The Great events by famous historians : a comprehensive and readable account of the world's history, emphasizing the more important events, and presenting these as complete narratives in the master-words of the most eminent historians ... with thorough indices, bibliographies, chronologies, and courses of reading

BINDING
Vol. IV

The binding of this volume is a facsimile of the original in the
Old Royal Collection, British Museum.

It was executed for Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, whose
collection of beautiful bindings was second to none in England.
He kept the specimen here shown in a gold case. It is in perfect
condition. Strange to say, the binder is unknown.

Dudley became the chief favorite of Queen Elizabeth, and
intrigued, though unsuccessfully, to obtain the consent of the
great nobles to a marriage. He was accused of having pro^
cured the murder of his wife, Lady Amy, in furthering his
scheme.

THE GREAT EVENTS

HISTORIANS

A COMPRFNSIV
HISTORY, I

SENT1NC T

ACCOUNT Or UK WORLD'S

AND PRT
tf. MASTER- WOODS

HISTORIANS

tit. O! PMONS GATH-
OF AMERICA
BY SPECIALISTS
NARRATIVES. AR-
TfJC*4>LGH INDICES. BIBLJOG-
ND COURSES OF READING

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

ROSSITER JOHNSON, LL.D.

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

CHARLES F. HORNE, Ph.D.
JOHN RUDD, LL.D.

With a staff of specialists

VOLUME IV

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for the life
band

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Rational .SUumtif

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THE GREAT EVENTS

BY

FAMOUS HISTORIANS

A COMPREHENSIVE AND READABLE ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD'S
HISTORY. EMPHASIZING THE MORE IMPORTANT EVENTS. AND PRE-
SENTING THESE AS COMPLETE NARRATIVES IN THE MASTER- WORDS
OF THE MOST EMINENT HISTORIANS

NON-SECTARIAN NON-PARTISAN NON-SECTIONAL

ON THE PLAN EVOLVED FROM A CONSENSUS OF OPINIONS GATH-
ERED FROM THE MOST DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARS OF AMERICA
AND EUROPE. INCLUDING BRIEF INTRODUCTIONS BY SPECIALISTS
TO CONNECT AND EXPLAIN THE CELEBRATED NARRATIVES. AR-
RANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY. WITH THOROUGH INDICES. BIBLIOG-
RAPHIES. CHRONOLOGIES. AND COURSES OF READING

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

ROSSITER JOHNSON, LL.D.

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

CHARLES F. HORNE, Ph.D.
JOHN RUDD, LL.D.

With a staff" of specialists

VOLUME IV

Rational aiumnf

COPYRIGHT, 1905,

BY THE NATIONAL ALUMNI

JUN4 W56

CONTENTS

VOLUME IV

PAGE

An Outline Narrative of the Great Events, . . xi

CHARLES F. HORNE

Visigoths Pillage Rome (A.D. 410), .... I

EDWARD GIBBON

Huns Invade the Eastern Roman Empire

Attila Dictates a Treaty of Peace (A.D. 441), . . 28

EDWARD GIBBON

The English Conquest of Britain (A.D. 4.4.9-579), . 55

JOHN R. GREEN
CHARLES KNIGHT

Attila Invades Western Europe

Battle of Chdlons (A.D. 4.51), 72

SIR EDWARD S. CREASY
EDWARD GIBBON

Foundation of Venice (A.D. 452), ... -95

THOMAS HODGKIN
JOHN RUSKIN

Clovis Founds the Kingdom of the Franks

It Becomes Christian (A.D. 4.86-511), . . . 113

FRANCOIS P. G. GUIZOT

Publication of the Justinian Code (A.D. 529-534.), . 138

EDWARD GIBBON

Augustine' s Missionary Work in England (A.D. 597), 182

THE VENERABLE BEDE
JOHN R. GREEN

vii

viii CONTENTS

PAGE

The Hegira : Career of Mahomet

The Koran: and Mahometan Creed (A.D. 622), . 198

WASHINGTON IRVING
SIMON OCKLEY

The Saracen Conquest of Syria (A.D. 636), . . 247

SIMON OCKLEY

Saracens Conquer Egypt

Destruction of the Library at Alexandria (A.D. 640), 278

WASHINGTON IRVING

Evolution of the Dogeship in Venice (A.D. 697), . 292

WILLIAM C. HAZLITT

Saracens in Spain

Battle of the Guadalete (A.D. 711), .... 301

AHMED IBN MAHOMET AL-MAKKARI

Battle of Tours (A.D. 732), . . . . .313

SIR EDWARD S. CREASY

Founding of the Carlovingian Dynasty

Ptyin the Short Usurps the Prankish Crown (A.D. 751), 324

FRANCOIS P. G. GUIZOT

Career of Charlemagne (A.D. 772-814.), . . -334

FRANCOIS P. G. GUIZOT

Egbert Becomes King of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy

(A.D. 827), 372

DAVID HUME

Universal Chronology (A.D. 410-84.2), . . . 383

JOHN RUDD

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME IV

PAGE

A captive* s wife pleads with the barbarian chief for

the life of her husband (page 20), . . Frontispiece
Painting by R. Peacock.

Mahomet, preaching the unity of God, enters Mecca

at the head of his victorious followers, . . 224
Painting by A. Mueller.

AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE

TRACING BRIEFLY THE CAUSES, CON-
NECTIONS, AND CONSEQUENCES OF

THE GREAT EVENTS

(FROM THE FALL OF ROME TO THE EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE)
CHARLES F. HORNE

UR modern civilization is built up on three
great corner-stones, three inestimably valu-
able heritages from the past. The Graeco-
Roman civilization gave us our arts and our
philosophies, the bases of intellectual power.
The Hebrews bequeathed to us the religious
idea, which has saved man from despair,
has been the potent stimulus to two thousand years of endur-
ance and hope. The Teutons gave us a healthy, sturdy, uncon-
taminated physique, honest bodies and clean minds, the lack
of which had made further progress impossible to the ancient
world.

This last is what made necessary the barbarian overthrow of
Rome, if the world was still to advance. The slowly progressing
knowledge of the arts and handicrafts which we have seen
passed down from Egypt to Babylonia, to Persia, Greece, and
Rome, had not been acquired without heavy loss. The system
of slavery which allowed the few to think, while the many were
constrained to toil as beasts, had eaten like a canker into the
heart of society. The Roman world was repeating the oft-told
tale of the past, and sinking into the lifeless formalism of which
Egypt was the type. Man had become wise, but worthless.
As though on purpose to prove to future generations how ut-

xii AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF

terly worthless, the Roman civilization was allowed to continue
uninterrupted in one unneeded corner of its former domains.
For over a thousand years the successors of Theodosius and of
Constantine held unbroken sway in the capital which the latter
had founded. They only succeeded in emphasizing how futile
their culture had become.

The entire ten centuries that followed the overthrow of Rome
have long been spoken of as the " Dark Ages," but, considering
how infinitely darker those same ages must have become with-
out the intervention of the Teutons, present criticism begins to
protest against the term. All that was lost with the ancient
world was something of intellectual keenness, something of ar-
tistic culture, quickly regained when man was once more ripe for
them. What the Teutons had to offer of infinitely greater worth,
what they had developed hi their cold, northern forests, was
their sense of Hbejrty and equality, their love of honesty, their
respect for womankind. It is not too much to say that, without
these, any higher progress was, and always will be, impossible.

In short, the Roman and Grecian races had become impo-
tent and decrepit. The high destiny of man lay not with them,
but with the younger race, for whom all earlier civilizations had
but prepared the way.

Who were these Teutons? Rome knew them only vaguely
as wild tribes dwelling in the gloom of the great forest wilder-
ness. In reality they were but the vanguard of vast races of hu-
man beings who through ages had been slowly populating all
Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. Beyond the Teutons were
other Aryans, the Slavs. Beyond these were vague non-Aryan
races like the Huns, content to direct their careers of slaughter
against one another, and only occasionally and for a moment
flaring with red-fire beacons of ruin along the edge of the Aryan
world.

Some at least of the Teutonic tribes had grown partly civ-
ilized. The Germans along the Rhine, and the Goths along the
Danube, had been from the time of Augustus in more or less
close contact with Rome. Germanicus had once subdued al-
most the whole of Germany; later emperors had held tempora-
rily the broad province of Dacia, beyond the Danube. The bar-
barians were eagerly enlisted in the Roman army. During the

THE GREAT EVENTS xiii

closing centuries of decadence they became its main support;
they rose to high commands; there were even barbarian em-
perors at last. The intermingling of the two worlds thus be-
came extensive, and the Teutons learned much of Rome. The
Goths whom Theodosius permitted to settle within its domin-
ions were already partly Christian.

THE PERIOD OF INVASION

It was these same Goths who became the immediate cause
of Rome's downfall. Theodosius had kept them in restraint;
his feeble sons scarce even attempted it. The intruders found a
famous leader in Alaric, and, after plundering most of the Gre-
cian peninsula, they ravaged Italy, ending hi 410 with the sack
of Rome itself.1

This seems to us, perhaps, a greater event than it did to its
own generation. The " Emperor of the West," the degenerate
son of Theodosius, was not within the city when it fell; and the
story is told that, on hearing the news, he expressed relief, be-
cause he had at first understood that the evil tidings referred to
the death of a favorite hen named Rome. The tale emphasizes
the disgrace of the famous capital; it had sunk to be but one
city among many. Alaric's Goths had been nominally an army
belonging to the Emperor of the East; their invasion was re-
garded as only one more civil war.

Besides, the Roman world might yet have proved itself big
enough to assimilate and engulf the entire mass of this already
half -civilized people. Its name was still a spell on them. Ataulf,
the successor of Alaric, was proud to accept a Roman title and
become a defender of the Empire. He marched his followers into
Gaul under a commission to chastise the "barbarians" who
were desolating it.

These later comers were the instruments of that more over-
whelming destruction for which the Goths had but prepared
the way. To resist Alaric, the Roman legions had been with-
drawn from all the western frontiers, and thus more distant and
far more savage tribes of the Teutons beheld the glittering em-
pire unprotected, its pathways most alluringly left open. They
began streaming across the undefended Rhine and Danube.
1 See Visigoths Pillage Rome, page I.

xiv AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF

Their bands were often small and feeble, such as earlier emper-
ors would have turned back with ease; but now all this fascinat-
ing world of wealth, so dimly known and doubtless fiercely
coveted, lay helpless, open to their plundering. The Vandals rav-
aged Gaul and Spain, and, being defeated by the Goths, passed
on into Africa. The Saxons and Angles penetrated England1
and fought there for centuries against the desperate Britons,
whom the Roman legions had perforce abandoned to their fate.
The Franks and Burgundians plundered Gaul.

Fortunately the invading tribes were on the whole a kindly
race. When they joyously whirled their huge battle-axes against
iron helmets, smashing down through bone and brain beneath,
their delight was not in the scream of the unlucky wretch within,
but in their own vigorous sweep of muscle, in the conscious
power of the blow. Fierce they were, but not coldly cruel like
the ancients. The condition of the lower classes certainly be-
came no worse for their invasion ; it probably improved. Much
the new-comers undoubtedly destroyed in pure wantonness.
But there was much more that they admired, half understood,
and sought to save.

Behind them, however, came a conqueror of far more terri-
ble mood. We have seen that when the Goths first entered Ro-
man territory they were driven on by a vast migration of the
Asiatic Huns. These wild and hideous tribes then spent half a
century roaming through central Europe, ere they were gath-
ered into one huge body by their great chief, Attila, and in their
turn approached the shattered regions of the Mediterranean.3
Their invasion, if we are to trust the tales of their enemies, from
whom alone we know of them, was incalculably more destruc-
tive than all those of the Teutons combined. The Huns de-
lighted in suffering; they slew for the sake of slaughter. Where
they passed they left naught but an empty desert, burned and
blackened and devoid of life.

Crossing the Danube, they ravaged the Roman Empire of
the East almost without opposition. Only the impregnable walls
of Constantinople resisted the destruction. A few years later the
savage horde appeared upon the Rhine, and in enormous num-

1 See The English Conquest of Britain, page 55.

* See Huns Invade the Eastern Roman Empire, page 28.

THE GREAT EVENTS xv

bers penetrated Gaul. No people had yet understood them,
none had even checked their career. The white races seemed
helpless against this "yellow peril," this "Scourge of God," as
Attila was called.

Goths and Romans and all the varied tribes which were ran-
ging in perturbed whirl through unhappy Gaul laid aside their
lesser enmities and met in common cause against this terrible in-
vader. The battle of Chalons, 45 1,1 was the most tremendous
struggle in which Turanian was ever matched against Aryan, the
one huge bid of the stagnant, unprogressive races, for earth's
mastery.

Old chronicles rise into poetry at thought of that immeasur-
able battle. They figure the slain by hundred thousands; they
describe the souls of the dead as rising above the bodies and con-
tinuing their furious struggle in the air. Attila was checked and
drew back. Defeated we can scarce call him, for only a year or
so later we find him ravaging Italy. Fugitives fleeing before
him to the marshes lay the first stones of Venice.2 Leo, the great
Pope, pleads with him for Rome. His forces, however, are ob-
viously weaker than they were. He retreats; and after his
death his irresponsible followers disappear forever in the wil-
derness.

THE PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT

Toward the close of this tumultuous fifth century, the vari-
ous Teutonic tribes show distinct tendencies toward settling
down and forming kingdoms amid the various lands they have
overrun. The Vandals build a state in Africa, and from the old
site of Carthage send their ships to the second sack of Rome.
The Visigoths form a Spanish kingdom, which lasts over two
hundred years. The Ostrogoths construct an empire in Italy
(493-554), and, under the wise rule of their chieftain Theodoric,
men joyfully proclaim that peace and happiness and prosperity
have returned to earth. Most important of all in its bearing
upon later history, the Franks under Clovis begin the building of
France.8

1 See Attila Invades Western Europe, page 72.

* See Foundation of Venice, page 95.

* See Clovis Founds the Kingdom of the Franks, page 113.

xvi AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF

Encouraged by these milder days, the Roman emperors of
Constantinople attempt to reclaim their old domain. The reign
of Justinian begins (527-565), and his great general Belisarius
temporarily wins back for him both Africa and Italy. This was
a comparatively unimportant detail, a mere momentary rever-
sal of the historic tide. Justinian did for the future a far more
noted service.

If there was one subject which Roman officials had learned
thoroughly through their many generations of rule, it was the
set of principles by which judges must be guided in their en-
deavor to do justice. Long practical experience of administra-
tion made the Romans the great law-givers of antiquity. And
now Justinian set his lawyers to work to gather into a single
code, or "digest," all the scattered and elaborate rules and deci-
sions which had place in their gigantic system.1

It is this Code of Justinian which, handed down through the
ages, stands as the basis of much of our law to-day. It shapes
our social world, it governs the fundamental relations between
man and man. There are not wanting those who believe its
principles are wrong, who aver that man's true attitude toward
his fellows should be wholly different from its present artificial
pose. But whether for better or for worse we live to-day by Ro-
man law.

This law the Teutons were slowly absorbing. They accepted
the general structure of the world into which they had thrust
themselves; they continued its style of building and many of its
rougher arts; they even adopted its language, though in such
confused and awkward fashion that Italy, France, and Spain
grew each to have a dialect of its own. And most important of
all, they accepted the religion, the Christian religion of Rome.
Missionaries venture forth again. Augustine preaches in Eng-
land.2 Boniface penetrates the German wilds.

It must not be supposed that the moment a Teuton accepted
baptism he became filled with a pure Christian spirit of meekness
and of love. On the contrary, he probably remained much the
same drunken, roistering heathen as before. But he was brought
in contact with noble examples in the lives of some of the Chris-

1 See Publication of the Justinian Code, page 138.

9 See Augustine's Missionary Work in England, page 182.

THE GREAT EVENTS xvii

tian bishops around him; great truths began to touch his mo-
bile nature; he was impressed, softened; he began to think and
feel.

Given a couple of centuries of this, we really begin to see some
very encouraging results. We realize that for once we are being
allowed to study a civilization in its earlier stages, to be present
almost at its birth, to watch the methods of the Master-builder
in the making of a race. Gazing at similar developments in the
days of Eygpt and Babylon, we guessed vaguely that they must
have been of slowest growth. Here at last one takes place under
our eyes, and it does not need so many ages after all. There is
no study more fascinating than to trace the slow changes stamp-
ing themselves ineradicably upon the Teutonic mind and soul
during these misty far-off centuries of turmoil.

On the whole, of course, the sixth, seventh, and even the
eighth centuries form a period of strife. The Teutons had spent
too many ages warring against one another in petty strife to aban-
don the pleasure in a single generation. Men fought because they
liked fighting, much as they play football to-day. Then, too,
there came another great outburst of Semite religious enthusi-
asm. Mahomet1 started the Arabs on their remarkable career
of conquest.

THE MAHOMETAN OUTBURST

Mahomet himself died (632) before he had fully established
his influence even over Arabia : his successors had practically to
reconquer it. Yet within five years of his death the Arabs had
mastered Syria.2 They spread like some sudden, unexpected,
immeasurable whirlwind. Ancient Persia went down before
them. By 640 they had trampled Egypt under foot, and de-
stroyed the celebrated Alexandrian library.' They swept over all
Africa, completely obliterating every trace of Vandal or of Ro-
man. Their dominion reached farther east than that of Alexan-
der. They wrested most of its Asiatic possessions from the pre-
tentious Empire at Constantinople, and reduced that exhausted
State to a condition of weakness from which it never arose.
Then, passing on through their African possessions, they entered

1 See The Hegira, page 198.

* See The Saracen Conquest of Syria, page 247.

3 See Saracens Conquer Egypt, page 278.

xviii AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF

Spain and overthrew the kingdom of the Visigoths.1 It was a
storm whose end no man could measure, whose coming none
could have foreseen. And then, just a century after Mahom-
et's death, the Arabs, pressing on through Spain, encountered
the Franks on the plains of France.

A thousand years had passed since Semitic Carthage had
fallen before Aryan Rome. Now once again the Semites, far more
dangerous because in the full tide of the religious frenzy of their
race, threatened to engulf the Aryan world. They were repulsed
by the still sturdy Franks under their great leader, Charles Mar-
tel, at Tours. The battle of Tours2 was only less momentous to
the human race than that of Chalons. What the Arab domina-
tion of Europe would have meant we can partly guess by looking
at the lax and lawless states of Northern Africa to-day. These
fair lands, under both Roman and Vandal, had long been shar-
ing the lot of Aryan Europe; they seemed destined to follow in
its growth and fortune. But the Arab conquest restored them to
Semitism, made Asia the seat from which they were to have their
training, attached them to the chariot of sloth instead of that of
effort. What they are to-day, all Europe might have been.

Yet with the picture of these fifth and sixth and seventh cen-
turies of battle full before us, we are not tempted to glory over-
much even in such victories as Tours and Chalons. We see war
for what it has ever been — the curse of man, the hugest hinder-
ance to our civilization. While men fight they have small time
for thought or art or any soft or kindly sentiment. The surviv-
ors may with good luck develop into a stronger breed; they are
inevitably more brutal.

We thus begin to recognize just how necessary for human
progress was the work Rome had been engaged in. By holding
the world at peace, she had given humankind at least the oppor-
tunity to grow. The moment her restraining hand was shaken
off, war sprang up everywhere. Not only do we find the inher-
itors of her territory fighting among themselves, they are exposed
to the savagery of Attila, the fury of the Arabs. New bands of
more distant Teutons come, ever pushing in amid their half-
settled brethren, overthrowing them in turn. The Lombards

1 See Saracens in Spain, page 301.
* See Battle of Tours, page 313.

THE GREAT EVENTS xix

capture Northern Italy, only Venice remaining safe amid her
marshes.1 The East-Franks — that is, the semi-barbarians still
remaining in the wilderness — master the more cultured West-
Franks, who hold Gaul. No sooner does civilization start up
than it is trodden on.

THE EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE

At length there arose among the Franks a series of stalwart
rulers, keen-eyed, penetrating somewhat at least into the mean-
ing of their world, determined to have peace if they must fight
for it. Charles Martel was one of these. Then came his son
Pe*pin,2 who held out his hand to the bishops of Rome, acknowl-
edged their vast civilizing influence, saved them from the Lom-
bards, and joined church and state once more in harmony. After
Pe*pin came his son, Charlemagne, whose reign marks an epoch
of the world. The peace his fathers had striven for, he won at
last, though only, as they had done, by constant fighting. He
attacked the Arabs and reduced them to permanent feebleness
in Spain. He turned backward the Teutonic movement, march-
ing his Franks into the German forests, and in campaign after
campaign defeating the wild tribes that still remained there.
The strongest of them, the Saxons, accepted an enforced Chris-
tianity. Even the vague races beyond the German borders were
so harried, so weakened, that they ceased to be a serious men-
ace.

Charlemagne ' had thus in very truth created a new empire.
He had established at least one central spot, so hedged round by
border dependencies that no later wave of barbarians ever quite
succeeded in submerging it. The bones of the great Emperor, in
their cathedral sepulchre at Aix, have never been disturbed by
an unfriendly hand. Paris submitted to no new conquest until
over a thousand years later, when the nineteenth century had
stolen the barbarity from war. It was then no more than a just
acknowledgment of Charlemagne's work when, on Christmas
Day of the year 800, as he rose from kneeling at the cathedral
altar in Rome, he was crowned by the Pope whom he had de-

1 See Evolution of the Dogeship in Venice, page 292.

* See Founding of the Carlovingian Dynasty, page 324.

* See Career of Charlemagne, page 334.

xx THE GREAT EVENTS

fended, and hailed by an enthusiastic people as lord of a re-cre-
ated "Holy Roman Empire."

In England, also, the centuries of warfare among the Britons
and the various antagonistic Teutonic tribes seemed drawing to
an end. Egbert established the "heptarchy";1 that is, became
overlord of all the lesser kings. Truly for a moment civilization
seemed reestablished. The arts returned to prominence. Eng-
land could send so noteworthy a scholar as Alcuin to the aid
of the great Emperor. Charlemagne encouraged learning; Al-
cuin established schools. Once more men sowed and reaped in
security. The "Roman peace" seemed come again.

1 See Egbert Becomes King of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, page 372.

[FOR THE NEXT SECTION OF THIS GENERAL SURVEY SEE VOLUME V.]

VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME

A.D. 4IO

EDWARD GIBBON

Of the two great historical divisions of the Gothic race the Visigoths or
West Goths were admitted into the Roman Empire in A.D. 376, when they
sought protection from the pursuing Huns, and were transported across
the Danube to the Moesian shore. The story of their gradual progress
in civilization and growth in military power, which at last enabled them
to descend with overwhelming force upon Rome itself, forms one of the
romances of history.

From their first reception into Lower Mcesia the Visigoths were sub-
jected to the most contemptuous and oppressive treatment by the Ro-
mans who had admitted them into their domains. At last the outraged
colonists were provoked to revolt, and a stubborn war ensued, which was
ended at Adrianople, August 9, A.D. 378, by the defeat of the emperor
Valens and the destruction of his army, two-thirds of his soldiers perish-
ing with Valens himself, whose body was never found.

In 382 a treaty was made which restored peace to the Eastern Em-
pire, the Visigoths nominally owning the sovereignty of Rome, but living
in virtual independence. They continued to increase in numbers and in
power, and in A.D. 395, under Alaric, their King, they invaded Greece,
but were compelled by Stilicho, in 397, to retire into Epirus. Stilicho
was the commander-in-chief of the Roman army, and the guardian of the
young emperor Honorius. Alaric soon afterward became commander-
in-chief of the Roman forces in Eastern Illyricum and held that office for
four years. During that time he remained quiet, arming and drilling his
followers, and waiting for the opportunity to make a bold stroke for
a wider and more secure dominion.

In the autumn of A.D. 400, while Stilicho was campaigning in Gaul,
Alaric made his first invasion of Italy, and for more than a year he
ranged at will over the northern part of the peninsula. Rome was made
ready for defence, and Honorius, the weak Emperor of the Western Em-
pire, prepared for flight into Gaul; but on March igth of the year 402,
Stilicho surprised the camp of Alaric, near Pollentia, while most of his
followers were at worship, and after a desperate battle they were beaten.
Alaric made a safe retreat, and soon afterward crossed the Po, intending
to march against Rome, but desertions from his ranks caused him to
abandon that purpose. In 403 he was overtaken and again defeated by
Stilicho at Verona, Alaric himself barely escaping capture. Stilicho.

E., VOL. IV.— I. I

2 VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME

however, permitted him — some historians say, bribed him — to withdraw
to Illyricum, and he was made prefect of Western Illyricum by Honorius.
Such is the prelude, followed in history by the amazing exploits of
Alaric's second invasion of Italy.

His troops having revolted at Pavia, Stilicho fled to Ravenna, where
the ungrateful Emperor had him put to death August 23, 408. In October
of that year Alaric crossed the Alps, advancing without resistance until
he reached Ravenna ; after threatening Ravenna he marched upon Rome
and began the preparations that ended in the sack of the city.

HpHE incapacity of a weak and distracted government may
often assume the appearance, and produce the effects, of
a treasonable correspondence with the public enemy. If Alaric
himself had been introduced into the council of Ravenna, he
would probably have advised the same measures which were
actually pursued by the ministers of Honorius. The King of the
Goths would have conspired, perhaps with some reluctance, to
destroy the formidable adversary, by whose arms, in Italy as well
as in Greece, he had been twice overthrown. Their active and
interested hatred laboriously accomplished the disgrace and ruin
of the great Stilicho. The valor of Sarus, his fame in arms, and
his personal, or hereditary, influence over the confederate Bar-
barians, could recommend him only to the friends of their
country, who despised, or detested, the worthless characters
of Turpilio, Varanes, and Vigilantius. By the pressing instances
of the new favorites, these generals, unworthy as they had shown
themselves of the names of soldiers, were promoted to the
command of the cavalry, of the infantry, and of the domestic
troops. The Gothic prince would have subscribed with pleas-
ure the edict which the fanaticism of Olympius dictated tc
the simple and devout Emperor.

Honorius excluded all persons who were adverse to the
Catholic Church from holding any office in the State; obsti-
nately rejected the service of all those who dissented from his
religion ; and rashly disqualified many of his bravest and most
skilful officers who adhered to the pagan worship or who had
imbibed the opinions of Arianism. These measures, so ad-
vantageous to an enemy, Alaric would have approved, and
might perhaps have suggested; but it may seem doubtful
whether the Barbarian would have promoted his interest at the
expense of the inhuman and absurd cruelty which was perpe-

VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME 3

trated by the direction, or at least with the connivance, of the
imperial ministers. The foreign auxiliaries who had been
attached to the person of Stilicho lamented his death; but the
desire of revenge was checked by a natural apprehension for
the safety of their wives and children, who were detained as
hostages in the strong cities of Italy, where they had likewise
deposited their most valuable effects.

At the same hour, and as if by a common signal, the cities
of Italy were polluted by the same horrid scenes of universal
massacre and pillage which involved in promiscuous destruc-
tion the families and fortunes of the Barbarians. Exasperated
by such an injury, which might have awakened the tamest and
most servile spirit, they cast a look of indignation and hope
toward the camp of Alaric, and unanimously swore to pursue,
with just and implacable war, the perfidious nation that had so
basely violated the laws of hospitality. By the imprudent con-
duct of the ministers of Honorius the republic lost the assistance,
and deserved the enmity, of thirty thousand of her bravest sol-
diers; and the weight of that formidable army, which alone
might have determined the event of the war, was transferred
from the scale of the Romans into that of the Goths.

In the arts of negotiation, as well as in those of war, the
Gothic King maintained his superior ascendant over an enemy,
whose seeming changes proceeded from the total want of coun-
sel and design. From his camp, on the confines of Italy, Alaric
attentively observed the revolutions of the palace, watched the
progress of faction and discontent, disguised the hostile aspect
of a Barbarian invader, and assumed the more popular appear-
ance of the friend and ally of the great Stilicho; to whose vir-
tues, when they were no longer formidable, he could pay a just
tribute of sincere praise and regret.

The pressing invitation of the malcontents, who urged the
King of the Goths to invade Italy, was enforced by a lively
sense of his personal injuries; and he might speciously com-
plain that the Imperial ministers still delayed and eluded the
payment of the four thousand pounds of gold which had been
granted by the Roman senate, either to reward his services or
to appease his fury. His decent firmness was supported by an
artful moderation, which contributed to the success of his de-

4 VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME

signs. He required a fair and reasonable satisfaction; but he
gave the strongest assurances that, as soon as he had obtained
it, he would immediately retire. He refused to trust the faith
of the Romans, unless Aetius and Jason, the sons of two great
officers of state, were sent as hostages to his camp ; but he offered
to deliver, in exchange, several of the noblest youths of the
Gothic nation. The modesty of Alaric was interpreted, by
the ministers of Ravenna, as a sure evidence of his weakness
and fear. They disdained either to negotiate a treaty or to
assemble an army; and with a rash confidence, derived only
from their ignorance of the extreme danger, irretrievably wasted
the decisive moments of peace and war. While they expected,
in sullen silence, that the Barbarians should evacuate the
confines of Italy, Alaric, with bold and rapid marches, passed
the Alps and the Po; hastily pillaged the cities of Aquileia,
Altinum, Concordia, and Cremona, which yielded to his arms;
increased his forces by the accession of thirty thousand auxil-
iaries; and, without meeting a single enemy in the field, ad-
vanced as far as the edge of the morass which protected the
impregnable residence of the Emperor of the West.

Instead of attempting the hopeless siege of Ravenna, the
prudent leader of the Goths proceeded to Rimini, stretched his
ravages along the sea-coast of the Adriatic, and meditated the
conquest of the ancient mistress of the world. An Italian
hermit, whose zeal and sanctity were respected by the Barba-
rians themselves, encountered the victorious monarch, and
boldly denounced the indignation of heaven against the oppres-
sors of the earth; but the saint himself was confounded by the
solemn asseveration of Alaric, that he felt a secret and preter-
natural impulse, which directed, and even compelled, his march
to the gates of Rome. He felt that his genius and his fortune
were equal to the most arduous enterprises ; and the enthusiasm
which he communicated to the Goths insensibly removed the
popular, and almost superstitious, reverence of the nations for
the majesty of the Roman name. His troops, animated by the
hopes of spoil, followed the course of the Flaminian way, occu-
pied the unguarded passes of the Apennine, descended into the
rich plains of Umbria ; and, as they lay encamped on the banks
of the Clitumnus, might wantonly slaughter and devour the

VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME 5

milk-white oxen, which had been so long reserved for the use of
Roman triumphs. A lofty situation, and a seasonable tem-
pest of thunder and lightning, preserved the little city of Narni;
but the King of the Goths, despising the ignoble prey, still
advanced with unabated vigor; and after he had passed through
the stately arches, adorned with the spoils of Barbaric victories,
he pitched his camp under the walls of Rome.

By a skilful disposition of "his numerous forces, who impa-
tiently watched the moment of an assault, Alaric encompassed
the walls, commanded the twelve principal gates, intercepted
all communication with the adjacent country, and vigilantly
guarded the navigation of the Tiber, from which the Romans
derived the surest and most plentiful supply of provisions. The
first emotions of the nobles and of the people were those of
surprise and indignation that a vile Barbarian should dare to
insult the capital of the world; but their arrogance was soon
humbled by misfortune; and their unmanly rage, instead of
being directed against an enemy in arms, was meanly exercised
on a defenceless and innocent victim. Perhaps in the person
of Serena, the Romans might have respected the niece of Theo-
dosius, the aunt, nay, even the adoptive mother, of the reigning
Emperor; but they abhorred the widow of Stilicho; and they
listened with credulous passion to the tale of calumny, which
accused her of maintaining a secret and criminal correspondence
with the Gothic invader. Actuated or overawed by the same
popular frenzy, the senate, without requiring any evidence of
her guilt, pronounced the sentence of her death. Serena was
ignominiously strangled; and the infatuated multitude were
astonished to find that this cruel act of injustice did not imme-
diately produce the retreat of the Barbarians and the deliver-
ance of the city.

That unfortunate city gradually experienced the distress of
scarcity, and at length the horrid calamities of famine. The
daily allowance of three pounds of bread was reduced to one-
half, to one- third, to nothing; and the price of corn still con-
tinued to rise in a rapid and extravagant proportion. The
poorer citizens, who were unable to purchase the necessaries of
life, solicited the precarious charity of the rich ; and for a while
the public misery was alleviated by the humanity of Laeta, the

6 VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME

widow of the emperor Gratian, who had fixed her residence at
Rome, and consecrated to the use of the indigent the princely
revenue which she annually received from the grateful succes
sors of her husband. But these private and temporary dona-
tives were insufficient to appease the hunger of a numerous
people; and the progress of famine invaded the marble palaces
of the senators themselves. The persons of both sexes, who
had been educated in the enjoyment of ease and luxury, dis-
covered how little is requisite to supply the demands of nature,
and lavished their unavailing treasures of gold and silver to
obtain the coarse and scanty sustenance which they would for-
merly have rejected with disdain. The food the most repugnant
to sense or imagination, the aliments the most unwholesome
and pernicious to the constitution, were eagerly devoured, and
fiercely disputed, by the rage of hunger. A dark suspicion was
entertained that some desperate wretches fed on the bodies of
their fellow-creatures, whom they had secretly murdered; and
even mothers — such was the horrid conflict of the two most
powerful instincts implanted by nature in the human breast —
even mothers are said to have tasted the flesh of their slaughtered
infants!

Many thousands of the inhabitants of Rome expired in their
houses or in the streets for want of sustenance; and as the
public sepulchres without the walls were in the power of the
enemy, the stench which arose from so many putrid and un-
buried carcasses infected the air; and the miseries of famine
were succeeded and aggravated by the contagion of a pestilen-
tial disease. The assurances of speedy and effectual relief,
which were repeatedly transmitted from the court of Ravenna,
supported for some time the fainting resolution of the Romans,
till at length the despair of any human aid tempted them to
accept the offers of a preternatural deliverance. Pompeianus,
prefect of the city, had been persuaded, by the art or fanaticism
of some Tuscan diviners, that, by the mysterious force of spells
and sacrifices, they could extract the lightning from the clouds,
and point those celestial fires against the camp of the Bar-
barians. The important secret was communicated to Innocent,
the Bishop of Rome; and the successor of St. Peter is accused,
perhaps with foundation, of preferring the safety of the repub-

VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME 7

lie to the rigid severity of the Christian worship. But when the
question was agitated in the senate; when it was proposed, as
an essential condition, that those sacrifices should be per-
formed in the Capitol, by the authority, and in the presence,
of the magistrates, the majority of that respectable assembly,
apprehensive either of the divine or of the Imperial displeasure,
refused to join in an act which appeared almost equivalent to
the public restoration of paganism.

The last resource of the Romans was in the clemency, or
at least in the moderation, of the King of the Goths. The
senate, who in this emergency assumed the supreme powers
of government, appointed two ambassadors to negotiate with
the enemy. This important trust was delegated to Basilius,
a senator of Spanish extraction, and already conspicuous in
the administration of provinces; and to John, the first tribune
of the notaries, who was peculiarly qualified by his dexterity in
business, as well as by his former intimacy with the Gothic
prince. When they were introduced into his presence, they
declared, perhaps in a more lofty style than became their
abject condition, that the Romans were resolved to maintain
their dignity, either in peace or war; and that, if Alaric refused
them a fair and honorable capitulation, he might sound his
trumpets, and prepare to give battle to an innumerable people,
exercised in arms, and animated by despair. "The thicker the
hay, the easier it is mowed," was the concise reply of the Bar-
barian; and this rustic metaphor was accompanied by a loud
and insulting laugh, expressive of his contempt for the menaces
of an unwarlike populace, enervated by luxury before they were
emaciated by famine. He then condescended to fix the ransom
which he would accept as the price of his retreat from the walls
of Rome : all the gold and silver in the city, whether it were the
property of the State or of individuals; all the rich and precious
movables; and all the slaves who could prove their title to the
name of Barbarians. The ministers of the senate presumed to
ask, in a modest and suppliant tone, "If such, O king, are your
demands, what do you intend to leave us?"

" Your lives!" replied the haughty conqueror.

They trembled and retired. Yet, before they retired, a
short suspension of arms was granted, which allowed some time

8 VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME

for a more temperate negotiation. The stern features of Alaric
were insensibly relaxed; he abated much of the rigor of his
terms; and at length consented to raise the siege on the imme-
diate payment of five thousand pounds of gold, of thirty thou-
sand pounds of silver, of four thousand robes of silk, of three
thousand pieces of fine scarlet cloth, and of three thousand
pounds weight of pepper. But the public treasury was ex-
hausted; the annual rents of the great estates in Italy and the
provinces were intercepted by the calamities of war; the gold
and gems had been exchanged, during the famine, for the vilest
sustenance; the hoards of secret wealth were still concealed by
the obstinacy of avarice; and some remains of consecrated
spoils afforded the only resource that could avert the impending
ruin of the city.

As soon as the Romans had satisfied the rapacious demands
of Alaric, they were restored, in some measure, to the enjoyment
of peace and plenty. Several of the gates were cautiously
opened; the importation of provisions from the river and the
adjacent country was no longer obstructed by the Goths; the
citizens resorted in crowds to the free market, which was held
during three days in the suburbs; and while the merchants
who undertook this gainful trade made a considerable profit,
the future subsistence of the city was secured by the ample
magazines which were deposited in the public and private
granaries.

A more regular discipline than could have been expected
was maintained in the camp of Alaric; and the wise Barbarian
justified his regard for the faith of treaties by the just severity
with which he chastised a party of licentious Goths who had
insulted some Roman citizens on the road to Ostia. His army,
enriched by the contributions of the capital, slowly advanced
into the fair and fruitful province of Tuscany, where he pro-
posed to establish his winter quarters; and the Gothic standard
became the refuge of forty thousand Barbarian slaves, who had
broken their chains, and aspired, under the command of their
great deliverer, to revenge the injuries and the disgrace of their
cruel servitude. About the same time he received a more
honorable reinforcement of Goths and Huns, whom Adolphus,
the brother of his wife, had conducted, at his pressing invitation,

VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME 9

from the banks of the Danube to those of the Tiber; and who
had cut their way, with some difficulty and loss, through the
superior numbers of the Imperial troops. A victorious leader,
who united the daring spirit of a Barbarian with the art and dis-
cipline of a Roman general, was at the head of a hundred
thousand fighting men; and Italy pronounced, with terror and
respect, the formidable name of Alaric.

At the distance of fourteen centuries, we may be satisfied
with relating the military exploits of the conquerors of Rome,
without presuming to investigate the motives of their political
conduct.

In the midst of his apparent prosperity, Alaric was con-
scious, perhaps, of some secret weakness, some internal defect;
or perhaps the moderation which he displayed was intended
only to deceive and disarm the easy credulity of the ministers
of Honorius. The King of the Goths repeatedly declared that
it was his desire to be considered as the friend of peace and of
the Romans. Three senators, at his earnest request, were sent
ambassadors to the court of Ravenna, to solicit the exchange of
hostages and the conclusion of the treaty; and the proposals,
which he more clearly expressed during the course of the nego-
tiations, could only inspire a doubt of his sincerity as they
might seem inadequate to the state of his fortune. The Bar-
barian still aspired to the rank of master-general of the armies
of the West; he stipulated an annual subsidy of corn and money;
and he chose the provinces of Dalmatia, Noricum, and Venetia
for the seat of his new kingdom, which would have commanded
the important communication between Italy and the Danube.
If these modest terms should be rejected, Alaric showed a dis-
position to relinquish his pecuniary demands, and even to con-
tent himself with the possession of Noricum; an exhausted
and impoverished country perpetually exposed to the inroads
of the Barbarians of Germany.

But the hopes of peace were disappointed by the weak
obstinacy, or interested views, of the minister Olympius. With-
out listening to the salutary remonstrances of the senate, he
dismissed their ambassadors under the conduct of a military
escort, too numerous for a retinue of honor and too feeble for
an army of defence. Six thousand Dalmatians, the flower of

io VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME

the Imperial legions, were ordered to march from Ravenna to
Rome, through an open country which was occupied by the
formidable myriads of the Barbarians. These brave legion-
aries, encompassed and betrayed, fell a sacrifice to ministerial
folly; their general, Valens, with a hundred soldiers, escaped
from the field of battle; and one of the ambassadors, who
could no longer claim the protection of the law of nations, was
obliged to purchase his freedom with a ransom of thirty thou-
sand pieces of gold. Yet Alaric, instead of resenting this act
of impotent hostility, immediately renewed his proposals of
peace; and the second embassy of the Roman senate, which
derived weight and dignity from the presence of Innocent,
bishop of the city, was guarded from the dangers of the road by
a detachment of Gothic soldiers.

Olympius might have continued to insult the just resent-
ment of a people who loudly accused him as the author of the
public calamities; but his power was undermined by the secret
intrigues of the palace. The favorite eunuchs transferred the
government of Honorius, and the Empire, to Jovius, the prae-
torian prefect; an unworthy servant, who did not atone, by the
merit of personal attachment, for the errors and misfortunes of
his administration. The exile, or escape, of the guilty Olym-
pius, reserved him for more vicissitudes of fortune: he expe-
rienced the adventures of an obscure and wandering life; he
again rose to power; he fell a second time into disgrace; his
ears were cut off; he expired under the lash ; and his ignominious
death afforded a grateful spectacle to the friends of Stilicho.

After the removal of Olympius, whose character was deeply
tainted with religious fanaticism, the pagans and heretics were
delivered from the impolitic proscription which excluded them
from the dignities of the State. The brave Gennerid, a soldier
of Barbarian origin, who still adhered to. the worship of his
ancestors, had been obliged to lay aside the military belt; and
though he was repeatedly assured by the Emperor himself that
laws were not made for persons of his rank or merit, he refused
to accept any partial dispensation, and persevered in honorable
disgrace till he had extorted a general act of justice from the
distress of the Roman Government. The conduct of Gennerid,
in the important station to which he was promoted or restored.

VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME n

of master-general of Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, and Rhaetia,
seemed to revive the discipline and spirit of the republic. From
a life of idleness and want, his troops were soon habituated to
severe exercise and plentiful subsistence; and his private gen-
erosity often supplied the rewards which were denied by the
avarice, or poverty, of the court of Ravenna.

The valor of Gennerid, formidable to the adjacent Barbari-
ans, was the firmest bulwark of the Illyrian frontier; and his
vigilant care assisted the Empire with a reinforcement of ten
thousand Huns, who arrived on the confines of Italy, attended
by such a convoy of provisions, and such a numerous train of
sheep and oxen, as might have been sufficient, not only for the
march of an army, but for the settlement of a colony.

But the court and councils of Honorius still remained a
scene of weakness and distraction, of corruption and anarchy.
Instigated by the prefect Jovius, the guards rose in furious
mutiny, and demanded the heads of two generals and of the
two principal eunuchs. The generals, under a perfidious
promise of safety, were sent on shipboard and privately exe-
cuted; while the favor of the eunuchs procured them a mild
and secure exile at Milan and Constantinople. Eusebius the
eunuch, and the Barbarian Allobich, succeeded to the com-
mand of the bed-chamber and of the guards; and the mutual
jealousy of these subordinate ministers was the cause of their
mutual destruction. By the insolent order of the count of the
domestics, the great chamberlain was shamefully beaten to
death with sticks, before the eyes of the astonished Emperor;
and the subsequent assassination of Allobich, in the midst of a
public procession, is the only circumstance of his life in which
Honorius discovered the faintest symptom of courage or re-
sentment.

Yet before they fell, Eusebius and Allobich had contributed
their part to the ruin of the Empire, by opposing the conclusion
of a treaty which Jovius, from a selfish, and perhaps a criminal,
motive, had negotiated with Alaric, in a personal interview under
the walls of Rimini. During the absence of Jovius, the Em-
peror was persuaded to assume a lofty tone of inflexible dignity,
such as neither his situation nor his character could enable him
to support; and a letter, signed with the name of Honorius,

12 VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME

was immediately despatched to the praetorian prefect, granting
him a free permission to dispose of the public money, but sternly
refusing to prostitute the military honors of Rome to the proud
demands of a Barbarian. This letter was imprudently com-
municated to Alaric himself; and the Goth, who in the whole
transaction had behaved with temper and decency, expressed,
in the most outrageous language, his lively sense of the insult
so wantonly offered to his person and to his nation.

The conference of Rimini was hastily interrupted; and the
prefect Jovius, on his return to Ravenna, was compelled to
adopt, and even to encourage, the fashionable opinions of the
court. By his advice and example, the principal officers of the
State and army were obliged to swear that, without listening,
in any circumstances, to any conditions of peace, they would
still persevere in perpetual and implacable war against the
enemy of the republic. This rash engagement opposed an
insuperable bar to all future negotiation. The ministers of
Honorius were heard to declare that if they had only invoked
the name of the Deity they would consult the public safety, and
trust their souls to the mercy of heaven; but they had sworn
by the sacred head of the Emperor himself; they had touched,
in solemn ceremony, that august seat of majesty and wisdom;
and the violation of their oath would expose them to the tem-
poral penalties of sacrilege and rebellion.

While the Emperor and his court enjoyed, with sullen
pride, the security of the marshes and fortifications of Ra-
venna, they abandoned Rome, almost without defence, to
the resentment of Alaric. Yet such was the moderation which
he still preserved, or affected, that, as he moved with his army
9.1ong the Flaminian way, he successively despatched the bish-
ops of the towns of Italy to reiterate his offers of peace and to
conjure the Emperor that he would save the city and its inhab-
itants from hostile fire and the sword of the Barbarians. These
impending calamities were, however, averted, not indeed by the
wisdom of Honorius, but by the prudence or humanity of the
Gothic King; who employed a milder, though not less effectual,
method of conquest. Instead of assaulting the capital, he suc-
cessfully directed his efforts against the port of Ostia, one of the
boldest and most stupendous works of Roman magnificence.

VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME 13

The accidents to which the precarious subsistence of the city
was continually exposed in a winter navigation and an open
road, had suggested to the genius of the first Caesar the useful
design which was executed under the reign of Claudius. The
artificial moles, which formed the narrow entrance, advanced
far into the sea, and firmly repelled the fury of the waves,
while the largest vessels securely rode at anchor within three
deep and capacious basins, which received the northern branch
of the Tiber, about two miles from the ancient colony of Ostia.
The Roman port insensibly swelled to the size of an episcopal
city, where the corn of Africa was deposited in spacious gran-
aries for the use of the capital. As soon as Alaric was in pos-
session of that important place, he summoned the city to sur-
render at discretion; and his demands were enforced by the
positive declaration that a refusal, or even a delay, should be
instantly followed by the destruction of the magazines, on which
the life of the Roman people depended. The clamors of that
people, and the terror of famine, subdued the pride of the
senate; they listened, without reluctance, to the proposal of
placing a new emperor on the throne of the unworthy Honorius;
and the suffrage of the Gothic conqueror bestowed the purple
on Attalus, prefect of the city. The grateful monarch imme-
diately acknowledged his protector as master-general of the
armies of the West; Adolphus, with the rank of count of the
domestics, obtained the custody of the person of Attalus; and
the two hostile nations seemed to be united in the closest bands
of friendship and alliance.

The gates of the city were thrown open, and the new Em-
peror of the Romans, encompassed on every side by the Gothic
arms, was conducted, in tumultuous procession, to the palace
of Augustus and Trajan. After he had distributed the civil and
military dignities among his favorites and followers, Attalus
convened an assembly of the senate; before whom, in a formal
and florid speech, he asserted his resolution of restoring the
majesty of the republic, and of uniting to the Empire the prov-
inces of Egypt and the East which had once acknowledged the
sovereignty of Rome. Such extravagant promises inspired
every reasonable citizen with a just contempt for the character
of an unwarlike usurper, whose elevation was the deepest and

i4 VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME

most ignominious wound which the republic had yet sustained
from the insolence of the Barbarians. But the populace, with
their usual levity, applauded the change of masters. The pub-
lic discontent was favorable to the rival of Honorius; and the
sectaries, oppressed by his persecuting edicts, expected some
degree of countenance, or at least of toleration, from a prince
who, in his native country of Ionia, had been educated in the
pagan superstition, and who had since received the sacrament
of baptism from the hands of an Arian bishop.

The first days of the reign of Attalus were fair and prosper-
ous. An officer of confidence was sent with an inconsiderable
body of troops to secure the obedience of Africa; the greatest
part of Italy submitted to the terror of the Gothic powers ; and
though the city of Bologna made a vigorous and effectual re-
sistance, the people of Milan, dissatisfied perhaps with the
absence of Honorius, accepted, with loud acclamations, the
choice of the Roman senate. At the head of a formidable army,
Alaric conducted his royal captive almost to the gates of Ra-
venna; and a solemn embassy of the principal ministers, of Jo-
vius, the praetorian prefect, of Valens, master of the cavalry
and infantry, of the quaestor Potamius, and of Julian, the first
of the notaries, was introduced, with martial pomp, into the
Gothic camp. In the name of their sovereign, they consented
to acknowledge the lawful election of his competitor, and to
divide the provinces of Italy and the West between the two
emperors. Their proposals were rejected with disdain; and
the refusal was aggravated by the insulting clemency of Attalus,
who condescended to promise that, if Honorius would instantly
resign the purple, he should be permitted to pass the remainder
of his life in the peaceful exile of some remote island. So des-
perate indeed did the situation of the son of Theodosius ap-
pear, to those who were the best acquainted with his strength
and resources, that Jovius and Valens, his minister and his
general, betrayed their trust, infamously deserted the sinking
cause of their benefactor, and devoted their treacherous alle-
giance to the service of his more fortunate rival.

Astonished by such examples of domestic treason, Hon-
orius trembled at the approach of every servant, at the arrival
of every messenger. He dreaded the secret enemies who might

VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME 15

lurk in his capital, his palace, his bed-chamber; and some ships
lay ready in the harbor of Ravenna to transport the abdicated
monarch to the dominions of his infant nephew, the Emperor
of the East.

But there is a Providence — such at least was the opinion
of the historian Procopius — that watches over innocence and
folly; and the pretensions of Honorius to its peculiar care
cannot reasonably be disputed. At the moment when his despair,
incapable of any wise or manly resolution, meditated a shame-
ful flight, a seasonable reinforcement of four thousand veterans
unexpectedly landed in the port of Ravenna. To these valiant
strangers, whose fidelity had not been corrupted by the factions
of the court, he committed the walls and gates of the city; and
the slumbers of the Emperor were no longer disturbed by the
apprehension of imminent and internal danger. The favorable
intelligence which was received from Africa suddenly changed
the opinions of men and the state of public affairs. The troops
and officers whom Attalus had sent into that province were
defeated and slain ; and the active zeal of Heraclian maintained
his own allegiance and that of his people. The faithful Count of
Africa transmitted a large sum of money, which fixed the at-
tachment of the Imperial guards; and his vigilance in prevent-
ing the exportation of corn and oil introduced famine, tumult,
and discontent into the walls of Rome.

The failure of the African expedition was the source of
mutual complaint and recrimination in the party of Attalus;
and the mind of his protector was insensibly alienated from the
interest of a prince who wanted spirit to command, or docility
to obey. The most imprudent measures were adopted, without
the knowledge, or against the advice, of Alaric ; and the obsti-
nate refusal of the senate to allow, in the embarkation, the mix-
ture even of five hundred Goths, betrayed a suspicious and
distrustful temper, which, in their situation, was neither gener-
ous nor prudent. The resentment of the Gothic King was
exasperated by the malicious arts of Jovius, who had been
raised to the rank of patrician, and who afterward excused his
double perfidy, by declaring, without a blush, that he had only
seemed to abandon the service of Honorius, more effectually to
ruin the cause of the usurper. In a large plain near Rimini, and

16 VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME

in the presence of an innumerable multitude of Romans and Bar-
barians, the wretched Attalus was publicly despoiled of the diadem
and purple; and those ensigns of royalty were sent by Alaric, as
the pledge of peace and friendship, to the son of Theodosius.

The officers who returned to their duty were reinstated in
their employments, and even the merit of a tardy repentance
was graciously allowed; but the degraded Emperor of the
Romans, desirous of life and insensible of disgrace, implored
the permission of following the Gothic camp, in the train of a
haughty and capricious Barbarian.

The degradation of Attalus removed the only real obstacle
to the conclusion of the peace; and Alaric advanced within three
miles of Ravenna, to press the irresolution of the Imperial min-
isters, whose insolence soon returned with the return of fortune.
His indignation was kindled by the report that a rival chieftain,
that Sarus, the personal enemy of Adolphus, and the hereditary
foe of the house of Balti, had been received into the palace. At
the head of three hundred followers, that fearless Barbarian
immediately sallied from the gates of Ravenna; surprised, and
cut in pieces, a considerable body of Goths; reentered the city
in triumph; and was permitted to insult his adversary by the
voice of a herald, who publicly declared that the guilt of Alaric
had forever excluded him from the friendship and alliance of
the Emperor.

The crime and folly of the court of Ravenna were expiated
a third time by the calamities of Rome. The King of the
Goths, who no longer dissembled his appetite for plunder and
revenge, appeared in arms under the walls of the capital; and
the trembling senate, without any hopes of relief, prepared, by
a desperate resistance, to delay the ruin of their country. But
they were unable to guard against the secret conspiracy of their
slaves and domestics; who, either from birth or interest, were
attached to the cause of the enemy. At the hour of midnight
the Salarian gate was silently opened, and the inhabitants were
awakened by the tremendous sound of the Gothic trumpet.
Eleven hundred and sixty- three years after the foundation of
Rome, the Imperial city, which had subdued and civilized so
considerable a part of mankind, was delivered to the licentious
fury of the tribes of Germany and Scythia.

VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME 17

The proclamation of Alaric, when he forced his entrance
into a vanquished city, discovered, however, some regard for
the laws of humanity and religion. He encouraged his troops
boldly to seize the rewards of valor, and to enrich themselves
with the spoils of a wealthy and effeminate people; but he
exhorted them, at the same time, to spare the lives of the unre-
sisting citizens, and to respect the churches of the apostles St.
Peter and St. Paul as holy and inviolable sanctuaries. Amid
the horrors of a nocturnal tumult, several of the Christian Goths
displayed the fervor of a recent conversion ; and some instances
of their uncommon piety and moderation are related, and per-
haps adorned, by the zeal of ecclesiastical writers.

While the Barbarians roamed through the city in quest of
prey, the humble dwelling of an aged virgin, who had devoted
her life to the service of the altar, was forced open by one of the
powerful Goths. He immediately demanded, though in civil
language, all the gold and silver in her possession; and was
astonished at the readiness with which she conducted him to a
splendid hoard of massy plate, of the richest materials and the
most curious workmanship. The Barbarian viewed with won-
der and delight this valuable acquisition, till he was interrupted
by a serious admonition, addressed to him in the following
words: "These," said she, "are the consecrated vessels be-
longing to St. Peter; if you presume to touch them, the sacri-
legious deed will remain on your conscience. For my part, I
dare not keep what I am unable to defend." The Gothic cap-
tain, struck with reverential awe, despatched a messenger to
inform the King of the treasure which he had discovered; and
received a peremptory order from Alaric, that all the conse-
crated plate and ornaments should be transported, without
damage or delay, to the church of the apostle.

From the extremity, perhaps, of the Quirinal hill, to the
distant quarter of the Vatican, a numerous detachment of
Goths, marching in order of battle through the principal streets,
protected, with glittering arms, the long train of their devout
companions, who bore aloft on their heads the sacred vessels
of gold and silver; and the martial shouts of the Barbarians
were mingled with the sound of religious psalmody. From all
the adjacent houses a crowd of Christians hastened to join this

E., VOL. IV.— 2.

i8 VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME

edifying procession; and a multitude of fugitives, without dis
tinction of age, or rank, or even of sect, had the good fortune to
escape to the secure and hospitable sanctuary of the Vatican.
The learned work, concerning the City o] God, was professedly
composed by St. Augustine, to justify the ways of Providence in
the destruction of the Roman greatness. He celebrates, with
peculiar satisfaction, this memorable triumph of Christ; and
insults his adversaries by challenging them to produce some
similar example of a town taken by storm, in which the fabulous
gods of antiquity had been able to protect either themselves or
their deluded votaries.

In the sack of Rome, some rare and extraordinary exam-
ples of Barbarian virtue have been deservedly applauded.
But the holy precincts of the Vatican, and the apostolic churches,
could receive a very small proportion of the Roman people;
many thousand warriors, more especially of the Huns, who
served under the standard of Alaric, were strangers to the
name, or at least to the faith, of Christ; and we may suspect,
without any breach of charity or candor, that in the hour of
savage license, when every passion was inflamed, and every
restraint was removed, the precepts of the Gospel seldom influ-
enced the behavior of the Gothic Christians. The writers the
'best disposed to exaggerate their clemency have freely confessed
that a cruel slaughter was made of the Romans; and that the
streets of the city were filled with dead bodies, which remained
without burial during the general consternation. The despair of
the citizens was sometimes converted into fury; and whenever
the Barbarians were provoked by opposition, they extended the
promiscuous massacre to the feeble, the innocent, and the help-
less. The private revenge of forty thousand slaves was exer-
cised without pity or remorse; and the ignominious lashes which
they had formerly received were washed away in the blood of
the guilty or obnoxious families. The matrons and virgins of
Rome were exposed to injuries more dreadful, in the apprehen-
sion of chastity, than death itself; and the ecclesiastical his-
torian has selected an example of female virtue for the admira-
tion of future ages.

A Roman lady, of singular beauty and orthodox faith, had
excited the impatient desires of a young Goth, who, according

VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME 19

to the sagacious remark of Sozomen, was attached to the Arian
heresy. Exasperated by her obstinate resistance, he drew his
sword, and, with the anger of a lover, slightly wounded her
neck. The bleeding heroine still continued to brave his resent-
ment and to repel his love, till the ravisher desisted from his
unavailing efforts, respectfully conducted her to the sanctuary
of the Vatican, and gave six pieces of gold to the guards of the
church, on condition that they should restore her inviolate to
the arms of her husband. Such instances of courage and gen-
erosity were not extremely common.

Avarice is an insatiate and universal passion; since the
enjoyment of almost every object that can afford pleasure to
the different tastes and tempers of mankind may be procured
by the possession of wealth. In the pillage of Rome a just pref-
erence was given to gold and jewels, which contain the greatest
value in the smallest compass and weight; but after these
portable riches had been removed by the more diligent robbers,
the palaces of Rome were rudely stripped of their splendid and
costly furniture. The sideboards of massy plate, and the varie-
gated wardrobes of silk and purple, were irregularly piled in
the wagons, that always followed the march of a Gothic army.
The most exquisite works of art were roughly handled or
wantonly destroyed; many a statue was melted for the sake of
the precious materials; and many a vase, in the division of the
spoil, was shivered into fragments by the stroke of a battle-axe.
The acquisition of riches served only to stimulate the avarice of
the rapacious Barbarians, who proceeded, by threats, by blows,
and by tortures, to force from their prisoners the confession of
hidden treasure. Visible splendor and expense were alleged as
the proof of a plentiful fortune ; the appearance of poverty was
imputed to a parsimonious disposition; and the obstinacy of
some misers, who endured the most cruel torments before they
would discover the secret object of their affection, was fatal to
many unhappy wretches, who expired under the lash for re-
fusing to reveal their imaginary treasures.

The edifices of Rome — though the damage has been much
exaggerated — received some injury from the violence of the
Goths. At their entrance through the Salarian gate they fired
the adjacent houses to guide their march, and to distract the

20 VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME

attention of the citizens; the flames, which encountered no
obstacle in the disorder of the night, consumed many private
and public buildings; and the ruins of the palace of Sallust
remained, in the age of Justinian, a stately monument of the
Gothic conflagration. Yet a contemporary historian has ob-
served that fire could scarcely consume the enormous beams
of solid brass, and that the strength of man was insufficient to
subvert the foundations of ancient structures. Some truth may
possibly be concealed in his devout assertion that the wrath of
heaven supplied the imperfections of hostile rage; and that the
proud Forum of Rome, decorated with the statues of so many
gods and heroes, was levelled in the dust by the stroke of light-
ning.

Whatever might be the numbers of equestrian or plebeian
rank who perished in the massacre of Rome, it is confidently
affirmed that only one senator lost his life by the sword of the
enemy. But it was not easy to compute the multitudes who,
from an honorable station and a prosperous fortune, were sud-
denly reduced to the miserable condition of captives and exiles.
As the Barbarians had more occasion for money than for slaves,
they fixed at a moderate price the redemption of their indigent
prisoners; and the ransom was often paid by the benevolence
of their friends or the charity of strangers.

The captives, who were regularly sold either in open market
or by private contract, would have legally regained their native
freedom, which it was impossible for a citizen to lose or to
alienate. But as it was soon discovered that the vindication of
their liberty would endanger their lives; and that the Goths,
unless they were tempted to sell, might be provoked to murder
their useless prisoners; the civil jurisprudence had been already
qualified by a wise regulation that they should be obliged to
serve the moderate term of five years, till they had discharged by
their labor the price of their redemption.

The nations who invaded the Roman Empire had driven
before them, into Italy, whole troops of hungry and affrighted
provincials, less apprehensive of servitude than of famine. The
calamities of Rome and Italy dispersed the inhabitants to the
most lonely, the most secure, the most distant places of refuge.
While the Gothic cavalry spread terror and desolation along

VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME 21

the sea-coast of Campania and Tuscany, the little island of
Igilium, separated by a narrow channel from the Argentarian
promontory, repulsed, or eluded, their hostile attempts; and
at so small a distance from Rome, great numbers of citizens
were securely concealed in the thick woods of that sequestered
spot. The ample patrimonies, which many senatorian families
possessed in Africa, invited them, if they had time, and pru-
dence, to escape from the ruin of their country, to embrace the
shelter of that hospitable province. The most illustrious of these
fugitives was the noble and pious Proba, the widow of the pre-
fect Petronius. After the death of her husband, the most pow-
erful subject of Rome, she had remained at the head of the
Anician family, and successively supplied, from her private
fortune, the expense of the consulships of her three sons. When
the city was besieged and taken by the Goths, Proba supported,
with Christian resignation, the loss of immense riches; em-
barked in a small vessel, from whence she beheld, at sea,
the flames of her burning palace, and fled with her daughter
Laeta, and her granddaughter, the celebrated virgin Demetms,
to the coast of Africa. The benevolent profusion witrTwmch
the matron distributed the fruits, or the price, of her estates,
contributed to alleviate the misfortunes of exile and captivity.
But even the family of Proba herself was not exempt from the
rapacious oppression of Count Heraclian, who basely sold, in
matrimonial prostitution, the noblest maidens of Rome to the
lust or avarice of the Syrian merchants.

The Italian fugitives were dispersed through the provinces,
along the coast of Egypt and Asia, as far as Constantinople and
Jerusalem; and the village of Bethlehem, the solitary residence
of St. Jerome and his female converts, was crowded with illus-
trious beggars of either sex, and every age, who excited the pub-
lic compassion by the remembrance of their past fortune. This
awful catastrophe of Rome filled the astonished Empire with
grief and terror. So interesting a contrast of greatness and
ruin disposed the fond credulity of the people to deplore, and
even to exaggerate, the afflictions of the queen of cities. The
clergy, who applied to recent events the lofty metaphors of
oriental prophecy, were sometimes tempted to confound the
destruction of the capital and the dissolution of the globe.

22 VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME

There exists in human nature a strong propensity to depre-
ciate the advantages, and to magnify the evils, of the present
times. Yet, when the first emotions had subsided, and a fair
estimate was made of the real damage, the more learned and
judicious contemporaries were forced to confess that infant
Rome had formerly received more essential injury from the
Gauls than she had now sustained from the Goths in her de-
clining age. The experience of eleven centuries has enabled
posterity to produce a much more singular parallel, and to
affirm with confidence that the ravages of the Barbarians,
whom Alaric had led from the banks of the Danube, were less
destructive than the hostilities exercised by the troops of Charles
V, a Catholic prince, who styled himself Emperor of the Romans.

The Goths evacuated the city at the end of six days, but
Rome remained above nine months in the possession of the
Imperialists, and every hour was stained by some atrocious
act of cruelty, lust, and rapine. The authority of Alaric pre-
served some order and moderation among the ferocious multi-
tude which acknowledged him for their leader and king; but
the constable of Bourbon had gloriously fallen in the attack of
the walls; and the death of the general removed every restraint
of discipline from an army which consisted of three independent
nations, the Italians, the Spaniards, and the Germans.

The retreat of the victorious Goths, who evacuated Rome
on the sixth day, might be the result of prudence; but it was
not surely the effect of fear. At the head of an army encum-
bered with rich and weighty spoils, their intrepid leader ad-
vanced along the Appian way into the southern provinces of
Italy, destroying whatever dared to oppose his passage, and
contenting himself with the plunder of the unresisting country.

Above four years elapsed from the successful invasion of
Italy by the arms of Alaric to the voluntary retreat of the Goths
under the conduct of his successor Adolphus; and during the
whole time they reigned without control over a country which,
in the opinion of the ancients, had united all the various excel-
lences of nature and art. The prosperity, indeed, which Italy
had attained in the auspicious age of the Antonines had grad-
ually declined with the decline of the Empire. The fruits of a
long peace perished under the rude grasp of the Barbarians;

VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME 23

and they themselves were incapable of tasting the more elegant
refinements of luxury which had been prepared for the use of
the soft and polished Italians. Each soldier, however, claimed
an ample portion of the substantial plenty, the corn and cattle,
oil and wine that was daily collected and consumed in the
Gothic camp ; and the principal warriors insulted the villas and
gardens, once inhabited by Lucullus and Cicero, along the
beauteous coast of Campania. Their trembling captives, the
sons and daughters of Roman senators, presented, in goblets of
gold and gems, large draughts of Falernian wine to the haughty
victors, who stretched their huge limbs under the shade of
plane trees, artificially disposed to exclude the scorching rays
and to admit the genial warmth of the sun. These delights were
enhanced by the memory of past hardships; the comparison of
their native soil, the bleak and barren hills of Scythia, and the
frozen banks of the Elbe and Danube added new charms to
the felicity of the Italian climate.1

Whether fame or conquest or riches were the object of
Alaric, he pursued that object with an indefatigable ardor
which could neither be quelled by adversity nor satiated by
success. No sooner had he reached the extreme land of Italy
than he was attracted by the neighboring prospect of a fertile
and peaceful island. Yet even the possession of Sicily he con-
sidered only as an intermediate step to the important expe-
dition which he already meditated against the continent of
Africa.

The whole design was defeated by the premature death of
Alaric, which fixed, after a short illness, the fatal term of his
conquests. The ferocious character of the Barbarians was
displayed in the funeral of a hero whose valor and fortune they
celebrated with mournful applause. By the labor of a captive
multitude, they forcibly diverted the course of the Busentinus,

1 " The prostrate South to the destroyer yields
Her boasted titles and her golden fields ;
With grim delight the brood of winter view
A brighter day and skies of azure hue ;
Scent the new fragrance of the opening rose,
And quaff the pendent vintage as it grows."

See Gray's Poems, published by Mr. Mason, p. 197.

24 VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME

a small river that washes the walls of Consentia. The royal
sepulchre, adorned with the splendid spoils and trophies of
Rome, was constructed in the vacant bed; the waters were
then restored to their natural channel, and the secret spot
where the remains of Alaric had been deposited was forever
concealed by the inhuman massacre of the prisoners who had
been employed to execute the work.

The personal animosities and hereditary feuds of the Bar-
barians were suspended by the strong necessity of their affairs,
and the brave Adolphus, the brother-in-law of the deceased
monarch, was unanimously elected to succeed to his throne.
The character and political system of the new King of the
Goths may be best understood from his own conversation with
an illustrious citizen of Narbonne; who afterward, in a pil-
grimage to the Holy Land, related it to St. Jerome, in the pres-
ence of the historian Orosius. "In the full confidence of valor
and victory, I once aspired (said Adolphus) to change the face
of the universe; to obliterate the name of Rome; to erect on
its ruins the dominion of the Goths; and to acquire, like Augus-
tus, the immortal fame of the founder of a new empire. By
repeated experiments I was gradually convinced that laws are
essentially necessary to maintain and regulate a well-consti-
tuted state; and that the fierce, untractable humor of the
Goths was incapable of bearing the salutary yoke of laws and
civil government. From that moment I proposed to myself a
different object of glory and ambition; and it is now my sincere
wish that the gratitude of future ages should acknowledge the
merit of a stranger who employed the sword of the Goths, not
to subvert, but to restore and maintain, the prosperity of the
Roman Empire." With these pacific views, the successor of
Alaric suspended the operations of war, and seriously negotiated
with the Imperial court a treaty of friendship and alliance. It
was the interest of the ministers of Honorius, who were now
released from the obligation of their extravagant oath, to de-
liver Italy from the intolerable weight of the Gothic powers;
and they readily accepted their service against the tyrants and
Barbarians who infested the provinces beyond the Alps. Adol-
phus, assuming the character of a Roman general, directed his
march from the extremity of Campania to the southern prov-

VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME 25

inces of Gaul. His troops, cither by force or agreement, imme-
diately occupied the cities of Narbonne, Toulouse, and Bor-
deaux; and though they were repulsed by Count Boniface from
the walls of Marseilles, they soon extended their quarters from
the Mediterranean to the ocean. The oppressed provincials
might exclaim that the miserable remnant which the enemy
had spared was cruelly ravished by their pretended allies; yet
some specious colors were not wanting to palliate, or justify, the
violence of the Goths. The cities of Gaul, which they attacked,
might perhaps be considered as in a state of rebellion against the
government of Honorius; the articles of the treaty or the secret
instructions of the court might sometimes be alleged in favor
of the seeming usurpations of Adolphus; and the guilt of any
irregular, unsuccessful act of hostility might always be imputed,
with an appearance of truth, to the ungovernable spirit of a
Barbarian host, impatient of peace or discipline. The luxury
of Italy had been less effectual to soften the temper than to
relax the courage of the Goths; and they had imbibed the
vices, without imitating the arts and institutions, of civilized
society.

The professions of Adolphus were probably sincere, and
his attachment to the cause of the republic was secured by
the ascendant which a Roman princess had acquired over the
heart and understanding of the Barbarian king. Placidia, the
daughter of the great Theodosius, and of Galla, his second wife,
had received a royal education in the palace of Constantinople;
but the eventful story of her life is connected with the revolu-
tions which agitated the Western Empire under the reign of
her brother Honorius. When Rome was first invested by the
arms of Alaric, Placidia, who was then about twenty years of age,
resided in the city; and her ready consent to the death of her
cousin Serena has a cruel and ungrateful appearance, which,
according to the circumstances of the action, may be aggra-
vated, or excused, by the consideration of her tender age. The
victorious Barbarians detained, either as a hostage or a captive,
the sister of Honorius; but, while she was exposed to the dis-
grace of following round Italy the motions of a Gothic camp,
she experienced, however, a decent and respectful treatment.
The authority of Jornandes, who praises the beauty of Pla-

26 VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME

cidia, may perhaps be counterbalanced by the silence, the
expressive silence, of her flatterers; yet the splendor of her
birth, the bloom of youth, the elegance of manners, and the
dexterous insinuation which she condescended to employ,
made a deep impression on the mind of Adolphus, and the
Gothic King aspired to call himself the brother of the Emperor.
The ministers of Honorius rejected with disdain the proposal
of an alliance so injurious to every sentiment of Roman pride,
and repeatedly urged the restitution of Placidia as an indis-
pensable condition of the treaty of peace. But the daughter of
Theodosius submitted, without reluctance, to the desires of the
conqueror, a young and valiant prince, who yielded to Alaric
in loftiness of stature, but who excelled in the more attractive
qualities of grace and beauty. The marriage of Adolphus
and Placidia was consummated before the Goths retired from
Italy; and the solemn, perhaps the anniversary, day of their
nuptials was afterward celebrated in the house of Ingenuus,
one of the most illustrious citizens of Narbonne in Gaul. The
bride, attired and adorned like a Roman empress, was placed
on a throne of state; and the King of the Goths, who assumed,
on this occasion, the Roman habit, contented himself with a
less honorable seat by her side. The nuptial gift which, ac-
cording to the custom of his nation, was offered to Placidia,
consisted of the rare and magnificent spoils of her country.
Fifty beautiful youths, in silken robes, carried a basin in each
hand; and one of these basins was filled with pieces of gold,
the other with precious stones of an inestimable value. Attalus,
so long the sport of fortune and of the Goths, was appointed to
lead the chorus of the hymeneal song; and the degraded Em-
peror might aspire to the praise of a skilful musician. The
Barbarians enjoyed the insolence of their triumph; and the
provincials rejoiced in this alliance, which tempered, by the
mild influence of love and reason, the fierce spirit of their
Gothic lord.

After the deliverance of Italy from the oppression of the
Goths, some secret counsellor was permitted, amid the fac-
tions of the palace, to heal the wounds of that afflicted country.
By a wise and humane regulation the eight provinces which had
been the most deeply injured, Campania, Tuscany, Picenum,

VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME 27

Samnium, Apulia, Calabria, Bruttium, and Lucania, obtained
an indulgence of five years; the ordinary tribute was reduced
to one-fifth, and even that fifth was destined to restore and sup-
port the useful institution of the public posts. By another law,
the lands which had been left without inhabitants or cultiva-
tion were granted, with some diminution of taxes, to the neigh-
bors who should occupy or the strangers who should solicit
them; and the new possessors were secured against the future
claims of the fugitive proprietors. About the same time a gen-
eral amnesty was published in the name of Honorius, to abolish
the guilt and memory of all the involuntary offences which
had been committed by his unhappy subjects during the term
of the public disorder and calamity. A decent and respectful
attention was paid to the restoration of the capital; the citizens
were encouraged to rebuild the edifices which had been destroyed
or damaged by hostile fire; and extraordinary supplies of corn
were imported from the coast of Africa. The crowds that so
lately fled before the sword of the Barbarians were soon recalled
by the hopes of plenty and pleasure; and Albinus, prefect of
Rome, informed the Court, with some anxiety and surprise, that
in a single day he had taken an account of the arrival of fourteen
thousand strangers. In less than seven years the vestiges of
the Gothic invasion were almost obliterated, and the city
appeared to resume its former splendor and tranquillity. The
venerable matron replaced her crown of laurel, which had been
ruffled by the storms of war; and was still amused, in the last
moment of her decay, with the prophecies of revenge, of victory,
and of eternal dominion.

HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN ROMAN
EMPIRE

ATTILA DICTATES A TREATY OF PEACE

A.D. 441

EDWARD GIBBON

Beyond the Great Wall of China, erected to secure the empire from
their encroachments, were numerous tribes of troublesome Hiongnou
who, becoming united under one head, were successful in an invasion of
that country. These confederated tribes became known as the Huns.
Until the advent of M. Deguignes all was dark concerning them. That
learned and laborious scholar conceived the idea that the Huns might be
thus identified, and has written the history from Chinese sources, of those
who since that time have poured down upon the civilized countries of
Asia and Europe and wasted them. Boulger also identifies these tribes
with the Huns of Attila. After driving the Alani across the Danube and
compelling them to seek an asylum within the borders of the Roman Em-
pire, the terrible Huns had halted in their march westward for something
more than a generation. They were hovering, meantime, on the eastern
frontiers of the empire, " taking part like other barbarians in its disturb-
ances and alliances." Emperors paid them tribute, and Roman generals
kept up a politic or a questionable correspondence with them. Stilicho
had detachments of Huns in the armies which fought against Alaric, King
of the Goths; the greatest Roman soldier after Stilicho — and, like Stili-
cho, of barbarian parentage — 'Aetius, who was to be their most formi-
dable antagonist, had been a hostage and messmate in their camps. All
historians agree that the influx of these barbaric peoples hastened, more
than any other cause, the rapid decline of the great empire which the
Romans had built up. •

About A.D. 433 Attila, equally famous in history and legend, became
the King of the Huns. The attraction of his daring character, and of his
genius for the war which nomadic tribes delight in, gave him absolute
ascendency over his nation, and over the Teutonic and Slavonic tribes
near him. Like other conquerors of his race he imagined and attempted
an empire of ravage and desolation, a vast hunting ground and preserve,
in which men and their works should supply the objects and zest of the
chase.

The gradual encroachments of the Huns on the northern frontiers of
the Roman domain led to a terrific war in 441. Attila was king. His

. aS

HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE 29

first assault upon the Roman power was directed against the Eastern
Empire. The court at Constantinople had been duly obsequious to him,
but lie found a pretext for war. The dreadful ravages of his hordes and
the shameful treaty which he forced upon the empire form a thrilling yet
terrible chapter in the history of the world.

"~pHE western world was oppressed by the Goths and Van-
dals, who fled before the Huns; but the achievements
of the Huns themselves were not adequate to their power and
prosperity. Their victorious hordes had spread from the Volga
to the Danube; but the public force was exhausted by the
discord of independent chieftains; their valor was idly con-
sumed in obscure and predatory excursions; and they often
degraded their national dignity by condescending, for the
hopes of spoil, to enlist under the banners of their fugitive
enemies. In the reign of Attila the Huns again became the
terror of the world ; and I shall now describe the character and
actions of that formidable Barbarian; who alternately insulted
and invaded the East and the West, and urged the rapid down-
fall of the Roman Empire.

In the tide of emigration which impetuously rolled from
the confines of China to those of Germany, the most power-
ful and populous tribes may commonly be found on the verge
of the Roman provinces. The accumulated weight was sus-
tained for a while by artificial barriers; and the easy conde-
scension of the emperors invited, without satisfying, the inso-
lent demands of the Barbarians, who had acquired an eager
appetite for the luxuries of civilized life. The Hungarians,
who ambitiously insert the name of Attila among their native
kings, may affirm with truth that the hordes, which were subject
to his uncle Roas, or Rugilas, had formed their encampments
within the limits of modern Hungary,1 in a fertile country, which
liberally supplied the wants of a nation of hunters and shep-
herds. In this advantageous situation, Rugilas and his valiant
brothers, who continually added to their power and reputation,

1 Hungary has been successively occupied by three Scythian colonies :
i. The Huns of Attila ; 2. The Abares, in the sixth century ; and, 3. The
Turks or Magyars, A.D. 889, the immediate and genuine ancestors of the
modern Hungarians, whose connection with the two former is extremely
faint and remote.

3o HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE

commanded the alternative of peace or war with the two em-
pires. His alliance with the Romans of the West was cemented
by his personal friendship for the great Aetius, who was always
secure of finding, in the Barbarian camp, a hospitable recep-
tion and a powerful support. At his solicitation, and in the
name of John the Usurper, sixty thousand Huns advanced to
the confines of Italy; their march and their retreat were alike
expensive to the State; and the grateful policy of Aetius aban-
doned the possession of Pannonia to his faithful confederates.

The Romans of the East were not less apprehensive of
the arms of Rugilas, which threatened the provinces, or even
the capital. Some ecclesiastical historians have destroyed the
Barbarians with lightning and pestilence; but Theodosius
was reduced to the more humble expedient of stipulating an
annual payment of three hundred and fifty pounds of gold, and
of disguising this dishonorable tribute by the title of general,
which the King of the Huns condescended to accept. The
public tranquillity was frequently interrupted by the fierce
impatience of the Barbarians and the perfidious intrigues of
the Byzantine court. Four dependent nations, among whom
we may distinguish the Bavarians, disclaimed the sovereignty
of the Huns; and their revolt was encouraged and protected
by a Roman alliance, till the just claims and formidable power
of Rugilas were effectually urged by the voice of Eslaw his
ambassador. Peace was the unanimous wish of the senate:
their decree was ratified by the Emperor; and two ambassadors
were named, Plinthas, a general of Scythian extraction, but
of consular rank; and the quaestor Epigenes, a wise and ex-
perienced statesman, who was recommended to that office by
his ambitious colleague.

The death of Rugilas suspended the progress of the treaty.
His two nephews, Attila and Bleda, who succeeded to the throne
of their uncle, consented to a personal interview with the am-
bassadors of Constantinople; but as they proudly refused to
dismount, the business was transacted on horseback, in a spa-
cious plain near the city of Margus, in the Upper Maesia. The
kings of the Huns assumed the solid benefits, as well as the vain
honors, of the negotiation. They dictated the conditions of
peace, and each condition was an insult on the majesty of the

HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE 31

empire. Besides the freedom of a safe and plentiful market on
the banks of the Danube, they required that the annual con-
tribution should be augmented from three hundred and fifty to
seven hundred pounds of gold; that a fine or ransom of eight
pieces of gold should be paid for every Roman captive who had
escaped from his Barbarian master; that the Emperor should
renounce all treaties and engagements with the enemies of
the Huns; and that all the fugitives who had taken refuge in
the court or provinces of Theodosius should be delivered to the
justice of their offended sovereign. This justice was rigorously
inflicted on some unfortunate youths of a royal race. They
were crucified on the territories of the empire, by the command
of Attila: and as soon as the King of the Huns had impressed
the Romans with the terror of his name, he indulged them in a
short and arbitrary respite, while he subdued the rebellious or
independent nations of Scythia and Germany.

Attila, the son of Mundzuk, deduced his noble, perhaps
his regal, descent from the ancient Huns, who had formerly
contended with the monarchs of China. His features, accord-
ing to the observation of a Gothic historian, bore the stamp of
his national origin; and the portrait of Attila exhibits the gen-
uine deformity of a modern Calmuk; a large head, a swarthy
complexion, small, deep-seated eyes, a flat nose, a few hairs in
the place of a beard, broad shoulders, and a short square body,
of nervous strength, though of a disproportioned form. The
haughty step and demeanor of the King of the Huns expressed
the consciousness of his superiority above the rest of mankind;
and he had a custom of fiercely rolling his eyes, as if he wished to
enjoy the terror which he inspired. Yet this savage hero was
not inaccessible to pity; his suppliant enemies might confide in
the assurance of peace or pardon; and Attila was considered
by his subjects as a just and indulgent master.

He delighted in war; but, after he had ascended the throne
in a mature age, his head, rather than his hand, achieved the
conquest of the North ; and the fame of an adventurous soldier
was usefully exchanged for that of a prudent and successful
general. The effects of personal valor are so inconsiderable,
except in poetry or romance, that victory, even among Barbar-
ians, must depend on the degree of skill with which the passions

32 HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE

of the multitude are combined and guided for the service of a
single man. The Scythian conquerors, Attila and Zingis, sur-
passed their rude countrymen in art rather than in courage;
and it may be observed that the monarchies, both of the Huns
and of the Moguls, were erected by their founders on the basis
of popular superstition. The miraculous conception, which
fraud and credulity ascribed to the virgin-mother of Zingis,
raised him above the level of human nature; and the naked
prophet, who in the name of the Deity invested him with the
empire of the earth, pointed the valor of the Moguls with irre-
sistible enthusiasm.

The religious arts of Attila were not less skilfully adapted
to the character of his age and country. It was natural enough
that the Scythians should adore, with peculiar devotion, the god
of war; but as they were incapable of forming either an ab-
stract idea or a corporeal representation, they worshipped their
tutelar deity under the symbol of an iron cimeter. One of the
shepherds of the Huns perceived, that a heifer, who was graz-
ing, had wounded herself in the foot, and curiously followed the
track of the blood, till he discovered, among the long grass,
the point of an ancient sword, which he dug out of the ground
and presented to Attila. That magnanimous, or rather that
artful, prince accepted, with pious gratitude, this celestial
favor, and, as the rightful possessor of the sword of Mars,
asserted his divine and indefeasible claim to the dominion of the
earth. If the rites of Scythia were practised on this solemn
occasion, a lofty altar, or rather pile of fagots, three hundred
yards in length and in breadth, was raised in a spacious plain;
and the sword of Mars was placed erect on the summit of this
rustic altar, which was annually consecrated by the blood of
sheep, horses, and of the hundredth captive.

Whether human sacrifices formed any part of the worship
of Attila, or whether he propitiated the god of war with the
victims which he continually offered in the field of battle, the
favorite of Mars soon acquired a sacred character, which ren-
dered his conquests more easy and more permanent; and the
Barbarian princes confessed, in the language of devotion or
flattery, that they could not presume to gaze, with a steady
eye, on the divine majesty of the King of the Huns. His brother

HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE 33

Bleda, who reigned over a considerable part of the nation, was
compelled to resign his sceptre and his life. Yet even this cruel
act was attributed to a supernatural impulse; and the vigor
with which Attila wielded the sword of Mars convinced the
world that it had been reserved alone for his invincible arm.
But the extent of his empire affords the only remaining evidence
of the number and importance of his victories; and the Scythian
monarch, however ignorant of the value of science and philos-
ophy, might perhaps lament that his illiterate subjects were
destitute of the art which could perpetuate the memory of his
exploits.

If a line of separation were drawn between the civilized
and the savage climates of the globe; between the inhabitants
of cities, who cultivated the earth, and the hunters and shep-
herds, who dwelt in tents, Attila might aspire to the title of su-
preme and sole monarch of the Barbarians. He alone, among
the conquerors of ancient and modern times, united the two
mighty kingdoms of Germany and Scythia; and those vague
appellations, when they are applied to his reign, may be under-
stood with an ample latitude. Thuringia, which stretched be-
yond its actual limits as far as the Danube, was in the number
of his provinces; he interposed, with the weight of a powerful
neighbor, in the domestic affairs of the Franks; and one of his
lieutenants chastised, and almost exterminated, the Burgun-
dians of the Rhine. He subdued the islands of the ocean, the
kingdoms of Scandinavia, encompassed and divided by the
waters of the Baltic; and the Huns might derive a tribute of
furs from that northern region, which has been protected from
all other conquerors by the severity of the climate and the cour-
age of the natives.

Toward the east, it is difficult to circumscribe the dominion
of Attila over the Scythian deserts; yet we may be assured that
he reigned on the banks of the Volga; that the King of the
Huns was dreaded, not only as a warrior, but as a magician;
that he insulted and vanquished the khan of the formidable
Geougen; and that he sent ambassadors to negotiate an equal
alliance with the empire of China. In the proud review of the
nations who acknowledged the sovereignty of Attila, and who
never entertained, during his lifetime, the thought of a revolt,
E., VOL. iv.— 3.

34 HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE

the Gepidae and the Ostrogoths were distinguished by their
numbers, their bravery, and the personal merit of their chiefs.
The renowned Ardaric, King of the Gepidae, was the faithful
and sagacious counsellor of the monarch, who esteemed his
intrepid genius, while he loved the mild and discreet virtues of
the noble Walamir, King of the Ostrogoths.. The crowd of vul-
gar kings, the leaders of so many martial tribes, who served under
the standard of Attila, were ranged in the submissive order of
guards and domestics round the person of their master. They
watched his nod; they trembled at his frown; and at the first
signal of his will they executed, without murmur or hesitation,
his stern and absolute commands. In time of peace the depend-
ent princes, with their national troops, attended the royal camp
in regular succession; but when Attila collected his military
force he was able to bring into the field an army of five or, ac-
cording to another account, of seven hundred thousand Bar-
barians.

The ambassadors of the Huns might awaken the attention
of Theodosius, by reminding him that they were his neighbors
both in Europe and Asia; since they touched the Danube on
one hand, and reached, with the other, as far as the Tanais.
In the reign of his father Arcadius, a band of adventurous Huns
had ravaged the provinces of the East, from whence they brought
away rich spoils and innumerable captives. They advanced,
by a secret path, along the shores of the Caspian Sea ; traversed
the snowy mountains of Armenia; passed the Tigris, the Eu-
phrates, and the Halys; recruited their weary cavalry with the
generous breed of Cappadocian horses: occupied the hilly
country of Cilicia, and disturbed the festal songs and dances of
the citizens of Antioch.

Egypt trembled at their approach; and the monks and
pilgrims of the Holy Land prepared to escape their fury by a
speedy embarkation. The memory of this invasion was still
recent in the minds of the orientals. The subjects of Attila
might execute, with superior forces, the design which these
adventurers had so boldly attempted; and it soon became the
subject of anxious conjecture whether the tempest would fall
on the dominions of Rome or of Persia. Some of the great
vassals of the King of the Huns, who were themselves in the

HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE 35

rank of powerful princes, had been sent to ratify an alliance
and society of arms with the Emperor, or rather with the general,
of the West. They related, during their residence at Rome,
the circumstances of an expedition which they had lately made
into the East.

After passing a desert and a morass, supposed by the Ro-
mans to be the lake Maeotis, they penetrated through the
mountains, and arrived, at the end of fifteen days' march, on
the confines of Media; where they advanced as far as the
unknown cities of Basic and Cursic. They encountered the
Persian army in the plains of Media; and the air, according to
their own expression, was darkened by a cloud of arrows. But
the Huns were obliged to retire before the numbers of the
enemy. Their laborious retreat was effected by a different road ;
they lost the greater part of their booty ; and at length returned
to the royal camp, with some knowledge of the country, and
an impatient desire of revenge. In the free conversation of the
imperial ambassadors, who discussed, at the court of Attila, the
character and designs of their formidable enemy, the ministers
of Constantinople expressed their hope that his strength might
be diverted and employed in a long and doubtful contest with
the princes of the house of Sassan.

The more sagacious Italians admonished their eastern
brethren of the folly and danger of such a hope; and convinced
them, that the Medes and Persians were incapable of resisting
the arms of the Huns; and that the easy and important acquisi-
tion would exalt the pride, as well as power, of the conqueror.
Instead of contenting himself with a moderate contribution
and a military title, which equalled him only to the generals of
Theodosius, Attila would proceed to impose a disgraceful and
intolerable yoke on the necks of the prostrate and captive Ro-
mans, who would then be encompassed, on all sides, by the
empire of the Huns.

While the powers of Europe and Asia were solicitous to
avert the impending danger, the alliance of Attila maintained
the Vandals in the possession of Africa. An enterprise had been
concerted between the courts of Ravenna and Constantinople
for the recovery of that valuable province; and the ports of
Sicily were already filled with the military and naval forces of

36 HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE

Theodosius. But the subtle Genseric, who spread his negotia-
tions round the world, prevented their designs, by exciting the
King of the Huns to invade the Eastern Empire; and a trifling
incident soon became the motive, or pretence, of a destructive
war. Under the faith of the treaty of Margus, a free market
was held on the northern side of the Danube, which was pro-
tected by a Roman fortress surnamed Constantia. A troop of
Barbarians violated the commercial security, killed or dis-
persed the unsuspecting traders, and levelled the fortress with
the ground. The Huns justified this outrage as an act of re-
prisal, alleged that the Bishop of Margus had entered their
territories to discover and steal a secret treasure of their kings,
and sternly demanded the guilty prelate, the sacrilegious spoil,
and the fugitive subjects who had escaped from the justice of
Attila.

The refusal of the Byzantine court was the signal of war;
and the Maesians at first applauded the generous firmness of
their sovereign. But they were soon intimidated by the de-
struction of Viminiacum and the adjacent towns; and the
people were persuaded to adopt the convenient maxim that
a private citizen, however innocent or respectable, may be
justly sacrificed to the safety of his country. The Bishop of
Margus, who did not possess the spirit of a martyr, resolved
to prevent the designs which he suspected. He boldly treated
with the princes of the Huns; secured, by solemn oaths, his
pardon and reward; posted a numerous detachment of Bar-
barians, in silent ambush, on the banks of the Danube; and,
at the appointed hour, opened, with his own hand, the gates of
his episcopal city. This advantage, which had been obtained
by treachery, served as a prelude to more honorable and deci-
sive victories.

The Illyrian frontier was covered by a line of castles and
fortresses; and though the greatest part of them consisted only
of a single tower, with a small garrison, they were commonly
sufficient to repel or to intercept the inroads of an enemy who
was ignorant of the art and impatient of the delay of a regular
siege. But these slight obstacles were instantly swept away by
the inundation of the Huns. They destroyed, with fire and
sword, the populous cities of Sirmium and Singidunum, of

HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE 37

Ratiaria and Marcianopolis, of Naissus and Sardica; where
every circumstance of the discipline of the people and the con-
struction of the buildings had been gradually adapted to the
sole purpose of defence. The whole breadth of Europe, as it
extends above five hundred miles from the Euxine to the Ha-
driatic, was at once invaded and occupied and desolated
by the myriads of Barbarians whom Attila led into the field.
The public danger and distress could not, however, provoke
Theodosius to interrupt his amusements and devotion or to
appear in person at the head of the Roman legions.

But the troops which had been sent against Genseric were
hastily recalled from Sicily; the garrisons on the side of Persia
were exhausted; and a military force was collected in Europe,
formidable by their arms and numbers, if the generals had
understood the science of command and their soldiers the duty
of obedience. The armies of the Eastern Empire were van-
quished in three successive engagements; and the progress of
Attila may be traced by the fields of battle. The two former,
on the banks of the Utus and under the walls of Marcianapolis,
were fought in the extensive plains between the Danube and
Mount Haemus. As the Romans were pressed by a victorious
enemy, they gradually and unskilfully retired toward the Cher-
sonesus of Thrace; and that narrow peninsula, the last extremity
of the land, was marked by their third, and irreparable, defeat.

By the destruction of this army Attila acquired the indis-
putable possession of the field. From the Hellespont to Ther-
mopylae, and the suburbs of Constantinople, he ravaged, with-
out resistance and without mercy, the provinces of Thrace
and Macedonia. Heraclea and Hadrianople might, perhaps,
escape this dreadful irruption of the Huns; but the words, the
most expressive of total extirpation and erasure, are applied to
the calamities which they inflicted on seventy cities of the East-
ern Empire. Theodosius, his court, and the unwarlike people
were protected by the walls of Constantinople; but those walis
had been shaken by a recent earthquake, and the fall of fifty -
eight towers had opened a large and tremendous breach. The
damage indeed was speedily repaired; but this accident was
aggravated by a superstitious fear, that heaven itself had deliv-
ered the imperial city to the shepherds of Scythia, who wpre

38 HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE

strangers to the laws, the language, and the religion of the
Romans.

In all their invasions of the civilized empires of the South,
the Scythian shepherds have been uniformly actuated by a
savage and destructive spirit. The laws of war, that restrain
the exercise of national rapine and murder, are founded on two
principles of substantial interest: the knowledge of the perma-
nent benefits which may be obtained by a moderate use of con-
quest; and a just apprehension, lest the desolation which we
inflict on the enemy's country may be retaliated on our own.
But these considerations of hope and fear are almost unknown
in the pastoral state of nations. The Huns of Attila may, with-
out injustice, be compared to the Moguls and Tartars, before
their primitive manners were changed by religion and luxury.

After the Moguls had subdued the northern provinces of
China, it was seriously proposed, not in the hour of victory and
passion, but in calm deliberate council, to exterminate all the
inhabitants of that populous country, that the vacant land might
be converted to the pasture of cattle. The firmness of a Chinese
mandarin, who insinuated some principles of rational policy into
the mind of Genghis, diverted him from the execution of this
horrid design. But in the cities of Asia, which yielded to the
Moguls, the inhuman abuse of the rights of war was exercised
with a regular form of discipline, which may, with equal reason,
though not with equal authority, be imputed to the victorious
Huns. The inhabitants, who had submitted to their discretion,
were ordered to evacuate their houses, and to assemble in some
plain adjacent to the city; where a division was made of the
vanquished into three parts. The first class consisted of the
soldiers of the garrison, and of the young men capable of bear-
ing arms; and their fate was instantly decided ; they were either
enlisted among the Moguls, or they were massacred on the spot
by the troops, who, with pointed spears and bended bows, had
formed a circle round the captive multitude. The second class,
composed of the young and beautiful women, of the artificers of
every rank and profession, and of the more wealthy or honorable
citizens, from whom a private ransom might be expected, was
distributed in equal or proportionable lots. The remainder,
whose life or death was alike useless to the conquerors, were

HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE 39

permitted to return to the city; which, in the mean while, had
been stripped of its valuable furniture; and a tax was imposed
on those wretched inhabitants for the indulgence of breathing
their native air.

Such was the behavior of the Moguls, when they were not
conscious of any extraordinary rigor. But the most casual
provocation, the slightest motive of caprice or convenience,
often provoked them to involve a whole people in an indis-
criminate massacre; and the ruin of some flourishing cities was
executed with such unrelenting perseverance that, according
to their own expression, horses might run, without stumbling,
over the ground where they had once stood. The three great
capitals of Khorassan, and Maru, Neisabour, and Herat, were
destroyed by the armies of Genghis, and the exact account
which was taken of the slain amounted to four million three
hundred and forty-seven thousand persons. Timur, or Tamer-
lane, was educated in a less barbarous age, and in the profession
of the Mahometan religion; yet, if Attila equalled the hostile
ravages of Tamerlane,1 either the Tartar or the Hun might
deserve the epithet of the "Scourge of God."

It may be affirmed, with bolder assurance, that the Huns
depopulated the provinces of the Empire, by the murder of
Roman subjects whom they led away into captivity. In the
hands of a wise legislator, such an industrious colony might
have contributed to diffuse through the deserts of Scythia the
rudiments of the useful and ornamental arts; but these cap-
tives, who had been taken in war, were accidentally dispersed
among the hordes that obeyed the empire of Attila. The es-
timate of their respective value was formed by the simple
judgment of unenlightened and unprejudiced Barbarians. Per-
haps they might not understand the merit of a theologian, pro-
foundly skilled in the controversies of the Trinity and the

1 Cherefeddin Ali, his servile panegyrist, would afford us many horrid
examples. In his camp before Delhi, Timur massacred one hundred
thousand Indian prisoners who had smiled when the army of their coun-
trymen appeared in sight. The people of Ispahan supplied seventy
thousand human skulls for the structure of several lofty towers. A simi-
lar tax was levied on the revolt of Bagdad ; and the exact account, which
Cherefeddin was not able to procure from the proper officers, is stated by
another historian (Ahmed Arabsiada) at ninety thousand heads.

40 HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE

Incarnation; yet they respected the ministers of every religion;
ind the active zeal of the Christian missionaries, without ap-
proaching the person or the palace of the monarch, successfully
labored in the propagation of the Gospel.

The pastoral tribes, who were ignorant of the distinction of
landed property, must have disregarded the use, as well as the
abuse, of civil jurisprudence; and the skill of an eloquent law-
yer could excite only their contempt or their abhorrence. The
perpetual intercourse of the Huns and the Goths had commu-
nicated the familiar knowledge of the two national dialects;
and the Barbarians were ambitious of conversing in Latin, the
military idiom even of the Eastern Empire. But they disdained
the language and the sciences of 'the Greeks; and the vain
sophist, or grave philosopher, who had enjoyed the flattering
applause of the schools, was mortified to find that his robust
servant was a captive of more value and importance than him-
self. The mechanic arts were encouraged and esteemed, as
they tended to satisfy the wants of the Huns. An architect in
the service of Onegesius, one of the favorites of Attila, was
employed to construct a bath ; but this work was a rare example
of private luxury; and the trades of the smith, the carpenter,
the armorer, were much more adapted to supply a wandering
people with the useful instruments of peace and war.

But the merit of the physician was received with universal
favor and respect: the Barbarians, who despised death, might
be apprehensive of disease; and the haughty conqueror trem-
bled in the presence of a captive to whom he ascribed per-
haps an imaginary power of prolonging or preserving his life.
The Huns might be provoked to insult the misery of their slaves,
over whom they exercised a despotic command; but their man-
ners were not susceptible of a refined system of oppression;
and the efforts of courage and diligence were often recompensed
by the gift of freedom. The historian Priscus, whose embassy
is a source of curious instruction, was accosted in the camp of
Attila by a stranger, who saluted him in the Greek language,
but whose dress and figure displayed the appearance of a wealthy
Scythian. In the siege of Viminiacum he had lost, according to
his own account, his fortune and liberty; he became the slave
of Onegesius ; but his faithful services, against the Romans

HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE 41

and the Acatzires, had gradually raised him to the rank of the
native Huns; to whom he was attached by the domestic pledges
of a new wife and several children. The spoils of war had
restored and improved his private property; he was admitted to
the table of his former lord; and the apostate Greek blessed
the hour of his captivity, since it had been the introduction to
a happy and independent state, which he held by the honorable
tenure of military service.

This reflection naturally produced a dispute on the advan-
tages and defects of the Roman government, which was severely
arraigned by the apostate, and defended by Priscus in a prolix
and feeble declamation. The freedman of Onegesius exposed,
in true and lively colors, the vices of a declining empire, of
which he had so long been the victim; the cruel absurdity of
the Roman princes, unable to protect their subjects against the
public enemy, unwilling to trust them with arms for their own
defence; the intolerable weight of taxes, rendered still more
oppressive by the intricate or arbitrary modes of collection; the
obscurity of numerous and contradictory laws; the tedious and
expensive forms of judicial proceedings; the partial adminis-
tration of justice; and the universal corruption, which increased
the influence of the rich and aggravated the misfortunes of
the poor. A sentiment of patriotic sympathy was at length
revived in the breast of the fortunate exile: and he lamented,
with a flood of tears, the guilt or weakness of those magistrates
who had perverted the wisest and most salutary institutions.

The timid or selfish policy of the Western Romans had
abandoned the Eastern Empire to the Huns. The loss of armies,
and the want of discipline or virtue, were not supplied by the
personal character of the monarch. Theodosius might still
affect the style, as well as the title, of "Invincible Augustus";
but he was reduced to solicit the clemency of Attila, who im-
periously dictated these harsh and humiliating conditions of
peace :

I. The Emperor of the East resigned, by an express or tacit
convention, an extensive and important territory, which stretched
along the southern banks of the Danube, from Singidunum, or
Belgrade, as far as Novas, in the diocese of Thrace. The
breadth was defined by the vague computation of fifteen days'

42 HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE

journey; but, from the proposal of Attila to remove the situa-
tion of the national market, it soon appeared that he compre-
hended the ruined city of Naissus within the limits of his do-
minions.

II. The King of the Huns required and obtained that his
tribute or subsidy should be augmented from seven hundred
pounds of gold to the annual sum of two thousand one hundred;
and he stipulated the immediate payment of six thousand pounds
of gold to defray the expenses or to expiate the guilt of the
war. One might imagine that such a demand, which scarcely
equalled the measure of private wealth, would have been readily
discharged by the opulent Empire of the East; and the public
distress affords a remarkable proof of the impoverished, or at
least of the disorderly, state of the finances. A large proportion
of the taxes extorted from the people was detained and inter-
cepted in their passage, through the foulest channels, to the
treasury of Constantinople. The revenue was dissipated by
Theodosius and his favorites in wasteful and profuse luxury,
which was disguised by the name of imperial magnificence or
Christian charity. The immediate supplies had been exhausted
by the unforeseen necessity of military preparations. A personal
contribution, rigorously but capriciously imposed on the
members of the senatorian order, was the only expedient that
could disarm, without loss of time, the impatient avarice of
Attila; and the poverty of the nobles compelled them to adopt
the scandalous resource of exposing to public auction the jewels
of their wives and the hereditary ornaments of their palaces.

III. The King of the Huns appears to have established, as
a principle of national jurisprudence, that he could never lose
the property, which he had once acquired, in the persons who
had yielded either a voluntary or reluctant submission to his
authority. From this principle he concluded, and the conclu-
sions of Attila were irrevocable laws, that the Huns, who had
been taken prisoners in war, should be released without delay
and without ransom; that every Roman captive who had pre-
sumed to escape should purchase his right to freedom at the
price of twelve pieces of gold; and that all the Barbarians who
had deserted the standard of Attila should be restored, with-
out any promise or stipulation of pardon. In the execution of

HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE 43

this cruel and ignominious treaty the imperial officers were
forced to massacre several loyal and noble deserters who
refused to devote themselves to certain death; and the Ro-
mans forfeited all reasonable claims to the friendship of any
Scythian people, by this public confession, that they were desti-
tute either of faith or power to protect the suppliant who had
embraced the throne of Theodosius.

It would have been strange, indeed, if Theodosius had
purchased, by the loss of honor, a secure and solid tranquillity,
or if his tameness had not invited the repetition of injuries.
The Byzantine court was insulted by five or six successive em-
bassies, and the ministers of Attila were uniformly instructed
to press the tardy or imperfect execution of the last treaty; to
produce the names of fugitives and deserters, who were still
protected by the Empire; and to declare, with seeming modera-
tion, that, unless their sovereign obtained complete and imme-
diate satisfaction, it would be impossible for him, were it even
his wish, to check the resentment of his warlike tribes. Besides
the motives of pride and interest, which might prompt the King
of the Huns to continue this train of negotiation, he was influ-
enced by the less honorable view of enriching his favorites at the
expense of his enemies. The imperial treasury was exhausted
to procure the friendly offices of the ambassadors and their
principal attendants, whose favorable report might conduce to
the maintenance of peace.

The Barbarian monarch was flattered by the liberal recep-
tion of his ministers; he computed, with pleasure, the value and
splendor of their gifts, rigorously exacted the performance of
every promise which would contribute to their private emolu-
ment, and treated as an important business of state the marriage
of his secretary Constantius. That Gallic adventurer, who was
recommended by Aetius to the King of the Huns, had engaged
his service to the ministers of Constantinople, for the stipulated
reward of a wealthy and noble wife; and the daughter of Count
Saturninus was chosen to discharge the obligations of her coun-
try. The reluctance of the victim, some domestic troubles, and
the unjust confiscation of her fortune cooled the ardor of her
interested lover; but he still demanded, in the name of Attila,
an equivalent alliance; and, after many ambiguous delays and

44 HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE

excuses, the Byzantine court was compelled to sacrifice to this
insolent stranger the widow of Armatius, whose birth, opulence,
and beauty placed her in the most illustrious rank of the Roman
matrons.

For these importunate and oppressive embassies Attila
claimed a suitable return: he weighed, with suspicious pride,
the character and station of the imperial envoys ; but he conde-
scended to promise that he would advance as far as Sardica to
receive any ministers who had been invested with the consular
dignity. The council of Theodosius eluded this proposal, by
representing the desolate and ruined condition of Sardica, and
even ventured to insinuate that every officer of the army or
household was qualified to treat with the most powerful princes
of Scythia. Maximin, a respectable courtier, whose abilities
had been long exercised in civil and military employments,
accepted, with reluctance, the troublesome, and perhaps dan-
gerous, commission of reconciling the angry spirit of the King
of the Huns.

His friend, the historian Priscus, embraced the opportunity
of observing the Barbarian hero in the peaceful and domestic
scenes of life: but the secret of the embassy, a fatal and guilty
secret, was intrusted only to the interpreter Vigilius. The two
last ambassadors of the Huns, Orestes, a noble subject of the
Pannonian province, and Edecon, a valiant chieftain of the
tribe of the Scyrri, returned at the same time from Constanti-
nople to the royal camp. Their obscure names were afterward
illustrated by the extraordinary fortune and the contrast of
their sons : the two servants of Attila became the fathers of the
last Roman Emperor of the West, and of the first Barbarian
King of Italy.

