1
his son in his reading,
invitation to the inaugural ceremony of a friend's consul2

ship, that the boy's studies may not be interrupted.
When
on a mission from the Senate to the Court

a time when the Goths were ravaging
Gaul,
Cisalpiue
Synimachus never fails on every oppor4
to
his son at Rome.
to
write
There is a pathetic
tunity
5
interest about one of these letters, which was probably
he
is
at
Milan,
at
when Synimachus was
trying, by a devious route,

Milan without encountering the barbarian
6
He was in bad health,7 and engaged on a
cavalry.
The letter contains not a
perilous and anxious mission.
written
reach
to
single reference to public or private affairs, but advises

the boy to correct a too solemn sententiousness in his
by putting into it more life and graceful

The
writer died soon afterwards,8 and almost
negligence.
his last wish for his son was that he might be richly
endowed with that literary culture which was the
epistolary style,
strongest passion of
Symmachus.
Symmachus may
not be a very interesting character,
are
certainly dull reading. fYet their

their tone of conventional etiquette
js
letters
v
v
polished brevity and

are apt to make us unjust to the writer. \ Wedded to a
past which was gone for ever, absorbed in the cold and
stately life
of a
class
which was doomed
to
political
impotence, struggling
ignore the significance of a
religious revolution which was already triumphant before
to
Ep. iv. 20, repuerascere enim

Cf.
Sidonius
jubet pietas.
reading Menander with his son (Ep.
iv. 12), and the advice addressed
nos
his
to
3
4
5
Ib. v. 96.
Symmachus was tor-
(vi.
4,
16;
vi.
73),
renum
dolore
discrucior.
8
Ib. v. 5.
Ib. vii. 13 ; cf. v. 94-95.
Ib. vii. 10, 14.
Ib. vii. 9.
Seeck's Sym. Ixxiii.

Peter (ii.
I
31) puts his death about 404.
cannot understand Teuffel's calculations in
How could
418, n. 3.
Symmachus have been Corrector
Lucaniac in 365 if he was born ID
Ib. vii. 13.
350
grandson
by
Ausonius,
Idyl. iv.
2
tured with gout and renal disease
Cf. Seeck, xliv.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
166
BOOK n
he may appear, to a careless reader, a mere

a shadowy and feeble representative of an effete
order. (jYet the man's very faithfulness to that order
his death,
fossil,
And his faithfulness, and

gives_him aL pathetic interest.
tEatof the scEobno~wt[ich he belonged, is the sign of a
So far as
certain strength and elevation of character.
the imperial despotism permitted him, he did his duty to
He was
the State.
the most loyal and helpful friend,
always ready with influence or advice, and always mindful to "keep his friendships in repair." I His friends
Eoman society, Christian or

of
barbarian generals,
provinces,
great
pagan, governors
of
and
men
letters.
struggling
lawyers,
They all
were among the leaders of
regarded him as the chief ornament of the senatorial

order, the greatest orator of his time, a paragon of all
1
the virtues.
Commanding such universal respect, and
surrounded by family
affection,
Symmachus enjoyed
subdued happiness. fHe was the witnaaa indp.P.d

of great changes, which shocked and wounded old conservative and patriotic feeling,
gut he never lost his
of
Kome.
faith
in
the
destiny
placid
/Although he was a
devoted pagan, he would not deny that his Christian
another avenue to "the Great
friends had found
certain
\And a true charity will not refuse to him

the same tolerant hope, [lie is almost the last Eoman of
the old school, and, as we bid him farewell, we seem to
Mystery."
be standing in the wan, lingering light of a late autumnal

sunset.">
1
Alison. Ep. xvil, quid enim
aliud es quam ex omni bonarum
1699
artium ingenio collecta perfectio ?

Prudent, c. Sym. i. 632 ; G.LL. vi.
Eel. 3, uno itinere non potest

perveniri ad tarn grande secretum.
5.
2
cf.
Apoll. Sidon. Ep.
ii.
10,
CHAPTEE
III
/P
THE SOCIETY OF AQUITAINE IN THE TIME OF AUSONIUS
Koman society which we have to

to
the
reader
the scene is changed, but hardly
present
the time.
from
the society of Symmachus to
pass
FIN the next view of
We
the
society
friend
his
of
Bordeaux.
of
Ajisonius
Bordeaux was remote from the seat of Empire, but it

had a university, which in the fourth century was one
of the most famous in the Eoman world, and it was also
a great centre of commerce^ Aquitaine must have
suffered much, like the rest of Gaul, in the invasions and
1
But all traces of them
confusions of the third century.
had vanished, and men had almost forgotten that evil
In the poems of Ausonius Aquitaine is a land of
time.
and
peace
plenty, of vineyards and yellow cornfields, and
The poet can bestow no higher
palatial country seats.
on
the
of
Moselle than to compare its
the
praise
valley
charms to the richness and beauty of his native Garonne. 2
The characteristics of the old Celtic or Iberian stocks in
8
The
south-western Gaul were still strongly marked.
ancient language had been spoken by the grandfathers
4
of Ausonius and his friends.
Yet the Aquitaine of
|
o.
Vop. Aurel.
13,
cum
c.
Vop. Prob.
...
(barbari)
per
omnes Gallias securi vagarentur.
The ruins of Ilerda in Spain (Auson.
Ep. xxv. 58) are thought to be
results of the invasion.
2
Idyl. x. 160.
8 Alison.
4
Parent, iv.
Auson. Idyl.
promptus Latio
Dial.
i.
27,
ii.
;
tu
9,
sermone im-
Sulp. Sev.
vero vel Celtice
cf.
aut, si mavis, Gallice loquere ; cf.

Fauriel, i. p. 434 ; F. de Coulanges,
La
Gaule
Rom.
pp.
128-130;
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
168
BOOK n
Ausonius was thoroughly Eomanised.

Its Latin was
the purest spoken in Gaul.
Its school of rhetoric had
great renown, and sometimes furnished a professor to the
1
schools of Eome and Constantinople.
Its most brilliant
had
won
his
to
the
professor
consulship and the
way
of the West.
The most intimate rewere maintained between the academic society
Bordeaux and the literary nobles of the Capital.
great
prefecture
lations
pf
llf
aith in the stability of the
is
perfectly untroubled.
Empire and Eoman culture
There
is
not a hint of those
dim
hordes, already mustering for their

within twenty years will be established
advance,
who
on the banks
of the Garonne.
The poems
Ausonius are of priceless value to one

the tone and manner of provincial
^
li&T~m the last age of the W estern Umpire.
And the
all
with
his
a
is
~Efmseli,
faults,
poet
very interesting
He often wastes his skill on unworthy subperson.
He is vain, and will flatter extravagantly the
jects.
vanity of others. \ Paying a cold and conventional
deference to the Christian faith, 2 he is still a literarypagan, incapable of understanding any one who yields to
the higher mystic and spiritual
impulsesî The charm
of society and of literature satisfies all his longings.
But he has many virtues. Beginning life as a humble
teacher, he rose to the highest place which any subject
wishes to
of the
of
know
Empire could
attain.
Yet he remained true
to
his profession and proud of it.

There is no such gallery
of academic portraits in literature as he has left us.
The
honours of the great world never for a moment shook his

And he is also most
supreme attachment to letters.
Jullian, Ausone, p. 9. Fauriel and
de Coulanges differ as to the inter-
pretation of the passage in Sulp.

Sev. ; cf. Apoll. Sid. Ep. iii. 3,
sermonis Celtici squamam depositura nobilitas.
1
Auson. Parent, iii. 1C
Prof.
;
Burdig. i. 3 Jullian, Ausone, p. 92.

2
Ephemeris, Idyl. i. 16 cf. his
doubts about personal immortality,
Praef. Prof. Burdig. xxiii. 13
;
Parent, xv. 11.

3
See his letters to S. Paulinas,
especially E\>. xxv. 50 sqq.
THE SOCIETY OF A USONIUS
CHAP, in
169
He
blood and old friendship.
faithful to the ties of
has
immortalised a family circle who, but for him, would

have never emerged from the dim crowd of provincial
The portraits
coteries, who vanish and leave no trace.
1
of his grandfather, the last of the old Aeduan diviners,
2
of his father, the Stoic physician of Bordeaux, of that
throng of female relatives, wanting, perhaps, in brightness
and
grace, but with a strong
charm
of
masculine
force, of
detachment, and seriousness, may seem worthless to the

literary trifler, but are pure gold to the student of the
The author of the poem on the
history of society.
Moselle will live as almost the only Eoman poet who has
transferred to verse the subtle and secret charm which
nature has to modern eyes. 8
He deserves quite as much
to live as the painter of an obscure phase of social life,
which in every age
condemned
is
to obscurity
by
its
very
virtues.
The Parentalia 4
interest
greater
of
than
Ausonius have perhaps an even

poems on the Professors of
his
Bordeaux. (Ausonius, like his friend Symmachus, has

the virtue of loyalty to old associations. ) No one who
has ever loved him, helped him, or shared his fortunes is
The years of power and splendour at the

Gratian left him unspoilt and unchanged.
Clever, versatile, and ambitious as he was of the honours
of the great world, yet when the prize was won, Ausonius
forgotten.)
court of
to the scene where he had taught

5
raw
grammar
boys, and to the society of his family
and academic friends.
Like others of his house, he lived
6
to a great age.
His wife had died in the early years of
gladly
returned
to
Parent,
2
3
had been dead "nine Olympiads"
iv.
Parent,
Idyl.
ii.
Mr.
Mackail
nsnal
(i*-
i.
'
snro
f
judgment of
has shown his
lifprarv
this
QPIIUA
in
T !
poem, Lat.
hio
T- v
Lit.
p. 266.
4
Composed
in 379 (iv. 32),
8)
Schenkl, Prooem. xvi.

"
multos lactentibus annis

iP se alui gremioque fovens et munnura
>
solvent
eripui
after his consulship

and when his wife
cf.
IdV L iv 66
till
tenerum blandis nutricibus aevum.
He must have
A.D.
390.
lived at least
For
the Ludut
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
170
their union,
him.
With
and most
old
of his
Eoman
relatives
piety,
and in a
BOOK n
had gone before

strain far more
pagan than Christian, he has commemorated their virtues,

and saved them from oblivion. Few of his circle were
more important in their day than the forgotten worthies
who sleep in any of our country churchyards. But
their portraits enable us to imagine how quiet people
were living in the last years of Theodosius.
The grandfather of the poet, by his mother's side,

was a member of one of the noblest Aeduan houses in
In the confusion of the reign of
the territory of Lyons.
Tetricus he had to go into distant exile and poverty.
He was an adept in astrology and other superstitious
arts of his heathen ancestors, and among his papers
was discovered the horoscope of his grandson, predicting
2
For his father the poet
the famous consulship of 379.
8
had a profound reverence.
Born to modest fortune,
which gave him a place in the municipal councils of
Bazas and Bordeaux, he practised as a physician for the
greater part of his life, till, on his son's advancement, he
was suddenly raised to the prefecture of the Illyrian
fee was probably a philosophic pagan, a Stoic
province,
of the type of M. Aurelius, whom he resembles in many
Yet he had many virtues which we are accustomed
traits.
to regard as pecliarly_jCEnstiaECl He attained the highest
medical skill possible inTtEose days, and gave his advice
Careless
without fee or reward to the poor and afflicted.
of money, yet frugal without meanness, he neither added
Like the sages
to nor impaired his moderate fortune.
whom
he followed, he found the true wealth in regulation

but he added to this ideal a warmth of charity,
and a certain serenity and sweetness, which softened his
of the desires,
Septem Sapientium is dedicated to

of
Pacatus,
Drepanius
procos.
Africa in that year, C. Th. ix. 2,
His father lived to about ninety
4.
years, Parent. I 4 ; Idyl. ii. 61
;
Schenkl's
cf.
Ausonius,
vii.
1
2
3
Parent,
ix. 8.
2b. iv. 17-22.

Ib. i. ; Idyl. ii.
Prooem.
CHAP, in
THE SOCIETY OF AUSONIUS
Stoicism.
Holding
aloof
from
scenes
of
171
strife
and
the great,
rivalry, and the treacherous friendships
closing his ears to all spiteful rumour, leading a life of
of
dignified contentment and quiet beneficence/he_sfifims an

almost flawless character, one of those saintly souls who
"reach" a rare moral elevation without support or
from
impulse
religious. Jiaith.
The women of the family were one and all of a

masculine and almost puritanical type, reminding one, by
a certain quietude and grave purity, of what we have
New England women two or three generations

In their untiring industry and anxious care of the
household, they realise the old Koman ideal of woman's
read of
ago.
The poet's grandmother, the wife of the old

astrologer, although venerated for her spotless character,
1
had left memories of stern rebuke among her descendants.
office.
His mother was a model housewife with a mingled

2
One of his aunts stands out
sweetness and gravity.
from all the women of the circle. Ausonius remembered
But she had
her love and kindness to him as a boy.
8
conceived a hatred of the ordinary female life of her
time, rejected with scorn all thoughts of marriage, and
His sister,
devoted herself to the study of medicine.
a widow, combined the same masculine strength

Of all the
with the peculiar virtues of her own sex.
circle, she is the only one who is described as a religious
left early
devotee.
Ausonius
dedicated to her
enduring
1
Wanda
2
8
2b
'
ii
memory
affection,
Parent, v. 10
lost his wife
and a
and the verses

and
5
The
memory
regret.
early,
are the expression of deep

life-long
austeris imbuit imperiia.
6"
.'
Arborius, Praef. Urb. 379, 380

C. Th. vi. 35, 9 ; Sulp. Sev. Dial.
10 ; cf. Rauschen, Jahrbucher,
ii.
pp. 44, 64 ; Schenkl, Prooem. xiv.
6
Parent, ix. 10-16
foeminei sexus odium tibi semper.

*
Ib. xii. 7
unaque cura
nosse Deurn.
She was the mother of Magnus
volnus alit, quod muta domus silet et

torus alget,
quod mala lion cuiquam, non bona
participo.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
172
BOOK
II
pure love and sympathy, the long years which, as they

pass over the silent house, make solitude and the pain
of loss only deeper, have seldom been pictured with
of
and more real affection. When we read these

sketches, which hear all the marks of minute faithfulness
and sincerity, we can understand the feeling of Tacitus
1
about the gravity and severity of provincial character.
These people seem to have had little of definite
I
None of them certainly were carried
Christianity.
the
ascetic
away by
spirit whicl^ withdrew their friend
But they are industrious and
Paulinus from the world.
greater
high-minded they take life almost too seriously they

have a certain distinction of hereditary virtue. \
/Ausonius himself, although he has a genuine admiration for the virtues of his family, and really possesses
2
many of them, was also the most brilliant child of that
Gallic renaissance of the fourth century which extended
"
from Constantine to Theodosius. A It was a kind of Indian
summer," a long pause of tranquillity between two periods
;
The
But it was an age of illusions.
its
which
to
have
seemed
strength,
regathered
Empire,
was mined by incurable disease. There was a great
energy of academic life, but Eoman culture had worked
The
itself out and was living on its past accumulations.
of convulsion.
terror of the barbarians
who
threatened the frontier of
Yet the camand Valentinian, although victorious,

had revealed the unexhausted strength of the enemy.
the Ehine seemed for a time to be laid.
paigns of Julian
1
Ann. iii. 55 xvi. 5.

The personal character of Auson:
ius appears to
have been without
re-
But he sometimes shows

proach.
a lamentable pruriency, as in the
'
Cento nuptialis" Idyl. xiii. Ausonius lays the blame on Valentinian
who ordered this miserable desecra" vates sacer."
tion of
He may
well say, piget Virgil iani carminis
'
dignitatem tarn joculari dehonestasse materia.

Yet the morality
of Valentinian seems to have been

as irreproachable (Amm. Marc. xxx.
9, 2) as Ausonius asserts that his
own was : lasciva est nobis pagina,
Cf.
H. Nettleship,
vita proba.
and Essays, 2nd series, p.

Referring to the coarseness of
Latin satire, Mr. Nettleship says,
" I should be
disposed to refer this
fact not to the moral obliquity of
these writers, but to the conventional traditions of their art."
Lectures
39.
CHAP, in
173
Ausonius, however, in the remote tranquillity of Aquitaine,

had no thoughts of these ominous contrasts. His early
years were passed
in the
some
class-rooms of
of
the
professors to whom his pen has given an immortality of

His uncle, Arborius, a
which they never dreamed.
professor at Toulouse, whose brilliant rhetorical accomplishments were rewarded by a high place in the capital of
him a
more than
the East, roused his ambition and predicted for
splendid future.
But
this
ambition had for
thirty years to be satisfied with the limited opportunities

of a provincial university, and perhaps a seat in the
It is needless to imagine, as some

Municipal Council.
have done, that the brilliant professor chafed at the reAusonius
straints and dulness of his humble sphere.
had the sanity and strength of a stubborn race. /'He had
also early caught that passion for Graeco-Koman
culture^
which in receptive spirits had all the force of religion, j
The worship of the Boeotian Muses was in men of
2
type a dangerous rival to the worship of Christ.

Ausonius was a teacher of grammar at twenty-five ; he
was only a teacher of rhetoric at fifty-five. 3 Yet it
his
be doubted whether he regarded the long interval

monotonous and inglorious toil. Ausonius
In the poem
was not bourgeois in his tastes and ideals.
may
as a period of
addressed to his namesake and
although he
shows a natural pride in the prefecture and consulship
which he has won, he would have the boy face all the
troubles of school life, and love his Homer and Menander,
his Horace and Virgil as his grandfather had loved them.
The lives of some of his professors were humble and
obscure.
But he retained a high opinion of the dignity
of the teacher, and he looks back with pride on the
1
Parent,
Prooem.
iii.
16
cf.
Schenkl,
viii.
Ep. xxv. ad Paulinum,
v. 73.
See Schenkl's Prooem.
viii. ix.
grandson,
for the dates in the career of Ausonius.

He was probably appointed
r to Gratlan between 363 and
^
4
Idyl. iv. 46.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
174
BOOK n
whom
he had handed on the sacred

remembered that Ausonius, like
some of his professors, lived on equal terms with the
1
local aristocracy.
His wife, Attusia Lucana Sabina, was
hundreds of pupils to
fire.
It should also be
the magnates of Aquitaine, of an

His father, the Stoic physician,
must have had weight and dignity in a society so sound
and healthy as we believe that of Bordeaux to have
the daughter of one of
2
old senatorial stock.
been in his day.

Even surrounded by the most extra8
vagant pretensions of new wealth, Ausonius would
not have been a mere cipher, f And in the Bordeaux of
Ausonius wealth was not new birth was respected more
than wealth and literary eminence perhaps more than
;
either.
The
f
had
life of Ausonius in his green old age, when he

returned from the Imperial Court, to spend his remaining years among his friends, is very much the kind
we
of life which
shall find the nobles of Aquitaine

after his death,
Auvergne leading nearly a century
Eoman
has been often repeated that

last essentially
urban in
its tastes
and
fo
was to the
and character, and that
society
the love of the country came in with the German invaders.

4
Down to the
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
great
invasions
of
the
third
century the
Gauls were
passionately fond of city life, in which they seemed to

But in the
find the finest essence of Roman civilisation.
fourth century there are obvious signs of a change of

In the age of the Antonines the towns were
feeling.
open, spreading capriciously with ample spaces, liberally

embellished with theatres, temples, triumphal arches, all
the buildings which could satisfy taste, or minister to

1
in which Paulinus
of him in his Poems,
Paulinus was one of
xi. 8, x. 96.
the greatest nobles of his province.
of
Of. the
way
Nola speaks
Parent.in. 5
not
unknown then
riches were
cf.
Auson,
Epigr. xxvi.
quidam superbus opibus et fastu tumens,
tantumque verbis nobilis, etc.
:
4
:
uobiles a proavis et origine clara senatus.
Yet the nouveaux
F. de Coulanges,
pp. 207, 209.
La Gaule Rom.
THE SOCIETY OF AUSON1US
CHAP, in
175
In the reign of Gratian and

convenience or luxury.
Valentinian many of them had become fortresses, with
lofty walls built of blocks which had been often quarried
out of the ruins of the theatres and basilicas of an earlier
The space within the walls is cramped, the

and dark.
Everything is sacrificed
age.
are narrow
streets
to the
necessity for military strength.
Ausonius must have spent
many
years in Bordeaux
But, when he was

toiling as a professor.
and had attained distinction and wealth, he
when he was
emancipated
life of the town during a short

with
the crowds and noises and
disgusted
of its narrow streets, and longs for the spacious
could barely endure the

visit.
He
2
|
sordid life
is
freedom of the country where you can do what you please

This love for tranquillity and ease* for tjie
undisturbed.
I
fresh beautyôLruial scenery and the

estate^ breathesi_ through his poems.
abundance of a great
There can be little
"
doubt that the " life of the chateau towards the end of
the fourth century has thrown the brilliant city life of the
ancient world into the shade. The young noble may pass a
few years at Lyons or Bordeaux to attend the lectures of the
In later years he may visit the neighbouring
professors.
3
city to take part in a festival of the Church, or to attend

But his heart is in the country,
a meeting of the Curia.
and there the best part of his life is spent.

I As the life of the towns becomes more
squalid and
sombre, the life of the upper class on their rural estates
becomes more attractive. / There are indeed shadows on
the landscape of Ausonius.
Brigands are heard of now
and then, 4 and years of scarcity are not unknown. 5

1
C. Jullian,
Ausone
et
Bordeaux,
p. 116.
Ep.
revocant qula nos

Paschae.
instantis
Idyl.
iii.
30
Ep.
x.
18 sqq.
The same feeling comes out again

and again in the letters of Symmachus Ep. i. 3, v. 78, agri quiete
;
delector,
vi
66, vii. 31.
cf. x.
Yet
viii. 9.
16
sollennia
nos etenim primis sanctum post Pascha

diebus
s a
um visere'
ave
*
6
# "\28.
xxn.
Ib.
21, 42; Idyl.
iii.
27.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
176
BOOK n
in spite of an outburst of pessimism which seems to be a

1
reminiscence of Sophocles, the life of Aquitaine in the
was apparently bright and happy, with no

the storm which was to burst upon it
foreboding
before a generation had passed awayA Skilful culture
had developed the natural wealth and onarm of a favoured
region.
Stately country seats, on which the accumulating
wealth of generations had been expended in satisfying
poet's days
of
luxurious or artistic taste, rose everywhere along the

banks of the Garonne.
The cold of winter was the great
But these houses had apartments

plague of country life.
to
suit
the
arranged
varying temperature of the seasons.
furnished
with luxurious baths and wellwere
They
stocked
Their
libraries.
granaries
were
senators had several such estates.
with
stored
The richer
The names and sites
ample supplies against a stinted harvest.
of two or three belonging to Ausonius have been as3

certained by antiquarian care.
The great man of course
had his anxieties.
His vineyard and corn-land and mea-
dow, which were the sources of his wealth, could not be

left entirely to
the
now and then
management
of the procurator.
We
bad year when supplies had to

be brought up from near and far, 5 and when the
difficulties of transport were severely felt.
But the note
of Ausonius is gaiety and contentment.
He seems to
have suffered little from the ennui of provincial life, after
all the excitement and splendour of his years of office.
The tedium of one estate could be escaped or relieved by
passing on to another, or by receiving friends and visiting in
hear
return.
of a
Travelling by river or road in Aquitaine in those

easier and quicker than it was for the
days was probably

1
Idyl. xv. 48
1225,
\bryov K.T.\.
2
cf.
rbv
<f>vvai
Soph. 0. C.
d-rravra
viKq.
&
i
dv i ;;;
m. 07
wyi.
conduntur fructus geminum mihi semper

in
annum.
Lucaniacus,
xxii.
Ep.
13
Pauliacus, Ep. v. 16.
EP,-,
...
XX1L Slves a
of one of thege
*
1-1
llvelv
bailiffg>
Auson. Ep. xxn.
P lctura
CHAP, in
English squire in the last century.
177
Couriers passed to
and as
carrying friendly letters, trifling presents,
and
there
of
the
S.
Martin
teaching
trifling poetry.
(Here
had begun to detach an accomplished and wealthy aristo-
and
fro,
crat
from the worldly
life of
But
his order.
part the order remained, in spite of
its
for the
most
Christian con-
formity, essentially worldly or pagan in tone and habits,

enjoying wealth and the sense of irresponsible ease and
2
freedom which wealth can give, and expending its energy
in rural sports or business, in a round of social engage-
ments, or in studying and imitating the great classics

which were the strongest link with the past. ((Society in
Aquitaine
is
much
very
the same as
tions afterwaroTs7~~wh en
Sidonius
it
was two genera-
visited his friends
at
Bordea/uxT~
Âusonius and his
circle of course represent the
more
Just as in
refinfid-and cultivated section of that society.
the times of Sidonius, there were some who fell short of
There
highest standard of their order.
an eccentric character named Theon, to
the
stance,
is,
for in-
whom
the
Theon had an
estate among the sands of Me'doc, looking out on the
3
Atlantic.
His establishment was rather mean, and he
carried on a despicable trade with the peasants of his
poet addressed
district.
His
cattle
his
were
epistles.
sometimes
carried
off
by
but, like the lowland farmer in the days of

Eoy, Theon had little taste for extreme measures,
came to an amicable composition with the freebooters,
brigands
Eob
some of
and
on which Ausonius rallies him. 5
Yet he is a daring
sportsman, and will follow the wild boar with a reckless
ardour, which sometimes brings him and his friends into
6
At first one cannot help wonderdanger of life or limb.
ing what sympathy there could be between this eccentric
1
Auson. Ep.
remo aut rota
;
x.
12,
cf.
ib.
Friedlander, ii. p.
2
Parent, viii. 8
citus
viii.
veni
;
cf.
8.
;
Ep.
iv. 30.
Ep.
iv. 3.
Ib. iv. 16.
Ib. iv. 24.
Ib. iv. 30.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
178
and
rather
man and
BOOK n
boorish character and the polished literary

The link between them was a taste
courtier.
Theon seems to have been a sorry

1
of a plagiarist.
His conand
somewhat
verse-writer,
At any
versation may have been better than his verses.
rate, Ausonius reproaches him with not having paid him
2
a visit for three months, and promises to forgive him a
for poetry, although
he will only visit Lucaniacus.

society of Bordeaux, in the old age of Ausonius, is
known to us from another source than his poems\ In the
debt
\
if
The
year of the poet's consulship, his son Hesperius. who had

been vicar of Macedonia, proconsul of Africa, and Pretorian prefect of Italy, returned to his native place.
The son
8
of Hesperius, Paulinus Pellaeus, as he is called from the

place of his birth, has left us a curious autobiographical
written in his old age, which has a great value both

as a picture of the life of a young noble of the time, and
Paulof the first appearance of the Visigoths in Gaul.
He had Greek and
inus was trained in the usual way.
poem
4
His
he read the great authors.
in
a
which
combined
the
was
circle
youth
passed
highest
official experience with the highest literary culture.
Yet
Latin tutors, with
whom
no one would recognise in Paulinus the grandson of the

tutor of Gratian, or the son of the prefect of Italy.
We
cannot help feeling, as we read the Eucharisticos, that,

although Paulinus may be a better Christian than
Ausonius, in other
respects
the
race
of the poet has
may have known Greek well,

degenerated
from the accident of his birth in an eastern province, but
his limping hexameters, and pointless, colourless style,
fast.
would
1
have
Paulinus
ruffled
even the placid good-nature of his
iv. 10.
Ep.
M'
The
K
v< 5
*M'
precise relationship of
Pauliuus to the poet is a matter of
Seeck (Ixxviii.) maintains

that he was son of Thalassius and a
dispute.
Brandes
daughter of Ausonius.
(ProL p. 267) holds that the father
of Paulinus was Hesperius, the
Of. Ebert,
Allgem.
poet's son.
Gesch. der Lit. des Mittelalters,
;
Schenkl, Prooem. xiv.
409
4
Euchar.
v. 72,
117.
i.
p.
THE SOCIETY OF AUSONTUS
CHAP, in
179
The gloss
grandfather, if he had lived to read his verses.
of humane culture has worn off, and there is revealed a
rather sordid and materialised character, the product of
without higher interests, and wealth without a
leisure
sense of public duty.

A ^ gaming
rip.ap.p.nfla,fii-. nf
JT]ip
word
about
has
a
to
and
literature
hardly
Hesperius
say
f
politics.
Yet, as the revelation of the interior of a great house

in the last quarter of the fourth century, the Eucharisticos
has no mean value.
It is perfectly frank and artless.
Paulinus recalls with gratitude the anxious care of his
1
parents to protect his youthful innocence, but confesses

that, although he avoided scandalous amours, he yielded
which a system of household slavery

His
always
early studies were interrupted by ill2
his
doctor's
health, and, by
orders, he devoted himself to
field sports, which his father, who had given them up,
Henceforth his
resumed, in order to bear him company.
whole taste was for fine horses with splendid trappings,
tall grooms, swift hawks and hounds, and the most
3
His tennis balls had to
foppish and fashionable dress.
be sent for to Eome. 4
of
Some
his amusements were
not quite so innocent, 5 and in his twentieth year his
parents arranged for him a marriage with the daughter of
6
a noble house, whose estates had been impoverished by
Paulinus resigned his freedom not without
neglect.
to the temptations
offers.
regret.
He
management
industriously devoted himself to reform the

7
of his wife's
roused up the
property,
laggards, renewed the exhausted vines, improved

culture of the fields, and paid off the fiscal debts.
the
For
the next ten years he led a life of luxurious repose.

He
plumes himself on being unambitious and fond of ease
and quietness.
He is completely satisfied with the
1
Euchar.
v. 154, 166.
ft. v. 166.
Ib. v. 194,
**
:::'!
4
Ib. v. 146.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
180
BOOK n
enjoyment of his great house, with its ample and elegant

rooms adapted to the varying seasons, his crowds of
young and handsome slaves, his artistic plate and furni1
He was,
ture, his crowded stables and stately carriages.
2
"
and
as he describes himself, a
sectator deliciarum,"
with
more.
This
contentment
the
self-centred
|
nothing
material pleasures of life, this rather vacant existence,
gliding away in ease and luxury, and a round of trivial
engagements, not the frantic debauchery described
social
by Salvianus, is the real reproach against the character

of the upper class of that age.
The luxurious repose of
Paulinus and his kind was soon rudely disturbed by the
apparition of the Goths of Ataulphus.
\ The society of Ausonius seem to be calmly confident
01 the permanence of their ideals of culture, and hardly
conscious of the great movement which was setting
Ausonius
towards the life of prayer and
renunciation^
3
indeed disturbed by the retirement of S. Paulinus, his
favourite pupil, from the world of refinement and social
is
but his feeling seems to be purely personal,

that his friend, so richly endowed, with the promise of
such a brilliant life before him, should forget his tradidistinction
and his worldly hopes, and bury his gifts in the

The work of S. Martin was done when these
Yet S. Martin is never mentioned.
letters were written.
Probably Ausonius had as little conception of the range
and force of the movement as the great senator of Nero's
court had of the world-wide revolution which was to be
tions
cloister.
the result of the preaching of S. Paul.

Yet the impulse to asceticism, originally propagated
from the Eastern deserts, and stimulated by the preaching and magnetic influence of S. Martin in Gaul, had
gained extraordinary momentum in the last years of
Ausonius.
The tales of wonder and miracle which
.
v.
Ib. v. 216.
205
sqq.
4
Auson. Ep. xxiv.-xxv

Ib.
xxv. 50.
CHAP, in
181
rapidly clustered round the name of the great preacher

are the surest proof of the power with which his mission
His Life, by Sulpicius

was widely read in
had
found
and
its
Gaul, Italy, Illyria,
way even to the
1
S. Pausolitaries in the deserts of Egypt and Cyrene.
2
linus, who introduced the book to Eoman readers, was
affected the popular imagination.
Severus, within two or three years
one of the
He
gave up
first-fruits
his wealth
of the great religious awakening.
and consular rank, and the charms
of his great estate on the Garonne, and, after some years

8
of retreat in Spain, finally settled at Nola.
His example
of renunciation created a
West.
It
profound sensation
was followed by many
of his
over the
all
order.
And
these, Sulpicius Severus, an advocate, and

man of fortune, we have the fullest record of the moveHe was a dear friend of S. Paulinus, with whom
ment.
from his retreat in Gaul he constantly corresponded.
But Paulinus, from some cause, could never succeed in
from one of
5
drawing Sulpicius to the monastery of Nola.
Sulpicius makes no concealment of the forces which
were arrayed against the ascetic movement. The sceptical

or indifferent scoffed at the miracles of S. Martin.
The
polished
mourned
man
of the world, according to his temperament,

or ridiculed the blind fanaticism which could
and easy-going self-indulgence

6
and
Even
the solitude
austerity of the hermitage.
desert the ranks of culture

for
1
S. Paulin. Nol.
Ep. xi. 11 ;
Snip. Sev. Dial, i. c. 23, ii. 17 ; cf.
Patrol.
Ixi.
Prol. c.
Lot.
Migne,
;
xxx.
2
Sulp. Sev. Dial.
i.
S.
Paulinus met
S.
c.
23,
4.
Martin once
at Vienue (Ep. 18,

S. Martin
9).
cured him of some affection of the
eyes (Sulp. Sev. vit. S. Mart. c. 19,
For the circumstances of his
3).
conversion cf. Prol. cc. iv. v. in
As to the precise
Migne, t. Ixi.
time of his stay at Barcelona, and
the relation of his Poems x. xi. to
Auson. Ep. 23, 24, 25, cf. Schenkl,

Prooem. xi. sqq. Rauschen, Jahr;
backer,
297.
Exc. xxiii.
Ebert,
i.
p.
5 ; Hieron. Ep.
Aug. Ep. 31,
5 ; Sulp. Sev. Dial. iii. c. 17,
118,
3
Ambros. Ep. 58.
On Sulp. Sev. and his relations
with S. Paulinus, cf. Gennad. dt
;
Scrip. Eccl. c. xix.

