Valentinian returned to his winter-quarters at Treves; where he indulged the public joy by the exhibition of splendid and triumphal games But the wise monarch, instead of aspiring to the conquest of Germany, confined his attention to the important and laborious defence of the Gallic frontier, against an enemy, whose strength was renewed by a stream of daring volunteers, which incessantly flowed from the most distant tribes of the North t. The banks of the Rhine, from its source to the straits of the ocean, were closely planted with strong castles and convenient towers; new works, and new arms, were invented by the ingenuity of a prince who was skilled in the mechanical arts; and his numerous levies of Roman and Barbarian youth were severely trained in all the exercises of war. The progress of the work, which was sometimes opposed by modest representations, and sometimes by hostile attempts, secured the tranquillity of Gaul during the nine subsequent years of the administration of Valentinian ‡. That' *The expedition of Valentinian is related by Ammianus (xxvii. 10.); and celebrated by Ausonius (Mosell. 421, &c.), who foolishly supposes, that the Romans were ignorant of the sources of the Danube. Immanis enim natio, jam inde ab incunabulis, primis varietate casuum imminuta; ita sæpius adolescit, ut fuisse longis sæculis æstimetur intacta. Ammian. xxviii. 5. The Count de Buat (Hist. des Peuples de l'Europe, tom. vi. p. 370.) asscribes the fecundity of the Alemanni to their easy adoption of strangers. Ammian. xxviii. 2. Zosimus, 1. iv. p. 214. The younger Victor mentions the mechanical genius of Valentinian, nova arma meditari; fingere terrâ seu limo simulacra. XXV. СНАР.. The Burgundians, A. D. 371., That prudent emperor, who diligently practised the wise maxims of Diocletian, was studious to foment and excite the intestine divisions of the tribes of Germany. About the middle of the fourth century, the countries, perhaps of Lusace and Thuringia, on either side of the Elbe, were occupied by the vague dominion of the BURGUNDIANS; a warlike and numerous people of the Vandal race*, whose obscure name insensibly swelled into a powerful kingdom, and has finally settled on a flourishing province. The most remarkable circumstance in the ancient manners of the Burgundians, appears to have been the difference of their civil and ecclesiastical constitution. The appellation of Hendinos was given to the king or general, and the title of Sinistus to the high priest, of the nation. The person of the priest was sacred, and his dignity perpetual; but the temporal government was held by a very precarious tenure. If the events of war accused the courage or conduct of the king, he was immediately deposed; and the injustice of his subjects made him responsible for the fertility of the earth, and the regularity of the seasons, which seemed to fall more properly within the sacerdotal department. † The disputed possession of some Bellicosos et pubis immensæ viribus affluentes; et ideo metuendos finitimis universis. Ammian. xxviii. 5. I am always apt to suspect historians and travellers of improving extraordinary facts into general laws. Ammianus ascribes a similar custom to Egypt: and the Chinese have imputed it to the Tatsin, or Roman empire (de Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. part i. p. 79.). some salt-pits engaged the Alemanni and the of Salinarum finiumque causâ Alemannis sæpe jurgabant. Ammian, xxviii. 5. Possibly they disputed the possession of the Sala, a river which produced salt, and which had been the object of ancient contention. Tacit. Annal. xiii. 57., and Lipsius ad loc. Jam inde temporibus priscis sobolem se esse Romanam Burgundii sciunt and the vague tradition gradually assumed a more regular form. Oros. l. vii. c. 32. It is annihilated by the decisive authority of Pliny, who composed the history of Drusus, and served in Germany (Plin. Secund. Epist. iii. 5.) within sixty years after the death of that hero. Germanorum genera quinque; Vindili, quorum pars Burgundiones, &c. Hist. Natur. iv, 28. CHAP. XXV. XXV. CHAP. of either of the German nations. Among the princes of the Alemanni, Macrianus, who, with a Roman name, had assumed the arts of a soldier and a statesman, deserved his hatred and esteem. The emperor himself, with a light and unencumbered band, condescended to pass the Rhine, marched fifty miles into the country, and would infallibly have seized the object of his pursuit, if his judicious measures had not been defeated by the impatience of the troops. Macrianus was afterwards admitted to the honour of a personal conference with the emperor; and the favours which he received, fixed him, till the hour of his death, a steady and sincere friend of the republic *. The Sax ons. The land was covered by the fortifications of Valentinian; but the sea-coast of Gaul and Britain was exposed to the depredations of the Saxons. That celebrated name, in which we have a dear and domestic interest, escaped the notice of Tacitus; and in the maps of Ptolemy, it faintly marks the narrow neck of the Cimbric peninsula, and three small islands towards the mouth of the Elbet. This contracted territory, the present Duchy The wars and negociations, relative to the Burgundians and Alemanni, are distinctly related by Ammianus Marcellinus (xxviii. 5. xxix. 4. xxx. 3.). Orosius (1. vii. c. 32.), and the Chronicles of Jerom and Cassiodorius, fix some dates, and add some circumstances. + Επι τον αυχένα της Κιμβρικής χερσονησος, Σάξονες. At the northern extremity of the peninsula (the Cimbric promontory of Pliny, iv. 27.), Ptolemy fixes the remnant of the Cimbri. He fills the interval between the Saxons and the Cimbri with six obscure tribes, who were united, as early as the sixth cen tury, under the national appellation of Danes. See Cluver. German. Antiq. 1. iii. c. 21, 22, 23. Duchy of Sleswig, or perhaps of Holstein, was incapable of pouring forth the inexhaustible swarms of Saxons who reigned over the ocean, who filled the British island with their language, their laws, and their colonies; and who so long defended the liberty of the North against the arms of Charlemagne *. The solution of this difficulty is easily derived from the similar manners, and loose constitution, of the tribes of Ger many; which were blended with each other by the slightest accidents of war or friendship. The situation of the native Saxons disposed them to embrace the hazardous professions of fishermen and pirates; and the success of their first adventures would naturally excite the emulation of their bravest countrymen, who were impatient of the gloomy solitude of their woods and mountains. Every tide might float down the Elbe whole fleets of canoes, filled with hardy and intrepid associates, who aspired to behold the unbounded prospect of the ocean, and to taste the wealth and luxury of unknown worlds. It should seem probable, however, that the most numerous auxiliaries of the Saxons were furnished by the nations who dwelt along the shores of the Baltic. They possessed arms and ships, the art of navigation, and the habits of naval war; but the difficulty of issuing through the northern columns of Hercules (which during several months of the year, are * M. d'Anville (Etablissement des Etats de l'Europe, &c. p. 19-26.) has marked the extensive limits of the Saxony of Charlemagne. CHAP. XXV. |