The ambassadors, who were followed by a numerous train
of men and horses, made their first halt at Sardica, at the dis-
tance of three hundred and fifty miles, or thirteen days' jour-
ney, from Constantinople. As the remains of Sardica were still
included within the limits of the Empire, it was incumbent on
the Romans to exercise the duties of hospitality. They pro-
vided, with the assistance of the provincials, a sufficient num-
ber of sheep and oxen, and invited the Huns to a splendid, or,
at least, a plentiful supper. But the harmony of the entertain-

HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE 45

ment was soon disturbed by mutual prejudice and indiscretion.
The greatness of the Emperor and the empire was warmly
maintained by their ministers; the Huns, with equal ardor,
asserted the superiority of their victorious monarch : the dispute
was inflamed by the rash and unseasonable flattery of Vigilius,
who passionately rejected the comparison of a mere mortal with
the divine Theodosius; and it was with extreme difficulty that
Maximin and Priscus were able to divert the conversation, or
to soothe the angry minds, of the Barbarians. When they rose
from the table, the Imperial ambassador presented Edecon and
Orestes with rich gifts of silk robes and Indian pearls, which
they thankfully accepted.

Yet Orestes could not forbear insinuating that he had not
always been treated with such respect and liberality; and the
offensive distinction which was implied, between his civil office
and the hereditary rank of his colleague seems to have made
Edecon a doubtful friend and Orestes an irreconcilable enemy.
After this entertainment they travelled about one hundred miles
from Sardica to Naissus. That flourishing city, which had
given birth to the great Constantine, was levelled with the
ground; the inhabitants were destroyed or dispersed; and the
appearance of some sick persons, who were still permitted to
exist among the ruins of the churches, served only to increase
the horror of the prospect. The surface of the country was
covered with the bones of the slain; and the ambassadors, who
directed their course to the northwest, were obliged to pass
the hills of modern Servia before they descended into the flat
and marshy grounds which are terminated by the Danube.

The Huns were masters of the great river: their navigation
was performed in large canoes, hollowed out of the trunk of a
single tree; the ministers of Theodosius were safely landed on
the opposite bank; and their Barbarian associates immediately
hastened to the camp of Attila, which was equally prepared for
the amusements of hunting or of war. No sooner had Maxi-
min advanced about two miles from the Danube than he began
to experience the fastidious insolence of the conqueror. He was
sternly forbidden to pitch his tents in a pleasant valley, lest he
should infringe the distant awe that was due to the royal man-
sion. The ministers of Attila pressed him to communicate the

46 HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE

business, and the instructions, which he reserved for the ear of
their sovereign. When Maximin temperately urged the con-
trary practice of nations, he was still more confounded to find
that the resolutions of the Sacred Consistory, those secrets (says
Priscus) which should not be revealed to the gods themselves,
had been treacherously disclosed to the public enemy. On his
refusal to comply with such ignominious terms, the Imperial en-
voy was commanded instantly to depart; the order was recalled;
it was again repeated ; and the Huns renewed their ineffectual
attempts to subdue the patient firmness of Maximin.

At length, by the intercession of Scotta, the brother of One-
gesius, whose friendship had been purchased by a liberal gift,
he was admitted to the royal presence ; but, instead of obtaining
a decisive answer, he was compelled to undertake a remote
journey toward the north, that Attila might enjoy the proud
satisfaction of receiving, in the same camp, the ambassadors
of the Eastern and Western empires. His journey was regu-
lated by the guides, who obliged him to halt, to hasten his
march, or to deviate from the common road, as it best suited
the convenience of the King. The Romans, who traversed the
plains of Hungary, suppose that they passed several navigable
rivers, either in canoes or portable boats ; but there is reason to
suspect that the winding stream of the Teyss, or Tibiscus, might
present itself in different places under different names.

From the contiguous villages they received a plentiful and
regular supply of provisions; mead instead of wine, millet in
the place of bread, and a certain liquor named camus, which,
according to the report of Priscus, was distilled from barley.1
Such fare might appear coarse and indelicate to men who had
tasted the luxury of Constantinople; but, in their accidental
distress, they were relieved by the gentleness and hospitality of
the same Barbarians, so terrible and so merciless in war. The
ambassadors had encamped on the edge of a large morass.
A violent tempest of wind and rain, of thunder and lightning,
overturned their tents, immersed their baggage and furniture

1 The Huns themselves still continued to despise the labors of agricult-
ure : they abused the privilege of a victorious nation ; and the Goths,
their industrious subjects, who cultivated the earth, dreaded their neigh-
borhood, like that of so many ravenous wolves.

HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE 47

in the water, and scattered their retinue, who wandered in the
darkness of the night, uncertain of their road, and apprehen-
sive of some unknown danger, till they awakened by their
cries the inhabitants of a neighboring village, the property of
the widow of Bleda. A bright illumination, and, in a few mo-
ments, a comfortable fire of reeds, was kindled by their officious
benevolence; the wants, and even the desires, of the Romans
were liberally satisfied; and they seem to have been embar-
rassed by the singular politeness of Bleda's widow, who added
to her other favors the gift, or at least the loan, of a sufficient
number of beautiful and obsequious damsels.

The sunshine of the succeeding day was dedicated to repose,
to collect and dry the baggage, and to the refreshment of the
men and horses; but, in the evening, before they pursued their
journey, the ambassadors expressed their gratitude to the
bounteous lady of the village, by a very acceptable present of
silver cups, red fleeces, dried fruits, and Indian pepper. Soon
after this adventure, they rejoined the march of Attila, from
whom they had been separated about six days, and slowly pro-
ceeded to the capital of an empire, which did not contain, in the
space of several thousand miles, a single city.

As far as we may ascertain the vague and obscure geog-
raphy of Priscus, this capital appears to have been seated
between the Danube, the Teyss, and the Carpathian hills, in
the plains of Upper Hungary, and most probably in the neigh-
borhood of Jezberin, Agria, or Tokay. In its origin it could be
no more than an accidental camp, which, by the long and
frequent residence of Attila, had insensibly swelled into a huge
village, for the reception of his court, of the troops who followed
his person, and of the various multitude of idle or industrious
slaves and retainers. The baths, constructed by Onegesius,
were the only edifice of stone; the materials had been trans-
ported from Pannonia; and since the adjacent country was
destitute even of large timber, it may be presumed that the
meaner habitations of the royal village consisted of straw, or
mud, or of canvas. The wooden houses of the more illustrious
Huns were built and adorned with rude magnificence, accord-
ing to the rank, the fortune, or the taste of the proprietors.
They seemed to have been distributed with some degree of order

48 HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE

and symmetry; and each spot became more honorable as it
approached the person of the sovereign.

The palace of Attila, which surpassed all other houses in
his dominions, was built entirely of wood, and covered an
ample space of ground. The outward enclosure was a lofty
wall, or palisade, of smooth square timber, intersected with
high towers, but intended rather for ornament than defence.
This wall, which seems to have encircled the declivity of the hill,
comprehended a great variety of wooden edifices> adapted to
the uses of royalty. A separate house was assigned to each of
the numerous wives of Attila; and, instead of the rigid and
illiberal confinement imposed by Asiatic jealousy, they politely
admitted the Roman ambassadors to their presence, their table,
and even to the freedom of an innocent embrace. When Maxi-
min offered his presents to Cerce, the principal Queen, he ad-
mired the singular architecture of her mansion, the height of
the round columns, the size and beauty of the wood, which was
curiously shaped or turned, or polished or carved; and his
attentive eye was able to discover some taste in the ornaments
and some regularity in the proportions.

After passing through the guards, who watched before the
gate, the ambassadors were introduced into the private apart-
ment of Cerce. The wife of Attila received their visit sitting,
or rather lying, on a soft couch; the floor was covered with a
carpet; the domestics formed a circle round the Queen; and
her damsels, seated on the ground, where employed in working
the variegated embroidery which adorned the dress of the Bar-
baric warriors. The Huns were ambitious of displaying those
riches which were the fruit and evidence of their victories; the
trappings of their horses, their swords, and even their shoes
were studded with gold and precious stones; and their tables
were profusely spread with plates, and goblets, and vases of
gold and silver, which had been fashioned by the labor of
Grecian artists. The monarch alone assumed the superior
pride of still adhering to the simplicity of his Scythian ancestors.
The dress of Attila, his arms, and the furniture of his horse were
plain, without ornament, and of a single color. The royal table
was served in wooden cups and platters; flesh was his only food;
and the conqueror of the North never tasted the luxury of bread.

HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE 49

When Attila first gave audience to the Roman ambassadors
on the banks of the Danube, his tent was encompassed with a
formidable guard. The monarch himself was seated in a
wooden chair. His stern countenance, angry gestures, and
impatient tone, astonished the firmness of Maximin ; but Vigilius
had more reason to tremble, since he distinctly understood the
menace, that if Attila did not respect the law of nations, he would
nail the deceitful interpreter to the cross, and leave his body to
the vultures. The Barbarian condescended, by producing an
accurate list, to expose the bold falsehood of Vigilius, who had
affirmed that no more than seventeen deserters could be found.
But he arrogantly declared that he apprehended only the dis-
grace of contending with his fugitive slaves; since he despised
their impotent efforts to defend the provinces which Theodosius
had intrusted to their arms: "For what fortress," added Attila,
" what city, in the wide extent of the Roman Empire, can hope
to exist, secure and impregnable, if it is our pleasure that it
should be erased from the earth?"

He dismissed, however, the interpreter, who returned to
Constantinople with his peremptory demand of more complete
restitution and a more splendid embassy. His anger gradually
subsided, and his domestic satisfaction in a marriage which he
celebrated on the road with the daughter of Eslam, might per-
haps contribute to mollify the native fierceness of his temper.
The entrance of Attila into the royal village was marked by a
very singular ceremony. A numerous troop of women came
out to meet their hero and their King. They marched before
him, distributed into long and regular files; the intervals be-
tween the files were filled by white veils of thin linen, which the
women on either side bore aloft in their hands, and which formed
a canopy for a chorus of young virgins, who chanted hymns and
songs in the Scythian language. The wife of his favorite Onege-
sius, with a train of female attendants, saluted Attila at the
door of her own house, on his way to the palace; and offered,
according to the custom of the country, her respectful homage,
by entreating him to taste the wine and meat which she had
prepared for his reception. As soon as the monarch had gra-
ciously accepted her hospitable gift, his domestics lifted a small
silver table to a convenient height, as he sat on horseback; and
E. , VOL. iv. — 4.

50 HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE

Attila, when he had touched the goblet with his lips, again sa-
luted the wife of Onegesius, and continued his march.

During his residence at the seat of empire, his hours were
not wasted in the recluse idleness of a seraglio; and the King
of the Huns could maintain his superior dignity, without con-
cealing his person from the public view. He frequently assem-
bled his council, and gave audience to the ambassadors of the
nations; and his people might appeal to the supreme tribunal,
which he held at stated times, and, according to the Eastern
custom, before the principal gate of his wooden palace. The
Romans, both of the East and of the West, were twice invited
to the banquets, where Attila feasted with the princes and
nobles of Scythia. Maximin and his colleagues were stopped
on the threshold, till they had made a devout libation to the
health and prosperity of the King of the Huns, and were con-
ducted, after this ceremony, to their respective seats in a spa-
cious hall. The royal table and couch, covered with carpets and
fine linen, was raised by several steps in the midst of the hall;
and a son, an uncle, or perhaps a favorite king were admitted
to share the simple and homely repast of Attila.

Two lines of small tables, each of which contained three or
four guests, were ranged in order on either hand ; the right was
esteemed the most honorable, but the Romans ingenuously
confess that they were placed on the left; and that Beric, an
unknown chieftain, most probably of the Gothic race, preceded
the representatives of Theodosius and Valentinian. The Bar-
barian monarch received from his cup-bearer a goblet filled
with wine, and courteously drank to the health of the most
distinguished guest, who rose from his seat and expressed in
the same manner his loyal and respectful vows. This ceremony
was successively performed for all, or at least, for the illustrious
persons of the assembly; and a considerable time must have
been consumed, since it was thrice repeated as each course
or service was placed on the table. But the wine still remained
after the meat had been removed; and the Huns continued to
indulge their intemperance long after the sober and decent am-
bassadors of the two empires had withdrawn themselves from
the nocturnal banquet. Yet before they retired, they enjoyed a
singular opportunity of observing the manners of the nation in

HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE 51

their convivial amusements. Two Scythians stood before the
couch of Attila, and recited the verses which they had com-
posed, to celebrate his valor and his victories.

A profound silence prevailed in the hall; and the attention
of the guests was captivated by the vocal harmony, which
revived and perpetuated the memory of their own exploits;
a martial ardor flashed from the eyes of the warriors, who were
impatient for battle; and the tears of the old men expressed
their generous despair, that they could no longer partake the
danger and glory of the field. This entertainment, which
might be considered as a school of military virtue, was suc-
ceeded by a farce, that debased the dignity of human nature.
A Moorish and a Scythian buffoon successively excited the
mirth of the rude spectators, by their deformed figure, ridiculous
dress, antic gestures, absurd speeches, and the strange, unin-
telligible confusion of the Latin, the Gothic, and the Hunnic
languages; and the hall resounded with loud and licentious
peals of laughter. In the midst of this intemperate riot, Attila
alone, without a change of countenance, maintained his stead-
fast and inflexible gravity; which was never relaxed, except on
the entrance of Irnac, the youngest of his sons: he embraced
the boy with a smile of paternal tenderness, gently pinched him
by the cheek, and betrayed a partial affection, which was justi-
fied by the assurance of his prophets that Irnac would be the
future support of his family and empire.

Two days afterward, the ambassadors received a second
invitation : and they had reason to praise the politeness, as well
as the hospitality, of Attila. The King of the Huns held a long
and familiar conversation with Maximin; but his civility was
interrupted by rude expressions and haughty reproaches; and
he was provoked, by a motive of interest, to support, with unbe-
coming zeal, the private claims of his secretary Constantius.
"The Emperor," said Attila, "has long promised him a rich
wife: Constantius must not be disappointed; nor should a
Roman emperor deserve the name of liar." On the third day
the ambassadors were dismissed: the freedom of several cap-
tives was granted, for a moderate ransom, to their pressing en-
treaties; and, besides the royal presents, they were permitted
to accept from each of the Scythian nobles the honorable and

52 HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE

useful gift of a horse. Maximin returned, by the same road, to
Constantinople; and though he was involved in an accidental
dispute with Beric, the new ambassador of Attila, he flattered
himself that he had contributed, by the laborious journey, to
confirm the peace and alliance of the two nations.1

But the Roman ambassador was ignorant of the treacherous
design which had been concealed under the mask of the public
faith. The surprise and satisfaction of Edecon, when he con-
templated the splendor of Constantinople, had encouraged the
interpreter Vigilius to procure for him a secret interview with
the eunuch Chrysaphius,2 who governed the Emperor and the
empire. After some previous conversation, and a mutual oath
of secrecy, the eunuch, who had not from his own feelings or
experience imbibed any exalted notions of ministerial virtue,
ventured to propose the death of Attila as an important service,
by which Edecon might deserve a liberal share of the wealth
and luxury which he admired. The ambassador of the Huns
listened to the tempting offer; and professed, with apparent
zeal, his ability, as well as readiness, to execute the bloody deed :
the design was communicated to the master of the offices, and
the devout Theodosius consented to the assassination of his
invincible enemy. But this perfidious conspiracy was defeated
by the dissimulation, or the repentance, of Edecon ; and though
he might exaggerate his inward abhorrence for the treason,
which he seemed to approve, he dexterously assumed the merit
of an early and voluntary confession.

If we now review the embassy of Maximin and the behavior
of Attila, we must applaud the Barbarian, who respected the
laws of hospitality, and generously entertained and dismissed the

1 The curious narrative of this embassy, which required few observa-
tions, and was not susceptible of any collateral evidence, may be found
in Priscus. But I have not confined myself to the same order; and I had
previously extracted the historical circumstances, which were less inti-
mately connected with the journey, and business, of the Roman ambas-
sadors.

2 M. de Tillemont has very properly given the succession of chamber-
lains who reigned in the name of Theodosius. Chrysaphius was the last,
and, according to the unanimous evidence of history, the worst of these
favorites. His partiality for his godfather, the heresiarch Eutyches, en-
gaged him to persecute the orthodox party.

HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE 53

minister of a prince who had conspired against his life. But
the rashness of Vigilius will appear still more extraordinary,
since he returned, conscious of his guilt and danger, to the
royal camp, accompanied by his son, and carrying with him a
weighty purse of gold, which the favorite eunuch had furnished,
to satisfy the demands of Edecon and to corrupt the fidelity of
the guards. The interpreter was instantly seized, and dragged
before the tribunal of Attila, where he asserted his innocence
with specious firmness, till the threat of inflicting instant death
on his son extorted from him a sincere discovery of the criminal
transaction. Under the name of ransom, or confiscation, the
rapacious King of the Huns accepted two hundred pounds of
gold for the life of a traitor whom he disdained to punish. He
pointed his just indignation against a nobler object. His am-
bassadors, Eslaw and Orestes, were immediately despatched to
Constantinople, with a peremptory instruction, which it was
much safer for them to execute than to disobey.

They boldly entered the Imperial presence, with the fatal
purse hanging down from the neck of Orestes, who interrogated
the eunuch Chrysaphius, as he stood beside the throne, whether
he recognized the evidence of his guilt. But the office of reproof
was reserved for the superior dignity of his colleague, Eslaw,
who gravely addressed the Emperor of the East in the following
words: "Theodosius is the son of an illustrious and respectable
parent : Attila likewise is descended from a noble race ; and he
has supported, by his actions, the dignity which he inherited
from his father Mundzuk. But Theodosius has forfeited his
paternal honors, and, by consenting to pay tribute, has de-
graded himself to the condition of a slave. It is therefore just,
that he should reverence the man whom fortune and merit have
placed above him, instead of attempting, like a wicked slave,
clandestinely to conspire against his master." The son of Ar-
cadius, who was accustomed only to the voice of flattery, heard
with astonishment the severe language of truth: he blushed
and trembled, nor did he presume directly to refuse the head
of Chrysaphius, which Eslaw and Orestes were instructed to
demand.

A solemn embassy, armed with full powers and magnificent
gifts, was hastily sent to deprecate the wrath of Attila; and

54 HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN EMPIRE

his pride was gratified by the choice of Nomius and Anatolius,
two ministers of consular or patrician rank, of whom the one
was great treasurer, and the other was master-general of the
armies of the East. He condescended to meet these ambassa-
dors on the banks of the river Drenco; and though he at first
affected a stern and haughty demeanor, his anger was insensibly
mollified by their eloquence and liberality. He condescended
to pardon the Emperor, the eunuch, and the interpreter; bound
himself by an oath to observe the conditions of peace; released
a great number of captives; abandoned the fugitives and
deserters to their fate ; and resigned a large territory, to the south
of the Danube, which he had already exhausted of its wealth
and inhabitants. But this treaty was purchased at an expense
which might have supported a vigorous and successful war:
and the subjects of Theodosius were compelled to redeem the
safety of a worthless favorite by oppressive taxes, which they
would more cheerfully have paid for his destruction.

THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF BRITAIN

A.D. 449-579

JOHN R. GREEN CHARLES KNIGHT

If we look for the fatherland of the English race, we must, as modern
historians have clearly shown, direct our search" far away from England
herself." In the fifth century of the Christian era a region in what is now
called Schleswig was known by the name of Anglen (England). But the
inhabitants of this district are believed to have comprised only a small
detached portion of the Engle (English), while the great body of this
people probably dwelt within the limits of the ^present Oldenburg and
lower Hanover.

On several sides of Anglen were the homes of various tribes of Saxons
and Jutes, and these peoples were all kindred, being members of one
branch (Low German) of the Teutonic family. History first finds them
becoming united through community of blood, of language, institutions,
and customs, although it was too early yet to justify the historian in giv-
ing to them the inclusive name of Englishmen. They all, however, had
part in the conquest of England, and it was their union in that land that
gave birth to the English people.

Little is known of the actual character and life of these people who
made the earliest England, but their Germanic inheritance is traceable in
their social and political framework, which already prefigured the na-
tional organization that through centuries of gradual development became
modern England.

Out of their early modes grew the forms of English citizenship and
legislation, and the individual and public freedom which has slowly
broadened down from generation to generation. Later came the modify-
ing, if not transforming, influence of Christianity, replacing the ancient
nature-worship which they took with them to their new home. On these
foundations the English race, as it has grown up in the land they made
their own, and in other lands to which like men and institutions have
been carried, has reared its various structures of nationality.

JOHN R. GREEN

the three English tribes the Saxons lay nearest to the
empire, and they were naturally the first to touch the Ro-
man world; before the close of the third century indeed their
boats appeared in such force in the English Channel as to

55

56 THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF BRITAIN

call for a special fleet to resist them. The piracy of our fathers
had thus brought them to the shores of a land which, dear as
it is now to Englishmen, had not as yet been trodden by Eng-
lish feet. This land was Britain. When the Saxon boats
touched its coast the island was the westernmost province of
the Roman Empire. In the fifty-fifth year before Christ a
descent of Julius Caesar revealed it to the Roman world; and
a century after Caesar's landing the emperor Claudius under-
took its conquest. The work was swiftly carried out. Before
thirty years were over the bulk of the island had passed beneath
the Roman sway, and the Roman frontier had been carried to
the firths of Forth and of Clyde. The work of civilization
followed fast on the work of the sword. To the last indeed the
distance of the island from the seat of empire left her less Ro-
manized than any other province of the west. The bulk of
the population scattered over the country seem in spite of
imperial edicts to have clung to their old law as to their old
language, and to have retained some traditional allegiance to
their native chiefs. But Roman civilization rested mainly on
city life, and in Britain as elsewhere the city was thoroughly
Roman. In towns such as Lincoln or York, governed by their
own municipal officers, guarded by massive walls, and linked
together by a network of magnificent roads which reached from
one end of the island to the other, manners, language, political
life, all were of Rome.

For three hundred years the Roman sword secured order
and peace without Britain and within, and with peace and
order came a wide and rapid prosperity. Commerce sprang
up in ports among which London held the first rank; agricul-
ture flourished till Britain became one of the corn-exporting
countries of the world; the mineral resources of the province
were explored in the tin mines of Cornwall, the lead mines of
Somerset or Northumberland, and the iron mines of the Forest
of Dean. But evils which sapped the strength of the whole
empire told at last on the province of Britain.

Wealth and population alike declined under a crushing
system of taxation, under restrictions which fettered industry,
under a despotism which crushed out all local independence.
And with decay within came danger from without. For cen-

THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF BRITAIN 57

times past the Roman frontier had held back the Barbaric
world beyond it — the Parthian of the Euphrates, the Numidian
of the African desert, the German of the Danube or the Rhine.
In Britain a wall drawn from Newcastle to Carlisle bridled
the British tribes, the Picts as they were called, who had been
sheltered from Roman conquest by the fastnesses of the High-
lands.

It was this mass of savage barbarism which broke upon
the empire as it sank into decay. In its western dominions
the triumph of these assailants was complete. The Franks
conquered and colonized Gaul. The West Goths conquered
and colonized Spain. The Vandals founded a kingdom in
Africa. The Burgundians encamped in the borderland be-
tween Italy and the Rhone. The East Goths ruled at last in
Italy itself.

It was to defend Italy against the Goths that Rome in the
opening of the fifth century withdrew her legions from Britain,
and from that moment the province was left to struggle un-
aided against the Picts. Nor were these its only enemies. While
marauders from Ireland, whose inhabitants then bore the name
of Scots, harried the west, the boats of Saxon pirates, as we
have seen, were swarming off its eastern and southern coasts.

For forty years Britain held bravely out against these assail-
ants; but civil strife broke its powers of resistance, and its rulers
fell back at last on the fatal policy by which the empire invited
its doom while striving to avert it, the policy of matching bar-
barian against barbarian. By the usual promises of land
and pay a band of warriors was drawn for this purpose from
Jutland in 449 with two ealdormen, Hengist and Horsa, at
their head.

If by English history we mean the history of Englishmen in
the land which from that time they made their own, it is with
this landing of Hengist's war band that English history begins.
They landed on the shores of the Isle of Thanet at a spot known
since as Ebbsfleet. No spot can be so sacred to Englishmen
as the spot which first felt the tread of English feet. There
is little to catch the eye in Ebbsfleet itself, a mere lift of ground
with a few gray cottages dotted over it, cut off nowadays from
the sea by a reclaimed meadow and a sea-wall.

58 THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF BRITAIN

But taken as a whole the scene has a wild beauty of its own.
To the right the white curve of Ramsgate cliffs looks down on
the crescent of Pegwell Bay; far away to the left across gray
marsh levels where smoke wreaths mark the site of Richborough
and Sandwich the coast line trends dimly toward Deal. Every-
thing in the character of the spot confirms the national tradition
which fixed here the landing-place of our fathers; for the physi-
cal changes of the country since the fifth century have told little
on its main features. At the time of Hengist's landing a broad
inlet of sea parted Thanet from the mainland of Britain; and
through this inlet the pirate boats would naturally come sailing
with a fair wind to what was then the gravel spit of Ebbsfleet.

The work for which the mercenaries had been hired was
quickly done; and the Picts are said to have been scattered
to the winds in a battle fought on the eastern coast of Brit-
ain. But danger from the Pict was hardly over when danger
came from the Jutes themselves. Their fellow-pirates must
have flocked from the channel to their settlement in Thanet;
the inlet between Thanet and the mainland was crossed, and
the Englishmen won their first victory over the Britons in forc-
ing their passage of the Medway at the village of Aylesford.

A second defeat at the passage of the Cray drove the British
forces in terror upon London; but the ground was soon won
back again, and it was not till 465 that a series of petty con-
flicts which had gone on along the shores of Thanet made way
for a decisive struggle at Wippedsfleet. Here however the over-
throw was so terrible that from this moment all hope of saving
northern Kent seems to have been abandoned, and it was only
on its southern shore that the Britons held their ground. Ten
years later, in 475, the long contest was over, and with the fall
of Lymne, whose broken walls look from the slope to which
they cling over the great flat of Romney Marsh, the work of
the first English conqueror was done.

The warriors of Hengist had been drawn from the Jutes,
the smallest of the three tribes who were to blend in the English
people. But the greed of plunder now told on the great tribe
which stretched from the Elbe to the Rhine, and in 477 Saxon
invaders were seen pushing slowly along the strip of land which
lay westward of Kent between the weald and the sea. No-

THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF BRITAIN 59

where has the physical aspect of the country more utterly
changed. A vast sheet of scrub, woodland, and waste which
then bore the name of the Andredsweald stretched for more than
a hundred miles from the borders of Kent to the Hampshire
Downs, extending northward almost to the Thames and leaving
only a thin strip of coast which now bears the name of Sussex
between its southern edge and the sea.

This coast was guarded by a fortress which occupied the
spot now called Pevensey, the future landing-place of the
Norman Conqueror; and the fall of this fortress of Anderida
in 491 established the kingdom of the South Saxons. "JEKe
and Cissa beset Anderida," so ran the pitiless record of the
conquerors, "and slew all that were therein, nor was there
afterward one Briton left."

But Hengist and file's men had touched hardly more than
the coast, and the true conquest of Southern Britain was re-
served for a fresh band of Saxons, a tribe known as the Gewissas,
who landed under Cerdic and Cynric on the shores of the South-
ampton Water, and pushed in 495 to the great downs or Gwent
where Winchester offered so rich a prize. Nowhere was the
strife fiercer than here; and it was not till 519 that a decisive
victory at Charford ended the struggle for the "Gwent" and
set the crown of the West Saxons on the head of Cerdic. But
the forest belt around it checked any further advance; and
only a year after Charford the Britons rallied under a new
leader, Arthur, and threw back the invaders as they pressed
westward through the Dorsetshire woodlands in a great over-
throw at Badbury or Mount Badon. The defeat was followed
by a long pause in the Saxon advance from the southern coast,
but while the Gewissas rested, a series of victories whose history
is lost was giving to men of the same Saxon tribe the coast dis-
trict north of the mouth of the Thames.

It is probable, however, that the strength of Camulodunum,
the predecessor of our modern Colchester, made the progress
of these assailants a slow and doubtful one; and even when its
reduction enabled the East Saxons to occupy the territory to
which they have given their name of Essex a line of woodland
which has left its traces in Epping and Hainault forests
checked their farther advance into the island.

60 THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF BRITAIN

Though seventy years had passed since the victory of Ayles-
ford only the outskirts of Britain were won. The invaders
were masters as yet but of Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, and
Essex. From London to St. David's Head, from the Andreds-
weald to the Firth of Forth the country still remained uncon-
quered, and there was little in the years which followed Ar-
thur's triumph to herald that onset of the invaders which was
soon to make Britain England. Till now its assailants had
been drawn from two only of the three tribes whom we saw
dwelling by the northern sea, from the Saxons and the Jutes.
But the main work of conquest was to be done by the third, by
the tribe which bore that name of Engle or Englishmen which
was to absorb that of Saxon or Jute and to stamp itself on the
people which sprang from the union of the conquerors as on
the land that they won.

The Engle had probably been settling for years along the
coast of Northumbria and in the great district which was cut
off from the rest of Britain by the Wash and the Fens, the
later East Anglia. But it was not till the moment we have
reached that the line of defences which had hitherto held the
invaders at bay was turned by their appearance in the Humber
and the Trent. This great river line led like a highway into
the heart of Britain; and civil strife seems to have broken the
strength of British resistance. But of the incidents of this
final struggle we know nothing. One part of the English force
marched from the Humber over the Yorkshire wolds to found
what was called the kingdom of the Deirans.

Under the empire political power had centred in the dis-
trict between the Humber and the Roman wall; York was the
capital of Roman Britain; villas of rich land-owners studded
the valley of the Ouse; and the bulk of the garrison maintained
in the island lay camped along its northern border. But no
record tells us how Yorkshire was won, or how the Engle made
themselves masters of the uplands about Lincoln. It is only
by their later settlements that we follow their march into the
heart of Britain. Seizing the valley of the Don and whatever
breaks there were in the woodland that then filled the space
between the Humber and the Trent, the Engle followed the
curve of the latter river, and struck along the line of its tribu-

THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF BRITAIN 61

tary the Soar. Here round the Roman Ratas, the predecessor
of our Leicester, settled a tribe known as the Middle English,
while a small body pushed farther southward, and under the
name of "South Engle" occupied the oolitic upland that forms
our present Northamptonshire.

But the mass of the invaders seem to have held to the line
of the Trent and to have pushed westward to its head-waters.
Repton, Lichfield, and Tamworth mark the country of these
western Englishmen, whose older name was soon lost in that of
Mercians, or Men of the March. Their settlement was in fact
a new march or borderland between conqueror and conquered ;
for here the impenetrable fastness of the Peak, the mass of
Cannock Chase, and the broken country of Staffordshire en-
abled the Briton to make a fresh and desperate stand.

It was probably this conquest of Mid-Britain by the Engle
that roused the West Saxons to a new advance. For thirty
years they had rested inactive within the limits of the Gwent,
but in 552 their capture of the hill fort of Old Sarum threw open
the reaches of the Wiltshire downs, and a march of King Cuth-
wulf on the Thames made them masters in 571 of the districts
which now form Oxfordshire and Berkshire.

Pushing along the upper valley of Avon to a new battle at
Barbury Hill they swooped at last from their uplands on the
rich prey that lay along the Severn. Gloucester, Cirencester,
and Bath, cities which had leagued under their British kings
to resist this onset, became in 577 the spoil of an English vic-
tory at Deorham, and the line of the great western river lay
open to the arms of the conquerors. Once the West Saxons
penetrated to the borders of Chester, and Uriconium, a town
beside the Wrekin which has been recently brought again to
light, went up in flames. The raid ended in a crushing defeat
which broke the West-Saxon strength, but a British poet in
verses still left to us sings piteously the death song of Uri-
conium, "the white town in the valley," the town of white
stone gleaming among the green woodlands. The torch of
the foe had left it a heap of blackened ruins where the
singer wandered through halls he had known in happier
days, the halls of its chief Kyndylan, "without fire, without
light, without song," their stillness broken only by the eagle's

62 THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF BRITAIN

scream, the eagle who "has swallowed fresh drink, heart's
blood of Kyndylan the fair."

With the victory of Deorham the conquest of the bulk of
Britain was complete. Eastward of a line which may be
roughly drawn along the moorlands of Northumberland and
Yorkshire through Derbyshire and the Forest of Arden to the
Lower Severn, and thence by Mendip to the sea, the island had
passed into English hands. Britain had in the main become
England. And within this new England a Teutonic society
was settled on the wreck of Rome. So far as the conquest had
yet gone it had been complete. Not a Briton remained as
subject or slave on English ground. Sullenly, inch by inch,
the beaten men drew back from the land which their conquerors
had won; and eastward of the border line which the English
sword had drawn all was now purely English.

CHARLES KNIGHT

"They" [the Romans], says Bede, "resided within th* ram-
part that Severus made across the island, on the south side of it ;
as the cities, temples, bridges, and paved ways do testify to this
day." On the north of the wall were the nations that no severity
had reduced to subjection, and no resistance could restrain from
plunder. At the extreme west of England were the people of
Cornwall, or little Wales, as it was called; having the most
intimate relations with the people of Britannia Secunda, or
Wales; and both connected with the colony of Armorica.
The inhabitants of Cornwall and Wales, we may assume, were
almost exclusively of the old British stock. The abandonment
of the country by the Romans had affected them far less than
that change affected the more cultivated country, that had been
the earliest subdued, and for nearly four centuries had received
the Roman institutions and adopted the Roman customs.

But in the chief portion of the island, from the southern and
eastern coasts to the Tyne and the Solway, there was a mixed
population, among whom it would be difficult to trace that com-
mon bond which would constitute nationality. The British
families of the interior had become mingled with the settlers of
Rome and its tributaries to whom grants of land had been
assigned as the rewards of military service; and the coasts from

THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF BRITAIN 63

the Humber to the Exe had been here and there peopled with
northern settlers, who had gradually planted themselves among
the Romanized British; and were, we may well believe, among
the most active of those who carried forward the commercial
intercourse of Britain with Gaul and Italy.

When, therefore, we approach the period of what is termed
the Saxon invasion, and hear of the decay, the feebleness, the
cowardice, and the misery of the Britons — all which attributes
have been somewhat too readily bestowed upon the population
which the Romans had left behind — it would be well to consider
what these so-called Britons really were, to enable us properly to
understand the transition state through which the country passed.

Our first native historian is Gildas, who lived in the middle of
the sixth century. "From the early part of the fifth century,
when the Greek and Roman writers cease to notice the affairs
of Britain, his narrative, on whatever authority it may have been
founded, has been adopted without question by Bede and suc-
ceeding authors, and accepted, notwithstanding its barrenness
of facts and pompous obscurity, by all but general consent, as the
basis of early English history." Gibbon has justly pointed
out his inconsistencies, his florid descriptions of the flourishing
condition of agriculture and commerce after the departure of
the Romans, and his denunciations of the luxury of the people;
when he, at the same time, describes a race who were ignorant
of the arts, incapable of building walls of defence, or of arming
themselves with proper weapons. When "this monk," as
Gibbon calls him, "who, in the profound ignorance of human
life, presumes to exercise the office of historian," tells us that
the Romans, who were occasionally called hi to aid against
the Picts and Scots, "give energetic counsel to the timorous
natives, and leave them patterns by which to manufacture
arms," we seem to be reading an account of some remote tribe,
to whom the Roman sword and buckler were as unfamiliar as
the musket was to the Otaheitans when Cook first went among
them.

When Gildas describes the soldiers on the wall as "equally
slow to fight and ill-adapted to run away"; and tells the re-
markable incident which forms part of every schoolboy's belief,
that the defenders of the wall were pulled down by great hooked

64 THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF BRITAIN

weapons and dashed against the ground, we feel a pity akin to
contempt for a people so stupid and passive, and are not alto-
gether sorry that the Picts and Scots, "differing one from
another in manners, but inspired with the same avidity for
blood," had come with their bushy beards and their half-
clothed bodies, to supplant so effeminate a race. When he
makes this feeble people send an embassy to a Roman in Gaul
to say, "The barbarians drive us to the sea; the sea throws
us back on the barbarians: thus two modes of death await us;
we are either slain or drowned," we must wonder at the very
straitened limits in which this unhappy people were shut up.

Surely much of this is little more than the tumid rhetoric of
the cloister; for all the assumptions that have been raised of
the physical degeneracy of the people are quite unsupported
by any real historical evidence. M. Guizot considers it unjust
and cruel to view their humble supplications, so declared by
Gildas, to Rome for aid, as evidences of the effeminacy of that
nation, whose resistance to the Saxons has given a chapter to
history at a time when history has few traces of Italians, Span-
iards, and Gauls.

That the representations of Gildas could only be partially
true, as applied to some particular districts, is sufficiently proved
by the undoubted fact that within little more than twenty years
from the date of these cowardly demonstrations Anthemius,
the Emperor, solicited the aid of the Britons against the Visi-
goths; and twelve thousand men from this island, under one of
the native chieftains, Rhiothimus, sailed up the Loire, and
fought under the Roman command. They are described by
a contemporary Roman writer as quick, well-armed; turbulent
and contumacious from their bravery, their numbers, and their
common agreement. These were not the people who were
likely to have stood upon a wall to be pulled down by hooked
weapons. They might have been the people who had clung,
more than the other inhabitants of the Roman provinces, to
their original language and customs; but it is not improbable
that they would have been of the mixed races with whom Rome
had been in more intimate relations, and to whom she con-
tinued to render offices of friendship after the separation of the
island province from her empire.

THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF BRITAIN 65

Amid all this conflict of testimony there is the undoubted
fact that out of the Roman municipal institutions had risen the
establishment of separate sovereignties, as Procopius relates.
Britain, according to St. Jerome, was "a province fertile in
tyrants." The Roman municipal government was kept com-
pact and uniform under a great centralizing power. It fell to
pieces here, as in Gaul, when that power was withdrawn. It
resolved itself into a number of local governments without any
principle of cohesion. The vicar of the municipium became
an independent ruler and head of a little republic ; and that his
authority was contested by some who had partaken of his dele-
gated dignity may be reasonably inferred.

The difference of races would also promote the contests for
command. If East Anglia contained a preponderance of one
race of settlers, and Kent and Sussex of another, they might
well quarrel for supremacy. But when all the settlers on the
Saxon shore had lost the control and protection of the Count who
once governed them, it may also be imagined that the more
exclusively British districts would not readily cooperate for
defence with those who were more strange to their kindred even
than the Roman. All the European Continent was in a state
of political dislocation; and we may safely conclude that when
the great power was shattered that had so long held the govern-
ment of the world, the more distant and subordinate branch of
its empire would resolve itself into some of the separate ele-
ments of authority and of imperfect obedience by which a clan
is distinguished from a nation.

Nor was the power of the Christian Church in Britain of a
more united character than that of the civil rulers. No doubt
a church had been formed and organized. There were bishops,
so called, in the several cities; but their authority was little
concentrated and their tenets were discordant. Pilgrimages
were even made to the sacred places of Palestine ; and at a very
early period monasteries were founded. That of Bangor, or
the Great Circle, seems to have had some relation to the ancient
Druidical worship, upon which it was probably engrafted in that
region where Druidism had long flourished. There were Brit-
ish versions of the Bible. But that the church had no sustain-
ing power at the period when civil society was so wholly dis-
E., VOL. iv.— 5.

66 THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF BRITAIN

organized, may be inferred from circumstances which preceded
the complete overthrow of Christian rites by Saxon heathen-
dom.

Bede devotes several chapters of his Ecclesiastical History
to the actions of St. Germanus, who came expressly to Britain
to put down the Pelagian heresy; and, amid the multitude of
miraculous circumstances, records how "the authors of the per-
verse notions lay hid, and, like the evil spirits, grieved for the
loss of the people that was rescued from them. At length, after
mature deliberation, they had the boldness to enter the lists, and
appeared, being conspicuous for riches, glittering in apparel,
and supported by the flatteries of many." The people, accord-
ing to Bede, were the judges of this great controversy, and
gave their voices for the orthodox belief.

Whether the Pelagians were expelled from Britain by reason
or by force, it is evident that, in the middle of the fifth century,
there was a strong element of religious disunion very generally
prevailing; and that at a period when the congregations were
in a great degree independent of each other, and therefore
difficult of subjection to a common authority, the rich and the
powerful had adopted a creed which was opposed to the cen-
tralizing rule of the Roman Church, and were arguing about
points of faith as strongly as they were contesting for worldly
supremacy. Dr. Lappenberg justly points out this celebrated
controversy in our country as "indicating the weakness of that
religious connection which was so soon to be totally annihilated."
We may, in some degree, account for the reception of the doc-
trine of Pelagius by knowing that he was a Briton, whose plain
unlatinized name was Morgan.

Macaulay has startled many a reader of the most familiar
histories of England, in saying, "Hengist and Horsa, Vortigern
and Rowena, Arthur and Mordred, are mythical persons, whose
very existence may be questioned, and whose adventures must
be classed with those of Hercules and Romulus." It is difficult
to write of a period of which the same writer has said, "an age
of fable completely separates two ages of truth." Yet no one
knew better than this accomplished historian himself that an
age of fable and an age of truth cannot be distinguished with
absolute precision. It is not that what is presented to us

THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF BRITAIN 67

through the haze of tradition must necessarily be unreal, any
more than that what comes to us in an age of literature must be
absolutely true. An historical fact, a real personage, may be
handed down from a remote age in the songs of bards; but it is
not therefore to be inferred that these national lyrics are founded
upon pure invention. It is curious to observe that, wandering
amid these traces of events and persons that have been shaped
into history, how ready we are to walk in the footsteps of some
half-fabulous records, and wholly to turn away from others
which seem as strongly impressed upon the shifting sands of
national existence.

We derive Hengist and Horsa from the old Anglo-Saxon
authorities; and modern history generally adopts them. Arthur
and Mordred have a Celtic origin, and they are as generally
rejected as "mythical persons." It appears to us that it is as
precipitate wholly to renounce the one as the other, because
they are both surrounded with an atmosphere of the fabulous.
Hengist and Horsa come to us encompassed with Gothic tra-
ditions that belong to other nations. Arthur presents himself
with his attributes of the magician Merlin, and the knights of the
Round Table. But are we therefore to deny altogether their
historical existence ? In following the ignis jatuus of tradition,
the credulous annalists of the monastic age were lost in the
treacherous ground over which it led them. The more patient
research of a critical age sees in that doubtful light a friendly
warning of what to avoid, and hence a guide to more stable
pathways.

Hengist and Horsa — who, according to the Anglo-Saxon histo-
rians, landed in the year 449 on the shore which is called Ebbs-
fleet — were personages of more than common mark. "They
were the sons of Wihtgils; Wihtgils son of Witta, Witta of
Wecta, Wecta of Woden." So says the Anglo-Saxon Chron-
icle, and adds, "From this Woden sprang all our royal families."
These descendants, in the third generation from the great Saxon
divinity, came over in three boats. They came by invitation
of Wyrtgeone — Vortigern — King of the Britons. The King
gave them land in the southeast of the country, on condition
that they should fight against the Picts; and they did fight, and
had the victory wheresoever they came. And then they sent

68 THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF BRITAIN

for the Angles, and told them of the worthlessness of the people
and the excellences of the land. This is the Saxon narrative.
The seductive graces of Rowena, the daughter of Horsa, who
corrupted the King of the Britons by love and wine, is an em-
bellishment of the British traditions.

Then came the great battles for possession of the land. At
Aylesford and Crayford the Kentish Britons were overthrown.
Before the Angles the Welsh fled like fire. These events oc-
cupy a quarter of a century. While they are going on, the Ro-
man Emperor, as we have mentioned upon indubitable author-
ity, receives an auxiliary force of twelve thousand men from
Britain. We cannot rely upon narratives that tell us of the
king of the Britons, when we learn from no suspicious sources
that the land was governed by many separate chiefs; and
which represent a petty band of fugitives as gaining mighty tri-
umphs for a great ruler, and then subduing him themselves in a
wonderfully short time.

The pretensions of Hengist and Horsa to be the immediate
descendants of Woden would seem to imply their mythical
origin. But many Saxon chiefs of undoubted reality rested
their pretensions upon a similar genealogy. The myth was as
flattering to the Anglo-Saxon pride of descent as the correspond-
ing myth that the ancient inhabitants of the island were descended
from the Trojan Brute was acceptable to the British race.
But amid much of fable there is the undoubted fact that Ger-
manic tribes were gradually possessing themselves of the fairest
parts of Britain — a progressive usurpation, far different from a
sudden conquest. Amid the wreck of the social institutions
left by Rome, when all that remained of a governing power was
centred in the towns, it may be readily conceived that the rich
districts of the eastern and southern coasts would be eagerly
peopled by new settlers, whose bond of society was founded
upon the occupation of the land; and who, extending the area
of their occupation, would eventually come into hostile conflict
with the previous possessors.

For a century and a half a thick darkness seems to over-
spread the history of our country. In the Anglo-Saxon writers
we can trace little, with any distinctness, beyond the brief and
monotonous records of victories and slaughters. Hengist and

THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF BRITAIN 69

slew four troops of Britons with the edge of the sword.
Hengist then vanishes, and ^Ella comes with his three sons. In
491 they besieged Andres-cester, " and slew all that dwelt therein,
so that not a single Briton was there left." Then come Cerdic
and Cynric his son; then Port and his two sons, and land at
Portsmouth; and so we reach the sixth century. Cerdic and
Cynric now stand foremost among the slaughterers, and they
establish the kingdom of the West Saxons and conquer the
Isle of Wight.

In the middle of the century Ida begins to reign, from whom
arose the royal race of North-humbria. In 565 Ethelbert
succeeded to the kingdom of the Kentish-men, and held it fifty-
three years. The war goes on in the south-midland counties,
where Cuthwulf is fighting; and it reaches the districts of the
Severn, where Cuthwine and Ceawlin slay great kings, and take
Gloucester and Cirencester and Bath. One of these fierce
brethren is killed at last, and Ceawlin, "having taken many
spoils and towns innumerable, wrathful returned to his own."
Where "his own" was we are not informed.

We reach, at length, the year 596, when "Pope Gregory sent
Augustin to Britain, with a great many monks, who preached
the word of God to the nation of the Angles." Bede very
judiciously omits all such details. He tells us that "they car-
ried on the conflagration from the eastern to the western sea,
without any opposition, and almost covered all the superfices
of the perishing island. Public as well as private structures were
overturned; the priests were everywhere slain before the altars;
the prelates and the people, without any respect of persons,
were destroyed with fire and sword." There is little to add to
these impressive words, which no doubt contain the general
truth. But if we open the British history of Geoffrey of Mon-
mouth, we find ourselves relieved from the thick darkness of
the Anglo-Saxon records, by the blue lights and red lights of the
most wondrous romance. Rowena comes with her golden
wine-cup. Merlin instructs Vortigern how to discover the two
sleeping dragons who hindered the foundation of his tower.
Aurelius, the Christian King, burns Vortigern in his Cambrian
city of refuge. Eldol fights a duel with Hengist, cuts off his
head, and destroys the Saxons without mercy. Merlin the

70 THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF BRITAIN

magician, and Uther Pendragon, with fifteen thousand men,
bring over "the Giant's Dance" from Ireland, and set it up in
Salisbury Plain. Uther Pendragon is made the Christian king
over all Britain.

At length we arrive at Arthur, the son of Uther. To him
the entire monarchy of Britain belonged by hereditary right.
Hoel sends him fifteen thousand men from Armorica, and he
makes the Saxons his tributaries; and with his own hand kills
four hundred and seventy in one battle. He not only conquers
the Saxons, but subdues Gaul, among other countries, and
holds his court in Paris. His coronation at the City of the Le-
gions (Caer-Leon) is gorgeous beyond all recorded magnificence;
and the general state of the country, in these days of Arthur,
before the middle of the sixth century, is thus described: "At
that time, Britain had arrived at such a pitch of grandeur that
in abundance of riches, luxury of ornaments, and politeness of
inhabitants, it far surpassed all other kingdoms." Mordred,
the wicked traitor, at length disturbs all this tranquillity and
grandeur, and brings over barbarous people from different
countries. Arthur falls in battle. The Saxons prevail, and
the Britons retire into Cornwall and Wales.

Amid the bewildering mass of the obscure and the fabulous
which our history presents of the first century and a half of the
Saxon colonization, there are some well-established facts which
are borne out by subsequent investigations. Such is Bede's
account of the country of the invaders, and the parts in which
they settled. This account, compared with other authorities,
gives us the following results. They consisted of "the three
most powerful nations of Germany — Saxons, Angles, and Jutes."
The Saxons came from the parts which, in Bede's time, were
called the country of the Old Saxons. That country is now
known as the duchy of Holstein. These, under Ella, founded
the kingdom of the South Saxons — our present Sussex. Later
in the fifth century, the same people, under Cerdic, established
themselves in the district extending from Sussex to Devonshire
and Cornwall, which was the kingdom of the West Saxons.

Other Saxons settled in Essex and Middlesex. The Angles,
says Bede, came from "the country called Angelland, and it is
said from that time to remain desert to this day." There is a

THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF BRITAIN 71

part of the duchy of Schleswig, to the north of Holstein, which
still bears the name of Anglen. These people gave their name
to the whole country, Engla-land, or Angla-land, from the
greater extent of territory which they permanently occupied.
As the Saxons possessed themselves of the southern coasts, the
Angles established themselves on the northeastern. Their
kingdom of East Anglia comprised Norfolk and Suffolk, as well
as part of Cambridgeshire; and they extended themselves to
the north of the Humber, forming the powerful state of North-
umbria, and carrying their dominion even to the Forth and the
Clyde.

The Jutes came from the country north of the Angles, which
is in the upper part of the present Schleswig; and they occupied
Kent and the Isle of Wight, with that part of Hampshire which
is opposite the island. Sir Francis Palgrave is of opinion that
" the tribes by whom Britain was invaded appear principally to
have proceeded from the country now called Friesland; for of
all the continental dialects the ancient Frisick is the one which
approaches most nearly to the Anglo-Saxon of our ancestors."
Mr. Craik has pointed out that " the modern kingdom of Den-
mark comprehends all the districts from which issued, accord-
ing to the old accounts, the several tribes who invaded Britain
upon the fall of the Roman Empire. And the Danes proper
(who may be considered to represent the Jutes); the Angles,
who live between the Bight of Flensborg and the river Schley
on the Baltic; the Prisons, who inhabit the islands along the
west coast of Jutland, with a part of the bailiwick of Husum in
Schleswig; and the Germans of Holstein (Bede's Old Saxons)
are still all recognized by geographers and ethnographers as
distinct races."

ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME

BATTLE OF CHALONS

A.D. 451

CREASY GIBBON

After Attila had conquered and laid waste the provinces of the East-
ern Empire south of the Danube and exacted heavy tribute from Theo-
dosius II, he turned his attention to the subjugation of the Slavic and
Germanic tribes who still remained independent. These, with one excep-
tion, he overcame and placed under the sovereignty of his son. He laid
claim to one-half of the Western Empire, as the betrothed husband of
Valentinian's sister Honoria, from whom he had years before received
the offer of her hand in marriage.

In 451, with Genseric, King of the Vandals, for his ally, he invaded
Gaul. Before his advance the cities hastened to capitulate, and so com-
plete was his devastation of the country that it came to be a saying that
the grass never grew where his horses had trod. But in Aetius, their
commander-in-chief under Valentinian III, the Romans had an able gen-
eral, who was aided by the West Gothic king Theodoric. The West
Goths and the Franks, the former from the South, the latter from the
North of Gaul, joined him in large numbers, and the allied forces drove
the Huns from the walls of Orleans, which he had besieged. From there
he retreated to Chalons, where his westward movement was to receive its
final check. This decisive event was, in the words of Herbert, " the dis-
comfiture of the mighty attempt of Attila to found a new anti-Christian
dynasty upon the wreck of the temporal power of Rome, at the end of
the term of twelve hundred years, to which its duration had been limited
by the forebodings of the heathen."

SIR EDWARD SHEPHERD CREASY

A BROAD expanse of plains, the Campi Catalaimici of the
ancients, spreads far and wide around the city of Chalons,
in the northeast of France. The long rows of poplars, through
which the river Marne winds its way, and a few thinly scattered
villages, are almost the only objects that vary the monotonous
aspect of the greater part of this region. But about five miles
from Chalons, near the little hamlets of Chape and Cuperly, the

72

ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME 73

ground is indented and heaped up in ranges of grassy mounds
and trenches, which attest the work of man's hands in ages past,
and which, to the practised eye, demonstrate that this quiet spot
has once been the fortified position of a huge military host.

Local tradition gives to these ancient earthworks the name
of Attila's Camp. Nor is there any reason to question the cor-
rectness of the title, or to doubt that behind these very ramparts
it was that fourteen hundred years ago the most powerful
heathen king that ever ruled in Europe mustered the remnants
of his vast army, which had striven on these plains against the
Christian soldiery of Toulouse and Rome. Here it was that
Attila prepared to resist to the death his victors in the field ; and
here he heaped up the treasures of his camp in one vast pile,
which was to be his funeral pyre should his camp be stormed.
It was here that the Gothic and Italian forces watched, but
dared not assail their enemy in his despair, after that great and
terrible day of battle when

"The sound

Of conflict was o'erpast, the shout of all
Whom earth could send from her remotest bounds,
Heathen or faithful ; from thy hundred mouths,
That feed the Caspian with Riphean snows.
Huge Volga ! from famed Hypanis, which once
Cradled the Hun ; from all the countless realms
Between Imaus and that utmost strand
Where columns of Herculean rock confront
The blown Altantic; Roman, Goth, and Hun,
And Scythian strength of chivalry, that tread
The cold Codanian shore or what far lands
Inhospitable drink Cimmerian floods,
Franks, Saxons, Sue vie, and Sarmatian chiefs,
And who from green Armorica or Spain
Flocked to the work of death."