1 ; xi. 6 ; v.
xxiv.
Paulin, Ep.
13 ; i.
10,
5,
11.
6
iii.
Sulp. Sev. Dial. ii. c. 13,

4
S. Paulin. Ep. xi.
c. 5,
3.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
182
BOOK n
the bishops and secular clergy, who tried to ignore the

great saint and missionary, looked with ill-disguised suspicion on an enthusiasm which had no respect for ecclesi1
But nothing could check the eager
astical routine.
passion for a spirituality unattainable in the world of

Towards the end of the
culture and conventionality.
fourth century, great religious houses, for common studies
and devotion, began to be founded in Southern Gaul, and

the famous monasteries of S. Victor and Le'rins date from
the early years of the
fifth
Numbers buried
century.
themselves in secluded hermitages among the woods and

rocks, and reproduced in Gaul the austerity and the
marvels of the anchoret
life of
the Thebaid.
The East had sent the first call to the life of renunciation, and it was from the East that a second powerful
When S. Jerome in 386 retired to the
impulse came.
monasteries of Bethlehem, he became famous over all the
Koman
world.
His great personality stood out as promi-
nent and as attractive as even that of
S.
Augustine.
He
added to the monastic life fresh lustre by his vivid intellectual force, and his contagious enthusiasm for the study
of Holy Writ.
His letters on questions of casuistry or
biblical interpretation flew to the remotest parts of the
The charm which his descriptions threw around
Empire.
Holy Places drew numbers of pilgrims, even from the

2
British Isles, to visit the scene of the Nativity, where
the greatest doctor of the Church was with vast labour
the
striving to make clear to himself and to posterity the real

Before the end of the fourth
meaning of the sacred text.
century, the resources of the monastery at Bethlehem

could hardly cope with the numbers who thronged thither
from the farthest West.
And
each pilgrim on his return,

2
3,
Sulp. Sev. Dial. i. c. 24,
inter clericos dissidentes, inter episcopos saevientes ; c. 26,
3, soli
ilium clerici, soli nesciunt saccrdotes ; cf. vit. S. Mart. c. 27.
Hieron. Ep. 66,
14; 46,
10,
Britannus
divisus ab orbe nostro

.
quaerit locum fama sibi tantum
etScripturarum relatione cognition;

cf.
58,
4.
CHAP, in
by the
183
what he had seen and heard, roused the

make the same journey. We have
tales of
ardour of others to
description of such a scene in the Dialogues of

1
In a hermitage in Southern Gaul, a
Sulpicius Severus.
the
monk named Postumianus
gives an animated account of
He had
his pilgrimage to the East to eager bystanders.
2
crossed the sea in five days to Carthage, and spent a
week among the sands
of
Gyrene with a hermit who had

8
erected in the waste a tiny chapel roofed with boughs.

In Egypt he found a conflict on the orthodoxy of Origen
and the monks, 4 and the

Postumianus seem to be with the suspected
raging between the bishops
sympathies of
A journey
father.
cell
Jerome
of
of sixteen stages brought him to the

5
Postumianus has the
at Bethlehem.
greatest admiration for the prodigious learning and industry of the saint, but the brother to whom he is telling
his adventures has a grudge against Jerome for his attacks
Jerome's writings had
on the monastic character,
p.
already a wide circulation in Gaul, and his pictures of

monkish avarice, vanity, gluttony, not to speak of graver
faults, have offended all the more deeply because they
seem
be
to
true.
w Postumianus
on his return visited
Egypt, the land where the ascetic ideal was highest, and
where solitary perfection had worked its greatest wonders.
The Nile was lined with monastic retreats 7 as many as

3000 monks were gathered in one community. There
the natural waywardness of the human will was crushed
in a terrible novitiate, in which unquestioning faith was
One novice had passed
often rewarded by miracle.
;
8
3
Sulp. Sev.
Ib.
i.
c. 3.
Ib,
i.
c. 5.
Ib.
i.
c.
Dial
6.
i.
c.
1.
Sulpicius himself
was hardly orthodox.
His sym-
pathies in his old age were Pelagian ; cf. Gennad. de Scrip. Ecd.
xix., hie in senectute sua a Pelagianis deceptus.
Ib.
i.
c. 8.
c. 8, 9 ; ii. 7, 8.
Of. S.
Jerome's tale of the monk who had
hoarded money Ep. 22,
33 ; cf.
16 52,
3.
Ep. 125,
7
Sulp. Sev. Dial. i. c. 10, 17, ad
Ib.
i.
Nilum flumen
regressus, cujus ripas

frequentibus monasteriis consertaa
ex
utraque
parte lustravi.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
L84
BOOK n
1
through a furnace unhurt.
Another had been ordered

water of the Nile two miles
2
a dead stick till it broke into leaf.
for three years to bear the
distant, to irrigate
Others had tamed the beasts of the wilderness
till
they
acquired the feelings and sympathies of man, including

even remorse for sin 8
Tales like these, falling on ears
1
marvels of the power of sanctity, drew many

another wanderer from Gaul to the mysterious East.
eager for
These pilgrimages, however, served a more useful purThe

pose than that of satisfying a love of marvels.
from the holy places was often charged

with letters of inquiry or instruction on questions of
Christian conduct and belief.
S. Jerome had many
traveller to or
who communicated with him in

and
of
some
his
most interesting letters were
way,
written in reply to them.
In the early years of the fifth
century a young priest named Apodemius was setting out
to visit the Holy Places, and a Gallic lady named
Hedibia 4 seized the opportunity of sending S. Jerome a
list of questions on theological or practical difficulties.
Hedibia belonged to the same family as Euchrotia and
5
Procula, who imperilled their fair fame by allowing
correspondents in Gaul
this
themselves
to
be
carried
away by the
arts
or
the
enthusiasm of the sectary Priscillian.

She was of an
ancient Druidic house, which had been connected by
6
hereditary ties with the temple of Belen at Bayeux.

The Celtic god was discovered by the accommodating
theology of Eome to be the counterpart of the Phoebus
Apollo of Greek legend, and the double name ApolloBelenus figures on many inscriptions of the imperial
times.
The names Phoebicius, Delphidius, and Patera,
borne by male members of the house, have a hieratic
meaning or association. When the Druid superstitions
1
Dial
Sulp. Sev.
Ib.
i.
c.
Ib.
i.
c.
19,
14,
3.
5.
i.
c.
18,
4.
*
6
Hieron. Ep. 120.

Sulp. Sev. Chron.
ii.
Auson. Prof. Burdig.
48,
3.
iv. 9.
CHAP, in
185
were dying away, the family devoted itself to the arts of

poetry and eloquence connected with the name of their
divine patron.
One member rose to eminence as a
teacher of rhetoric at
Two
Rome
in the reign of Constantino.
had a provincial reputation about the same
others
time in the school of Bordeaux.
Another, in the following
named
generation,
Delphidius, after a troubled career in
the reigns of Constantius and Julian, ended his life in the
same university, and has a place among the Professors of
Hedibia had the mental energy of her race,

without any of that tendency to a merely emotional religion which wrecked the peace and tarnished the character
Ausonius.
The bent
of her Priscillianist relatives.
of her
mind was
evidently towards a careful and honest exegesis of the

Bible.
She begins with the practical inquiry, How can
perfection be attained, and how should a widow left childless devote herself to God ?
But the majority of Hedibia's
questions relate to apparent discrepancies in the Gospels,

especially in the narratives of the Eesurrection, and to
difficulties in the interpretation of some passages in S.
Paul's Epistles.
Apodemius was
also the bearer of a letter of the
kind from a lady named Algasia,2

lived in the diocese of Cahors.
who seems
Algasia asks,
to
same
have
Why
did
John the Baptist send his disciples to ask " Art thou He
which should come ? " when he had previously said of
Jesus " Behold the
of the text
himself
"
is
If
any
Who
mended by
there
"
Lamb
of
will
Ib.
come
one which has a pathetic
me,
the meaning
let
him deny
habes
istic
sanctum
human
interest,
because
virum Alethium Presbyterum qui

posset solvere quae requiris.
probably the Alethius, bishop
of Cahors, addressed by S. Paulin.
Nol. Ep. xxxiii. ; v. Greg. Tur. Hist.
He
01
121,
What is
after
the steward of unrighteousness comthe Lord ?

But in her list of difficulties
Hieron, Ep. 120, praef. ; Auson.

cf. Thierry's S. Jerome,
;
77,
"
is
Prof. iv. v.
412.
2
God
is
Fratic.
ii.
13.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
186
seems to
it
refer to the
BOOK
11
rumours, growing more and more
distinct in the year in
which the
was written,
The writer asks
letter
barbarian movements in the north.
of
S.
an interpretation of the ominous saying

"
S.
Matthew, Woe to them that are with
reported by
"
and
child and to them that give suck in those days
"
nor
on
the
in
the
that
be
not
winter,
Pray
your flight
Sabbath."
S. Jerome of course interprets the words as
l
referring to the coming of Antichrist and the cruelties
But Algasia's appeal seems to thrill with
of persecution.
the shuddering anxiety of a mother who had heard the
tidings that the Sueves and Vandals had passed the
Jerome
for
Rhine.
On
last
letter to Algasia v. Praef. in
Ep. 121, c. iv.

According to Prosp. Chron. the
Vandals crossed the Rhine in the
t.
days of 406.
Ixxxvi.
the date of the
Migne,
,""*"'
/-
CHAPTEE
IV
sp*^
w~
THE SOCIETY OF APOLLINARIS SIDONIUS

-
I FOR more than a generation after the period described in

the ISucharisticos the condition and tone of Eoman society
in obscurity.
iJutTwhen
in__theJWesjb_Jies
middle of the fifth century we suddenly
we reach
the
emerge into
under the guidance of Apollinaris

no relic of that age so precious to
Sidonius.\Jhere
the historian of society as the wprks of the bishop and
daylight ^-again,
is
grand seigneur of Auvergne. ( He does for the social

history of the second half of the fifth century what
Symmachus and Ausonius do for the closing years of the
fourth.
Apollinaris Sidonius was probably born

in
the
Lyons
year 431, and belonged to one of the
1
most influential and distinguished families in Gaul.
Caius
Sfollius
at
His ancestors
for generations
had held the highest
offices
in the imperial hierarchy. 2

His grandfather, distinguished
both as a jurist and a soldier, had been prefect of the
Gauls under the usurper Constantine. 8
His father held
1
For his proper name see Carm.

For his
;
Fertig. i. p. 5 n.
ix. 1
birthplace, Chaix. S. Sid. Apoll. i.

p. 10 ; Sid. iv. 25 (caput civitati
nostrae per sacerdotium) ; Carm.

xiii. 23.
See also Germain's Apoll.
Sid. Exc. 1.
For the date of his
birth, v. Ep. viii. 6, in which he
was adolescens in the consulship of
Asturius (449 Idat. Chron.).
The
of adolescens for that age

inferred from Jordanes, Get.
55, Theodoricus jam adolescentiae
meaning
may be
annos contingens
octavum
decimum peragens annum.

Fertig,
2
i.
See
p. 6.
Ep. i. 3, cui pater, socer, avus,

proavus praefecturis urbanis, prae
torianisque, etc., micuerunt.
8
Ib. v. 9; iii. 12.
l<
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
188
BOOK n
1
His mother
under Valentinian III.
2
his wife
and
of
to
the
Avitus,
Papianilla
family
belonged
was a daughter of that great noble who was one of the
Sidonius was educated at
last emperors of the West.
3
the school of Lyons, which still in his time retained
some of its old celebrity. During his years of academic
the
same
life,
he formed a
men
office
lifelong friendship with many young

4
The
leading families of the province.
of his father-in-law Avitus to the imperial
the
of
elevation
throne, in 455, introduced Sidonius at an early age to

His Panegyrics on that
the society of the capital.
emperor, and on Majorian and Anthemius, gave him a
and for
great reputation as a poet and a man of letters,
the last he was specially rewarded with the prefecture of
Five years afterwards, he was chosen bishop
the city.
of Auvergne, at the time when it was making a last
stand against the Visigoths.
He
lived probably about
and passed away amid the passionate

to whom he had been a friend and
fifteen years longer,
grief of his flock,

protector in all their troubles.
The
of Sidonius were published at intervals,

life.
They are in all 147,
letters
towards the close of his
divided into nine books, according to ancient models; 6

but there were many more which he could not recover. 7
[Sidonius
intended his letters to be read^by^jgosterity, 8
1
Ep. viii. 6 ; v. 9 in the consulship of Asturius, 449.
;
Ib.
Carm.
iii.
other authority
Scrip.
Eccl.
xcii.
is
:
Gennadius, de
tem-
floruit ca
pestate qua Leo et Zeno
1.
Romania
But
310.
Hoenius was
his teacher in rhetoric and poetry,
Eusebius in philosophy, Ep. iv. 1.
this does not

give any certain clue to the year of
his death.
See Germ. Sid. Apoll.
*
Avitus the younger, Ep. iii. 1 ;
Probus, Carm. xxiv. 90 Faustinus,
See Chaix. Sid. Apoll.
Ep. iv. 4.
i. p. 23
Fertig, i. p. 7.
*
The date of his death is doubtIn Ep. ix. 12 he says that he
ful.
Exc.
ix.
had been bishop for "three olympiads," which would show that he
was living in 482 for 484). The
imperabant.
ii.
Ep. ix. 1. Pliny left ten books,

but the tenth is addressed exclu-
Symmachus left
sively to Trajan.
nine books of private letters ; another contains Relationes to the
Emperors.
7
8
Ib. vii. 18.

Ib. viii. 2.
CH. iv
SOCIETY OF APOLLINARIS SIDONIUS
189
and he retouched and elaborated his style, especially in

2
It is
with a view to publication.
thi-T earlier letters,
hardly~conceivable""triat, in their present form,
them should have been addressed to private
They were probably given

and 48 3.
many
of
friends.
the world between 47*7
to
the three generations between the consulship of

jln
Ausonius and the episcopate of Apollinaris Sidonius, we
shall find that the upper class of Gallo-Koman society
has changed but little in its ideals and aspirations, or
even, in spite of great public calamities, in its external
fortune.
Yet_in__t,hat interval events of great historic
The fabric of the Western
moment had occurred.
Empire had been shaken to its base. Ausonius had seen

3
the AJemanni hurled across the Khine by Valentinian,
and chased into the recesses of their forests. In the
poems of his tranquil old age the names of the barbarians
are hardly ever mentioned.
Before the birth of Sidonius
they had swept from the Ehine to the Pillars of Hercules.

In his early youth Visigoth and Eoman had met on many
a field in Aquitaine,4
the hordes of Attila
later
and as allies they had rolled back

on the plains of Ch&lons. [in his
manhood, the Western provinces were practically
lost_to__the
lower Ehine.
Empire. J_The__Frank8_had_occupied the

The Visigoths were masters of nearly all
The Burgundians
Western ^Gaul south of the_Loire.
were securely seated on the upper Ehine and theJRhone.
Eoman dominion in Spain had been reduced by the
Sueve and Vandal inroads to a mere corner in the northeast of that great province.
The Vandals in North
Africa had almost crushed the Eoman administration
and the Catholic faith, had captured Eome itself, and
commanded the Mediterranean with their fleets.
The
1
Ep. i. 1. He also urged
friends to do the same.
Of.
16;
2
his
viii.
3
Auson. Idyl. x. Mosella
422; cf. Amm. Marc, xxvii. 10.
;
v.
viii. 1.
Ib. vii. 18.
Prosp. Ohron.
a.
436, 439, 451
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
190
BOOK n
bishop of Auvergne lived to see his diocese, almost the

last patch of territory in Gaul left under imperial sway,
ceded to the Visigoths, and the last emperor of the West
by a German king of Italy. \The Theodosian

Code reveals the progress of an internal decay which was
even more serious than the onslaughts of the
invaders.)
Every branch of the imperial service was becoming disorganised.
Corruption was everywhere rampant, and
The weight of taxation was
authority was paralysed
growing heavier, while the municipal taxpayer was
becoming impoverished, and seeking any refuge from a
system which oppressed the poor and was defied by the
rich.
JYet, in spite of these great changes and this
collapse of authority, the similarity between the__w_Qrld of
Ausonius and that of Sidonius is very remarkable.
Even
in their material condition, the dralBc aristocracy seem to
have suffered little from the^general disorganigatk>n.
Within a period of thirty years Narbonne had been at
1
least twice besieged by the Goths.
Yet in the letters of
Sidonius there is no sign that the tranquil and luxurious
lives of his friends there have been disturbed.) The
replaced
villa of Consentius, in
still
raised its elegant

2
olives,
the neighbourhood of the town,

and lofty pile among vines and
with equal charms for the student and the lover

Its master enjoyed his old wealth and luxury,
of nature.
and dispensed hospitality to troops of guests. \Even_jn

hy the Germans, the wealth and status
ofjfre upper classes appear to be unimpaired. Namatius,
a Gallo-Roman, who was one of the admirals of Euric,
with the special charge of warding off the Saxon pirates
from the coast of Aquitaine, when he is not on duty,
leads the placid life of the country gentleman,8 occupied
1
In 436 and 4 62. Prosp. Chrvn.
andldat; cf.3idon.(7an.xxiiL60:
ed per semirutan superbo* arcea

ortenden* rctei i* decn* dnelli,
qoajwato* gerfs ictibn* mobm,
Uodandis pretiortor minis.
4,
Sid. Carm. rriii. 37; Ep. viii.

ad hoc agria aquisque, vinetis
atque olivetis, restibtdo carapo calle

amoenissimus.
3
Ep. viii 0.
CH. iv
191
with building, hunting, and
literature. (În the territory

the
of the Burgundians
fortunes^pf jthe_uppejL_class. seem
little
as
to have been
Altered.
Bishop Patiens and
Ecdicius, the brother-in-law of Sidonius, must have drawn

Yet
a great part of their revenues from that district.
we shall see Ecdicius able to provide subsistence for

4000 starving people in a season of famine. 1 And the
good bishop, who was a man of private fortune, in a
2
period of similar distress, organised, at his own expense,
a system of wholesale relief, not only for the population
along the Ehone and the Saone, but 9 also for places far
beyond the limits of his diocese. [There is no sign that
the great Roman proprietor, so far as the material conditions of his_jifewere conceTriec[,~was worse off
the German chief than under thejmpemTjprefect.
under
/That the lower and middle classes suffered cruelly is

on their condition and feelings
tolerably certain, but
Sidonius has
little to tell
us in his
letters,
As
a bishop,
courageously stood by his people in the hour of

danger, defended their rights, and was full of pity for
their sufferings.
His princely charity was long a
he
fBut as the great noble, composing

elaborate letters to his friends, which he intended for the
tradition in Gaul.
eyes_pJLj3pjiejity^.he is. almost entirely occupied with the

daily life, the peculiar tastes and ambitions of his own
Only here and there do we meet with a
order.
slight
reference to the burden of the taxpayer, the flight of a

4
All
colonus, the obscure hardships of the petty trader.
the suffering and
reverses
fortune
of
in
the
classes
beneath him, which must have resulted from a great

economic revolution, from the oppression of the treasury
official,
or
from the invasions, seem to have had but
frumenta
ApolL Sidon.
Grog. Tur. Hist. Franc, ii. 24.

Sid. Ep. vi. 12, post Gothicam
depopulationem, post segetes inccndio absumptas, peculiari snmptu
inopiae
communi
gratuita
misisti, etc.
p. 319.
Greg. Tur. ii. c. 22.
4
Sid. Ep. ii. 1 ; v.
cf.
Chaix,
i.
vi. 8.
19
vi.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
192
BOOK n
whose eyes the men who were

who had read
Homer and Menander, Virgil and Pliny, together at
Lyons or Bordeaux, were the only interesting part of
1
the Koman world.
(This class, separated from the
masses by pride of birth and privilege and riches, was
interest for one in
little
descended from prefects and consuls, and
off from them by its monopoly of culture.

however long his pedigree, however broad
would have hardly found himself at home in
of Sidonius if he could not turn off pretty
even more cut
An
aristocrat,
his acres,
the circle
vers
de
soctitt,
or
letters
fashioned in
which centuries of
style
\The members
elaborated.
by the
to one another
by common
that euphuistic
had
bound
rhetorical
discipline
that
were
of
class
tradition of ancestral friendships,

and pursuits, but not least by
interests
2
academic companionship, and the pursuit of that ideal
of culture which more and more came to be regarded as
the truest
rank.
title to
How
the
name
Koman, the
of
real
stamp
of
often does Sidonius remind a friend of the
days when they had threaded the mazes of Aristotelian

3
or mastered the technique of Latin rhetoric
dialectic,
under the same professor at Lyons.
For the
stability of
the material fortunes of his order he betrays no anxiety.

If he has a dim consciousness of decadence, it is of a
4
literary decadence, a failure of industry in the noble

and lettered class, a failure in devotion to the ancient
models, and in the fastidiousness of the literary sense,

The crowd who had no tincture of that lore, who knew
language of the initiated, were not

perhaps despised by such a perfect gentleman, but they
not the esoteric
Symmachus
Senate
as
speaks
"melior pars
the
of
generis
humani."
2 a,vi
KT
Sid. Ep.
iii.
1.
The
best illustration, per-
haps, of aristocratic brotherhood is

in the letter to Aquilinus, v. 9
c
Chaix. i. 23.
;
m.
v. 9.
Ib. iv. I, tu sub

Eusebio
nostro inter Aristotelicas categorias
artifex dialecticus atticissabas
cf.
;
y>
>
granditer laetor saltim in inlustri

pectore tuo vanescentium littcrarum remansisse vestigia ; cf. ii. 10.
CH. iv
193
were regarded with that blank uninterested gaze which

in the vulgar only a dim and colourless mass.
Sidonius feeb a_certein_dis_gust. even _ior_theL.best of his
sees
German
neighbours.-
(They
are coarse in their habits,
they are ignorant and brutish, and have nothing of that

elasticity of mind and delicacy of taste which, even at its
We
worst, the training of the Eoman schools imparted. /

shall hardly be wrong in supposing t-hftt b,J8 nomparfttivfi
silence about the lower orders of his own countrymen
covers a like repugnance. The ferocious punishment which

he dealt out to the boors, who were quite innocently
2
trenching over the soil of his ancestor's grave, displays
all the contempt of the mediaeval baron for his serfs.
p?he letters of Sidonius describe the life and feelings

of only a single class orEoman society^Jbut tney describe
that class with a Jaithfulness which leaves little to be
He professed himself an imitator of Symdesired.

8
machus, but in his delineation of the men with whom he
lived, and of the scenery and background of their lives,
|
Sidonius
far
surpasses
in
Symmachus
minuteness
of
drawing and in depth of colour.

Symmachus cultivates
and
a
reserve
as
matter
of
taste and etiquette.
brevity
He seems almost determined not to be satisfying and
The faults of Sidonius are all on the other
interesting.
With perhaps no great powers of reflection, with
side.
no abundant stock of ideas, he is yet a minute observer,
and has a positive delight in amplifying all the results
of observation by means of an enormous, and often
barbarous, vocabulary, and by all the arts of a perverted
rhetoric, which often puts a strain on language that it
will not bear.
Let any one read the description of the
4
appearance and habits of Theodoric, of the means by
1
JEp.
iv.
1,
bestialium rigidar-
ego etiamsi boni.
Ib.
iii.
Ib.
i.
12.
2.
<
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
194
which the
parvenu
Paeonius
the
before
himself
raised
accession
BOOK n
of
to
the
of
the
Majorian,
2
Lyons, of the delators who surrounded
4
8
of Vectius the ascetic country gentleman,
Chilperic,
and, while he will find much to offend a sensitive taste,
he will not complain of any want of vividness and colour.
prefecture
parasite of
a critic should, in other sketches of Eoman

in
Gaul, discover a certain sameness and lack of
society
the imagination, it would be well for him
to
seize
power
If such
to reflect
materials.
what he himself could have done with similar

The life of a rich, secure, and highly con-
ventional society does not lend itself to descriptions

which enthral the imagination, and satisfy the love of
When
and the picturesque.
the various
the Gallo-
Eoman
noble had completed his brief career of imperial

"honours," the years of an unruffled and stately life
fleeted away in a colourless and monotonous flow.
The
calm dignity of those great houses, with endless

to frivolous social duties, and a routine of busy
idleness, must surely have made the nobler spirits sometimes long for the more strenuous and stormy life of
cold,
calls
As we turn
their ancestors.
seem
to feel the
still,
the pages of Sidonius, we

languid oppressiveness of a hot,
vacant noontide in one of those villas in Aquitaine or

The master may be looking after his wine
Auvergne.
and oil, or laying a fresh mosaic, or reading Terence or

Menander in some shady grotto his guests are playing
;
or
rattling the dice-box, or tracking the antiof Virgil to its sources.

lore
The scene is one
quarian
tennis,
of tranquil content, or even gaiety.

But over all, to our
broods
the
shadow
which
haunts
the life that is
eyes,
nourished only by memories, and to which the future

sends no call and offers no promise.
It
be
may
1
doubted,
Ep.
i.
Ib.
iii.
whether
however,
n.
11.
13.
v. 7.
Ib. iv. 9.
Sidonius
SOCIETY OF APOLL1NARIS SIDONIUS
CH. iv
195
He may have
regarded his society in any such way.
noticed and lamented in his later years a failure of
1
energy, a less delicate sense for what he reas

garded
purity of Latin style ; ( but for the greater part
of his life the circle of nobles to which he belonged were
literary
enjoying undisturbed the plenty and elegance of their

country seats, and were as devoted as himself to the
And
art.
literary
include' his letters
almost be said to
Gaul, from
jr
If we
was very wide.
2
to bishops and churchmen, it may
have embraced the greater part of
his circle
If
Soissons to Marseilles.
we
confine our
attention to his secular friends, it certainly covered all

Gaul south of the Loire. 8 The energy with which he
cultivated his friendships or acquaintanceships is truly
admirable. (Îndeed the best thing about Sidonius is his

genius for friendship. His letters range in all directions,
to Bourges, to Bordeaux, to Marseilles, to Narbonne, to
Lyons, and to many an estate or bishop's house beyond
or within
that
circle.
In the
last
of
his poems,
he^V
sends the volume forth to travel along a winding path to

Narbonne, each stage being marked by some great house
where he, on a similar journey, had spent pleasant days.

The book on its first stage is to brave the criticism of
Further on in
Domitius, the grammarian of Auvergne.
journey it is to visit the seat of Ferreolus, father of

Tonantius Ferreolus, a great prefect of Gaul and ancestral
its
I,
It is next to cross the Tarn, and

friend of the poet.
at
itself
Voroangus, the seat of Apollinaris, who
present
had sat on the same benches with Sidonius at the school
Lingering awhile among the gardens and

grottoes on the Garden, it passes on, from one friend to
another, till it reaches the stately home of Magnus at
of
Ep. v.
honorant
;
10,
of.
pauci studia nuno

viii.
6,
ii.
10, iv. 3
ad fin.
merates seventeen bishops with

whom Sidonius corresponded.
* The
Syagrius of v. 5 lived near
Soissons
Lyons.
Germ., Apoll. Sid.
p. 136,
enu-
cf.
Greg. Tur.
Carm. xxiv.
ii.
18, 27.
/
/
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
196
BOOK
11
Narbonne, whose son was linked to Sidonius alike by

ties of marriage and by memories of college life.
It would be a wearisome and fruitless task to carry
the reader in detail through the long list of the friends
1
of Sidonius.
They are now mere shadows. The circle
in Narbonne and its neighbourhood was specially brilliant
Sidonius in one of his
in the eyes of contemporaries.
2
poems has described this crowd of prefects, consuls,
jurisconsults, adepts in every branch of literature, even
rivals of the great masters ; yet not a name in the long
But although
list is known to us from other sources.
may seem
insignificant and uninteresting,

he represents deserves Study; and the
features of the senatorial class were strongly marked.
In more than one of his letters 8 Sidonius sums up
his ideal of the Eoman noble, the ideal which he would
"
with the help of Christ," to
like his son, as he says,
He should, as an almost religious duty, repay
attain.
the individual
whom
the class
by adding to the list of family

some great magistracy in the imperial service.
the debt of noble birth

"
"
honours
He
should, without reducing himself to the level of a
a money-grubber, attend to the management

4
Some of his superfluous wealth may be
bailiff or
of his estates.
spent in additions to his country seat, or redecorating

and saloons with fresh frescoes and marbles.
He will be a keen sportsman,5 after the manner of his
his baths
Celtic ancestors.
all
his
energy.
But these pursuits should not absorb

The noble class, the salt of Eoman
1
The task has been piously performed by the Abb6 Chaix, t. i. I. 5.
Carm. xxiii. 435; cf. Ep. viii.

Chaix, Apoll. Sid.\ p. 241.
He
scripsi
cf.
and Carm.
ea
debe
5
iii.
6,
vii.
12, viii.
7,
vii.
158, quos quippe

praefecturas constat
^
et
writes to tell
Papianilla of her brother's elevation
to the patriciate.
Note the words
qua de re propitio deo Christo ampliatos prosapiae tuae titulos ego
ludo
equus
cf.
Carm. vii. 183, where
the exploits of Avitus in the chase
festinus
are idealised.
Ep.
v.
16.
gratatoriis
apicibus
in-
Ib.
venatu
cipiter
fuere ;
iii.
3,
nemora
canis,
flumina
fregisti
natatu,
.
arcus
ac-
CH. iv
197
society, is a great^brotherhood, bound together^ by the

traditions of hereditary friendship and a common culture
The true descendant of a great race
of priceless value.
same arts and accomplishments

1
He will also,
which moulded his ancestors and himself.
by scrupulous attention to correspondence and social
duties, keep warm the feelings of friendship and interest
will train his son in the
common
Sidonius, at any rate towards the

was a devout and pious churchman.
to the last, the "aiceti?rid6als of men like S. Jerome
[But
and S. Paulinus seem never in his mind to have obscured
the ideal of the wealthy and studious country gentleman,
with a wholesome well-balanced nature, fond of sport
and farming, proud of his family, devoted to his friends,
and above all penetrated with a sense of the obligation
To be false to
to carry on the tradition of culture.
letters was to be false to family honour and to Eome.
Pride of birth was one of the strongest feelings in the
Gallo-Eoman aristocrat.
Nor was this much abated by
in
end
of
his
studies.
life,
On a remarkable
the profession of a severe Christianity.
occasion Sidonius was asked by the people of Bourges
to nominate a bishop.
He delivered an address to justify
and in recommending a certain Simplicius
his choice,
for
their suffrages, he lays the greatest stress on his high

2
So in the lives of the saints and great churchdescent.
men of that age, 8 the biographer never fails to record
the fact of their being of senatorial birth.

