XXXI.

climate; the face of the country difplayed the CHAP.
arts and the rewards of induftry; and the Goths,
after their martial toils, luxuriously exhausted the
rich vineyards of Aquitain 166. The Gothic li-
mits were enlarged by the additional gift of
fome neighbouring diocefes; and the fucceffors
of Alaric fixed their royal refidence at Thoulouse,
which included five populous quarters, or cities,
within the fpacious circuit of its walls. About the
fame time, in the laft years of the reign of Ho-
norius, the GOTHS, the BURGUNDIANS, and The Bur-
the FRANKS, obtained a permanent feat and do- gundians.
minion in the provinces of Gaul. The liberal
grant of the ufurper Jovinus to his Burgundian
allies, was confirmed by the lawful emperor;
the lands of the First, or Upper, Germany, were
ceded to thofe formidable Barbarians; and they
gradually occupied, either by conqueft or treaty,
the two provinces which still retain, with the
titles of Duchy and of County, the national appel-
lation of Burgundy 167. The Franks, the valiant
Roman republic, were

and faithful allies of the
foon tempted to imitate the invaders, whom they
had fo bravely refifted. Treves, the capital of

166 Aufonius (de Claris Urbibus, p. 257-262.) celebrates Bourdeaux with the partial affection of a native. See in Salvian (de Gubern. Dei, p. 228. Paris, 1608.) a florid description of the provinces of Aquitain and Novempopulania.

167 Orofius (1. vii. c. 32. p. 550.) commends the mildnefs and modefty of thefe Burgundians, who treated their fubjects of Gaul as their Chriftian brethren. Mafcou has illuftrated the origin of their kingdom in the four firft annotations at the end of his laborious Hiftory of the Ancient Germans, vol. ii. p. 555-572. of the English tranflation.

XXXI.

CHAP. Gaul, was pillaged by their lawlefs bands; and the humble colony, which they fo long maintained in the diftrict of Toxandria, in Brabant, infenfibly multiplied along the banks of the Meufe and Scheld, till their independent power filled the whole extent of the Second, or Lower, Germany. These facts may be fufficiently justified by hiftoric evidence: but the foundation of the French monarchy by Pharamond, the conquests, the laws, and even the existence, of that hero, have been justly arraigned by the impartial feverity of modern criticifm 168,

State of

the Barba rians in Gaul,

A.D. 420,

&c.

The ruin of the opulent provinces of Gaul may be dated from the establishment of thefe Barbarians, whose alliance was dangerous and oppreffive, and who were capriciously impelled, by intereft or paffion, to violate the public peace. A heavy and partial ransom was imposed on the furviving provincials, who had efcaped the calamities of war; the faireft and moft fertile lands were affigned to the rapacious ftrangers, for the ufe of their families, their flaves, and their cattle; and the trembling natives relinquished with a figh the inheritance of their fathers. Yet these domeftic misfortunes, which are feldom the lot of a vanquished people, had been felt and inflicted

168 See Mascou, 1. viii. c. 43, 44, 45. Except in a short and sufpicious line of the Chronicle of Prosper (in tom. i. p. 638.), the name of Pharamond is never mentioned before the feventh century. The author of the Gefta Francorum (in tom. ii. p. 543.) suggests, probably enough, that the choice of Pharamond, or at leaft of a king, was recommended to the Franks by his father Marcomir, who was an exile in Tuscany.

by

.

XXXI.

by the Romans themselves, not only in the in- CHAP. folence of foreign conqueft, but in the madness The Triumvirs profcribed

of civil discord.

eighteen of the most flourishing colonies of Italy;
and diftributed their lands and houses to the ve-
terans who revenged the death of Cæfar, and op-
preffed the liberty of their country. Two poets,
of unequal fame, have deplored, in fimilar cir-
cumftances, the lofs of their patrimony; but the
legionaries of Auguftus appear to have furpaffed,
in violence and injuftice, the Barbarians, who
invaded Gaul, under the reign of Honorius. It
was not without the utmoft difficulty that Virgil
escaped from the fword of the Centurion, who
had ufurped his farm in the neighbourhood of
Mantua 169
; but Paulinus of Bourdeaux received
a fum of money from his Gothic purchafer,
which he accepted with pleafure and furprife;
and, though it was much inferior to the real
value of his estate, this act of rapine was disguised
by fome colours of moderation and equity 170.
The odious name of conquerors, was foftened
into the mild and friendly appellation of the guests

169 O Lycida, vivi pervenimus: advena noftri

(Quod nunquam veriti sumus) ut poffeffor agelli

Diceret: Hæc mea funt; veteres migrate coloni.