The victory which the Roman general Aetius, with his
Gothic allies, had then gained over the Huns, was the last vic-
tory of imperial Rome. But among the long fasti of her tri-
umphs, few can be found that, for their importance and ulti-
mate benefit to mankind, are comparable with this expiring
effort of her arms. It did not, indeed, open to her any new
career of conquest — it did not consolidate the relics of her power
— it did not turn the rapid ebb of her fortunes. The mission of

74 ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME

imperial Rome was, in truth, already accomplished. She had
received and transmitted through her once ample dominion the
civilization of Greece. She had broken up the barriers of nar-
row nationalities among the various states and tribes that dwelt
around the coasts of the Mediterranean. She had fused these
and many other races into one organized empire, bound to-
gether by a community of laws, of government and institutions.
Under the shelter of her full power the true faith had arisen in
the earth, and during the years of her decline it had been nour-
ished to maturity, it had overspread all the provinces that ever
obeyed her sway. For no beneficial purpose to mankind could
the dominion of the seven-hilled city have been restored or pro-
longed. But it was all-important to mankind what nations
should divide among them Rome's rich inheritance of empire.
Whether the Germanic and Gothic warriors should form states
and kingdoms out of the fragments of her dominions, and be-
come the free members of the Commonwealth of Christian
Europe, or whether pagan savages, from the wilds of central
Asia, should crush the relics of classic civilization and the early
institutions of the Christianized Germans in one hopeless chaos
of barbaric conquest. The Christian Visigoths of King Theo-
doric fought and triumphed at Chalons side by side with the
legions of Aetius. Their joint victory over the Hunnish host
not only rescued for a time from destruction the old age of
Rome, but preserved for centuries of power and glory the Ger-
manic element in the civilization of modern Europe.

In order to estimate the full importance to mankind of the
battle of Chalons we must keep steadily in mind who and what
the Germans were, and the important distinctions between
them and the numerous other races that assailed the Roman
Empire ; and it is to be understood that the Gothic and Scandi-
navian nations are included in the German race. Now, "in
two remarkable traits the Germans differed from the Sarmatic
as well as from the Slavic nations, and, indeed, from all those
other races to whom the Greeks and Romans gave the designa-
tion of barbarians. I allude to their personal freedom and
regard for the rights of men; secondly, to the respect paid by
them to the female sex, and the chastity for which the latter
were celebrated among the people of the North. These were

ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME 75

the foundations of that probity of character, self-respect, and
purity of manners which may be traced among the Germans
and Goths even during pagan times, and which, when their
sentiments were enlightened by Christianity, brought out those
splendid traits of character which distinguish the age of chivalry
and romance."

What the intermixture of the German stock with the classic,
at the fall of the Western Empire, has done for mankind may
be best felt by watching, with Arnold, over how large a portion
of the earth the influence of the German element is now ex-
tended.

"It affects, more or less, the whole west of Europe, from the
head of the Gulf of Bothnia to the most southern promontory
of Sicily, from the Oder and the Adriatic to the Hebrides and to
Lisbon. It is true that the language spoken over a large por-
tion of this place is not predominantly German; but even in
France and Italy, and Spain, the influence of the Franks, Bur-
gundians, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and Lombards while it has
colored even the language, has in blood and institutions left its
mark legibly and indelibly. Germany, the Low Countries,
Switzerland, for the most part Denmark, Norway, and Sweden,
and our own islands are all in language, in blood, and in insti-
tutions German most decidedly. But all South America is peo-
pled with Spaniards and Portuguese; all North America and
all Australia with Englishmen. I say nothing of the prospects
and influence of the German race in Africa and in India; it is
enough to say that half of Europe and all America and Australia
are German, more or less completely, in race, in language, or in
institutions, or in all."

By the middle of the fifth century Germanic nations had
settled themselves in many of the fairest regions of the Roman
Empire, had imposed their yoke on the provincials, and had
undergone, to a considerable extent, that moral conquest which
the arts and refinements of the vanquished in arms have so
often achieved over the rough victor. The Visigoths held the
North of Spain, and Gaul south of the Loire. Franks, Ale-
manni, Alans, and Burgundians had established themselves in
other Gallic provinces, and the Suevi were masters of a large
southern portion of the Spanish peninsula. A king of the Van-

76 ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME

dais reigned in North Africa; and the Ostrogoths had firmly
planted themselves in the provinces north of Italy. Of these
powers and principalities, that of the Visigoths, under their
king Theodoric, son of Alaric, was by far the first in power and
in civilization.

The pressure of the Huns upon Europe had first been felt in
the fourth century of our era. They had long been formidable
to the Chinese empire, but the ascendency in arms which an-
other nomadic tribe of Central Asia, the Sienpi, gained over
them, drove the Huns from their Chinese conquest westward;
and this movement once being communicated to the whole
chain of barbaric nations that dwelt northward of the Black Sea
and the Roman Empire, tribe after tribe of savage warriors
broke in upon the barriers of civilized Europe. The Huns
crossed the Tanais into Europe in 375, and rapidly reduced to
subjection the Alans, the Ostrogoths, and other tribes that were
then dwelling along the course of the Danube. The armies of
the Roman Emperor that tried to check their progress were cut
to pieces by them, and Pannonia and other provinces south of
the Danube were speedily occupied by the victorious cavalry of
these new invaders. Not merely the degenerate Romans, but
the bold and hardy warriors of Germany and Scandinavia, were
appalled at the number, the ferocity, the ghastly appearance,
and the lightning-like rapidity of the Huns. Strange and
loathsome legends were coined and credited, which attributed
their origin to the union of

" Secret, black, and midnight hags"

with the evil spirits of the wilderness.

Tribe after tribe and city after city fell before them. Then
came a pause in their career of conquest in Southwestern Europe,
caused probably by dissensions among their chiefs, and also by
their arms being employed in attacks upon the Scandinavian
nations. But when Attila — or Atzel, as he is called in the Hun-
garian language — became their ruler, the torrent of their arms
was directed with augmented terrors upon the West and the
South, and their myriads marched beneath the guidance of one
master-mind to the overthrow both of the new and the old
powers of the earth.

ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME 77

Recent events have thrown such a strong interest over every-
thing connected with the Hungarian name that even the terri-
ble renown of Attila now impresses us the more vividly through
our sympathizing admiration of the exploits of those who claim
to be descended from his warriors, and "ambitiously insert the
name of Attila among their native kings." The authenticity of
this martial genealogy is denied by some writers and questioned
by more. But it is at least certain that the Magyars of Arpad,
who are the immediate ancestors of the bulk of the modern
Hungarians, and who conquered the country which bears the
name of Hungary in A.D. 889, were of the same stock of man-
kind as were the Huns of Attila, even if they did not belong to
the same subdivision of that stock. Nor is there any improba-
bility in the tradition that after Attila's death many of his war-
riors remained in Hungary, and that their descendants after-
ward joined the Huns of Arpad in their career of conquest. It
is certain that Attila made Hungary the seat of his empire. It
seems also susceptible of clear proof that the territory was then
called Hungvar, and Attila's soldiers Hungvari. Both the Huns
of Attila and those of Arpad came from the family of nomadic
nations whose primitive regions were those vast wildernesses of
High Asia which are included between the Altaic and the Him-
alayan mountain chains.

The inroads of these tribes upon the lower regions of Asia
and into Europe have caused many of the most remarkable
revolutions in the history of the world. There is every reason
to believe that swarms of these nations made their way into dis-
tant parts of the earth at periods long before the date of the
Scythian invasion of Asia, which is the earliest inroad of the
nomadic race that history records. The first, as far as we can
conjecture, in respect to the time of their descent, were the Fin-
nish and Ugrian tribes, who appear to have come down from
the Altaic border of High Asia toward the northwest, in which
direction they advanced to the Uralian Mountains. There
they established themselves; and that mountain chain, with
its valleys and pasture lands, became to them a new country,
whence they sent out colonies on every side; but the Ugrian
colony which under Arpad occupied Hungary and became the
ancestors of the bulk of the present Hungarian nation did

78 ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME

not quit their settlements on the Uralian Mountains till a
very late period, and not until four centuries after the time
when Attila led from the primary seats of the nomadic races in
High Asia the host with which he advanced into the heart of
France. That host was Turkish, but closely allied in origin,
language, and habits with the Finno-Ugrian settlers on the Ural.

Attila's fame has not come down to us through the partial
and suspicious medium of chroniclers and poets of his own race.
It is not from Hunnish authorities that we learn the extent of
his might: it is from his enemies, from the literature and the
legends of the nations whom he afflicted with his arms, that we
draw the unquestionable evidence of his greatness. Besides
the express narratives of Byzantine, Latin, and Gothic writers,
we have the strongest proof of the stern reality of Attila's con-
quests in the extent to which he and his Huns have been the
themes of the earliest German and Scandinavian lays. Wild
as many of those legends are, they bear concurrent and certain
testimony to the awe with which the memory of Attila was re-
garded by the bold warriors who composed and delighted in
them.

Attila's exploits, and the wonders of his unearthly steed and
magic sword, repeatedly occur in the sagas of Norway and Ice-
land; and the celebrated Nibelungenlied, the most ancient of
Germanic poetry, is full of them. There Etsel, or Attila, is
described as the wearer of twelve mighty crowns, and as prom-
ising to his bride the lands of thirty kings whom his irresistible
sword had subdued. He is, in fact, the hero of the latter part
of this remarkable poem; and it is at his capital city, Etselen-
burg, which evidently corresponds to the modern Buda, that
much of its action takes place.

When we turn from the legendary to the historic Attila, we
see clearly that he was not one of the vulgar herd of barbaric
conquerors. Consummate military skill may be traced in his
campaigns; and he relied far less on the brute force of armies
for the aggrandizement of his empire than on the unbounded
influence over the affections of friends and the fears of foes
which his genius enabled him to acquire. Austerely sober in
his private life — severely just on the judgment seat — conspicu-
ous among a nation of warriors for hardihood, strength, and

ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME 79

skill in every martial exercise — grave and deliberate in counsel,
but rapid and remorseless in execution, he gave safety and se-
curity to all who were under his dominion, while he waged a
warfare of extermination against all who opposed or sought to
escape from it. He watched the national passions, the preju-
dices, the creeds, and the superstitions of the varied nations
over which he ruled and of those which he sought to reduce
beneath his sway : all these feelings he had the skill to turn to
his own account. His own warriors believed him to be the in-
spired favorite of their deities, and followed him with fanatic
zeal; his enemies looked on him as the preappointed minister
of heaven's wrath against themselves ; and though they believed
not in his creed, their own made them tremble before him.

In one of his early campaigns he appeared before his troops
with an ancient iron sword in his grasp, which he told them was
the god of war whom their ancestors had worshipped. It is cer-
tain that the nomadic tribes of Northern Asia, whom Herodotus
described under the name of Scythians, from the earliest times
worshipped as their god a bare sword. That sword-god was
supposed, in Attila's time, to have disappeared from earth ; but
the Hunnish King now claimed to have received it by special
revelation. It was said that a herdsman, who was tracking in
the desert a wounded heifer by the drops of blood, found the
mysterious sword standing fixed in the ground, as if it had darted
down from heaven. The herdsman bore it to Attila, who thence-
forth was believed by the Huns to wield the Spirit of Death in
battle, and their seers prophesied that that sword was to destroy
the world. A Roman, who was on an embassy to the Hunnish
camp, recorded in his memoirs Attila's acquisition of this super-
natural weapon, and the immense influence over the minds of
the barbaric tribes which its possession gave him. In the title
which he assumed we shall see the skill with which he availed
himself of the legends and creeds of other nations as well as of
his own. He designated himself " ATTILA, Descendant of the
Great Nimrod. Nurtured in Engaddi. By the grace of God,
King of the Huns, the Goths, the Danes, and the Medes. The
Dread of the World."

Herbert states that Attila is represented on an old medallion
with a teraph, or a head, on his breast; and the same writer

8o ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME

adds: "We know, from the Hamartigenea of Prudentius, that
Nimrod, with a snaky-haired head, was the object of adoration
of the heretical followers of Marcion; and the same head was
the palladium set up by Antiochus Epiphanes over the gates of
Antioch, though it has been called the visage of Charon. The
memory of Nimrod was certainly regarded with mystic venera-
tion by many; and by asserting himself to be the heir of that
mighty hunter before the Lord, he vindicated to himself at least
the whole Babylonian kingdom.

"The singular assertion in his style, that he was nurtured in
Engaddi, where he certainly had never been, will be more easily
understood on reference to the twelfth chapter of the Book of
Revelation, concerning the woman clothed with the sun, who
was to bring forth in the wilderness — 'where she hath a place
prepared of God' — a man-child, who was to contend with the
dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and rule all nations
with a rod of iron. This prophecy was at that time understood
universally by the sincere Christians to refer to the birth of Con-
stantine, who was to overwhelm the paganism of the city on the
seven hills, and it is still so explained ; but it is evident that the
heathens must have looked on it in a .different light, and have
regarded it as a foretelling of the birth of that Great one who
should master the temporal power of Rome. The assertion,
therefore, that he was nurtured in Engaddi, is a claim to be
looked upon as that man-child who was to be brought forth in a
place prepared of God in the wilderness. Engaddi means a
place of palms and vines in the desert ; it was hard by Zoar, the
city of refuge, which was saved in the Vale of Siddim, or De-
mons, when the rest were destroyed by fire and brimstone from
the Lord in heaven, and might, therefore, be especially called a
place prepared of God in the wilderness."

It is obvious enough why he styled himself "By the Grace
of God, King of the Huns and Goths, " and it seems far from
difficult to see why he added the names of the Medes and the
Danes. His armies had been engaged in warfare against the
Persian kingdom of the Sassanidae, and it is certain that he
meditated the invasion and overthrow of the Medo-Persian
power. Probably some of the northern provinces of that king-
dom had been compelled to pay him tribute; and this would

ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME 81

account for his styling himself king of the Medes, they being
his remotest subjects to the south. From a similar cause he
may have called himself king of the Danes, as his power may
well have extended northward as far as the nearest of the Scan-
dinavian nations, and this mention of Medes and Danes as his
subjects would serve at once to indicate the vast extent of his
dominion.1

The immense territory north of the Danube and Black Sea
and eastward of Caucasus, over which Attila ruled, first in con-
junction with his brother Bleda, and afterward alone, cannot
be very accurately defined, but it must have comprised within it,
besides the Huns, many nations of Slavic, Gothic, Teutonic, and
Finnish origin. South also of the Danube, the country, from
the river Sau as far as Novi in Thrace, was a Hunnish province.
Such was the empire of the Huns in A.D. 445; a memorable
year, in which Attila founded Buda on the Danube as his capital
city, and rid himself of his brother by a crime which seems
to have been prompted not only by selfish ambition, but also by
a desire of turning to his purpose the legends and forebodings
which then were universally spread throughout the Roman
Empire, and must have been well known to the watchful and
ruthless Hun.

The year 445 of our era completed the twelfth century from
the foundation of Rome, according to the best chronologers.
It had always been believed among the Romans that the twelve
vultures, which were said to have appeared to Romulus when
he founded the city, signified the tune during which the Roman
power should endure. The twelve vultures denoted twelve
centuries. This interpretation of the vision of the birds of des-
tiny was current among learned Romans, even when there were
yet many of the twelve centuries to run, and while the imperial
city was at the zenith of its power. But as the allotted time
drew nearer and nearer to its conclusion, and as Rome grew
weaker and weaker beneath the blows of barbaric invaders, the
terrible omen was more and more talked and thought of; and

1 In the Nibelungenlied, the old poet who describes the reception of
the heroine Chrimhild by Attila [Etsel], says that Attila's dominions
were so vast that among his subject warriors there were Russian, Greek,
Wallachian, Polish, and even Danish knights.
E., VOL. iv. — 6.

82 ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME

in Attila's time, men watched for the momentary extinction of
the Roman State with the last beat of the last vulture's wing.
Moreover, among the numerous legends connected with the
foundation of the city, and the fratricidal death of Remus, there
was one most terrible one, which told that Romulus did not put
his brother to death in accident or in hasty quarrel, but that
14 He slew his gallant twin
With inexpiable sin,"

deliberately and in compliance with the warnings of super-
natural powers. The shedding of a brother's blood was be-
lieved to have been the price at which the founder of Rome had
purchased from destiny her twelve centuries of existence.

We may imagine, therefore, with what terror in this the
twelve hundredth year after the foundation of Rome the in-
habitants of the Roman Empire must have heard the tidings that
the royal brethren Attila and Bleda had founded a new capital
on the Danube, which was designed to rule over the ancient
capital on the Tiber; and that Attila, like Romulus, had conse-
crated the foundations of his new city by murdering his brother;
so that for the new cycle of centuries then about to commence,
dominion had been bought from the gloomy spirits of destiny
in favor of the Hun by a sacrifice of equal awe and value with
that which had formerly obtained it for the Roman.

It is to be remembered that not only the pagans but also the
Christians of that age knew and believed in these legends and
omens, however they might differ as to the nature of the super-
human agency by which such mysteries had been made known
to mankind. And we may observe with Herbert, a modern
learned dignitary of our Church, how remarkably this augury
was fulfilled; for "if to the twelve centuries denoted by the
twelve vultures that appeared to Romulus we add, for the six
birds that appeared to Remus, six lustra or periods of five years
each, by which the Romans were wont to number their time, it
brings us precisely to the year 476, in which the Roman Empire
was finally extinguished by Odoacer."

An attempt to assassinate Attila, made, or supposed to have
been made, at the instigation of Theodoric the Younger, the
emperor of Constantinople, drew the Hunnish armies, in 445,
upon the Eastern Empire, and delayed for a time the destined

ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME 83

blow against Rome. Probably a more important cause of
delay was the revolt of some of the Hunnish tribes to the north
of the Black Sea against Attila, which broke out about this
period, and is cursorily mentioned by the Byzantine writers.
Attila quelled this revolt, and having thus consolidated his
power, and having punished the presumption of the Eastern
Roman Emperor by fearful ravages of his fairest provinces,
Attila, in 450 A.D., prepared to set his vast forces in motion for
the conquest of Western Europe. He sought unsuccessfully
by diplomatic intrigues to detach the king of the Visigoths from
his alliance with Rome, and he resolved first to crush the power
of Theodoric, and then to advance with overwhelming power
to trample out the last sparks of the doomed Roman Empire.

A strange invitation from a Roman princess gave him a
pretext for the war, and threw an air of chivalric enterprise over
his invasion. Honoria, sister of Valentinian III, the emperor
of the West, had sent to Attila to offer him her hand and her
supposed right to share in the imperial power. This had been
discovered by the Romans, and Honoria had been forthwith
closely imprisoned. Attila now pretended to take up arms in
behalf of his self-promised bride, and proclaimed that he was
about to march to Rome to redress Honoria's wrongs. Am-
bition and spite against her brother must have been the sole
motives that led the lady to woo the royal Hun ; for Attila's face
and person had all the natural ugliness of his race, and the de-
scription given of him by a Byzantine ambassador must have
been well known in the imperial courts. Herbert has well
versified the portrait drawn by Priscus of the great enemy of
both Byzantium and Rome:

" Terrific was his semblance, in no mould
Of beautiful proportion cast ; his limbs
Nothing exalted, but with sinews braced
Of Chalybean temper, agile, lithe,
And swifter than the roe ; his ample chest
Was overbrow'd by a gigantic head,
With eyes keen, deeply sunk, and small, that gleam 'd
Strangely in wrath as though some spirit unclean
Within that corporal tenement install'd
Look'd from its windows, but with temper'd fire
Bcam'd mildly on the unresisting. Thin

84 ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME

His beard and hoary ; his flat nostrils crown'd
A cicatrized, swart visage ; but, withal,
That questionable shape such glory wore
That mortals quail'd beneath him."

Two chiefs of the Franks, who were then settled on the
Lower Rhine, were at this period engaged in a feud with each
other, and while one of them appealed to the Romans for aid,
the other invoked the assistance and protection of the Huns.
Attila thus obtained an ally whose cooperation secured for him
the passage of the Rhine, and it was this circumstance which
caused him to take a northward route from Hungary for his
attack upon Gaul. The muster of the Hunnish hosts was swol-
len by warriors of every tribe that they had subjugated; nor is
there any reason to suspect the old chroniclers of wilful exag-
geration in estimating Attila's army as seven hundred thousand
strong. Having crossed the Rhine probably a little below Cob-
lentz, he defeated the king of the Burgundians, who endeavored
to bar his progress. He then divided his vast forces into two
armies, one of which marched northwest upon Tongres and
Arras and the other cities of that part of France, while the
main body, under Attila himself, advanced up the Moselle, and
destroyed Besancon and other towns in the country of the
Burgundians.

One of the latest and best biographers of Attila well observes
that, "having thus conquered the eastern part of France, Attila
prepared for an invasion of the West- Gothic territories beyond
the Loire. He marched upon Orleans, where he intended to
force the passage of that river, and only a little attention is req-
uisite to enable us to perceive that he proceeded on a systematic
plan : he had his right wing on the north for the protection of
his Frank allies; his left wing on the south for the purpose of
preventing the Burgundians from rallying and of menacing
the passes of the Alps from Italy; and he led his centre toward
the chief object of the campaign — the conquest of Orleans, and
an easy passage into the West- Gothic dominion. The whole
plan is very like that of the allied powers in 1814, with this dif-
ference, that their left wing entered France through the denies
of the Jura, in the direction of Lyons, and that the military
object of the campaign was the capture of Paris."

ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME 85

It was not until the year 451 that the Huns commenced the
siege of Orleans; and during their campaign in Eastern Gaul,
the Roman general Aetius had strenuously exerted himself in
collecting and organizing such an army as might, when united
to the soldiery of the Visigoths, be fit to face the Huns in the
field. He enlisted every subject of the Roman Empire whom
patriotism, courage, or compulsion could collect beneath the
standards; and round these troops, which assumed the once
proud title of the legions of Rome he arrayed the large forces
of barbaric auxiliaries, whom pay, persuasion, or the general
hate and dread of the Huns brought to the camp of the last of
the Roman generals. King Theodoric exerted himself with
equal energy. Orleans resisted her besiegers bravely as in
after-times. The passage of the Loire was skilfully defended
against the Huns; and Aetius and Theodoric, after much ma-
noeuvring and difficulty, effected a junction of their armies to the
south of that important river.

On the advance of the allies upon Orleans, Attila instantly
broke up the siege of that city and retreated toward the Marne.
He did not choose to risk a decisive battle with only the central
corps of his army against the combined power of his enemies,
and he therefore fell back upon his base of operations, calling
in his wings from Arras and Besancon, and concentrating the
whole of the Hunnish forces on the vast plains of Chalons-sur-
Marne. A glance at the map will show how scientifically this
place was chosen by the Hunnish general as the point for his
scattered forces to converge upon; and the nature of the ground
was eminently favorable for the operations of cavalry, the arm
in which Attila's strength peculiarly lay.

It was during the retreat from Orleans that a Christian her-
mit is reported to have approached the Hunnish King and said
to him, "Thou art the Scourge of God for the chastisement of
the Christians." Attila instantly assumed this new title of terror,
which thenceforth became the appellation by which he was
most widely and most fearfully known.

The confederate armies of Romans and Visigoths at last
met their great adversary face to face on the ample battle-
ground of the Chalons plains. Aetius commanded on the right
of the allies; King Theodoric on the left; and Sangipan, King

86 ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME

of the Alans, whose fidelity was suspected, was placed purposely
in the centre, and in the very front of the battle. Attila com-
manded his centre in person, at the head of his own country-
men, while the Ostrogoths, the Gepidae, and the other subject
allies of the Huns were drawn up on the wings.

Some manoeuvring appears to have occurred before the en-
gagement, in which Aetius had the advantage, inasmuch as he
succeeded in occupying a sloping hill which commanded the
left flank of the Huns. Attila saw the importance of the posi-
tion taken by Aetius on the high ground, and commenced the
battle by a furious attack on this part of the Roman line, in
which he seems to have detached some of his best troops from
his centre to aid his left. The Romans, having the advantage
of the ground, repulsed the Huns, and while the allies gained
this advantage on their right, their left, under King Theodoric,
assailed the Ostrogoths, who formed the right of Attila's army.
The gallant King was himself struck down by a javelin as he
rode onward at the head of his men ; and his own cavalry, charg-
ing over him, trampled him to death in the confusion. But the
Visigoths, infuriated, not dispirited, by their monarch's fall,
routed the enemies opposed to them, and then wheeled upon
the flank of the Hunnish centre, which had been engaged in a
sanguinary and indecisive contest with the Alans.

In this peril Attila made his centre fall back upon his camp;
and when the shelter of its intrenchments and wagons had once
been gained, the Hunnish archers repulsed, without difficulty,
the charges of the vengeful Gothic cavalry. Aetius had not
pressed the advantage which he gained on his side of the field,
and when night fell over the wild scene of havoc Attila's left
was still undefeated, but his right had been routed and his
centre forced back upon his camp.

Expecting an assault on the morrow, Attila stationed his
best archers in front of the cars and wagons, which were drawn
up as a fortification along his lines, and made every preparation
for a desperate resistance. But the " Scourge of God " resolved
that no man should boast of the honor of having either capt-
ured or slain him, and he caused to be raised in the centre of
his encampment a huge pyramid of the wooden saddles of his
cavalry: round it he heaped the spoils and the wealth that he

ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME 87

had won; on it he stationed his wives who had accompanied
him in the campaign; and on the summit Attila placed himself,
ready to perish in the flames and balk the victorious foe of
their choicest booty should they succeed in storming his de-
fences.

But when the morning broke and revealed the extent of the
carnage with which the plains were heaped for miles, the suc-
cessful allies saw also and respected the resolute attitude of their
antagonist. Neither were any measures taken to blockade him
in his camp, and so to extort by famine that submission which
it was too plainly perilous to enforce with the sword. Attila
was allowed to march back the remnants of his army without
molestation, and even with the semblance of success.

It is probable that the crafty Aetius was unwilling to be too
victorious. He dreaded the glory which his allies the Visigoths
had acquired, and feared that Rome might find a second Alaric
in Prince Torismund, who had signalized himself in the battle,
and had been chosen on the field to succeed his father Theodoric.
He persuaded the young King to return at once to his capital, and
thus relieved himself at the same time of the presence of a dan-
gerous friend as well as of a formidable though beaten foe.

Attila's attacks on the Western Empire were soon renewed,
but never with such peril to the civilized world as had menaced
it before his defeat at Chalons; and on his death, two years after
that battle, the vast empire which his genius had founded was
soon dissevered by the successful revolts of the subject nations.
The name of the Huns ceased for some centuries to inspire ter-
ror in Western Europe, and their ascendency passed away with
the life of the great King by whom it had been so fearfully aug-
mented.1

EDWARD GIBBON

The facility with which Attila had penetrated into the heart
of Gaul may be ascribed to his insidious policy as well as to the
terror of his arms. His public declarations were skilfully miti-

1 If I seem to have given fewer of the details of the battle itself than
its importance would warrant, my excuse must be that Gibbon has en-
riched our language with a description of it too long for quotation and
too splendidly for rivalry. I have not, however, taken altogether the
same view of it that he has.

88 ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME

gated by his private assurances; he alternately soothed and
threatened the Romans and the Goths; and the courts of Ra-
venna and Toulouse, mutually suspicious of each other's inten-
tions, beheld with supine indifference the approach of their
common enemy. Aetius was the sole guardian of the public
safety; but his wisest measures were embarrassed by a faction
which, since the death of Placidia, infested the imperial palace;
the youth of Italy trembled at the sound of the trumpet; and
the barbarians, who, from fear or affection, were inclined to the
cause of Attila, awaited with doubtful and venal faith the event
of the war. The patrician passed the Alps at the head of some
troops, whose strength and numbers scarcely deserved the name
of an army. But on his arrival at Aries, or Lyons, he was con-
founded by the intelligence that the Visigoths, refusing to em-
brace the defence of Gaul, had determined to expect, within
their own territories, the formidable invader, whom they pro-
fessed to despise.

The senator Avitus, who, after the honorable exercise of the
praetorian prefecture, had retired to his estate in Auvergne, was
persuaded to accept the important embassy, which he executed
with ability and success. He represented to Theodoric that
an ambitious conqueror, who aspired to the dominion of the
earth, could be resisted only by the firm and unanimous alliance
of the powers whom he labored to oppress. The lively eloquence
of Avitus inflamed the Gothic warriors by the description of
the injuries which their ancestors had suffered from the Huns,
whose implacable fury still pursued them from the Danube to
the foot of the Pyrenees. He strenuously urged that it was the
duty of every Christian to save from sacrilegious violation the
churches of God and the relics of the saints; that it was the
interest of every barbarian who had acquired a settlement in
Gaul, to defend the fields and vineyards, which were cultivated
for his use, against the desolation of the Scythian shepherds.
Theodoric yielded to the evidence of truth, adopted the meas-
ure at once the most prudent and the most honorable, and de-
clared that, as the faithful ally of Aetius and the Romans, he
was ready to expose his life and kingdom for the common safety
of Gaul. The Visigoths, who at that time were in the mature
vigor of their fame and power, obeyed with alacrity the signal

ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME 89

of war, prepared their arms and horses, and assembled under
the standard of their aged King, who was resolved, with his two
eldest sons, Torismond and Theodoric, to command in person
his numerous and valiant people.

The example of the Goths determined several tribes or na-
tions that seemed to fluctuate between the Huns and the Ro-
mans. The indefatigable diligence of the patrician gradually
collected the troops of Gaul and Germany, who had formerly
acknowledged themselves the subjects or soldiers of the repub-
lic, but who now claimed the rewards of voluntary service and
the rank of independent allies; the Laeti, the Armoricans, the
Breones, the Saxons, the Burgundians, the Sarmatians or
Alani, the Ripuarians, and the Franks who followed Meroveus
as their lawful prince. Such was the various army which,
under the conduct of Aetius and Theodoric, advanced, by rapid
marches, to relieve Orleans and to give battle to the innumer-
able host of Attila.

On their approach, the king of the Huns immediately
raised the siege, and sounded a retreat to recall the foremost of
his troops from the pillage of a city which they had already en-
tered. The valor of Attila was always guided by his prudence;
and as he foresaw the fatal consequences of a defeat in the heart
of Gaul, he repassed the Seine, and expected the enemy in the
plains of Chalons, whose smooth and level surface was adapted
to the operations of his Scythian cavalry. But in this tumult-
uary retreat, the vanguard of the Romans and their allies con-
tinually pressed, and sometimes engaged, the troops whom
Attila had posted in the rear; the hostile columns, in the dark-
ness of the night and the perplexity of the roads, might encoun-
ter each other without design; and the bloody conflict of the
Franks and Gepidae, in which fifteen thousand barbarians were
slain, was a prelude to a more general and decisive action.

The Catalaunian fields spread themselves round Chalons,
and extend, according to the vague measurement of Jornandes,
to the length of one hundred and fifty and the breadth of one
hundred miles, over the whole province, which is entitled to the
appellation of a champaign country. This spacious plain was
distinguished, however, by some inequalities of ground; and
the importance of a height which commanded the camp of

90 ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME

Attila was understood and disputed by the two generals. The
young and valiant Torismond first occupied the summit; the
Goths rushed with irresistible weight on the Huns, who labored
to ascend from the opposite side; and the possession of this
advantageous post inspired both the troops and their leaders with
a fair assurance of victory. The anxiety of Attila prompted him
to consult his priests and haruspices. It was reported that,
after scrutinizing the entrails of victims and scraping their
bones, they revealed, in mysterious language, his own defeat,
with the death of his principal adversary; and that the bar-
barian, by accepting the equivalent, expressed his involuntary
esteem for the superior merit of Aetius.

But the unusual despondency, which seemed to prevail
among the Huns, engaged Attila to use the expedient, so familiar
to the generals of antiquity, of animating his troops by a military
oration; and his language was that of a king who had often
fought and conquered at their head. He pressed them to con-
sider their past glory, their actual danger, and their future
hopes. The same fortune which opened the deserts and mo-
rasses of Scythia to their unarmed valor, which had laid so
many warlike nations prostrate at their feet, had reserved the
joys of this memorable field for the consummation of their vic-
tories. The cautious steps of their enemies, their strict alli-
ance, and their advantageous posts he artfully represented as
the effects, not of prudence, but of fear. The Visigoths alone
were the strength and nerves of the opposite army; and the
Huns might securely trample on the degenerate Romans, whose
close and compact order betrayed their apprehensions, and
who were equally incapable of supporting the dangers or the
fatigues of a day of battle. The doctrine of predestination, so
favorable to martial virtue, was carefully inculcated by the
king of the Huns, who assured his subjects that the warriors,
protected by heaven, were safe and invulnerable amid the
darts of the enemy, but that the unerring Fates would strike
their victims in the bosom of inglorious peace. "I myself,"
continued Attila, "will throw the first javelin, and the wretch
who refuses to imitate the example of his sovereign is devoted
to inevitable death."

The spirit of the barbarians was rekindled by the presence,

ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME 91

the voice, and the example of their intrepid leader; and Attila,
yielding to their impatience, immediately formed his order of
battle. At the head of his brave and faithful Huns, he occu-
pied in person the centre of the line. The nations subject to
his empire, the Rugians, the Heruli, the Thuringians, the
Franks, the Burgundians, were extended on either hand, over
the ample space of the Catalaunian fields; the right wing was
commanded by Ardaric, king of the Gepidae; and the three
valiant brothers who reigned over the Ostrogoths were posted
on the left to oppose the kindred tribes of the Visigoths. The
disposition of the allies was regulated by a different principle.
Sangiban, the faithless King of the Alani, was placed in the cen-
tre, where his motions might be strictly watched, and his
treachery might be instantly punished. Aetius assumed the
command of the left, and Theodoric of the right wing; while
Torismond still continued to occupy the heights which appear
to have stretched on the flank, and perhaps the rear, of the
Scythian army. The nations from the Volga to the Atlantic
were assembled on the plain of Chalons ; but many of these na-
tions had been divided by faction or conquest or emigration;
and the appearance of similar arms and ensigns, which threat-
ened each other, presented the image of a civil war.

The discipline and tactics of the Greeks and Romans form
an interesting part of their national manners. The attentive
study of the military operations of Xenophon or Caesar or
Frederic, when they are described by the same genius which
conceived and executed them, may tend to improve — if such
improvement can be wished — the art of destroying the human
species. But the battle of Chalons can only excite our curiosity
by the magnitude of the object; since it was decided by the
blind impetuosity of barbarians, and has been related by par-
tial writers, whose civil or ecclesiastical profession secluded
them from the knowledge of military affairs. Cassiodorus,
however, had familiarly conversed with many Gothic warriors
who served in that memorable engagement; "a conflict," as
they informed him, "fierce, various, obstinate, and bloody;
such as could not be paralleled either in the present or in past
ages." The number of the slain amounted to one hundred and
sixty-two thousand, or, according to another account, three

92 ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME

hundred thousand persons; and these incredible exaggerations
suppose a real and effective loss sufficient to justify the histo-
rian's remark that whole generations may be swept away, by
the madness of kings, in the space of a single hour.

After the mutual and repeated discharge of missile weapons,
in which the archers of Scythia might signalize their superior
dexterity, the cavalry and infantry of the two armies were furi-
ously mingled in closer combat. The Huns, who fought under
the eyes of their King, pierced through the feeble and doubtful
centre of the allies, separated their wings from each other, and
wheeling, with a rapid effort, to the left, directed their whole
force against the Visigoths. As Theodoric rode along the
ranks to animate his troops, he received a mortal stroke from
the javelin of Andages, a noble Ostrogoth, and immediately
fell from his horse. The wounded King was oppressed in the
general disorder and trampled under the feet of his own cav-
alry; and this important death served to explain the ambig-
uous prophecy of the haruspices.

Attila already exulted in the confidence of victory, when the
valiant Torismund descended from the hills and verified the
remainder of the prediction. The Visigoths, who had been
thrown into confusion by the flight or defection of the Alani,
gradually restored their order of battle; and the Huns were un-
doubtedly vanquished, since Attila was compelled to retreat. He
had exposed his person with the rashness of a private soldier;
but the intrepid troops of the centre had pushed forward be-
yond the rest of the line; their attack was faintly supported;
their flanks were unguarded; and the conquerors of Scythia
and Germany were saved by the approach of the night from
a total defeat. They retired within the circle of wagons that
fortified their camp; and the dismounted squadrons prepared
themselves for a defence, to which neither their arms nor their
temper was adapted. The event was doubtful: but Attila
had secured a last and honorable resource. The saddles and
rich furniture of the cavalry were collected, by his order, into a
funeral pile; and the magnanimous barbarian had resolved, if
his intrenchments should be forced, to rush headlong into the
flames, and to deprive his enemies of the glory which they
might have acquired by the death or captivity of Attila.

ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME 93

But his enemies had passed the night in equal disorder
and anxiety. The inconsiderate courage of Torismund was
tempted to urge the pursuit, till he unexpectedly found him-
self, with a few followers, in the midst of the Scythian wagons.
In the confusion of a nocturnal combat he was thrown from
his horse; and the Gothic prince must have perished like his
father, if his youthful strength, and the intrepid zeal of his com-
panions, had not rescued him from this dangerous situation.
In the same manner, but on the left of the line, Aetius himself,
separated from his allies, ignorant of their victory and anxious
for their fate, encountered and escaped the hostile troops that
were scattered over the plains of Chalons, and at length reached
the camp of the Goths, which he could only fortify with a slight
rampart of shields till the dawn of day. The imperial general
was soon satisfied of the defeat of Attila, who still remained in-
active within his intrenchments; and when he contemplated
the bloody scene, he observed, with secret satisfaction, that the
loss had principally fallen on the barbarians. The body of
Theodoric, pierced with honorable wounds, was discovered
under a heap of the slain; his subjects bewailed the death of
their king and father; but their tears were mingled with songs
and acclamations, and his funeral rites were performed in the
face of a vanquished enemy.

The Goths, clashing their arms, elevated on a buckler his
eldest son Torismund, to whom they justly ascribed the glory
of their success; and the new King accepted the obligation of
revenge as a sacred portion of his paternal inheritance. Yet
the Goths themselves were astonished by the fierce and un-
daunted aspect of their formidable antagonist; and their his-
torian has compared Attila to a lion encompassed in his den
and threatening his hunters with redoubled fury. The kings
and nations who might have deserted his standard in the hour
of distress were made sensible that the displeasure of their
monarch was the most imminent and inevitable danger. All
his instruments of martial music incessantly sounded a loud,
and animating strain of defiance; and the foremost troops who
advanced to the assault were checked or destroyed by showers
of arrows from every side of the intrenchments. It was deter-
mined, in a general council of war, to besiege the King of the

94 ATTILA INVADES WESTERN ROME

Huns in his camp, to intercept his provisions, and to reduce him
to the alternative of a disgraceful treaty or an unequal combat.
But the impatience of the barbarians soon disdained these cau-
tious and dilatory measures; and the mature policy of Aetius
was apprehensive that, after the extirpation of the Huns, the
republic would be oppressed by the pride and power of the
Gothic nation.

The patrician exerted the superior ascendants of authority
and reason to calm the passions, which the son of Theodoric
considered as a duty; represented, with seeming affection and
real truth, the dangers of absence and delay; and persuaded
Torismond to disappoint, by his speedy return^ the ambitious
designs of his brothers, who might occupy the throne and treas-
ures of Toulouse. After the departure of the Goths and the
separation of the allied army, Attila was surprised at the vast
silence that reigned over the plains of Chalons: the suspicion
of some hostile stratagem detained him several days within the
circle of his wagons, and his retreat beyond the Rhine confessed
the last victory which was achieved in the name of the Western
Empire. Meroveus and his Franks, observing a prudent dis-
tance, and magnifying the opinion of their strength by the nu-
merous fires which they kindled every night, continued to follow
the rear of the Huns till they reached the confines of Thuringia.
The Thuringians served in the army of Attila : they traversed,
both in their march and in their return, the territories of the
Franks; and it was perhaps in this war that they exercised the
cruelties which, about fourscore years afterward, were revenged
by the son of Clovis. They massacred their hostages, as well
as their captives: two hundred young maidens were tortured
with exquisite and unrelenting rage; their bodies were torn
asunder by wild horses or their bones were crushed under the
weight of rolling wagons, and their unburied limbs were aban-
doned on the public roads as a prey to dogs and vultures.
Such were those savage ancestors whose imaginary virtues have
sometimes excited the praise and envy of civilized ages!

FOUNDATION OF VENICE

A.D. 452

THOMAS HODGKIN JOHN RUSKIN

The foundation of Venice (Venetia) is an incident in the history of
Attila's incursions, at the head of his Huns, into Italy after his defeat at
the battle of Chalons-sur-Mame. Venetia was then a large and fertile
province of Northern Italy, and fifty Venetian cities flourished in peace
and safety under the protection of the Empire. After Attila's remorse-
less hordes had taken and destroyed Aquileia, near the head of the Adri-
atic, they swept, with resistless fury, through Venetia, whose cities were
so utterly destroyed that their very sites could henceforth scarcely be
identified. The inhabitants fled in large numbers to the shores of the
Adriatic, where, at the extremity of the gulf, a group of a hundred islets
is separated by shallows from the mainland of Italy. Here the Vene-
tians built their city on what had hitherto been uncultivated and almost
uninhabited sand-banks. Under such unfavorable circumstances was
started the career of that wonderful city which afterward became " Queen
of the Adriatic " and mother of art, science, and learning.

The two greatest authorities on Venice are Thomas Hodgkin, who
made a life study of Italy and her invaders, and the immortal Ruskin,
whose grandly descriptive articles were written in the atmosphere of
Venice and the Adriatic Sea.

THOMAS HODGKIN

HPHE terrible invaders, made wrathful and terrible by the re-
sistance of Aquileia, streamed through the trembling cities
of Venetia. Each earlier stage in the itinerary shows a town
blotted out by their truly Tartar genius for destruction. At
the distance of thirty-one miles from Aquileia stood the flourish-
ing colony of Tulia Concordia, so named, probably, in commem-
oration of the universal peace which, four hundred and eighty
years before, Augustus had established in the world. Con-
cordia was destroyed, and only an insignificant little village now
remains to show where it once stood. At another interval of
thirty-one miles stood Altinum, with its white villas clustering
round the curves of its lagoons, and rivalling Baiae in its luxuri-

95

96 FOUNDATION OF VENICE

ous charms. Altinum was effaced as Concordia and as Aquileia.
Yet another march of thirty-two miles brought the squalid
invaders to Patavium, proud of its imagined Trojan origin,
and, with better reason, proud of having given birth to Livy.
Patavium, too, was levelled with the ground. True, it has
not like its sister towns remained in the nothingness to which
Attila reduced it. It is now

" Many-domed Padua proud,*

but all its great buildings date from the Middle Ages. Only a
few broken friezes and a few inscriptions in its museum exist
as memorials of the classical Patavium.

As the Huns marched on Vicenza, Verona, Brescia, Ber-
gamo, all opened their gates at their approach, for the terror
which they inspired was on every heart. In these towns, and
in Milan and Pavia (Ticinum), which followed their example,
the Huns enjoyed doubtless to the full their wild revel of lust
and spoliation, but they left the buildings unharmed, and they
carried captive the inhabitants instead of murdering them.

The valley of the Po was now wasted to the heart's content
of the invaders. Should they cross the Apennines and blot
out Rome as they had blotted out Aquileia from among the
cities of the world? This was the great question that was
being debated in the Hunnish camp, and, strange to say, the
voices were not all for war. Already Italy began to strike that
strange awe into the hearts of her northern conquerors which
so often in later ages has been her best defence. The remem-
brance of Alaric, cut off by a mysterious death immediately
after his capture of Rome, was present in the mind of Attila,
and was frequently insisted upon by his counsellors, who seem
to have had a foreboding that only while he lived would they
be great and prosperous.

While this discussion was going forward in the barbarian
camp, all voices were hushed, and the attention of all was
aroused by the news of the arrival of an embassy from Rome.
What had been going on in that city it is not easy to ascertain.
The Emperor seems to have been dwelling there, not at Ravenna.
Aetius shows a strange lack of courage or of resource, and we
find it difficult to recognize in him the victor of the Mauriac
plains. He appears to have been even meditating flight from

FOUNDATION OF VENICE 97

Italy, and to have thought of persuading Valentinian to share
his exile. But counsels a shade less timorous prevailed. Some
one suggested that possibly even the Hun might be satiated
with havoc, and that an embassy might assist to mitigate the
remainder of his resentment. Accordingly ambassadors were
sent in the once mighty name of "the Emperor and the Senate
and People of Rome" to crave for peace, and these were the
men who were now ushered into the camp of Attila.

The envoys had been well chosen to satisfy that punctilious
pride which insisted that only men of the highest dignity among
the Romans should be sent to treat with the lord of Scythia
and Germany. Avienus, who had, two years before, worn
the robes of consul, was one of the ambassadors. Trigetius,
who had wielded the powers of a prefect, and who, seventeen
years before, had been despatched upon a similar mission to
Genseric the Vandal, was another. But it was not upon these
men, but upon their greater colleague, that the eyes of all the
barbarian warriors and statesmen were fixed. Leo, bishop of
Rome, had come, on behalf of his flock, to sue for peace from
the idolater.

The two men who had thus at last met by the banks of the
Mincio are certainly the grandest figures whom the fifth cen-
tury can show to us, at any rate since Alaric vanished from
the scene.

Attila we by this time know well enough; adequately to
describe Pope Leo I, we should have to travel too far into the
region of ecclesiastical history. Chosen pope in the year 440,
he was now about half way through his long pontificate, one
of the few which have nearly rivalled the twenty-five years
traditionally assigned to St. Peter. A firm disciplinarian, not
to say a persecutor, he had caused the Priscillianists of Spain
and the Manichees of Rome to feel his heavy hand. A powerful
rather than subtle theologian, he had asserted the claims of
Christian common-sense as against the endless refinements of
oriental speculation concerning the nature of the Son of God.
Like an able Roman general he had traced, in his letters on the
Eutychian controversy, the lines of the fortress in which the
defenders of the Catholic verity were thenceforward to intrench
themselves and from which they were to repel the assaults of
E., VOL. rv.— 7.

98 FOUNDATION OF VENICE

Monophysites on the one hand and of Nestorians on the other.
These lines had been enthusiastically accepted by the great
council of Chalcedon — held in the year of Attila's Gaulish
campaign — and remain from that day to this the authoritative
utterance of the Church concerning the mysterious union of
the Godhead and the manhood in the person of Jesus Christ.

And all these gifts of will, of intellect, and of soul were
employed by Leo with undeviating constancy, with untired
energy, in furthering his great aim, the exaltation of the dignity
of the popedom, the conversion of the admitted primacy of the
bishops of Rome into an absolute and world-wide spiritual
monarchy. Whatever our opinions may be as to the influence
of this spiritual monarchy on the happiness of the world, or
its congruity with the character of the Teacher in whose words
it professed to root itself, we cannot withhold a tribute of ad-
miration for the high temper of this Roman bishop, who
in the ever-deepening degradation of his country still despaired
not, but had the courage and endurance to work for a far-
distant future, who, when the Roman was becoming the com-
mon drudge and footstool of all nations, still remembered the
proud words " Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento! "
and under the very shadow of Attila and Genseric prepared
for the city of Romulus a new and spiritual dominion, vaster
and more enduring than any which had been won for her by
Julius or by Hadrian.

Such were the two men who stood face to face in the sum-
mer of 452 upon the plains of Lombardy. The barbarian
King had all the material power in his hand, and he was work-
ing but for a twelvemonth. The pontiff had no power but
in the world of intellect, and his fabric was to last fourteen
centuries. They met, as has been said, by the banks of the
Mincio. Jordanes tells us that it was "where the river is
crossed by many wayfarers coming and going." Some writers
think that these words point to the ground now occupied by
the celebrated fortress of Peschiera, close to the point where
the Mincio issues from the Lake of Garda. Others place the
interview at Governolo, a little village hard by the junction of
the Mincio and the Po. If the latter theory be true, and it
seems to fit well with the route which would probably be taken

FOUNDATION OF VENICE 99

by Attila, the meeting took place in Vergil's country, and almost
in sight of the very farm where Tityrus and Melibceus chatted
at evening under the beech-tree.

Leo's success as an ambassador was complete. Attila laid
aside all the fierceness of his anger and promised to return
across the Danube, and to live thenceforward at peace with
the Romans. But in his usual style, in the midst of recon-
ciliation he left a loophole for a future wrath, for "he insisted
still on this point above all, that Honoria, the sister of the
Emperor, and the daughter of the Augusta Placidia, should be
sent to him with the portion of the royal wealth which was her
due; and he threatened that unless this was done he would lay
upon Italy a far heavier punishment than any which it had
yet borne."

But for the present, at any rate, the tide of devastation was
turned, and few events more powerfully impressed the imagina-
tion of that new and blended world which was now standing
at the threshold of the dying empire than this retreat of Attila,
the dreaded king of kings, before the unarmed successor of St.
Peter.

Attila was already predisposed to moderation by the coun-
sels of his ministers. The awe of Rome was upon him and
upon them, and he was forced incessantly to ponder the ques-
tion, "What if I conquer like Alaric, to die like him?" Upon
these doubts and ponderings of his supervened the stately
presence of Leo, a man of holy life, firm will, dauntless courage
— that, be sure, Attila perceived in the first moments of their
interview — and, besides this, holding an office honored and
venerated through all the civilized world. The barbarian
yielded to his spell as he had yielded to that of Lupus of Troyes,
and, according to a tradition, which, it must be admitted, is
not very well authenticated, he jocularly excused his unac-
customed gentleness by saying that "he knew how to conquer
men, but the lion and the wolf (Leo and Lupus) had learned
how to conquer him."

The tradition which asserts that the republic of Venice
and its neighbor cities in the lagoons were peopled by fugitives
from the Hunnish invasion of 452, is so constant and in itself
so probable that we seem bound to accept it as substantially

ioo FOUNDATION OF VENICE

true, though contemporary or nearly contempoiary evidence
to the fact is utterly wanting.

The thought of "the glorious city in the sea" so dazzles
our imaginations when we turn our thoughts toward Venice
that we must take a little pains to free ourselves from the spell
and reproduce the aspect of the desolate islands and far-
stretching wastes of sand and sea to which the fear of Attila
drove the delicately nurtured Roman provincials for a habita-
tion.

If we examine on the map the well-known and deep recess
of the Adriatic Sea, we shall at once be struck by one marked
difference between its eastern and its northern shores. For
three hundred miles down the Dalmatian coast not one large
river, scarcely a considerable stream, descends from the too
closely towering Dinaric mountains to the sea. If we turn
now to the northwestern angle which formed the shore of the
Roman province of Venetia, we find the coast line broken by
at least seven streams, two of which are great rivers.

These seven streams, whose mouths are crowded into less
than eighty miles of coast, drain an area which, reckoning
from Monte Viso to the Terglon Alps — the source of the
Ysonzo — must be four hundred and fifty miles in length, and
may average two hundred miles in breadth, and this area is
bordered on one side by the highest mountains in Europe,
snow-covered, glacier- strewn, wrinkled and twisted into a
thousand valleys and narrow defiles, each of which sends down
its river or its rivulet to swell the great outpour.

For our present purpose, and as a worker out of Venetian
history, Po, notwithstanding the far greater volume of his
waters, is of less importance than the six other small streams
which bear him company. He, carrying down the fine alluvial
soil of Lombardy, goes on lazily adding, foot by foot, to the
depth of his delta, and mile by mile to its extent. They, swiftly
hurrying over their shorter course from mountain to sea, scatter
indeed many fragments, detached from their native rocks,
over the first meadows which they meet with in the plain, but
carry some also far out to sea, and then, behind the bulwark
which they thus have made, deposit the finer alluvial particles
with which they, too, are laden. Thus we get the two character-

101

istic features of the ever-changing coast line, the Lido and
the Laguna. The Lido, founded upon the masses of rock,
is a long, thin slip of the terra firma, which form a sort of ad-
vance guard of the land.

The Laguna, occupying the interval between the Lido and
the true shore, is a wide expanse of waters, generally very few
feet in depth, with a bottom of fine sand, and with a few chan-
nels of deeper water, the representatives of the forming rivers
winding intricately among them. In such a configuration of
land and water the state of the tide makes a striking difference
in the scene. And unlike the rest of the Mediterranean, the
Adriatic does possess a tide, small, it is true, in comparison
with the great tides of ocean — for the whole difference between
high and low water at the flood is not more than six feet, and
the average flow is said not to amount to more than two feet
six inches — but even this flux is sufficient to produce large
tracts of sea which the reflux converts into square miles of oozy
sand.

Here, between sea and land, upon this detritus of the rivers,
settled the detritus of humanity. The Gothic and the Lom-
bard invasions contributed probably their share of fugitives,
but fear of the Hunnish world- waster — whose very name,
according to some, was derived from one of the mighty rivers
of Russia — was the great "degrading" influence that carried
down the fragments of Roman civilization and strewed them
over the desolate lagoons. The inhabitants of Aquileia, or
at least the feeble remnants that escaped the sword of Attila,
took refuge at Grado. Concordia migrated to Caprularia (now
Caorle). The inhabitants of Altinum, abandoning their ruined
villas, founded their new habitations upon seven islands at
the mouth of the Piave, which, according to tradition, they
named from the seven gates of their old city — Torcellus, Mai-
urbius, Boreana, Ammiana, Constantiacum, and Anianum.
The representatives of some of these names, Torcello, Maz-
zorbo, Burano, are familiar sounds to the Venetian at the pres-
ent day.