This class,
*
the time of Constantine, included all tEe
since
1
Ep.
iv.
picture
of
12 gives a pleasant
the bishop reading
Terence and Menander with his

son ; legebamus, pariter laudabamus jocabamurque of. the care
of Ausonius for his grandson's
aut
education, Idyl,
iv.,
and Sym. Ep.
v. 5.
2
aut
cathedris
tribunalibus
Uxor illi
praesederunt .
Palladiorum stirpe descendit.
.
de
Greg. Tur. S. Julian, prosapia
illustris
vit. Patrum, c.
sanctus Gregorius ex senatoribus
?uidem
primis Hist. Fr. vi. 39, est enim
;
Sidonius gives the

address in full which he delivered
on the occasion
Parentes ipsius
Ib. vii. 9.
vir valde nobilis,

primis senatoribus Galliarum ;
(Sulpicius)
vit.
Patrum,
c.
8, 16,
20.
de
cf.
f<
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
198
BOOK n
It had become in
landed proprietors of the provinces.
of
force
not
enactment, chiefly hereditary.
fact, though
by
But admission to its ranks was from time to time
1
obtained by the favour of the Emperor, or by the tenure
The rank
of some of the offices in the Palatine service.
^.M^,
\l
which the founder of a family had won by

his descendants strove to dignify
2
place in the imperial hierarchy.
official service,
by attaining still higher

With the mass of the
senatorial class, the ambition of office sprang rather from

personal or family vanity than from the desire of real
was a great potentate 8

wielding a far greater power than the monarch of the
Yet the consulship,
largest modern European State.
which had for many ages been a purely ornamental
power.
The
dignity,
ranked,
prefect of the Gauls
in
virtue
of
ancient
its
glories,
far
above the greatest prefecture; and the son of a prefect

thought that he was at once honouring and surpassing
his father,
ship.*
by gaining the shadowy dignity of the consul-
Yet
it
may be doubted whether
the assertion
is
absolutely true that all capacity for government in the

5
know little of the actual
upper class had died out.
We
on government exercised
even by the great

But
we
can form some
of
the
fifth
prefects
century.
of
of
their
duties from
the
and
nature
conception
range
influence
the Imperial Code.
and
financial
1
The
prefect of the Gauls had the

of three great
administration
judicial
Th. vi. 2, 2, si quis senatorium consecutus nostra largitate

Cf.
fastigium vel generis felicitate.
Godefroy's Paratitlon to yi. 2. In
vi. 3, 2 and 3, the distinction is
sharply drawn between senatorial
and
curial
estates.
Cf.
La Gaule Rom.
Duruy. vii. p. 176.
2
iii. 6.
Ep. i. 3
Coulanges,
de
180
F.
p.
this
C.
It should be
remembered that
prefecture included Britain

as well as Gaul proper.
and Spain
G.
Th.
vi.
6,
1,
diversa cul-
mina dignitatum consulatui cedere

... decernimus ; cf. Auson. Ad.
Grot, ad
sicut
ut
fin.
nos
Sidon. Ep. v. 16,
4,
utramque familiam
nostram praefectoriam nancti etiam

patriciam reddidimus, ita ipsi quam
suscipiunt patriciam faciant con.
sularem ; cf. Friedl. i. p. 206.
8
De Coulanges, L'Inv. Germ. p.
220, la classe se'natoriale elle-meme
manque de 1'esprit de gouvernemerit.
CH. iv
199
countries in his hands, and the control of a numerous

body of officials. Although, from the time of Constantine,
the prefect had no military command, he had to provide

the commissariat of the legions quartered in his
for
He had
province.
roads and
also the superintendence of the great

He had to advise subpostal service.
the
on questions of difficulty, and to

Above all he exercised
hear appeals from their decisions.
enormous powers over the levying of taxes and the whole
ordinate magistrates
financial service.
and regular
It was also
It
was
and
his duty at once to secure full
to check venality or oppression.

his business to give due publicity to all edicts
collection,
Emperor, and in the framing of these edicts there

no doubt that the suggestions and advice of a governor
had great weight.
The vast machine had to be kept
running, and any defect in its working had to be brought
to the notice of the Emperor.
In the fifth century the
limits of the great prefecture of the West were steadily
retreating from the Atlantic towards the Mediterranean.
Yet the anxieties of its ruler must have increased as the
times grew darker.
In the career of Tonantius Ferreolus,
one of the friends of Sidonius, we have an example of a
public-spirited noble, and a benevolent and vigorous
governor.
Along with Avitus, he bore a foremost part
in organising the united resistance of Goth and Eoman to
the Hun invasion in 451.
And he signalised his tenure
of office in 453 by lightening the burden of taxation in
2
those disastrous years.
The later Eoman Code bears
of the
is
witness to the strenuous efforts of
many high-minded
prefects to check the growing disorganisation of society.

There can be little doubt, however, that in the
1
On the powers of the Pretorian
.Th.
prefect see Godefroy's ed. of
vol.
vi.
pt.
Praefectorum
ad
ii.
"
;
cf.
init.
GauU
"Notitia
Notitia Dig.
Booking, t. ii. 13, 14, and 166,

where the Formula Praef. Praet.
ed.
given ; Fauriel, Hist, de la

Mfrid. i. p. 351.
is
Ep.
vii.
12
Carm. vii. 315

Gaule Mtrid.
Fauriel, Hist, de la
i.
p. 227.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
200
11
between Ausonius and Sidonius the love of

had increased, and public spirit or ambition
interval
life
country
was
BOOK
Many
declining.)
of the hi__
mere_jfarmers on a large scale, and cared for little else

than their flocks and vineyards.
Sidonius, who had an
almost religious faith in his order, and who regarded
himself as the guardian of Latin culture in an age of
decadence, was revolted by this return to the rude and
solitary rusticity of an earlier time. ) He was also
alarmed by the passion for money-making which often
Several of his letters are
accompanied such tastes.
written to recall these degenerate nobles to their true life
and vocation. 1 And one in particular deserves notice
from the birth and rank of the person to whom it is

2
addressed.
Syagrius belonged to one of those Gallic
families in which high office was practically hereditary.
He was
in 381,
great-grandson of that Syagrius who was consul

who was a correspondent of Symmachus,8 and
from whose daughter Tonantius Ferreolus, 4 the greatest

of Gallic nobles, was descended.
The Syagrii were connected with the district of Lyons, and their family estate
somewhere near Autun, in the neighbourhood of the

The Syagrius of the time of Sidonius had
Burgundians.
fallen away from the example of his ancestors, and from
lay
that ideal of aristocratic
Trained in
describe.
he had
schools,
life
which we have attempted
to
the literary arts of the Gallic

stooped to learn the language of the
all
conquerors, in which he had acquired a facility which

1
Ep.
2&.
ii.
14
viii.
vii.
8.
15
The
and Chaix
6.
estate
of
a
Sym.
In the Index to Luetjohann's

ed. of Sidonius, the Syagrius of v.
5 is said to be father of the
Syagrius in
viii.
8.
But Migne
(i.
178,
189) are pro-
âbly right in treating the letters
ex.
Rauschen, Jahrb.
p.
85
Sid. Ep. v. 17, conditorium Syagrii

consulis.
4
Sid. Ep. i. 7, Afranii Syagrii
consulis e filia nepos ; ii. 9 ; vii. 12.
CH. iv
moves the sarcasm

lower than
this.
But he had sunk even
of Sidonius.
He had
201
forgotten the long line of his
ancestral dignities and his duty to his country, and

buried himself in his rural property, with no ambition
beyond that of growing fine crops and increasing his
income.
but
it
may have been
Syagrius
is
also possible that
a degenerate noble,
he was a shrewd, sensible
man, who saw the hollowness of the so-called ambition

"
"
honours of a power
of his class, who rated cheap the
no longer able to defend its citizens, and who thought
that his energy might be more usefully expended in
cultivating the friendship of his German neighbours, and
in the management of a great estate, with its crowd of
serfs and dependants, than in playing ball and dice,
exchanging repartees, or applauding with grotesque
exaggeration a literary neighbour's feeble imitations of
Statius or Lucan.
!|
It
him
would be
unfair, however, to Sidonius to represent

commonplace duties of a great
as indifferent to the
landholder.
Indeed, the villa or senatorial estate must
have demanded some attention from any prudent owner.

or procurator was often a man of servile
and
the
Theodosian Code leaves the impression
origin,
1
that these agents had to be carefully watched.
Although
the senatorial estates in Gaul were probably never equal
in extent to those vast latifundia Which were the ruin of
2
Italian husbandry, yet they were ordinarily of considerable acreage.
Ausonius had a patrimonial estate near
Bazas, which he describes in modest terms as a villula
or herediolum?
Yet it consisted of more than 1000
acres, of which 200 were arable land, 100 vineyard, 50
The
villicus
meadow, the
The
rest being woodland.
estates of the
of Sidonius were probably of far larger extent

than that of the poet of Bordeaux. The nearest approach
friends
0. Th. ix. 30, 2
ii.
30, 2.
Auson. Idyl.
iii.
Plin.
10.
H.N.
xviii. 35.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
202
BOOK n
any indication of their size is contained in a letter

1
describing the domains of Apollinaris and Ferreolus.
They adjoin one another, and the distance between the
two mansions is rather long for a walk, but rather short
for a ride on horseback.
The great noble, both in Gaul
and Italy, often possessed many of these estates in
The
different districts, or even in different provinces.
lands of S. Paulinus, which Ausonius describes as
"
realms," were widely scattered, and when, on his
"
adoption of the ascetic life, they were sold, they would
pass," according to Ausonius, "into the hands of a
hundred masters." 2
( It is characteristic of Sidonius that, while he has left
us several pictures of great mansions, he never gives even
a glimpse of the organisation of an estate. T Yet the
population of these domains formed in itself a complete
and almost self-sufficing community. 8 The great house
had in its immediate neighbourhood villages which were
to
slaves or
occupied by dependants of various grades
of
coloni
and
free
some
them
tenants,
freedmen,
ordinary
labourers, others paying for their holdings both in money
and a stipulated amount of labour. The buildings for

the slaves, the stables, and granaries, the mill, the olive
and wine-presses, with the workshops, must have formed,
on an estate of any magnitude, a little town, demanding
a good deal of management and careful superintendence.
The superfluous income of the rich man could, in those
days, find investment only in loans on mortgage, or in
the purchase of other properties, or in additions to the
4
residence of the family.
Building was one of the
1
Ep. ii. 9, praediorum his jura
domicilia
contermina,
vicina,
quibus interjecta gestatio peditem
lassat
2
3
neque sufficit equitaturo.

Auson. Ep. 24, 115.
F. de Coulanges, L'Alleu, pp.
The law discouraged trading
in
0.
Th.
xiii.
cum potiorum quisque
aut
miscere se negotiation! non debeat,
aut pensitationem (i.e. lustralis
collatio) quod honestas postulat
1,
5,
primus agnoscere. Of. xiii. 1, 8,

which fenera tores are brought
under the lustralis collatio (v.
In
87, 88.
4
the senatorial class,
CH. iv
passions of the Eoman aristocrat.

architecture of the fortifiedlown,
On
repelled him.
his
own
The
203
stern, utilitarian
noise and squalor,

lands he gave a free rein to
its
The sites of these

beauty or luxury.
ancient country houses seem to have been generally
chosen for some natural beauty, on the wooded banks of
his
taste
for
a river or a lake dotted with islands, or at the foot of a

sloping hill, with a prospect of forest, meadow, or rich
Sidonius, imitating one of his favourite
models, has left us elaborate word-pictures of some of
these great houses, in Auvergne, on the Garden, at
His
Narbonne, or in the neighbourhood of Bordeaux.
cultivated plain.
own
house, which came to him by his marriage with the

daughter of the Emperor Avitus, is delineated with a
minute care which reveals in every line a passionate love
of the delights of rural life and scenery. 2
Dornitius, a
professor in the neighbouring college
invited to leave the hot class-room
Even
streets.
on
"
fire
fissures,
in
of Auvergne,
is
and the narrow
umbrageous Auvergne, "the world
is
the ground is seamed and scarred with gaping

;
the mud is hardening in the bed of the river,
whose failing, languid stream hardly drags itself along.

But in the retreat of Avitacum there is the spreading
coolness which the builder's and the gardener's arts can
win from nature even in the dog-days. The mansion
has a broad frontage both to the north and the south.
A glen, flanked by two lines of hills, opens on the
southern lawn before the vestibule.
At the southwestern corner are the baths close under a woodclad
height,
from which the
mouth
of
along the
felled timber drops at the
the furnaces.
walls
by leaden
Godefroy's note, and Sid. Ep. iv.

Of. G. Th. ii. 33, 4, limiting
the rate of interest which senators
could exact.
24).
Ep.
v. 11.
The heated water
Building with dis-
is
There are
pipes.
very
carried
all
the
is one of the laudable occupations of the noble ; cf. Fried-
cretion
lander,
2
ii.
iii.
Sid.
17.
p. 76.
Ep.
ii.
2.
Cf.
Plin.
Ep.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
BOOK n
apartments for luxurious bathing, brilliantly lighted, with

walls of gleaming whiteness and domed roofs resting on
graceful columns, ending in the piscina, where, through
from
curiously-sculptured heads of lions, the cold water
the
hillside
rushes tumultuously.
On
no
some
these walls
see
wantonness is figured, although you may

"
epigram neither good enough to make you read it again,
Hard
nor so bad as to disgust you with the reading."
of
the
by are the ladies' room and the spinning-room
tale of
After these you find yourself in a long colonnade looking out on the lake, which lies on the eastern
side, embosomed in woods.
Passing through a long
maids.
gallery on the south you would reach the winter diningroom, with a cheerful blaze in the vaulted chimney.
And from
you may enter a smaller saloon, with a

broad staircase leading up to a verandah which overhangs the lake, where the guest, as he cools his thirst,
may watch the fisherman buoying his nets. Or you may
take a siesta in a chamber screened from the southern
heats, where the cicala in the hot noontide, or the
that
nightingale on summer evenings, will lull you to sleep,

while the sheep-bell and shepherd's pipe sound from the
hillside.
Sidonius, with all his conventionality, cannot
repress a natural delight in this fairyland of woodland,

it is so green and cool, a paradise
lake, and bosky islet
:
of
idyllic
tranquillity.
And
yet he describes
it
in a
euphuism, probably the most curiously artificial, in which

The master of that
genuine feeling was ever encased.
domain, of which he sees the inmost charm, sits in his
verandah above the lake, coining phrases which he
intended to excite the admiration of posterity, butjwhich
would have moved, the ridicule or disgust of the masters
he adored. /teM/lt'*
O ne f 'these country seats was very much like
another.
They all have apartments for summer and
winter, baths, galleries, libraries.
Sometimes, as in the
CH. iv
205
case of the Burgus of Leontius, they are strongly fortified

It is clear, from the
with all the art of the engineer.
arrangement of these houses, as well as from the general

tone of the literary remains of the period, that their
But
owners passed their lives chiefly in the country.
solitude was broken by constant correspondence,
Even in the troubled years
and by frequent visits.
which followed the accession of Euric, 2 although the
3
roads were not always safe for couriers and travellers,
who were liable to be stopped and questioned, communication among the members of the Gallo-Eoman
The
aristocracy was never completely interrupted.
which
the
from
the
first
roads,
up
opened
country
great
their
But
century, could be traversed rapidly by carriages.
the grand seigneur of the time generally preferred to
travel on horseback with a numerous suite.
Starting in
the cool of the morning, he would halt at noon in some
shady spot beside a stream where his servants, sent on
had pitched his tent and prepared the midThe inns were probably few, and, according
5
but the aristocratic traveller
Sidonius, they were bad
in advance,
day meal.
to
could easily arrange, as a rule, to break his journey at

The imagined
nightfall at the house of some friend.
6
route of the bishop's poems from Auvergne to Narbonne,

following a wavering line of country seats, probably
1
Carm.
Sid.
non
aries,
xxii.
non
non
illos
117
machina muros,
proximus
alta strues vel
Apoll. Sid. i. 222 ; Luetjohann's ed.

of Sidon. Ind. Pers. s.v.
2
agger,
non quae stridentes torquet catapulta
466,
molares,
sed nee testudo nee vinea nee rota currens
Cf.
jam
positis
scalis
unquam
quassare
valebunt
Pontius Paulinus, who had been

Pretorian prefect in the reign of
Constantine (v. Jullian's Ausone,
He was
p. 128), was the builder.
probably the father of S. Paulinus
of Nola, who also bore the name of
Pontius cf. Auson. Ep. 24, 103
;
Migne, Prol.
t. Ixi. c. 1,
Chaix,
He
succeeded Theodoric
and lived
Fauriel,
till
483,
II. in
or 485.
347; Luetjohann's
i.
Sidon. p. 418.
8
Ep. iii. 4 ; ix. 5 ; v. 12.
4
Such a day's travelling is
described Ep. iv. 8. For travelling
by river see viii. 12 ; cf. Auson.
Ep.
5
viii. 5.
Ib.
viii.
11,
ne
si
destituor
domo negata moerens ad madidas

earn tabernas, etc.
p. 23.
6
Carm. xxiv.
cf.
Friedl.
ii,
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
206
On
a tour of visits
many
represents
BOOK n
made by
the author.
one of these excursions Sidonius found himself once
two great villas of Voroangus

and Prusianum on the banks of the Garden, near Mines.
Their owners, Tonantius Ferreolus and Apollinaris, were
among his dearest friends. The estates adjoined one
1
another at the distance of a short ride.
Apollinaris and
Ferreolus detained their friend for a week, and had an
It was
amicable conflict each day for his company.
difficult to decide between the attractions of these two
The gardens of Apollinaris were of
princely seats.
almost fabulous beauty, and might have rivalled the
most delicious scenes in the world of legend or romance. 2
The gardener's skill had trained the foliage into enchanting bowers, where you might dream away the hot hours
in the neighbourhood of the
On
noon.
of
the other hand, the
home
of
Ferreolus
offered powerful attractions of a higher kind.

Its owner,
the descendant of the great Syagrius, and admittedly by
and official rank the foremost of Gallic nobles,

combined remarkable political experience with wide
culture.
Though now withdrawn from the great world,
he had borne a splendid part in repelling the Hun
invasion.
He had earned the reputation of being a
humane and enlightened prefect, and he was chosen to
represent his province at the famous prosecution of the
4
His library was amply
corrupt governor Arvandus.
stocked with all the literature of pagan antiquity, along
with the newer literature of the Church; and he was
not one of those senators, described by Ammianus, who
birth
entered their libraries as seldom as their family vaults.

1
Ep.
Ep.
ii.
ii.
Chaix.
9,
i.
210
nativam dare porticum laborans

non lucum arboribus facit, sed antrum.
sqq.
Aracynthum
et
celebrata poetarum carminibus juga, censeas ; Carm. xxiv.
Nysam,
54-74
seu
ficto potius specu quiescit

collis margine, qua nemus reflexum
8
Ep. i. 7, Tonantius Ferreolus
was Pretorian prefect in 453.
4
Arvandus was Pretorian prefect
of Gaul in 469 and impeached at
Rome for treacherous communica-
tions with Euric.
Sid Ep.
i.
7.
CH. iv
207
The daily life at Prusianum, as depicted by Sidonius,

shows us the charm and also the weakness of aristocratic
1
It is very pleasant, but it
society in the fifth century.
When
seems somewhat self-indulgent and frivolous.
Sidonius arrives in the morning, some of the guests are
in the tennis-court, others are eagerly engaged in a game
of dice, the more sedate are reading Horace or Varro in
The
the library, 2 or discussing the theology of Origen.
at
o'clock
"after
the
eleven
senatorial
was,
dejeuner
ample meal ; and the guests, as they
over their wine, were amused by the recitation of
The hours of the afternoon were spent on
lively tales.
fashion," a short but

sat
The baths of Ferreolus seem

have been then in the builder's hands, and the company extemporised a bath by the side of a rivulet. A
trench was dug along the bank and roofed over with
hair-cloth stretched on a framework of branches.
Heated
stones were flung into the hollow, and a jet of cold water
turned on the glowing heap and the bathers, having
horseback or in the bath.
to
enjoyed the vapour for a time, braced themselves by a

The evening closed with a
plunge in the cool stream.
luxurious banquet.
In this pleasant life one hears little of the women of

the household, and this silence has been interpreted as a
sign that they were ignored and had a humble place in
the family.
Yet it is hardly probable that, in the full
light of Christianity, the position of women was lower
than
it
was in the days of the pagan Pliny or of the semi-
8
pagan Ausonius.
The
references to
women
in Sidonius
are indeed scanty, but they show that the ideal of female
virtue and culture was high.
In a letter to a friend
about to be married,4 he points out, by a long series of

1
Of. the day at the villa of Consentius, Sid. Carm. xxii. 487.
2
On libraries in the country
see Sid.
Ep. v. 15 ; viii. 11 ;
viii. 4.
Plin.
Ep. Calpumiae,
vi.
26
5 ; Auson. Parent, xii. 5 ;

F. de Coulanges, L'lnv. Germ,
212.
*
Sid>
iit 10
vii.
Et
cf.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
208
BOOKII
how women may
help to sustain the

In the family of
literary ambition of their husbands.
both pious and
ladies
were
Magnus of Narbonne the
ancient examples,
accomplished, and Eulalia, a cousin of Sidonius, who was

married to a son of the house, is described as a very
1
In the library of Prusianum there were
Minerva.
shelves
stocked
intended for the
with
women
literature
religious
2
of the household.
which are
In another
an elegy on the virtues of

8
of
matron
a young
Lyons, whose early death was a
and
mourned
with every demonstration of
public event,
whole
the
community.
grief by
There is hardly a trace in the works of Sidonius of
that looseness of morals with which Salvianus charges
his contemporaries in that very province to which so
There is
many of the friends of Sidonius belonged.
4
rather
startles
tone
of
which
us in
the
one
indeed
letter,
letter Sidonius sends a friend
It refers to the irregular connection of a

a bishop.
The mistress is treated
noble
with a slave girl.
young
loathing and contempt, but the young man is

absolved rather easily on the score of morals, and commended for having thrown the girl over, and so consulted
with
His marriage with a lady of

his reputation and fortune.
noble birth seems, in the eyes of the bishop, to atone
"
Such rare glimpses of self-indulgence
error."
for his
and luxurious caste, with

and
surrounded by crowds of
hardly any public interests,
But the picture of
much
do
excite
not
slaves,
surprise.
abnormal and universal debauchery given by Salvianus
in the
members
of a rich, idle,
absolutely unconfirmed
Sidonius.
is
Carm. xxiv. 95
hic saepe Bulaliae meae legeris,

cujus Cecropiae pares Minervae
mores et rigidi senes et ipse
quondam purpureus socer timebant.
2
ii. 9, sic tamen

quod qui
matronarum cathedras codices
Ep.
inter
in the pages of
by anything
erant, stilus his religiosus inveniebatur, etc.

lb.
4
11.
8.
/^ j x
^ e passage in the
EucUaristicos, where PaulinSs speaks

of a similar error of his youth in
the same tone, v. 165,
CH. iv
209
debauched parasite in
a specimen of physical and
If
moral degradation which excites horror and disgust.
the bishop ever gave his flock in the cathedral of
In
the
Sidonius,
description
the
of
we have indeed
Auvergne a sermon in the same style, it must have had

It is composed with the object of
a powerful effect.
of the horrors of the abyss into
a
relative
young
warning
which his life might plunge, if he neglected the old rules
Yet in reading the piece, one cannot help
of conduct.
that
the
literary spirit, the spirit of Juvenal and
feeling
It is in
the school rhetoric, has possessed the writer.
some respects a powerful piece, but the power is that of
a master of words and phrases, who exults in his com-
mand
of them.
There
is
no
and shade
light
the whole
black with the smoke of the infernal streams. 2
There
there
Komans
have
been,
were,
probably
degenerate
may
who, in an age of violent and sudden change, lost all
sense of self-respect, all feeling of Kornan dignity and
Christian duty, and who determined to make the best, in
a sensual way, of an age of convulsion, to sell their
compatriots, to flatter their new masters, and to purchase
All
gross pleasure with the wages of their treachery.
this is probable.
Yet we may well doubt whether, even
in the most disorganised society, such specimens of utter
moral and physical wreck were often seen as the loathsome wretch whom Sidonius has described for edification
and warning. The love of word-painting is too evident
the strain and staring contrast of verbal antithesis are too
marked to give one confidence in the fidelity of the
The body, deformed in every line and feature
portrait.
bloated
with luxury, and enervated by excess,
by vice,
is described with disgusting and exaggerated emphasis
The
as the fit dwelling of a fouler and uglier soul.
is
Sid. Ep.
iii.
bras
13.
lamina gerit
.
lumine carentia quae Stygiae vice
paludis volvuut lacrimas per teneEp.
iii.
13,
per
horas
larvalibus.
facies ita pallida veluti
umbris
maestificata
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
210
BOOK n
whispered slander, the gross innuendo, the affectation oi

vivacity without wit, of importance without dignity, the
hungry eagerness
for a hospitable invitation,
combined
with feigned shyness in accepting, the gross and bestial indulgence, the ravenous throat and the venomous tongue
all this, with many traits we have suppressed, is a picture
which we may hope had few counterparts in real life.

Such characters rarely meet us in the pages of
His world was probably quite as Christian in
Sidonius.
It inherited also, as
sentiment and conduct as our own.
a social and literary tradition, a profound veneration for
the virtues of the old
all,
Koman
a society dominated
by
character.
I^jsaa^-aôye
pride, respect for class-feeling,

If to the pride and fastidi-
anoTimperious good taste.

ousness of the polished noble you add the restraints of a
collective Christian sentiment, you have a social tone
which is not likely in general to be prone to gross
There is no trace of lubricity on the walls

indulgence.
of the mansions, or in the entertainments described in
1
Like the guests in the Saturnalia of

Sidonius
Macrobius,
congratulates his generation on being
more decent than their ancestors. N"o wanton frescoes,
these
letters.
2
no suggestive dances and songs, would be tolerated.

friends
The
of
Sidonius, Ferreolus, Ecdicius, Consentius,

Lampridius, Apollinaris, and a host of others, seem to be,
on the whole, as regards private virtue, perfectly regular
and unexceptionable in their
lives.
It
is
possible that
class feeling or the reticence of
may
good nature or good taste

have led Sidonius sometimes to cast a veil over the
and pleasant friends of his youth. Yet

one cannot help having the impression that his silence
about evil is due to its absence, at least in any gross
faults of the dear
form,
among the people with whom he
1
Ep. ii. 2, non hie per nudam
pictorum corporum pulchritudinem
turpis prostat historia, quae sicut
associated.
ornat artem devenustat artificem.

2
Saturn,
ii.
1. 6.
CH. iv
The
tion
was not
real canker at the root of that society
but class-pride, want of public
gross vice,
the
in
vanities
of
sterile
211
spirit,
absorp-
cultivated
culture,
It is difficult for a modern man to conceive

bounded view of society taken by people like Symmachus and Sidonius, the cold, stately self-content, the
selfishness.,
the
absence of sympathy for the masses lying outside the

charmed circle of senatorial rank, the placid faith in the
permanence of privilege and wealth, the apparent inability

to imagine, even in the presence of tremendous forces of
disruption, that society should ever cease to
move along
The bureaucratic system
of govern-
the ancient lines.
ment
in public affairs in the natural

Masters of vast domains, yet excluded,
stifled all interest

class.
governing
as an order, from real political power, the great

the senatorial class were condemned to a sterile
mass of
life
of
fantastic luxury, literary trifling, or sullen reserve.

They
had little care for any but their own caste and family,
1
as the representatives of Graeco-Eoman culture.
With
what was regarded

"
honours
"
the study
seemed
to
as a laudable ambition to
add to the
of the family, and a strenuous devotion to

and imitation of the great authors, there
the stately noble no reason why the calm

life should not go on for ever.
ceremonious senatorial
The aim
of all true
Eomans was
to reproduce in succes-
sive generations the forms and ideas of the great past,

undisturbed by any hope or ambition of ever excelling it.
To such a condition of death-like repose or immobility
had the imperial system reduced the most intelligent

class in the Koman world.
Faith in Eome had killed all
faith in a wider future for humanity.
Society had been
and
As a rule,
elaborately
deliberately stereotyped.
whatever a man's energy or ambition, he was doomed to
1
Sidon. Ep. viii. 2, nam jam
remotis gradibus dignitatum, per
quas solebat ultimo a quoque sum-
mus quisque
discerni,
solum
erit
posthac nobilitatis indicium litteras

nosse.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
212
work out his

had followed.
life
on the precise
lines
which
BOOK n
his ancestors
All ideas of improvement were nipped in

the bud, blasted by the stifling atmosphere of a despotism
which, with whatever good intentions, received no
guidance or inspiration from the thoughts or needs of

the masses, and spent all its strength in maintaining
unchanged the lines of an ancient system, instead of
openings
finding
for
fresh
development.
The
same
immobility reigned in the education of the privileged

class.
They felt no material need to stimulate invention
and practical energy, and their academic training only

deepened and intensified the deadening conservatism of
Their training was
unassailable wealth and rank.
its
sole
object was to make masters
exclusively literary
of phrase, rhetoricians, skilled and successful imitators of
;
the great masters of the literary
art.
Mere
style,
apart
It
from real knowledge or ideas, was its great aim.
the
before
the
pupil's gaze
mythological
persistently kept
As the
fancies and literary finesse of the great ages.
material force of the Empire slowly waned, the loftier

spirits clung all the more tenaciously to the literary
and Kome, as to a
There was no
unapproachable perfection.
no
of
love
scientific
no
curiosity,
hope of further
inquiry,
All that was best in the possible achievements
advance.
heritage from the past of Greece
standard
of the
of
human
spirit
haze of a heroic age.
lay behind, steeped in the golden

In front stretched a gray, flat pro-
spect of cultivated mediocrity. It is hardly too much to say

that the despotism of the school tradition was as stifling and
fatal to progress as the bureaucratic
of
despotism of Diocletian.
In the time of Ausonius we have caught some glimpses

the ascetic and the intellectual side of the Christian
in Gaul, revealing a spiritual movement in striking

contrast to the polished worldly society of the senatorial
order, in which class-pride had taken the place of high
life
public
spirit,
and a
dilettante
culture
had frozen the
CH. iv
springs of moral enthusiasm and energy.
213
The majority
Ausonius was in his

Yet here
grave, resembled him rather than S. Paulinus.
and there in the letters of Sidonius we meet with a man
two generations
of this class,
after
who remained
in the world, yet was not of it, who, without acting literally on the command to forsake all things
for Christ, strove to live in the spirit of the Sermon on
the Mount.
The character
of one of these hidden saints,
might have been drawn by the author

He was a man of illustrious rank
and great fortune, but he had learnt the secret of " using
He has all the spirit of
the world as not abusing it."
an anchoret under the soldier's cloak, and regards his
2
The spirit of
position as a trust rather than a property.
their master had spread among his serfs and clients.
They
are as obedient and dutiful as he is gentle and considerate.
He has still all the tastes of the noble of his time ; he
a certain Vectius,
of the
Seriom
Call.
wears the proper dress of his rank he has a pride in

horse and falcon and hound, and the stately serenity of
wealth.
He maintains a severe but clement dignity.
;
He joins the hunt, but he does not eat the game. His
hours are often spent in reading the Scriptures and chantAn only daughter, whom he tends with
ing the Psalms.
a mother's tenderness, consoles
him
in his widowhood.
Sidonius adds that, with all deference to his own order,

if he could find such graces in his friends, he would prefer
the priestly character to the priest.
Sidonius, although
he did not withhold his admiration from the monastic

3
life, and wrote an elegy on Abraham, the Eastern solitary
who settled in Auvergne, was, after all, one of that class
of prelates who, having been trained in worldly society,
believed in a Christianity which kept in touch with the
world, to renovate it and to govern it.
1
Sid. Ep. iv. Ct.
Call, c. 8.
2
Sid. Ep. iv.
Law's Serimis
priam
domum non
potius adininistrare.
9,
putes
eum
pro-
Ep.
vii. 17.
possidere, sed
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
214
BOOK n
Apollinaris Sidonius had reached his forty-second

l
year when, by the popular voice, he was called to under2
take the episcopal oversight of the diocese of Auvergne.
He had been till then the most typical representative of

the aristocratic caste, Christian in profession, but pagan
in sentiment and training.
He had considered it his
mission to deepen the pride of rank and the pride of
He became suddenly one of the most devoted
culture.
pastors and spiritual governors, sharing the dangers and
miseries of his flock in the Yisigothic invasion, imprisoned
lamented by his
no record of the circum8
Yet the contrast between
stances of this great change.
the life of the worldly aristocrat and the Christian bishop
We have seen the pictures of daily life
is very marked.
Far different was
at the great senator's country seat.
by Euric
for his devotion, passionately
people after his death.
the
life
There
is
of the chiefs of the Church.
The bishop
lived
town of his diocese, with doors always open.

In the early morning hours he received all comers, heard
complaints, composed differences, performed many of the
6
duties of a civil magistrate.
He celebrated Mass, preached
and taught the people in church.
He had important
If
functions in connection with the municipal council.
in the chief
his episcopal seat lay near the court of a German prince,

the bishop had the task of conciliating the new barbarian
6
power, and of maintaining good relations between
1
The year 472 or 471 for the
commencement of his episcopate is
est
inferred from a passage in Ep. vi.

1, to Lupus of Troyes ; the letter,
written evidently soon after the
ordination of Sidonius, speaks of
Lupus as having completed novem
quinquennia ... in apostolica sede.
Lupus became bishop in 427. Cf.
Luetjohann's ed. of Sid. Ind Pers.
Germain's Apoll. Sid. p. 19 n. ;
Chaix, i. 439.
2
Ep. v. 3, utpote cui indignissimo
tantaeprofessionispondusimpactum
iii. 1 ; vi. 7.
;
8 v.
Fertig, Apaitt.
it
Sid. Abth.
and
ii.6.
Guizot, Civ. en France, i. 102.

F. de Coulanges, L'Inv. Germ.
Fauriel, i. 376 ; cf. Nov.
36, 38
Maj. tit. xii. ; C. Th. xvi. 10, 19,
xv. 8, 2. For multifarious business
brought before bishops cf. Sid. Ep.
c
vi. 2, 4, 9, 10.
6
Ep. vi. 12,
the Burgundian
king used to praise the dinners oi
Bishop Patiens cf. Ampere, Hist.
Lit. ii. 202 on the relations of S.
Avitus with the Burgundians.
;
SOCIETY OF APOLLINARIS SIDON1US
CH. iv
215
He
the Gallo-Eornan population.
cultivation of the lands of his see,
had to superintend the

and sometimes he even
The narrow space
worked on them with his own hands.
left hy these active occupations would, if he were a
scholar and a thinker, be devoted to the theological or
philosophical discussions of the time, and he might, in that
age of controversy, have to define his position in some
treatise on free-will and grace, or on the nature of the
1
soul.
The real leader of the municipal community in
the fifth century, alike in temporal and in spiritual things,
was often the great Churchman. The power of the senatorial class, with all their broad lands and culture, did
not extend usually beyond the serfs of their estates.
There were two distinct classes of bishops in the Gallic
Church of the fifth century, the monastic and the aristoand the special qualities of both were needed
The monasteries of
by the circumstances of the time.
Southern Gaul were not only devoted to an ascetic
religious life, but to learning and theological inquiry.
They were the real centres of the intellectual movements
of the age
and the great house of Lerins 2 had a special
fame not only for its sanctity but for its dialectic.
Its
atmosphere seems to have been favourable to freedom
of thought on the great questions which then agitated
Western Christendom. It was the home of a Pelagian
or semi-Pelagian school of thought which long repelled
cratic,
the extreme Augustinian views on the relation of Divine
And it gave many eminent prelates

grace to human will.
3
4
to the Gallic church, Faustus
of Eiez, Lupus of Troyes,
Eucherius
of Lyons,
1
Cf. Ep. of Faustus of Klez,
printed before the de Statu An. of
Claud. Mamert.
2
For an account of Levins and
its
foundation, cf. Fertig, Apoll.

