treatises on theological subjects, besides a complete exposition of the psalter and the gospel, and a copious magazine of epistles and homilies, 28 According to the judgment of the most impartial critics, the superficial learning of Augustin was confined to the Latin language;29 and his style, though sometimes animated by the eloquence of passion, is usually clouded by false and affected rhetoric. But he possessed a strong, capacious, argumentative mind; he boldly sounded the dark abyss of grace, predestination, free-will, and original sin; and the rigid system of Christianity which he framed or restored 30 has been entertained with public applause and secret reluctance by the Latin church, 31 retreat of By the skill of Boniface, and perhaps by the ignorance of the Vandals, the siege of Hippo was protracted above fourteen Defeat and months: the sea was continually open; and when the adja- Boniface, cent country had been exhausted by irregular rapine, the A.D. 431. besiegers themselves were compelled by famine to relinquish their enterprise. The importance and danger of Africa were deeply felt by the regent of the West. Placidia implored the assistance of her Eastern ally; and the Italian fleet and army were reinforced by Aspar, who sailed from Constantinople with a powerful armament. As soon as the force of the two empires was united under the command of Boniface, he boldly marched against the Vandals; and the loss of a second battle irretrievably decided the fate of Africa. He embarked with the precipitation of despair; and the people of Hippo were permitted, with their families and effects, to occupy the vacant place of the soldiers, the greatest part of whom were either slain or 28 Such at least is the account of Victor Vitensis (de Persecut. Vandal. 1. i. c. 3); though Gennadius seems to doubt whether any person had read, or even collected, all the works of St. Augustin (see Hieronym. Opera, tom. i. p. 319, in Catalog. Scriptor. Eccles.). They have been repeatedly printed; and Dupin (Bibliothèque Ecclés. tom. iii. p. 158-257) has given a large and satisfactory abstract of them as they stand in the last edition of the Benedictines. My personal acquaintance with the bishop of Hippo does not extend beyond the Confessions and the City of God. In his early youth (Confess. i. 14) St. Augustin disliked and neglected the study of Greek; and he frankly owns that he read the Platonists in a Latin version (Confess. vii. 9). Some modern critics have thought that his ignorance of Greek disqualified him from expounding the Scriptures; and Cicero or Quintilian would have required the knowledge of that language in a professor of rhetoric. 30 These questions were seldom agitated from the time of St. Paul to that of St. Augustin. I am informed that the Greek fathers maintain the natural sentiments of the Semi-Pelagians; and that the orthodoxy of St. Augustin was derived from the Manichæan school. 31 The church of Rome has canonised Augustin and reprobated Calvin. Yet, as the real difference between them is invisible even to a theological microscope, the Molinists are oppressed by the authority of the saint, and the Jansenists are disgraced by their resemblance to the heretic. In the mean while the Protestant Arminians stand aloof and deride the mutual perplexity of the disputants (see a curious Review of the Controversy by Le Clerc, Bibliothèque Universelle, tom. xiv. p. 144–398). Perhaps a reasoner still more independent may smile in his turn when he peruses an Arminian Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. made prisoners by the Vandals. The count, whose fatal credulity had wounded the vitals of the republic, might enter the palace of Ravenna with some anxiety, which was soon removed by the smiles of Placidia. Boniface accepted with gratitude the rank of patrician and the dignity of master-general of the Roman armies; but he must have blushed at the sight of those medals in which he was represented with the name and attributes of victory.32 The discovery of his fraud, the displeasure of the empress, and the distinguished favour of his rival, exasperated the haughty and perfidious soul of Aëtius. He hastily returned from Gaul to Italy, with a retinue, or rather with an army, of barbarian followers; and such was the weakness of the government, that the two generals decided their private quarrel in a His death, bloody battle. Boniface was successful; but he received in the conflict a mortal wound from the spear of his adversary, of which he expired within a few days, in such Christian and charitable sentiments that he exhorted his wife, a rich heiress of Spain, to accept Aëtius for her second husband. But Aëtius could not derive any immediate advantage from the generosity of his dying enemy: he was proclaimed a rebel by the justice of Placidia; and though he attempted to defend some strong fortresses, erected on his A.D. 432. 