From Padua came the largest stream of emigrants. They
left the tomb of their mythical ancestor, Antenor, and built
their humble dwellings upon the islands of the rivers Altus and

102 FOUNDATION OF VENICE

Methamaucus, better known to us as Rialto and Malamocco.
This Paduan settlement was one day to be known to the world
by the name of Venice. But let us not suppose that the future
"Queen of the Adriatic" sprang into existence at a single
bound like Constantinople or Alexandria. For two hundred
and fifty years, that is to say for eight generations, the refugees
on the islands of the Adriatic prolonged an obscure and squalid
existence — fishing, salt manufacturing, damming out the waves
with wattled vine-branches, driving piles into the sand-banks,
and thus gradually extending the area of their villages. Still
these were but fishing villages, loosely confederated together,
loosely governed, poor and insignificant, so that the anonymous
geographer of Ravenna, writing in the seventh century, can
only say of them, "In the country of Venetia there are some
few islands which are inhabited by men." This seems to have
been their condition, though perhaps gradually growing in
commercial importance, until at the beginning of the eighth
century the concentration of political authority in the hands
of the first doge, and the recognition of the Rialto cluster of
islands as the capital of the confederacy, started the republic
on a career of success and victory, in which for seven centuries
she met no lasting check.

But this lies far beyond the limit of our present subject.
It must be again said that we have not to think of " the pleasant
place of all festivity," but of a few huts among the sand-banks,
inhabited by Roman provincials, who mournfully recall their
charred and ruined habitations by the Brenta and the Piave.
The sea alone does not constitute their safety. If that were
all, the pirate ships of the Vandal Genseric might repeat upon
their poor dwellings all the terror of Attila. But it is in their
amphibious life, in that strange blending of land and sea which
is exhibited by the lagunes, that their safety lies. Only ex-
perienced pilots can guide a vessel of any considerable draught
through the mazy channels of deep water which intersect
these lagoons; and should they seem to be in imminent peril
from the approach of an enemy, they will defend themselves
not like the Dutch by cutting the dikes which barricade them
from the ocean, but by pulling up the poles which even those
pilots need to indicate their pathway through the waters. There,

FOUNDATION OF VENICE 103

then, engaged in their humble, beaver-like labors, we leave for
the present the Venetian refugees from the rage of Attila'

But even while protesting, it is impossible not to let into
our minds some thought of what those desolate fishing villages
will one day become. The dim religious light, half revealing
the slowly gathered glories of St. Mark's; the Ducal Palace,
that history in stone; the Rialto, with the babble of many
languages; the Piazza, with its flock of fearless pigeons; the
Brazen Horses, the Winged Lion, the Bucentaur, all that the
artists of Venice did to make her beautiful, her ambassadors
to make her wise, her secret tribunals to make her terrible;
memories of these things must come thronging upon the mind
at the mere mention of her spell-like name. Now, with these
pictures glowing vividly before you, wrench the mind away
with sudden effort to the dreary plains of Pannonia. Think
of the moody Tartar, sitting in his log-hut, surrounded by
his barbarous guests; of Zercon, gabbling his uncouth mixture
of Hunnish and Latin; of the bath-man of One'gesh, and the
wool-work of Kreka, and the reed candles in the village of
Bleda's widow; and say if cause and effect were ever more
strangely meted in history than the rude and brutal might of
Attila with the stately and gorgeous and subtle republic of
Venice.

One more consideration is suggested to us by that which
was the noblest part of the work of Venice, the struggle which
she maintained for centuries, really in behalf of all Europe,
against the Turk. Attila's power was soon to pass away, but,
in the ages that were to come, another Turanian race was to
arise, as brutal as the Huns, but with their fierceness sharp-
pointed and hardened into a far more fearful weapon of offence
by the fanaticism of Islam. These descendants of the kinsfolk
of Attila were the Ottomans, and but for the barrier which,
like their own murazzi against the waves, the Venetians inter-
posed against the Ottomans, it is scarcely too much to say
that half Europe would have undergone the misery of sub-
jection to the organized anarchy of the Turkish pachas. The
Tartar Attila, when he gave up Aquileia and her neighbor
cities to the tender mercies of his myrmidons, little thought
that he was but the instrument in an unseen Hand for ham-

104 FOUNDATION OF VENICE

mering out the shield which should one day defend Europe
from Tartar robbers such as he was. The Turanian poison
secreted the future antidote to itself, and the name of that
antidote was Venice.

JOHN RUSKIN

In the olden days of travelling, now to return no more, in
which distance could not be vanquished without toil, but in
which that toil was rewarded, partly by the power of deliberate
survey of the countries through which the journey lay, and
partly by the happiness of the evening hours, when, from the
top of the last hill he had surmounted, the traveller beheld the
quiet village where he was to rest, scattered among the mead-
ows beside its valley stream ; or, from the long-hoped-for turn
in the dusty perspective of the causeway, saw, for the first time,
the towers of some famed city, faint in the rays of sunset —
hours of peaceful and thoughtful pleasure, for which the rush
of the arrival in the railway station is perhaps not always, or to
all men, an equivalent — in those days, I say, when there was
something more to be anticipated and remembered in the first
aspect of each successive halting-place, than a new arrangement
of glass roofing and iron girder, there were few moments of
which the recollection was more fondly cherished by the
traveller than that which brought him within sight of Venice,
as his gondola shot into the open Lagoon from the canal of
Mestre.

Not but that the aspect of the city itself was generally
the source of some slight disappointment, for, seen in this
direction, its buildings are far less characteristic than those of
the other great towns of Italy; but this inferiority was partly
disguised by distance, and more than atoned for by the strange
rising of its walls and towers, out of the midst, as it seemed, of
the deep sea, for it was impossible that the mind or the eye
could at once comprehend the shallowness of the vast sheet of
water which stretched away in leagues of rippling lustre to the
north and south, or trace the narrow line of islets bounding it
to the east. The salt breeze, the white moaning sea-birds, the
masses of black weed separating and disappearing gradually, in
knots of heaving shoal, under the advance of the steady tide,
ail proclaimed it to be indeed the ocean on whose bosom the

FOUNDATION OF VENICE 105

great city rested so calmly; not such blue, soft, lake-like ocean
as bathes the Neapolitan promontories or sleeps beneath the
marble rocks of Genoa, but a sea with the bleak power of our
own northern waves, yet subdued into a strange spacious rest,
and changed from its angry pallor into a field of burnished
gold, as the sun declined behind the belfry tower of the lonely
island church, fitly named "St. George of the Sea-weed."

As the boat drew nearer to the city, the coast which the
traveller had just left sank behind him into one long, low, sad-
colored line, tufted irregularly with brushwood and willows:
but, at what seemed its northern extremity, the hills of Arqua
rose in a dark cluster of purple pyramids, balanced on the
bright mirage of the Lagoon ; two or three smooth surges of in-
ferior hill extended themselves about their roots, and beyond
these, beginning with the craggy peaks above Vicenza, the chain
of the Alps girded the whole horizon to the north — a wall of
jagged blue, here and there showing through its clefts a wilder-
ness of misty precipices, fading far back into the recesses of
Cadore, and itself rising and breaking away eastward, where
the sun struck opposite upon its snow, into mighty fragments of
peaked light, standing up behind the barred clouds of evening,
one after another, countless, the crown of the Adrian Sea, un-
til the eye turned back from pursuing them, to rest upon the
nearer burning of the campaniles of Murano, and on the great
city, where it magnified itself along the waves, as the quick
silent pacing of the gondola drew nearer and nearer. And at
last, when its walls were reached, and the ^utmost of its un-
trodden streets was entered, not through towered gate or
guarded rampart, but as a deep inlet between two rocks of
coral in the Indian sea; when first up:n the traveller's sight
opened the long ranges of columned palaces — each with its
black boat moored at the portal — each with its image cast
down, beneath its feet, upon that green pavement which every
breeze broke into new fantasies of rich tessellation; when first,
at the extremity of the bright vista, the shadowy Rialto threw
its colossal curve slowly forth from behind the palace of the
Camerlenghi; that strange curve, so delicate, so adamantine,
strong as a mountain cavern, graceful as a bow just bent;
when first, before its moonlike circumference was all risen, the

io6 FOUNDATION OF VENICE

gondolier's cry, "Ah! Stall," struck sharp upon the ear, and
the prow turned aside under the mighty cornices that half met
over the narrow canal, where the plash of the water followed
close and loud, ringing along the marble by the boat's side;
and when at last that boat darted forth upon the breadth of
silver sea, across which the front of the Ducal Palace, flushed
with its sanguine veins, looks to the snowy dome of Our Lady
of Salvation, it was no marvel that the mind should be so
deeply entranced by the visionary charm of a scene so beauti-
ful and so strange as to forget the darker truths of its history
and its being.

Well might it seem that such a city had owed her existence
rather to the rod of the enchanter than the fear of the fugitive ;
that the waters which encircled her had been chosen for the
mirror of her state rather than the shelter of her nakedness;
and that all which in nature was wild or merciless — Time and
Decay, as well as the waves and tempests — had been won to
adorn her instead of to destroy, and might still spare, for
ages to come, that beauty which seemed to have fixed for its
throne the sands of the hour-glass as well as of the sea.

And although the last few eventful years, fraught with
change to the face of the whole earth, have been more fatal in
their influence on Venice than the five hundred that preceded
them ; though the noble landscape of approach to her can now
be seen no more, or seen only by a glance, as the engine slackens
its rushing on the iron line; and though many of her palaces
are forever defaced and many in desecrated ruins, there is
still so much of magic in her aspect that the hurried traveller,
who must leave her before the wonder of that first aspect has
been worn away, may still be led to forget the humility of her
origin and to shut his eyes to the depth of her desolation.
They, at least, are little to be envied in whose hearts the great
charities of the imagination lie dead, and for whom the fancy
has no power to repress the importunity of painful impressions
or to raise what is ignoble and disguise what is discordant in a
scene so rich in its remembrances, so surpassing in its beauty.
But for this work of the imagination there must be no permis-
sion during the task which is before us.

The impotent feelings of romance, so singularly character-

FOUNDATION OF VENICE 107

istic of this century, may indeed gild, but never save, the re-
mains of those mightier ages to which they are attached
like climbing flowers; and they must be torn away from
the magnificent fragments, if we would see them as they stood
in their own strength. Those feelings, always as fruitless as
they are fond, are in Venice not only incapable of protecting,
but even of discerning, the objects to which they ought to have
been attached. The Venice of modern fiction and drama is a
thing of yesterday, a mere efflorescence of decay, a stage dream
which the first ray of daylight must dissipate into dust. No
prisoner, whose name is worth remembering, or whose sorrow
deserved sympathy, ever crossed that "Bridge of Sighs," which
is the centre of the Byronic ideal of Venice; no great merchant
of Venice ever saw that Rialto under which the traveller now
passes with breathless interest: the statue which Byron makes
Faliero address as of one of his great ancestors was erected to
a soldier of fortune a hundred and fifty years after Faliero's
death; and the most conspicuous parts of the city have been
so entirely altered in the course of the last three centuries that
if Henry Dandolo or Francis Foscari could be summoned from
his tomb, and stood each on the deck of his galley at the
entrance of the Grand Canal, that renowned entrance, the
painter's favorite subject, the novelist's favorite scene, where
the water first narrows by the steps of the Church of La Salute —
the mighty doges would not know in what spot of the world
they stood, would literally not recognize one stone of the great
city, for whose sake, and by whose ingratitude, their gray hairs
had been brought down with bitterness to the grave.

The remains of their Venice lie hidden behind the cumbrous
masses which were the delight of the nation in its dotage; hidden
in many a grass-grown court and silent pathway and lightless
canal, where the slow waves have sapped their foundations for
five hundred years, and must soon prevail over them forever.
It must be our task to glean and gather them forth, and restore
out of them some faint image of the lost city, more gorgeous
a thousandfold than that which now exists, yet not created in
the day-dream of the prince nor by the ostentation of the noble,
but built by iron hands and patient hearts, contending against
the adversity of nature and the fury of man, so that its wonder-

io8 FOUNDATION OF VENICE

fulness cannot be grasped by the indolence of imagination, but
only after frank inquiry into the true nature of that wild and
solitary scene whose restless tides and trembling sands did in-
deed shelter the birth of the city, but long denied her domin-
ion.

When the eye falls casually on a map of Europe, there is
no feature by which it is more likely to be arrested than the
strange sweeping loop formed by the junction of the Alps and
Apennines, and enclosing the great basin of Lombardy. This
return of the mountain chain upon itself causes a vast difference
in the character of the distribution of its d/bris on its opposite
sides. The rock fragments and sediment which the torrents on
the north side of the Alps bear into the plains are distributed
over a vast extent of country, and, though here and there
lodged in beds of enormous thickness, soon permit the firm
substrata to appear from underneath them ; but all the torrents
which descend from the southern side of the High Alps and
from the northern slope of the Apennines meet concentrically
in the recess or mountain-bay which the two ridges enclose;
every fragment which thunder breaks out of their battlements,
and every grain of dust which the summer rain washes from
their pastures, is at last laid at rest in the blue sweep of the
Lombardic plain; and that plain must have risen within its
rocky barriers as a cup fills with wine, but for two contrary in-
fluences which continually depress, or disperse from its surface,
the accumulation of the ruins of ages.

I will not tax the reader's faith in modern science by in-
sisting on this singular depression of the surface of Lombardy,
which appears for many centuries to have taken place steadily
and continually; the main fact with which we have to do is
the gradual transport, by the Po and its great collateral rivers,
of vast masses of the finer sediment to the sea. The character
of the Lombardic plains is most strikingly expressed by the
ancient walls of its cities, composed for the most part of large
rounded Alpine pebbles alternating with narrow courses of
brick, and was curiously illustrated in 1848 by the ramparts
of these same pebbles thrown up four or five feet high round
every field, to check the Austrian cavalry in the battle under
the walls of Verona.

FOUNDATION OF VENICE 109

The finer dust among which these pebbles are dispersed is
taken up by the rivers, fed into continual strength by the
Alpine snow, so that, however pure their waters may be when
they issue from the lakes at the foot of the great chain, they
become of the color and opacity of clay before they reach the
Adriatic; the sediment which they bear is at once thrown
down as they enter the sea, forming a vast belt of low land
along the eastern coast of Italy. The powerful stream of the
Po of course builds forward the fastest; on each side of it,
north and south, there is a tract of marsh, fed by more feeble
streams, and less liable to rapid change than the delta of the
central river. In one of these tracts is built Ravenna, and in
the other Venice.

What circumstances directed the peculiar arrangement of
this great belt of sediment in the earliest times, it is not here
the place to inquire. It is enough for us. to know that from
the mouths of the Adige to those of the Piave there stretches,
at a variable distance of from three to five miles from the
actual shore, a bank of sand, divided into long islands by narrow
channels of sea. The space between this bank and the true
shore consists of the sedimentary deposits from these and other
rivers, a great plain of calcareous mud, covered, in the neigh-
borhood of Venice, by the sea at high water, to the depth in
most places of a foot or a foot and a half, and nearly every-
where exposed at low tide, but divided by an intricate network
of narrow and winding channels, from which the sea never
retires.

In some places, according to the run of the currents, the
land has risen into marshy islets, consolidated, some by art,
and some by time, into ground firm enough to be built upon or
fruitful enough to be cultivated: in others, on the contrary, it
has not reached the sea-level; so that, at the average low
water, shallow lakelets glitter among its irregularly exposed
fields of seaweed. In the midst of the largest of these, increased
in importance by the confluence of several large river channels
toward one of the openings in the sea-bank, the city of Venice
itself is built, on a crowded cluster of islands; the various plots
of higher ground which appear to the north and south of this
central cluster have at different periods been also thickly in-

no FOUNDATION OF VENICE

habited, and now bear, according to their size, the remains of
cities, villages, or isolated convents and churches, scattered
among spaces of open ground, partly waste and encumbered
by ruins, partly under cultivation for the supply of the me-
tropolis.

The average rise and fall of the tide are about three feet —
varying considerably with the seasons — but this fall, on so flat
a shore, is enough to cause continual movement in the waters,
and in the main canals to produce a reflux which frequently
runs like a mill-stream. At high water no land is visible for
many miles to the north or south of Venice, except in the form
of small islands crowned with towers or gleaming with villages;
there is a channel, some three miles wide, between the city and
the mainland, and some mile and a half wide between it and
the sandy breakwater called the Lido, which divides the Lagoon
from the Adriatic, but which is so low as hardly to disturb the
impression of the city's having been built in the midst of the
ocean, although the secret of its true position is partly, yet not
painfully, betrayed by the clusters of piles set to mark the deep-
water channels, which undulate far away in spotty chains like
the studded backs of huge sea-snakes, and by the quick glitter-
ing of the crisped and crowded waves that flicker and dance
before the strong winds upon the unlifted level of the shallow
sea.

But the scene is widely different at low tide. A fall of eighteen
or twenty inches is enough to show ground over the greater part
of the Lagoon; and at the complete ebb the city is seen stand-
ing in the midst of a dark plain of sea-weed, of gloomy green,
except only where the larger branches of the Brenta and its
associated streams converge toward the port of the Lido.
Through this salt and sombre plain the gondola and the fishing-
boat advance by tortuous channels, seldom more than four or
five feet deep, and often so choked with slime that the heavier
keels furrow the bottom till their crossing tracks are seen through
the clear sea-water like the ruts upon a wintry road, and the oar
leaves blue gashes upon the ground at every stroke, or is entan-
gled among the thick weed that fringes the banks with the
weight of its sullen waves, leaning to and fro upon the uncer-
tain sway of the exhausted tide.

FOUNDATION OF VENICE in

The scene is often profoundly oppressive, even at this day,
when every plot of higher ground bears some fragment of fair
building: but, in order to know what it was once, let the trav-
eller follow in his boat at evening the windings of some un-
frequented channel far into the midst of the melancholy plain;
let him remove, in his imagination, the brightness of the great
city that still extends itself in the distance, and the walls and
towers from the islands that are near; and so wait, until the
bright investiture and sweet warmth of the sunset are with-
drawn from the waters, and the black desert of their shore lies
in its nakedness beneath the night, pathless, comfortless, infirm,
lost in dark languor and fearful silence, except where the salt
runlets plash into the tideless pools, or the sea-birds flit from
their margins with a questioning cry; and he will be enabled
to enter in some sort into the horror of heart with which this soli-
tude was anciently chosen by man for his habitation.

They little thought, who first drove the stakes into the sand,
and strewed the ocean reeds for their rest, that their children
were to be the princes of that ocean, and their palaces its pride;
and yet, in the great natural laws that rule that sorrowful wil-
derness, let it be remembered what strange preparation had
been made for the things which no human imagination could
have foretold, and how the whole existence and fortune of the
Venetian nation were anticipated or compelled, by the setting
of those bars and doors to the rivers and the sea. Had deeper
currents divided their islands, hostile navies would again and
again have reduced the rising city into servitude; had stronger
surges beaten their shores, all the richness and refinement
of the Venetian architecture must have been exchanged for the
walls and bulwarks of an ordinary seaport. Had there been no
tide, as in other parts of the Mediterranean, the narrow canals
of the city would have become noisome, and the marsh hi which
it was built pestiferous. Had the tide been only a foot or eigh-
teen inches higher in its rise, the water access to the doors of the
palaces would have been impossible; even as it is, there is some-
tunes a little difficulty, at the ebb, in landing without setting
foot upon the lower and slippery steps: and the highest tides
sometimes enter the court-yards, and overflow the entrance
halls.

ii2 FOUNDATION OF VENICE

Eighteen inches more of difference between the level of the
flood and ebb would have rendered the doorsteps of every pal-
ace, at low water, a treacherous mass of weeds and limpets, and
the entire system of • water-carriage for the higher classes, in
their easy and daily intercourse, must have been done away
with. The streets of the city would have been widened, its net-
work of canals filled up, and all the peculiar character of the
place and the people destroyed.

The reader may perhaps have felt some pain in the con-
trast between this faithful view of the site of the Venetian
throne, and the romantic conception of it which we ordinarily
form; but this pain, if he have felt it, ought to be more than
counterbalanced by the value of the instance thus afforded to
us at once of the inscrutableness and the wisdom of the ways of
God. If, two thousand years ago, we had been permitted to
watch the slow settling of the slime of those turbid rivers into
the polluted sea, and the gaining upon its deep and fresh waters
of the lifeless, impassable, unvoyageable plain, how little could
we have understood the purpose with which those islands were
shaped out of the void, and the torpid waters enclosed with
their desolate walls of sand ! How little could we have known,
any more than of what now seems to us most distressful, dark,
and objectless, the glorious aim which was then in the mind of
Him in whose hand are all the corners of the earth ! How lit-
tle imagined that in the laws which were stretching forth the
gloomy margins of those fruitless banks, and feeding the bitter
grass among their shallows, there was indeed a preparation, and
the only preparation possible, for the founding of a city which
was to be set like a golden clasp on the girdle of the earth, to
write her history on the white scrolls of the sea-surges, and to
word it in their thunder, and to gather and give forth, in world-
wide pulsation, the glory of the West and of the East, from the
burning heart of her Fortitude and Splendor.

CLOVIS FOUNDS THE KINGDOM OF THE
FRANKS: IT BECOMES CHRISTIAN

A.D. 486-511

FRANCOIS P. G. GUIZOT
?

Clovis, the sturdy Frank, wrought marvellous changes in Gaul. His
marriage to the Christian princess Clotilde was followed by the conver-
sion of himself and, gradually, that of his people. With a well-disci-
plined army he pulled down and swept away the last pillars of Roman
power out of Gaul. Guizot gives a graphic account of the transition of
the Franks, during two hundred and fifty years, from being isolated
wandering tribes, each constantly warring against the other, to a well-
ordered Christian kingdom, which led to the establishment of the French
monarchy. The climax of this period of transition came in the reign of
Clovis, with whom commences the real history of France. Under his
strong hand the various tribes were gradually brought under his sole rule.

When Clovis, at the age of fifteen, succeeded his father, Childeric, as
king of the Salian tribe, his people were mainly pagans ; the Salian do-
main was very limited, the treasury empty, and there was no store of
either grain or wine. But these difficulties were overcome by him ; he
subjugated the neighboring tribes, and made Christianity the state re-
ligion. The new faith was accorded great privileges and means of influ-
ence, in many cases favorable to humanity and showing respect to the
rights of individuals. So great an advance in civilization is an early
milestone on the path of progress.

A BOUT A.D. 241 or 242 the Sixth Roman legion, commanded
by Aurelian, at that time military tribune, and thirty years
later emperor, had just finished a campaign on the Rhine,
undertaken for the purpose of driving the Germans from Gaul,
and was preparing for eastern service, to make war on the
Persians. The soldiers sang:

" We have slain a thousand Franks and a thousand
Sarmatians; we want a thousand, thousand,
Thousand Persians."
K., VOL. iv.— 8. 113

ii4 KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED

That was, apparently, a popular burthen at the time, for on
the days of military festivals, at Rome and in Gaul, the chil-
dren sang, as they danced:

" We have cut off the heads of a thousand, thousand, thousand
Thousand ;

One man hath cut off the heads of a thousand, thousand, thousand,
Thousand thousand ;

May he live a thousand thousand years, he who
Hath slain a thousand thousand !
Nobody hath so much of wine as he
Hath of blood poured out."

Aurelian, the hero of these ditties, was indeed much given to
the pouring out of blood, for at the approach of a fresh war he
wrote to the senate:

"I marvel, conscript fathers, that ye have so much misgiv-
ing about opening the Sibylline books, as if ye were deliberat-
ing in an assembly of Christians, and not in the temple of all
the gods. Let inquiry be made of the sacred books, and let
celebration take place of the ceremonies that ought to be ful-
filled. Far from refusing, I offer, with zeal, to satisfy all ex-
penditure required with captives of every nationality, victims of
royal rank. It is no shame to conquer with the aid of the gods;
it is thus that our ancestors began and ended many a war."

Human sacrifices, then, were not yet foreign to pagan fes-
tivals, and probably the blood of more than one Frankish cap-
tive on that occasion flowed in the temple of all the gods.

It is the first time the name of Franks appears in history;
and it indicated no particular, single people, but a confederation
of Germanic peoplets, settled or roving on the right bank of
the Rhine, from the Main to the ocean. The number and the
names of the tribes united in this confederation are uncertain.
A chart of the Roman Empire, prepared apparently at the end
of the fourth century, in the reign of the emperor Honorius
— which chart, called tabula Peutingeri, was found among the
ancient MSS. collected by Conrad Peutinger, a learned German
philosopher, in the fifteenth century — bears, over a large ter-
ritory on the right bank of the Rhine, the word Francia, and
the following enumeration: "The Chaucians, the Ampsuari-
ans, the Cheruscans, and the Chamavians, who are also called

KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED 115

Franks; " and to these tribes divers chroniclers added several
others, " the Attuarians, the Bructerians, the Cattians, and the
Sicambrians."

Whatever may have been the specific names of these peoplets,
they were all of German race, called themselves Franks, that
is "freemen," and made, sometimes separately, sometimes col-
lectively, continued incursions into Gaul — especially Belgica
and the northern portions of Lyonness — at one time plunder-
ing and ravaging, at another occupying forcibly, or demanding
of the Roman emperors lands whereon to settle. From the
middle of the third to the beginning of the fifth century the
history of the Western Empire presents an almost uninter-
rupted series of these invasions on the part of the Franks, to-
gether with the different relationships established between
them and the imperial government. At one time whole tribes
settled on Roman soil, submitted to the emperors, entered their
service, and fought for them even against their own German
compatriots. At another, isolated individuals, such and such
warriors of German race, put themselves at the command of
the emperors, and became of importance. At the middle of
the third century the emperor Valerian, on committing a com-
mand to Aurelian, wrote, "Thou wilt have with thee Hart-
mund, Haldegast, Hildmund, and Carioviscus."

Some Prankish tribes allied themselves more or less fleet-
ingly with the imperial government, at the same time that they
preserved their independence; others pursued, throughout the
empire, their life of incursion and adventure. From A.D. 260
to 268, under the reign of Gallienus, a band of Franks threw
itself upon Gaul, scoured it from northeast to southeast, plun-
dering and devastating on its way; then it passed from Aqui-
tania into Spain, took and burned Tarragona, gained possession
of certain vessels, sailed away, and disappeared in Africa, after
having wandered about for twelve years at its own will and
pleasure. There was no lack of valiant emperors, precarious
and ephemeral as their power may have been, to defend the
empire, and especially Gaul, against those enemies, themselves
ephemeral, but forever recurring; Decius, Valerian, Gallienus,
Claudius Gothicus, Aurelian, and Probus gallantly withstood
those repeated attacks of German hordes. Sometimes they

u6 KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED

flattered themselves they had gained a definitive victory, and
then the old Roman pride exhibited itself in their patriotic con-
fidence. About A.D. 278, the emperor Probus, after gaining
several victories in Gaul over the Franks, wrote to the senate :

"I render thanks to the immortal gods, conscript fathers,
for that they have confirmed your judgment as regards me.
Germany is subdued throughout its whole extent; nine kings
of different nations have come and cast themselves at my feet,
or rather at yours, as suppliants with their foreheads in the
dust. Already all those barbarians are tilling for you, sowing
for you, and fighting for you against the most distant nations.
Order ye, therefore, according to your custom, prayers of
thanksgiving, for we have slain four thousand of the enemy;
we have had offered to us sixteen thousand men ready armed;
and we have wrested from the enemy the seventy most impor-
tant towns. The Gauls, in fact, are completely delivered. The
crowns offered to me by all the cities of Gaul I have submitted,
conscript fathers, to your grace; dedicate ye them with your
own hands to Jupiter, all-bountiful, all-powerful, and to the
other immortal gods and goddesses. All the booty is retaken,
and, further, we have made fresh captures, more considerable
than our first losses ; the fields of Gaul are tilled by the oxen of
the barbarians, and German teams bend their necks in slavery
to our husbandmen; divers nations raise cattle for our con-
sumption, and horses to remount our cavalry; our stores are full
of the corn of the barbarians — in one word, we have left to the
vanquished naught but the soil ; all their other possessions are
ours. We had at first thought it necessary, conscript fathers,
to appoint a new governor of Germany; but we have put off
this measure to the time when our ambition shall be more com-
pletely satisfied, which will be, as it seems to us, when it shall
have pleased divine Providence to increase and multiply the
forces of our armies."

Probus had good reason to wish that "divine Providence
might be pleased to increase the forces of the Roman armies,"
for even after his victories, exaggerated as they probably were,
they did not suffice for their task, and it was not long before the
vanquished recommenced war. He had dispersed over the
territory of the empire the majority of the prisoners he had

KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED 117

taken. A band of Franks, who had been transported and es-
tablished as a military colony on the European shore of the
Black Sea, could not make up their minds to remain there.
They obtained possession of some vessels, traversed the Pro-
pontis, the Hellespont, and the Archipelago, ravaged the coasts
of Greece, Asia Minor, and Africa, plundered Syracuse, scoured
the whole of the Mediterranean, entered the ocean by the Straits
of Gibraltar, and, making their way up again along the coasts
of Gaul, arrived at last at the mouths of the Rhine, where they
once more found themselves at home among the vines which
Probus, in his victorious progress, had been the first to have
planted, and with probably their old taste for adventure and
plunder.

After the commencement of the fifth century, from A.D. 406
to 409, it was no longer by incursions limited to certain points,
and sometimes repelled with success, that the Germans har-
assed the Roman provinces; a veritable deluge of divers na-
tions forced, one upon another, from Asia, into Europe, by
wars and migration in mass, inundated the empire and gave
the decisive signal for its fall. St. Jerome did not exaggerate
when he wrote to Ageruchia: "Nations, countless in number
and exceeding fierce, have occupied all the Gauls; Quadians,
Vandals, Sarmatians, Alans, Gepidians, Herulians, Saxons,
Burgundians, Allemannians, Pannonians, and even Assyrians
have laid waste all that there is between the Alps and the
Pyrenees, the ocean and the Rhine. Sad destiny of the Com-
monwealth! Mayence, once a noble city, hath been taken and
destroyed; thousands of men were slaughtered in the church.
Worms hath fallen after a long siege. The inhabitants of
Rheims, a powerful city, and those of Amiens, Arras, Te"rouanne,
at the extremity of Gaul, Tournay, Spires, and Strasburg have
been carried away to Germany. All hath been ravaged in
Aquitania (Novempopulania), Lyonness, and Narbonensis; the
towns, save a few, are dispeopled; the sword pursueth them
abroad and famine at home. I cannot speak without tears of
Toulouse; if she be not reduced to equal ruin, it is to the merits
of her holy bishop Exuperus that she oweth it."

Then took place throughout the Roman Empire, in the East
as well as in the West, in Asia and Africa as well as in Europe,

ii8 KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED

the last grand struggle between the Roman armies and bar-
baric nations. Armies is the proper term; for, to tell the truth,
there was no longer a Roman nation, and very seldom a Ro-
man emperor with some little capacity for government or war.
The long continuance of despotism and slavery had enervated
equally the ruling power and the people; everything depended
on the soldiers and their generals. It was in Gaul that the
struggle was most obstinate and most promptly brought to a
decisive issue, and the confusion there was as great as the
obstinacy. Barbaric peoplets served in the ranks and bar-
baric leaders held the command of the Roman armies; Stilicho
was a Goth; Arbogastes and Mellobaudes were Franks; Rici-
mer was a Suevian. The Roman generals, Bonifacius, Aetius,
^Egidius, Syagrius, at one time fought the barbarians, at an-
other negotiated with such and such of them, either to entice
them to take service against other barbarians, or to promote
the objects of personal ambition ; for the Roman generals also,
under the titles of patrician, consul, or proconsul, aspired to
and attained a sort of political independence, and contributed
to the dismemberment of the empire in the very act of defend-
ing it.

No later than A.D. 412 two German nations, the Visi-
goths and the Burgundians, took their stand definitively in
Gaul, and founded there two new kingdoms: the Visigoths,
under their kings Ataulph and Wallia, in Aquitania and Nar-
bonensis ; the Burgundians, under their kings Gundichaire and
Gundioch, in Lyonnais, from the southern point of Alsatia
right into Provence, along the two banks of the Sa6ne and the
left bank of the Rhone, and also in Switzerland. In 451 the
arrival in Gaul of the Huns and their king Attila — already
famous, both king and nation, for their wild habits, their fierce
valor, and their successes against the Eastern Empire —
gravely complicated the situation. The common interest of
resistance against the most barbarous of barbarians, and the
renown and energy of Aetius, united, for the moment, the old
and new masters of Gaul; Romans, Gauls, Visigoths, Bur-
gundians, Franks, Alans, Saxons, and Britons formed the
army led by Aetius against that of Attila, who also had in his
ranks Goths, Burgundians, Gepidians, Alans, and beyond-

KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED 119

Rhine Franks, gathered together and enlisted on his road. It
was a chaos and a conflict of barbarians, of every name and
race, disputing one with another, pell-mell, the remnants of the
Roman Empire torn asunder and in dissolution.

Attila had already arrived before Orleans, and was laying
siege to it. The bishop, St. Anianus, sustained awhile the cour-
age of the besieged by promising them aid from Aetius and his
allies. The aid was slow to come; and the bishop sent to Aetius
a message: "If thou be not here this very day, my son, it will
be too late." Still Aetius came not. The people of Orleans
determined to surrender; the gates flew open; the Huns en-
tered; the plundering began without much disorder; "wag-
ons were stationed to receive the booty as it was taken from
the houses, and the captives, arranged in groups, were divided
by lot between the victorious chieftains." Suddenly a shout
reechoed through the streets: it was Aetius, Theodoric, and
Torismund, his son, who were coming with the eagles of the
Roman legions and with the banners of the Visigoths. A
fight took place between them and the Huns, at first on the
banks of the Loire, and then in the streets of the city. The
people of Orleans joined their liberators; the danger was great
for the Huns, and Attila ordered a retreat.

It was the i4th of June, 451, and that day was for a long
while celebrated in the church of Orleans as the date of a signal
deliverance. The Huns retired toward Champagne, which
they had already crossed at their coming into Gaul; and when
they were before Troyes, the bishop, St. Lupus, repaired to
Attila's camp, and besought him to spare a defenceless city,
which had neither walls nor garrison. "So be it," answered
Attila; "but thou shalt come with me and see the Rhine; I
promise then to send thee back again." With mingled pru-
dence and superstition the barbarian meant to keep the holy
man as a hostage. The Huns arrived at the plains hard by
Chalons-sur-Marne; Aetius and all his allies had followed
them; and Attila, perceiving that a battle was inevitable, halted
in a position for delivering it. The Gothic historian Jornandes
says that he consulted his priests, who answered that the Huns
would be beaten, but that the general of the enemy would fall in
the fight. In this prophecy Attila saw predicted the death of

120 KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED

Aetius, his most formidable enemy; and the struggle com-
menced. There is no precise information about the date; but
" it was," says Jornandes, " a battle which for atrocity, multitude,
horror, and stubbornness has not the like in the records of an-
tiquity."

Historians vary in their exaggerations of the numbers en-
gaged and killed: according to some, three hundred thousand,
according to others one hundred and sixty-two thousand, were
left on the field of battle. Theodoric, king of the Visigoths,
was killed. Some chroniclers name Meroveus as king of the
Franks, settled in Belgica, near Tongres, who formed part of
the army of Aetius. They even attribute to him a brilliant
attack made on the eve of the battle upon the Gepidians, allies
of the Huns, when ninety thousand men fell according to
some, and only fifteen thousand according to others. The
numbers are purely imaginary, and even the fact is doubtful.
However, the battle of Chalons drove the Huns out of Gaul,
and was the last victory in Gaul, gained still in the name of the
Roman Empire, but in reality for the advantage of the German
nations which had already conquered it. Twenty-four years
afterward the very name of Roman Empire disappeared with
Augustulus, the last of the emperors of the West.

Thirty years after the battle of Chalons the Franks settled
in Gaul were not yet united as one nation; several tribes with
this name, independent one of another, were planted between
the Rhine and the Somme; there were some in the environs of
Cologne, Calais, Cambrai, even beyond the Seine and as far as
Le Mans, on the confines of the Britons. This is one of the
reasons of the confusion that prevails in the ancient chronicles
about the chieftains or kings of these tribes, their names and
dates, and the extent and site of their possessions. Phara-
mond, Clodion, Meroveus, and Childeric cannot be considered
as kings of France and placed at the beginning of her history.
If they are met with in connection with historical facts, fabu-
lous legends or fanciful traditions are mingled with them;
Priam appears as a predecessor of Pharamond; Clodion, who
passes for having been the first to bear and transmit to the
Prankish kings the title of "long-haired," is represented as the
son, at one time of Pharamond, at another of another chief-

KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED 121

tain named The"odemer; romantic adventures, spoilt by geo-
graphical mistakes, adorn the life of Childeric.

All that can be distinctly affirmed is that, from A.D. 450 to
480, the two principal Frankish tribes were those of the Salian
Franks and the Ripuarian Franks, settled, the latter in the east
of Belgica, on the banks of the Moselle and the Rhine; the
former toward the west, between the Meuse, the ocean, and
the Somme. Meroveus, whose name was perpetuated in his
line, was one of the principal chieftains of the Salian Franks;
and his son Childeric, who resided at Tournai, where his tomb
was discovered in 1655, was the father of Clovis, who succeeded
him in 481, and with whom really commenced the kingdom and
history of France.

Clovis was fifteen or sixteen years old when he became king
of the Salian Franks of Tournai. Five years afterward his
ruling passion, ambition, exhibited itself, together with that
mixture of boldness and craft which was to characterize his
whole life. He had two neighbors: one, hostile to the Franks,
the Roman patrician Syagrius, who was left master at Soissons
after the death of his father ^gidius, and whom Gregory of
Tours calls "king of the Romans"; the other, a Salian-Frank-
ish chieftain, just as Clovis was, and related to him, Ragna-
caire, who was settled at Cambrai. Clovis induced Ragna-
caire to join him in a campaign against Syagrius. They
fought, and Syagrius was driven to take refuge in Southern
Gaul, with Alaric, king of the Visigoths.

Clovis, not content with taking possession of Soissons, and
anxious to prevent any troublesome return, demanded of Alaric
to send Syagrius back to him, threatening war if the request
were refused. The Goth, less bellicose than the Frank, deliv-
ered up Syagrius to the envoys of Clovis, who immediately had
him secretly put to death, settled himself at Soissons, and from
thence set on foot, in the country between the Aisne and the
Loire, plundering and subjugating expeditions which speedily
increased his domains and his wealth, and extended far and
wide his fame as well as his ambition. The Franks who ac-
companied him were not long before they also felt the growth of
his power; like him they were pagans, and the treasures of the
Christian churches counted for a great deal in the booty they

122 KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED

had to divide. On one of their expeditions they had taken in
the church of Rheims, among other things, a vase "of marvel-
lous size and beauty."

The bishop of Rheims, St. Remi, was not quite a stranger
to Clovis. Some years before, when he had heard that the son
of Childeric had become king of the Franks of Tournai, he had
written to congratulate him. "We are informed," said he,
"that thou hast undertaken the conduct of affairs; it is no
marvel that thou beginnest to be what thy fathers ever were; "
and, while taking care to put himself on good terms with the
young pagan chieftain, the bishop added to his felicitations
some pious Christian counsel, without letting any attempt at
conversion be mixed up with his moral exhortations. The
bishop, informed of the removal of the vase, sent to Clovis a
messenger begging the return, if not of all his church's orna-
ments, at any rate of that. "Follow us as far as Soissons,"
said Clovis to the messenger; "it is there the partition is to take
place of what we have captured ; when the lots shall have given
me the vase, I will do what the bishop demands."

When Soissons was reached, and all the booty had been
placed in the midst of the host, the king said: "Valiant war-
riors, I pray you not to refuse me, over and above my share,
this vase here." At these words of the king, those who were of
sound mind among the assembly answered: "Glorious king,
everything we see here is thine, and we ourselves are submissive
to thy commands. Do thou as seemeth good to thee, for there
is none that can resist thy power." When they had thus
spoken, a certain Frank, light-minded, jealous, and vain, cried
out aloud as he struck the vase with his battle-axe, "Thou
shalt have naught of all this save what the lots shall truly give
thee." At these words all were astounded; but the king bore
the insult with sweet patience, and, accepting the vase, he gave
it to the messenger, hiding his wound in the recesses of his
heart. At the end of a year he ordered all his host to assemble
fully equipped at the March parade, to have their arms in-
spected. After having passed in review all the other warriors,
he came to him who had struck the vase. "None," said he,
"hath brought hither arms so ill-kept as thine; nor lance, nor
sword, nor battle-axe are in condition for service." And

KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED 123

wresting from him his axe he flung it on the ground. The
man stooped down a little to pick it up, and forthwith the King,
raising with both hands his own battle-axe, drove it into his
skull, saying, "Thus didst thou to the vase of Soissons!"
On the death of this fellow he bade the rest begone, and by
this act made himself greatly feared.

A bold and unexpected deed has always a great effect on
men: with his Prankish warriors, as well as with his Roman
and Gothic foes, Clovis had at command the instincts of pa-
tience and brutality in turn; he could bear a mortification and
take vengeance in due season. While prosecuting his course
of plunder and war in Eastern Belgica, on the banks of the
Meuse, Clovis was inspired with a wish to get married. He
had heard tell of a young girl, like himself of the Germanic
royal line, Clotilde, niece of Gondebaud, at that time king of
the Burgundians. She was dubbed beautiful, wise, and well-
informed; but her situation was melancholy and perilous.
Ambition and fraternal hatred had devastated her family.
Her father, Chilperic, and her two brothers, had been put to
death by her uncle Gondebaud, who had caused her mother,
Agrippina, to be thrown into the Rhone, with a stone round her
neck, and drowned. Two sisters alone had survived this
slaughter: the elder, Chrona, had taken religious vows; the
other, Clotilde, was living almost in exile at Geneva, absorbed
in works of piety and charity.

The principal historian of this epoch, Gregory of Tours, an
almost contemporary authority, for he was elected bishop
sixty-two years after the death of Clovis, says simply: "Clovis
at once sent a deputation to Gondebaud to ask Clotilde in
marriage. Gondebaud, not daring to refuse, put her into the
hands of the envoys, who took her promptly to the King. Clovis
at sight of her was transported with joy, and married her."
But to this short account other chroniclers, among them Fre'de'-
gaire, who wrote a commentary upon and a continuation of
Gregory of Tours' work, added details which deserve repro-
duction, first as a picture of manners, next for the better under-
standing of history. "As he was not allowed to see Clotilde,"
says Fre'de'gaire, "Clovis charged a certain Roman, named
Aurelian, to use all his wit to come nigh her. Aurelian re-

124 KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED

paired alone to the spot, clothed in rags and with his wallet
upon his back, like a mendicant. To insure confidence in him-
self he took with him the ring of Clovis. On his arrival at Ge-
neva, Clotilde received him as a pilgrim charitably, and while
she was washing his feet Aurelian, bending toward her, said,
under his breath, ' Lady, I have great matters to announce to
thee if thou deign to permit me secret revelation.' She, con-
senting, replied, 'Say on.' 'Clovis, king of the Franks,' said
he, 'hath sent me to thee: if it be the will of God, he would
fain raise thee to his high rank by marriage; and that thou
mayest be certified thereof, he sendeth thee this ring.' She
accepted the ring with great joy, and said to Aurelian, 'Take
for recompense of thy pains these hundred sous in gold and this
ring of mine. Return promptly to thy lord; if he would fain
unite me to him by marriage, let him send without delay mes-
sengers to demand me of my uncle Gondebaud, and let the
messengers who shall come take me away in haste, so soon as
they shall have obtained permission; if they haste not I fear
lest a certain sage, one Aridius, may return from Constanti-
nople, and, if he arrive beforehand, all this matter will by his
counsel come to naught.'

"Aurelian returned in the same disguise under which he
had come. On approaching the territory of Orleans, and at
no great distance from his house, he had taken as travelling
companion a certain poor mendicant, by whom he, having fallen
asleep from sheer fatigue, and thinking himself safe, was robbed
of his wallet and the hundred sous in gold that it contained.
On awakening, Aurelian was sorely vexed, ran swiftly home,
and sent his servants in all directions in search of the mendi-
cant who had stolen his wallet. He was found and brought to
Aurelian, who, after drubbing him soundly for three days, let
him go his way. He afterward told Clovis all that had passed
and what Clotilde suggested. Clovis, pleased with his success
and with Clotilde's notion, at once sent a deputation to Gon-
debaud to demand his niece in marriage. Gondebaud, not
daring to refuse, and flattered at the idea of making a friend
of Clovis, promised to give her to him. Then the depu-
tation, having offered the denier and the sou, according to
the custom of the Franks, espoused Clotilde in the name

KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED 125

of Clovis, and demanded that she be given up to them to be
married.

"Without any delay the council was assembled at Chalons,
and preparations made for the nuptials. The Franks, having
arrived with all speed, received her from the hands of Gonde-
baud, put her into a covered carriage, and escorted her to
Clovis, together with much treasure. She, however, having
already learned that Aridius was on his way back, said to the
Prankish lords, ' If ye would take me into the presence of your
lord, let me descend from this carriage, mount me on horse-
back, and get you hence as fast as ye may; for never in this
carriage shall I reach the presence of your lord.'

"Aridius, in fact, returned very speedily from Marseilles,
and Gondebaud, on seeing him, said to him, 'Thou knowest
that we have made friends with the Franks, and that I have
given my niece to Clovis to wife.' 'This,' answered Aridius,
' is no bond of friendship, but the beginning of perpetual strife.
Thou shouldst have remembered, my lord, that thou didst slay
Clotilde's father, thy brother Chilperic, that thou didst drown
her mother, and that thou didst cut off her brothers' heads and
cast their bodies into a well. If Clotilde become powerful she
will avenge the wrongs of her relatives. Send thou forthwith a
troop in chase, and have her brought back to thee. It will be
easier for thee to bear the wrath of one person than to be per-
petually at strife, thyself and thine, with all the Franks.' And
Gondebaud did send forthwith a troop in chase to fetch back
Clotilde with the carriage and all the treasure; but she, on
approaching Villers, where Clovis was waiting for her, in the
territory of the Troyes, and before passing the Burgundian
frontier, urged them who escorted her to disperse right and
left over a space of twelve leagues in the country whence she
was departing, to plunder and burn; and that having been
done with the permission of Clovis, she cried aloud, 'I thank
thee, God omnipotent, for that I see the commencement of
vengeance for my parents and my brethren! ' '

The majority of the learned have regarded this account of
Fredegaire as a romantic fable, and have declined to give it a
place in history. M. Fauriel, one of the most learned asso-
ciates of the Academy of Inscriptions, has given much the same

126 KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED

opinion, but he nevertheless adds: "Whatever may be their
authorship, the fables in question are historic in the sense that
they relate to real facts of which they are a poetical expression,
a romantic development, conceived with the idea of populariz-
ing the Frankish kings among the Gallo-Roman subjects." It
cannot, however, be admitted that a desire to popularize the
Frankish kings is a sufficient and truth-like explanation of these
tales of the Gallo-Roman chroniclers, or that they are no more
than "a poetical expression, a romantic development" of the
real facts briefly noted by Gregory of Tours; the tales have a
graver origin and contain more truth than would be presumed
from some of the anecdotes and sayings mixed up with them.
In the condition of minds and parties in Gaul at the end of the
fifth century the marriage of Clovis and Clotilde was, for the
public of the period, for the barbarians and for the Gallo-
Romans, a great matter. Clovis and the Franks were still pa-
gans; Gondebaud and the Burgundians were Christians, but
Arians; Clotilde was a Catholic Christian. To which of the
two, Catholics or Arians, would Clovis ally himself? To whom,
Arian, pagan, or Catholic, would Clotilde be married ?

Assuredly the bishops, priests, and all the Gallo-Roman
clergy, for the most part Catholics, desired to see Clovis, that
young and audacious Frankish chieftain, take to wife a Catholic
rather than an Arian or a pagan, and hoped to convert the
pagan Clovis to Christianity much more easily than an Arian
to orthodoxy. The question between Catholic orthodoxy and
Arianism was, at that time, a vital question for Christianity in
its entirety, and St. Athanasius was not wrong in attributing to
it supreme importance. It may be presumed that the Catholic
clergy, the bishop of Rheims, or the bishop of Langres was no
stranger to the repeated praises which turned the thoughts of
the Frankish King toward the Burgundian princess, and the
idea of their marriage once set afloat, the Catholics, priesthood
or laity, labored undoubtedly to push it forward, while the Bur-
gundian Arians exerted themselves to prevent it.

Thus there took place between opposing influences, relig-
ious and national, a most animated struggle. No astonish-
ment can be felt, then, at the obstacles the marriage encoun-
tered, at the complications mingled with it, and at the indirect

KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED 127

means employed on both sides to cause its success or failure.
The account of Frede'gaire is but a picture of this struggle and
its incidents, a little amplified or altered by imagination or the
credulity of the period ; but the essential features of the picture,
the disguise of Aurelian, the hurry of Clotilde, the prudent rec-
ollection of Aridius, Gondebaud's alternations of fear and vio-
lence, and Clotilde's vindictive passion when she is once out of
danger — there is nothing in all this out of keeping with the man-
ners of the time or the position of the actors. Let it be added
that Aurelian and Aridius are real personages who are met with
elsewhere in history, and whose parts as played on the occasion
of Clotilde's marriage are in harmony with the other traces that
remain of their lives.

The consequences of the marriage justified before long the
importance which had on all sides been attached to it. Clo-
tilde had a son; she was anxious to have him baptized, and
urged her husband to consent. "The gods you worship," said
she, "are naught, and can do naught for themselves or others;
they are of wood or stone or metal." Clovis resisted, saying:
"It is by the command of our gods that all things are created
and brought forth. It is plain that your God hath no power;
there is no proof even that he is of the race of the gods." But
Clotilde prevailed; and she had her son baptized solemnly,
hoping that the striking nature of the ceremony might win to
the faith the father whom her words and prayers had been
powerless to touch. The child soon died, and Clovis bitterly
reproached the Queen, saying: "Had the child been dedicated
to my gods he would be alive; he was baptized in the name of
your God, and he could not live." Clotilde defended her God
and prayed. She had a second son who was also baptized, and
fell sick. "It cannot be otherwise with him than with his
brother," said Clovis; "baptized in the name of your Christ,
he is going to die." But the child was cured, and lived; and
Clovis was pacified and less incredulous of Christ.

An event then came to pass which affected him still more
than the sickness or cure of his children.

In 496 the Alemannians, a Germanic confederation like
the Franks, who also had been, for some time past, assailing
the Roman Empire on the banks of the Rhine or the frontiers

i2g KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED

of Switzerland, crossed the river and invaded the settlements
of the Franks on the left bank. Clovis went to the aid of his
confederation and attacked the Alemannians at Tolbiac, near
Cologne. He had with him Aurelian, who had been his mes-
senger to Clotilde, whom he had made duke of Melun, and
who commanded the forces of Sens. The battle was going ill;
the Franks were wavering and Clovis was anxious. Before
setting out he had, according to Fre'de'gaire, promised his wife
that if he were victorious he would turn Christian.

Other chroniclers say that Aurelian, seeing the battle in
danger of being lost, said to Clovis, "My lord King, believe only
on the Lord of heaven whom the Queen, my mistress, preach-
eth." Clovis cried out with emotion: "Christ Jesus, thou
whom my queen Clotilde calleth the Son of the living God, I
have invoked my own gods, and they have withdrawn from me;
I believe that they have no power, since they aid not those
who call upon them. Thee, very God and Lord, I invoke; if
thou give me victory over these foes, if I find in thee the power
that the people proclaim of thee, I will believe on thee, and
will be baptized in thy name." The tide of battle turned;
the Franks recovered confidence and courage; and the Alle-
mannians, beaten and seeing their King slain, surrendered them-
selves to Clovis, saying: "Cease, of thy grace, to cause any
more of our people to perish; for we are thine."

On the return of Clovis, Clotilde, fearing he should forget
his victory and his promise, "secretly sent," says Gregory of
Tours, "to St. Remi, bishop of Rheims, and prayed him to
penetrate the King's heart with the words of salvation." St.
Remi was a fervent Christian and able bishop; and "I will
listen to thee, most holy father," said Clovis, "willingly; but
there is a difficulty. The people that follow me will not give
up their gods. But I am about to assemble them, and will
speak to them according to thy word." The King found the
people more docile or better prepared than he had represented
to the bishop. Even before he opened his mouth the greater
part of those present cried out: "We abjure the mortal gods;
we are ready to follow the immortal God whom Remi preach-
eth."

About three thousand Prankish warriors, however, per-

KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED 129

sisted in their intention of remaining pagans, and deserting
Clovis betook themselves to Ragnacaire, the Frankish king of
Cambrai, who was destined ere long to pay dearly for this
acquisition. So soon as St. Remi was informed of this good
disposition on the part of king and people, he fixed Christmas
Day of this year, 496, for the ceremony of the baptism of these
grand neophytes. The description of it is borrowed from the
historian of the church of Rheims, Frodoard by name, born at
the close of the ninth century. He gathered together the
essential points of it from the Life of Saint Remi, written,
shortly before th it period, by the saint's celebrated successor at
Rheims, Archbishop Hincmar. "The bishop," says he, "went
in search of the King at early morn in his bed-chamber, in
order that, taking him at the moment of freedom from secular
cares, he might more freely communicate to him the mysteries
of the holy word. The King's chamber-people receive him
with great respect, and the King himself runs forward to meet
him. Thereupon they pass together into an oratory dedicated
to St. Peter, chief of the apostles, and adjoining the King's
apartment.

" When the bishop, the King, and the Queen had taken their
places on the seats prepared for them, and admission had been
given to some clerics and also some friends and household ser-
vants of the King, the venerable bishop began his instructions
on the subject of salvation.