Sid. ii. 46, 47
Guizot, Civ. en
France, i. 121, 165
Chaix, Apoll.
;
Sid.
i.
419
Fauriel,
i.
403.
and Hilary
3
liv.
of Aries.
Krusch. Praef. in Faustum,

;
Sidon. Garm.
xvi.
p.
Genuad.
de Scrip. Eccl. 85.

4
Carm. xvi. Ill Ep. vi.l.

Carm. xvi. 115 Gennad. de
Sid.
Scrip. Eccl. 63.

Carm. xvi.
fl
Scrip. Eccl, 69.
115
Gennad.
dt
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
216
BOOK n
But the aristocratic bishop was perhaps even more

needed at that time of social and political disorganisation.
He was often very imperfectly equipped with theological
But he had other qualifications which the
learning.
people of a diocese in the path of the invaders might
He had wealth for
naturally consider more valuable.
1
sacred or charitable objects, to build or renovate churches,

to redeem the captive among the barbarians, to relieve
the miseries of the lower classes who were suffering from
the disorder and insecurity caused by the invasions.

He
also the authority derived from rank, and the social
had
which made him able to defend his
tact
violence of the
German
flock against the
chiefs, or the not less dreaded
Eoman
Sometimes a highfrom a sense of

to
the
whom
he
lived.
Someduty
population among
times it was forced upon him by their clamour. 2
But
the correspondence of Sidonius leaves no doubt that the
episcopal chair was often an object of ambition and
At an election to the vacant
intrigue of the lowest kind.
see of Ch&lon in 4*70, there were three candidates sup3
One was a man of no charported by rival factions.
Another was an Apicius
acter, but of ancient lineage.
who had bought the support of a party by the skill of
his cook.
A third had promised his supporters, in case
of his election, their reward out of the estates of the see.
oppression of the
minded
aristocrat
officials.
might accept the
office
Although the election of a bishop in those days was
still
in theory
by the popular voice, the presiding bishops of

the province exercised a preponderant influence and in
this case, to the confusion of the rival
partisans, Patiens
;
and
his episcopal colleagues braved all clamour,
their
and laid
hands on the Archdeacon John, a modest man, who
1
As Patiens of Lyons did, Sid.
Ep. ii. 10; cf. Fertig, iii. p. 36, and
Perpetuus of Tours, Sid. Ep. iv. 18 ;
cf. Greg. Tur. ii. 14.
The latter^
gives the dimensions of the Basilica
minutely.
2 pf q ,
f S' d
-.
'
'
&**.
24
Ambrose b7 Paulmus,
8
Sid. Ep. iv. 26.
c.
.,
Life of
m.
&c
CH. iv
217
had no support, except from his own blameless character.

At another election, to the see of Bourges, Sidonius himself
1
He found a great number of rival candidates,
presided.
claims the people were hopelessly divided,
whose
among
and one of whom had actually used bribery to gain supAt their request he undertook to nominate a
port.
for
the sacred office, and he justified his choice in
person
a harangue which is a very valuable relic of the times.
Sidonius, putting aside all the popular candidates, gave
who was not then in
his voice for a certain Simplicius,
Holy Orders, but a soldier, and a man of great official

rank and wealth, whose character was highly respected,
and who had proved his devotion by munificence in the
cause
the Church.
of
The nominee
of Sidonius
was
accepted apparently without a murmur.

The aristocratic bishop may not have been a learned
showed himself the man for the

by great qualities of leadership and by princely
theologian, but he often

times,
Sidonius himself,
generosity.
as bishop
of Auvergne,
more than atoned by his courage and devotion for the

The Gothic
literary vanity and frivolity of his early life.
had
closed
round
his
native
which
district,
power
proudly
maintained a hopeless resistance. 8
Ecdicius, a son of
and
brother-in-law
of
the
Avitus,
bishop, raised and
equipped an armed force at his own expense, and performed prodigies of valour against the Goths.
But the
attacks were renewed again and again. The walls of the city
of
Auvergne were crumbling, and famine was threatening

4
While Ecdicius headed the sorties against
the defenders.
1
Sid. Ep. vii. 9. Note the words
neque enim valuissemus aliquid in
:
commune
consulere, nisi judicii sui

faciens plebs lenita
sacerjacturam,
dotali se potius judicio subdidisset.
2
hie vobis ecclesiam

extruxit.
Ib. iii.
3 ; the character of
Ecdicius is one of the noblest of his
Ib.
vii.
9,
juvenis miles
8
He had not only a high mili-
class.
tary spirit which was rare among

the nobles of the period, but he was
a man of lavish generosity.
Like
Bishop Patiens he fed the starving
people of Burgundy at his own expense v. Greg. Tur. ii. 24.
;
Ep.
liatorea.
vii. 7,
macri jejuniis prae-
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
218
BOOK n
the enemy, Sidonius by his high spirit and his eloquence

sustained and animated the courage of his flock.
As a
Catholic, no doubt he was fighting to ward off the en-
croachments of intolerant Arianism. 1
But the indignant

tone in which he upbraids the bishop who finally surrendered the liberties of Auvergne to Euric, reveals the
passionate patriotism of the Celt and the pride of the
Koman
Gregory
of
His generosity was equal to his courage.

Tours had heard a tale of the good bishop
noble.
selling his silver plate to relieve the necessities of his

flock.
Another bishop, Patiens of Lyons, was famous
in
his time throughout all Gaul for his princely

liberality.
the crops in his diocese had been burnt up in the
When
4
ravages of the Goths, he sent supplies, at his own cost,
among the famishing population. His waggons, laden
with grain, crowded all the roads, and his barges were
seen everywhere along the Saone and the Ehone. 5

Aries
and Riez, Avignon and Orange, Viviers and Valence, were
He was also, like Perpetuus of

supported by his bounty.
6
Sidonius has
Tours, a great church builder and restorer.
celebrated the splendour of marbles and gold which he
lavished on his
The
new
basilica at Lyons.
Gallic bishops
day were not
of that
less
dis-
tinguished for learning and eloquence than for munificence

1
For the massacre or expulsion
lar generosity of Patiens the bishop,
of Catholic bishops by Euric see Sid.
Gregory gives a larger place to
Ecdicius.
Ep. vii. 6, regem Gothorum quam6
Sid. Ep. vi. 12, vidimus angusquam sit ob virium merita terribilis,
non tarn Romania moenibus quam
tas tuis fragibus vias.
legibus
pavesco
2
Ep.
Christianis insidiaturum
Greg. Tur. H. Fr. ii. 25.
vii. 7, to Graecus,
bishop
of Marseilles.
This letter shows
Sidonius at his best, both in spirit
and in style; cf. Fertig, Sid. ii. p.
11.
8
Hist. Franc, ii. 22.
4
Sid. Ep. vi. 12 ; cf. Greg. Tur.
Hist. Fr. ii. 24.
Fertig (ii. 25)
points out that Gibbon notices the

charity of Ecdiciua in this famine,
but makes no mention of the simi-
Ib.
ii.
10.
On
Perpetuus
cf. iv.
18.
7
See also the verses composed by

Sidonius on the new basilica at
Tours, built by Perpetuus, Ep. iv.
18; and its description, Greg. Tur. ii.
14
1 1 is uncertain to whom Patiens
dedicated his church at Lyons.
Cf.
.
Chaix, Apoll. Sid. i. 32 ; Migne's

note to ii. 10. Patiens built churches
in many other places, Sid. Ep. vi.
12, omitto per te plurimis locia
basilicarum fundament* consurgere.
CH. iv
219
and power of leadership.

The pulpit in the fifth century
was a great force, and the great prelates were generally
great preachers.
time was
S.
Not the
least celebrated orator of his
Eemi, the apostle of the Franks, whose style
Sidonius praises in language of ingenious and alliterative

exaggeration, and whose declamations were eagerly read
and transcribed in Auvergne. 1 The rhetoric of the great
bishop of Eheims is known to us only by the words of
his
famous appeal to Clovis at his baptism. 2
fate has befallen the writings
of
similar
Euphronius of Autun,
who had a great reputation for theological learning, and

was the author of a memoir on the prodigies of the
8
No prelate of that age

rendered more various and splendid service than Lupus
4
of Troyes, in his episcopate extending over half a century.
terrible year of Attila's invasion.
He
the
rose to be abbot of Le*rins in his early manhood.

In
first years of his episcopate he accompanied S. Ger-
manus on
5
mission against
the
Pelagian
heresy in
was believed that his sanctity and dignity

had saved Troyes from the fury of Attila. He was also
a student with a fine library, and Sidonius had a great
His eloquence seemed
respect for his literary judgment.
Britain.
It
to his contemporaries to recall the golden age of Gallic

6
rhetoric.
Faustus of Eiez was the greatest and the most
thinker
daring
among the Churchmen of his time. Like
was a native of Britain. 7 From his early

youth he was devoted to the study of philosophy, nor
did he abandon it when he became a monk of Le*rins.
After being head of that community, he succeeded
Pelagius, he
Sid. Ep. ix. 7.

An Arvernian
on a visit to the north had managed
to bring a copy of S. Remi's Declamotions back from Rheims, and pre1
sented it to his bishop, who read it

aloud to an admiring circle.
2
Greg. Tur. ii. 31, adora quod
incendisti ; incende quod adorasti.
Gregory notices the rhetoric.
8
Sid. Ep. ix. 2
cf. Chaix, Sid.
;
ii.
p. 75 ; Idat. Chron. ad a. 451.
Sid. Ep. vii. 13 ; viii. 11.
6
S. Jul. quoted in Index
Pers. to Mommsen's ed. of Sidonius,
Ap.
4
Ada
p.
429
Sid.
11. ix. 9, legi
Ep.
Riochatus
te reportat
cf.
Prosp. Chron. ad
cf.
viii. 11,
v.
a.
429.
2.
volumina tua quae

Britannia tuis pro
Krusch. Praef. liv. ;
Gennad. de Scrip.
Eccl. 85.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
220
Maximus,
his
BOOK n
predecessor in the abbacy at Le'rins, as

He was a man of the most saintly life,
bishop of Kiez.
and in his days of
fame and power he never relaxed the

1
abstinence and austerity of the monastic discipline.

His
at
the
at
consecration
of
the
new
basilica
sermon,
Lyons,
his audience.
Yet he was the great heretic
and the recognised leader of the powerful
His work on
semi-Pelagian school in Southern Gaul.
Free Grace was assailed with ferocious clamour, and was
condemned by Pope Gelasius. 2 But his aberrations from
the strict line of orthodoxy were even more serious.
He
carried
away
of the day,
maintained, in a work published anonymously, that the

soul was a corporeal substance, and that to attribute an
it was to invest it with a quality
which belongs only to God.
This heresy was indeed not
4
a novelty.
It had been expounded by Tertullian
it
had found support from S. Jerome 5 and Cassian, 6 and it
seemed to S. Augustine to demand a serious and elaborate
7
refutation.
The treatise of Faustus drew forth a reply
from Mamertus Claudianus, which, in its subtlety and
formal elaboration of proof, has the tone and atmosphere
of the scholastic theology of the Middle Ages.
Claudian's
treatise de Statu Animae was dedicated to Sidonius, and
the honour was acknowledged in a letter 8 which leaves a
grave doubt whether the good bishop understood the
immaterial nature to
question
Mam.
at
He
issue.
absurd extravagance.
1
has a genuine admiration for
Claudianus, although
cum novae digniobtentu rigorem veteris disci-
plinae non
relaxaveris.
2
Krusch. Praef. lix. For specimens of his preaching, v. Sermones
ad Monachos, Migne,
ii. and iv.
t.
Iviii.,
esp.
Ep. prefixed to Mam. Claudian. de Statu An. ; Ep. xx. in the

collected Ep. of Faustus.
4
Sid. Ep. ix. 3,
tatis
it is
v.
Tertull. de
An.
c.
5, 7.
expressed in language of
is not a hint in his
But there
en i
Hieron. Com. in Libr. Job, 25.

Cassian, Collat.
vii.
13,
licet
pronuntiemus nonnullas esse

sp iritales naturas, ut sunt angeli
e tc., ipsa quoque anima nostra vel
cert a aer iste subtilis,
tamen
incor-
poreae nullatenus aestimandae sunt.

. >T
_, <7
,
,
r
7
Noumsson, La Philosophu d*
_
t.
i.
170.
ûgustin,
p.
.
&
Sid. Ep. iv. 3.
CH. iv
221
he regarded Faustus with any feeling but that

It must be said to
of the greatest esteem and affection.
the honour of Sidonius, that he chose and loved his
friends for their character, quite apart from their opinions ;
letters that
to have had an impartial regard for both

the combatants in this controversy.
great value of Sidouius to the historical studen,t
and he seems
/The
is_
that he
is
so broad
and
tolerant,
and that
his charity
embraces so manyjnen of various character and .Ideals.

(lie has even a good word for the Jews, as men and apart
from their faith. 1
His own associations would naturally
incline him to admire the prince bishop, with noble
/
ancestry and a taste for letters. |But he has a profound

reverence for the ascetic fervour of those who withdrew
from theworld to the monastic
life,
or to the greater
lonelinesajif the hermitage in the forest.
He
had
visited
and seen with admiration the spirit

In one of his poems
and discipline of that great society.
he celebrates that lona of the Mediterranean, as we may
call it, whose arid sands had been the home of HonoFaustus at Le'rins,
Eucher, and Hilary, all great luminaries of the

Church of Gaul in his early youth. 8 He sends an account
4
of an episcopal election to Domnulus, who had retired to
one of the monasteries in the Jura.
In another letter
he acknowledges the affectionate sympathy of an abbot
named Chariobaudus, 5 and sends him a cowl to protect
ratus,
him
his
Close to
against the chills of the midnight service.
episcopal town of Auvergne, a solitary from the
own
East had settled in a hermitage. 6

1
Sid. JEp.
iii.
4,
Gozolas nations
Judaeus, cujus mihi quoque esset

persona cordi, si non esset secta
Gozolas
carried his
despectui.
letters
2
cf. iv. 5.
3 ; v. Germain's Sid.
Apoll. p. 148, n. 5.
Ib.
ix.
Carm. xvi. 91. Honoratus and

Hilary became bishops of Aries, and
Eucher, bishop of Lyons.
He had
suffered per-
Ep. iv. 25, nunc ergo Jurensia

remittunt jam monasteria, in
si te
quae solitus escendere jam caelestibus supernisque praeludis habitaculis, etc. ; cf. Greg. Tur. vit. Patrum,
For the monasteries in the Jura,
i.
cf.
6
6
Fr.
Chaix, ii. 218.

Ep. vii. 16.
Ib. vii. 17 ; Greg. Tur. Hcsi
ii.
21,
and
vit.
Patrum,
iii.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
222
BOOK n
secution in his native country on the Euphrates

thence
he had passed into Egypt, and lived among the hermits
;
of the Thebaid.
He was a man of superhuman sanctity,
and men believed that he had superhuman powers. He
could put demons to flight, give sight to the blind, heal
His powerful personmarvellously inveterate disease.
drew
others
like-minded
to
him.
A monastery was
ality
built which became the centre of high religious feeling in
Thither came the bishop for calm and mediAuvergne.
tation in the tempest of the G-othic invasion.

When
had
to
the
thither
came
Euric's
Goth,
Auvergne
yielded
governor, the Count Victorius, and on high festivals the

monastery offered its modest hospitality to the great
nobles and
But the good abbot

was at length worn out with care and austerity, and when
he was on his dying bed, Victorius the governor bent
officials of
the
district.
over him weeping, to close his eyes.

His bishop wrote
his elegy, in which, through all the pedantry, we catch
the tones of a real reverence and affection for a saintly
life,,
I
This
is
not a
Our main theme
of the religious life of the time.

history
is rather the manners and Tone of the
who thought
more of Virgil and Statius than of

Yet it would be a very maimed and
misleading view of the age of Sidonius which confined
itself to the gay nmintry.. hi^ ]jfo pf Aylt-ûm or Prusianum, and ignored the great spiritual movements, the
caste
John
S.
far
or S, 5aj&L_
<
fearless quest "of truth, the world-forgetting piety, which,
when
society
promise of a
seemed sinking into
new and
tjie abyss, were the

better time. /In"Sidonina the 'old
and the new order meat.

of the
Romans, the
culture threatened
1
He
thought himsp.lf a Roman

champion of an immemorial
last
by the
rising tide of barbarism?
Greg. Tur. vit. Patrum, iii.

Gregory narrates how, on one of
these occasions, the guests were
miraculously supplied with wine.
He
Sid. Ep. ii. 10, tantum increbuit multitude desidiosorum, ut,
quique meram
proprietatem de
nisi vel paucissimi
Latiaris
linguae
CH. iv
ended
his life as a
devoted Christian pastor
who
223
still
clung to the great traditions of ancient Rome, but had

learned to believe in the grander mission of the Christian
Church.
trivialium barbarismorum rubigine
vindicaveritis, earn brevi abolitam
defleamus interitamque
sic
omnoa
nobilium sermonum purpurae per

inouriam vulgi decolorabuntur.
BOOK HI
THE FAILUKE OF ADMINISTRATION, AND
THE RUIN OF THE MIDDLE CLASS,
AS REVEALED BY THE THEODOSIAN
CODE
CHAPTEK
THE DISORGANISATION OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE
[WE have
hitherto been occupied with the condition of

Eornan society in the West as it is revealed to us in its
But Syminachus. Ausonius, Sidonius

throw little light on the condition of
other classes than their own, or on the deep-seated and *%
inveterate diseases which for generations had been underliterary
remains.
andtheir
class
mining the strength of the imperial system. The general

tendency of modern inquiry has been to discover in the
fall of that august and magnificent organisation, not a
cataclysm, precipitated by the impact of barbarous forces,
(but a process slowly prepared and evolved by internal
and economic
causes. } It is provable that the barbarian
invasions of the Jifth century were not more formidable

than those of the .third, which were triumphantly^repelled
fourth,
by the Ulyrian Caesars, or than those of the

which were rolled back by the genius of Julian
and the ferocious energy
of Yalentinian. (The question

the invasions of the fifth century succeeded, while
the earlier failed, is best answered by an appeal to the
why
In the voluminous enactments issued

ImperialCode.
from Constantine to Majorian, the student has before
him a melancholy
diagnosis of the maladies which, by a

slow and inevitable process of decay, were exhausting
the strength of Koman society.
He^will see municipal
liberty and self-government dying out, the upper class
v
(
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
228
BOOK in
cut off from the masses by sharp distinctions of wealth

and privilege, yet forbidden to bear arms, 1 and deprived
of all practical interest in public affairs.
He will find
that not only has an Oriental monarchy taken the place
of the principate of Augustus, but that an almost
Oriental system of caste has made every social grade

and every occupation practically hereditary, from the
senator to the waterman on the Tiber, or the sentinel at
a frontier post; and that human nature is having its
revenge in wholesale flight from a cruel servitude and
the chaos of administration.
It will be seen that in a
almost branded with infamy, 2

poverty is steadily increasing and wealth becoming more
insolent and aggressive ; that the disinherited, in the face
society in
which poverty
is
of an
omnipotent government, are carrying brigandage

even up to the gates of Eome that parents are selling
;
into slavery ; that public buildings are

into
decay that the service on the great post
falling
their children
roads
is
frontier
becoming disorganised. ) 4JL a JJJgQ when every

was threatened, it will be found that the frontier
posts are" bemg Itbandoned, that therais wholesale desertion from the ranks of the army ; while in the failure of
ree recruits, the slaves
lie
unscientific
and
have to be called to arms.

financial
inefficient
system
But
will
the notice of the historical inquirer.

The
llection of imposts in kind opened the door to every
Still more fatal to pure adminisies of corruption.
iefly attract
was the system which left to the municipal class

assessment and collection of the revenue in their
,tion
3
'district.
/
That doomed order are at once branded as the
worst oppressors, and invested with the melancholy glory

3
of being the martyrs of a ruinous system of finance.
1
Aurel. Viet, de Caes. c. 33, Gallienus : primus ipse, metu sacordiae
ne
nobilium
suae,
imperium
ad
optimos
trans ferretur, senatum

militia vetuit, etiam adire exer-
citum
O. Th. xv. 15, 1.

See M. Duruy's Menioire on
Honestiores and Humiliores in the
:
later
8
Empire, in Hist. Rom. vi. 643.

dt Gub. Dei^ v. 18 c'f.
Salv.
CH.
DISORGAN1SA TION OF P UBLIC SER VICE

192
229
a tragedy
prolonged through more than five generations, is one of
the most curious examples of obstinate and purblind
legislation, contending hopelessly with inexorable laws of
Their lingering
fate,
recorded in
edicts,
'
society and human nature. /In that contest the middle

or bourgeois class was
almost extinguished, Roman
financial administration was paralysed, and at its close
the real victors and survivors were the great landholders,
A volume
surEounded_by ^tJbeir_serfs_a,iid dependants.
might be written on the corruption and cruel oppression
the officials of the treasury, servile to the great,
tyrannical to the poor, and calmly defying all the
menaces of the emperor in their unchecked career of
of
rapacity. yThe last and deepest impression which the inquirer will carry with him, as he rises from a study of the
(Theodosian Code, is that fraud and greed are everywhere

triumphant, that the rich are growing richer and more
powerful, while the poor are becoming poorer and more
helpless,
and that the imperial government, inspired with
lost all^qntrol
ofjê_vast machine,
the perverse errors of legislation and the
hopeless corruption of the financial service, the candid
reader of the Code cannot help feeling that the central
th&best intentions, has
Yet amid
all
authority was
keenly alive to its duties, and almost

overwhelmed by its
It is a superficial
responsibilities.)
view of the time which dwells on the weakness of a
Honorius, a Valentinian, or an Anthemius.
JThe
Emperor was, indeed, in theory omnipotent but as a

matter of fact he had to depend on his officials, both to
;
advise
assisted
decisions and to carry them out.

He was
a
council
of
of
men
by
experienced
high official
his
50. M. F. de Coulanges (L'Jnv.

Germ. p. 58, D. 1) says: On
remarquera que Salvien accuse
moins les fonctionnaires imp^riaux
que les magistrats municipaux.
Yet cf. de Gub. Dei, iv. 21, quid
iii.
est aliud
quorundam, quos
taceo,
praefectura quain praeda ? v. 25,

quibus enim aliis rebus Bacaudae
facti
sunt nisi
judicuin, etc.
l
C. Th. xii.
tit.
improbitatibus
i.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
230
BOOK
some of whom had probably governed great

provinces, and who knew the Eoman world, if any men
rank,
did.
Moreover,
it
is
plain,
from the very wording of
2
many of the rescripts, that they were suggested by the
prefect or governor to whom they are addressed ; and
one can hardly be wrong in believing that in

these last efforts of
many
of
Eoman
statesmanship, so sympathetic,
so strangely rhetorical, so full at times of honest indignation, we may have the report of a conscientious governor
returned to him in the imperative form of an edict.

The minute and circumstantial description of oppression
and wrong could hardly have come from any one who
had not heard the tale from the sufferers themselves. 8
Occasionally, though too seldom it is to be feared, such
complaints came directly to the ears of the Emperor. The
mass of legislation for the relief of the province of Africa

in the reign of Honorius was the result of at least two
deputations commissioned to represent
and so determined was the Emperor
abuses complained
experienced and
of,
its
grievances
to remedy the
;
that he appointed two of the most
ex-prefects with full powers

with the disorders of the province. 8
f The Eoman world had for
ages regard^jheJEmperor
6
as an earthly Providence
and to the end such was the
illustrious
to deal
The Council was

the members
tprium,
siliarii,
Th.
t.
iii.
proceres, conconsistoriani.
C.
comites
xi. 39,
p.
ix.
108.)
called consis-
14, 3 (Godefroy
cf.
Spartian
vit.
Hadrian, c. 18 Amm. Marc. xv.

xxxi. 12, 10
C. Th. vi.
5, 12
12 ; cf. F. de Coulanges, L'lnv.
Germ. p. 13 Duruy, vi. 574.
2
We frequently meet such phrases
;
Sublimis
Excellentiae
tuae
saluberrimam suggestionem secuti
cf. Nov. Th. 45, 47.
3
Cf. several of the Novellae addressed to Albinus, e.g. Nov. Th.
as
22,
The emperors Gratian

Valentinian permitted the
Campania,
6
Nov. Valent.
of
7.
the
discussores,
395
in
..
n V1L
A
QQ
20
4 66
'
and the description of the fraud
and violence
and
provinces, after duo deliberation, to

send three delegates to represent
their case to the government, G.
The Curiales and
Th. xii. 12, 7.
Defensores sometimes tried to prevent the appeal of the provincials,
ix. 26, 2, with Godefroy's
xi. 8, 3
The deputation from Africa
note.
Cf. xii.
is mentioned, xii. 1, 166.
iv.
46, recoin6, 27 ; Sym. Ep.
mending a similar deputation from
'
C.
Th.
See F. de Coulanges,
pp. 177 aqq.
Rom.
xi. 28, 2.
'
La Gaule
CH.
DISORGANISA TION OF P UBLIC SER VICE
231
conception of their office which was entertained even by

the weakest emperors. Valentinian III. proclaims that it is
"
his business to
provide for the peace and tranquillity
"
Anthemius says that he is called

of the provinces ;
2
"
"
It
to face the storms of overwhelming calamities."
8 "
to provide for
our care," says the Emperor Martian,
the welfare of the human race." Yet there are in the later
is
edicts
many
Their tone
signs of conscious weakness.
frequently argumentative and
There
rhetorical.
is
is
an
absence of the trenchant brevity with which Constantine

or the elder Valentinian were wont to declare their will.
is singular to find an edict against Jews, Samaritans,
and pagans opening with an argument for the being of a
4
God.
Elsewhere we meet with philosophical reflections
on the innate criminal tendencies of human nature, 6 the
6
hopeless selfishness of the rich, or on the functions
of government.
The Emperor Majorian in one law
with
describes,
great vividness and passionate force,
It
as
for
if
and
the
of these
posterity,
hopeless
edicts
crushing weight of taxation

7
Many
position of the farmer.
the
betray the style of the school rhetor-
in many of them the ring

is
ician, and yet there
of genuine sympathy for misery, which the imperial
author more than half confesses that he is impotent
to relieve.
It is impossible to read some of these laws
in which the Emperor describes "the agitations and
anxieties of his
serene mind,"
Nov. Valent. tit
Leg. Anthem,
Nov. Mart, ii., curae nobis est

huinani generis providere
viii.
ad
init.
tit. i.
utilitati
nam
die ac nocte prospicimus

ut universi qui sub nostro imperio
id
vivunt et armanim
hostili
praesidio ab
in
ac securitate
6
Nov. Valent. v., noxiae mentes
caeco semper in facinus furore rapiuntur.
e
Nov Th. xxi, domesticis tanturn compendiis obscquentes bonum
commune destituunt.
.
enim
tarn
Nov Mt*'
'
impetu muniantur, ao
otio
pace libero
potiantur.
4
Nov. Th. iii. quis
mente captus, etc.
without a feeling that
...
ilt ' 1V *
Nov. Th. and Valent. 51, quae

ergo his angustiis remedia providenda aunt men s nostrae Serenitatis
exaestuat.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
232
he
is
probably
man most
the
be
to
BOOK in
in
pitied
the
Empire.
Of all departments of administration, probably none

caused the Emperor greater anxiety than that concerned
To provide corn,
with the food-supplies of the capital.
1
pork, wine, and oil for the populace had for ages been
1
How dangerone of the first tasks of the government.
ous any failure in this_department might be to the peace
of the city,
and the safety
of the
upper
we can
classes,
2
While the
Symmachus.
Goths were marching through Samnium and Bruttium,
see
clearly
in the letters
of
or Gildo or Heraclian were stopping the corn -fleets, or

the Vandals were occupying the ports of Africa, the
government had
to provide for the daily subsistence of a

An army of public servants incorpopulation.
porated in hereditary guilds, Navicularii, Pistores, Suarii,
Pecuarii, were charged with the duty of bringing up
great
and preparing them for consumption. 3 It is

4
evident, from the legislation of Honorius, that the stress
on this department was very severe in the early part of
supplies
owing to the troubles of the Gildonic revolt in

and again from the famine of 410. But the
difficulty reappears more than once in the laws of
his reign,
Africa,
subsequent years.
One
of
the hardest tasks
of
the
government was to prevent the members of these guilds

from deserting or evading their hereditary obligations.
It is well
known
that the tendency of_the^ later Empire
Marq. Horn. Stciatsverwaltung,

The chief authorities for
133.
the distribution of oil, wine, and
flesh-meat are Aug. Hist. vit. Sep.
Sev. 23, Alex. Sev. 22, 26, Aurdian,
ii.
48, C. Th.
froy's notes
2
xiv. 24,
;
C.
1,
with Gode-
Th. xiv.
4, 3.
Syni. Ep. vi. 18, 26, 12.

Id. Rel. 14, noverat (Aeternitas
vestra) horum corporum ministerio
tantae urbis onera sustineri.
Hie
lanati pecoris in vector est, ille ad
3
victum populi cogit annentum, hos

tenet functio, pars
lavacris ligna conportat,
etc.
Of. Paratitl. of Godefroy to
C. Th. xiv. tit. 2 and 4 ; Wallon,
suillae carnis
urenda
Hist, de V Esdavage,
4
173.
iii.
Th. xiii.5, 34, 35 Zos. vi. 11,

describes the effect of the closing of
the African ports by Heraclian, X
frfoicrjif/e rg ir6\ei x a ^ 67r re/)OS
G.
'*'
irportpov.
5
Nov. Th. 39, 40.
CH.
DISORGANISATION OF PUBLIC SERVICE
233
to stereotype society, by compelling men to follow

the occupation of their fathers, and preventing a free
was
circulation among different callings and grades of life.

The man who brought the grain of Africa to the public
for
who made it into loaves

who brought pigs from
Ostia,
the
baker
distribution,
the
butchers
at
stores
Sainnium, Lucania, or Bruttium, the purveyors of wine

oil, the men who fed the furnaces of the public
and
bound
baths, were
to
another.
from one generation

rural serfdom
the
[it^wafl-^rincjpleôj^
to their callings
Every avenue
applied to social functions.

closed.
father's
Ajnan
of escape
was
was bound
to his calling not only by his

2
were not
mother's condition.
Men
but by his
If the daughter
marry out of their guild.
permitted
of one of the baker caste married a man not belonging to
to'
Not
her husband was bound to her father's calling. 4
even a dispensation obtained by some means from the
it,
5
6
imperial chancery, not even the power of the Church
could avail to break the chain of servitude.
The cor-
porati, it is true,
privileges, exemptions, and

of some of the guilds might be
had certain
allowances, and the heads

"
But their property, like

Count."
was at the mercy of the State. 8 If they
parted with an estate, it remained liable for the service
with which the vendor was charged.
To maintain such a system, and to counteract the
endless attempts at evasion and corruption to which its
raised to the rank of

their persons,
galling restraints gave rise, required constant vigilance,

1
0. Th.
quos naviculariae conditioni obnoxios invenit
"VVallon,
xiii. 5,
iii.
p.
174.
35, universes
antiquitas,
praedictae
conveniet famulari.
2
C.
Th.
xiv.
4,
8,
functioni
pristinum revocentur,
qui
paterno quam materno genere inveninntur obnoxii.
4
Ib. xiv. 3, 21.