Nunc victi triftes, &c.

See the whole of the 9th eclogue, with the useful Commentary of Servius. Fifteen miles of the Mantuan territory were affigned to the veterans, with a reservation, in favour of the inhabitants, of three miles round the city. Even in this favour they were cheated by Alfenus Varus, a famous lawyer, and one of the commiffioners, who measured eight hundred paces of water and morafs.

170 See the remarkable paffage of the Eucharifticon of Paulinus, 575. apud Mafcou, 1. viii. c. 42.

of

CHAP. of the Romans; and the Barbarians of Gaul,

XXXI.

Revolt of
Britain

and Ar-
morica,

more efpecially the Goths, repeatedly declared, that they were bound to the people by the ties of hofpitality, and to the emperor by the duty of allegiance and military fervice. The title of Honorius and his fucceffors, their laws, and their civil magiftrates, were ftill refpected in the provinces of Gaul, of which they had refigned the poffeffion to the Barbarian allies; and the kings, who exercised a fupreme and independent authority over their native fubjects, ambitiously folicited the more honourable rank of mafter-generals of the Imperial armies "7. Such was the involuntary reverence which the Roman name ftill impreffed on the minds of those warriors, who had borne away in triumph the fpoils of the Capitol.

171

Whilft Italy was ravaged by the Goths, and a fucceffion of feeble tyrants oppreffed the provinces beyond the Alps, the British island fepaA.D.499. rated itfelf from the body of the Roman empire. The regular forces which guarded that remote province, had been gradually withdrawn; and Britain was abandoned, without defence, to the Saxon pirates, and the favages of Ireland and Caledonia. The Britons, reduced to this extremity, no longer relied on the tardy and doubtful aid of a declining monarchy. They affembled in arms, repelled the invaders, and rejoiced in the

171 This important truth is established by the accuracy of Tillemont (Hift, des Emp. tom. v. p. 641.), and by the ingenuity of the Abbé Dubos (Hift. de l'Etabliffement de la Monarchie Françoife dans les Gaules, tom. i. p. 259.).

6

important

important discovery of their own ftrength "72. Afflicted by fimilar calamities, and actuated by the fame fpirit, the Armorican provinces (a name which comprehended the maritime countries of Gaul between the Seine and the Loire 73) refolved to imitate the example of the neighbouring island. They expelled the Roman magiftrates, who acted under the authority of the ufurper Conftantine; and a free government was established among a people who had fo long been fubject to the arbitrary will of a mafter. The independence of Britain and Armorica was foon confirmed by Honorius himself, the lawful emperor of the Weft; and the letters, by which he committed to the new ftates the care of their own fafety, might be interpreted as an abfolute and perpetual abdication of the exercise and rights of fovereignty. This interpretation was, in fome measure, juftified by the event. After the ufurpers of Gaul had fucceffively fallen, the maritime provinces were reftored to the empire. Yet their obedience was imperfect and precarious: the vain, inconftant, rebellious difpofition of the people, was incompatible either with free

172 Zofimus (1. vi. p. 476. 383.). relates in a few words the revolt of Britain and Armorica. Our antiquarians, even the great Cambden himfelf, have been betrayed into many grofs errors, by their imperfect knowledge of the history of the continent.

173 The limits of Armorica are defined by two national geographers, Meffieurs de Valois and d'Anville, in their Notitias of Ancient Gaul. The word had been used in a more extenfive, and was afterwards contracted to a much narrower, fignification.

CHAP.

XXXI.

dom