"Meanwhile preparations are being made along the road
from the palace to the baptistery; curtains and valuable stuffs
are hung up ; the houses on either side of the street are dressed
out; the baptistery is sprinkled with balm and all manner of
perfume. The procession moves from the palace; the clergy
lead the way with the holy gospels, the cross, and standards,
singing hymns and spiritual songs; then comes the bishop,
leading the King by the hand; after him the Queen, lastly the
people. On the road, it is said that the King asked the bishop
if that were the kingdom promised him. 'No,' answered the
prelate, ' but it is the entrance to the road that leads to it.'

"At the moment when the King bent his head over the foun-
tain of life, 'Lower thy head with humility, Sicambrian,' cried
the eloquent bishop; 'adore what thou hast burned; burn
E., VOL. iv. — 9.

i3o KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED

what thou hast adored.' The King's two sisters, Alboflede and
Lante'childe, likewise received baptism; and so at the same
time did three thousand of the Frankish army, besides a large
number of women and children."

When it was known that Clovis had been baptized by St.
Remi, and with what striking circumstance, great was the
satisfaction among the Catholics. The chief Burgundian
prelate, Avitus, bishop of Vienne, wrote to the Frankish King:
"Your faith is our victory; in choosing for you and yours, you
have pronounced for all ; divine Providence hath given you as
arbiter to our age. Greece can boast of having a sovereign of
our persuasion; but she is no longer alone in possession of this
precious gift; the rest of the world doth share her light." Pope
Anastasius hastened to express his joy to Clovis. " The Church,
our common mother," he wrote, "rejoiceth to have born unto
God so great a king. Continue, glorious and illustrious son, to
cheer the heart of this tender mother; be a column of iron to
support her, and she in her turn will give thee victory over all
thine enemies."

Clovis was not a man to omit turning his Catholic popu-
larity to the account of his ambition. At the very time when he
was receiving these testimonies of good-will from the heads of
the Church he learned that Gondebaud, disquieted, no doubt,
at the conversion of his powerful neighbor, had just made a
vain attempt, at a conference held at Lyons, to reconcile in his
kingdom the Catholics and the Arians. Clovis considered the
moment favorable to his projects of aggrandizement at the
expense of the Burgundian King; he fomented the dissensions
which already prevailed between Gondebaud and his brother
Godegisile, assured to himself the latter's complicity, and sud-
denly entered Burgundy with his army. Gondebaud, betrayed
and beaten at the first encounter at Dijon, fled to the south of
his kingdom, and went and shut himself up in Avignon. Clo-
vis pursued, and besieged him there. Gondebaud in great
alarm asked counsel of his Roman confidant Aridius, who had
but lately foretold to him what the marriage of his niece Clo-
tilde would bring upon him. "On every side," said the King,
"I am encompassed by perils, and I know not what to do. Lo!
here be these barbarians come upon us to slay us and destroy

KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED 131

the land." "To escape death," answered Aridius, "thou must
appease the ferocity of this man. Now, if it please thee, I will
feign to fly from thee and go over to him. So soon as I shall be
with him, I will so do that he ruin neither thee nor the land.
Only have thou care to perform whatsoever I shall ask of thee,
until the Lord in his goodness deign to make thy cause tri-
umph." "All that thou shalt bid will I do," said Gondebaud.
So Aridius left Gondebaud and went his way to Clovis, and said :
"Most pious King, I am thy humble servant; I give up this
wretched Gondebaud and come unto thy mightiness. If thy
goodness deign to cast a glance upon me, thou and thy descend-
ants will find in me a servant of integrity and fidelity."

Clovis received him very kindly and kept him by him, for
Aridius was agreeable in conversation, wise in counsel, just in
judgment, and faithful in whatever was committed to his care.
As the siege continued Aridius said to Clovis: "O King, if the
glory of thy greatness would suffer thee to listen to the words of
my feebleness, though thou needest not counsel, I would sub-
mit them to thee in all fidelity, and they might be of use to thee,
whether for thyself or for the towns by the which thou dost
propose to pass. Wherefore keepest thou here thine army
whilst thine enemy doth hide himself in a well- fortified place?
Thou ravagest the fields, thou pillagest the corn, thou cuttest
down the vines, thou fellest the olive-trees, thou destroyest all
the produce of the land, and yet thou succeedest not in destroy-
ing thine adversary. Rather send thou unto him deputies, and
lay on him a tribute to be paid to thee every year. Thus the
land will be preserved, and thou wilt be lord forever over him
who owes thee tribute. If he refuse, thou shalt then do what
pleaseth thee." Clovis found the counsel good, ordered his
army to return home, sent deputies to Gondebaud, and called
upon him to undertake the payment every year of a fixed trib-
ute. Gondebaud paid for the time, and promised to pay punc-
tually for the future. And peace appeared made between the
two barbarians.

Pleased with his campaign against the Burgundians, Clovis
kept on good terms with Gondebaud, who was to be hence-
forth a simple tributary, and transferred to the Visigoths of
Aquitania and their King, Alaric II, his views of conquest,

i32 KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED

He had there the same pretexts for attack and the same means
of success. Alaric and his Visigoths were Arians, and between
them and the bishops of Southern Gaul, nearly all orthodox
Catholics, there were permanent ill-will and distrust. Alaric
attempted to conciliate their good- will : in 506 a council met at
Agde; the thirty-four bishops of Aquitania attended in person
or by delegate; the King protested that he had no design of
persecuting the Catholics; the bishops, at the opening of the
council, offered prayers for the King; but Alaric did not forget
that immediately after the conversion of Clovis, Volusian,
bishop of Tours, had conspired in favor of the Frankish King,
and the bishops of Aquitania regarded Volusian as a martyr,
for he had been deposed, without trial, from his see, and taken
as a prisoner first to Toulouse, and afterward into Spain,
where in a short time he had been put to death. In vain did
the glorious chief of the race of Goths, Theodoric the Great,
king of Italy, father-in-law of Alaric, and brother-in-law of
Clovis, exert himself to prevent any outbreak between the two
kings. In 498 Alaric, no doubt at his father-in-law's solicita-
tion, wrote to Clovis, "If my brother consent thereto, I would,
following my desires and by the grace of God, have an inter-
view with him."

The interview took place at a small island in the Loire,
called the He d'Or or de St. Jean, near Amboise. " The two
kings," says Gregory of Tours, "conversed, ate, and drank
together, and separated with mutual promises of friendship."
The positions and passions of each soon made the promises of
no effect. In 505 Clovis was seriously ill; the bishops of Aqui-
tania testified warm interest in him; and one of them, Quintian,
bishop of Rodez, being on this account persecuted by the Visi-
goths, had to seek refuge at Clermont, in Auvergne. Clovis no
longer concealed his designs. In 507 he assembled his princi-
pal chieftains; and "It displeaseth me greatly," said he, "that
these Arians should possess a portion of the Gauls; march we
forth with the help of God, drive we them from that land, for it is
very goodly, and bring we it under our own power."

The Franks applauded their King; and the army set out on
the march in the direction of Poitiers, where Alaric happened
at that time to be. "As a portion of the troops was crossing

KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED 133

the territory of Tours," says Gregory, who was shortly after-
ward its bishop, " Clovis forbade, out of respect for St. Martin,
anything to be taken, save grass and water. One of the army,
however, having found some hay belonging to a poor man,
said, 'This is grass; we do not break the King's commands by
taking it ' ; and, in spite of the poor man's resistance, he robbed
him of his hay. Clovis, informed of the fact, slew the soldier
on the spot with one sweep of his sword, saying, 'What will
become of our hopes of victory, if we offend St. Martin ? ' '
Alaric had prepared for the struggle; and the two armies met
in the plain of YouiHe*, on the banks of the little river Clain, a
few leagues from Poitiers. The battle was very severe. " The
Goths," says Gregory of Tours, "fought with missiles; the
Franks sword in hand. Clovis met and with his own hand slew
Alaric in the fray; at the moment of striking his blow two
Goths fell suddenly upon Clovis, and attacked him with their
pikes on either side, but he escaped death, thanks to his cuirass
and the agility of his horse."

Beaten and kingless, the Goths retreated in great disorder;
and Clovis, pursuing his march, arrived without opposition at
Bordeaux, where he settled down with his Franks for the
winter. When the war season returned he marched on Tou-
louse, the capital of the Visigoths, which he likewise occupied
without resistance, and where he seized a portion of the treasure
of the Visigothic kings. He quitted it to lay siege to Carcas-
sonne, which had been made by the Romans into the strong-
hold of Septimania.

There his course of conquest was destined to end. After
the battle of Vouille he had sent his eldest son, Theodoric, in
command of a division, with orders to cross Central Gaul from
west to east, to go and join the Burgundians of Gondebaud,
who had promised his assistance, and in conjunction with them
to attack the Visigoths on the banks of the Rhone and in Nar-
bonensis. The young Frank boldly executed his father's
orders, but the intervention of Theodoric the Great, king of
Italy, prevented the success of the operation. He sent an
army into Gaul to the aid of his son-in-law Alaric; and the
united Franks and Burgundians failed in their attacks upon
the Visigoths of the eastern provinces. Clovis had no idea of

i34 KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED

compromising by his obstinacy the conquests already accom-
plished; he therefore raised the siege of Carcassonne, returned
first to Toulouse, and then to Bordeaux, took Angouleme, the
only town of importance he did not possess in Aquitania; and
feeling reasonably sure that the Visigoths, who, even with the
aid that had come from Italy, had great difficulty in defending
what remained to them of Southern Gaul, would not come and
dispute with him what he had already conquered, he halted
at Tours, and stayed there some time, to enjoy on the very
spot the fruits of his victory and to establish his power in his
new possessions.

It appears that even the Britons of Armorica tendered to
him at that time, through the interposition of Melanius, bishop
of Rennes, if not their actual submission, at any rate their sub-
ordination and homage.

Clovis at the same time had his self-respect flattered in a
manner to which barbaric conquerors always attach great
importance. Anastasius, emperor of the East, with whom he
had already had some communication, sent to him at Tours a
solemn embassy, bringing him the titles and insignia of patri-
cian and consul. "Clovis," says Gregory of Tours, "put on
the tunic of purple and the chlamys and the diadem; then
mounting his horse, he scattered with his own hand and with
much bounty gold and silver among the people, on the road
which lies between the gate of the court belonging to the basilica
of St. Martin and the church of the city. From that day he
was called consul and augustus. On leaving the city of Tours
he repaired to Paris, where he fixed the seat of his govern-
ment."

Paris was certainly the political centre of his dominions, the
intermediate point between the early settlements of his race
and himself in Gaul and his new Gallic conquests; but he
lacked some of the possessions nearest to him and most natu-
rally, in his own opinion, his. To the east, north, and south-
west of Paris were settled some independent Frankish tribes,
governed by chieftains with the name of kings. So soon as
he had settled at Paris, it was the one fixed idea of Clovis to re-
duce them all to subjection. He had conquered the Burgun-
dians and the Visigoths; it remained for him to conquer and

KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED 135

unite together all the Franks. The barbarian showed himself
in his true colors, during this new enterprise, with his violence,
his craft, his cruelty, and his perfidy. He began with the most
powerful of the tribes, the Ripuarian Franks. He sent se-
cretly to Cloderic, son of Sigebert, their King, saying: "Thy
father hath become old, and his wound maketh him to limp o'
one foot; if he should die, his kingdom will come to thee of
right, together with our friendship." Cloderic had his father
assassinated while asleep in his tent, and sent messengers to
Clovis, saying: "My father is dead, and I have in my power
his kingdom and his treasures. Send thou unto me certain of
thy people, and I will gladly give into their hands whatsoever
among these treasures shall seem like to please thee." The
envoys of Clovis came, and, as they were examining in detail
the treasures of Sigebert, Cloderic said to them, "This is the
coffer wherein my father was wont to pile up his gold pieces."
"Plunge," said they, "thy hand right to the bottom, that none
escape thee." Cloderic bent forward, and one of the envoys
lifted his battle-axe and cleft his skull.

Clovis went to Cologne and convoked the Franks of the
canton. "Learn," said he, "that which hath happened. As
I was sailing on the river Scheldt, Cloderic, son of my relative,
did vex his father, saying I was minded to slay him; and as
Sigebert was flying across the forest of Buchaw, his son him-
self sent bandits, who fell upon him and slew him. Cloderic
also is dead, smitten I know not by whom as he was opening his
father's treasures. I am altogether unconcerned in it all, and I
could not shed the blood of my relatives, for it is a crime. But
since it hath so happened, I give unto you counsel, which ye
shall follow if it seem to you good ; turn ye toward me, and live
under my protection." And they who were present hoisted
him on a huge buckler and hailed him king.

After Sigebert and the Ripuarian Franks came the Franks
of Tdrouanne, and Chararic, their King. He had refused,
twenty years before, to march with Clovis against the Roman
Syagrius. Clovis, who had not forgotten it, attacked him,
took him and his son prisoners, and had them both shorn, or-
dering that Chararic should be ordained priest and his son
deacon. Chararic was much grieved. Then said his son to

136 KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED

him: "Here be branches which were cut from a green tree, and
are not yet wholly dried up: soon they will sprout forth again.
May it please God that he who hath wrought all this shall die
as quickly!" Clovis considered these words as a menace, had
both father and son beheaded, and took possession of- their do-
minions. Ragnacaire, king of the Franks of Cambrai, was the
third to be attacked. He had served Clovis against Syagrius,
but Clovis took no account of that. Ragnacaire, being beaten,
was preparing for flight, when he was seized by his own sol-
diers, who tied his hands behind his back, and took him to
Clovis along with his brother Riquier. "Wherefore hast thou
dishonored our race," said Clovis, "by letting thyself wear
bonds? 'Twere better to have died," and cleft his skull with
one stroke of his battle-axe; then turning to Riquier, "Hadst
thou succored thy brother," said he, "he had assuredly not
been bound," and felled him likewise at his feet. Rignomer,
king of the Franks of Le Mans, met the same fate, but not at
the hands, only by the order, of Clovis. So Clovis remained
sole king of the Franks, for all the independent chieftains had
disappeared.

It is said that one day, after all these murders, Clovis, sur-
rounded by his trusted servants, cried: "Woe is me! who am
left as a traveller among strangers, and who have' no longer
relatives to lend me support in the day of adversity!" Thus
do the most shameless take pleasure in exhibiting sham sorrow
after crimes they cannot disavow.

It cannot be known whether Clovis ever felt in his soul any
scruple or regret for his many acts of ferocity and perfidy, or
if he looked as sufficient expiation upon the favor he had be-
stowed on the churches and their bishops, upon the gifts he
lavished on them, and upon the absolutions he demanded of
them. In times of mingled barbarism and faith there are
strange cases of credulity in the way of bargains made with
divine justice. We read in the life of St. Eleutherus, bishop
of Tournai, the native land of Clovis, that at one of those
periods when the conscience of the Frankish King must have
been most heavily laden, he presented himself one day at the
church. "My lord King," said the bishop, "I know where-
fore thou art come to me." "I have nothing special to say

KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS FOUNDED 137

unto thee," rejoined Clovis. "Say not so, O King," replied the
bishop; "thou hast sinned, and darest not avow it." The
King was moved, and ended by confessing that he had deeply
sinned and had need of large pardon. St. Eleutherus betook
himself to prayer; the King came back the next day, and the
bishop gave him a paper on which was written by a divine
hand, he said, "the pardon granted to royal offences which
might not be revealed."

Clovis accepted this absolution, and loaded the church of
Tournai with his gifts. In 511, the very year of his death, his
last act in life was the convocation at Orleans of a council,
which was attended by thirty bishops from the different parts
of his kingdom, and at which were adopted thirty-one canons
that, while granting to the Church great privileges and means
of influence, in many cases favorable to humanity and respect
for the rights of individuals, bound the Church closely to the
state, and gave to royalty, even in ecclesiastical matters, great
power. The bishops, on breaking up, sent these canons to
Clovis, praying him to give them the sanction of his adhesion,
which he did. A few months afterward, on the 2yth of Novem-
ber, 511, Clovis died at Paris, and was buried in the church
of St. Peter and St. Paul, nowadays St. Genevieve, built by his
wife, Queen Clotilde, who survived him.

It was but right to make the reader intimately acquainted
with that great barbarian who, with all his vices and all his
crimes, brought about, or rather began, two great matters
which have already endured through fourteen centuries and
still endure; for he founded the French monarchy and Chris-
tian France. Such men and such facts have a right to be
closely studied and set in a clear light by history. Nothing
similar will be seen for two centuries, under the descendants
of Clovis, the Merovingians; among them will be encountered
none but those personages whom death reduces to insignificance,
whatever may have been their rank in the world, and of whom
Vergil thus speaks to Dante:

" Waste we no words on them : one glance and pass thou on."

PUBLICATION OF THE JUSTINIAN CODE

A.D. 529-534

EDWARD GIBBON

The richest legacy ever left by one civilization to another was the Jus-
tinian Code. This compilation of the entire body of the Roman civil
law (Corpus Juris Chnlis), as evolved during the thousand years after
the Decemvirate legislation of the Twelve Tables, comprises perhaps the
most valuable historical data preserved from ancient times. It presents
a vivid and authentic picture of the domestic life of the Romans and the
rules which governed their relations to each other. This phase of his-
tory is considered by modern historians as of far greater importance than
the chronicles of battles and court intrigues.

The importance of the Justinian Code, however, is not that of mere
history. Its influence as a living force is what compels the admiration
and gratitude of mankind. It forms the basis of the systems of law in
all the civilized nations of the world, with the exception of those of the
English-speaking peoples, and even in these the principles of the civil law
— as the Roman law is called in contradistinction to the common and
statute law of these nations — form the most important part of the regula-
tions concerning personal property.

For this monumental work the world is indebted to Justinian I (Flavius
Anicius Justinianus). the most famous of the emperors of the Eastern
Empire since Constantine. He was born a Slavonian peasant. Uprawda,
his original name, was Latinized into Justinian when he became an
officer in the Imperial Guard. He was adopted, educated, and trained
by Justin I, whom he succeeded as emperor. His long reign (527-565)
was disturbed by the sanguinary factions of the Circus — the Greens and
the Blues, so named from the colors of the competing charioteers in the
games— the suppression of the schools of philosophy at Athens, and by
various wars. Nevertheless it was marked by magnificent works, the
administrative organization of the empire, and the great buildings at
Constantinople. The Church of Santa-Sophia, the first great Christian
church, although used as a Mahometan mosque since 1459, still stands at
Constantinople, with its plain exterior but impressive interior, a monu-
ment of Justinian's reign.

His two great masters of war, foreigners in origin like himself, were
Belisarius the Thracian and Narses the Armenian. Africa was wrested
from the Vandals; Italy from the successors of Theodoric; and much of
Spain from the Western Goths. Under Justinian the Byzantine or East-
ern Empire resumed much of the majesty and power of ancient Rome.

138

THE JUSTINIAN CODE 139

But the crowning glory of his career was the Code. One of the greatest
historians says of his reign : " Its most instructive lesson has been drawn
from the influence which its legislation has exercised on foreign nations.
The unerring instinct of mankind has fixed on this period as one f the
greatest eras in man's annals."

The Code was a digest of the whole mass of Roman law literature,
compiled and annotated at the command of Justinian, under the super-
vision of the great lawyer Tribonian, who, with his helpers, reduced the
chaotic mass to a logical system containing the essence of Roman law.
The first part of the Codex Constitutionem, prepared in less than a year,
was published in April, 529. The second part, the Digest or Pandects,
appeared in December, 533. To insure conformity, both were revised
and issued in November, 534, the Institutiones, an elementary text-book,
founded on the Institutiones of Gaius, who lived A.D. 110-180, being
added, and the whole, as a complete body of law, given to the law
schools at Constantinople, Rome, Alexandria, Berytus, and Caesarea, for
use in .their graduate course. Later the Novella Constitution, or Nov-
els, most of them in Greek, comprising statutes of Justinian arranged
chronologically, completed the Code.

Forgotten or ignored during the lawless days of the Dark Ages, an
entire copy of this famous code was discovered when Amalphi was taken
by the Pisans in 1137. Its publication immediately attracted the atten-
tion of the learned world. Gratian, a monk of Bologna, compiled a digest
of the canon law on the model of that work, and soon afterward, incor-
porating with his writings the collections of prior authors, gave his "de-
cretum " to the public in 1151. From that time the two codes, the civil
and canon laws, were deemed the principal repositories of legal knowl-
edge, and the study of each was considered necessary to throw light on
the other.

Justinian's example in the codification of laws was followed by almost
every European nation after the eighteenth century ; the Code Napoldon
(1803-04). regulating all that pertains "to the civil rights of citizens and
of property," being the most brilliant parallel to the Justinian Code.
The reader familiar with the life of Napoleon will recall that all of his
historians quote his frequent allusion to the Code Napole'on as the one
great work which would be a living monument of his career, when the
glory of all his other achievements would be dimmed by time or forgotten.

Gibbon's examination of the Justinian Code is justly regarded as one
of the most important features of the historian's great work, and in sev-
eral of the leading universities of Europe has long been used as a text-
work on civil law.

\A7HEN Justinian ascended the throne, the reformation of
the Roman jurisprudence was an arduous but indispen-
sable task. In the space of ten centuries, the infinite variety of
laws and legal opinions had filled many thousand volumes, which

140 THE JUSTINIAN CODE

no fortune could purchase and no capacity could digest. Books
could not easily be found; and the judges, poor in the midst
of riches, were reduced to the exercise of their illiterate dis-
cretion. The subjects of the Greek provinces were ignorant
of the language that disposed of their lives and properties; and
the barbarous dialect of the Latins was imperfectly studied in
the academies of Berytus and Constantinople. As an Illyrian
soldier, that idiom was familiar to the infancy of Justinian;
his youth had been instructed by the lessons of jurisprudence,
and his imperial choice selected the most learned civilians of
the East, to labor with their sovereign in the work of reforma-
tion. The theory of professors was assisted by the practice of
advocates and the experience of magistrates, and the whole
undertaking was animated by the spirit of Tribonian.

This extraordinary man, the object of so much praise and
censure, was a native of Side in Pamphylia; and his genius,
like that of Bacon, embraced as his own all the business and
knowledge of the age. Tribonian composed, both in prose
and verse, on a strange diversity of curious and abstruse sub-
jects; a double panegyric of Justinian and the life of the
philosopher Theodotus ; the nature of happiness and the duties
of government; Homer's catalogue and the four-and-twenty
sorts of metre; the astronomical canon of Ptolemy; the
changes of the months; the bouses of the planets; and the
harmonic system of the world. To the literature of Greece
he added the use of the Latin tongue; the Roman civilians
were deposited in his library and in his mind; and he most
assiduously cultivated those arts which opened the road of
wealth and preferment. From the bar of the praetorian pre-
fects he raised himself to the honors of quaestor, of consul, and
of master of the offices: the council of Justinian listened to
his eloquence and wisdom, and envy was mitigated by the
gentleness and affability of his manners.

The reproaches of impiety and avarice have stained the
virtues or the reputation of Tribonian. In a bigoted and
persecuting court the principal minister was accused of a
secret aversion to the Christian faith, and was supposed to
entertain the sentiments of an atheist and a pagan, which have
been imputed, inconsistently enough, to the last philosophers

THE JUSTINIAN CODE 141

of Greece. His avarice was more clearly proved and more
sensibly felt. If he were swayed by gifts in the administration
of justice, the example of Bacon will again occur: nor can the
mer't of Tribonian atone for his baseness, if he degraded the
sanctity of his profession; and if laws were every day enacted,
modified, or repealed, for the base consideration of his private
emolument. In the sedition of Constantinople his removal
was granted to the clamors, perhaps to the just indignation,
of the people; but the quaestor was speedily restored, and, till
the hour of his death, he possessed above twenty years the
favor and confidence of the Emperor. His passive and dutiful
submission has been honored with the praise of Justinian
himself, whose vanity was incapable of discerning how often
that submission degenerated into the grossest adulation.
Tribonian adored the virtues of his gracious master: the earth
was unworthy of such a prince; and he affected a pious
fear, that Justinian, like Elijah or Romulus, would be
snatched into the air and translated alive to the mansions of
celestial glory.

If Caesar had achieved the reformation of the Roman law,
his creative genius, enlightened by reflection and study, would
have given to the world a pure and original system of jurispru-
dence. Whatever flattery might suggest, the Emperor of the
East was afraid to establish his private judgment as the stand-
ard of equity; in the possession of legislative power, he bor-
rowed the aid of time and opinion; and his laborious compila-
tions are guarded by the sages and legislators of past tunes.
Instead of a statue cast in a simple mould by the hand of an
artist, the works of Justinian represent a tessellated pavement
of antique and costly, but too often of incoherent, fragments.
In the first year of his reign he directed the faithful Tribonian
and nine learned associates to revise the ordinances of his
predecessors, as they were contained, since the time of Adrian,
in the Gregorian, Hermogenian, and Theodosian codes; to
purge the errors and contradictions, to retrench whatever was
obsolete or superfluous, and to select the wise and salutary
laws best adapted to the practice of the tribunals and the use
of his subjects. The work was accomplished in fourteen
months; and the Twelve books or Tables, which the new de-

142 THE JUSTINIAN CODE

cemvirs produced, might be designed to imitate the labors of
their Roman predecessors.

The new Code of Justinian was honored with his name
and confirmed by his royal signature: authentic transcripts
were multiplied by the pens of notaries and scribes; they were
transmitted to the magistrates of the European, the Asiatic,
and afterward the African provinces; and the law of the
empire was proclaimed on solemn festivals at the doors of
churches. A more arduous operation was still behind — to
extract the spirit of jurisprudence from the decisions and con-
jectures, the questions and disputes of the Roman civilians.
Seventeen lawyers, with Tribonian at their head, were appointed
by the Emperor to exercise an absolute jurisdiction over the
works of their predecessors. If they had obeyed his commands
in ten years, Justinian would have been satisfied with their
diligence; and the rapid composition of the Digest or Pandects
in three years will deserve praise or censure, according to the
merit of the execution.

From the library of Tribonian they chose forty, the most
eminent civilians of former times: two thousand treatises were
comprised in an abridgment of fifty books; and it has been
carefully re-reduced in this abstract to the moderate number
of one hundred and fifty thousand. The edition of this great
work was delayed a month after that of the Institutes, and it
seemed reasonable that the elements should precede the digest
of the Roman law. As soon as the Emperor had approved
their labors, he ratified by his legislative power the speculations
of these private citizens: their commentaries on the Twelve
Tables, the perpetual edict, the laws of the people, and the
decrees of the senate succeeded to the authority of the text;
and the text was abandoned as a useless, though venerable,
relic of antiquity. The Code, the Pandects, and the Institutes
were declared to be the legitimate system of civil jurisprudence;
they alone were admitted in the tribunals, and they alone were
taught in the academies of Rome, Constantinople, and Berytus.
Justinian addressed to the senate and provinces his eternal
oracles; and his pride, under the mask of piety, ascribed the
consummation of this great design to the support and inspira-
tion of the Deity.

THE JUSTINIAN CODE 143

Since the Emperor declined the fame and envy of original
composition, we can only require at his hands method, choice,
and fidelity, the humble, though indispensable, virtues of a
compiler. Among the various combinations of ideas it is diffi-
cult to assign any reasonable preference; but as the order of
Justinian is different in his three works, it is possible that all
may be wrong; and it is certain that two cannot be right.
In the selection of ancient laws he seems to have viewed his
predecessors without jealousy and with equal regard: the
series could not ascend above the reign of Adrian; and the
narrow distinction of paganism and Christianity, introduced
by the superstition of Theodosius, had been abolished by the
consent of mankind. But the jurisprudence of the Pandects
is circumscribed within a period of a hundred years, from the
perpetual edict to the death of Severus Alexander : the civilians
who lived under the first Caesars are seldom permitted to speak,
and only three names can be attributed to the age of the republic.
The favorite of Justinian (it has been fiercely urged) was fear-
ful of encountering the light of freedom and the gravity of
Roman sages. Tribonian condemned to oblivion the genuine
and native wisdom of Cato, the Scaevolas, and Sulpicius ; while
he invoked spirits more congenial to his own, the Syrians,
Greeks, and Africans, who flocked to the imperial court to study
Latin as a foreign tongue and jurisprudence as a lucrative
profession. But the ministers of Justinian were instructed to
labor, not for the curiosity of antiquarians, but for the im-
mediate benefit of his subjects. It was their duty to select
the useful and practical parts of the Roman law; and the
writings of the old republicans, however curious or excellent,
were no longer suited to the new system of manners, religion,
and government.

Perhaps, if the preceptors and friends of Cicero were still
alive, our candor would acknowledge that, except in purity
of language, their intrinsic merit was excelled by the school
of Papinian and Ulpian. The science of the laws is the slow
growth of time and experience, and the advantage both of
method and materials is naturally assumed by the most recent
authors. The civilians of the reign of the Antonines had
studied the works of their predecessors: their philosophic

144 THE JUSTINIAN CODE

spirit had mitigated the rigor of antiquity, simplified the forms
of proceeding, and emerged from the jealousy and prejudice
of the rival sects. The choice of the authorities that compose
the Pandects depended on the judgment of Tribonian; but
the power of his sovereign could not absolve him from the
sacred obligations of truth and fidelity. As the legislator of
the empire, Justinian might repeal the acts of the Antonines,
or condemn as seditious the free principles which were main-
tained by the last of the Roman lawyers. But the existence
of past facts is placed beyond the reach of despotism; and
the Emperor was guilty of fraud and forgery when he cor-
rupted the integrity of their text, inscribed with their venerable
names the words and ideas of his servile reign, and suppressed
by the hand of power the pure and authentic copies of their
sentiments. The changes and interpolations of Tribonian and
his colleagues are excused by the pretence of uniformity: but
their cares have been insufficient, and the antinomies, or con-
tradictions, of the Code and Pandects still exercise the patience
and subtlety of modern civilians.

A rumor devoid of evidence has been propagated by the
enemies of Justinian, that the jurisprudence of ancient Rome
was reduced to ashes by the author of the Pandects, from the
vain persuasion that it was now either false or superfluous.
Without usurping an office so invidious, the Emperor might
safely commit to ignorance and time the accomplishment of
this destructive wish. Before the invention of printing and
paper, the labor and the materials of writing could be pur-
chased only by the rich; and it may reasonably be computed
that the price of books was a hundredfold their present value.
Copies were slowly multiplied and cautiously renewed: the
hopes of profit tempted the sacrilegious scribes to erase the
characters of antiquity,1 and Sophocles or Tacitus were obliged
to resign the parchment to missals, homilies, and the Golden

1 Among the works which have been recovered, by the persevering
and successful endeavors of M. Mai and his followers to trace the im-
perfectly erased characters of the ancient writers on these palimpsests,
Gibbon at this period of his labors would have hailed with delight the
recovery of the Institutes of Gaius, and the fragments of the Theodosian
Code, published by M. Peyton of Turin.

THE JUSTINIAN CODE 145

Legend. If such was the fate of the most beautiful compo-
sitions of genius, what stability could be expected for the dull
and barren works of an obsolete science ? The books of juris-
prudence were interesting to few and entertaining to none:
their value was connected with present use, and they sunk
forever as soon as that use was superseded by the innovations
of fashion, superior merit, or public authority. In the age of
peace and learning, between Cicero and the last of the Anto-
nines, many losses had been already sustained, and some lumi-
naries of the school or Forum were known only to the curious
by tradition and report. Three hundred and sixty years of
disorder and decay accelerated the progress of oblivion; and
it may fairly be presumed that of the writings which Justinian
is accused of neglecting many were no longer to be found in
the libraries of the East. The copies of Papinian or Ulpian,
which the reformer had proscribed, were deemed unworthy of
future notice; the Twelve Tables and praetorian edicts insensibly
vanished, and the monuments of ancient Rome were neglected
or destroyed by the envy and ignorance of the Greeks.

Even the Pandects themselves have escaped with difficulty
and danger from the common shipwreck, and criticism has
pronounced that all the editions and manuscripts of the West
are derived from one original. It was transcribed at Constan-
tinople in the beginning of the seventh century, was success-
fully transported by the accidents of war and commerce to
Amalphi, Pisa, and Florence,1 and is now deposited as a sacred
relic in. the ancient palace of the republic.3

It is the first care of a reformer to prevent any future ref-
ormation. To maintain the text of the Pandects, the Insti-
tutes, and the Code, the use of ciphers and abbreviations was
rigorously proscribed; and as Justinian recollected, that the
perpetual edict had been buried under the weight of commen-
tators, he denounced the punishment of forgery against the

1 Pisa was taken by the Florentines in the year 1406; and in 1411 the
Pandects were transported to the capital. These events are authentic
and famous.

8 They were new bound in purple, deposited in a rich casket, and
shown to curious travellers by the monks and magistrates bareheaded
and with lighted tapers.
• .E., VOL. iv.— 10.

146 THE JUSTINIAN CODE

rash civilians who should presume to interpret or pervert the
will of their sovereign. The scholars of Accursius, of Bartolus,
of Cujacius, should blush for their accumulated guilt, unless
they dare to dispute his right of binding the authority of his
successors and the native freedom of the mind. But the Em-
peror was unable to fix his own inconstancy; and while he
boasted of renewing the exchange of Diomede, of transmuting
brass into gold, discovered the necessity of purifying his gold
from the mixture of baser alloy. Six years had not elapsed
from the publication of the Code before he condemned the
imperfect attempt by a new and more accurate edition of the
same work, which he enriched with two hundred of his own
laws and fifty decisions of the darkest and most intricate points
of jurisprudence. Every year or, according to Procopius,
each day of his long reign was marked by some legal innovation.
Many of his acts were rescinded by himself; many were re-
jected by his successors; many have been obliterated by time;
but the number of sixteen Edicts and one hundred and sixty-
eight Novels has been admitted into the authentic body of the
civil jurisprudence. In the opinion of a philosopher superior
to the prejudices of his profession, these incessant and, for the
most part, trifling alterations, can be only explained by the
venal spirit of a prince who sold without shame his judgments
and his laws.

Monarchs seldom condescend to become the preceptors of
their subjects; and some praise is due to Justinian, by whose
command an ample system was reduced to a short and ele-
mentary treatise. Among the various institutes of the Roman
law those of Caius were the most popular in the East and West;
and their use may be considered as an evidence of their merit.
They were selected by the imperial delegates, Tribonian,
Theophilus, and Dorotheus, and the freedom and purity of
the Antonines were incrusted with the coarser materials of a
degenerate age. The same volume which introduced the youth
of Rome, Constantinople, and Berytus to the gradual study
of the Code and Pandects is still precious to the historian, the
philosopher, and the magistrate. The Institutes of Justinian
are divided into four books: they proceed, with no contemptible
method, from (i), Persons, to (2) Things, and from things to

THE JUSTINIAN CODE 147

(3) Actions; and the Article IV of Private Wrongs is terminated
by the principles of Criminal Law.1

I. The distinction of ranks and persons is the firmest basis
of a mixed and limited government. The perfect equality of
men is the point in which the extremes of democracy and des-
potism are confounded; since the majesty of the prince or
people would be offended, if any heads were exalted above
the level of their fellow -slaves or fellow-citizens. In the decline
of the Roman Empire, the proud distinctions of the republic
were gradually abolished, and the reason or instinct of Justin-
ian completed the simple form of an absolute monarchy. The
Emperor could not eradicate the popular reverence which always
Waits on the possession of hereditary wealth or the memory
of famous ancestors. He delighted to honor with titles and
emoluments his generals, magistrates, and senators; and his
precarious indulgence communicated some rays of their glory
to the persons of their wives and children. But in the eye of
the law all Roman citizens were equal, and all subjects of the
empire were citizens of Rome. That inestimable character
was degraded to an obsolete and empty name. The voice of
a Roman could no longer enact his laws or create the annual
ministers of his power: his constitutional rights might have
checked the arbitrary will of a master, and the bold adventurer
from Germany or Arabia was admitted, with equal favor, to
the civil and military command which the citizen alone had
been once entitled to assume over the conquests of his fathers.
The first Caesars had scrupulously guarded the distinction of
ingenuous and servile birth, which was decided by the condition
of the mother; and the candor of the laws was satisfied if her
freedom could be ascertained during a single moment between
the conception and the delivery. The slaves who were liber-
ated by a generous master immediately entered into the middle
class of libertines or freedmen; but they could never be en-
franchised from the duties of obedience and gratitude: what-
ever were the fruits of their industry, their patron and his
family inherited the third part, or even the whole of their fort-
une if they died without children and without a testament

1 Gibbon, dividing the Institutes into four parts, considers the appen-
dix of the criminal law in the last title as a fourth part

i48 THE JUSTINIAN CODE

Justinian respected the rights of patrons, but his indulgence
removed the badge of disgrace from the two inferior orders of
freedmen: whoever ceased to be a slave obtained without
reserve or delay the station of a citizen; and at length the
dignity of an ingenuous birth, which nature had refused, was
created or supposed by the omnipotence of the Emperor. What-
ever restraints of age, or forms, or numbers had been formerly
introduced to check the abuse of manumissions and the too
rapid increase of vile and indigent Romans, he finally abolished ;
and the spirit of his laws promoted the extinction of domestic
servitude. Yet the eastern provinces were filled in the time
of Justinian with multitudes of slaves, either born or purchased
for the use of their masters; and the price, from ten to seventy
pieces of gold, was determined by their age, their strength,
and their education. But the hardships of this dependent state
were continually diminished by the influence of government
and religion, and the pride of a subject was no longer elated
by his absolute dominion over the life and happiness of his
bondsman.

The law of nature instructs most animals to cherish and
educate their infant progeny. The law of reason inculcates
to the human species the return of filial piety. But the ex-
clusive, absolute, and perpetual dominion of the father over
his children is peculiar to the Roman jurisprudence and seems
to be coeval with the foundation of the city. The paternal
power was instituted or confirmed by Romulus himself; and
after the practice of three centuries it was inscribed on the
fourth table of the decemvirs. In the Forum, the senate, or
the camp the adult son of a Roman citizen enjoyed the public
and private rights of a person: in his father's house he was a
mere thing;1 confounded by the laws with the movables, the
cattle, and the slaves, whom the capricious master might
alienate or destroy without being responsible to any earthly

1 This parental power was strictly confined to the Roman citizen.
The foreigner, or he who had only jus LatU, did not possess it. If a
Roman citizen unknowingly married a Latin or a foreign wife, he did
not possess this power over his son, because the son, following the legal
condition of the mother, was not a Roman citizen. A man, however,
alleging sufficient cause for his ignorance, might raise both mother and
child to the rights of citizenship.

THE JUSTINIAN CODE 149

tribunal. The hand which bestowed the daily sustenance
might resume the voluntary gift, and whatever was acquired
by the labor or fortune of the son was immediately lost in the
property of the father. His stolen goods (his oxen or his chil-
dren) might be recovered by the same action of theft; and if
either had been guilty of a trespass, it was in his own option to
compensate the damage or resign to the injured party the
obnoxious animal.

At the call of indigence or avarice the master of a family
could dispose of his children or his slaves. But the condition
of the slave was far more advantageous, since he regained by
the first manumission his alienated freedom : the son was again
restored to his unnatural father; he might be condemned to
servitude a second and a third time, and it was not till after
the third sale and deliverance that he was enfranchised from
the domestic power which had been so repeatedly abused.
According to his discretion, a father might chastise the real or
imaginary faults of his children by stripes, by imprisonment,
by exile, by sending them to the country to work in chains
among the meanest of his servants. The majesty of a parent
was armed with the power of life and death ; and the examples
of such bloody executions, which were sometimes praised and
never punished, may be traced in the annals of Rome beyond
the times of Pompey and Augustus. Neither age nor rank,
nor the consular office, nor the honors of a triumph could exempt
the most illustrious citizen from the bonds of filial subjection:
his own descendants were included in the family of their com-
mon ancestor; and the claims of adoption were not less sacred
or less rigorous than those of nature. Without fear, though
not without danger of abuse, the Roman legislators had reposed
an unbounded confidence in the sentiments of paternal love,
and the oppression was tempered by the assurance that each
generation must succeed in its turn to the awful dignity of
parent and master.

The first limitation of paternal power is ascribed to the
justice and humanity of Numa, and the maid who, with his
father's consent, had espoused a freeman, was protected from
the disgrace of becoming the wife of a slave. In the first ages,
when the city was pressed and often famished by her Latin

150 THE JUSTINIAN CODE

and Tuscan neighbors, the sale of children might be a frequent
practice; but as a Roman could not legally purchase the
liberty of his fellow-citizen, the market must gradually fail,
and the trade would be destroyed by the conquests of the re-
public. An imperfect right of property was at length com-
municated to sons; and the threefold distinction of projectitious,
adventitious, and professional was ascertained by the juris-
prudence of the Code and Pandects. Of all that proceeded from
the father, he imparted only the use, and reserved the absolute
dominion; yet if his goods were sold, the filial portion was
excepted by a favorable interpretation from the demands of
the creditors. In whatever accrued by marriage, gift, or col-
lateral succession, the property was secured to the son; but
the father, unless he had been specially excluded, enjoyed the
usufruct during his life.

As a just and prudent reward of military virtue, the spoils
of the enemy were acquired, possessed, and bequeathed by the
soldier alone; and the fair analogy was extended to the emolu-
ments of any liberal profession, the salary of public service,
and the sacred liberality of the emperor or empress. The life
of a citizen was less exposed than his fortune to the abuse of
paternal power. Yet his life might be adverse to the interest
or passions of an unworthy father: the same crimes that flowed
from the corruption were more sensibly felt by the humanity
of the Augustan age; and the cruel Erixo, who whipped his
son till he expired, was saved by the Emperor from the just
fury of the multitude. The Roman father, from the license of
servile dominion, was reduced to the gravity and moderation
of a judge. The presence and opinion of Augustus confirmed
the sentence of exile pronounced against an intentional parri-
cide by the domestic tribunal of Arius. Adrian transported to
an island the jealous parent who, like a robber, had seized the
opportunity of hunting to assassinate a youth, the incestuous
lover of his step-mother. A private jurisdiction is repugnant
to the spirit of monarchy; the parent was again reduced from
a judge to an accuser, and the magistrates were enjoined by
Severus Alexander to hear his complaints and execute his
sentence. He could no longer take the life of a son without
incurring the guilt and punishment of murder; and the pains

THE JUSTINIAN CODE 151

of parricide, from which he had been excepted by the Pompeian
law, were finally inflicted by the justice of Constantine.

The same protection was due to every period of existence;
and reason must applaud the humanity of Paulus for imputing
the crime of murder to the father who strangles, or starves, or
abandons his new-born infant; or exposes him in a public place
to find the mercy which he himself had denied. But the ex-
position of children was the prevailing and stubborn vice of
antiquity: it was sometimes prescribed, often permitted, almost
always practised with impunity by the nations who never
entertained the Roman ideas of paternal power; and the dra-
matic poets who appeal to the human heart represent with
indifference a popular custom which was palliated by the mo-
tives of economy and compassion. If the father could subdue
his own feelings, he might escape, though not the censure, at
least the chastisement of the laws; and the Roman Empire
was stained with the blood of infants, till such murders were
included by Valentinian and his colleagues in the letter and
spirit of the Cornelian law. The lessons of jurisprudence and
Christianity had been insufficient to eradicate this inhuman
practice, till their gentle influence was fortified by the terrors of
capital punishment.

Experience has proved that savage are the tyrants of the
female sex, and that the condition of women is usually softened
by the refinements of social life. In the hope of a robust prog-
eny, Lycurgus had delayed the season of marriage: it was
fixed by Numa at the tender age of twelve years, that the Roman
husband might educate to his will a pure and obedient virgin.
According to the custom of antiquity, he bought his bride of
her parents, and she fulfilled the coemption by purchasing,
with three pieces of copper, a just introduction to his house
and household deities. A sacrifice of fruits was offered by the
pontiffs in the presence of ten witnesses; the contracting parties
were seated on the same sheepskin; they tasted a salt-cake
of far or rice; and this confarreation, which denoted the ancient
food of Italy, served as an emblem of their mystic union of
mind and body.

But this union on the side of the woman was rigorous and
unequal; and she renounced the name and worship of her

152 THE JUSTINIAN CODE

father's house to embrace a new servitude, decorated only by
the title of adoption: a fiction of the law, neither rational nor
elegant, bestowed on the mother of a family (her proper appel-
lation) the strange characters of sister to her own children,
and of daughter to her husband or master, who was invested
with the plenitude of paternal power. By his judgment or
caprice her behavior was approved or censured or chastised;
he exercised the jurisdiction of life and death, and it was allowed
that in the cases of adultery or drunkenness the sentence might
be properly inflicted. She acquired and inherited for the sole
profit of her lord; and so clearly was woman defined, not as
a person, but as a thing, that if the original title were deficient,
she might be claimed, like other movables, by the use and pos-
session of an entire year. The inclination of the Roman hus-
band discharged or withheld the conjugal debt, so scrupulously
exacted by the Athenian and Jewish laws; but as polygamy
was unknown, he could never admit to his bed a fairer or more
favored partner.

After the Punic triumphs the matrons of Rome aspired to
the common benefits of a free and opulent republic; their
wishes were gratified by the indulgence of fathers and lovers,
and their ambition was unsuccessfully resisted by the gravity
of Cato the Censor. They declined the solemnities of the old
nuptials; defeated the annual prescription by an absence of
three days; and, without losing their name or independence,
subscribed the liberal and definite terms of a marriage contract.
Of their private fortunes they communicated the use and se-
cured the property; the estates of a wife could neither be
alienated nor mortgaged by a prodigal husband; their mutual
gifts were prohibited by the jealousy of the laws; and the mis-
conduct of either party might afford under another name a
future subject for an action of theft. To this loose and volun-
tary compact religious and civil rights were no longer essential;
and between persons of similar rank, the apparent community
of life was allowed as sufficient evidence of their nuptials.

The dignity of marriage was restored by the Christians,
who derived all spiritual grace from the prayers of the faithful
and the benediction of the priest or bishop. The origin, validity,
and duties of the holy institution were regulated by the tra-

THE JUSTINIAN CODE 153

dition of the synagogue, the precepts of the gospel, and the
canons of general or provincial synods; and the conscience
of the Christians was awed by the decrees and censures of their
ecclesiastical rulers. Yet the magistrates of Justinian were
not subject to the authority of the Church; the Emperor con-
sulted the unbelieving civilians of antiquity, and the choice of
matrimonial laws in the Code and Pandects is directed by the
earthly motives of justice, policy, and the natural freedom of
both sexes.

Besides the agreement of the parties, the essence of every
rational contract, the Roman marriage required the previous
approbation of the parents. A father might be forced by some
recent laws to supply the wants of a mature daughter; but even
his insanity was not generally allowed to supersede the necessity
of his consent. The causes of the dissolution of matrimony
have varied among the Romans; but the most solemn sacra-
ment, the confarreation itself, might always be done away by
rites of a contrary tendency. In the first ages the father of a
family might sell his children, and his wife was reckoned in
the number of his children; the domestic judge might pro-
nounce the death of the offender, or his mercy might expel her
from his bed and house ; but the slavery of the wretched female
was hopeless and perpetual, unless he asserted for his own
convenience the manly prerogative of divorce. The warmest
applause has been lavished on the virtue of the Romans, who
abstained from the exercise of this tempting privilege above
five hundred years; but the same fact evinces the unequal terms
of a connection in which the slave was unable to renounce her
tyrant, and the tyrant was unwilling to relinquish his slave.

When the Roman matrons became the equal and voluntary
companions of their lords, a new jurisprudence was introduced,
that marriage, like other partnerships, might be dissolved by
the abdication of one of the associates. In three centuries of
prosperity and corruption this principle was enlarged to fre-
quent practice and pernicious abuse. Passion, interest, or ca-
price suggested daily motives for the dissolution of marriage;
a word, a sign, a message, a letter, the mandate of a freedman
declared the separation; the most tender of human connections
was degraded to a transient society of profit or pleasure. Ac-

154 THE JUSTINIAN CODE

cording to the various conditions of life, both sexes alternately
felt the disgrace and injury; an inconstant spouse transferred
her wealth to a new family, abandoning a numerous, perhaps
a spurious progeny to the paternal authority and care of her
late husband; a beautiful virgin might be dismissed to the
world, old, indigent, and friendless; but the reluctance of the
Romans, when they were pressed to marriage by Augustus,
sufficiently marks that the prevailing institutions were least
favorable to the males. A specious theory is confuted by this
free and perfect experiment, which demonstrates that the liberty
of divorce does not contribute to happiness and virtue. The
facility of separation would destroy all mutual confidence, and
inflame every trifling dispute; the minute difference be-
tween a husband and a stranger, which might so easily be re-
moved, might still more easily be forgotten; and the matron,
who in five years can submit to the embraces of eight husbands,
must cease to reverence the chastity of her own person.

Insufficient remedies followed with distant and tardy steps
the rapid progress of the evil. The ancient worship of the
Romans afforded a peculiar goddess to hear and reconcile the
complaints of a married life; but her epithet of viriplaca, the
appeaser of husbands, too clearly indicates on which side sub-
mission and repentance were always expected. Every act of a
citizen was subject to the judgment of the censors; the first
who used the privilege of divorce assigned at their command
the motives of his conduct ; and a senator was expelled for dis-
missing his virgin spouse without the knowledge or advice of
his friends. Whenever an action was instituted for the recovery
of a marriage portion, the praetor, as the guardian of equity,
examined the cause and the characters, and gently inclined
the scale in favor of the guiltless and injured party. Augustus,
who united the powers of both magistrates, adopted their dif-
ferent modes of repressing or chastising the license of divorce.

The presence of seven Roman witnesses was required for
the validity of this solemn and deliberate act: if any adequate
provocation had been given by the husband, instead of the
delay of two years, he was compelled to refund immediately,
or in the space of six months; but if he could arraign the man
ners of his wife, her guilt or levity was expiated by the loss of

THE JUSTINIAN CODE 155

the sixth or eighth part of her marriage portion. The Christian
princes were the first who specified the just causes of a private
divorce; their institutions, from Constantine to Justinian,
appear to fluctuate between the custom of the empire and the
wishes of the Church, and the author of the Novels too fre-
quently reforms the jurisprudence of the Code and Pandects.
In the most rigorous laws, a wife was condemned to support a
gamester, a drunkard, or a libertine, unless he were guilty of
homicide, poison, or sacrilege, in which cases the marriage, as
it should seem, might have been dissolved by the hand of the
executioner.

But the sacred right of the husband was invariably main-
tained, to deliver his name and family from the disgrace of
adultery : the list of mortal sins, either male or female, was cur-
tailed and enlarged by successive regulations, and the obstacles
of incurable impotence, long absence, and monastic profession
were allowed to rescind the matrimonial obligation. Whoever
transgressed the permission of the law was subject to various
and heavy penalties. The woman was stripped of her wealth
and ornaments, without excepting the bodkin of her hair: if
the man introduced a new bride into his bed, her fortune might
be lawfully seized by the vengeance of his exiled wife. For-
feiture was sometimes commuted to a fine; the fine was
sometimes aggravated by transportation to an island or im-
prisonment in a monastery; the injured party was released
from the bonds of marriage; but the offender during life or a
term of years was disabled from the repetition of nuptials. The
successor of Justinian yielded to the prayers of his unhappy
subjects, and restored the liberty of divorce by mutual consent:
the civilians were unanimous, the theologians were divided,
and the ambiguous word, which contains the precept of Christ,
is flexible to any interpretation that the wisdom of a legislator
can demand.

The freedom of love and marriage was restrained among
the Romans by natural and civil impediments. An instinct,
almost innate and universal, appears to prohibit the incestu-
ous commerce of parents and children in the infinite series of
ascending and descending generations. Concerning the oblique
and collateral branches nature is indifferent, reason mute, and

156 THE JUSTINIAN CODE

custom various and arbitrary. In Egypt the marriage of
brothers and sisters was admitted without scruple or exception:
a Spartan might espouse the daughter of his father, an Athenian
that of his mother; and the nuptials of an uncle with his niece
were applauded at Athens as a happy union of the dearest re-
lations.

The profane law-givers of Rome were never tempted by
interest or superstition to multiply the forbidden degrees: but
they inflexibly condemned the marriage of sisters and brothers,
hesitated whether first cousins should be touched by the same
interdict; revered the parental character of aunts and uncles,
and treated affinity and adoption as a just imitation of the ties
of blood. According to the proud maxims of the republic, a
legal marriage could only be contracted by free citizens; an
honorable, at least an ingenuous birth, was required for the
spouse of a senator: but the blood of kings could never mingle
in legitimate nuptials with the blood of a Roman; and the
name of Stranger degraded Cleopatra and Berenice to live
the concubines of Mark Antony and Titus. This appellation,
indeed, so injurious to the majesty, cannot without indulgence be
applied to the manners of these oriental queens. A concubine,
in the strict sense of the civilian, was a woman of servile or
plebeian extraction, the sole and faithful companion of a
Roman citizen, who continued in a state of celibacy. Her
modest station, below the honors of a wife, above the infamy
of a prostitute, was acknowledged and approved by the laws:
from the age of Augustus to the tenth century, the use of this
secondary marriage prevailed both in the West and East; and
the humble virtues of a concubine were often preferred to the
pomp and insolence of a noble matron. In this connection the
two Antonines, the best of princes and of men, enjoyed the com-
forts of domestic love; the example was imitated by many
citizens impatient of celibacy, but regardful of their families.
If at any time they desired to legitimate their natural children,
the conversion was instantly performed by the celebration of
their nuptials with a partner whose fruitfulness and fidelity
they had already tried.1 By this epithet of natural, the offspring

1 The edict of Constantine first conferred this right ; for Augustus had
prohibited the taking as a concubine a woman who might be taken as a

THE JUSTINIAN CODE 157

of the concubine were distinguished from the spurious brood
of adultery, prostitution, and incest, to whom Justinian reluc-
tantly grants the necessary aliments of life; and these natural
children alone were capable of succeeding to a sixth part of
the inheritance of their reputed father. According to the rigor
of law, bastards were entitled to the name and condition of
their mother, from whom they might derive the character of a
slave, a stranger, or a citizen. The outcasts of every family
were adopted without reproach as the children of the State.