76. xiv. 3, 14.
elicuerit, etc. ; cf. 1. 21, etiamsi

nostra elicita fuerint aliqua subreptionc rescripta cf. xiv. 3, 4.
Ib. xiv. 3, 11
cf. Nov. Th. 26.
7 Ib. xiv. 2
v. Paratitlon.
;
;
ad munus
tarn
6
Ib. xiv. 3, 20, si quo casu, vel
occultis vel arnbitiosis hoc precibus
Ib.
xiii.
6,
6;
cf.
1.
9,
which
recalls a navicular property to the

function, even when the sale took
place twenty years before.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
234
BOOK in
The navicularii seem

which was as constantly defeated.
to have exceeded the very liberal allowance of time for
their voyage, which was, under special circumstances,
While the city was on the
extended to two years. 1
verge of famine, or when supplies were urgently needed
for the
on any
in Gaul, the captains often lingered in port

2
of
pretext, or made circuitous voyages in pursuit
army
And
the government was obliged to

order greater despatch, and to prohibit the practice of
private trading in which captains engaged, to the dis-
own
their
profit^
Sometimes the captains

organisation of the service.
under
another
entered their ships
name, probably that of
in
order
to
some person of influence,
escape their respon-
whose duty it was to

to
wink at malversation
bribed
were
expedite transport,
function were withfor
the
liable
or neglect.
Estates
6
In the year 45 O 6
sales.
fraudulent
drawn from it by
sibilities.
The
functionaries,
the guild of navicularii had been so reduced in numbers

by the desertion of its members to other callings that
Emperor was obliged to order the restoration of all

persons and estates to the function from which they
had been withdrawn. Another edict of 455 orders the
the
return to their various guilds of all corporati who have

deserted their proper duties, in order to enter the army
or the church. 7
similar
command had been
412
governors of provinces to
of all guildsmen of the city of Borne
to all
from
issued in
compel the return
who had migrated
refers not to the stealthy
This law, however,

Italy.
evasion of onerous functions, but to the wholesale flight
1
0.
n.
76.
Th.
xiii.
xiii. 5,
xiii.
5,
26
cf.
1.
21.
34, a. 410.
5,
33,
The penalty
Wa s * eath
4
:.
II.
xm.
7, 2,
nmlti naves suas
diversorum (Potentum) nomimbus

et tituhs tuentur.
5
Ib.
xiii.
6,
wh
conveyed the supplies up the
^j^V
26
C.'Th. xiv. 2, 4; cf. xiv. 7, 2,

of the game
ordering the return of the nemes i a ci, signiferi,
cantabrarii, guilds connected with
or pagan rites and
See Godefroy's note.
processions.
amusements
1.
Nov. Th. 38.
amnici referred to were the boatmen
The
navicularii
CH.
DISORGANISA TION OF P UBLIC SER VICE
235
which had taken place during the invasion

and of which we have such vivid accounts from
1
S. Jerome and Kutilius Namatianus.
The effects of the Gothic invasion of Italy in the
eaIy~~~years of the_fifth_cei]tury have left many deep
of all ranks,
of Alaric,
We can almost hear the distant

on f5e Code.
sound of the advancing hordes in some of the enactments
There
issued during the years of Stilicho's ascendency.
traceg
are laws relating to every part of the military system,
and every part
is
revealing
weaknesses.
During the
period of the later Empire, landed proprietors had to

2
furnish recruits in proportion to the size of their estates.
These must have been drawn from the class of coloni,

since the strictly servile class was excluded from the
The Code in these years shows that
Eoman army. 8
recruits
were urgently needed, not even the Emperor's
own estates being exempted from the

know that, at the time of the Gildonic
Yet we
jevy.
war, the senators
exerted their whole strength as a body to resist the call

And the result of their efforts is seen
of the Emperor. 5
397, which gave them the option

paying twenty-five solidi for each recruit for whom
6
they were liable. I The exclusion of senators from the
in the enactments of
of
army, and the prohibition of ordinary citizens to carry

The military
arms, had produced-their inevitable result.
The army
spirit had almost died out among Eomans.
was_sw..elled
1
by corps of barbarian mercenaries,yancl th^
Hieron. Ep. cxxvii.

Rut. Nam. It. i. 331
4 ; cxxx.
Claudian.
de Bell. Get. 217.

2
F. do Coul. L'Inv. Germ. p.
145; G. Th. vii. 13, 7, of the year
375.
3
C.
Th.
vii.
13, 8.
They
are
coupled in this exclusion with cauponae, coqui, pistores, and persons

employed in famosae tabernae.
4
vii.
Ib.
13, 12, ideoque ne
patrimonium quidem nostrum a
praestatione
(i.e.
tironum)
immune
esse patimur.
6
Sym. Ep. vi. 62, legati ordinia

ex usu actis omnibus reverterunt.
Nam
et tironum conquievit indictio

etargenti nobis facta gratia est; cf.
Ep. vi. 64.
In the law
C. Th. vii. 13, 13.
of Valens and Gvatian of 375 the
pretium tironis was fixed at thirtysix solidi.

The pretium fixed in
the edict of 410, calling for recruits
from the officialesjudicurn of Africa,
is
thirty
C.
Th.
vii.
13, 20.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
236
BOOK in
highest military commands were held by Germans.

Ever since the third century the military profession^ had"
1
Eecruits were
been declining in the public esteem.
\
branded on entering the service, as if they were slaves in

an ergastulum. 2 The aversion to military service appears
have been^grewjrig.
to
Towards the end
fourth
of the
century thepractice of self-mutilation to escape service

had become so common that it had to be checked by the
most cruel punishments. 8
In the years between 396
and 412, Honorius issued nine
on desertion and
to have
prevailed in all parts of the Empire, but to have been
The agents of
specially rampant in Gaul and Africa.
and
the
smaller
farmers were evidently
great proprietors
glad, even in the face of very severe penalties, to shelter
the absconding soldier on their estates for the sake of
5
his labour.
Honorius does not, like his predecessors
in 382, threaten to burn the offender alive. 6
But the
of
his
laws, together with the organincreasing emphasis
ised search which he instituted, indicates the magnitude
and inveteracy of the evil. 7 Apparently proprietors or
their agents were not deterred even by the danger of
For
confiscation from disobeying laws so often repeated.
in i40, when the growth of the Vandal power in Africa
urgently demanded an increase of the army, Theodosius
and Valentinian III. were compelled to make the offence
the concealment of deserters. 4
concealing recruits or deserters
of
punishable by
1
Duruy,
vii. p.
death. 8
G.
Th.
203.
254.
the frontiers
coloni
of the
vit. Pesc. Nig. c. 3, desertores

qui time innumeri Gallias vexabant,
etc.
vii. 13,
4 and
5.
That
words, dommus ejus qui non prohibet gravi condemnatione feriatur.

Ib. vii. 18, 9-17.
Gaul at an
by agents or
Spart.
the proprietor from whose estate

the recruit came was sometimes a
party to the crime is implied in the
all
Along
Godefroy's Paratitlou to C. Th.
vii. t. 2, p.
8
in
edicts
The crime seems
For deserters
earlier
period
cf.
B
c. Th. vii. 18, 12, actorem conscium severe supplicio damnandum
esse censemus.
,
lg
n ^
^ uniantu*
7 Ib vn 18 13
-
Nov. Th. 44.
fl
scelera
CH.
237
Empire forts and castles had for centuries been erected,

1
which were garrisoned by troops called burgarii, who,
like the guilds of the capital, were held in a species of
Towards the end of the fourth
hereditary servitude.
these
frontier
sentinels, especially in Gaul and
century
their
services
were soon to be urgently
where
Spain
It is difficult to discover
to
melt
needed, began
away.
But in the
the influences which led to their dispersion.
an
and
Honorius
409
enactment
of
Theodosius
year
discloses in a startling way the denuded state of the
frontier.
In ordinary times slaves, along with tavern keepers,

cooks, bakers, and persons following certain infamous
3
It must have
callings, were excluded from the army.
been a dire extremity which forced the Emperor, contra

hostiles impetus, to call the slaves to arms by the offer of
4
In the
a bounty and the promise of emancipation.
same year the free provincials everywhere are appealed

to, by their pride in liberty and love of country, to take
5
It was the year in which Kadagaisus with his
arms.
Gothic army of 200,000 men swept down from the
Alps on Lombardy and Tuscany.
Only once before had
Kome been driven to put arms in the hands of her
slaves, to repel the advance of Hannibal after the battle
The urgency of the crisis is also seen in a
of Cannae. 6
law of 404, peremptorily requiring
all possessores to
contribute their share to the preparation and transport of
On
the fortification of the limes

on the dec. 12
fence of the Gallic frontier by
Amm.
Marc,
xxviii.
Valentinian,
on the Limitanei Milites,
2, 1
with lands granted on condition of
cf. vit.
Hadrian,
to the year 406, as the names of

the Coss. Arcadius and Probus
On the date of the invasion

show.
of Radagaisus cf. Godefroy on C.
Th. vii. 13, 16
Gibbon, c. 30
Prosp. Chron. Zos. v. 26.
;
Th
n
591.
'
vii '
d ten
fo b
13
Ib.
vii.
13,
16.
This belongs
>
solidi
offered
.,
4
Liv. xxii. 57,
".
They
p acatis
are
r * biis
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
238
BOOK
supplies for the army, under a penalty of four times the
amount due by them, without any exemption even
for
own estates. 1
when the rapid movement
the Emperor's
At a time
of troops and
was a matter of the first importance,
the great roads and the posting service seem to have
2
There are more than
been getting into a bad state.
8
In
ten edicts of Honorius on this subject from 395.
another passage of the Code the Emperor says that the
ruinous condition, into which the highways of the
Italian prefecture have fallen, demands the exertions
4
of all classes for their repair, and he withdraws the
immunity from this burden which former laws had
conferred on the officials of "illustrious" rank.
The
regulations for the use of the imperial post had received
5
A special
close attention from Julian and Theodosius.
corps of imperial officers called curiosi were charged with
6
the duty of seeing that these rules were not infringed.
But successive edicts show the difficulty of enforcing
Honorius had once more to prohibit the abuse of
them.
Even officers of illustrious rank had the
the service.
privilege of using the cursus publicity withdrawn from
7
them, unless they were specially summoned by the
The magistri militim are warned that without
Emperor.
government
officials
8
special leave they will usurp the privilege at their peril.
The prefect of the city who has done so is told not to
9
The use of imperial post-horses on
repeat his offence.
1
C. Th. vii. 5, 2, in excoctione
bucellati (soldier's bread), in translatione etiam annonae nullius excipiatur persona, videlicet ut ne
nostra quidem Doinus
ab his
habeatur hmmmis ; a. 404.
vastitates viarum, certatim studia
cunctorum ad reparationem publici

a. 399.
aggeris volunms festinare
;
viii.
/j y^
T1
10
Ib v
"
4 Ib.
xv.
viii. 5,
3, 4,
53-65.
propter imraensas
tit.
-'
.'..
'
viii.
5,
46
^;.
Ib.
29.
"
4t
'
bus accito.
3
C. Th.
12-16
5,
sqq.
Yet Apollinaris Sidonius traveiled easily by the public service

in the year 455
Ep. i. 5, publicus
cursus usui fuit utpote sacris apici-
21.
viii.
5) 56>
5,
55.
Florentinua
was one of the friends of Symmachus Ep. iv. 50, 50 ; Seeck.

;
cxli.
CH.
DISORGANISA TION OF PUBLIC SERVICE

1
cross roads is prohibited under a heavy fine.

words of the law of 401, this was evidently
239
From
the
becoming a
to
the
burden
and
a
heavy
provincials,
grievous abuse,
who had to provide additional horses to meet the strain. 2
One can
imagine that, in those troubled years,

persons hurrying to remote districts, to look after their
well
private affairs, would by bribes, or by the illegitimate

influence of rank, obtain from the officials of the post
facilities of travelling which were fatal to the regularity
of the government service, and onerous to the provincials.
At the same time there are indications that the efficiency
An edict of 404 implies

was declining.
that there was a failure in the supply of servants and
of the service
on the great roads. 3

In Gaul and Spain the
4
muleteers were being stealthily withdrawn or liberated
by the higher officials from the function to which they
were bound. 5
The animals in the public stables were
officials
not being properly fed, owing to the dishonesty of those

6
/
Corruption had crept into every grade of
the service, and in one law the heads of the department
are ordered to cease from their exactions and conform to
in charge.
the rules of the ancient jiiscipline. 7
The body of
civil
servants styled curiosi, as we have said, had as their

chief function the superintendence of the posting service
on the great roads, 8 specially with the object of prevent-
ing the abuse of the privilege of
evectio.
In addition to
they were expected to visit remote districts, and

keep the government informed of any suspicious move-
this,
0. Th. viii. 5, 59.

Ib. viii. 5, 03, quoniam multos
perspeximus inlicita praesumptione

paraveredos vel parangarias postutare, etc.
8
Ib. viii. 5,
65.
The mancipes
cursus publici, by a law of Gratian,

could be absent from their station
only for thirty days in the year,
viii. 5, 36
cf. 1. 51.
They were
;
servi publici, viii. 5, 58,
*
5
Ib. viii. 5, 50, 58.

Ib. viii. 5, 58, ideoque
Judex
qui sibi hoc vindicaverit, ut servum
publicum liberet, imam lib. auri

homines singulos, officium
per
quoque ejus, si legem supprimendo
consenserit, simili poena inultetur.
6
Ib. viii. 5, 60.

Ib. vi. 29, 9.
Ib. vi. 29, 6, in
functions are defined.
7
which
theii
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
240
BOOK in
It is evident that a police

ments among the population.
of this kind in times of confusion was open to dangerous
abuse. As a matter of fact these officers became so venal
and oppressive that they had to be removed at one stroke
1
from the province of Africa in 414.
The withdrawal of the curiosi from Dalmatia and the
2
adjoining regions in 41 5 throws an interesting light on
the state of the country and the public service.

During
the stormy years of Alaric's incursions, numbers of
people in the districts through which he passed were

Some fled to less disturbed
driven from their homes.
and
the
of
put themselves under the proprovince,
parts
tection of the great proprietors, by whom they were
3
Others took
often detained in a species of servitude.
refuge in the islands which dot the upper part of the

4
the Emperor Theodosius,
In the year 41
Adriatic.
of
a
in
compact with Honorius,
pursuance
probably
ordered a strict watch to be kept in all the ports of

Dalmatia, to prevent any person not provided with
from the Koman government from entering his

This measure was taken expressly on
account of the usurpations of Attalus and Constantine,
letters
dominions.
and the occupation

6
of
To make
the Western
provinces by the
Honorius
points of comalong
munication between East and West, and these officers
grossly abused their power by preventing people from
barbarians.
distributed
this
embargo
effectual,
the various
curiosi
seeking places of greater security, or by extorting bribes
The evil became so intolerable

do so.
415
of
the curiosi were peremptorily
an
order
by
removed from the districts which were plagued with such
for permission to
that
dangerous surveillance.
C. Th. vi. 29, 11.

Ib. vi. 29, 12. On the importance of Dalmatia at this time
2
see
an excellent note of Godefroy's
on
this law.
Cf. ib. v. 5, 2.
Ib. vii. 16, 2.

Ib. vii. 16, 2, hoc enim ettyrannici furoris et barbaricae feritatis
occasio persuadet ; v. Godefroy.
8
Ib. vi. 29, 12 ; v. Godcfroy'a
note.
6
CH.
241
Brigandage had long been a menacing evil in the

Even in the middle of the fourth
Western world.
century the country districts of Italy had become so

unsafe that throughout seven provinces the use of
horses was forbidden, 1 not only to coloni and shepherds,
but to proprietors, with specified exceptions, and their
At
agents.
all
times
the
of
shepherds
Samnium,
2
race, and
Picenum, and Apulia were a wild and lawless
easily passed into the ranks of the banditti who pillaged

the remote sheep -farms or infested the high roads leading
And the bailiffs of the great estates
to the capital.
been
to
have
often in league with the brigands,
appear
whose
spoils
for
facilities
and
they shared,
concealment.
them with "flammae
whom
to
law
of
they
gave
383
threatens
In 391
ul trices" for this crime.
the right of using arms, which by earlier laws was denied
In
was granted
to all persons against brigands.

5
a letter of Symmachus about this time, he tells a
to civilians,
friend that his usual migration to his country seat in

Campania was prevented by the prevalence of brigandage
6
In an edict of 3 9 9
in the neighbourhood of Kome.
Honorius refuses the right of using horses, so necessary
to
their
occupation,
The
Picenum.
shepherd's
life
to
feeling
is
the shepherds
about
this
curiously illustrated
which warns
of
Valeria
temptation
of
and
the
7
by a law of 409,
and possessores
all curiales, plebeians,

against sending their sons to be nursed among shepherds.
The terms of the edict imply that shepherd and brigand
had come to be almost synonymous.

But the bands of
outlaws were recruited in Italy and Gaul from another
1
C.
Th.
ix. 30, 1
and
(filios suos), societatem

videbitur confiteri.
3
C. Th. ix. 29, 2.
2, a. 364.
Brigandage existed in Aquitaine in

the time of Auaonius (Ep. iv. 23).
Of. Sym. ii. 22, sed mine intuta

est latrociniis suburbanitas.
Ib. ix. 14, 2.

Ep. ii. 22.
C. Th. ix. 30, 5
on this law.
7
Ib. ix. 31, 1.
5
Cf. ib.
qnisqnam
ix.
31, 1, si vero
nutriendos
latronum
...
pastoribus
v.
Godefroy
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
BOOK
III
whom
something has already been said. \The

country districts seem to have been infested by men \tfho
had deserted from the standards, and who, in hiding from
class, of
the officers of the law, betook themselves to plunder for

Full power to crush these dangerous criminals
support.
1
given to the provincials in a law of 403, which classes
and
the
edict
of
40 6 2 orders
with
deserters
latronps ;
is
the Pretorian prefect to
inflict
capital
punishment on
fugitive soldiers who have betaken themselves to this life

From some later parts of the Code, which are
of crime.
supported by other authorities, there can be no doubt

that the barbarian invasions let loose a great mass of
desperadoes on the countries through which the invaders
Poor men who had lost everything were almost
passed.
forced to join the gangs of marauders who swept over the
8
To open a way for such persons to return to
country.
an orderly life, the Emperor in 41 6 4 proclaimed a
general amnesty for all this class of offences, for which he

finds an excuse in the overwhelming calamities of the time.
In general the signs of growing impoverishment

become more and more frequent, and the tone of the
later edicts shows how deeply the Roman statesmen
were impressed by the, misery of the lower classes.? * A
terrible famine, which raged throughout Italy in 450,
had actually driven many of the poor to sell their
An edict, issued on the suggescancelled all such contracts, on repay-
children into slaverv.1

tion of Aetius,
1
C. Th. vii. 18, 14, cuncti etenim
adversus latrones publicos deser-
toresque militiae jus sibi sciant pro

quiete comrauni exercendae publicae
ultionis indultum.
This law is a
great confession of weakness in the
government,
2
Ib.
vii.
cf.
ix. 14,
2.
18, 15.
Gub. Dei, v.
24,
c.
Apoll. Sid. Ep. vi. 4,
where a woman has been carried off
by the Vargi. For brigandage in
Gaul in 369 cf. Amm. Marc, xxviii.
10 ; and Oros. vii, 25, 2.

the Scamarae
in
Noricum
2,
cf.
cf.
The
Bagaudae in Gaul and Spain had
rather a different character and
The authorities are given
origin.
Eugipp.
De
in
vit.
S. Sev.
c.
x. 2.
Coulanges, L' Inv. Germ. p.

1 ;
cf.
Fauriel, i. 186
n.
102,
Cf. Salv. de
On
on,
163
Idat. Chron.
ad
a.
p.
441,
I, 443,
449.
4
C.
Nov.
Th. xv. 14, 14.

Falent.
11,
notum
est
CH.
ment
243
the purchaser of the price which the parents
to
had accepted, with an addition of 20 per cent.

The
plunder of tombs for the sake of the costly marbles they
1
contained seems to have become a common offence.
The
edict of Valentinian III. on this subject is full of old
Roman sentiment about the dead, and strangely resembles
in tone that of Julian in which he deals with the same
2
crime.
Its enormity, and perhaps its frequency, are
indicated by the heavy penalties which were imposed,
death,
torture,
or confiscation,
according
to
the social
Other indications of failing

resources may be seen in the laws relating to public
works and buildings. 8 Already in the reign of Constangrade
of
the
criminal.
4
Emperor complains of the neglect which was
The
allowing them in many places to fall into decay.
authorities are required by Gratian and Theodosius to
tine,
the
repair ancient buildings before undertaking the erec5

tion of new ones.
Honorius forbids the alienation, on
pretext, of municipal funds
allocated to the restoration or
any
which have been long
decoration of public
the repair of ancient buildings, fallen into a ruinous state, is provided for out of
the income of the public lands. [ It would appear that
edifices.
In another
edict,
the municipalities found an increasing difficulty in meet-
such expenditure^ i The appropriation by private

persons of public spaces and edifices is dealt with in
ing
several laws of the
period.
Thejiblic officials
in
lax
or
very
corrupt
pp-rmitting the demolition
became
of structures
which were often interesting from ancient
famera per totam

Italiam desaevisse coactosque homines filios et parentes vendere, ut
discrimen instantis mortis effugerent.
Of. 0. Th. iii. 3, 1.
1
Nov. Valent. 5, qtiisquis ex his
quaelibet marmora aut saxa sustulerit paenaemox habeatur obnoxius.
The clergy were the greatest
obscenissimam
offenders
same
cf.
Gregorovius, Hist, of
City of Rome, i. 226.

2 C.
Th. ix. 17, 5. There are seven
enactments on this subject in the
fourth century.
3
Ib. xv. tit. 1.
4
Ib. xv. 1, 2.
5
6
7
Ib.
1.
21.
Ib.
1.
48.
Ib.
1.
32
Ib. xv.
11.
34, 35.
40, 41.
cf.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
244
BOOK in
associations or artistic beauty.

in his too brief reign, exerted
He
and
vandalism
The Emperor Majorian,

himself to
denounces,
check this
with
greed.
genuine
indignation, the criminal negligence which had long permitted the beauty of the venerable city to be defaced in
order to provide cheap materials for mean private build1
ings.
Any magistrate for the future conniving at an
infringement of this law
is to be punished by a fine of
and
subordinate official similarly
any
fifty pounds
*,*'
is
to
be
and
have
both his hands cut off.
.V
flogged
guilty
\j^*
Here and there we get a glimpse of the ruin which the
Vjfc*
confusion of the time brought suddenly on a once prosIn the reign of Valentinian III., among
perous class.
the crowds who were driven from their homes in Africa
by the Vandal invasion, there were many men of rank
and education who found their way to Italy, and some of
them applied in their distress for leave to practise as
The Emperor granted
advocates in the Italian courts.
,^
iiV
^c
of gold,
1;VX
their request in a rescript repealing the constitution of
442, which
limited
the
number
of
those
who were
2
allowed to plead before the provincial magistrates.
The
later pages of the Code will often suggest similar pictures
of
many an
obscure tragedy to the imagination of the

Famine and invasion took their
sympathetic student.
usual tale of victims.
But their worst ravages are

usually soon obliterated or repaired by the kindly forces
of Nature.
The overwhelming tragedy of that age was
|
the result not of violent and sudden calamities it was
;
prepared By the slow, merciless action of social" and

economic laws, and deepened by the_j)erverse energy of
government, and tHe cupidity and "cruelty of the rich and
In the following chapter we shall try

magnitude and to discover its causes.
highly ^placed^
realise its
to
X
1
N<yo.
parvum
Maj.
6,
antiquarum aediuni dissipatur spcciosa constructio et ut

2
Nov. Th. 50 cf. 34.
magna dirunntur.
aliquid reparetur
CHAPTER
II
THE DECAY OF THE MIDDLE CLASS AND THE

AGGRANDISEMENT OF THE ARISTOCRACY
THE evidence adduced
in the previous chapter as to

the disorganisation of important branches of the public
service, and the spread of poverty and lawlessness, is
sufficiently
ominous.
Such disorders
strike the eye at
once and impress the imagination. [VA

are, they are not^so serious jts_,Qthe__and less patent
maladies, which_had been long eating out the strength of'
Roman
In this chapter we shall try to discover

society,
the more deep-seated causes
far more than the
wjiich,
violent intrusion of the German_invflfter.% prnrln<Wl f.Vip.
collapse of society which is known as the fall of the
j
Empire of theJWest
careful study of the
Code
will
a popular and antiquated misconception of

that great event.
the fact that, long before
(Li, wjj^reyeal
the 'invasions of ttie" reign of Honorius t.hn fabric*. of
correct
many
Roman
jy
,
(
and administration was honeycombed

moral and economic vices, which made the belief in
society
the eternity of Eome a vain delusion.

The municipal
system, once the great glory of Boinau organising power,
had in the fourth century fallen almost into ruin.
The
governing class of the municipalities, called Jwriales). on

whom the burdens of the Empire had been accumulated,
were diminishing in number, and in the ability to bear

an ever -increasing load of obligations.
At the same
C'CfVî
^^
/
"
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
246
time,
the upper
class
BOOK in
were increasing in wealth and
power, partly from natural economic causes, partly from

a determined effort to evade their proper share of the
imperial imposts, and to absorb and reduce to dependence
In this selfish policy they
their unfortunate neighbours.
were aided by the tyranny and venality of the officials of
the treasury, whose exactions^cEicanery, and corrupt
favouritism seem to have become more~shameless and

cruel in proportion to the weakness of their victims and
the difficulties of the times.) (And while the aristocratic
class were becoming more selfish, and the civil service
more oppressive and corrupt, the central government was
growing feeblej. (It saw the evils which were imperilling
the stability of society, and making provincial administra-
tion a
synonym
for
ments abound with
organised brigand-age.) Its enactand accurate descriptions of these
full
an4 fierce threats of punishment against the

But the endless repetition of commands,
which were constantly disobeyed, was the surest sign of
The decay of the middle class, the aggrandimpotence.
isement of the aristocracy, and the Hp.fi ant fcgranny and
these are the ominous facts
venajitvôf the tax-gatherer
to which almost every
page of the later Code bears
disorders,
criminals,
/
./
'
witness.
Any
one who wishes to understand the meaning of
the great social catastrophe of the fifth century must fix

his attention on the condition and distribution of landed
possessed it. /The fruits
times the great source
of Roman wealth
they were pre-eminently so in the
period with which we are concerned. J It is curious to
property, and on the classes

of agricultural industry
who
were at
all
how small a part of the Theodosian Code is

devoted to the subject of trade and commerce, unless we
comprehend under that head the laws relating to the
notice
hereditary guilds which, under the surveillance of

the State, were engaged in the production and distribu-
many
CHAP,
THE DECA Y OF THE MIDDLE CLASS
ii
tion of commodities.
There
indeed a section dealing
is
with the special tax. on traders

the
247
But
(collatio lustralis).
conimercial_clas3__(negotiatores)
in
were,
the
fifth
century, probably on a much lower social level than the

humblest landed proprietor.
The__seaatoj:ial order were
2
forbidden to engage in trade. fThe curiales^jwho formed
nf
t.hq
municipalities, although
8
traders also,
some
members may have been
of their
essentially a class of landed proprietors, whose position in

4
If
eye of the State was fixed by their acreage.
the
fortunes~"~were accumulated in commerce, they have left

few traces in the pages of the Code.
Sidonius, in the
second half of the fifth century, gives an account of the
The man
trading venture of a merchant at Narbonne.
has, on the credit of his good character, borrowed a little
money from his friends without other security, and is
going to invest it in purchasing some of the cargo of a

vessel which has come into port.
It appears from the
that
the
was
not
description
pursuit
very profitable nor
5
In one of the later edicts we find merchants

from
the greater centres of commerce to remote
retiring
with
the
places,
object of escaping the special tax on
their calling.
It follows either that the impost was very
heavy, or else that the profits of trade were very small.
It has often been pointed out that the wars and social
respected.
confusion of the latter part of the third century gave a

6
In
it never recovered.
shock to commerce from which

1
tit.
C. Th. xiv. tit. 1, 6.

i.
deals with
Bk.
imposed on
good summary in
Marquardt, Rom. Maateverwaltung,
(lustralis
traders
collatio)
v.
ed.,
Of. C.
and
Th.
xiii.
t.
1,
5,
p.
11,
Bitter's
21.
Ib. xiii. 1, 4 ; v. Godefroy's note.

C. Th. xii. 1, 33, ut quicuraque
ultra vigintiquinque jugera privato
4
dominio
Sid, Ep. vi.
pauperem
8,
vitam
actiono sustentat.
Apicum
sola
oblator
mercandi
Notice the con-
for this pursuit expressed in

Th. 51, quos nisi indigna et
tempt
Nov.
pudenda armato nomini negotiatio
230.
ii.
xiii.
the special tax
possidens,
consortio vindicetur.
etc.,
Curiali
aleret vix possent a famis periculo

vindicari.
6
Duruy, Hist. Rom. vi. 378 cf. v.

498 for the state of trade in the
Antonine period. For the shock to
commerce in the third century v. De
;
p.
Coulanges, L'Inv.
Germ-.ipip. 102, 103.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
248
BOOK in
that disastrous time the vast destruction of wealth, the

interruption of free circulation on the great routes, the loss
confidence, and
of
the portentous
depreciation
in
the
currency, must have operated with crushing effect on the

Nor was the fifth century a period more
trading class,
The invasion of Italy by
favourable to their pursuits.
Alaric and Eadagaisus, the invasion of Gaul and Spain by
j
the Sueves__andJVandals, the inroads of the Huns under

Attila, the raids of Saxon pirates on the shores of the
and the presence of the fleets of Genseric in the

Mediterranean, must have made the trader's life one of
great danger and anxiety, and probably curtailed the
volume of commerce tp_an enormous extent.
Law, sentiAtlantic,
ment, the course of events, werejiostile to the prosperity

of a great commercial class. j_The wealth both of the
^y^
^,
middle and of the upper orders was almost entirely in the

and its fruits, and, in the absence of free industrial
soil
development, there was little capital outside the landed

class available for the improvement of agriculture, or for
who had got into difficulties, i

the
three
great classes into which Eoman society
(Of
was divided, the plebeian class, composed of traders, free
the relief of the farmer
3 iO
/SJ
who possessed no property in land, may, for

our present purpose, be left out of consideration.
The
other two classes must, from their ownership of the land,
artisans, etc.,
and from
their relations to one another
engage our sole attention.
and
to the treasury,
Of the tone and character
of
the highest order in the social hierarchy we have attempted

to give some account in a previous chapter.
They have
us literary materials which enable us to form a tolerably clear idea of their spirit and manner of life; but
left
they seldom speak of their material fortunes or of the

classes beneath them, and on these subjects our information
1
ii.
must be drawn
Duruy,
28.
vi.
381
cf.
chiefly
from the Code.
Arnold, Prov. Administration,
p.
173
Marq.
CHAP,
ii
(The
249
senatorial class in the provinces had, since the

Constantine, grown to enormous dimensions,
of
reign
partly owing to the policy of the emperors, partly from

the efforts of a large number to gain an entrance into the
official
world, by which they secured at once rank and
and exemption from many onerous burdens

2
obligations. y The_order had long ceased to have_any
consideration,
and
connection
with
Hosts of
members had never even set foot in Eome. 3

senator became merely a social badge, imply-
the
of
exercise
senatorial
functions.
its
ghe_title of
ing generally the possession of considerable landed property^ or the tenure of somp. offinp. or dignity, which was
The more amoften_ purely honorary and ornamental.

bitious and distinguished families valued themselves quite
as much on these official distinctions as on their wealth,
and their sons were trained to make
it
a point of honour
to carry on the tradition of official service, and to win, if

fjossible, a higher place than their ancestors had held.
\But the great mass of the senatorial class were merely

landowners on a considerable scale, subject to certain
imposts peculiar to their order, but, on the other hand,
Of these
enjoying certain privileges and exemptions.
which
relieved
the
most
that
was
exemptions
important
4
senators from municipal burdens.

The municipality, in spite of designations which might
1
rets
ii. 38, &Treypd\f/aro 5t

-T&V Xa.fi.TrpoTd.Twi' oixrtas, rtXos
Zosimus,
$
The
aurds tirtdrjKtv
peculiar charges of the
were
:
(1) the
^senator's position
follis glebalis, a land-tax ; (2) aurum
oblatitium, a gift made on certain
anniversaries
(3) the expenses of
the games on the young senator
being nominated to the praetorship
eTTtfleis
6t>o/ma.
Ttvi <p6\\iv
cf.
Godefroy's Paratitlon, C. Th.
vi.
court of five taken by lot, C. Th.

2 ; (4) exemption from the aurum
coronarium, which was an impost
on the curialcs ; (5) exemption from
the onus metati
(6) exemption
ii.
ad opera publica.
Th. vi. 4, 3 and 4. Constantius ordered senators to come to
Rome on the occasion of their games
when they received the office of
from
3
praetor
4
tit. 2.
2
The special privileges of the

senator were: (1) exemption from
(2) exemption
municipal taxes
from torture ; (3) trial by a special
;
collatio
C.
C.
v.
Th.
Duruy,
vi.
3,
vii.
2,
sit
179.
senatoriae
functionis curiacque
nulla cona
1.
3 is even clearer
;
curialibus terris senatoria gleba discreta sit.
junctio
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
250
BOOK in
suggest other conclusions, was not confined to the jjyalls

l
of a town ; it included, besides the town, a wide area of
rural district extending round it, often for many miles.
From
the end of the second century the municipal conas it is described in the Digest and many
2
had undergone serious changes.
In the
inscriptions,
stitution,
century following the reign of Constantine,

into irreparable decay.
The
it
had
fallen
centralisation of
government
and the multiplication of imperial functionaries had extinguished the free civic life, which was in an earlier
The
period the greatest glory of Roman administration.
popular assemblies lost their right of electing to the
*
the local senate, or curia, was
municipal magistracies
no longer composed of men who had held these offices, 5
;
but of the landholders who possessed more than twentyfive jugera.
At
the same time, the curia became less
concerned with the local interests of
its
more and more burdened with duties
municipality, and
to the imperial
Their responsibilities, indeed, as the governof

their
ing body
community, were heavy enough.
They
had the management of its finances, 7 and full liability for
government.
its
debts and
and of
They had the charge of the police,

and public buildings.
They had
connection with the corn supply and the
deficits.
all roads, bridges,
certain duties in
relief of the poor.
When
they rose to the higher local

bear heavy, and sometimes
ruinous, expenses for the amusements of the populace,
8
prescribed by opinion and custom, if not by law.
magistracies, they had
to
(But
heavier and
far
F.
Rom.
2
de
Coulanges,
more crushing than these were

La Gaule
p. 228.
see
Wallori, L'Esdav. iii. 179
i. 464, on the
Inscrip;
Marquardt,
Malaga and Salpensa cf.

