XXXI. 158 CHAP. ing his victorious arms against the Barbarians of Spain: the troops of Conftantius intercepted his communication with the fea-ports of Gaul, and gently preffed his march towards the Pyrenees. he paffed the mountains, and furprised, in the name of the emperor, the city of Barcelona. The fondness of Adolphus for his Roman bride, was not abated by time or poffeffion; and the birth of a fon, furnamed, from his illuftrious grandfire, Theodofius, appeared to fix him for ever in the interest of the republic. The lofs of that infant, whose remains were depofited in a filver coffin in one of the churches near Barcelona, afflicted his parents; but the grief of the Gothic king was fufpended by the labours of the field; and the courfe of his victories was foon interrupted by domestic treafon. He had imprudently received into his fervice one of the followers of Sarus; a Barbarian of a daring spirit, but of a diminutive ftature; whofe fecret defire of revenging the death of his beloved patron, was continually irritated by the farcafins of his infolent master. Adolphus was affaffinated in the palace of Barcelona; the laws of the fucceffion were violated by a tumultuous faction 159; and a stranger His death, 158 This mixture of force and perfuafion may be fairly inferred from comparing Orofius and Jornandes, the Roman and the Gothic hiftorian. 159 According to the fyftem of Jornandes (c. 33. p. 659.), the true hereditary right to the Gothic fceptre was vested in the Amali; but thofe princes, who were the vaffals of the Huns, commanded the tribes of the Oftrogoths in fome diftant parts of Germany or Scythia. to XXXI. to the royal race, Singeric, the brother of Sarus CHAP. himself, was feated on the Gothic throne. The first act of his reign was the inhuman murder of the fix children of Adolphus, the iffue of a former marriage, whom he tore, without pity, from the feeble arms of a venerable bishop 100. The unfortunate Placidia, inftead of the respectful compaffion, which the might have excited in the moft favage breafts, was treated with cruel and wanton infult. The daughter of the emperor Theodofius, confounded among a crowd of vulgar captives, was compelled to march on foot above twelve miles, before the horse of a Barbarian, the affaffin of an hufband whom Placidia loved and lamented 1. 161 But Placidia foon obtained the pleasure of revenge; and the view of her ignominious fufferings might roufe an indignant people against the tyrant, who was affaffinated on the feventh day of his ufurpation. After the death of Singeric, the free choice of the nation beftowed the Gothic fceptre on Wallia; whofe warlike and ambitious temper appeared, in the beginning of his reign, extremely hoftile to the republic. He marched in arms, from Barcelona to the fhores of the Atlantic Ocean, which the ancients revered and dreaded as the boundary of the world. But when he reached the fouthern promontory of 160 The murder is related by Olympiodorus; but the number of the children is taken from an epitaph of fufpected authority. 101 The death of Adolphus was celebrated at Conftantinople with illuminations and Circenfian games. (See Chron. Alexandrin.) It may feem doubtful, whether the Greeks were actuated, on this occalion, by their hatred of the Barbarians, or of the Latins. The Goths conquer and reftore Spain, A. D. 415-418. XXXI. CHAP. Spain 162, and, from the rock now covered by the fortress of Gibraltar, contemplated the neighbouring and fertile coaft of Africa, Wallia refumed the defigns of conqueft, which had been interrupted by the death of Alaric. The winds and waves again disappointed the enterprise of the Goths; and the minds of a fuperftitious people were deeply affected by the repeated difafters of ftorms and fhipwrecks. In this difpofition, the fucceffor of Adolphus no longer refused to listen to a Roman ambaffador, whofe proposals were enforced by the real, or fuppofed, approach of a numerous army, under the conduct of the brave Conftantius. A folemn treaty was ftipulated and obferved: Placidia was honourably restored to her brother; fix hundred thoufand measures of wheat were delivered to the hungry Goths 163. and Wallia engaged to draw his fword in the fervice of the empire. A bloody war was inftantly excited among the Barbarians of Spain; and the contending princes are faid to have addreffed their letters, their ambaffadors, and their hoftages, to the throne of the Western emperor, exhorting him to remain a tranquil fpectator of their conteft; the events of which must be favourable to the Romans, by the mutual flaughter of 162 Quòd Tartefiacis avus hujus Vallia terris Vandalicas turmas, et jun&ti Martis Alanos Sidon. Apollinar. in Panegyr. Anthem. 363. 163 This fupply was very acceptable: the Goths were infulted by the Vandals of Spain with the epithet of Truli, becaufe, in their extreme diftrefs, they had given a piece of gold for a trula, or about half a pound of flour. Olympiod. apud Phot. p. 189. their common enemies 16+ The Spanish war was obftinately fupported, during three campaigns, with defperate valour, and various fuccefs; and the martial atchievements of Wallia diffused through the empire the fuperior renown of the Gothic hero. He exterminated the Silingi, who had irretrievably ruined the elegant plenty of the province of Botica. He flew, in battle, the king of the Alani; and the remains of thofe Scythian wanderers, who escaped from the field, instead of chufing a new leader, humbly fought a refuge under the standard of the Vandals, with whom they were ever afterwards confounded. The Vandals themselves, and the Suevi, yielded to the efforts of the invincible Goths. The promifcuous multitude of Barbarians, whofe retreat had been intercepted, were driven into the mountains of Gallicia; where they ftill continued, in a narrow compass, and on a barren foil, to exercife their domestic and implacable hoftilities. In the pride of victory, Wallia was faithful to his engagements: he reftored his Spanish conquefts to the obedience of Honorius; and the tyranny of the Imperial officers foon reduced an oppreffed people to regret the time of their Barbarian fervitude. While the event of the war was ftill doubtful, the firft advantages obtained by the 164 Orofius inferts a copy of thefe pretended letters. Tu cum omnibus pacem habe, omniumque obfides accipe; nos nobis confli gimus, nobis perimus, tibi vincimus; immortalis vero quæftus erat Reipublicæ tuæ, fi utrique pereamus. The idea is juft; but I cannot perfuade my felf that it was entertained, or expreffed, by the Barbarians. С НАР. XXXI. XXXI. Their efta blishment tain, A.D.419. arms of Wallia, had encouraged the court of Ravenna to decree the honours of a triumph to their feeble fovereign. He entered Rome like the ancient conquerors of nations; and if the monuments of fervile corruption had not long fince met with the fate which they deserved, we fhould probably find that a crowd of poets, and orators, of magiftrates, and bishops, applauded the fortune, the wisdom, and the invincible courage, of the emperor Honorius 165 Such a triumph might have been justly claimed in Aqui- by the ally of Rome, if Wallia, before he repassed the Pyrenees, had extirpated the feeds of the Spanish war. His victorious Goths, forty-three years after they had paffed the Danube, were established, according to the faith of treaties, in the poffeffion of the fecond Aquitain; a maritime province between the Garonne and the Loire, under the civil and ecclefiaftical jurifdiction of Bourdeaux. That metropolis, advantageoufly fituated for the trade of the ocean, was built in a regular and elegant form; and its numerous inhabitants were diftinguished among the Gauls by their wealth, their learning, and the politenefs of their manners. The adjacent province, which has been fondly compared to the garden of Eden, is bleffed with a fruitful foil, and a temperate 165 Romam triumphans ingreditur, is the formal expreffion of Profper's Chronicle. The facts which relate to the death of Adolphus, and the exploits of Wallia, are related from Olympiodorus (apud Phot. p. 188.), Orofius (1. vii. c. 43. p. 584-587.), Jornandes (de Rebus Geticis, c. 31, 32.), and the Chronicles of Idatius and Ifidore. climate; |