32 Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 67. On one side, the head of Valentinian; on the reverse, Boniface with a scourge in one hand and a palm in the other, standing in a triumphal car, which is drawn by four horses, or, in another medal, by four stags; an unlucky emblem! I should doubt whether another example can be found of the head of a subject on the reverse of an Imperial medal." See Science des Médailles, by the Père Jobert, tom. i. p. 132-150, edit. of 1739, by the Baron de la Bastie. a Eckhel adduces strong reasons for believing that this medal was not struck by imperial authority in honour of the celebrated Boniface, but that it belongs to the class of Pseudomoneta, or medals struck for private purposes by corporations or other bodies. He believes that this medal was commemorative of the triumph of a charioteer named Boniface, who happened to be a contemporary of the celebrated general of this name. He is represented with a whip in his hand, and with the other attributes of a charioteer, but not with the emblems which are found on coins commemorative of an imperial triumph. Moreover the epigraph on the coin is simply BONIFATIUS, without any of the titles which were always given in that age to a man of distinguished rank. The four stags, of which Gibbon speaks, are horses, and what appear to be horns are only palm-branches rising from their heads. See Eckhel, vol. viii. p. 293. With respect to the remark of Gibbon that probably another example cannot be found of the head of a subject on the reverse of an imperial medal, Lord Mahon (Life of Belisarius, p. 131) has called attention to the fact that Cedrenus (p. 370, ed. Paris; vol. i. p. 649, ed. Bonn) mentions a medal of Justinian, in which this emperor is represented on one side and Belisarius on the other, with the inscription Βελισάριος ἡ δόξα τῶν Ῥωμαίων. But no medals of this kind have been found, for the one which Ducange described from the Museum of Gyllius is suspected not to be genuine; and hence it has been conjectured that Cedrenus may have had before his eyes an extant medal of Justinian, containing on the obverse the head of the emperor, and on the reverse the emperor riding on horseback, with the legend SALVS ET GLORIA ROMANORVM, and that he erroneously supposed that the figure on the reverse was Belisarius. See Eckhel, vol. viii. p. 209; Pinder und Friedländer, Die Münzen Justinians, p. 19.- S. patrimonial estate, the Imperial power soon compelled him to retire into Pannonia, to the tents of his faithful Huns. The republic was deprived by their mutual discord of the service of her two most illustrious champions.33 in Africa, It might naturally be expected, after the retreat of Boniface, that the Vandals would achieve without resistance or delay the Progress of conquest of Africa. Eight years however elapsed from the the Vandals evacuation of Hippo to the reduction of Carthage. In the A.D. 431-439, midst of that interval the ambitious Genseric, in the full tide of apparent prosperity, negociated a treaty of peace, by which he gave his son Hunneric for an hostage, and consented to leave the Western emperor in the undisturbed possession of the three Mauritanias.34 This moderation, which cannot be imputed to the justice, must be ascribed to the policy, of the conqueror. His throne was encompassed with domestic enemies, who accused the baseness of his birth, and asserted the legitimate claims of his nephews, the sons of Gonderic. Those nephews, indeed, he sacrificed to his safety; and their mother, the widow of the deceased king, was precipitated by his order into the river Ampsaga. But the public discontent burst forth in dangerous and frequent conspiracies; and the warlike tyrant is supposed to have shed more Vandal blood by the hand of the executioner than in the field of battle.35 The convulsions of Africa, which had favoured his attack, opposed the firm establishment of his power; and the various seditions of the Moors and Germans, the Donatists and catholics, continually disturbed or threatened the unsettled reign of the conqueror. As he advanced towards Carthage he was forced to withdraw his troops from the Western provinces; the sea-coast was exposed to the naval enterprises of the Romans of Spain and Italy; and, in the heart of Numidia, the strong inland city of Cirta still persisted in obstinate independence.36 These difficulties were gradually subdued by the spirit, the perseverance, and the cruelty of Genseric; who alternately applied the arts of peace and war to the establishment of his African kingdom. He subscribed a solemn 33 Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. 1. i. c. 3, p. 185 [tom. i. p. 325, ed. Bonn]) continues the history of Boniface no farther than his return to Italy. His death is mentioned by Prosper [Ann. 432] and Marcellinus; the expression of the latter, that Aëtius the day before had provided himself with a longer spear, implies something like a regular duel. 34 See Procopius, de Bell. Vandal. 1. i. c. 4, p. 186 [tom. i. p. 327, ed. Bonn]. Valentinian published several humane laws to relieve the distress of his Numidian and Mauritanian subjects; he discharged them in a great measure from the payment of their debts, reduced their tribute to one-eighth, and gave them a right of appeal from their provincial magistrates to the præfect of Rome. Cod. Theod. tom. vi. Novell. p. 11, 12. 35 Victor Vitensis, de Persecut. Vandal. 1. ii. c. 5, p. 26. The cruelties of Genseric towards his subjects are strongly expressed in Prosper's Chronicle, A.D. 442. 