Arnold's Rom. Provincial Administration, pp. 225-237.
tions of
3
4
i. 510.
468, 469.
Marquardt,
Ib.
i.
Ib.
G. Th. xii. 1, 33.
i.
their
503.
F. de Coulanges, La, Gaule

Rom,. 244, 251 ; Duruy, Hist. Rom.
Th. xv. 1, 33
v. 379, n. 1 ; O.
(" De Op. Publ.").
8
C. Th. ; F. de Coulanges, La
Gaule Rom. p. 252

Wallon, L'Esdav.
Fauriel,
181.
iii.
i.
372
CHAP,
ii
Horn an
the
to
obligations
251
State^^_It_was_llie jractice__QjL_ihe
the collection, and.JBYfln
gnvp.rirmftTii^_to_(j|ftvolve
^_
the apportionment of a tax, on the class who paid it.

When the imperial authorities issued their precept for a
certain impost payable by the landholders of a district in
money
or in kind, the
not only to
members
of the local curia
had
the assessment on the proprietors in pro-
fix
portion to their holdings, but they had, through some of

members, the even more invidious task of collecting
2
the amount payable by each. fin addition to all this,
their
and
it
curiales
was a portentous addition in those times, the

were liable personally for the whole amount, and
had to make good any deficiency in the collection.

They
had also onerous liabilities for the military commissariat,
and the maintenance of the posting service on the great
8
nf t.hp.
roads.
impprial
|jn the assessment and collecting
taxes there was room for injustice, venality, and cruelty.
And there can be little doubt that the curiales sometimes
4
"
abused their trust, so that Salvianus could ask ubi non
"
( But fraudulent
quot fuerint Curiales tot tyranni sunt ?
little to alleviate the weight of a
as
time
went on, became more and more
which,
charge
the
.curial class which had to bear
1
Moreover,
crushing.
5
it was chiefly hereditary, as every other class and calling,
gains can have done
6
Men
from the highest to the lowest, tended to become.
with the required minimum of landed property were,
G. Th. xi. 7, 12
Paraiitlon to
Tributis")
a
xi. 1
cf.
Godefroy's
("De Annona
et
cf. xiii. 1, 17.
Ib. xii. 1, 117.
The principals
are threatened with torture for
em-
bezzlement, fraudulent assessments,

and excessive exactions ; cf. 1. 54.
The curia chose collectors of revenue
from among its members, and was collectively liable for their fraud ornegCf. xii. 6, 9 ; Fauriel, i. 362.
ligence.
8
C. Th. viii. 5, 26, G4.
4
De Gub. Dei, v. 18.
5
The class as a whole is described
often in C.
Th.. xii. 1
as originalis,
ex genere Curiali, familia Guriali

Cf.
orti, sanguine C. obstricti, etc.
Godefroy's Paratitlon to xii. 1, t.
4, p.
'
353.
Th. x. 20, 15, where even

female descent binds the children
C.
The Burgarii,
to a corporation.
or guards of the frontier forts, were
practically public slaves, like the
muleteers, etc., of the cursus publicus.
Cf.
with
Godefroy's
L'EscJav.
vii.
iii.
14,
176.
vii.
notes
15,
1,
Wallon,
252
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
from time to
time, compelled
enter
to
BOOK in
1
it.
But the
plebeian class, composed oF'the various corporations of

free labourers, artisans, and petty traders, fenced in and
hampered in all directions by imperial legislation, could
not furnish
The
many
recruits to
fill
the gaps._jn the_curia.
legislation seems to actually discourage the

2
merchant from investing his gains in land, and so belater
We
coming a member of the municipal corporation.
have seen reason to believe that trade in the fourth and
fifth centuries was not prosperous, and the ruinous condition of municipal finance might well deter any one who
had been exceptionally fortunate in commerce from making
an investment which entailed such personal risk and such
incalculable obligations.
The emperors were
fully
aware
of the
importance
of
a class on which had been laid such a weight of responsiNo fewer than 192 enactments in the Theodosian
bility.
Code, together with some of the Novellae, deal with the

The curiales are
position and duties of the curiales.
"
described by Majorian as the nervi reipublicae ac viscera
8
civitatum,"
although successive emperors from Con-
"
sinews
stantine to Majorian had to lament that these
4
of the commonwealth" were daily growing weaker.
Conventional
language or
policy indeed
fiction that the position of the curialis
kept up the
was an enviable
and dignified one.

The municipal body is described in
terms which were originally applied to the Senate of the
5
capital, and which may have had a certain justification
in the days of free municipal life, when a seat in the
was reserved for citizens who had filled the
local Senate
higher magistracies by the choice of the burghers.

1
C. Th. xii. 1, 33
Ib.
xii.
1,
72.
cf. 1.
According
commentary the
Godefroy's
merchant investing in land became
to
liable, as negotiator
curialis.
doubly
and
{When
53.
as
Nov. Maj. 1.
4
0. Th.
xii. 1,
13, quoniam
Curias desolari cognoviinus.
This
is a law of Constantino, dated 326.
5
Nov. Maj. 1, quorum coeturn
recte appellavit antiquitas
Senatuin.
minorem
CHAP,
ii
253
the curiales were deserting their functions, abandoning

their ruined estates, and trying to hide thp.Tnap.lyp.a among
serfs,
they were loftily reminded by the imperial legislator
of the stain
1
which they were attaching
to
t.TiP.ir
Doubtless the estimate of social rank
origin.
and depends greatly on
associations,
aplpnrMri
is relative,
imagination, and
the member
At one time
the extent of a man's horizon.
of the curia in a flourishing municipality
may have found
and thought he
had attained an enviable place when he rose to be flamen
2
of his native town, or provided games for his fellow3
citizens as aedile or duumvir. /But the growth of the
imperial despotism since Diocletian altered the whole
It was a very different thing
character of municipal life.
to be a decurio in the second century and in the fourth
or the fifth.
From Constantine to Honorius the emperors
were vainly struggling to stop a movement which had
begun long before Constantine, and which threatened the
curial body with utter depletion.
The "flight of the
"
curiales
was quite as menacing a danger of the Jater
his ambition satisfied
Empire
by
local distinctions,
as the inroads of the
fled in all directions,
barbarians.
curiales
(The
and sought a refuge from their
perils
and ruinous obligations in every calling.

Some of the
more wealthy and ambitious managed to get themselves
enrolled on the lists of the Senate by diplomas (codicilli)
J
Numbers procured
surreptitiously or corruptly obtained.
5
admission to some office in the vast Palatine service.
Others enlisted in the army, 6 or took Holy Orders.
1
G.
Th.
xii. 1, 6.
It is a curious
Ib.
xii.
1,
Many
neminem
180, 183,
commentary on these
obnoxium Curiae ad incongruam
to find in C.
sibi
fine phrases
Th. ix. 35, 2, that
not of the highest order,

could be punished by plumbatarum
ictus, i.e. blows of a whip loaded
with lead.
These
punishments
were forbidden by Theodosius, xii.
curiales,
1, 80.
2
Ib. xii. 1, 77.
8
Ib. xii. 1, 169.
fortunam
elicitis
deinceps
aspirare,
clarissimatus,
codicillis
Magnitude tua
perniittat.
22, cum Decurionea
diversas militias confugiant cf.
Ib.
ad
11.
xii.
i.
31, 38, 11, 13, 147
cf.
Arnold's
Prov. Administration, p. 74.

6
C.
others.
Th.
xii.
1,
50,
and many
*-
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
254
of the
humbler
sort
BOOK HI
were willing to exchange their position

1
such as the
for the practical servitude of corporations,
corn-importers or the armourers. (Many more, in sheer

despair, took refuge on some great estate in a dependence
almost amounting to serfdom, 2 and sank even to the de-
gradation of marriage with a

\
the desertion.
described
woman
of the servile class.)
motives which prompted men to forsake their

[The
municipality were very various, and undoubtedly ambition to rise in the world was one frequent cause of
I
Although the position of
by the
"
splendour/' it
senatorial _class^
emperors
"
decurio
"
is
one of "dignity" and
as
was vastly inferior to that of the

The difference between the two orders
(
was much wider than that between a member of Parlia-
ment and a member of a provincial town-council in our

days. ^ The senatorial class had not only the prestige
the greater families had also a practical
8
of
the highest prefectures and offices jrf_sj#te.
monopoly
They were often the descendants of men who had held
of
wealth
from time immemorial.
Tkey became almost

and
consuls, f Their sons were trained to follow them in the
same " career of honours," and had often completed their
such
offices
as a matter of course governors, Pretorian prefects,
term of public life and governed provinces larger than

most modern European kingdoms at an age when a man
of ambition in our days is only getting his foot on the
4
ladder.
The years of later life were passed in dignified
tranquillity, and the enjoyment of that cultivated society,
so stately and so exclusive, but so charming, which has
<
1
C. Th. xii. 1, 149 (navicularii),
62 (collegium fabrorirai).
a
Nov. Maj. i.
.,
T,
Sidon. Ep.
4
v. 9.
Sextus Petr. Probus, born circ.

334, became proconsul of Africa in
356, and Pretorian prefect of Italy,
Africa and Illyricum in 368 (act.
34)
v.
Seeck's
Sym.
cii.
Sym-
340, held his

first office in 365 (Seeck, xliv.).
Olybrius and Probinus were consuls
machus, born
circ.
mere youth8i
Cf Hieron>
Claud, in Cons. Olylr.
Prob. 63.
Sidonius was prefect
of Rome in his thirty-eighth year.
in Sidon. xlviii.)
Praef.
(ilommsen,
Ep. 130, 3
et
CHAP,
ii
been described in another chapter.
It is little
255
wonder
that the ambitious bourgeois of the curial class should

have struggled at any cost, by intrigue or by bribery, to
raise himself
and
his children
even to the outskirts of
such a rank, from the rather sordid and limited ambitions

If
and the wearing anxieties of his original position.
he remained in it, his highest hope could only be to
reach the duumvirate, and pass into the select class of
1
the principales, after completing the whole round of
duties
and charges incumbent on
But
his order.
before
attaining that not very lofty eminence, he might find his

patrimony eaten away by the claims of his own com-
munity, and the inexorable and insatiable demands of

the imperial treasury. [The numerous constitutions dealing with the migration of curiales into the senatorial
class are the clearest proof, at once of the force of the
tendency, and of the difficulty of restraining it.( In the
earlier part of the fourth century, the emperors appear
not to have opposed insuperable obstacles to such
ambition,
provided
concerned did not
the
finances
of
in
suffer.
(But
the
municipality
the
beginning
of
the fifth century, the rapid depletion of the curiae and

the complaints which reached him caused the Emperor
assume a sterner tone.

The curiales were bluntly
warned not to aspire to senatorial rank. 8 The grant of
codicilli clarissimatus, often obtained, as we have .seen, by
to
1
The principales (also optimatcs,
Sym. Ep. x. 41 summi municipum
;
proceres, Auson. Mosell. 402) were

in some places ten in number,
elected by the curia, after a regular
ascent through all the duties and
honours of their order, and bound

to remain in the performance of
their
functions for
fifteen
years,
Th. xii. 1, 75, 171, 189.

They
were exempt from cruel punishxii.
61.
Cf.
F.
de
Coul1,
ments,
anges, L'Inv. Germ. p. 37.
* (X Th. xii.
A law of
1, 57.
Valens (xii. 1, 69) allows curiales
0.
who have become
senators prema-
turely (ante expleta munera) to

retain the higher position provided
they perform curial duties,

3
C. Tk. xii. 1, 183, neminem
obnoxium Curiae ad incongruam
sibi fortunam deinceps aspirare,
elicitis
codicillis
clarissimatus,
cf.
Magnitude tua permittat
more trenchant
Still
180.
;
Novella
itaque
of
Theodosius
perpetuo
nimus, nullum
valitura
1.
is
lego
decer-
posthac Curialem
sibimet dignitatis senatoriae infulas

usurpare.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
256
BOOK
iia
underhand means, was peremptorily prohibited and no

one, bound to municipal functions, was henceforth to be
raised to senatorial rank until he had passed through all
the grades of his original order, and performed all the
duties which were laid upon it.
Honorius, in a rescript
;
addressed to the prefect of the Gauls in 409, prohibits

the principales, who formed the highest class of the
curial
body, from being released from their functions

had completed a term of fifteen years in their
until they
About the same time all persons of curial

2
descent in the ranks of the army or the Palatine service
were ordered back to their native cities, and any one of
grade.
this class is forbidden henceforth to evade his hereditary

obligations by entering either the military or the civil
It is well to remind
branch of the government service.
ourselves that, at the time
when
gated, a considerable part of
the Germans, and
these laws were promulGaul had been overrun by
we may very
well believe that the
and burdens of the governing class of the municipalities in those regions were becoming more harassing
To be sent back to the prison-house of
and onerous.
curial slavery from some promising career at Eome, and
to see every opening closed to himself and to his sons for
the future, may well have driven many a man of the
duties
doomed order
/
X.
In
to despair.
truth, the curial's position
had become one
of those
forms oFhereditary servitude by which the society of the

Lower Empire was reduced almost to a system of castes.
Introduced into the corporation at eighteen years of age,
he could not, by any effort, legally divest himself of his
inherited position until he had gone the whole round of
The law did not absolutely prohibit a
official duty.
;
C. Tli. xii. 1, 171.
whom
Dardanus,
addressed, was Pretorian prefect again in 413.

to
it is
76. xii.
1,
147.
Tliis
law
in-
eludes all curiales who had entered

the army, the Palatine civil service,
the bureau of the Pretorian prefect,
and all other similar occupations ;
cf. 11.
33, 40, 44.
CHAP,
ii
curial
made
legal
257
from rising to another grade in society, but

his progress so jjlow and difficult that escape
meansjwas __ppssibi_e ..to very
man had surmounted
Even when
few..
it
by
a*
and become an imperial

1
born before his
his
or
a
senator,
children,
functionary
in
their
were
retained
elevation,
original rank, and his
liable
for
the
remained
municipal charges of his
property
class.
man
;If-.a
deliverance,
all barriers,
q <'*a "
Vn'g
attempted__to_Jia.
by overleaping somjs_of_the_
V\*P )
nr his
ofjaty,
The
conferred by the Emperor himstages
he was sent back to the original ^tarting-ôint.
most splendid dignities

self, which would in other cases raise a man to the
Senate, would not avail for those of curial origin
they
"
as it
are to remain in the bosom of their native place,
were dedicated with sacred fillets and guarding the
eternal mystery, which they cannot abandon without
2
The curial's personal freedom was curtailed
impiety."
on every side. If he travelled abroad, that was an injury
and if he absented himself for five years, his
to his city
3
was
confiscated.
Even for a limited time, and
property
;
a public object, as for example to present himself

before the Emperor, he could not go from home without
4
the formal permission of the governor of the province.
for
He was
forbidden absolutely to reside in the country.
almost needless to say that he had no power to

dispose of his property as he pleased, since the State
It is
regarded his property as security for the full discharge of

all his financial obligations.
He could not sell his estate
without the permission of the governor of the province. 6

1
C.
Th.
69.
122, maneant in
sinu patriae et veluti dicati infulis,
a
Ib.
1,
mysterium perenne custodiant

illis piaculum inde discedere.
Ib. xii. 1, 143,
144, ne
dm
sit
in
fraudem civitatum inunicipes evagentur, etc.
4
xii. 1,
xii.
Ib. xii. 1, 9.
Ib.
xii.
18,
and
2.
These
laws are addressed to the Egyptian

prefect, and they may refer to the
monks and hermits cf. xii. 1, 63,
which treats them with great con;
tempt.
6
Ib. xii. 3, 1 and 2 ; Nov. Maj.

nunquam sine interpositione
decreti Curiales alienent.
1,
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
258
BOOK in
He
could not enter into any contract or business relation

which might conceivably weaken the hold of the State
upon his possessions. He was forbidden, for example, to
1
accept the agency of an estate, or to rent public lands,
2
The curial who had no children
or to farm the taxes.
could dispose only of one -fourth of his estate by will,
8
the remainder being taken by the municipal treasury.
The municipality became the sole heir of an intestate
curial.
place,
If
or
if
his
natural heirs were not citizens of the
his daughter or
widow married a
stranger,
they had to resign one-fourth of the property to the

He could not take Holy Orders without leaving
curia.
6
his curial property in the hands of a proper substitute,
or absolutely abandoning it to the service of the comWe have not by any means exhausted the
munity.
melancholy list of the disabilities and hardships which
were heaped upon this wretched class, but enough has
been said to show the causes of its depletion.
Indeed,
the emperors themselves, while they o^p.asinTifl.lly^npply
which to us now sound like grim
toît honorific terms,
mockery, had_ really no illusions as to
hopeless con-
its
dition. /Tt Is often described in phrases (nexus, mancipatio)
which seem to reduce it to a species of slavery.

The
curial in one law is denied the asylum of the church,
7
When
along with insolvent debtors and fugitive slaves.
he is recalled from some refuge to which he has escaped,
his worst punishment for disobedience to the law is to
be replaced in his original rank. Nor could the legislator
at one time find a worse fate for certain malefactors than
1
0. Th. xii. 1, 92.
The
in a servile occupation, and renders

himself liable to banishment.
2
Ib.
libus
xii.
97
x. 3,
2,
curia-
omnibus conducendorum Rei-
publicae praediorum ac saltuum

inhibeatur facultas.
3
See note 8 in Wallon, L'Esclav.
iii.
186.
curial is
branded with disgrace for engaging
C. Th. v. 2, 1,
curionum."
6
Cf. Wallon,
" De Bonis De-
186, n. 4.
59, qui partes
ecclesiae eligit, aut in propinquum
6
C.
Th.
iii.
xii.
1,
bona propria conferendo eum pro so

faciat Curialem aut facultatibua
Curiae cedat
and
91
7
quam
98).
Ib. ix. 45, 3,
reliquit (cf.
11.
CHAP,
ii
to be relegated to the curia.
become an ergastulum, and

all
the energy of
The curia had
all
imperial
259
in truth
the ingenuity of lawyers,
officers,
were occupied for
generations in trying to prevent the escape of the slaves

2
But the cruelty of their position made
of the curia.
them reckless. Many fled to the solitude and hard fare
3
of the hermitage.
Others preferred the servitude of one
of the lower corporations of artisans to the service of the
commune
4
;
they hid themselves even among smiths and

Still more placed themselves under the
charcoal-burners.
protection of a great proprietor, and were only too glad

to bury themselves among the crowd of his cottiers and
serfs,
where
by some slave mother, would

by the ignominy of their birth from
their children,
at least be delivered
their father's hereditary curse.

Whilp. tfrft numbers of the
curial
class
were thus
steadily shrinking, in spite of the cruel determination of

the^ legislator,
the burdens on those
as steadily increasing in severity.

responsible for the collection of taxes
who remained were

The
curiales
were
on landed property,
district were not fully
the
in
assessments
their
and__tf
paid, they had to make good the deficit to the treasury.
Now
is ample evidence that the tax-bearing acreage

end of the fourth century and the beginning of
In Campania alone,
the fifth was rapidly contracting.
once the garden of Italy, more than 500,000 jugera had
there
in the
1
C, Th. xii. 1, 66 and 108. These
laws of Valentinian I. and Theodosius prohibit the consignment to
the curia as a punishment, but the
prohibition proves the existence of
the practice.
Ib. ix. 45, 3, vigore et sollertia

ad pristiiiam sortem
velut manu injecta revocentur.
8
Ib. xii. 1, 63, quidam ignaviae
judicantum
desertis
civitatum
sectatores,
muneribus, captant solitudinem ac
secreta,et specie religionis
cum coeti-
bus Monazonton congregantur. The

law mentions Egypt and the East
as the regions to which it applies

(v. Godefroy's note, iv. p. 434).
4
Ib. xii. 1, 62, 149, 162 ; cf. xiv.
8, 1.
6
cf. 146, multos
Ib. xii. 1, 76
animadvertimus, lit debita praestatione patriam defraudarent, sub
;
umbra Potentium latitare

Omnes igitur quos tegunt
expellant, ne Clementia Nostra ab contumacia dissimulantium in majorein
indignationem
exurgat
11.
179,
189, occultator
flammis ultricibus.
162,
6
Nov. Maj.
ad
inte.
155,
detur
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
260
BOOK
III
1
Symmachus, who was a large
gone out of cultivation.
that
landowner, complains
agriculture was becoming a
2
later edicts frankly admit
The
very expensive luxury.
that over large areas the resources of the landed taxpayer

And the admission is not confined to
were exhausted.
For in 40 8, 8 in 413, and again in 418, relief

from the land-tax was granted to large districts in Italy,
A similar
in one case to as many as seven provinces.
in 410, 4
shown
the
of
was
to
landholders
Africa,
indulgence
in 423, and, in consequence of the Vandal invasion, in 451.
In the meantime the expense of government was probwords.
C ably
Aad^-4flrijag-_to~ the., absence nf- floating

growing.
the
capital,
gQvernm&nii_Quld not as in modern times.
f
throw part of
public_debt.5J
public
burdens on posterity by creating a
its
It
is
administration,
likely that the necessities of the

as the taxable area went on
shrinking, must have caused a more and more exhausting

drain on the resources of those provinces which still
Even
remained solvent.
statements
explicit
and
an over-
in the absence of statistics
on the subject/ there
is
whelming probability in favour of me theory that the

demands of the imperial exchequer on the curial class
were increasing in proportion to the
sources of revenue. 6 7
1
a.
Th.
had been
quatores,
xi.
28,
2.
We
The lands
first
inspected by peraeand ancient documents
consulted (v.
note).
Godefroy's
Referred to in Sym. Ep. iv. 46 ; cf.
v. 12, frustra speravi de peregrinatione solacium, cum omnium locorum maesta facies nullas aegro
animo praestet indutias.

2
Sym. Ep. i. 5, namque hie usus
in nostram venit aetatem, ut rus,
quod solebat alere, nunc alatur.
8
C.
Th.
xi.
28,
4, 7,
12.
The
408 was given immediately

after Stilicho's death, and was derelief in
manded by the devastations
of the
armies of Radagaisus and Alaric,
failure
of former
hear more and more of the

The
senatorial
follis
was
glebalis
included in the remission.

4
n.
J alent.
410
xi.
"ob
28,
ad fin.
13, and Nov.

The remission in
6,
Africae devotionem
"
re-
the resistance of Africa under

Heraclian to the attempts of
Attalus, the Emperor set up by
fers to
Alaric
cf.
Zos. vi. 7.
The government met cases of

financial emergency by superindic6
Cf. G. Th. xi. tit. 16, with

Godefroy's Paratitlon to xi. tit. 6 ;
Paratitlon to xi. tit. 1, and
Duruy, vii. 167 n.
6
F. de Coulanges, L'Inv. Germ.
tions.
cf.
p. 61, disputes this;
but
cf.
c.
17
CHAP,
ii
261
land-inspectors (peraequatores) whose function it was to

deal with the ownership of waste lands, and the apportionment or remission of the land-tax.
They appear to
2
have been infected with the general venality, and their
peculiar duties gave them opportunities, or offered
3
temptations, to favour the more powerful proprietors, and
same
to enrich themselves at the
be
s
in
forgotten,
forming
an
time.
estimate
Nor should
of
the
it
curial's
economic position, that in the fourth or fifth centuries

there was a.pfofl.Hy and sp.rinna fl.pprpp.ifl.t,inn in gr>1j! 2_fl.TiH
that taxes had to be paid in
ffold,
4
as well as in kind.
In the reign of Valentinian I. the ratio of silver to gold

was 14f to I. 6 In the reign of the younger Theodosius
That is, in less than a
the proportion was 18 to I. 6
quarter of a century the value of gold had risen by more
than a fifth. (Thia_a.pprftfiia.tion involved a corresponding
Increase of taxes payable in gold. /And while the
demands of the exchequer were increasing, the landowner was probably getting less and less for his agricultural products.
And here we touch what was the chief
,
economic cause of the ruin of the
we have
liable
seen,
taxes payable by his district.

of the Decline and Fall, and Apoll.
Sid. Carm. xiii. 19 addressed to
For an
Majorian.
Zos.
ii.
On
earlier
time see
38.
the duties of peraequatores,
denned in the Code, see Gode-
as
froy's Paratitloii to xiii. 11 ; cf. C.

Th. xiii. 11, 14, 15, 16, with GodeThese laws
froy's note on 1. 16.
show at once the fairness of the

government, and the opportunities
for fraud
2
open to the peraequatores.
The corrupt
C. Th. xiii. 11, 10.
peraequatores are heavily fined in

xiii.
3
11, 7.
xiii.
11,
4,
sum
Ib.
xi.
any
He
deficit
was, as
in the
The returns were almost

166.
calculation is based on a
comparison of 0. Th. xiii. 2, 1, with
In the former (A.D.
viii. 4,
27.
397) 1 libra of silver is equal to 5
solidi of gold ; in the latter 1 libra
Cf.
of silver is equal to 4 solidi.
He
Godefroy's notes to both laws.
sums up with the remark: adeo
Cf.
indies auri pretium increvit.
Sym. Rel. xxix., paulatim auri
vii.
Duruy,
6
The
enormitate crescente.
The yield
of the gold-mines seems, from the
following laws, to have been diminishing C. Th. x. 19, 3 (365), for the
:
ut quid remisgratia, quid interceptum fuerit

convincaut
fraude,
Ib.
curiales.
personally for
21,
3;
cf.
xiii.
6,
13;
encouragement of gold mining x.

19, 5, 6, 7, 9 (to keep the aurileguli
Cf. Marq. ii. 43.
to their calling).
;
C.
Th.
viii. 4, 27.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
262
BOOK in
rtainly diminishing ; the government was inexorable,

mass of the curiales were themselves small land-
holders
who were unable
to
compete with the owners
of
great
by the labour of slaves and_
1
colon! /The land was, as a rule, their only source of
income/ As the land became less productive, while the
estates
cultivated
burdens of their position became heavier, the weaker

curialis must either fly from his municipality, as so many
actually did, or else he
must obtain temporary
whatever terms, from the only
capitalist to
relief,
whom
on
he
could apply, the neighbouring large proprietor. J This

absorption of the smaller by the greater landowners, and
the growing power of the latter, is by far the most
interesting
and important feature in the transition of

Lower Empire to the
society from the despotism of the

regime of the feudal lords.
LThe
senatorial
estate
was a community by
itself
own
wants, and furnishing supplies forJbhe

supplying
neighbouring markets or for the government flervioe.
Part of it was cultivated directly for the lord by slaves
its
and the building and carpenter work, the spinning and

Another part
weaving, were also carried on by slaves.
of the estate was cultivated by a class designated by
many names, and occupying different grades of de2
Some of them were strictly s^s^ ascripti
pendence.
glebae, who, on the sale of an estate, passed to the new
owner.
Some were in the position of metayers, paying'
their lord a certain proportion of the produce which they
raised.
In other cases they were men who had become
indebted to their lord and, being unable to pay their
1
Of.
Arnold, Provincial
istration, p. 161.
a
0. Th. ix. 10, 3.
titlonof Godefroyto v.
Admin-
Cf.
the Para-
9,
"DeFugi-
Colonia"; Wallon, L'Esdav.

252; De Coulanges, L'Inv.
Germ, pp. 93, 139. To discuss the
vexed question of the origin and
tivis
iii.
p.
nature of the status of the coloni

no part of the purpose of this
For a review of some of
chapter.
the different theories see Wallon,
L'Esdav. iii., chap, on "Travail
de Campagne." Cf. Arnold, Provincial Administration, pp. 161,
is
162.
CHAP,
ii
263
on it to cultivate
Sometimes they were broken men,
who had deserted their farms from various causes,
debt,
had given up
their land, remaining
on certain terms. 1
it
poverty, oppression of government officials or powerful

neighbours, or the wish to escape the heavy burdens
2
imposed on the curial class, and who put themselves /
There is C
under the protection of some great proprietor.
no social phenomenon of the time which deserves closer
attention, for many reasons, than the position of these
It is an indication at
free settlers on the great estates.
once of the ruin of the middle class, and of the growing /
power of the aristocracy.

Code gives evidence
For nearly a hundred years
the determination of the

emperors to check the tendency towards this form of
3
Those who sheltered the fugitive curialis are
patronage.
the
of
threatened with punishments of increasing severity,

confiscation, infamy, till the law of Honorius in
fines,
415*
orders the agent or bailiff who connives at the offence to

"
But all the vigour
be given to the avenging flames."
government could not make head against an

In the reign of
tendency of the times.
Valentinian III. and in the reign of Majorian, the
5
The
authorities have to combat the evil once more.
of
the
irresistible
de Gub. Dei, v. 39-44.

distinguishes two classes: (1)
defensoribus suia omnem fere substantiam suam prius quam defendSalv.
He
antur addicunt; (2) cum agellos

suos perdunt
aut deserunt,
fundos majorum expetunt et coloni
divitum fiunt
jugo se inquilinae abjectionis addicunt.
.
n
i
TJ,
^>
On
of patronage
3
i
'
14ft.
'
ATX,,
JrtJ
origin of this form
Wallon, in. p. 271.
th'
the
0. Th. xi. 24,
"De
Patrociniis
the lustralis
24, 2, the patronus
is fined 25 pounds of gold for each
case.
In 399 the fine is raised to
evade
to
influence
By xi.
collatio.
40.
In 1. 5 the offender's whole
On the
property is confiscated.
evasion of tribute in Gaul by
potentes, v. xi. 1, 26.

4
Ib. xii. 1, 179.
5
Nov Valent. 9, advenae plerum-
<J
tenuea
ue
^mdain
J% l
abjectaeque fortunae
*
obsequiis Jjungunt.
se
^ g niud q oque
ut dum
sibi dedecoris addentes,
uti
Vicorum." The subject is included

in this book xi. which deals with
taxation, because patronage was
volunt patrociniis potentum colon arum seancillarumqueconjunctione

polluerint. Farther on the Emperor
exercised to defeat the claims of

the treasury ; cf. xiii. 1, 21, which
shows that negotiatores used this
says
vendunt defugas Curiales et

obnoxios corporatos cum eos occulta
depredatione concusserint.
:
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
264
BOOK
edicts of these emperors describe the condition of such

dependants in a manner which singularly harmonises
with the contemporary picture given by Salvianus.
The
and the venality of tax-gatherers
injustice of governors
have driven
"
many
to
quit
their
native
forgetful of the splendour of their birth
and,
thus the
cities,
"
(it is
perilous rank of the curialis is described), to place themselves under the protection of some powerful patron.
We
need not believe, as Salvianus does, that the rich
proprietor deliberately set himself to reduce his clients to

but it is only too probable that such protege's
;
serfdom
would inevitably sink

\
to the position of coloni.

It was, however, through direct indebtedness
proprietors that
great
independence^
As we
in that age derived
to the
the smaller generally lost their

have seen, there was little capital
from any other
source^
than land
If
a farTnergoTmlo difficulties from bad seasons, oF under

the pressure of taxation and municipal burdens, his
readiest resource
bour.
was
There were
to
many
borrow from some rich neighways by which the great man
could lay his hands on his debtor's land, and the Code
leaves no doubt that the most unblushing oppression and
2
The
chicanery were often employed to dispossess him.
accumulation of arrears of interest led to forced sales or

donations to escape from an intolerable burden.
If a
small estate were put up for sale, the great man had few
competitors, for there was little capital seeking such
investment, and the government actually seemed to discourage a merchant from purchasing land by holding him
1
See an example in Sid. Ep. iv.

