XXV.

CHAP. ing dangers of a civil war were seasonably prevented by the wise and moderate conduct of the emperor Gratian. He cheerfully accepted the choice of the army; declared, that he should always consider the son of Justina as a brother, not as a rival; and advised the empress, with her son Valentinian, to fix their residence at Milan, in the fair and peaceful province of Italy; while he assumed the more arduous command of the countries beyond the Alps. Gratian dissembled his resentment till he could safely punish, or disgrace, the authors of the conspiracy; and though he uniformly behaved with tenderness and regard to his infant colleague, he gradually confounded, in the administration of the Western empire, the office of a guardian with the authority of a sovereign. The government of the Roman world was exercised in the united names of Valens and his two nephews; but the feeble emperor of the East, who succeeded to the rank of his elder brother, never obtained any weight or influence in the councils of the West.*

* Ammianus, xxx, 10; Zosimus, 1. iv, p. 222, 223. Tillemont has proved, (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v, p. 707-709), that Gratian reigned in Italy, Africa, and Illyricum. I have endeavoured to express his authority over his brother's dominions, as he used it, in an ambiguous style.

CHAP. XXVI.

Manners of the pastoral nations—Progress of the Huns, from China to Europe--Flight of the Goths-They pass the Danube-Gothic warDefeat and death of Valens-Gratian invests Theodosius with the Eastern empire-His character and success-Peace and settlement of the Goths

XXVI

quakes

IN the second year of the reign of Valentinian CHAP. and Valens, on the morning of the twenty-first day of July, the greatest part of the Roman Earthworld was shaken by a violent and destructive A. D. 365, earthquake. The impression was communicat- July 21 ed to the waters; the shores of the Mediterranean were left dry, by the sudden retreat of the sea; great quantities of fish were caught with the hand; large vessels were stranded on the mud, and a, curious spectator amused his eye, or rather his fancy, by contemplating the various appearance of valleys and mountains, which had never, since the formation of the globe, been exposed to the sun. But the tide soon returned, with the weight of an immense and irresistible deluge, which was severely felt on the coasts of Sicily, of Dalmatia, of Greece, and of Egypt: large boats were transported, and lodged on the roofs of houses, or

Such is the bad taste of Ammianus, (xxvi, 10), that it is not easy to distinguish his facts from his metaphors. Yet he positively affirms, that he saw the rotten carcase of a ship, ad secundum lapidem, at Methone, or Modun, in Peloponnesus.

XXVI.

CHAP. at the distance of two miles from the shore; the people, with their habitations, were swept away by the waters; and the city of Alexandria annually commemorated the fatal day, on which fifty thousand persons had lost their lives in the inundation. This calamity, the report of which was magnified from one province to another, astonished and terrified the subjects of Rome; and their affrighted imagination enlarged the real extent of a momentary evil. They recollected the preceding earthquakes, which had subverted the cities of Palestine and Bithynia; they considered these alarming strokes as the prelude only of still more dreadful calamities, and their fearful vanity was disposed to confound the symptoms of a declining empire, and a sinking world. It was the fashion of the times, to attribute every remarkable event to the particular will of the Deity; the alterations of nature were connected, by an invisible chain, with the moral and metaphysical opinions of the human mind; and the most sagaci· ous divines could distinguish, according to the colour of their respective prejudices, that the establishment of heresy tended to produce an earthquake; or that a deluge was the inevit

The earthquakes and inundations are variously described by Libanius, Orat. de ulcisendâ Juliani nece, c. x, in Fabricius, Bibl. Græc. tom. vii, p. 158, with a learned note of Olearius); Zosimus, (1. iv, p. 221); Sozomen, (1. vi, c 2); Cedrenus, (p. 310, 314), and Jerom, (in Chron. p. 186, and tom. i. p. 250, in Vit. Hilarion). Epidaurus must have been overwhelmed, had not the prudent citizens placed St. Hilarion, an Egyptian monk, on the beach. He made the sign of the cross . the mountain wave stopped, bowed, and returned.

XXVI.

able consequence of the progress of sin and CHAP. error. Without presuming to discuss the truth or propriety of these lofty speculations, the historian may content himself with an observation, which seems to be justified by experience, that man has much more to fear from the passions of his fellow-creatures, than from the convulsions of the elements. The mischievous effects of an earthquake, or deluge, a hurricane, or the eruption of a volcano, bear a very inconsiderable proportion to the ordinary calamities of war; as they are now moderated by the prúdence or humanity of the princes of Europe, who amuse their own leisure, and exercise the courage of their subjects, in the practice of the military art. But the laws and manners of modern nations protect the safety and freedom of the vanquished soldier; and the peaceful citizen has seldom reason to complain, that his life, or even his fortune, is exposed to the rage of war. In the disastrous period of the fall of the Roman empire, which may justly be dated from the reign of Valens, the happiness and security of each individual were personally attacked; and the arts and labours of ages were rudely defaced by the barbarians of Scythia and Germany. The invasion of the Huns precipi- The Huns tated on the provinces of the West the Gothic A. D. 376 nation, which advanced, in less than forty years, from the Danube to the Atlantic, and opened

Dicæarchus, the Peripatetic, composed a formal treatise, to prove this obvious truth; which is not the most honourable to the human species, (Cicero, de Officiis, ii, 5).

and Goths

XXVI.

CHAP. a way by the success of their arms to the in roads of so many hostile tribes, more savage than themselves. The original principle of motion was concealed in the remote countries of the North; and the curious observation of the pastoral life of the Scythians, or Tartars, will illustrate the latent cause of these destructive emigrations.

The pasto

ral man

d

The different characters that mark the civiners of the lized nations of the globe, may be ascribed to Scythians, or Tartars. the use, and the abuse, of reason; which so

variously shapes, and so artificially composes, the manners and opinions of an European, or a Chinese. But the operation of instiuct is more sure and simple than that of reason: it is much easier to ascertain the appetites of a quadruped, than the speculations of a philosopher; and the savage tribes of mankind, as they approach nearer to the condition of animals, preserve a stronger resemblance to themselves and to each other. The uniform stability of their manners is the natural consequence of the imperfection of their faculties. Reduced to a similar situa

The original Scythians of Herodotus (1. iv, c. 47–57, 99—101) were confined by the Danube and the Palus Mæotis, within a square of 4000 stadia, (400 Roman miles). See d'Anville, Mem. de l'Aca demie, tom. xxxv. p. 573—591). Diodorus Siculus (tom. i, l. ii, p. 155, edit. Wesseling) has marked the gradual progress of the name and nation.

• The Tatars, or Tartars, were a primitive tribe, the rivals, and at length the subjects, of the Moguls. In the victorious armies of Zinghis Khan, and his successors, the Tartars formed the vanguard; and the name, which first reached the ears of foreigners, was applied to the whole nation, (Feret, in the Hist. de l'Academie, tom. xviii, p. 60). In speaking of all, or any, of the northern shepherds of Europe or Asia, I indifferently use the appellations of Scythians, or Tartars.