The relation of guardian and ward, or in Roman words
of tutor and pupil, which covers so many titles of the Institutes
and Pandects, is of a very simple and uniform nature. The
person and property of an orphan must always be trusted to
the custody of some discreet friend. If the deceased father
had not signified his choice, the agnats, or paternal kindred of
the nearest degree, were compelled to act as the natural guardians :
the Athenians were apprehensive of exposing the infant to the
power of those most interested in his death; but an axiom of
Roman jurisprudence has pronounced that the charge of tute-
lage should constantly attend the emolument of succession. If
the choice of the father and the line of consanguinity afforded
no efficient guardian, the failure was supplied by the nomina-
tion of the praetor of the city or the president of the province.
But the person whom they named to this public office might be
legally excused by insanity or blindness, by ignorance or in-
ability, by previous enmity or adverse interest, by the number
of children or guardianships with which he was already burdened
and by the immunities which were granted to the useful labors
of magistrates, lawyers, physicians, and professors.

Till the infant could speak and think he was represented
by the tutor, whose authority was finally determined by the
age of puberty. Without his consent no act of the pupil could
bind himself to his own prejudice, though it might oblige others
for his personal benefit. It is needless to observe that the
tutor often gave security, and always rendered an account, and
that the want of diligence or integrity exposed him to a civil

wife ; and if marriage took place afterward, this marriage made no change
in the rights of the children born before it ; recourse W83 then had to
adoption, properly called arrogation.

158 THE JUSTINIAN CODE

and almost criminal action for the violation of his sacred trust.
The age of puberty had been rashly fixed by the civilians at
fourteen; but as the faculties of the mind ripen more slowly
than those of the body, a curator was interposed to guard the
fortunes of a Roman youth from his own inexperience and
headstrong passions. Such a trustee had been first instituted
by the praetor, to save a family from the blind havoc of a prodigal
or madman ; and the minor was compelled by the laws to solicit
the same protection, to give validity to his acts till he accom-
plished the full period of twenty-five years. Women were con-
demned to the perpetual tutelage of parents, husbands, or guar-
dians; a sex created to please and obey was never supposed
to have attained the age of reason and experience. Such, at
least, was the stern and haughty spirit of the law, which had
been insensibly mollified before the time of Justinian.

II. The original right of property can only be justified
by the accident or merit of prior occupancy; and on this foun-
dation it is wisely established by the philosophy of the civilians.
The savage who hollows a tree, inserts a sharp stone into a
wooden handle, or applies a string to an elastic branch becomes
in a state of nature the just proprietor of the canoe, the bow,
or the hatchet. The materials were common to all, the new
form, the produce of his time and simple industry, belong
solely to himself. His hungry brethren cannot, without a sense
of their own injustice, extort from the hunter the game of the
forest overtaken or slain by his personal strength and dexterity.
If his provident care preserves and multiplies the tame animals,
whose nature is tractable to the arts of education, he acquires
a perpetual title to the use and service of their numerous prog-
eny, which derives its existence from him alone. If he encloses
and cultivates a field for their sustenance and his own, a barren
waste is converted into a fertile soil; the seed, the manure, the
labor, create a new value, and the rewards of harvest are pain-
fully earned by the fatigues of the revolving year.

In the successive states of society the hunter, the shepherd,
the husbandman, may defend their possessions by two reasons
which forcibly appeal to the feelings of the human mind: that
whatever thf" or\joy is the fruit of their own industry; and
that every man who envies their felicity may purchase similar

THE JUSTINIAN CODE 159

acquisitions by the exercise of similar diligence. Such, in truth,
may be the freedom and plenty of a small colony cast on a
fruitful island. But the colony multiplies, while the space still
continues the same; the common rights, the equal inheritance
of mankind, are engrossed by the bold and crafty; each field
and forest is circumscribed by the landmarks of a jealous master;
and it is the peculiar praise of the Roman jurisprudence that
it asserts the claim of the first occupant to the wild animals of
the earth, the air, and the waters. In the progress from primi-
tive equity to final injustice, the steps are silent, the shades are
almost imperceptible, and the absolute monopoly is guarded
by positive laws and artificial reason. The active, insatiable
principle of self-love can alone supply the arts of life and the
wages of industry; and as soon as civil government and ex-
clusive property have been introduced, they become necessary
to the existence of the human race.

Except in the singular institutions of Sparta, the wisest
legislators have disapproved an agrarian law as a false and
dangerous innovation. Among the Romans the enormous dis-
proportion of wealth surmounted the ideal restraints of a doubt-
ful tradition and an obsolete statute; a tradition that the poor-
est follower of Romulus had been endowed with the perpetual
inheritance of two jugera; a statute which confined the richest
citizen to the measure of five hundred jugera, or three hundred
and twelve acres of land. The original territory of Rome con-
sisted only of some miles of wood and meadow along the banks
of the Tiber, and domestic exchange could add nothing to the
national stock. But the goods of an alien or enemy were law-
fully exposed to the first hostile occupier; the city was enriched
by the profitable trade of war, and the blood of her sons was
the only price that was paid for the Volscian sheep, the slaves
of Britain, to the gems and gold of Asiatic kingdoms. In the
language of ancient jurisprudence, which was corrupted and
forgotten before the age of Justinian, these spoils were distin-
guished by the name of manceps or mancipium, taken with
the hand; and whenever they were sold or emancipated, the
purchaser required some assurance that they had been the
property of an enemy and not of a fellow- citizen.

A citizen could only forfeit his rights by apparent derelic-

160 THE JUSTINIAN CODE

tion, and such dereliction of a valuable interest could not easily
be presumed. Yet, according to the Twelve Tables, a pre-
scription of one year for movables, and of two years for immov-
ables, abolished the claim of the ancient master, if the actual
possessor had acquired them by a fair transaction from the person
whom he believed to be the lawful proprietor.1 Such conscien-
tious injustice, without any mixture of fraud or force could
seldom injure the members of a small republic; but the various
periods of three, of ten, or of twenty years, determined by
Justinian, are more suitable to the latitude of a great empire.
It is only in the term of prescription that the distinction of real
and personal fortune has been remarked by the civilians; and
their general idea of property is that of simple, uniform, and
absolute dominion. The subordinate exceptions of use, of
usufruct, of servitudes, imposed for the benefit of a neighbor
on lands and houses, are abundantly explained by the profes-
sors of jurisprudence. The claims of property, as far as they
are altered by the mixture, the division, or the transformation
of substances, are investigated with metaphysical subtlety by
the same civilians.

The personal title of the first proprietor must be determined
by his death: but the possession, without any appearance of
change, is peaceably continued in his children, the associates

1 The Roman laws protected all property acquired in a lawful manner.
They imposed on those who had invaded it, the obligation of making
restitution and reparation of all damage caused by that invasion; they
punished it moreover, in many cases, by a pecuniary fine. But they did
not always grant a recovery against the third person, who had become
bona fide possessed of the property. He who had obtained possession of
a thing belonging to another, knowing nothing of the prior rights of that
person, maintained the possession. The law had expressly determined
those cases, in which it permitted property to be reclaimed from an inno-
cent possessor. In these cases possession had the characters of absolute
proprietorship. To possess this right, it was not sufficient to have en-
tered into possession of the thing in any manner; the acquisition was
bound to have that character of publicity, which was given by the obser-
vation of solemn forms, prescribed by the laws, or the uninterrupted ex-
ercise of proprietorship during a certain time : the Roman citizen alone
could acquire this proprietorship. Every other kind of possession, which
might be named imperfect proprietorship, was called in bonis habere. It
was not till after the time of Cicero that the general name of dominium
was given to all proprietorship.

THE JUSTINIAN CODE 161

of his toil and the partners of his wealth. This natural inheri-
tance has been protected by the legislators of every climate
and age, and the father is encouraged to persevere in slow and
distant improvements, by the tender hope that a long posterity
will enjoy the fruits of his labor. The principle of hereditary
succession is universal; but the order has been variously es-
tablished by convenience or caprice, by the spirit of national
institutions, or by some partial example which was originally
decided by fraud or violence. The jurisprudence of the Romans
appears to have deviated from the equality of nature much less
than the Jewish, the Athenian, or the English institutions. On
the death of a citizen all his descendants, unless they were
already freed from his paternal power, were called to the in-
heritance of his possessions. The insolent prerogative of primo-
geniture was unknown; the two sexes were placed on a just
level; all the sons and daughters were entitled to an equal
portion of the patrimonial estate; and if any of the sons had
been intercepted by a premature death, his person was repre-
sented and his share was divided by his surviving children.

On the failure of the direct line, the right of succession
must diverge to the collateral branches. The degrees of kindred
are numbered by the civilians, ascending from the last possessor
to a common parent, and descending from the common parent
to the next heir : my father stands in the first degree, my brother
in the second, his children in the third, and the remainder of
the series may be conceived by fancy, or pictured in a genea-
logical table. In this computation a distinction was made,
essential to the laws and even the constitution of Rome; the
agnats, or persons connected by a line of males, were called, as
they stood in the nearest degree, to an equal partition; but a
female was incapable of transmitting any legal claims; and the
cognats of every rank, without excepting the dear relation of a
mother and a son, were disinherited by the Twelve Tables, as
strangers and aliens. Among the Romans a gens or lineage
was united by a common name and domestic rites; the various
cognomens or surnames of Scipio or Marcellus distinguished
from each other the subordinate branches or families of the
Cornelian or Claudian race: the default of the agnats, of the
same surname, was supplied by the larger denomination of

E., VOL. IV.— II.

162 THE JUSTINIAN CODE

gentiles; and the vigilance of the laws maintained in the same
name the perpetual descent of religion and property.

A similar principle dictated the Voconian law, which abol-
ished the right of female inheritance. As long as virgins were
given or sold in marriage, the adoption of the wife extinguished
the hopes of the daughter. But the equal succession of indepen-
dent matrons supported their pride and luxury, and might trans-
port into a foreign house the riches of their fathers. While the
maxims of Cato were revered, they tended to perpetuate in
each family a just and virtuous mediocrity: till female blandish-
ments insensibly triumphed, and every salutary restraint was
lost in the dissolute greatness of the republic. The rigor of
the decemvirs was tempered by the equity of the praetors. Their
edicts restored and emancipated posthumous children to the
rights of nature; and upon the failure of the agnats they pre-
ferred the blood of the cognats to the name of the gentiles,
whose title and character were insensibly covered with oblivion.
The reciprocal inheritance of mothers and sons was established
in the Tertullian and Orphitian decrees by the humanity of
the senate. A new and more impartial order was introduced
by the Novels of Justinian, who affected to revive the juris-
prudence of the Twelve Tables. The lines of masculine and
female kindred were confounded: the descending, ascending,
and collateral series was accurately denned; and each degree,
according to the proximity of blood and affection, succeeded
the vacant possessions of a Roman citizen.

The order of succession is regulated by nature, or at least
by the general and permanent reason of the law-giver: but this
order is frequently violated by the arbitrary and partial wills,
which prolong the dominion of the testator beyond the grave.
In the simple state of society this last use or abuse of the right
of property is seldom indulged; it was introduced at Athens
by the laws of Solon; and the private testaments of a father
of a family are authorized by the Twelve Tables. Before the
time of the decemvirs a Roman citizen exposed his wishes and
motives to the assembly of the thirty curiae or parishes, and the
general law of inheritance was suspended by an occasional act
of the legislature. After the permission of the decemvirs, each
private law -giver promulgated his verbal or written testament

THE JUSTINIAN CODE 163

in the presence of five citizens, who represented the five classes
of the Roman people; a sixth witness attested their concur-
rence; a seventh weighed the copper money, which was paid
by an imaginary purchaser, and the estate was emancipated
by a fictitious sale and immediate release.

This singular ceremony, which excited the wonder of the
Greeks, was still practised in the age of Severus, but the praetor
had already approved a more simple testament, for which they
required the seals and signatures of seven witnesses, free from
all legal exception and purposely summoned for the execution
of that important act. A domestic monarch, who reigned over
the lives and fortunes of his children, might distribute their
respective shares according to the degrees of their merit or his
affection; his arbitrary displeasure chastised an unworthy son
by the loss of his inheritance, and the mortifying preference of
a stranger. But the experience of unnatural parents recom-
mended some limitations of their testamentary powers. A son
or, by the laws of Justinian, even a daughter, could no longer
be disinherited by their silence; they were compelled to name
the criminal and to specify the offence; and the justice of the
Emperor enumerated the sole causes that could justify such a
violation of the first principles of nature and society. Unless
a legitimate portion, a fourth part, had been reserved for the
children, they were entitled to institute an action or complaint
of inofficious testament; to suppose that their father's under-
standing was impaired by sickness or age, and respectfully to
appeal from his rigorous sentence to the deliberate wisdom of
the magistrate.

In the Roman jurisprudence an essential distinction was
admitted between the inheritance and the legacies. The heirs
who succeeded to the entire unity, or to any of the twelve
fractions of the substance of the testator, represented his civil
and religious character, asserted his rights, fulfilled his obli-
gations, and discharged the gifts of friendship or liberality,
which his last will had bequeathed under the name of legacies.
But as the imprudence or prodigality of a dying man might
exhaust the inheritance and leave only risk and labor to his
successor, he was empowered to retain the Falcidian portion;
to deduct, before the payment of the legacies, a clear fourth

164 THE JUSTINIAN CODE

for his own emolument. A reasonable time was allowed to
examine the proportion between the debts and the estate, to
decide whether he should accept or refuse the testament; and
if he used the benefit of an inventory, the demands of the cred-
itors could not exceed the valuation of the effects. The last
will of a citizen might be altered during his life or rescinded
after his death; the persons whom he named might die before
him, or reject the inheritance, or be exposed to some legal dis-
qualification. In the contemplation of these events he was
permitted to substitute second and third heirs, to replace each
other according to the order of the testament; and the inca-
pacity of a madman or an infant to bequeath his property might
be supplied by a similar substitution. But the power of the
testator expired with the acceptance of the testament; each
Roman of mature age and discretion acquired the absolute
dominion of his inheritance, and the simplicity of the civil law
was never clouded by the long and intricate entails which con-
fine the happiness and freedom of unborn generations.

Conquest and the formalities of law established the use
of codicils. If a Roman was surprised by death in a remote
province of the empire he addressed a short epistle to his legiti-
mate or testamentary heir, who fulfilled with honor, or neg-
lected with impunity, this last request, which the judges before
the age of Augustus were not authorized to enforce. A codicil
might be expressed in any mode, or in any language; but the
subscription of five witnesses must declare that it was the genu-
ine composition of the author. His intention, however laudable,
was sometimes illegal; and the invention of fidei-commissa,
or trusts, arose from the struggle between natural justice and
positive jurisprudence. A stranger of Greece or Africa might
be the friend or benefactor of a childless Roman, but none,
except a fellow-citizen, could act as his heir.

The Voconian law, which abolished female succession,
restrained the legacy or inheritance of a woman to the sum of
one hundred thousand sesterces, and an only daughter was
condemned almost as an alien in her father's house. The zeal
of friendship and parental affection suggested a liberal artifice :
a qualified citizen was named in the testament, with a prayer
or injunction that he would restore the inheritance to the person

THE JUSTINIAN CODE 165

for whom it was truly intended. Various was the conduct of
the trustees in this painful situation ; they had sworn to observe
the laws of their country, but honor prompted them to violate
their oath; and if they preferred their interest under the mask
of patriotism, they forfeited the esteem of every virtuous mind.
The declaration of Augustus relieved their doubts, gave a legal
sanction to confidential testaments and codicils, and gently
unravelled the forms and restraints of the republican juris-
prudence. But as the new practice of trusts degenerated into
some abuse, the trustee was enabled, by the Trebellian and
Pegasian decrees, to reserve one-fourth of the estate, or to
transfer on the head of the real heir all Ihe debts and actions
of the succession. The interpretation of testaments was .'.net
and literal; but the language of trusts and codicils was delivered
from the minute and technical accuracy of the civilians.

III. The general duties of mankind are imposed by their
public and private relations: but their specific obligations to
each other can only be the effect of (i) a promise, (2) a benefit,
or (3) an injury; and when these obligations are ratified by
law, the interested party may compel the performance by a
judicial action. On this principle the civilians of every country
have erected a similar jurisprudence, the fair conclusion of
universal reason and justice.

i. The goddess of faith (of human and social faith) was
worshipped, not only in her temples, but in the lives of the
Romans; and if that nation was deficient in the more amiable
qualities of benevolence and generosity, they astonished the
Greeks by their sincere and simple performance of the most
burdensome engagements. Yet among the same people, ac-
cording to the rigid maxims of the patricians and decemvirs,
a naked pact, a promise, or even an oath, did not create any
civil obligation, unless it was confirmed by the legal form of a
stipulation. Whatever might be the etymology of the Latin
word, it conveyed the idea of a firm and irrevocable contract,
which was always expressed in the mode of a question and
answer. Do you promise to pay me one hundred pieces of gold ?
was the solemn interrogation of Seius. I do promise, was the
reply of Sempronius. The friends of Sempronius, who answered
for his ability and inclination, might be separately sued at the

i66 THE JUSTINIAN CODE

option of Seius; and the benefit of partition, or order of recip-
rocal actions, insensibly deviated from the strict theory of
stipulation. The most cautious and deliberate consent was
justly required to sustain the validity of a gratuitous promise;
and the citizen who might have obtained a legal security, in-
curred the suspicion of fraud and paid the forfeit of his neglect.
But the ingenuity of the civilians successfully labored to con-
vert simple engagements into the form of solemn stipulations.
The praetors, as the guardians of social faith, admitted every
rational evidence of a voluntary and deliberate act, which in
their tribunal produced an equitable obligation, and for which
they gave an action and a remedy.

2. The obligations of the second class, as they were con-
tracted by the delivery of a thing, are marked by the civilians
with the epithet of real. A grateful return is due to the author
of a benefit; and whoever is intrusted with the property of
another has bound himself to the sacred duty of restitution.
In the case of a friendly loan, the merit of generosity is on
the side of the lender only; in a deposit, on the side of
the receiver; but in a pledge, and the rest of the
selfish commerce of ordinary life, the benefit is compensated
by an equivalent, and the obligation to restore is variously
modified by the nature of the transaction. The Latin language
very happily expresses the fundamental difference between the
commodatum and the mutuum, which our poverty is reduced
to confound under the vague and common appellation of a
loan. In the former, the borrower was obliged to restore the
same individual thing with which he had been accommodated
for the temporary supply of his wants; in the latter it was
destined for his use and consumption, and he discharged this
mutual engagement by substituting the same specific value
according to a just estimation of number, of weight, and of
measure. In the contract of sale, the absolute dominion is
transferred to the purchaser, and he repays the benefit with
an adequate sum of gold or silver, the price and universal
standard of all earthly possessions.

The obligation of another contract, that of location, is of a
more complicated kind. Lands or houses, labor or talents,
may be hired for a definite term; at the expiration of the time

THE JUSTINIAN CODE 167

the thing itself must be restored to the owner, with the additional
reward for the beneficial occupation and employment. In these
lucrative contracts, to which may be added those of partnership
and commissions, the civilians sometimes imagine the delivery
of the object, and sometimes presume the consent of the parties.
The substantial pledge has been refined into the invisible rights
of a mortgage or hypotheca; and the agreement of sale, for a
certain price, imputes from that moment the chances of gain
or loss to the account of the purchaser. It may be fairly sup-
posed that every man will obey the dictates of his interest ; and
if he accepts the benefit, he is obliged to sustain the expense of
the transaction. In this boundless subject, the historian will
observe the location of land and money, the rent of the one and
the interest of the other, as they materially affect the prosperity
of agriculture and commerce.

The landlord was often obliged to advance the stock and
instruments of husbandry, and to content himself with a par-
tition of the fruits. If the feeble tenant was oppressed by acci-
dent, contagion, or hostile violence, he claimed a proportionable
relief from the equity of the laws; five years were the customary
term, and no solid or costly improvements could be expected
from a farmer who at each moment might be ejected by the
sale of the estate. Usury, the inveterate grievance of the city,
had been discouraged by the Twelve Tables, and abolished by
the clamors of the people. It was revived by their wants and
idleness, tolerated by the discretion of the praetors, and finally
determined by the Code of Justinian. Persons of illustrious
rank were confined to the moderate profit of 4 per ceni. 6
was pronounced to be the ordinary and legal standard of in-
terest; 8 was allowed for the convenience of manufacturers
and merchants; 12 was granted to nautical insurance, which
the wiser ancients had not attempted to define; but, except
in this perilous adventure, the practice of exorbitant usury
was severely restrained.1 The most simple interest was con-
demned by the clergy of the East and West; but the sense
of mutual benefit, which had triumphed over the laws of the

1 Justinian has not condescended to give usury a place in his Insti-
tutes; but the necessary rules and restrictions are inserted in the Pan-
dfcts and the Code.

i68 THE JUSTINIAN CODE

republic, had resisted with equal firmness the decrees of the
Church, and even the prejudices of mankind.1

3. Nature and society impose the strict obligation of re-
pairing an injury; and the sufferer by private injustice acquires
a personal right and a legitimate action. If the property of
another be intrusted to our care, the requisite degree of care
may rise and fall according to the benefit which we derive from
such temporary possession; we are seldom made responsible
for inevitable accident, but the consequences of a voluntary
fault must always be imputed to the author. A Roman pursued
and recovered his stolen goods by a civil action of theft; they
might pass through a succession of pure and innocent hands,
but nothing less than a prescription of thirty years could ex-
tinguish his original claim. They were restored by the sentence
of the praetor, and the injury was compensated by double, or
threefold, or even quadruple damages, as the deed had been
perpetrated by secret fraud or open rapine, as the robber had
been surprised in the fact or detected by a subsequent research.
The Aquilian law defended the living property of a citizen, his
slaves and cattle, from the stroke of malice or negligence: the
highest price was allowed that could be ascribed to the domestic
animal at any moment of the year preceding his death; a
similar latitude of thirty days was granted on the destruction
of any other valuable effects. A personal injury is blunted or
sharpened by the manners of the times and the sensibility of
the individual: the pain or the disgrace of a word or blow can-
not easily be appreciated by a pecuniary equivalent.

The rude jurisprudence of the decemvirs had confounded
all hasty insults, which did not amount to the fracture of a limb
by condemning the aggressor to the common penalty of twenty-
five asses. But the same denomination of money was reduced
in three centuries from a pound to the weight of half an ounce :
and the insolence of a wealthy Roman indulged himself in
the cheap amusement of breaking and satisfying the law of the
Twelve Tables. Veratius ran through the streets striking on the

1 Cato, Seneca, Plutarch, have loudly condemned the practice or abuse
of usury. According to etymology, the principal is supposed to generate
the interest : " A breed for barren metal," exclaims Shakspeare — and the
stage is an echo of the public voice,

THE JUSTINIAN CODE 169

face the inoffensive passengers, and his attendant purse-bearer
immediately silenced their clamors by the legal tender of twenty-
five pieces of copper, about the value of one shilling. The
equity of the praetors examined and estimated the distinct merits
of each particular complaint. In the adjudication of civil dam-
ages the magistrate assumed the right to consider the various
circumstances of time and place, of age and dignity, which may
aggravate the shame and sufferings of the injured person: but
if he admitted the idea of a fine, a punishment, an example, he
invaded the province, though, perhaps, he supplied the defects
of the criminal law.

IV. The execution of the Alban dictator, who was dis-
membered by eight horses, is represented by Livy as the first
and the last instance of Roman cruelty in the punishment of
the most atrocious crimes. But this act of justice, or revenge,
was inflicted on a foreign enemy in the heat of victory and at
the command of a single man. The Twelve Tables afford a
more decisive proof of the national spirit, since they were
framed by the wisest of the senate, and accepted by the free
voices of the people; yet these laws, like the statutes of Draco,
are written in characters of blood. They approve the inhuman
and unequal principle of retaliation; and the forfeit of an eye
for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a limb for a limb, is rigorously
exacted, unless the offender can redeem his pardon by a fine
of three hundred pounds of copper. The decemvirs distributed
with much liberality the slighter chastisements of flagellation
and servitude; and nine crimes of a very different complexion
are adjudged worthy of death.

1. Any act of treason against the state, or of correspondence
with the public enemy. The mode of execution was painful
and ignominious: the head of the degenerate Roman was
shrouded in a veil, his hands were tied behind his back, and
after he had been scourged by the lictor, he was suspended in
the midst of the Forum on a cross or inauspicious tree.

2. Nocturnal meetings in the city; whatever might be the
pretence, of pleasure, or religion, or the public good.

3. The murder of a citizen; for which the common feelings
of mankind demand the blood of the murderer. Poison is still
more odious than the sword or dagger; and we are surprised

170 THE JUSTINIAN CODE

to discover in two flagitious events how early such subtle wicked-
ness has infected the simplicity of the republic, and the chaste
virtues of the Roman matrons.1 The parricide, who violated
the duties of nature and gratitude, was cast into the river or
the sea, enclosed in a sack; and a cock, a viper, a dog, and a
monkey were successively added as the most suitable compan-
ions. Italy produces no monkeys; but the want could never
be felt till the middle of the sixth century first revealed the
guilt of a parricide.2

4. The malice of an incendiary. After the previous cere-
mony of whipping, he himself was delivered to the flames; and
in this example alone our reason is tempted to applaud the
justice of retaliation.

5. Judicial perjury. The corrupt or malicious witness was
thrown headlong from the Tarpeian Rock to expiate his false-
hood, which was rendered still more fatal by the severity of
the penal laws and the deficiency of written evidence.

6. The corruption of a judge who accepted bribes to pro-
nounce an iniquitous sentence.

7. Libels and satires, whose rude strains sometimes dis-
turbed the peace of an illiterate city. The author was beaten
with clubs, a worthy chastisement, but it is not certain that he
was left to expire under the blows of the executioner.

8. The nocturnal mischief of damaging or destroying a
neighbor's corn. The criminal was suspended as a grateful
victim to Ceres. But the sylvan deities were less implacable,
and the extirpation of a more valuable tree was compensated
by the moderate fine of twenty-five pounds of copper.

9. Magical incantations; which had power, in the opinion
of the Latian shepherds, to exhaust the strength of an enemy,
to extinguish his life, and to remove from their seats his deep-
rooted plantations. The cruelty of the Twelve Tables against

1 Livy mentions two remarkable and flagitious eras, of three thousand
persons accused, and of one hundred and ninety noble matrons convicted,
of the crime of poisoning. Hume discriminates the ages of private and
public virtue. Rather say that such ebullitions of mischief (as in France
in the year 1680) are accidents and prodigies which leave no marks on the
manners of a nation.

* The first parricide at Rome was L. Ostius, after the Second Punic
War. During the Cimbric, P. Malleolus was guilty of the first matricide.

THE JUSTINIAN CODE 171

insolvent debtors still remains to be told; and I shall dare to
prefer the literal sense of antiquity to the specious refinements
of modern criticism. After the judicial proof or confession of
the debt, thirty days of grace were allowed before a Roman
was delivered into the power of his fellow-citizen. In this
private prison twelve ounces of rice were his daily food; he
might be bound with a chain of fifteen pounds weight, and his
misery was thrice exposed in the market-place, to solicit the
compassion of his friends and countrymen. At the expiration
of sixty days the debt was discharged by the loss of liberty or
life; the insolvent debtor was either put to death or sold in
foreign slavery beyond the Tiber; but, if several creditors were
alike obstinate and unrelenting, they might legally dismember
his body and satiate their revenge by this horrid partition.

The advocates for this savage law have insisted that it must
strongly operate in deterring idleness and fraud from con-
tracting debts which they were unable to discharge; but ex-
perience would dissipate this salutary terror by proving that
no creditor could be found to exact this unprofitable penalty
of life or limb. As the manners of Rome were insensibly
polished, the criminal code of the decemvirs was abolished by
the humanity of accusers, witnesses, and judges; and impunity
became the consequence of immoderate rigor. The Porcian
and Valerian laws prohibited the magistrates from inflicting
on a free citizen any capital, or even corporal, punishment,
and the obsolete statutes of blood were artfully, and perhaps
truly, ascribed to the spirit, not of patrician but of regal tyr-
anny.

In the absence of penal laws and the insufficiency of civil
actions, the peace and justice of the city were imperfectly main-
tained by the private jurisdiction of the citizens. The male-
factors who replenish our jails are the outcasts of society, and
the crimes for which they suffer may be commonly ascribed to
ignorance, poverty, and brutal appetite. For the perpetration
of similar enormities, a vile plebeian might claim and abuse
the sacred character of a member of the republic; but on the
proof or suspicion of guilt, the slave or the stranger was nailed
to a cross: and this strict and summary justice might be exer-
cised without restraint over the greatest part of the populace

172 THE JUSTINIAN CODE

of Rome. Each family contained a domestic tribunal, which
was not confined, like that of the praetor, to the cognizance of
external actions; virtuous principles and habits were incul-
cated by the discipline of education, and the Roman father
was accountable to the State for the manners of his children,
since he disposed, without appeal, of their life, their liberty, and
their inheritance. In some pressing emergencies the citizen
was authorized to avenge his private or public wrongs. The
consent of the Jewish, the Athenian, and the Roman laws
approved the slaughter of the nocturnal thief; though in open
daylight a robber could not be slain without some previous
evidence of danger and complaint. Whoever surprised an
adulterer in his nuptial bed might freely exercise his revenge;
the most bloody and wanton outrage was excused by the provo-
cation; nor was it before the reign of Augustus that the husband
was reduced to weigh the Vank of the offender, or that the par-
ent was condemned to sacrifice his daughter with her guilty se-
ducer.

After the expulsion of the kings the ambitious Roman who
should dare to assume their title or imitate their tyranny, was
devoted to the infernal gods; each of his fellow-citizens was
armed with the sword of justice; and the act of Brutus, how-
ever repugnant to gratitude or prudence, had been already
sanctified by the judgment of his country. The barbarous
practice of wearing arms in the midst of peace, and the bloody
maxims of honor were unknown to the Romans; and during
the two purest ages, from the establishment of equal freedom
to the end of the Punic wars, the city was never disturbed by
sedition, and rarely polluted with atrocious crimes. The failure
of penal laws was more sensibly felt, when every vice was in-
flamed by faction at home and dominion abroad. In the time
of Cicero each private citizen enjoyed the privilege of anarchy;
each minister of the republic was exalted to the temptations of
regal power, and their virtues are entitled to the warmest praise,
as the spontaneous fruits of nature or philosophy. After a
triennial indulgence of lust, rapine, and cruelty, Verres, the
tyrant of Sicily, could only be sued for the pecuniary restitu-
tion of three hundred thousand pounds sterling; and such was
the temper of the laws, the judges, and perhaps the accuser

THE JUSTINIAN CODE 173

himself, that on refunding a thirteenth part of his plunder
Verres could retire to an easy and luxurious exile.1

The first imperfect attempt to restore the proportion of
crimes and punishments was made by the dictator Sylla, who,
in the midst of his sanguinary triumph, aspired to restrain the
license rather than to oppress the liberty of the Romans. He
gloried in the arbitrary proscription of four thousand seven
hundred citizens. But in the character of a legislator he re-
spected the prejudices of the times ; and instead of pronouncing
a sentence of death against the robber or assassin, the general
who betrayed an army, or the magistrate who ruined a province,
Sylla was content to aggravate the pecuniary damages by the.
penalty of exile, or, in more constitutional language, by the
interdiction of fire and water. The Cornelian and afterward
the Pompeian and Julian laws introduced a new system of
criminal jurisprudence; and the emperors, from Augustus to
Justinian, disguised their increasing rigor under the names of
the original authors.

But the invention and frequent use of extraordinary pains
proceeded from the desire to extend and conceal the progress
of despotism. In the condemnation of illustrious Romans the
senate was always prepared to confound, at the will of their
masters, the judicial and legislative powers. It was the duty
of the governors to maintain the peace of their province by the
arbitrary and rigid administration of justice; the freedom of
the city evaporated in the extent of empire, and the Spanish
malefactor, who claimed the privilege of a Roman, was elevated
by the command of Galba on a fairer and more lofty cross.
Occasional rescripts issued from the throne to decide the
questions which, by their novelty or importance, appeared to
surpass the authority and discernment of a proconsul. Trans-
portation and beheading were reserved for honorable persons;
meaner criminals were either hanged, or burned, or buried in
the mines, or exposed to the wild beasts of the amphitheatre.
Armed robbers were pursued and extirpated as the enemies
of society; the driving away of horses or cattle was made a

1 Verres lived near thirty years after his trial, till the Second Trium-
virate, when he was proscribed by the taste of Mark Antony for the sake
of his Corinthian plate.

i74 THE JUSTINIAN CODE

capital offence, but simple theft was uniformly considered as a
mere civil and private injury. The degrees of guilt and the
modes of punishment were too often determined by the dis-
cretion of the rulers, and the subject was left in ignorance of
the legal danger which he might incur by every action of his
life.

A sin, a vice, a crime, are the objects of theology, ethics,
and jurisprudence. Whenever their judgments agree, they
corroborate each other; but as often as they differ a prudent
legislator appreciates the guilt and punishment according to
the measure of social injury. On this principle the most daring
attack on the life and property of a private citizen is judged
less atrocious than the crime of treason or rebellion, which
invades the majesty of the republic; the obsequious civilians
unanimously pronounced that the republic is contained in the
person of its chief; and the edge of the Julian law was sharpened
by the incessant diligence of the emperors. The licentious com-
merce of the sexes may be tolerated as an impulse of nature, or
forbidden as a source of disorder and corruption; but the fame,
the fortunes, the family of the husband, are seriously injured
by the adultery of the wife. The wisdom of Augustus, after
curbing the freedom of revenge, applied to this domestic offence
the animadversion of the laws; and the guilty parties, after
the payment of heavy forfeitures and fines, were condemned
to long or perpetual exile in two separate islands.

Religion pronounces an equal censure against the infidelity
of the husband ; but, as it is not accompanied by the same civil
effects, the wife was never permitted to vindicate her wrong;
and the distinction of simple or double adultery, so familiar
and so important in the canon law, is unknown to the juris-
prudence of the Code and the Pandects. I touch with reluctance
and despatch with impatience a more odious vice, of which
modesty rejects the name, and nature abominates the idea.
The primitive Romans were infected by the example of the
Etruscans and Greeks; in the mad abuse of prosperity and
power, every pleasure that is innocent was deemed insipid;
and the Scatinian law, which had been extorted by an act of
violence, was insensibly abolished by the lapse of time and the
multitude of criminals.

THE JUSTINIAN CODE 17*

By this law the rape, perhaps the seduction, of an ingenuous
youth was compensated as a personal injury by the poor dam-
ages of ten thousand sesterces, or fourscore pounds; the ravisher
might be slain by the resistance or revenge of chastity; and I
wish to believe that at Rome, as in Athens, the voluntary and
effeminate deserter of his sex was degraded from the honors
and the rights of a citizen. But the practice of vice was not dis-
couraged by the severity of opinion; the indelible stain of man-
hood was confounded with the more venial transgressions of
fornication and adultery, nor was the licentious lover exposed
to the same dishonor which he impressed on the male or female
partner of his guilt. From Catullus to Juvenal the poets accuse
and celebrate the degeneracy of the times; and the reformation
of manners was feebly attempted by the reason and authority
of the civilians till the most virtuous of the Caesars proscribed
the sin against nature as a crime against society.

A new spirit of legislation, respectable even in its error,
arose in the empire with the religion of Constantine. The laws
of Moses were received as the divine original of justice, and
the Christian princes adapted their penal statutes to the degrees
of moral and religious turpitude. Adultery was first declared
to be a capita/1 offence : the frailty of the sexes was assimilated
to poison or assassination, to sorcery or parricide; the same
penalties were inflicted on the passive and active guilt of peder-
asty, and all criminals of free or servile condition were either
drowned or beheaded, or cast alive into the avenging flames.
The adulterers were spared by the common sympathy of man-
kind ; but the lovers of their own sex were pursued by general and
pious indignation: the impure manners of Greece still pre-
vailed in the cities of Asia, and every vice was fomented by the
celibacy of the monks and clergy.

Justinian relaxed the punishment at least of female infi-
delity: the guilty spouse was only condemned to solitude and
penance, and at the end of two years she might be recalled to
the arms of a forgiving husband. But the same Emperor de-
clared himself the implacable enemy of unmanly lust, and the
cruelty of his persecution can scarcely be excused by the purity
of his motives. In defiance of every principle of justice he
stretched to past as well as future offences the operations of

176 THE JUSTINIAN CODE

his edicts, with the previous allowance of a short respite for
confession and pardon. A painful death was inflicted by the
amputation of the sinful instrument, or the insertion of sharp
reeds into the pores and tubes of most exquisite sensibility; and
Justinian defended the propriety of the execution, since the
criminals would have lost their hands had they been convicted
of sacrilege. In this state of disgrace and agony two bishops,
Isaiah of Rhodes and Alexander of Diospolis, were dragged
through the streets of Constantinople, while their brethren were
admonished by the voice of a crier to observe this awful lesson,
and not to pollute the sanctity of their character. Perhaps
these prelates were innocent. A sentence of death and infamy
was often founded on the slight and suspicious evidence of a
child or a servant; the guilt of the green faction, of the rich,
and of the enemies of Theodora was presumed by the judges,
and pederasty became the crime of those to whom no crime
could be imputed. A French philosopher1 has dared to remark
that whatever is secret must be doubtful, and that our natural
horror of vice may be abused as an engine of tyranny. But the
favorable persuasion of the same writer, that a legislator may
confide in the taste and reason of mankind, is impeached by
the unwelcome discovery of the antiquity and extent of the
disease.

V. The free citizens of Athens and Rome enjoyed in all crim-
inal cases the invaluable privilege of being tried by their coun-
try.

i. The administration of justice is the most ancient office
of a prince: it was exercised by the Roman kings and abused
by Tarquin, who alone, without law or council, pronounced
his arbitrary judgments. The first consuls succeeded to this
regal prerogative; but the sacred right of appeal soon abolished
the jurisdiction of the magistrates, and all public causes were
decided by the supreme tribunal of the people. But a wild
democracy, superior to the forms, too often disdains the essen-
tial principles of justice : the pride of despotism was envenomed
by plebeian envy, and the heroes of Athens might sometimes

1 Montesquieu, that eloquent philosopher, conciliates the rights of
liberty and of nature, which should never be placed in opposition to each
other.

THE JUSTINIAN CODE 177

applaud the happiness of the Persian, whose fate depended on
the caprice of a single tyrant. Some salutary restraints, imposed
by the people on their own passions, were at once the cause and
effect of the gravity and temperance of the Romans. The right
of accusation was confined to the magistrates. A vote of the
thirty-five tribes could inflict a fine; but the cognizance of all
capital crimes was reserved by a fundamental law to the as-
sembly of the centuries, in which the weight of influence and
property was sure to preponderate. Repeated proclamations
and adjournments were interposed to allow time for prejudice
and resentment to subside: the whole proceeding might be
annulled by a seasonable omen or the opposition of a tribune;
and such popular trials were commonly less formidable to
innocence than they were favorable to guilt. But this union
of the judicial and legislative powers left it doubtful whether
the accused party was pardoned or acquitted; and in the
defence of an illustrious client the orators of Rome and Athens
address their arguments to the policy and benevolence, as well
as to the justice, of their sovereign.

2. The task of convening the citizens for the trial of each
offender became more difficult as the citizens and the offenders
continually multiplied, and the ready expedient was adopted
of delegating the jurisdiction of the people to the ordinary
magistrates or to extraordinary inquisitors. In the first ages
these questions were rare and occasional. In the beginning
of the seventh century of Rome they were made perpetual : four
praetors were annually empowered to sit in judgment on the
state offences of treason, extortion, peculation, and bribery;
and Sylla added new praetors and new questions for those crimes
which more directly injure the safety of individuals. By these
inquisitors the trial was prepared and directed; but they could
only pronounce the sentence of the majority of judges. To
discharge this important though burdensome office, an annual
list of ancient and respectable citizens was formed by the praetor.
After many constitutional struggles they were chosen in equal
numbers from the senate, the equestrian order, and the people;
four hundred and fifty were appointed for single questions, and
the various rolls or decuries of judges must have contained the
names of some thousand Romans who represented the judicial
E., VOL. rv.— 12.

178 THE JUSTINIAN CODE

authority of the State. In each particular cause a sufficient
number was drawn from the urn; their integrity was guarded
by an oath; the mode of ballot secured their independence;
the suspicion of partiality was removed by the mutual chal-
lenges of the accuser and defendant; and the judges of Milo,
by the retrenchment of fifteen on each side, were reduced to
fifty-one voices or tablets of acquittal, of condemnation, or of
favorable doubt.1

3. In his civil jurisdiction the praetor of the city was truly
a judge, and almost a legislator; but as soon as he had pre-
scribed the action of law he often referred to a delegate the
determination of the fact. With the increase of legal proceed-
ings, the tribunal of the centumvirs in which he presided ac-
quired more weight and reputation. But whether he acted
alone, or with the advice of his council, the most absolute powers
might be trusted to a magistrate who was annually chosen by
the votes of the people. The rules and precautions of freedom
have required some explanation; the order of despotism is
simple and inanimate. Before the age of Justinian, or perhaps
of Diocletian, the decuries of Roman judges had sunk to an
empty title: the humble advice of the assessors might be ac-
cepted or despised, and in each tribunal the civil and criminal
jurisdiction was administered by a single magistrate, who was
raised and disgraced by the will of the emperor.

A Roman accused of any capital crime might prevent the
sentence of the law by voluntary exile or death. Till his guilt
had been legally proved his innocence was presumed, and his
person was free : till the votes of the last century had been counted
and declared, he might peaceably secede to any of the allied
cities of Italy, or Greece, or Asia.2 His fame and fortunes were
preserved, at least to his children, by this civil death; and he
might still be happy in every rational and sensual enjoyment,
if a mind accustomed to the ambitious tumult of Rome could

1 We are indebted for this interesting fact to a fragment of Asconius
Pedianus, who flourished under the reign of Tiberius. The loss of his
Commentaries on the Orations of Cicero has deprived us of a valuable
fund of historical and legal knowledge.

2 The extension of the Empire and city of Rome obliged the exile to
seek a more distant place of retirement.

THE JUSTINIAN CODE 179

support the uniformity and silence of Rhodes or Athens. A
bolder effort was required to escape from the tyranny of the
Caesars; but this effort was rendered familiar by the maxims
of the Stoics, the example of the bravest Romans, and the legal
encouragements of suicide. The bodies of condemned crim-
inals were exposed to public ignominy, and their children, a
more serious evil, were reduced to poverty by the confiscation
of their fortunes. But if the victims of Tiberius and Nero
anticipated the decree of the prince or senate, their courage
and despatch were recompensed by the applause of the public,
the decent honors of burial, and the validity of their testaments.
The exquisite avarice and cruelty of Domitian appear to have
deprived the unfortunate of this last consolation, and it was
still denied even by the clemency of the Antonines.

A voluntary death which, in the case of a capital offence,
intervened between the accusation and the sentence, was ad-
mitted as a confession of guilt, and the spoils of the deceased
were seized by the inhuman claims of the treasury. Yet the
civilians have always respected the natural right of a citizen to
dispose of his life; and the posthumous disgrace invented by
Tarquin,1 to check the despair of his subjects, was never revived
or imitated by succeeding tyrants. The powers of this world
have indeed lost their dominion over him who is resolved on
death, and his arm can only be restrained by the religious
apprehension of a future state. Suicides are enumerated by
Vergil among the unfortunate rather than the guilty;2 and the
poetical fables of the infernal shades could not seriously in-
fluence the faith or practice of mankind. But the precepts of
the gospel, or the Church, have at length imposed a pious
servitude on the minds of Christians, and condemn them to
expect, without a murmur, the last stroke of disease or the
executioner.

The penal statutes form a very small proportion of the

1 When he fatigued his subjects in building the Capitol, many of the
laborers were provoked to despatch themselves : he nailed their dead
bodies to crosses.

*The sole resemblance of a violent and premature death has engaged
Vergil to confound suicides with infants, lovers, and persons unjustly con-
demned. Some of his editors are at a loss to deduce the idea or ascer-
tain the jurisprudence of the Roman poet.

i8o THE JUSTINIAN CODE

sixty-two books of the Code and Pandects; and in all judicial
proceeding the life or death of a citizen is determined with less
caution or delay than the most ordinary question of covenant
or inheritance. This singular distinction, though something
may be allowed for the urgent necessity of defending the peace
of society, is derived from the nature of criminal and civil juris-
prudence. Our duties to the state are simple and uniform : the
law by which he is condemned is inscribed not only on brass
or marble, but on the conscience of the offender, and his guilt
is commonly proved by the testimony of a single fact. But
our relations to each other are various and infinite; our obli-
gations are created, annulled, and modified by injuries, benefits,
and promises ; and the interpretation of voluntary contracts and
testaments, which are often dictated by fraud or ignorance,
affords a long and laborious exercise to the sagacity of the
judge. The business of life is multiplied by the extent of com-
merce and dominion, and the residence of the parties in the
distant provinces of an empire is productive of doubt, delay,
and inevitable appeals from the local to the supreme magistrate.
Justinian, the Greek emperor of Constantinople and the East,
was the legal successor of the Latian shepherd who had planted
a colony on the banks of the Tiber. In a period of thirteen
hundred years the laws had reluctantly followed the changes
of government and manners, and the laudable desire of con-
ciliating ancient names with recent institutions destroyed the
harmony and swelled the magnitude of the obscure and irregular
system.

The laws which excuse on any occasions the ignorance of
their subjects confess their own imperfections. The civil
jurisprudence, as it was abridged by Justinian, still continued
a mysterious science and a profitable trade, and the innate
perplexity of the study was involved in tenfold darkness by the
private industry of the practitioners. The expense of the pur-
suit sometimes exceeded the value of the prize, and the fairest
rights were abandoned by the poverty or prudence of the claim-
ants. Such costly justice might tend to abate the spirit of
litigation, but the unequal pressure serves only to increase the
influence of the rich, and to aggravate the misery of the poor.
By these dilatory and expensive proceedings, the wealthy

THE JUSTINIAN CODE 181

pleader obtains a more certain advantage than he could hope
from the accidental corruption of his judge. The experience
of an abuse, from which our own age and country are not per-
fectly exempt, may sometimes provoke a generous indignation,
and extort the hasty wish of exchanging our elaborate juris-
prudence for the simple and summary decrees of a Turkish
cadi. Our calmer reflection will suggest that such forms and
delays are necessary to guard the person and property of the
citizen; that the discretion of the judge is the first engine of
tyranny, and that the laws of a free people should foresee and
determine every question that may probably arise in the exercise
of power and the transactions of industry. But the government
of Justinian united the evils of liberty and servitude; and the
Romans were oppressed at the same time by the multiplicity
of their laws and the arbitrary will of their master.

AUGUSTINE'S MISSIONARY WORK IN
ENGLAND

A.D. 597

THE VENERABLE BEDE1 JOHN RICHARD GREEN

St. Augustine was the first archbishop of Canterbury. He was edu-
cated in Rome under Pope Gregory I , by whom he was sent to Britain
with forty monks of the Benedictine order, for the purpose of converting
the English to Christianity. Bertha, wife of Ethelbert, king of Kent,
was a Christian. She was a daughter of Charibert, king of Paris, and
had brought her chaplain with her, who held services in the ruined
church of St. Martin, near Canterbury.

There seemed little prospect, however, of the faith spreading among
the wild islanders until Augustine arrived on the Isle of Thanet A.D. 596.
The occasion of his being sent on this missionary errand is said to have
been connected with an incident which has often been related, wherein it
appears that Gregory, while yet a monk, struck with the beauty of some
heathen Anglo-Saxon youths exposed for sale in the slave market at
Rome, inquired concerning their nationality. Being told that they were
Angles, he said : " Non Angli sed angeli [' Not Angles, but angels '], and
well may, for their angel-like faces it becometh such to be coheirs with
the angels in heaven. In what province of England do they live ?"
" Deira" was the reply. " From Del ira ['God's wrath'] are they to be
freed? " answered Gregory. " How call ye the king of that country?"
" ^lla." " Then Alleluia surely ought to be sung in his kingdom to the
praise of that God who created all things," said the gracious and clever
monk.

" The conversion of the English to Christianity," says Freeman, "at
once altered their whole position in the world. Hitherto our history had
been almost wholly insular; our heathen forefathers had had but little to
do, either in war or peace, with any nations beyond their own four seas.
We hear little of any connection being kept up between the Angles and
Saxons who settled in Britain, and their kinsfolk who abode in their
original country. By its conversion England was first brought, not only
within the pale of the Christian Church, but within the pale of the gen-
eral political society of Europe. But our insular position, combined
with the events of our earlier history, was not without its effect on the
peculiar character of Christianity as established in England. England
was the first great territorial conquest of the spiritual power, beyond the

1 Translated by King Alfred the Great.
182

AUGUSTINE IN ENGLAND 183

limits of the Roman Empire, beyond the influence of Greek and Roman
civilization."

The following account from the Ecclesiastical History of the Venera-
ble Bede, the "father of English history," and foremost scholar of Eng-
land in his age, is in the modern English rendering by Thomson, of King
Alfred's famous translation, made for the instruction of the English
people as the best work of that period on their own history.

As a contrast John Richard Green's treatment of the same episode is
appended.

THE VENERABLE BEDE

VA7HEN according to forthrunning time [it] was about five
hundred and ninety-two years from Christ's hithercoming,
Mauricius, the Emperor, took to the government, and had it
two-and-twenty years. He was the fifty-fourth from Augustus.
In the tenth year of that Emperor's reign, Gregory, the holy
man, who was in lore and deed the highest, took to the bishop-
hood of the Roman Church, and of the apostolic seat, and
held and governed it thirteen years and six months and ten
days. In the fourteenth year of the same Emperor, about a
hundred and fifty years from the English nation's hithercom-
ing into Britain, he was admonished by a divine impulse that
he should send God's servant Augustine, and many other
monks with him, fearing the Lord, to preach God's word to the
English nation.

When they obeyed the bishop's commands, and began to
go to the mentioned work, and had gone some deal of the way,
then began they to fear and dread the journey, and thought
that it was wiser and safer for them that they should rather
return home than seek the barbarous people, and the fierce
and the unbelieving, even whose speech they knew not; and
in common chose this advice to themselves; and then straight-
way sent Augustine (whom they had chosen for their bishop if
their doctrines should be received) to the Pope, that he might
humbly intercede for them, that they might not need to go
upon a journey so perilous and so toilsome, and a pilgrimage
so unknown.

Then St. Gregory sent a letter to them, and exhorted and
advised them in that letter: that they should humbly go into
the work of God's word, and trust in God's help; and that they
should not fear the toil of the journey, nor dread the tongues

i84 AUGUSTINE IN ENGLAND

of evil-speaking men; but that, with all earnestness, and with
the love of God, they should perform the good things which
they by God's help had begun to do; and that they should
know that the great toil would be followed by the greater
glory of everlasting life; and he prayed Almighty God that he
would shield them by his grace; and that he would grant to
himself that he might see the fruit of their labor in the heav-
enly kingdom's glory, because he was ready to be in the same
labor with them, if leave had been given him.

Then Augustine was strengthened by the exhortation of
the blessed father Gregory, and with Christ's servants who
were with him returned to the work of God's word, and came
into Britain. Then was at that time Ethelbert king in Kent,
and a mighty one, who had rule as far as the boundary of the
river Humber, which sheds asunder the south folk of the Eng-
lish nation and the north folk. Then [there] is on the east-
ward of Kent a great island [Thanet by name], which is six
hundred hides large, after the English nation's reckoning.
The isle is shed away from the continuous land by the stream
Wantsum, which is three furlongs broad, and in two places is
fordable, and either end lies in the sea. On this isle came up
Christ's servant Augustine and his fellows — he was one of
forty. They likewise took with them interpreters from Frank-
land [France], as St. Gregory bade them; and he sent mes-
sengers to Ethelbert, and let him know that he came from Rome,
and brought the best errand, and whosoever would be obedient
to him, he promised him everlasting gladness in heaven, and a
kingdom hereafter without end, with the true and living God.

When [he then] the King heard these words, then ordered
he them to abide in the isle on which they had come up; and
their necessaries to be there given them until he should see
what he would do to them. Likewise before that a report of
the Christian religion had come to him, for he had a Christian
wife, who was given to him from the royal kin of the Franks —
Bertha was her name; which woman he received from her
parents on condition that she should have his leave that she
might hold the manner of the Christian belief, and of her
religion, unspotted, with the bishop whom they gave her for
the help of that faith; whose name was Luidhard.

AUGUSTINE IN ENGLAND 185

Then [it] was after many days that the King came to the
isle, and ordered to make a seat for him out [of doors], and
ordered Augustine with his fellows to come to his speech (a con-
ference). He guarded himself lest they should go into any
house to him; he used the old greeting, in case they had any
magic whereby they should overcome and deceive him. But
they came endowed — not with devil-craft, but with divine
might. They bore Christ's rood-token — a silvern cross of
Christ and a likeness of the Lord Jesus colored and deline-
ated on a board; and were crying the names of holy men; and
singing prayers together, made supplication to the Lord for the
everlasting health of themselves and of those to whom they come.

Then the King bade them sit, and they did so ; and they
soon preached and taught the word of life to him, together
with all his peers who were there present. Then answered the
King, and thus said : Fair words and promises are these which
ye have brought and say to us ; but because they are new and
unknown, we cannot yet agree that we should forsake the
things which we for a long time, with all the English nation,
have held.