The needy debtor is paying interest at a rate which will double
the capital lent in ten years
cf.
Permission
Chaix, Sidon. ii. 236.
to senators to lend at 6 per cent
is given in 0. Th. ii. 33, 4 (v. GodeG. Th. ii. 33, 3 allowed
froy).
senators who were minors to lend
24.
at interest.
iii. 1, 8 prohibits secret
sales by fugitive curiales : vendi-
money
2
G.
tiones,
Th.
donationes,
transactiones
quae per potentiam extortae sunt,

praecipimus infirmari cf. ii. 9, 4,
pacta quidem per vim et inetum
apud omnes satis constat cassata
;
viribus, respuenda.
CHAP,
THE DECAY OF THE MIDDLE CLASS
ii
265
not only for the land-tax, but for the lus trails
collatio, for which, as a trader, he was liable before the
1
The terms of one law of Houorius make it
purchase.
liable
probable that mere terrorism exercised by great nobles or

officials, without any legal rights whatever, often compelled the small farmer to part with his land by pre2
tended sale or gift.
The secret sale of property by
curiales flying
from their municipality was also a 'growing

all the obstacles which the law
In spite of
practice.
interposed to prevent the alienation of such estates, there

8
clear evidence that, from the time of Alaric's invasion,
is
had taken place without the
formalities preThe law

a curialis parted with his estate.
of Valentinian III., which deals with such cases, shows a
sales
many
when
scribed
tenderness and consideration
unfortunate
tion
class,
for
the difficulties
an
of
very unlike the spirit of earlier legislaIt maintains the validity of all such
on the subject.
4
when
sales,
effected
under the pressure of extreme necesis passed on men of
But a heavy condemnation
sity.
rank who have abused their power by violence, or

by refusing payment of the purchase money, to inflict
The culprit is compelled
injustice on a needy vendor.
not only to pay the full price, but to reinstate the unwillIt is clear that the class of
ing vendor in possession.
official
small proprietors had little chance of holding their own

in such a time as these laws describe to us.
The Code
frankly admits the overwhelming nature of the burdens
which the State imposed on them. Every year they sank
deeper into debt, and every year they were less and less
1
C. Th. xii. 1,
7h
iii
72
cf. xiii.
1, 4.
decreti interpositio
firmitatera.
6
Nov. Valent. 10, notum est post

fatalem hostium niinam qua Italia
laboravit, etc.
4
Ib.
10,
iniquum
praecedentibus
venditioni ob
est, tarn justis
causis,
hoc
confectae
solum,
quia
Jb.
10,
quod
si
defuit,
adiini
emptor
officio
administratione perfunctus, etc.,

venditori solidorum numerum inet
fera t qu i tabulis continetur, possessionem nihilominus perditurus, ut

ad dominum redeat cui taliter pro-
batur ablata.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
266
meet
BOOK in
They could borrow only

from the very men who were hungering for their land,
The means of comand who desired their extinction.
able to
their liabilities.
passing their ruin lay ready to the hand of a great proprietor, who, if not in office himself, was connected by
freemasonry with the official class, who could prejudice the judge on the bench, or bribe the meaner officers
of the law.
social
It seems
clear,
then, that the
prietors were, from
described, becoming steadily poorer
But while
this
quences to
and
pro-
we have
less
numerous.|
change, fraught with momentous conse-
Eoman
QT^ senatorial class
was
Its affluence
was
in progress, another, in
The upper
observable.
equally
in
not
but in
wealth,
only
growing
society,
the opposite direction,
goweri
smaller landed
the various causes which
is
can be easily estimated from the
bymmachus, from the declamation of Salvianus.

and from the picture of Gallic society which ApoUinaris
Sômug^has lett_jusi Its growing power is written on
many a_page of the Code. In spite of the vast and complicated machinery which had been elaborated by succesletters 01
sive emperors for the administration of the provinces, the

task of governing them with purity, economy, and fair-
more difficult. The

and
were
exerted
greatest vigilance
energy
by the central
ness to all classes became more and
secure the independence of the provincial

to repress the tendency to corruption and
oppression among the collectors of taxes and the inferior
8
officers of the law.
But the very number of edicts
authority to
2
governors, and
1
Nov. Valent. 10. usuris in majorem cumulum crescentibus.
2
C. Th. i. 8, 1.
Honorati are
forbidden to sit with judges on the
bench cf. the whole of tit. 7, "De
;
Officio Rectoris Provinciae."

3
26 and 27, esp. 27, 2, hi

qui in Republica versati sinisterius
sunt, perpetuo sibi omnes dignitates,
Ib. ix.
vel legitimas vel honorarias, sciant
esse praeclusas.
jam
rapaces
Cf.
i.
7, 1,
officialium
cessent
manus,
nam si moniti
cessent, inquam
non cessaverint praecidentur. Note
;
that this
A.D. 831.
is
a law of Constantino,
guilty official was
The
degraded to plebeian rank, became

intestabttis, required to restore fourfold the amount of his illicit gains
(which could be recovered from his
CHAP,
ii
267
ends discloses the impotence of the

banishment, torture, death, are all
emperor. Heavy
ineffectual to check the inevitable corruption of a bureaudirected
to
these
fines,
government, operating over an area probably the

widest which has ever been ruled directly from a single
cratic
The jdistance__pi__the_seat of government was

undoubtedly the greatest difficulty, and it was_ a_.dinJculty
centre.
by the imperial legislator. With all the

the feoman posting service, it was in many
cases only after a long interval that the complaints of the
The
aggrieved provincials could reach the government.
fully recognised
facilities of
must have inspired corrupt and
of remoteness
sense
with an audacity which they would

their conduct had been liable to more
officials
unprincipled
not have shown
if
instant exposure.
in
Ofcatfl.fi] ft
tlig
most
/But beyond a doubt, the
nf
way
pnrp
and
linn eat
fl.d
serious
mini strati on
In t
was the power of the provincial aristocracy.
middleof the fourth century the patronage which enabled
the smaller~proprietors to evade their share of the taxes
1
At the close of the
was 'severely dealt with by Valeria.
century the threat of

fact that the mischief
heavier penalties reveals the
still
is
still
rampant.
The patronage
was probably paToTTor in a fashion which still further

The upper class
increased the influence of the patron.
or potentes, as they are called, not only engaged in
8
trade themselves, but secured the exemption of the
regular trader from the tax imposed upon his calling.
4
induced
Creditors with usurious or fraudulent claims
lords
great
their
no doubt often
object,
heirs),
to give
names
office for
(See ix. 27,
1, 3, 4,
a second term.
and
ix,
26, 2,
with Godefroy's note.)

1
0.
Th.
xi.
24,
2,
patrociniis agricolae, etc.
abstineant
Cf.
with the
attained, of over-awing or influ-
and prohibited from holding
the same
to the suit,
Amm.
Maro. xxxi. 14 for the character of

Valens as an administrator.
tua
Th.
C.
.
xi.
24,
severiorera
addidisse cognoscat.
3
Ib. xiii. 1, 21 ;
5,
excellentia
poenam nos
cf.
xiii.
1,
6,
which discouraged trading among

potentes.
4
6
Ib. ii. 13, 1 ; cf. xiii. 1, 15.

Ib. xi. 1, 21.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
268
BOOK in
It is needless to say that the rich

encing the judge.
were equally energetic in their own interests. ^ We learn,
both from Salvianus 1 and from the Code, 2 that the
wealthier class in Gaul contrived to shift their share of
And in a law
theirj>oorer neighbours.
of the very next "yeaFwe find that the practice of delay8
had become so general that
ing payment of taxes
the land-tax on
Honorius was compelled

amount on the morator.
to
fine of fourfold the
impose a
But, without any open defiance
of the_government. the upper class had many means of

If, for example, an inspector came
cheating the treasury.
down to revise the land assessment, 4 and to settle the
liability for
waste lands,
it
was not
difficult
for
a great
proprietor to see that the settlement was in his favour.

If he did not himself appear upon the scene, his agent
could refuse information about the rating, or otherwise

impede the inquiry. And unfortunately the inspectors,
like so many of the officials of this period, were easily
accessible to bribes or other forms of corrupt influence.
The procurators of the great estates, who, as a class, were
very corrupt and unprincipled, doubtless did many things

of which their masters might have disapproved.
They
were generally men of low or even servile origin,5 wielding almost uncontrolled power in the absence of the pro-
The government repeatedly shows its distrust of

In the time of the invasions they gave shelter
prietor.
them. 6
De Gub. Dei, v. 28, illud indignius ac poenalius, quod omnium
contumaciam
onus non omnes sustinent, imnio

quod "pauperculos homines tributa
diyitum premunt, et infirmiores
tion of peraequatores.
ferunt sarcinas fortiorum.

2
nullum gratia
nullum iniquae partitionis
vexet incommodum sed pari omnes
C. Th. xi. 1, 26,
relevet
sorte teneantur.
8
4
-f,
Z7
qui
immemor
existimationem suarn servili obsecundatione damnaverit, deporta-
incommodo
E.g.
Peraequatore
misso, aliquis aut Procuratorem
suum retraxerit, aut colonum ad
2,
libertatis et generis
infamissimam suscipiens vilitatem,
'
si
1.
In prohibiting
Ib. xii. 1, 92.
a curialis to become procurator, the
Emperor uses these words : ille vero
tionis
0<7
Ib. xiii. 11,
armaon the corrup-
retractationis
Of.
verit, etc.
ib.
i.
7,
subjugetur.
7,
moderators
Provinciae curam gerere jubemus
quid Potentium Procurators

perperam illiciteve committant.
ne
CHAP,
i!
THE DECAY OF THE MIDDLE CLASS
269
1
with the object of retaining them as slaves.
2
They were in league with brigands, and harboured them
So
on the estates of which they had the management.
to fugitives
become that the procurators in several

3
provinces were specially forbidden the use of horses, and
they were coupled in the prohibition with those wild
herdsmen of Saninium and Apulia who so easily passed
lawless had they
into the ranks of professional robbers.

They are also
associated in several edicts with the crime of concealing
deserters
from the army.
Irijact the__agent jof a-iemote

..
>
.estate^mustkayeL oftenJ^yolyeOis. mswteiLin. thejoesh_es

The procurator seems to have sometimes
pf the law.
gone
so
far
as
to
hypothecate
an estate without his
master's knowledge, and more than one law deals with

this practice, in order to protect at once the owner and
The procurator who engaged
the bona fide mortgagee.
was a man who was probably accu6

a
fortune
of
his own, and this peculium, subject
mulating
to any prior claim of the master, was made liable for the
It may be readily
repayment of unauthorised loans.
in such transactions
believed that such a class as this, often under no control

would exercise their power more unscrupu-
or supervision,
lously and oppressively than even the most tyrannical

aristocrat.
The most serious danger, however, to the
small landowner from the great lords lay in the facilities
which the
latter possessed for corrupting the sources of
The governor, who had to hea.r a case between

justice.
a wealthy man and a poor man, belonged to the senatorial
class, in many cases was a member of the aristocracy of
7
The litigant of
the province in which the case arose.
1
C. Th. v. 5. 2.
The
actores
and
procuratores who disobeyed this law

were to be sent to the mines.
2
Ib. ix. 29, 2, si vero Actor sive
Procurator latronera domino ignorante occultaverit . .
flammis
ultricibus concremetur.
.
Ib. ix. 30, 2.
Ib.
vii.
18,
offending procurator
ally punished.
* Ib.
Ib.
ii.
ii.
30, 2,
32, 1.
and
is
"De
12.
The
to be capit-
Pignoribus."
E.g. Dardanus, Pretorian prefeet of Gaul, 409, 413, the grand-
father of Apoll. Sidonius ( Ep.
iii.
12),
</
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
270
BOOK
own rank could easily bring private pressure to bear

on him to influence his decisions^ Even an upright man
his
like
Symmachus had no
friends about
cases
scrujJle in writing to his official
which were
to
come
before them.
It is to the credit nf the ernpernra that they took_the

The regulaseverest measures to secure judicial purity.
tion against governors having a second term of office in

2
the same province was intended to check the growth of
connections and influences which might prove too strong

for the virtue even of a well-meaning ruler.
The danger
more clearly recognised in the rules which forbade

the admission of any one, rich or poor, to an interview
with a governor after his court had closed at midday, 3
is still
and which enjoined him in his progresses to refuse invitations to "the luxurious quarters" which his wealthy
4
friends were ready to place at his disposal.
Very
explicitly, in the year 408, Honorius forbids Honorati to
6
All causes are to be heard
sit on the bench with a judge.
in open court with the fullest publicity.
A volume
might be written on the subject of financial

in
the last century of the Western Empire.
corruption
When one wanders through the maze of enactments dealing with fiscal oppression, malversation, and evasion, one
knows not whether more to pity the weakness of the
government, or to wonder at the hardened cupidity and
audacity of the classes which were leagued together in

In the
plundering both the treasury and the taxpayer.
of
fifth
the
of
so
the
Africa,
early part
century,
province
essential to the very existence of the capital, yet held by
by deputation to the
so precarious a tenure, appealed

These
Tonantius Ferreolus, etc.
are not mentioned, however, as instances of corrupt administration.
1
Sym. Ep. iv. 68 ii. 41 ii. 87.
2
C. Th. ix. 26, 4, si quis Pro;
consularem aut Vicariam po testatern, etc., iterare
ejus
omne
temptaverit, fisco
patrimonium
sociari
decernimus.
*
4
Ib.
i.
7, 6.
Ib.
i.
7, 4,
non deverticula
deli-
ciosa sectetur.
Any diversoriuru
lent to a judex in the face of this
law is to be confiscated.
B
Ib.
i.
Ib.
i.
8, 1.
7, 2.
CHAP,
ii
Emperor
for relief
from
its
miseries.
271
'
)The complaints
relate almost- entirely to .oppression and. injustice^ in tke
"
\~\('
The
collection of the various branches_o_t.Vip. rp.vp.miA,
uppelr classes secured immunity from their proper burdens,

or succeeded by unfair assessment in shifting them on
The soldiers and
to the class less able to bear_them.
abused the right of free quarters in mov2

ing through the province. \The various grades of public
8
servants whose business it was to collect the revenue, or
4
5
to press for payment, or to keep the revenue accounts.
officials grossly
were
each
guilty of the grossest fraud, in collusion with

other, or of outrageous terrorism and violence.
all
Alike in Africa and Gaul, the great landowners at this

time, taking advantage of the evident weakness and
of the government, either evaded or delayed
6
In many cases their agents, living in
difficulties
their payments.
remote independence, 7 offered a stolid resistance to the

demands of the treasury, and that at a time when the
utmost despatch was needed to prepare for the storm

which was ready to burst both upon Gaul and Italy,
and when the government had on its hands a troublesome
war in Africa. Not content with this, they shielded by
their patronage weaker men who had perhaps more
8
excuse for falling into arrears.
When corn was urgently
needed to save the city from famine, or to provision the
troops for Gaul, they allowed vessels bound to the trans1
C.
Th.
xii. 1,
166
27
xii. 6,
vii. 4, 33.
Ib.
vii.
summary
8,
10.
For a good
of the sufferings of Africa
at this time from corrupt officials

see Godefroy's note to vi. 29, 11,
the law which orders the curiosi to
be expelled from the province.

8
Susceptores, ib.
Fauriel, i. 362.
4
and cf. 1. 4, vorax et fraudulentum

1.
numerariorum proposition
6,
xii. tit.
cf.
Compulsores, C. Th. xi. 1, 34,

with Godefroy's note ; cf. Amm.
Marc. xxii. 6.
6
Numeraiii, actuarii, C. Th. viii.
See Godefroy's Taratitlon,
tit. 1.
numerarii qui publicas civitatum

ration es versutis fraudibus lacerare
didicerunt, subjaceant tortori.
6
Ib.
xi.
1,
25,
26,
27.
These
laws were issued in 398 and 399.

7
Sym. v. 87, ix. 6, Actores absentium, quibus res longinqua committitur,
tanquam
soluti
legibus
vivunt.
8
C. Th. xi. 24, 4, qui fraudand-
orum tributorum causa ad

solita fraude confugerint
de Gfub. Dei, v. 38.
patrocinia
cf. Salv.
<%
o-
/?/
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
272
BOOK in
They bribed
port service to be entered in their names.
the officers of the census to make false entries of property
and land-inspectors to relieve them of
2
If they purchased
the burden of unproductive estates.
liable to taxation,
an estate from a
man
in difficulties they
would
often,
by
a surreptitious contract, shift the burden of the capitationtax, payable on the coloni of the estate, to the shoulders
needy vendor.
of the
influence or bribes
they induced the book-keepers (tabularii) to cook their accounts
By
in favour of themselves or their clients.

to conceive a powerful
and wealthy
class,
It is difficult
of
many
whose
members must have known the responsibilities of government, and all of whom might have known the overdifficulties
whelming
of the time, so lost to all sense of
public duty,
was the public morality of -the senatorial class,

of treasury officials was not
pfj&e^lowej^ grades
likely to be marked by greater probity or a higher sense
of honour.
It would be difficult, without writing a
treatise on the subject, to give an exact idea of the
various devices by which the army of treasury officials,
If such
theTone
all its many grades, contrived to defraud either

the government or the taxpayer, or both together.
It
would seem that persons of the lowest origin were finding
their way into the ranks of the service by surreptitious
through
means. 6
They
are plainly accused of looking to plunder
1
G. Th. xiii. 7, 2, multi naves
suas diversorum nominibus et titulis
C. Th. xiii. 10, 1
and 8, quoniam
Tabularii per collusionein potenti-
tuentur cf. xiii. 5, 26, 37.

3
Deserta praedia added by the
inspectors to a productive estate
were exempted from the senatorial
land-tax by vi. 2, 13 cf. xiii. 11,
orum sarcinam ad
8 and 12.
The process of &rtjSo\^
or adaequatio is explained in GodeCf. xiii.
froy's notes to these laws.
Agentum in rebus passim plurimi

velut ad quoddam asylum convolav-
11, 10,
11, 16.
3
11).
and Gode froy's notes on
xiii.
ferunt
snpplicium
B
Ib.
vi.
inferiores trans-
Tabulariis erit flamma
cf.
27,
Sym. Ep.
18,
ad
Marquardt,
26
ii.
cf.
231.
Salv. v.
c.
scholam
erunt, quos vita culpabiles et origo

habet ignobilos, et ex servili faece
prorupisse demonstrat cf. vi. 27,
4 for rules of admission to the ser;
xi. 1,
ix. 10.
vice.
CHAP,
for
ii
the
means
of
buying
advancement
themselves
Their character
273
to
painted in the blackest

2
colours.
They are threatened with every mode and
degree of penalty, heavy fines or wholesale restitution of
higher places.
is
gains, degradation to plebeian rank, death by the

"
3
sword, by torture, by the
avenging flames."
They are
illicit
prohibited from seeking any renewal of their term of

4
office, in language which an honest service would have
an intolerable insult.
Yet no expedient
have been of any avail to check the headlong
The evil, so far as we can judge
cupidity of the time.
from the Code, is as rampant in the reign of Majorian 5
The allurements or the^N
as in the reign of Constantine.
of
the
collusion
of comrades equally 1
the
protection
great,
bent on plunder, remoteness from the seat of empire, the
resented
seems
as
to
dumb
patience of the rustic folk who could not defend

themselves, and whose natural protectors were often in
all these things produced
league with their plunderers
a sense of impunity which the distant sound of imperial
menaces seems to have hardly disturbed for a moment.
The susceptores, who were often taken from the curial

had many opportunities for fraud and oppression. 6
Their business was chiefly to receive the tribute paid in
kind for the support of the troops and government service. 7
class,
Sometimes they did not give receipts at once, 8 or they

gave them in invalid form, without the particulars preSometimes they used false weights and
scribed by law.
1
C. Th. vi. 29, 11, qui ex collects
praeda ad majores
militias festinant.
(It need hardly
be said that militia is applied to
provincialium
Palatine service generally.)

2
Cf.
Amm.
Marc. xvi.
0. Th. ix. 27, 1

Ib. ix. 26, 2.
xiii.
dum quam quod
ipse a possessore
omnis concussionum
susceperit
occasio removeatur
cf. the law of
Constantine in 315, 0. Th. viii.
.
5,
11,
rapere non accipere sciunt agentes

See the terms of opproin rebus.
brium collected in Godefroy, Paratitlon to 0. Th. viii. tit. 1.
3
Nov. Maj. 1, compulsor nihil

amplius a Curiali noverit exigen-
10, 8.
10, 1.
6
Th.
7
v.
Godefroy's Paratitlon to 0.
xii. 6.
Susceptores specierum, G. Th.
xii. 6, 9.
*
Ib, xii. 6, 27.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
274
1
had
so that the unfortunate farmer
measures,
BOOK in
to furnish
his proper quota.

Or, again, they would lend
themselves to tactics by which the validity of a receipt
more than
2
was disputed, and the payment levied a second time.
The accountants of the army stores (numerarii, actuarii)
were also audacious offenders.

They are plainly charged
with falsifying accounts and drawing larger supplies than
8
The actuarii seem to have been
the corps were entitled to.
a particularly troublesome class, and are ordered away
4
from the capital by a law of Arcadius in 398. [But it
was
at the
hands of the various
officials
charged with the
duty of enforcing payment and collecting arrears that

the provincials suffered the worst cruelties!^ There was
arjparently no possible means of restraining them. _ Their
insolence
is
fiercely in
described most vividly and punished most

5
of the latest laws in the Code.
By
some
6
demanding receipts which had been lost, by over-exac8
7
tion, by fraudulent meddling with the lists of the census,
by mere terrorism and brute force, they caused such
9
misery and discontent that the Emperor had more than
once, at all costs to the revenue, to order their removal

from a whole province.
Their exactions and super10
that Theoexactions had reached such a point in 440
dosius and Valentinian issued a rescript which gave the
governors of provinces the power of punishing them withBut the

out any fear of the Counts of the treasury.
effect
1
on the collection of the revenue, and, not
C. Th. xi. 8, 3.
2 Ib.
6,
7 -fo.xi.
o, z.
8 Ib.
xiii. 11,
In the reign
of Constantine their frauds weê
so enormous that the Emperor
threatens them with tortu^ for
their offences.
4 J.U.
77,
,
;;
i
Ylll. 1)
6
iA
J.4:.
and
10.
a
10 4
scrum genera ex A fncanis pro vmcus
conshtumms pellenda, 412 ; vi. 29,
cu
sos praecepimus
remoyeri,
\
4
Thls also relates *? Afr lca
,
f
f1
f
cf.
the removal of cunosi from
viii
>
>
>
'
-i
-|-.
Nov. talent. 7 Meg. 4 Mart.

(cf. Ainm. Marc. xxx. c. 5).
;
the
O. Th. xi. 26, 2.
26 cf. xii. 1, 185,

semel securitatem de refusione munerum ernissam ab alio Proconsule
xii.
least,
L)alniafcla
10
Nov.
TJi.
45 (1) and
(2).
CHAP,
ii
"
275
"
officers, whose powers were thus

whose
curtailed,
gains were diminished, compelled
the Emperor two years afterwards to rescind the former
slur
on the
1
illustrious
or
Ijtjs only too evident jhat_the^ Emperor's zeal for

honest administration met with deadening opposition in
law.
the highest as well as the lowest ranks of the service.

7
The " deTensoreif ^ of cities had, as one of their most
important duties, to protect the taxpayers from overYet one can see, from a law of 409, 3 that the
exaction.
The defrauded
protection was often not to be relied upon.
provincial is directed, in the first instance, to appeal to
the defensor, the curia, and the magistrates.
If they
refuse to accept his appeal, he is, as a last resort, in the
and with the cognisance, of the public clerks

and minor officials, to post up his complaint in the more
There surely never
public places of the municipality.
was a more startling confession of impotence made by
presence,
the heads of a great administrative system.

Perhaps even stronger proof of the inability of the
government
to control its servants is to
be found in the
enormities of the discussores, as they are described to us

in some of the later constitutions.
These officials, whose
it was to discover, and call up, all arrears of
were appointed on a regular system and, in
ordinary times, men were not very willing to undertake a
function so invidious.
For the arrears were probably
business
tribute,
1
Nov.
nostra .
Th.
.
45 (2), cum pietas

censuerat ut illustres
viri sacii ac privati aerarii
Comitcs
facultatem condemnandorum Judicum non haberent. In i. 7, 5 the

provincial governors are ordered to
go about and exert themselves to
bring to light frauds of tax-collectors.
But the counts of the
largesses in 452, on the pretext
that the financial service was interfered with, actually succeeded
in terrorising the governors.
2
The powers of the defensor are
defined in the law of 392, 0. Th. i.
11, 2, plebem tautum vel Decurionea

ab omni improborum insolentia et
Of. C. Th.
Nov. Maj. 5 Marquardt,
i. 522
De Coulanges, L'Inv. Germ.
De Coulanges takes a difp. 39.
ferent view of the defensor's office
from most authorities. Cf. Godefroy's Paratitlon to C. Th. i. 11
temeritate tueantur.
xii. 6,
23
Fauriel,
s
/*
i.
375.
TJ,
See Paratitlon of Godefroy to

0. Th. xi. tit. 26, and the notes to
Nov. Patent.
7.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
276
BOOK
quite as often due by the great proprietors as by the

But in the last years of the Empire men seem to
have thrust themselves into the office without any regular
small.
Their object, of course, was mere plunder,

and they had endless opportunities of enriching themselves.
Many proprietors were deeply in debt, not only
to private creditors, but to the treasury.
Estates were
authority.
frequently changing hands, and, in the confusion of a

time of invasion and panic, documents would be lost or
purchases would be made without full knowledge of the

of the vendor.
The discussor, who had ob-
liabilities
intrigue, came
in the
obtained
doubtless
retinue,
tained his office
old
by
receipts,
presenting
which no one could check,
What
down with
a powerful
same way, demanding
mass of cooked
accounts,
least of all the simple farmer.
followed, as described
4
by the Emperor, resembles
the worst scenes in Turkish provincial government, outrage, torture,

imprisonment, murder; and all these
enormities were countenanced, and actively supported, by

officers of the palace and the praetorium, with the aid of
the soldiers of the neighbouring garrison. 5
Who can
wonder that people exposed to such brutality, in the
name
of civilised government, should

6
justice of the Gothic chief ?
Yet
it
welcome the rude
would be unhistorical and unfair to hold the
imperial government responsible for all these horrors.

Almost every page of the Code bears witness to Jihe
and his fimino.il

Indignant energy wit.Vi whir.li t.hft T7.mpp.vor
strove to check the anarchy of the provincial administra1
The
discussores of the reign of
Honorius were quite as corrupt,

Th.
2
C.
xi. 26, 2.
Nov. Valent.
provmciam non
perimus, sed
untur, etc.
8 Ib.
discussores ad
electi, sicut com7,
ambientes
ire
die-
securitates
expetunt
et vetustate conguraptas, quas servare nescit sim7,
annorura serie
plicitas et fiducia nihil debentis.

4
Ib. 7, innumerae deinde caedes,
saeva custodia, suspendiorum crudelitas et universa tormenta, etc.

6
Ib. 7, collega furtorum Palainstat apparitio
tinus hortatur,
turbulenta, urget immitis executio
militaris.
6
o. 8.
Salv. de Gub. Dei,
v.
36, 87,
CHAP,
ii
tion^

(But,
277
with a high sense of duty and the appearance
of omnipotence, the central authority
had
lost control of
the vast system.) Jhe government wa_s_^g0_wmg weaker

as^ the power of the aristocracy increased, and, as we
have already seen^he power of the aristocracy was being
.
exerted
actually
administration.
hamper and defeat the imperial

The same paralysis is seen in each
to
Jj'or generations there

prefecture and in each province.
had been many governors slow or negligent in executing
the will of the Emperor.
Eepeated" edicts and a rising
But the
scale of penalties~anf a sufficient proof of this.
or
the
however
earnest
and
prefect
governor himself,
was
liable
to
his
be
thwarted
suborddetermined,
by
inates or by the intrigues of the Potentes.
There are few
traces in the fifth century of the grosser forms of corruption or oppression among the higher officials, but there
many proofs of their failure to carry out the intentions

of the Emperor.
This was no doubt sometimes due to
want of a high sense of duty, or of energy, or to
are
illegitimate influence brought to bear
upon them.
But
probably the most potent cause was the contumacy of the

lower members of the service, who had their own ends to
It is certainly significant
gain in maintaining abuses.
that in so many laws, while the governor is to be fined
for disobedience, his
1
penalties,
some
of
staff
them
laid under far heavier

kind which we should de-
are
of a
scribe as savage.
The last edict
which deals with the miseries inflicted

by the tax-gatherer sums up, as it were, the imperial
legislation on this subject for generations, and in its
pessimism sounds the death-knell of provincial
in the West.
Its author was the last
prince of high purpose and capacity who addressed himcandid
administration
Nov. Maj.
6,
ut Judex qui hoc
statuerit 20
librarum auri
illatione feriatur, appari tores vero
fieri
fustuario
supplicio subditos,
amissione trim-
manuum quoque
candos.
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
278
BOOK in
the hopeless task of reforming a vast service which

was honeycombed with corruption. The last Eoman
Emperor of the West from whom, as statesman or soldier,
1
great things were expected, was foiled in his efforts, both
in war and statecraft.
And he found his own nobles and
self to
civil servants as
Vandals.
dangerous enemies of the state as the

wishes, at first hand, to know
[Any one who
the secret of the disease which
was undermining the
strength of the imperial system in the West, should read

the law of Majorian issued in 458/j The fortunes of the
provincials are still being eaten away by extortionate and
The municipalities are being derepeated exactions.
serted by the citizens who have to bear their burdens, but
who prefer to abandon everything rather than endure the

ingenious chicanery or truculent cruelty of the officers of
the treasury.
While the smaller proprietors are being
bled to death, the agents of the great landowner, in the
security of a remote estate, placidly ignore the demands
of the collector.
The provincial governors seem person-
be distrusted by the Emperor indeed they

are charged with the task of
reforming the fiscal system
of their districts.
But even they are apt to be misled or
cajoled by their subordinate officers, who possess a minute
ally not to
of the localities, and whose

audacity is
stimulated by the prospect of enormous gains and the
knowledge
experience of long impunity.

The picture of his times left by Majorian is infinitely
sad, and yet, as we said at the beginning of this chapter,
impossible to ignore the high sense of duty, and the
almost effusive sympathy for the suffering masses, which
mark the last utterances of the imperial jurisprudence.
.Tiiflf-.
rm tfrp. eve of its proscription by the
f^q
it is
pugm-nam
for a moment an elevation and purity

ever reached in the ages of its unchallenged
supremacy, so the imperial government was probably never
State attained
higher than
1
it
Apoll. Sidon. Garm. v. 585.
Nov. Maj.
tit.
i.
CHAP,
ii
279
so anxious to check abuses of administration, or so compassionate for the desolate and the suffering, as in the yeara
when its forces were being paralysed. It is easy for the
some of these measures of allemore characterised by sympathy than statesman-
cool economist to criticise
viation as
It has been said that the indulgence to debtors

ship.
to the imperial treasury, which was so often granted,
merely threw a heavier load on those taxpayers who

were still able to meet their obligations. 1 But in one
of the later constitutions
it is expressly stated that, if

the treasury insisted in all cases on its full rights, it
would ruin the taxpayer, without benefiting the State. 2
Between 395 and 423, Honorius remitted the taxes over

wide
districts in ten different edicts.
Similar measures
of the most sweeping character are to be found among

4
But in most of these
the enactments of later reigns.
cases, it
is
not
difficult
to
find a justification
for
the
remission in the public calamities, or the cruel superexactions of the agents of the fisc.
Nor did the Emperor
spare the private creditor in emergencies, any more than
own exchequer. In 443, so desperate had the
his
condition of Africa become, that the government felt it

necessary to suspend for a time the right of recovery for
private debts.
fin
number
of
minor measures scattered over the
Cocle the growing spirit of humanity may be observed.

The governors of provinces are called upon to exercise
the utmost vigilance to check the oppression of the poor

by the agents of the great, and to bring to light the mis1
F.
de Coulanges, L'Inv. Germ.
He was a son of Volusianus
clxxix.
who corresponded with S. Augustine,
p. 59.
2
Nov. Th. 51, si a possessore super

quae praestat has expensas,
requirat, ultimas tenuesque ejus
and succeeded Rutilius Namatianus

as prefect of the city, Rutil. Namat.
i.
466.
He was P.P. of Gaul in
vires compulsio talis extinguet.

3
C. Th. xi. 28, 2 sqq.
4
Nov. Th. 22. The Albinus to
whom this was addressed was probably grandson of the Albinus of
440
444
alia,
the Saturnalia.
Cf.
Seeck,
Sym.
seem
man
P.P. of Italy, 443-448
; consul,
The Novellao
patrician, 446.
to show him the great stateaof the time, Nov. Talent. 1,
Nov. Th. 22, 23, 35, 50.

Nov. Th. 22.
2, 4, 5
6
A-
SOCIETY IN THE WEST
280
BOOK in
deeds of the tax-gatherer. 1

It is their duty, along with
the bishops, to visit prisons on the Lord's Day, to receive
any complaints from the prisoners as to their treatment,

and to see that they are sufficiently supplied with food. 2
Stringent enactments require that persons charged with
crime shall be brought up for trial within a year, and that
prisoners
ness.
to
be subjected to unnecessary harsha strict term of prescription, the law strove
shall not
By
restrain
that
noxious
class
who made a
trade
of
property, or the status of persons who

had succeeded in escaping from a servile or dependent
condition.
The evidence of the freedman against his
assailing titles to
6
patron was discredited, and also that of the accused
person who, while confessing his own guilt, attempted
to incriminate another.
There are three or four other
measures to which we
may
refer, as illustrative at
once
misery of the times, and the humanitarian spirit

of the central government.
In the terror caused by the
of the
movements
of the Goths at the beginning of the fifth

century many persons, particularly in the province of
Illyricum, had fled to districts which offered greater
Some had been carried into captivity and

In many cases they had come under
been redeemed.
which
were sometimes enforced in a hard
obligations
and selfish spirit. Where the fugitive owes nothing but
security.
the gift of food and clothing from his host, the Emperor
6
But where he
dismisses the claim for compensation.
has been bought back from the hands of the enemy, his
redemptor, whose motive was sometimes that of acquiring
a useful serf, is ordered to be content with the repayment
of the
service.
1
ransom, or, as an alternative, with five years'

In those same calamitous years there was a
0. Th.
elaborate
7. 5, 7.
Ib. ix. 3, 7.
Ib. ix. 36, 1
Commentary on
C.
Th.
iv. tit. 14.
and 2
cf.
ix. 3,
C.
Th.
iv.
11, 2
ix.
1,
19
ix. 6, 4.
1, sqq.
4
Nov. talent. 8
cf.
Godefroy's
Ib. v. 5,
v.
Godefroy's Com,
CHAP,
ii
famine in
great
Italy,
and
it
appears
probable
281
that
some masters were tempted to limit the number of

mouths on their estates by exposing the infants of their
The exposed child was sometimes found
female slaves.
and treated with kindly human feeling and the legislator
interposed to prevent the cruel master from reclaiming
to servitude the creature whom he had consigned to
1
The flight of serfs from one estate to another
death.
was evidently very common. The law of 419 fixes the
limit of thirty years, after which the fugitive colonus,
who had found another master, and had probably formed
;
family
ties,
could not be recalled to the servitude from
which he had
fled.
In the case of a female
And
serf,
the limit
before that term, she has married,

in order to prevent the break-up of a home the law enacts
that her second master shall provide a vicaria, presumably
is
twenty years.
if,
who shall satisfy the claim of her former lord.