36 Possidius, in Vit. Augustin. c. 28, apud Ruinart, p. 428. treaty, with the hope of deriving some advantage from the term of its continuance and the moment of its violation. The vigilance of his enemies was relaxed by the protestations of friendship which concealed his hostile approach; and Carthage was at length surprised by the Vandals, five hundred and eighty-five years after the destruction of the city and republic by the younger Scipio.37 They surprise Carthage, A.D. 439, October 9. A new city had arisen from its ruins, with the title of a colony; and though Carthage might yield to the royal prerogatives of Constantinople, and perhaps to the trade of Alexandria, or the splendour of Antioch, she still maintained the second rank in the West; as the Rome (if we may use the style of contemporaries) of the African world. That wealthy and opulent metropolis 38 displayed, in a dependent condition, the image of a flourishing republic. Carthage contained the manufactures, the arms, and the treasures of the six provinces. A regular subordination of civil honours gradually ascended from the procurators of the streets and quarters of the city to the tribunal of the supreme magistrate, who, with the title of proconsul, represented the state and dignity of a consul of ancient Rome. Schools and gymnasia were instituted for the education of the African youth; and the liberal arts and manners, grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy, were publicly taught in the Greek and Latin languages. The buildings of Carthage were uniform and magnificent: a shady grove was planted in the midst of the capital; the new port, a secure and capacious harbour, was subservient to the commercial industry of citizens and strangers; and the splendid games of the circus and theatre were exhibited almost in the presence of the barbarians. The reputation of the Carthaginians was not equal to that of their country, and the reproach of Punic faith still adhered to their subtle and faithless character.39 The habits of trade and the abuse of luxury had corrupted their manners; but their impious contempt of monks and the shameless practice of unnatural lusts are the two abominations which excite the pious vehemence of Salvian, the preacher of the age." 40 The king of the Van 37 See the Chronicles of Idatius, Isidore, Prosper, and Marcellinus. They mark the same year, but different days, for the surprisal of Carthage. 38 The picture of Carthage, as it flourished in the fourth and fifth centuries, is taken from the Expositio totius Mundi, p. 17, 18, in the third volume of Hudson's Minor Geographers; from Ausonius de Claris Urbibus, p. 228, 229; and principally from Salvian, de Gubernatione Dei, 1. vii. p. 257, 258. I am surprised that the Notitia should not place either a mint or an arsenal at Carthage, but only a gynecæum, or female manufacture. 39 The anonymous author of the Expositio totius Mundi compares, in his barbarous Latin, the country and the inhabitants; and, after stigmatising their want of faith, he coolly concludes, Difficile autem inter eos invenitur bonus, tamen in multis pauci boni esse possunt. P. 18. 40 He declares that the peculiar vices of each country were collected in the sink of dals severely reformed the vices of a voluptuous people; and the ancient, noble, ingenuous freedom of Carthage (these expressions of Victor are not without energy) was reduced by Genseric into a state of ignominious servitude. After he had permitted his licentious troops to satiate their rage and avarice, he instituted a more regular system of rapine and oppression. An edict was promulgated, which enjoined all persons, without fraud or delay, to deliver their gold, silver, jewels, and valuable furniture or apparel to the royal officers; and the attempt to secrete any part of their patrimony was inexorably punished with death and torture as an act of treason against the state. The lands of the proconsular province, which formed the immediate district of Carthage, were accurately measured and divided among the barbarians; and the conqueror reserved for his peculiar domain the fertile territory of Byzacium and the adjacent parts of Numidia and Gætulia.11 captives. It was natural enough that Genseric should hate those whom he had injured the nobility and senators of Carthage were African exposed to his jealousy and resentment; and all those who exiles and refused the ignominious terms which their honour and religion forbade them to accept were compelled by the Arian tyrant to embrace the condition of perpetual banishment. Rome, Italy, and the provinces of the East, were filled with a crowd of exiles, of fugitives, and of ingenuous captives, who solicited the public compassion and the benevolent epistles of Theodoret still preserve the names and misfortunes of Cælestian and Maria.42 The Syrian bishop deplores the misfortunes of Cælestian, who, from the state of a noble and opulent senator of Carthage, was reduced, with his wife and family, and servants, to beg his bread in a foreign country; but he applauds the resignation of the Christian exile, and the philosophic temper which, under the pressure of such calamities, could enjoy more real happiness than was the ordinary lot of wealth and prosperity. The story of Maria, the daughter of the magnificent Eudæmon, is singular and interesting. In the sack of Carthage she was purchased from the Vandals by some merchants of Syria, who afterwards sold her as a slave in their native country. A female Carthage (1. vii. p. 257). In the indulgence of vice the Africans applauded their manly virtue. Et illi se magis virilis fortitudinis esse crederent, qui maxime viros feminei usus probrositate fregissent (p. 268). The streets of Carthage were polluted by effeminate wretches, who publicly assumed the countenance, the dress, and the character, of women (p. 264). If a monk appeared in the city, the holy man was pursued with impious scorn and ridicule; detestantibus ridentium cachinnis (p. 289). Compare Procopius, de Bell. Vandal. 1. i. c. 5, p. 189, 190 [tom. i. p. 332 sqq., ed. Bonn]; and Victor Vitensis, de Persecut. Vandal. 1. i. c. 4. 42 Ruinart (p. 444-457) has collected from Theodoret and other authors the misfortunes, real and fabulous, of the inhabitants of Carthage. |