/These are a few examples of the efforts of government
to alleviate that mass of misery and social injustice
which it wasLJmpotent to cure.
To a sympathetic mind,
there is no more painful reading than the Theodosian
The authors"bT^these laws
Q55ilof__the fifth century!
unmarried,
generally loaded with the double opprobrium of

weakness and corruption.
Les malheureux out toujours
tort.
The system of bureaucratic despotism, elaborated
finally by "Diocletian and "Constantine, produced a tragedy
in the truest sense, such as history has seldom exhibited
in which, by an inexorable fate, the claims of fancied
omnipotence ended in a humiliating paralysis of administration; in which determined effort to remedy social
evils only aggravated them till they became unendurable
in which the best intentions of the central power were,
are
generation after generation, mocked and defeated alike

bv_Jn'esistible laws of human nature, and by hopeless
perfidy
1
C.
Sozom.
and corruption in the servants of government

v. 7, 2.
On the famine of. Jios. vi. 11, OTympiod.
Th.
is. 8.
C. Th. v. 10.
BOOK
IV
THE BARBARIANS AND THE FUTURE

OF THE EMPIRE
CHAPTEE
^
-*'
THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE INVASIONS
No
part of the inner life of the fifth century should, in

mind of an intelligent student, excite greater curiosity
than the attitude of the Eomans of the West to the
the
As
invaders, and their ideas as to the future of Rome.
he reads the meagre chronicles of the times, he can
hardly help asking himself, [What did these men think
about the real meaning of the sack of EomeJbyLAlaric
and by Genseric,: of the devastation of the provincesj
of the settlement of Visigoths. Biirgundiana, Suevea, and
Vandals in regionswhich, in spite of jtemjgprary incur"Was

sions, had for centuries enjoyed the Roman peace ?
the end indeed come, the end of so much effort, of so
many glories, of that great history of civil and military
virtue which had given uniform law and culture to the
realms of Alexander as well as to the countries bordering
on the inland and the western seas?
Or, were the
calamities of the time, crushing and calamitous as they
were to individual citizens, only temporary and limited
in their range, such as the Empire had often before
suffered, without serious and lasting effects on the general
'And as to the causes of the
organisation of society ?
calamity, were they the decline of Eonian virtue and
skill in statecraft, or were they the anger of the old gods
of
Rome
ments
for "the deseTti6n~oF~ their altars7or the punish-
sent
by the
Christian's
God
for
luxury and
ROME AND THE BARBARIANS
286
BOOK
IV
Finally, what was to be the

oppression jrf the weak ?
relation of the Empire, if it was to continue, to these
strange immigrants into her territory, and how were they
going to behave to the power which had so long kept
them
at
bay
We
propose to collect, from the literary remains of

But
the period, various answers to these questions.
before doing so, there are some general considerations as
to the character of the invasions of the barbarians in the
century, and their settlement in the provinces, which

bear in mind in the review which
fifth
it
we
will be well to
propose to make.
The modern, who has only the

.
popular conception of the events of that time, is apt to

think that the Western Empire succumbed to an over-
powering advance of whole tribes and peoples, animated

by hatred of Eome, sweeping away the remains of an
effete civilisation, and replacing it, in a sudden and
cataclysmal change, by a spirit and by institutions of a
perfectly different order.
(Yet, if such were a true
account of the
behaviour of
fall
many
of the
of the
Eoman
Eomans
Empire,~the tone and

of that time would be
Here and there there are cries of horror

and slaughter wfoch warp, ramaed by
some violent incursion. And, undoubtedly, the capture
inexplicable}
at the havoc
J,
the
of
the
to
the ancient faith in the
Home.
citv
gave
for
moment
Butthis was only a

sooifTeturnecL
The
strp.ngth
a.
shock
Aerrible
n.nd
stability of
V^
transitory feeling
and regions, which
are said to have been desolated and ravaged, reappear
ffdence
cities
with apparently few traces of any catastrophe.
The
government batmy^__m)__îgn__of--coafusi0a--^ despair.

Individual observers may have their doubts and questionings about the course of events, but few seem absolutely
dismayed, and some display a confidence and hopefulness
which would be quite astonishing, if the old popular
conception of the barbarian onslaughts were the true one,
CHAP,
GENERAL CHARACTER OF INVASIONS
287
very cursory glance at the history of the Empire

reveals the secret of this insouciance,. [The invasions of
century were nothing new, nor was there
in the settlement of fl-p.rmfl.na rm
anything Very startling
Rnma.n pniL f From the times of Marius not a century
the_
fifth
had passed without some violent inroad of German hosts.

The myriads annihilated on the field of Aquae Sextiae
were but the advance guard of a mighty movement,
which was always pressing on to the West or South.
Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, had all to throw back succesMarcus
sive attacks on the frontier of the Ehine.
Aurelius spent eight campaigns in a struggle with a vast

1
In the third century
confederacy on the Danube.
almost every province, and even Italy itself, was ravaged,

and the Goths, 2 a comparatively new horde, who had
worked their \vay from Scandinavia to the Ukraine,
8
swept the Euxine in thousands of vessels, and harried
the towns of Asia Minor and Greece,
In_the reign of
Probus, the Germans captured and pillaged sixty towns
4
in Gaul, and overran the whole_jprovince.
Another
formidable irruption took place in the middle of the
j
Enormous numbers of Franks, Alemanni,

and Saxons passed the Ehine.
great part of Gaul
was overrun, and forty towns along the Khine were
6
invaders wara.. driven back with
sacked.
(Once_more^ft
enormous loss.
1>n
third and fourth finn*- 11
*)
[j?Ke^mvasions of.tfre
respect of the numbers and impetuosity of thjsjiaaailants,
seemTiTus now to have been almost overwhelming. The
Gothic host of tEe~"reign of Claudius is said to have
fourth century.
Jul. Capitol, vit. M. Anton, c.

gen tea omnes ab Illyrici limite
usque in Galliam conspiraverant.
1
22,
Treb.
Poll.
vit.
Claud,
vit.
Gallien.
c.
6,
Zos.
i.
42,
TrXota
/cai
eaKi<rx*\ia
660
û/3t/3d<ravTe$
ftvpiddas
vit.
ical
Claud,
c.
rotfrotj
r/jid/covra
6, 8.
81.
Gf. Pallmann, die Gesch. der

Volkerwand. i. pp. 49 sqq.; Jordan.
Flav. Vop. Prob. c. 13, cum

per omnes Gallias securi vagarentur.
6
Amm. Marc,
Zos. iii. 1, 3
Get. 17.
xvi. 12.
13;
c.
6; Zos.
i.
30,
288
BOOK
iv
The Germans who spread

numbered 320,000 men.
over the whole of Gaul in the reign of Probus must
have been even more numerous, if that emperor
slaughtered 400,000 of them, as he is said to have
1
done. f Yet it does not appear that, at crises so appalof the safety of the
ling, the Romans ever despaired
The
State.
Probus to the Senate, to which we

expresses an almost exuberant
letter of
have
confidence.
**
rather
referred,
2
^The invaders, however numerous, are
in-
variably driven back, and in a short time there are few

The truth seems to be that,
traces left of their ravages.
however
terrible the plundering
unarmed population, yet
bands might be to the
in a regular battle the
Germans
Koman troops. Ammianus,

were immensely
inferiorjothe
who had* borne a part in many of these engagements, says
that, in spite of the courage of the Germans, their imand
petuous fury was no match for the steady
coolness of troops under
this
Eoman
officers.
moral superiority, founded on a
that the
Eoman
soldier in the
îgcipline
ftThe result of
was
lonpr Tradition,
third^tnd
fourth centuries
any odds, lln 356 an immense

4
multitude of the Alemanni inuncfated Eastern Gaul.
Julian, the future Emperor, who was then a mere youth,
with no previous training in the art of war, was in command of only 13,000 men, of whom few were veteran
6
Yet in a very short time not an enemy was
troops.
left in Gaul, and the victors were carrying the war far
6
There must undoubtedly
into the heart of Germany.
was ready
to face almost
1
Treb. Poll. vit. Claud, c. 8 ;
But
Flav. Vop. vit. Prob. c. 15.
on the credibility of Vopiscus v.
Peter, Gesch. Litt. tiler die Rom.
i.
150
Kaiserzeit,
the carelessness
and
of
281 on
ii.
historians
in
Vit. Prob. c. 15,
omnes penitus
arantur GalGalliae liberatae

nos
licana rura barbaris bubus
.
eorum omnia possidemus.
Amm.
Marc. xvi. 12, 47, Alerobust! et celsiores, milites

illi feri et turdociles
usu nimio
bidi, hi quiet! et cauti.
4
iii.
Zos.
3,
rX$0of Aircipo*
;
tTrepaiAd-r) jBapfidpuv.
6
dealing with numbers.

2
manni
I.e.
6
Amm.
Zos.
Spvpuv
Marc. xvi. 12, 2
iii.
TOI>S
4,
Zos.
axpi rutv 'B/Hcvrfa*
êityovTas
Katcra/i
CHAP,
289
have been much
loss of life and property in some of these

Yet a very few years after the ravages which
were checked by Julian, the valley of the Moselle is
described to us by Ausonius as a paradise which shows
no trace of the hand of the spoiler. 2 Comfortable granges
and luxurious villas look down from every height.
The
vineyards rise in terraces along the banks, and the yellow
corn-lands can vie even with the fertility of the poet's
native Aquitaine.
The population are prosperous and
There
is
even
an air of rustic jollity and gaiety
happy.
over the scene from which all thoughts of past suffering
or coming danger seem to be banished. 8
Of the same character were the great invasions of the
A great army under
opening years of the fifth century.
raids.
Eadagaisus,
which,
according
to
lowest
the
estimate,
numbered 200,000 men, crossed the Alps and penetrated

4
into Etruria.
That the government regarded the danger
as serious, may be inferred from the edict which called
8
the slaves to arms.
Yet Stilicho, with a force of only
30,000 regular troops, and some Hun and Alan
6
auxiliaries, signally defeated that great host, and the
prisoners taken were so many that they were sold for a
aureus apiece. 7
In the beginning of the year
406 a horde of Alans, Sueves, and Vandals crossed the
Ehine, from which the garrisons had been withdrawn to
single
8
meet the danger in Italy. 9 The invaders caused great

consternation, and undoubtedly inflicted much damage
and suffering in their passage through Gaul. 10 But the
1
Zos.
iii.
'
1.
Oros.
vii.
37,
16.
Auson. Idyl. x. v. 156. The

poem on the Moselle was composed
circ. 370
v. Schenkl, Proem, xv.
3
Auson. Idyl. x. v. 165.
Chron., Arcadio vi. et

Probo Coss. Oros. vii. 38 and 40.
9
Claud, de Bell. Get. 421 :
4
Oros. vii. 37,
13, secundum
eos qui parcissime referunt, ducenta
milia hominum.
Of. Zos. v. 26 ;
Marcell. Chron.
excubiis
Prosp.
tutumque remotis
10
Rhenum solo terrore relinquunt.

Carm. de Prov. Div. v. 25,
C. Th. vii. 13, 16.
periere tot urbes (v. 34), Vandalicis

gladiis sternimur et Geticis . . .
ultima pertulimus ; Rutil. Namat.
Zos. v. 26.
i.
27-30
Hieron. Ep. 123,
16.
290
BOOK
iv
and cities, which they are said to have plundered

and destroyed, within a generation are found to be once
more nourishing and prosperous.*
districts
fin the fragmentary annals of the fifth century there

no sign that the generals of the Empire felt any fear
of an overwhelming superiority on the side of the
is
invaders.
a powerful
In 426 the city of Aries was attacked by

but they were compelled
force of Goths
;
2
Two years later,
by Aetius to retire with heavy loss.
the same great general recovered the Khineland from the
8
In 435 he inflicted a crushing defeat on the

4
In
Burgundians, and compelled them to sue for peace.
Franks.
the following year Litorius, the lieutenant of Aetius, by

a rapid movement, relieved the town of Narbonne, when
was hard pressed by famine and the Gothic army.

although Litorius soon afterwards was taken captive
hands of the Goths, the annalist expressly says
the
by
that it was the result of reckless ambition and super6
The
stitious credulity, not of any inferiority of force.
invasion of Attila in 451 was probably the most
appalling danger, in respect to the numbers of his
motley host, which the Eomans had had to face for
6
Aetius had only a handful of troops under his
ages.
7
command, and although he was able to rally to his
support Visigoths, Franks, Burgundians, and Saxons, yet
the credit of defeating that fierce and crafty power, which
had reduced all central Europe to vassalage, must be
In the last
awarded to Koman daring and organisation.
of
the
of
and
of
the
Western
independence
days
Auvergne
it
And
1
This appears to be the case in
Bordeaux, Paulin. Pell. Euch. 240;
cf. 284.
Compare the state of
Rome after the sack by the Vandals,
6
Ib. ad. a. 439, ut nisi inconsideranter proeliansin captivitatem
incidisset, dubitandum foret cui
potius parti victoria ascriberetur.
vu 32
-
n. Felice et Dionysio Coss.

Ib. Theod. xv. and Valent. iv.
Cess.
4
7
Sid. Carm. vii. 329, tenue
rarum sine milite ducens Robur
auxiliis
cf.
Fauriel,
i.
p. 226.
cf-
et
in
CHAP,
291
mere handful of troops under the gallant

raised by his own resources, kept the
and
Ecdicius,
Visigothic army for months at bay, and the Koman
showed in this final struggle an almost contemptuous
Empire, a
1
recklessness.
\The Germans then were not superior to the Eogians

Nor were they animated
in_military skill and courage.
or
hatred
of Eome. /Sojar
common
by any
purpose
from Jiaving any common purpose, they were hopelessly
divided among themselves, and are as often found fighting for the Emrjire as against it. /The Franks on the
Ehine were champions of Eome when they were overwhelmed by the invaders in 40 6. 2 / Stilicho had Alan
and Hun auxiliaries in his great battle with Eadagaisus. 8
It was with Hun cavalry that Aetius and Litorius strove
to check the advance of the Visigoths in Southern
4
It was with the aidu oYisigQt>ia Franks, Saxony
Gaul.
and Burgundians that Apitina defeated thn nrmy of
Attila on the Catalaunian_^rjlains.
Again and again the
J
Visigoths
01
Toulouse lent their forces to support the
Eoman power in Spain against the Sueves. 5 The Eomans

of Auvergne, when they were deserted in its weakness
by the imperial government, received help and encouragement in their last struggles against Euric from
the Burgundians.
(it is clear
from these
facts that the
to the barbarians.
they were often
indeed
be
to
eager
and many of their chiefs,

taulphus, had no higher ambition than
ice
Sid.
Ep.
iii.
3,
taceo deinceps
collegisse te privatis viribus publici
exercitus speciem, etc. ; of. Greg.

Tur. Hist. Fr. ii. 24, multitudinem
cum
Oros.
his
vii.
aliae
40,
3,
multaeque
Francos
(gentes)
proterunt. Fauriel, i. 47.
3
Zos. v. 26.
taken
like
Prosp. Chron.
T
ex
a.
or
437, 439.
.
at
its
to be appointed
into
Alaric
HlSpamaS
2Sf*l22
G &OTum
Theodoricus cum
.;
Sid. Ep. iii.

4.
The help
however, was of doubtful value
Chaix, Sid. ii. 164.
292
BOOK
iv
to high^ military command. (On. the other hand, there

was a corresponding readmesT on the itamajTjdde to
empIoyTarbarja.n
fnrfip.a
From
war^
in
the
earliest^ days
of theJEmpire these auxiliaries appear on the army lists.

Germans are_found in the bodyguard of Augustus. 1
They fought under
Vitellius in the foremost ranks
the battle of Cremona.
Vespasian had special
at
confi-
dence in the loyalty of the Sueves, and had two of their

8
chiefs in his service.
Marcus Aurelius formed some
corps of Germans for his war with their countrymen on
4
In the third century, the tendency
the Danube.
becomes even more marked.

Valerian, in a despatch to
Aurelian, describes an army which included troops from
Ituraea, Arabia, and Mesopotamia, and officers bearing
such unmistakable German names as Hariomundus,
8
Claudius II., after the
Hildomundus, and Haldagates.
6
great defeat which he inflicted on the Goths, enrolled a
Probus
large number of them under his standards.
recruited the frontier garrisons with 16,000 from the
wreck of the great host which had devastated Gaul. 7
The army of Constantine, in the battle of the Milvian
Bridge, was chiefly composed of Germans and Celts and
8
Of similar composition was the army with
Britons.
which Theodosius defeated Eugenius at the Frigidus. 9
Some of these barbarian troops took service voluntarily

unctCTân express agreementTstating thf* nnnrh'tiQTig_rm
which they served.
Others were compelled to join the
I
standards as the result of defeat in battle. 1 "
them received regular pay and

1
2
8
4
21,
Some
of
others received
Suet. Octav. 49.

Tao. Hist. i. 61.
Ib. iii. 5.
7
Flav. Vop. Prob. c. 14, accepit
praeterea sedecim milia tyronum,
quos omnes per diversas provincias
Jul. Capitol, vit. M. Anton, c.

emit et Germanorum auxilia
sparsit, etc.
contra Germanos.
6
Flav. Vop. Aurel.
6
rations
Zos.
i.
c.
ôs
*&
11.
46, foot 6t 8uffd>0ii<rca>,
10
1)
rdyfJia<ri 'P<i}fj.al(>}v(rvi>rjpldnr}(rav K.T.\.

Of. Treb. Poll. vit. Claud, c. 8.
v.
ii.
15.
iv. 56.
C.
froy's note
Dedititii.
vii. 13, 16; Godeon the Foederati and
Th.
CHAP,
293
held on conditionôf^military
grants of land, which were
service, and which passed to their sons on the samp, nnn-
page of the Notitia contains a list of more

than twenty corps of these military colonists, under the
name Sarmatae Gentiles, who were settled at various
dition.
2
Similar German
places from Bruttium to the Alps.
corps, under the name of Laeti, had lands assigned to
them in almost every part of Gaul. 'The Gallo-Eoman
population had been long accustomed to the residence of

these bands on their soil. ) Batavi are found at Arras
;
Franks at Kennes Sueves at Coutances, Mans, Bayeux,

Sarmatians at Paris, Poitiers, and
and Auvergne
Amiens. 3
Occasionally the Laeti proved to be dangerous
Thus we learn from Ammianus Marcellinus
neighbours.
;
that a body of Laeti, in the troubled year 357, attempted

to capture the city of Lyons, and plundered the sur4
Here we have an anticipation in

the fourth century of what happened more frequently in
the fifth, when Burgundians and Visigoths had obtained
a permanent settlement in Gaul.
rounding country.
We^shaJLaeejîn a subsequent
cbapter,_jthaJL-the
establishment of the Germans-in- the south and east of
GauTSisturbed and alarmed the Eomans of the province

far less than we should have expected. /In a short time
the intruders were accepted as more or less friendly
neighbours.
Here again the past history
of the
Empire
found to have prepared men's minds for what,

taken by themselves, would have seemed stupendous
changes. \ Just as there were countless incursions for
will be
Th. tii. 20, 12, with Godenote xiii. 11,9; Amm. Marc.
xx. 8, 13 ; Paneg. Constant, c. 21 ;
Flav. Vop. Prdb.
Zos.
notes, pp. 1044-1080.
O.
froy's
ii.
54.
tiles,
2
Notit.
Dig.
ed.
Booking, p.
121
Cf. the grants of
(c.^ xl.).
terrae limitancae made to veterans
and their sons on military tenure,

4
Lamprid. Alex. Sev. c. 58,
c.
14; 0. Th.
vii.
15, 1.
3
Notit.
Laeti,
Dig. pp. 119, 120 ; cf.

On the Gennot to be confounded with
-u.
pp. 1080 sqq.
cf.
Bum.
Paneg. Const, c. 21; Amm. Marc,

xvi. 11, 4; Zos. ii. 54; F. de
Coulanges, L'lnv. Germ. p. 389.
4
Amm. Marc. xvi. 11, 4.
294
BOOK
iv
plunder before the Sueve and Vandal irruption of 406,

so there were many cases of barbarians seeking and
obtaining a peaceful settlement within the frontier before
the Visigoths settled on the Garonne, and the Burgundiaus
on the Upper Ehine and the Khone.
Augustus, on
the~ submission of the Ubli and Sicambri,

them
lands on the left bank of the Ehine. 1
assigned
Tiberius transported 40,000 Germans into the same
2
The Germans seem to have been seldom unregion.
to
enter the circle of the pax Eomana.
For
willing
receiving
instance the Batavians, driven from their own country

by civil war, crossed the frontier and settled down as
Eome, and for ages the Batavian cavalry had

a brilliant reputation in the Eoman army. 3
In the
third century Probus is said to have Germanised the
subjects of
He
gave a settlement in Thrace to 100,000

Bastaraae, who, we are told, proved themselves loyal
provinces.
similar experiment, in the

subjects of the Empire.
case of the Vandals and Gepidae, seems to have been less
body of Franks, who had obtained from

settlement somewhere in the eastern
5
Mediterranean, proved even less worthy of his generosity.
a
havoc
and
confusion
fleet together, spread
They got
through the whole of Greece, wrought great slaughter in
an attack on Syracuse, and finally, having been repelled
from the walls of Carthage, returned to their home. The
Salian Franks, who had been driven from their old seats
and had occupied the region between the Scheldt and the
Meuse, were, after some hard, fighting, recognised as
Eoman subjects by Julian. 6 J^The most striking example
of the eagerness of the Germ ft11 * tr> bp rpp.ftivnd nn "Rnmnn
successful.
the Emperor a
territory
1
Sueton. Oct.
ib
3
ii.
was the famous petition of the
Tfa
Gt
Amm.
c.
21.
i.
59, iv. 12; Ann.
Marc. xvi. 12, 45.
Tac. Hist.
;
4
Duruy, Hist.
Flav. Vop. Prob.
5
Zos. i. 71.
Amm.
Marc.
(roths to th
Rom.
c.
15
?i.
;
xvii. 8, 3.
513
p.
Zos.
i.
71.
CHAP,
295
37j^_to be allowed tp^ place the

broad waters of_the_ Danube between them and" 'tEe
2
terrible Huns whcTwere then advancing from the East.
and
children
were
of
million
men, women,
Probably a
in
Emperor^Yalens
f
transported across the swollen river.

conquerors, but as suppliants for food and shelter, under
No reader of Gibbon needs to
the protection of Eome.
be
the
told
It
migration.
Among
tragic
tale
of
what followed that great
was a turning-point in
the Gothic chiefs
who
history.
are seen in the pages of

a last stand against the
Ammianus Marcellinus making

Huns was one named Munderich. 8
Some years
after-
found in the position of duke on the

Munderich is only one of many of
frontiers of Arabia.
his race who rose under the Empire to high military
wards
this chief is
command and
This was a necessary result of the

office.
which, from the time of Gallienus, practically
excluded the senatorial order from military service. (We
policy
German officers commanding corps^ junder

Valerian in the third century. 4
Magnentius, who rose to
be Emperor on the murder of Constans, was of barbarian
and had once belonged to a corps of Laeti in
Arbogastes, who raised Eugenius to the throne,
was a Frank, 6 who, by military ability and commanding
7
power, obtained the post of master of the forces under
origin,
Gaul. 6
Theodosius
Valentinian.
the
cultivated
intimacy
of
of these barbarian chiefs,8
and one of his principal

many
9
lieutenants, Modares, who rose to be magister militum,
was of Scythian descent. Another barbarian officer, who
bore a great part in the events of that period, was
7
1
Ib. iv. 53.
Amm. Marc. xxxi. 3.
2
Zos. iv. 20 ; Eunap.
42, p.
31 (Mull. Frag. Hist, iv.); Gibbon,
'
Amm.
_.
*"&
Marc. xxxi.
_T
Flav. Vop.
Zos. ii. 42
Ib. iv. 33.
AureL7
;
ii.
54.
iv - 56,
/ScunXefoj/
Ttyds
26
*
els
c.
11.
f^-V"
aXXats
otopecus
<f)i\la.v
1
3, 5.
&fj.a
rip irapa\a,peu>
6eo56<rios
ical
rt/^cras,
pappdpovs
biJ.at'XjiLa.v
TO
?*
etxe
06
fcpwrefc rdtrg xai To> 5 ^CTTTJS

ôûeVous KO.I T
9
Zos. iv. 25.
/f
/cat e v
<t>v
296
Kichomer. 1
His
career, of
which we possess
BOOK
iv
full details,
a good illustration of the great position which men of

his nationality could attain under the later emperors.
is
Kichomer was a Frank of high
birth, and first appears as

count of the domestics in the reign of Gratian.
He was
sent into Thrace during the troubles with the Goths to
support the Emperor Valens, and shortly afterwards was

After a period
raised to the post of magister militum.
of service in the East, during which he formed a close
was employed by Theodosius

campaign against Maximus.
He had great influence in the imperial counsels, and
lived on terms of intimacy with Symmachus and his
Another Frank chief, Bauto, 2 the father of the
circle.
Empress Eudoxia, is said to have wielded an almost regal
power under the younger Valentinian, and his elevation
to the consulship in the same year with the Emperor
8
ius was celebrated in a panegyric by S. Augustine.
e have taken a few of the more striking examples of
friendship with Libanius, he
in high command in the
the rise of barbarians to r^Tfljnfl/nrh'ng pn^fipna

(Jther
names, such as Fravitta, Gainas, Merobaudes, Stilicho,
will occur readily to any person moderately well read in
the history of the Lower Empire. How many more may

have disguised their nationality under Eoman names no
But German chiefs not only obtained the
one can tell. 4
^reatmilitary commands, they also rose to the consulship,

tkg_highest civilhonour which the Emperor had to
6
6
bestow.
Dagelaephus and Merobaudes were colleagues
of
1
Gratian in this great
Amm.
Marc. xxxi.
7, 4
office.
Theo-
Zos. iv. 33, 53;
Sacrovir (the latter only partially),

Tac. Ann. iii. 40, and Julius (or
Claudius, Hist. iv. 13), Civilis, a
Batavian, Tac. Hist. i. 59.
6 Amm.
Marc. xxvi. 9, 1, a. 366.
55
Seeck's Sym. cxxxv. ;

Godefroy's note to C. Th. vii. 1,
13 ; Rauschen, Jahrbucher, pp. 18,
;
22, 172.
a
of
cf.
iv. 54,
Ambros. Ep.
The question
of his religion
depends on the use of the singular
participle inserviens in Ambros. Ep.
i.
57, 3 ; cf. Seeck, Sym. cxli.
i.
In the reign
Rauschen, pp. 59, 65, 203.

8
Conf. vi. 6.
4 Like
Julius Floras and Julius
Zos.
24.
6
a. 377.
Cf. Rauschen, Jahrbuck, pp. 147, 271.
CHAP,
dosius,
297
Merobaudes, Eichomer, and Bauto were consuls
in successive years, and at least five more German names

appear in the reigns of the last emperors of the West.
When
an office, which the Emperor himself was proud to

hold, was given so freely to men of barbarian origin, it is
and
plain that the old exclusiveness had disappeared,
that the Germans had stolen their way into the very
Empire long before
citadel of the
were stormed.
its
distant
outworks
were men of brilliant

To
and noble bearing.
military skill they often added the charm of Koman
culture and a social tact which gave them admission even
/Many
taknts,
of these
German
fascinating
officers
address,
to the inner circle of the
Koman
aristocracy,
Symmachus
writes to Eichomer as to one of his most valued friends.
He
extols his
him,
against
that is best in
many
that
virtues,
he
Eoman
and has only one grudge
cannot
help
monopolising
The friendship
society.
of
all
Bauto
Men like
regards as one of his treasures.
these, great soldiers, and polished men of the world, must
And, indeed,
naturally have had great social influence.
Symmachus
there are signs that even in smaller things, such as toilet

and dress. Germans, at the beginning of tne fifth century,
Three edicts of Honorius,

were setting the fashion.
between 39*7 and 416, forbid the wearing of trousers,
long hair, and fur coats of the barbarian style within the
4
The tone of the law of 416 leaves
precincts of the city.
no doubt that the rage for German fashions was widespread, and that the previous edicts had been disregarded.
In yet another capacity crowds of Germans had been
Eoman territory. Synesius, bishop of

towards
the
close of the fourth century complains
Gyrene,
that every wealthy household is full of Gothic or Scythian
introduced into
Rutil.
Namat.
ii.
50.
Ep, in. 58, ad te migravit quidquid Roinae optimum fuit.
Ib. iv. 15, 16.

C. Th. xiv. 2, 3, 4 ; cf. Claud,
in Ruf. ii. 78 ; Rutil. Namat. ii. 49.
4
298
BOOK
iv
and personal
from the
(
first century enormous numbers of Germans were planted
as coloni on estates over all the provinces. ) Crowds of
Marcomanni were so distributed throughout Italy by
Marcus Aurelius. 1 The great emperors of the third
2
century took untold numbers of prisoners, and flooded
8
the country districts with new tillers of the soil.
In the
words of Probus, the barbarians were ploughing and sowing
slaves, serving as
stewards,, butlers, bakers,
attendants of every grade.
for
Eoman
masters.
Jheodosius, ana
fifty years,
The
We
know
also that
victories of Julian,
Gratian,
gained within a period of

5
further the ranks of rural labour.
Stilicho, all
recruited
still
/It appears then that there was nothing new in the

hostile raids or peaceful settlement, nf thft barbarian a on
* *
Eoman
five
territory in the fifth
^For more_than
resisting the
century.
hundred years the Empire had
bftp.n
pressure of^barbarism, occasionally suffering heavily for a

time, but always in the end triumphant over mere force.
Yetjsach successive victory had admitted in increasing

numbers the barbarian filmnfmt infrn the frontier posts,
the armies, or_the fields and households of Eome,_
highest military
by German
commands had
soldiers
of
for generations
fortune,
who
The_
been held
served the State
kinsmen.
Eoman, who had
in his youth seen the Alemanni driven across the Ehine,
and thousands of Germans serving under the eagles in
loyally evp.n against t.hm'r
Italy, who had found in Eichomer, Bauto, or Stilicho his

most charming and distinguished friends, and had seen
Frank masters of the cavalry sharing the honours of the
consulship with the Emperor, might, even after the scenes

410, have smiled at the suggestion that the Empire
of
was in any serious danger from the Germans.

1
Jul. Capitol, c. 22, accepitque

in deditionem Marcomamios, plurirais in Italiam traductis.
2
Treb. Poll. vit. Claud, c. 8,
6.
3
Ib. c. 9,
4, impletae barbaris
servis
Romanae
provinciaa
etc.
4
5
p
Prob
*
lnw
Flav<
Oros.
vii. 37, 16.
P'
'
, K
n
c ' 15
'
CHAP,
299
(jfor were the invasions of the first decade of the fifth.

Qentury of such ajoniform
suggest, even to those who witnessed and_suffered from
them, a single~overwhelming moveme^t^njj^tedJD^ one
spirit jtnd
advancing
to..
one end.
The numbers
of the
invaders do not appear to have approached the mighty

hostswho were defeated by Claudius and Probus in the
1
third
The
century.

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ROMAN SOCIETY

LAST CENTURY OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

ROMAN SOCIETY FROM NERO TO

LAST CENTUEY OF THE WESTEEN

PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN QUEEN'S COLLEGE, BELFAST

SECOND EDITION, REVISED

MABTIN'S STEEET, LONDON

First Edition (8w) 1898.

Second Edition (Ex. Crown Zvo)

1905, 1906, 1910

PEEFACE TO SECOND EDITION

has not been fundamentally altered.

It is possible that materials, so

fragmentary and gleaned

might here and there have been

order more satisfactory to the critical

the other hand,

not improbable that

something of the freshness of the original impression

At the same time the

opportunity of a reprint has been used to

many minor changes.

amended; statements which seemed too

strong or incautious have occasionally been toned

occasional looseness of expres-

have been corrected.

form of proper names,

few additional references have

been inserted in the notes, especially to Friedlander's

society of the first

instructively used for purposes of comparison with the

society of the later Empire.

Lastly, a table of the

important dates of the period has been added, with the

the general history

writer has wished to confine

to say that nothing like a general history of the period

work is mainly what it professes to be, the inner life

because men's private fortunes and feelings cannot be

period covered by this study of

both by momentous events, and, for the student of

passage of the Gothic hordes across the Danube, the

It closes, not only with the deposition of the last

shadowy Emperor of the West, but with the

in the great prefecture of the

Perhaps even more obvious are the lines drawn

of the last generation of great pagan nobles, belong to

of Ausonius coincides with the

derive an invaluable picture of a provincial

society in the reigns of Gratian

thrown on the same generation by

At the other end

The works of Apollinaris Sidonius

are almost equally fortunate in our inforof

are a priceless revelation of the state of society, both in

in Gaul, from the accession of Avitus

triumph of the Visigothic power.

At the beginning of the period, Eoman

of the conflict there

mass of scepticism, lukewarmness, or wavering conformity,

lettered class seems to have been far

was a powerful rival of the

discipline of the schools

in the lingering sentiment of paganism,

and looked with