But because ye have come hither as pilgrims from afar, and
since it seems and is evident to me that ye wished to commu-
nicate to us also the things which ye believed true and best,
we will not therefore be heavy to you, but will kindly receive
you in hospitality, and give you a livelihood, and supply your
needs. Nor will we hinder you from joining and adding to the
religion of your belief all whom you can through your lore.

Then the King gave them a dwelling and a place in Canter-
bury, which was the chief city of all his kingdom, and as he
had promised to give them a livelihood and their worldly needs,
he likewise gave them leave that they might preach and teach
the Christian faith. It is said that when they went and drew
nigh to the city, as their custom was, with Christ's holy cross,
and with the likeness of the great King our Lord Jesus Christ,
they sung with a harmonious voice this Litany and Antiph-
ony: Deprecamur te, etc. "We beseech thee, Lord, in .all thy
mercy, that thy fury and thy wrath be taken off from this city
and [from] thy holy house, because we have sinned. Alleluia."

Then it was soon after they had entered into the dwelling

186 AUGUSTINE IN ENGLAND

place which had been granted to them in the royal city, when
they began to imitate the apostolic life of the primitive church
- that is, served the Lord in constant prayers, and waking and
fasting, and preached and taught God's word to whom they
might, and slighted all things of this world as foreign; but
those things only which were seen [to be] needful for their
livelihood they received from those whom they taught; accord-
ing to that which they taught, they [themselves] through every-
thing lived; and they had a ready mind to suffer adversity,
yea likewise death [it] self, for the truth which they preached
and taught. Then was no delay that many believed and were
baptized. They also wondered at the simplicity of [their]
harmless life and the sweetness of their heavenly lore.

There was by east well-nigh the city a church built in
honor of St. Martin long ago, while the Romans yet dwelt in
Britain [in which church the Queen (was) wont to pray, of whom
we said before that she was a Christian]. In this church at
first the holy teachers began to meet and sing and pray, and
do mass- song, and teach men and baptize, until the King was
converted to the faith, and they obtained more leave to teach
everywhere, and to build and repair churches.

Then came it about through the grace of God that the
King likewise among others began to delight in the cleanest life
of holy [men] and their sweetest promises, and they also gave
confirmation that those were true by the showing of many
wonders; and he then, being glad, was baptized. Then began
many daily to hasten and flock together to hear God's word,
and to forsake the manner of heathenism, and joined them-
selves, through belief, to the oneness of Christ's holy Church.
Of their belief and conversion [it] is said that the King was so
evenly glad that he, however, forced none to the Christian
manner [of worship], but that those who turned to belief and
to baptism he more inwardly loved, as they were fellow-citizens
of the heavenly kingdom. For he had learnt from his teachers
and from the authors of his health that Christ's service should
be of good will, not of compulsion. And he then, the King,
gave and granted to his teachers a place and settlement suit-
able to their condition, in his chief city, and thereto gave their
needful supplies in various possessions,

AUGUSTINE IN ENGLAND 187

During these things the holy man Augustine fared over
sea, and came to the city Aries, and by ^Etherius, archbishop
of the said city, according to the behest and commandment of
the blessed father St. Gregory, was hallowed archbishop of the
English people, and returned and fared into Britain, and soon
sent messengers to Rome, that was Laurence a mass-priest and
Peter a monk, that they should say and make known to the
blessed St. Gregory that the English nation had received Christ's
belief, and that he had been consecrated as bishop. He like-
wise requested his advice about many causes and questions
which were seen by him [to be] needful; and he soon sent
suitable answers of them.

Asked by St. Augustine, bishop of the church of Canter-
bury: First, of bishops, how they shall behave and live with
their fellows. Next, on the gifts of the faithful which they
bring to holy tables and to God's churches — how many doles
of them shall be ?

Answered by Pope St. Gregory : Holy writ makes it known,
quoth he, which I have no doubt thou knowest, and sunderly
the blessed Paul's epistle, which he wrote to Timothy, in which
he earnestly trained and taught him how he should behave
and do in God's house. For it is the manner of the apostolic
seat, when they hallow bishops, that they give them command-
ments, and that of all the livelihood which comes in to them
there shall be four doles. One, in the first place, to the bishop
and his family for food, and entertainment of guests and com-
ers; a second dole to God's servants; a third to the needy;
the fourth to renewing and repair of God's church. But
because thy brotherliness has been trained and taught in mo-
nastic rules, thou shalt not, however, be asunder from thy
fellows in the English church, which now yet is newly come
and led to the faith of God. This behavior and this life thou
shalt set up, which our fathers had in the beginning of the
new-born church, when none of them said aught of that
which they owned was his in sunder; but they all had all
things common. If, then, any priests or God's servants are
settled without holy orders, let those who cannot withhold
themselves from women take them wives, and receive their
livelihood outside. For of the same fathers, of whom we

i88 AUGUSTINE IN ENGLAND

spoke before, [it] is written that they dealt their worldly goods
to sundry men as every [one] had need.

Likewise concerning their livelihood it is to be thought
and foreseen (i.e., provided} that they live in good manners
under ecclesiastical rules, and sing psalms and keep wakes and
hold their hearts and tongues and bodies clean from all for-
bidden [things] to Almighty God. But, as to those living in
common life, what have we to say how they deal their alms, or
exercise hospitality, and fulfil mercy? since all that is left
over in their worldly substance is to be reached and given to
the pious and good, as the master of all, our Lord Christ,
taught and said: Quod superest, etc. "What is over and left,
give alms, and to you are all [things] clean/'

Asked by St. Augustine: Since there is one faith, and are
various customs of churches, there is one custom of mass-
song in the holy Roman Church, and another is had in the
kingdom of Gaul.

Answered by Pope St. Gregory: Thou thyself knowest the
manner and custom of the Roman Church, in which thou wert
reared; but now it seems good, and is more agreeable to me,
that whatsoever thou hast found either in the Roman Church or
in Gaul, or in any other [church], that was more pleasing to
Almighty God, thou should carefully choose that, and set it to
be held fast in the Church of the English nation, which now yet
is new in the faith. For the things are not to be loved for places ;
but the places for good things. Therefore what things thou
choosest as pious, good, and right from each of sundry churches,
these gather thou together, and settle into a custom in the mind
of the English nation.

Asked by Augustine: I pray thee, what punishment shall
he suffer — whosoever takes away anything by stealth from
a church ?

Answered by Gregory: This may thy brotherliness deter-
mine from the thief's condition, how he may be corrected.
For there are some who have worldly wealth, and yet commit
theft; there are some who are in this wise guilty through pov-
erty. Therefore need is that some be corrected by waning of
their worldly goods, some by stripes; some more sternly, some
more mildly. And though the punishment be inflicted a little

AUGUSTINE IN ENGLAND 189

harder or sterner, yet it is to be done of love, not of wrath nor
of fury; because through the throes of this is procured to the
man that he be not given to the everlasting fires of hell-tor-
ments. For in this manner we ought to punish men, as the
good fathers are wont [to do] their fleshly children, whom they
chide and swinge for their sins; and yet those same whom they
chide and chastise by these pains they also love, and wish to
have for their heirs, and for them hold their worldly goods
which they possess, whom they seem in anger to persecute and
torment. For love is ever to be held in the mind, and it dic-
tates and determines the measure of the chastisement, so that
the mind does nothing at all beside the right rule. Thou like-
wise addest in thy inquiry, how those things should be com-
pensated which have been taken away from a church by theft.
But, oh! far be it that God's Church should receive with in-
crease what she seems to let alone of earthly things, and seek
worldly gain by vain things.

Asked by Bishop St. Augustine: At what generation shall
Christian people be joined among themselves in marriage
with their kinsfolk? . . . Answered by St. Gregory: . . .
But because there are many in the English nation [who],
while they were then yet in unbelief, are said to have been
joined together in this sinful marriage,1 now they are to be ad-
monished, since they have come to the faith, that they hold
themselves off from such iniquities, and understand that it is a
heavy sin, and dread the awful doom of God, lest they for
fleshly love receive the torments of everlasting death. They
are not, however, for this cause to be deprived of the commun-
ion of Christ's body and blood, lest this thing may seem to be
revenged on them, in which they through unwittingness sinned
before the bath of baptism. For at this time the Holy Church
corrects some things through zeal, bears with some through
mildness, overlooks some through consideration, and so bears
and overlooks that often by bearing and overlooking she checks
the opposing evil. All those who come to the faith of Christ
are to be reminded that they may not dare to commit any such
thing. But, if any shall commit them, then are they to be
deprived of Christ's body and blood; for, as some little is to be
1 That is, with their near kinsfolk.

IQO AUGUSTINE IN ENGLAND

borne with in regard to those men who through unwittingness
commit sin, so on the other hand it is to be strongly pur-
sued in those who dread not to sin wittingly.

Asked by Bishop St. Augustine: If a great distance of
journey lies between, so that bishops may not easily come,
whether may a bishop be hallowed without the presence of
other bishops.

Answered by Gregory: In the English Church, indeed, in
which thou alone as yet art found a bishop, thou canst not
hallow a bishop otherwise than without other bishops; but
bishops must come to thee out of the kingdom of Gaul, that
they may stand as witness at the bishop's hallowing, for the
hallowing of bishops must not be otherwise than in the as-
sembling and witnessing of three or four bishops, that they
may send [up] and pour [forth] their petitions and prayers to
the Almighty God for his favor.

Asked by Augustine: How must we do with the bishops of
Gaul and Britain ?

Answered by Pope Gregory: Over the bishops of Gaul we
give thee no authority, because from the earlier times of my
predecessors the bishop of the city Aries received the pallium,
whom we ought not to degrade nor to deprive of the received
authority. But, if thou happen to go into the province of Gaul,
have thou a conference and consultation with the said bishop
what is to be done, or, if any vices are found in bishops, how
they shall be corrected and reformed; and if there be a suppo-
sition that he is too lukewarm in the vigor of his discipline and
chastisement, then is he to be inflamed and abetted by thy
brotherliness's love,1 that he may ward off those things which
are contrary to the behest and commands of our Maker, from
the manners of the bishops. Thou mayest not judge the
bishops of Gaul without their own authority; but thou shalt
mildly admonish them, and show them the imitation of thy
good works. All the bishops of Britain we commend to thy
brotherliness, in order that the unlearned may be taught, the
weak strengthened by thy exhortation, and the perverse cor-
rected by thy authority.2

1 A brother is here styled " his brotherliness," as a pope " his holiness."
9 The remainder of this is not translated here.

AUGUSTINE IN ENGLAND 191

Augustine likewise bade [his messengers] acquaint him
that a great harvest was here present and few workmen. And
he then sent with the aforesaid messengers more help to him
for divine learning, among whom the first and greatest were
Mellitus and Justus and Paulinus and Rufinianus, and by them
generally all those things which were needful for the worship
and service of the Church — communion vessels, altar-cloth,
and church ornaments, and bishops' robes, and deacons'
robes, as also reliques of the apostles and holy martyrs, and
many books. He likewise sent to Augustine the bishop a pal-
lium, and a letter in which he intimated how he should hallow
other bishops, and in what places [he should] set them in
Britain.

The blessed Pope Gregory likewise at the same time sent a
letter to King Ethelbert, and along with it many worldly gifts
of diverse sorts. He wished likewise by these temporal honors
to glorify the King, to whom he had, by his labor and by his
diligence in teaching, opened and made known the glory of the
heavenly kingdom.

And then St. Augustine, as soon as he received the bishop-
seat in the royal city, renewed and wrought, with the King's
help, the church which he had leamt was wrought long before
by old Roman work, and hallowed it in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ; and he there set a dwelling-place for himself and
all his after-followers. He likewise built a monastery by east
of the city, in which Ethelbert the King, by his exhortation and
advice, ordered to build a church worthy of the blessed apos-
tles Peter and Paul, and he enriched it with various gifts, in
which church the body of Augustine, and of all the Canterbury
bishops together, and of their kings, might be laid. The church,
however, not Augustine, but Bishop Laurentius, his after-fol-
lower, hallowed.

The first abbot at the same monastery was a mass-priest
named Peter, who was sent back as a messenger into the king-
dom of Gaul, and then was drowned in a bay of the sea, which
was called Amfleet, and was laid in an unbecoming grave by
the inhabitants of the place. But the Almighty God would
show of what merit the holy man was, and every night a heav-
enly light was made to shine over his grave, until the neighbors,

192

who saw it, understood that it was a great and holy man who
was buried there; and they then asked who and whence he was:
they then took his body, and laid and buried it in a church in
the city of Boulogne, with the honor befitting so great and so
holy a man.

Then it was that Augustine, with the help of King Ethel-
bert, invited to his speech the bishops and teachers of the
Britons, in the place which is yet named Augustine's Oak, on
the borders of the Hwiccii and West Saxons. And he then
began, with brotherly love, to advise and teach them, that they
should have right love and peace between them, and under-
take, for the Lord, the common labor of teaching divine lore
in the English nation. And they would not hear him, nor keep
Easter at its right tide, and also had many other things unlike
and contrary to ecclesiastical unity. When they had held a
long conference and strife about those things, and they would
not yield any things to Augustine's instructions, nor to his
prayers, nor to his threats, and [those] of his companions, but
thought their own customs and institutions better than [that]
they should agree with all Christ's churches throughout the
world ; then the holy father Augustine put an end to this troub-
lesome strife, and thus spoke :

"Let us pray Almighty God, who makes the one-minded
to dwell in his Father's house, that he vouchsafe to signify to
us by heavenly wonders which institution we ought to follow,
by what ways to hasten to the entrance of his kingdom. Let
an infirm man be brought hither to us, and, through whose
prayer soever he be healed, let his belief and practice be be-
lieved acceptable to God, and to be followed by all."

When his adversaries had hardly granted that, a blind man
of English kin was led forth: he was first led to the bishops of
the Britons, and he received no health nor comfort through
their ministry. Then at last Augustine was constrained by
righteous need, arose and bowed his knees, [and] prayed God
the Almighty Father that he would give sight to the blind man,
that he through one man's bodily enlightening might kindle
the gift of ghostly light in the hearts of many faithful. Then
soon, without delay, the blind man was enlightened, and re-
ceived sight; and the true preacher of the heavenly light, Au-

AUGUSTINE IN ENGLAND 193

gustine, was proclaimed and praised by all. Then the Britons
also acknowledged with shame that they understood that it
was the way of truth which Augustine preached; they said,
however, that they could not, without consent and leave of their
people, shun and forsake their old customs. They begged
that again another synod should be [assembled], and they
then would attend it with more counsellors.

When that accordingly was set, seven bishops of the Brit-
ons came, and all the most learned men, who were chiefly
from the city Bangor: at that time the abbot of that mon-
astery was named Dinoth. When they then were going to
the meeting, they first came to a [certain] hermit, who was
with them holy and wise. They interrogated and asked him
whether they should for Augustine's lore forsake their own
institutions and customs. Then answered he them, "If he
be a man of God, follow him." Quoth they to him, "How
may we know whether he be so?" Quoth he: "[Our] Lord
himself hath said in his gospel, Take ye my yoke upon you, and
learn from me that I am mild and of lowly heart. And now if
Augustine is mild and of lowly heart, then it is [to be] believed
that he bears Christ's yoke and teaches you to bear it. If he
then is unmild and haughty, then it is known that he is not
from God, nor [should] ye mind his words." Quoth they
again, "How may we know that distinctly?" Quoth he,
"See ye that he come first to the synod with his fellows, and sit;
and, if he rises toward you when ye come, then wit ye that he
is Christ's servant, and ye shall humbly hear his words and
his lore. But if he despise you, and will not rise toward you
since there are more of you, be he then despised by you."
Well, they did so as he said.

When they had come to the synod-place, the archbishop Au-
gustine was sitting on his seat. When they saw that he rose not
for them, they quickly became angry, and upbraided him [as
being] haughty, and gainsaid and withstood all his words.
The archbishop said to them: "In many things ye are contrary
to our customs and so to [those] of all God's churches; and
yet if ye will be obedient to me in these three things — that
first ye celebrate Easter at the right tide; that ye fulfil the
ministry of baptism, through which we are born as God's
E., VOL. rv.— 13.

i94 AUGUSTINE IN ENGLAND

children, after the manner of the holy Roman and apostolic
Church ; and that, thirdly, ye preach the word of the Lord to
the English people together with us — we will patiently bear
with all other things which ye do that are contrary to our cus-
toms." They said that they would do none of these things,
nor would have him for an archbishop ; they said among them-
selves, "If he would not now rise for us, much more, if we shall
be subjected to him, will he contemn us for naught." It is
said that the man of God, St. Augustine, in a threatening man-
ner foretold, "if they would not receive peace with men of God,
that they should receive unpeace and war from their foes; and, if
they would not preach among the English race the word of life,
they should through their hands suffer the vengeance of death."

And through everything, as the man of God had foretold,
by the righteous doom of God it came to pass; and very soon
after this Ethelfrith, king of the English, collected a great army,
and led it to Legcaster, and there fought against the Britons,
and made the greatest slaughter of the faithless people. While
he was beginning the battle, King Ethelfrith saw their priests
and bishops and monks standing aloof in a safer place, that they
should pray and make intercession to God for their warriors:
he inquired and asked what that host was, and what they were
doing there. When he understood the cause of their coming,
then said he, "So! I wot if they cry to their God against us,
though they bear not a weapon, they fight against us, for they
pursue us with their hostile prayers and curses." He then
straightway ordered to turn upon them first, and slay them.
Men say that there were twelve hundred of this host, and fifty
of them escaped by flight ; and he so then destroyed and blotted
out the other host of the sinful nation, not without great waning
of his [own] host; and so was fulfilled the prophecy of the holy
bishop Augustine, that they should for their trowlessness suffer
the vengeance of temporal perdition, because they despised the
skilful counsel of their eternal salvation.

After these things Augustine, bishop [of Britain], hal-
lowed two bishops: the one was named Mellitus, the other
Justus. Mellitus he sent to preach divine lore to the East
Saxons, who are shed off from Kentland by the river Thames,
and joined to the east sea. Their chief city is called Lunden-

AUGUSTINE IN ENGLAND 195

caster (now London), standing on the bank of the foresaid
river; and it is the market-place of land and sea comers. The
King in the nation at that time was Seabright (or Sabert), Ethel-
bert's sister-son, and his vassal. Then he and the nation of
the East Saxons received the word of truth and the faith of
Christ through Mellitus, the bishop's lore. Then King Ethel-
bert ordered to build a church in London, and to hallow it to
St. Paul the apostle, that he and his after-followers might have
their bishop- seat in that place. Justus he hallowed as bishop
in Kent itself at Rochester, which is four-and-twenty miles
right west from Canterbury, in which city likewise King Ethel-
bert ordered to build a church, and to hallow it to St. Andrew
the apostle; and to each of these bishops the King gave his gifts
and bookland and possessions for them to brook with their
fellows.

After these things, then, Father Augustine, beloved of
God, departed [this life], and his body was buried without
[doors], nigh the church of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul,
which we mentioned before, because it was not then yet fully
built nor hallowed. As soon as it was hallowed, then his body
was put into it, and becomingly buried in the north porch of
the church, in which likewise the bodies of all the after-follow-
ing archbishops are buried but two; that is, Theodorus and
Berhtwald, whose bodies are laid in the church itself, because
no more might [be so] in the foresaid porch. Well-nigh in the
middle of the church is an altar set and hallowed in name of
St. Gregory, on which every Saturday their memory and de-
cease are celebrated with mass-song by the mass-priest of that
place. On St. Augustine's tomb is written an inscription of
this sort: Here resteth Sir1 Augustine, the first archbishop of
Canterbury, who was formerly sent hither by the blessed Greg-
ory, bishop of the Roman city; and was upheld by God with
working of wonders. King Ethelbert and his people he led
from the worship of idols to the faith of Christ, and, having
fulfilled the days of his ministry in peace, departed on the 26th
day of May in the same King's reign.

- " Sir " in English (Sc/tt'r, Scottish) equal to Dominus, Latin, was five
or six centuries ago prefixed to the name of every ordained priest.

196 AUGUSTINE IN ENGLAND

JOHN RICHARD GREEN

Years had passed by since Gregory pitied the English slaves
in the market-place of Rome. As bishop of the imperial city
he at last found himself in a position to carry out his dream of
winning Britain to the faith, and an opening was given him by
Ethelbert's marriage with Bertha, a daughter of the Frankish
king Charibert of Paris. Bertha, like her Frankish kindred,
was a Christian; a Christian bishop accompanied her from
Gaul; and a ruined Christian church, the church of St. Martin
beside the royal city of Canterbury, was given them for their
worship.

The King himself remained true to the gods of his fathers;
but his marriage no doubt encouraged Gregory to send a Ro-
man abbot, Augustine, at the head of a band of monks to preach
the Gospel to the English people. The missionaries landed in
597 in the Isle of Thanet, at the spot where Hengist had landed
more than a century before; and Ethelbert received them sit-
ting in the open air, on the chalk-down above Minster where
the eye nowadays catches miles away over the marshes the dim
tower of Canterbury.

The King listened patiently to the long sermon of Augus-
tine as the interpreters the abbot had brought with him from
Gaul rendered it in the English tongue. "Your words are fair,"
Ethelbert replied at last with English good sense, "but they
are new and of doubtful meaning." For himself, he said, he
refused to forsake the gods of his fathers, but with the usual
religious tolerance of his race he promised shelter and protec-
tion to the strangers.

The band of monks entered Canterbury bearing before them
a silver cross with a picture of Christ, and singing in concert the
strains of the litany of their church. "Turn from this city, O
Lord," they sang, "thine anger and wrath, and turn it from
thy holy house, for we have sinned." And then in strange
contrast came the jubilant cry of the older Hebrew worship,
the cry which Gregory had wrested in prophetic earnestness
from the name of the Yorkshire king in the Roman market-
place, "Alleluia!"1

1 See introduction to Augustine's Missionary Work in England.

AUGUSTINE IN ENGLAND 197

It was thus that the spot which witnessed the landing of
Hengist became yet better known as the landing-place of
Augustine. But the second landing at Ebbsfleet was in no small
measure a reversal and undoing of the first. "Strangers from
Rome" was the title with which the missionaries first fronted
the English King. The march of the monks as they chanted
their solemn litany was in one sense a return of the Roman
legions who withdrew at the trumpet-call of Alaric. It was to
the tongue and the thought not of Gregory only, but of the men
whom his Jutish fathers had slaughtered or driven out that
Ethelbert listened in the preaching of Augustine.

Canterbury, the earliest royal city of German England,
became a centre of Latin influence. The Roman tongue be-
came again one of the tongues of Britain, the language of its
worship, its correspondence, its literature. But more than the
tongue of Rome returned with Augustine. Practically his
landing renewed that union with the western world which the
landing of Hengist had destroyed. The new England was
admitted into the older commonwealth of nations. The civili-
zation, art, letters, which had fled before the sword of the Eng-
lish conquerors returned with the Christian faith. The great
fabric of the Roman law indeed never took root in England, but
it is impossible not to recognize the result of the influence of
the Roman missionaries in the fact that codes of the customary
English law began to be put in writing soon after their arrival.

A year passed before Ethelbert yielded to the preaching
of Augustine. But from the moment of his conversion the new
faith advanced rapidly and the Kentish men crowded to bap-
tism in the train of their King. The new religion was carried
beyond the bounds of Kent by the supremacy which Ethelbert
wielded over the neighboring kingdoms. Sebert, king of the
East Saxons, received a bishop sent from Kent, and suffered
him to build up again a Christian church in what was now his
subject city of London, while the East Anglian king Redwald
resolved to serve Christ and the older gods together.

THE HEGIRA

CAREER OF MAHOMET: THE KORAN: AND
MAHOMETAN CREED

A.D. 622

IRVING OCKLEY

The flight of Mahomet from Mecca to Medina occurred June 20,
622, and was called the hegira, or departure of the prophet. That event
marks the commencement of the Mahometan era, which is called there-
from the Hegira. According to the civil calculation it is fixed at Friday,
July i6th, the date of the Mahometans, although astronomers and some
historians assign it to the day preceding. While primarily referring to
the flight of Mahomet, the term is applied also to the emigration to
Medina, prior to the capture of Mecca (630) of those of Mahomet's dis-
ciples, who henceforth were known as Mohajerins— Emigrants or Refu-
gees— which became a title of honor.

A scion of the family of Hashem and of the tribe of Koreish, the
noblest race in Arabia, and the guardians of the ancient temple and idols
of the Kaaba, Mahomet was born at Mecca, August 20, A.D. 570. He
acquired wealth and influence by his marriage with Kadijah, a rich
widow, but, about his fortieth year, by announcing himself as an apostle
of God, sent to extirpate idolatry and to restore the true faith of the
prophets Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, he and his converts were exposed
to contumely and persecution.

It was, as Irving's recital shows, necessary for the preservation of his
life — which was threatened by his own tribe, the Koreishites — that
Mahomet should leave Mecca, and he escaped none too soon. It must
also be observed that by this going out he found ampler means for the
spread of his doctrine and the increase of his followers. His very pres-
ence among strangers drew multitudes to the support of his cause, and
the enthusiasm aroused by the prophet at Medina made that city the
centre of his first great propaganda. There Mahomet died ; in the Great
Mosque is his tomb, and Medina is sometimes called the " City of the
Prophet." From this centre began the development and spread of Islam
into a world-religion, which has flourished to the present day, when its
followers are estimated at nearly two hundred millions, having large em-
pire and still wider influence among some of the most important races of
the East.

198

THE HEGIRA • 199

WASHINGTON IRVING

'"PHE fortunes of Mahomet were becoming darker and darker
in his native place. Kadijah, his original benefactress, the
devoted companion of his solitude and seclusion, the zealous
believer in his doctrines, was in her grave; so also was Abu-
Taleb, once his faithful and efficient protector. Deprived of
the sheltering influence of the latter, Mahomet had become, in
a manner, an outlaw in Mecca; obliged to conceal himself, and
remain a burden on the hospitality of those whom his own
doctrines had involved in persecution. If worldly advantage
had been his object, how had it been attained ? Upward of ten
years had elapsed since first he announced his prophetic mis-
sion; ten long years of enmity, trouble, and misfortune. Still
he persevered, and now, at a period of life when men seek to
enjoy in repose the fruition of the past, rather than risk all in
new schemes for the future, we find him, after having sacrificed
ease, fortune, and friends, prepared to give up home and coun-
try also, rather than his religious creed.

As soon as the privileged time of pilgrimage arrived, he
emerged once more from his concealment, and mingled with
the multitude assembled from all parts of Arabia. His ear-
nest desire was to find some powerful tribe, or the inhabitants
of some important city, capable and willing to receive him as a
guest, and protect him in the enjoyment and propagation of
his faith.

His quest was for a time unsuccessful. Those who had
come to worship at the Kaaba1 drew back from a man stigma-

1 This famous structure (in the Arabic, Kcfbah — a square building) for
over twelve hundred years has been the cynosure of the Moslem peoples.
It is undoubtedly of great antiquity, being mentioned by Diodorus the
historian in the latter part of the first century, at which time its sanctity
was acknowledged and its idols venerated by the Arabians and kindred
tribes who paid yearly visits to the shrine to offer their devotions.

According to the Arabian legend Adam, after his expulsion from the
Garden, worshipped Allah on this spot. A tent was then sent down from
heaven, but Seth substituted a hut for the tent. After the Flood, Abra-
ham and Ishmael rebuilt the Kaaba.

At present it is a cube-shaped, flat-roofed building of stone in the
Great Mosque at Mecca. In its southeast corner next to the silver door
is the famous black stone " hajar al aswud" dropped from paradise.
It was said to have been originally a white stone (by other accounts a

200 THE HEGIRA

tized as an apostate; and the worldly-minded were unwilling to
befriend one proscribed by the powerful of his native place.

At length, as he was one day preaching on the hill Al Akaba,
a little to the north of Mecca, he drew the attention of certain
pilgrims from the city of Yathreb. This city, since called
Medina, was about two hundred and seventy miles north of
Mecca. Many of its inhabitants were Jews and heretical
Christians. The pilgrims in question were pure Arabs of the
ancient and powerful tribe of Khazradites, and in habits of
friendly intercourse with the Keneedites and Naderites, two
Jewish tribes inhabiting Mecca, who claimed to be of the sacer-
dotal line of Aaron. The pilgrims had often heard their Jew-
ish friends explain the mysteries of their faith and talk of an
expected messiah. They were moved by the eloquence of
Mahomet, and struck with the resemblance of his doctrines
to those of the Jewish law; insomuch that when they heard
him proclaim himself a prophet, sent by heaven to restore the
ancient faith, they said, one to another, "Surely this must be
the promised messiah of which we have been told." The more
they listened, the stronger became their persuasion of the fact,
until in the end they avowed their conviction, and made a final
profession of their faith.

As the Khazradites belonged to one of the most powerful
tribes of Yathreb, Mahomet sought to secure their protection,
and proposed to accompany them on their return; but they
informed him that they were at deadly feud with the Awsites,
another powerful tribe of that city, and advised him to defer
his coming until they should be at peace. He consented; but
on the return home of the pilgrims, he sent with them Musab
Ibn Omeir, one of the most learned and able of his disciples,
with instructions to strengthen them in the faith, and to preach
it to their townsmen.

Thus were the seeds of Islamism first sown in the city of
Medina. For a time they thrived but slowly. Musab was
opposed by the idolaters, and his life threatened; but he per-
sisted in his exertions and gradually made converts among the
principal inhabitants. Among these were Saad Ibn Maads, a

ruby), but the tears — or more probably the kisses — of pilgrims have
turned it quite black.

THE HEGIRA 201

prince or chief of the Awsites, and Osaid Ibn Hodheir, a man
of great authority in the city. Numbers of the Moslems of
Mecca also, driven away by persecution, took refuge in Medina,
and aided in propagating the new faith among its inhabitants,
until it found its way into almost every household.

Feeling now assured of being able to give Mahomet an
asylum in the city, upward of seventy of the converts of Me-
dina, led by Musab Ibn Omeir, repaired to Mecca with the
pilgrims in the holy month of the thirteenth year of "the mis-
sion," to invite him to take up his abode in their city. Ma-
homet gave them a midnight meeting on the hill Al Akaba.
His uncle Al Abbas, who, like the deceased Abu-Taleb, took
an affectionate interest hi his welfare, though no convert to
his doctrines, accompanied him to this secret conference, which
he feared might lead him into danger. He entreated the pil-
grims from Medina not to entice his nephew to their city until
more able to protect him; warning them that their open
adoption of the new faith would bring all Arabia in arms against
them.

His warnings and entreaties were in vain; a solemn com-
pact was made between the parties. Mahomet demanded that
they should abjure idolatry, and worship the one true God
openly and fearlessly. For himself he exacted obedience in
weal and woe; and for the disciples who might accompany him,
protection; even such as they would render to their own wives
and children. On these terms he offered to bind himself to
remain among them, to be the friend of their friends, the enemy
of their enemies.

"But, should we perish in your cause," asked they, "what
will be our reward?"

"Paradise," replied the prophet.

The terms were accepted; the emissaries from Medina
placed their hands in the hands of Mahomet, and swore to
abide by their compact. The latter then singled out twelve
from among them, whom he designated as his apostles; in imi-
tation, it is supposed, of the example of our Saviour. Just
then a voice was heard from the summit of the hill, denounc-
ing them as apostates and menacing them with punishment.
The sound of this voice, heard in the darkness of the night,

202 THE HEGIRA

inspired temporary dismay. "It is the voice of the fiend Iblis,"
said Mahomet scornfully; "he is the foe of God; fear him
not." It was probably the voice of some spy or eavesdropper
of the Koreishites; for the very next morning they manifested
a knowledge of what had taken place in the night, and treated
the new confederates with great harshness as they were depart-
ing from the city.

It was this early accession to the faith, and this timely aid
proffered and subsequently afforded to Mahomet and his dis-
ciples, which procured for the Moslems of Medina the appella-
tion of Ansarians, or auxiliaries, by which they were afterward
distinguished.

After the departure of the Ansarians, and the expiration
of the holy month, the persecutions of the Moslems were re-
sumed with increased virulence, insomuch that Mahomet,
seeing a crisis was at hand, and being resolved to leave the
city, advised his adherents generally to provide for their safety.
For himself he still lingered in Mecca with a few devoted
followers.

Abu Sofian, his implacable foe, was at this time governor
of the city. He was both incensed and alarmed at the spread-
ing growth of the new faith, and held a meeting of the chief
of the Koreishites to devise some means of effectually putting
a stop to it. Some advised that Mahomet should be banished
the city; but it was objected that he might gain other tribes
to his interest, or perhaps the people of Medina, and return
at their head to take his revenge. Others proposed to wall
him up in a dungeon, and supply him with food until he died;
but it was surmised that his friends might effect his escape.
All these objections were raised by a violent and pragmatical
old man, a stranger from the province of Nedja, who, say the
Moslem writers, was no other than the devil in disguise, breath-
ing his malignant spirit into those present.

At length it was declared by Abu-Jahl that the only effect-
ual check on the growing evil was to put Mahomet to death.
To this all agreed, and as a means of sharing the odium of the
deed, and withstanding the vengeance it might awaken among the
relatives of the victim, it was arranged that a member of each
family should plunge his sword into the body of Mahomet.

THE HEGIRA 203

It is to this conspiracy that allusion is made in the eighth
chapter of the Koran:

"And call to mind how the unbelievers plotted against thee,
that they might either detain thee in bonds, or put thee to death,
or expel thee the city; but God laid a plot against them; and
God is the best layer of plots."

In fact, by the time the murderers arrived before the dwell-
ing of Mahomet, he was apprised of the impending danger.
As usual, the warning is attributed to the angel Gabriel, but
it is probable it was given by some Koreishite, less bloody-
minded than his confederates. It came just in time to save
Mahomet from the hands of his enemies. They paused at his
door, but hesitated to enter. Looking through a crevice they
beheld, as they thought, Mahomet wrapped in his green mantle,
and lying asleep on his couch. They waited for a while, con-
sulting whether to fall on him while sleeping or wait until he
should go forth. At length they burst open the door and
rushed toward the couch. The sleeper started up; but, in-
stead of Mahomet, Ali stood before them. Amazed and con-
founded they demanded, "Where is Mahomet?" "I know
not," replied Ali sternly, and walked forth; nor did anyone
venture to molest him. Enraged at the escape of their victim,
however, the Koreishites proclaimed a reward of a hundred
camels to anyone who should bring them Mahomet alive or
dead.

Divers accounts are given of the mode in which Mahomet
made his escape from the house after the faithful Ali had
wrapped himself in his mantle and taken his place upon the
couch. The most miraculous account is, that he opened the
door silently, as the Koreishites stood before it, and, scattering
a handful of dust in the air, cast such blindness upon them
that he walked through the midst of them without being per-
ceived. This, it is added, is confirmed by the verse of the thirtieth
chapter of the Koran: " We have thrown blindness upon them,
that they shall not see." The most probable account is that
he clambered over the wall in the rear of the house, by the help
of a servant, who bent his back for him to step upon it.1

1 Palmer has it: " In the mean time Mahomet and Abu-Bekr escaped
by a back window in the house of the latter."

204 THE HEGIRA

He repaired immediately to the house of Abu-Bekr, and
they arranged for instant flight. It was agreed that they
should take refuge in a cave in Mount Thor, about an hour's
distance from Mecca, and wait there until they could proceed
safely to Medina; and in the mean time the children of Abu-
Bekr should secretly bring them food. They left Mecca
while it was yet dark, making their way on foot by the light
of the stars, and the day dawned as they found themselves at
the foot of Mount Thor. Scarce were they within the cave
when they heard the sound of pursuit. Abu-Bekr, though a
brave man, quaked with fear.

"Our pursuers," said he, "are many, and we are but two."

"Nay," replied Mahomet, "there is a third; God is with
us!"

And here the Moslem writers relate a miracle, dear to the
minds of all true believers. By the time, say they, that the
Koreishites reached the mouth of the cavern, an acacia-tree
had sprung up before it, in the spreading branches of which a
pigeon had made its nest and laid its eggs, and over the whole
a spider had woven its web. When the Koreishites beheld these
signs of undisturbed quiet, they concluded that no one could
recently have entered the cavern; so they turned away, and
pursued their search in another direction.

Whether protected by miracle or not, the fugitives remained
for three days undiscovered in the cave, and Asama, the daughter
of Abu-Bekr, brought them food in the dusk of the evenings.

On the fourth day, when they presumed the ardor of pur-
suit had abated, the fugitives ventured forth, and set out for
Medina, on camels which a servant of Abu-Bekr had brought
in the night for them. Avoiding the main road usually taken
by the caravans, they bent their course nearer to the coast of
the Red Sea. They had not proceeded far, however, before
they were overtaken by a troop of horse headed by Soraka Ibn
Malec. Abu-Bekr was again dismayed by the number of their
pursuers; but Mahomet repeated the assurance, "Be not
troubled; Allah is with us." Soraka was a grim warrior, with
shagged iron-gray locks and naked sinewy arms rough with
hair. As he overtook Mahomet, his horse reared and fell with
him. His superstitious mind was struck with it as an evil sign.

THE HEGIRA 205

Mahomet perceived the state of his feelings, and by an eloquent
appeal wrought upon him to such a degree that Soraka, filled
with awe, entreated his forgiveness, and turning back with his
troop suffered him to proceed on his way unmolested.

The fugitives continued their journey without further inter-
ruption, until they arrived at Koba, a hill about two miles from
Medina. It was a favorite resort of the inhabitants of the city,
and a place to which they sent their sick and infirm, for the air
was pure and salubrious. Hence, too, the city was supplied
with fruit ; the hill and its environs being covered with vineyards
and with groves of the date and lotus; with gardens producing
citrons, oranges, pomegranates, figs, peaches, and apricots, and
being irrigated with limpid streams.

On arriving at this fruitful spot Al Kaswa, the camel of
Mahomet, crouched on her knees, and would go no farther.
The prophet interpreted it as a favorable sign, and determined
to remain at Koba, and prepare for entering the city. The
place where his camel knelt is still pointed out by pious Mos-
lems, a mosque named Al Takwa having been built there to
commemorate the circumstance. Some affirm that it was
actually founded by the prophet. A deep well 1 is also shown
in the vicinity, beside which Mahomet reposed under the
shade of the trees, and into which he dropped his seal ring.
It is believed still to remain there, and has given sanctity to
the well, the waters of which are conducted by subterraneous
conduits to Medina. At Koba he remained four days, residing
in the house of an Awsite named Colthum Ibn Hadem. While
at this village he was joined by a distinguished chief, Boreida
Ibn al Hoseib, with seventy followers, all of the tribe of Saham.
These made profession of faith between the hands of Mahomet.

Another renowned proselyte who repaired to the prophet at
this village was Salman al Parsi — or the Persian. He is said
to have been a native of a small place near Ispahan, and that,
on passing one day by a Christian church, he was so much
struck by the devotion of the people, and the solemnity of the
worship, that he became disgusted with the idolatrous faith in

1 Zem-zem, the name of this well, is said by the Moslems to be the
spring which Hagar had revealed to her when driven into the wilderness
with her son Ishmael.

206 THE HEGIRA

which he had been brought up. He afterward wandered about
the East, from city to city and convent to convent, in quest of
a religion, until an ancient monk, full of years and infirmities,
told him of a prophet who had arisen in Arabia to restore the
pure faith of Abraham.

This Salman rose to power in after years, and was reputed
by the unbelievers of Mecca to have assisted Mahomet in com-
piling his doctrine. This is alluded to in the sixteenth chapter
of the Koran: "Verily, the idolaters say, that a certain man
assisted to compose the Koran ; but the language of this man
is Ajami — or Persian — and the Koran is indited in the pure
Arabian tongue."

The Moslems of Mecca, who had taken refuge some time
before in Medina, hearing that Mahomet was at hand, came
forth to meet him at Koba; among these were the early convert
Talha, and Zobeir, the nephew of Kadijah. These, seeing
the travel-stained garments of Mahomet and Abu-Bekr, gave
them white mantles, with which to make their entrance into
Medina. Numbers of the Ansarians, or auxiliaries, of Medina,
who had made their compact with Mahomet in the preceding
year, now hastened to renew their vow of fidelity.

Learning from them that the number of proselytes in the
city was rapidly augmenting, and that there was a general
disposition to receive him favorably, he appointed Friday, the
Moslem Sabbath,1 the sixteenth day of the month Rabi, for
his public entrance.

Accordingly on the morning of that day he assembled all
his followers to prayer; and after a sermon, in which he ex-
pounded the main principles of his faith, he mounted his camel
Al Kaswa, and set forth for that city, which was to become
renowned in after ages as his city of refuge.

Boreida Ibn al Hoseib, with his seventy horsemen of the
tribe of Saham, accompanied him as a guard. Some of the
disciples took turns to hold a canopy of palm leaves over his
head, and by his side rode Abu-Bekr. "O apostle of God!"
cried Boreida, "thou shalt not enter Medina without a stand-
ard"; so saying, he unfolded his turban, and tying one end of
it to the point of his lance, bore it aloft before the prophet.
1 Friday remains the Sabbath of the Moslems,

THE HEGIRA 207

The city of Medina was fair to approach, being extolled for
beauty of situation, salubrity of climate, and fertility of soil;
for the luxuriance of its palm-trees, and the fragrance of its
shrubs and flowers. At a short distance from the city a crowd
of new proselytes to the faith came forth in sun and dust to
meet the cavalcade. Most of them had never seen Mahomet,
and paid reverence to Abu-Bekr through mistake; but the latter
put aside the screen of palm leaves, and pointed out the real ob-
ject of homage, who was greeted with loud acclamations.

In this way did Mahomet, so recently a fugitive from his
native city, with a price upon his head, enter Medina, more
as a conqueror in triumph than an exile seeking an asylum.
He alighted at the house of a Khazradite, named Abu-Ayub,
a devout Moslem, to whom moreover he was distantly related;
here he was hospitably received, and took up his abode in the
basement story.

Shortly after his arrival he was joined by the faithful Ali,1
who had fled from Mecca, and journeyed on foot, hiding him-
self in the day and travelling only at night, lest he should fall
into the hands of the Koreishites. He arrived weary and way-
worn, his feet bleeding with the roughness of the journey.

Within a few days more came Ayesha, and the rest of Abu-
Bekr's household, together with the family of Mahomet, con-
ducted by his faithful freedman Zeid, and by Abu-Bekr's ser-
vant Abdallah.

SIMON OCKLEY

Mahomet had hitherto propagated his religion by fair
means only. During his stay at Mecca he had declared his
business was only to preach and admonish; and that whether
people believed or not was none of his concern. He had hith-
erto confined himself to the arts of persuasion, promising, on
the one hand, the joys of paradise to all who should believe in
him, and who should, for the hopes of them, disregard the
things of this world, and even bear persecution with patience
and resignation; and, on the other, deterring his hearers from
what he called infidelity, by setting before them both the pun-
ishments inflicted in this world upon Pharaoh and others, who
1 His nephew and son-in-law, surnamed " the Lion-hearted."

208 THE HEGIRA

despised the warnings of the prophets sent to reclaim them;
and also the torments of hell, which would be their portion in
the world to come. Now, however, when he had got a consid-
erable town at his command, and a good number of followers
firmly attached to him, he began to sing another note. Gabriel
now brings him messages from heaven to the effect that, whereas
other prophets had come with miracles and been rejected, he
was to take different measures, and propagate Islamism by the
sword. And accordingly, within a year after his arrival at
Medina he began what was called the holy war. For this pur-
pose he first of all instituted a brotherhood, joining his Ansars
or helpers, and his Mohajerins or refugees together in pairs;
he himself taking Ali for his brother. It was in allusion to this
that Ali, afterward when preaching at Cufa, said, "I am the
servant of God, and brother to his apostle."

In the second year of the Hegira, Mahomet changed the
Kebla of the Mussulman, which before this time had been
toward Jerusalem, ordering them henceforth to turn toward
Mecca when they prayed. In the same year he also ap-
pointed the fast of the month Ramadan.

Mahomet having now a pretty large congregation at Medina
found it necessary to have some means of calling them to
prayers; for this purpose he was thinking of employing a
horn, or some instrument of wood, which should be made to
emit a loud sound by being struck upon. But his doubts were
settled this year by a dream of one of his disciples, in which a
man appearing to him in a green vest recommended as a better
way, that the people should be summoned to prayers by a crier
calling out, "Allah acbar, Allah acbar," etc.; "God is great,
God is great, there is but one God, Mahomet is his prophet;1
come to prayers, come to prayers." Mahomet approved of
the scheme, and this is the very form in use to this day among
the Mussulmans; who, however, in the call to morning prayers,
add the words, "Prayer is better than sleep, prayer is better
than sleep" — a sentiment not unworthy the consideration of
those who are professors of a better religion.

1 The Persians add these words, " and Ali is the friend of God."
Kouli Khan, having a mind to unite the two different sects, ordered them
to be omitted. — Frasefs Life of Kouli Khan, p. 124.

THE HEGIRA 209

The same year the apostle sent some of his people to plun-
der a caravan going to Mecca; which they did, and brought
back two prisoners to Medina. This was the first act of hos-
tility committed by the Mussulmans against the idolaters.
The second was the battle of Beder. The history of the battle
is thus given by Abulfeda: "The apostle, hearing that a
caravan of the Meccans was coming home from Syria, escorted
by Abu Sofian at the head of thirty men, placed a number of
soldiers in ambuscade to intercept it. Abu Sofian, being
informed thereof by his spies, sent word immediately to Mecca,
whereupon all the principal men except Abu Laheb — who,
however, sent Al Asum son of Hesham in his stead — marched
out to his assistance, making in all nine hundred and fifty men,
whereof two hundred were cavalry. The apostle of God went
out against them with three hundred and thirteen men, of whom
seventy-seven were refugees from Mecca, the rest being helpers
from Medina; they had with them only two horses and seventy
camels, upon which they rode by turns. The apostle en-
camped near a well called Beder, from the name of the person
who was owner of it, and had a hut made where he and Abu-
Bekr sat. As soon as the armies were in sight of each other,
three champions came out from among the idolaters, Otha son
of Rabia, his brother Shaiba, and Al Walid son of Otha; against
the first of these, the prophet sent Obeidah son of Hareth,
Hamza against the second, and AH against the third: Hamza
and Ali slew each his man and then went to the assistance of
Obeidah, and having killed his adversary, brought off Obeidah,
who, however, soon after died of a wound in his foot.

"All this while the apostle continued in his hut hi prayer,
beating his breast so violently that his cloak fell off his shoul-
ders, and he was suddenly taken with a palpitation of the heart;
soon recovering, however, he comforted Abu-Bekr, telling him
God's help was come. Having uttered these words, he forth-
with ran out of his hut and encouraged his men, and taking a
handful of dust threw it toward the Koreishites, and said,
'May their faces be confounded,' and immediately they fled.
After the battle, Abdallah, the son of Masud, brought the head
of Abu Jehel to the apostle, who gave thanks to God; Al As,
brother to Abu Jehel, was also killed; Al Abbas also, the proph-
E., VOL. rv. — 14.

210 THE HEGIRA

et's uncle, and Ocail son of Abu Taleb, were taken prisoners.
Upon the news of this defeat Abu Laheb died of grief within
a week."

Of the Mussulmans died fourteen martyrs (for so they call
all such as die fighting for Islamism). The number of idola-
ters slain was seventy; among whom my author names some
of chief note, Hantala son of Abu Sofian, and Nawfal, brother
to Kadijah. Ali slew six of the enemy with his own hand.

The prophet ordered the dead bodies of the enemy to be
thrown into a pit, and remained three days upon the field of
battle dividing the spoil; on occasion of which a quarrel arose
between the helpers and the refugees, and to quiet them the
eighth chapter of the Koran was brought from heaven. It
begins thus, "They will ask thee concerning the spoils: say,
The spoils belong to God and his apostle": and again in the
same chapter, "And know that whenever ye gain any, a fifth
part belongeth to God, and to the apostle, and his kindred, and
the orphans, and the poor." The other four-fifths are to be
divided among those who are present at the action. The
apostle, when he returned to Safra in his way to Medina, ordered
Ali to behead two of his prisoners.

The victory at Beder was of great importance to Mahomet;
to encourage his men, and to increase the number of his fol-
lowers, he pretended that two miracles were wrought in his
favor, in this, as also in several subsequent battles: first, that
God sent his angels to fight on his side; and second, made his
army appear to the enemy much greater than it really was. Both
these miracles are mentioned in the Koran, chapter viii. Al
Abbas said he was taken prisoner by a man of a prodigious
size (an angel, of course); no wonder, then, he became a con-
vert.

As soon as the Mussulmans returned to Medina the Ko-
reishites sent to offer a ransom for their prisoners, which was
accepted, and distributed among those who had taken them,
according to the quality of the prisoners. Some had one thou-
sand drachms for their share. Those who had only a small or
no part of the ransom Mahomet rewarded with donations, so
as to content them all.

The Jews had many a treaty with Mahomet, and lived

THE HEGIRA 211

peaceably at Medina; till a Jew, having affronted an Arabian
milk-woman, was killed by a Mussulman. In revenge for this
the Jews killed the Mussulman, whereupon a general quarrel
ensued. The Jews fled to their castles; but after a siege of
fifteen days were forced to surrender at discretion. Mahomet
ordered their hands to be tied behind them, determined to
put them all to the sword, and was with great difficulty pre-
vailed upon to spare their lives and take all their property.
Kaab, son of Ashraf, was one of the most violent among the
Jews against Mahomet. He had been at Mecca, and, with
some pathetic verses upon the unhappy fate of those who had
fallen at Beder, excited the Meccans to take up arms. Upon
his return to Medina he rehearsed the same verses among the
lower sort of people and the women. Mahomet, being told of
these underhand practices, said, one day, "Who will rid me of
the son of Ashraf?" when Mahomet, son of Mosalama, one of
the helpers, answered, "I am the man, O apostle of God, that
will do it," and immediately took with him Salcan son of
Salama, and some other Moslems, who were to lie in ambush.
In order to decoy Kaab out of his castle, which was a very
strong one, Salcan, his foster-brother, went alone to visit him
in the dusk of the evening; and, entering into conversation,
told him some little stories of Mahomet, which he knew would
please him. When he got up to take his leave, Kaab, as he
expected, attended him to the gate; and, continuing the con-
versation, went on with him till he came near the ambuscade,
where Mahomet and his companions fell upon him and stabbed
him.

Abu Sofian, meditating revenge for the defeat at Beder,
swore he would neither anoint himself nor come near his women
till he was even with Mahomet. Setting out toward Medina
with two hundred horse, he posted a party of them near the
town, where one of the helpers fell into their hands and was
killed. Mahomet, being informed of it, went out against them,
but they all fled; and, for the greater expedition, threw away
some sacks of meal, part of their provision. From which
circumstance this was called the meal-war.

Abu Sofian, resolving to make another and more effectual
effort, got together a body of three thousand men, whereof

212 THE HEGIRA

seven hundred were cuirassiers and two hundred cavalry; his
wife Henda, with a number of women, followed in the rear, Deal-
ing drums, and lamenting the fate of those slain at Beder, and
exciting the idolaters to fight courageously. The apostle would
have waited for them in the town, but as his people were eager
to advance against the enemy, he set out at once with one thou-
sand men; but of these one hundred turned back, disheartened
by the superior numbers of the enemy. He encamped at the
foot of Mount Ohud, having the mountain in his rear. Of his
nine hundred men only one hundred had armor on; and as for
horses, there was only one besides that on which he himself rode.
Mosaab carried the prophet's standard; Kaled, son of Al
Walid, led the right wing of the idolaters ; Acrema, son of Abu
Jehel, the left; the women kept in the rear, beating their drums.
Henda cried out to them: "Courage, ye sons of Abdal Dari;
courage! smite with all your swords."

Mahomet placed fifty archers in his rear, and ordered them
to keep their post. Then Hamza fought stoutly, and killed
Arta, the standard-bearer of the idolaters; and as Seba, son
of Abdal Uzza, came near him, Hamza struck off his head also ;
but was himself immediately after run through with a spear by
Wabsha, a slave, who lurked behind a rock with that intent.
Then Ebn Kamia slew Mosaab, the apostle's standard-bearer;
and taking him for the prophet cried out, "I have killed Ma-
homet!" When Mosaab was slain the standard was given to
AIL

At the beginning of the action the Mussulmans attacked
the idolaters so furiously that they gave ground, fell back upon
their rear, and threw it into disorder. The archers seeing this,
and expecting a complete victory, left their posts, contrary to
the express orders that had been given them, and came forward
from fear of losing their share of the plunder. In the mean
time Kaled, advancing with his cavalry, fell furiously upon
the rear of the Mussulmans, crying aloud at the same time that
Mahomet was slain. This cry, and the finding themselves
attacked on all sides, threw the Mussulmans into such con-
sternation that the idolaters made great havoc among them,
and were able to press on so near the apostle as to beat him
down with a shower of stones and arrows. He was wounded

THE HEGIRA 213

in the lip, and two arrow-heads stuck in his face. Abu Obeidah
pulled out first one and then the other; at each operation one
of the apostle's teeth came out. As Sonan Abu Said wiped the
blood from off his face, the apostle exclaimed, "He that touches
my blood, and handles it tenderly, shall not have his blood spilt
in the fire" (of hell). In this action, it is said, Telhah, while
he was putting a breast-plate upon Mahomet, received a wound
upon his hand, which maimed it forever. Omar and Abu-
Bekr were also wounded. When the Mussulmans saw Ma-
homet fall, they concluded he was killed and took to flight;
and even Othman was hurried along by the press of those that
fled. In a little time, however, finding Mahomet was alive, a
great number of his men returned to the field; and, after a
very obstinate fight, brought him off, and carried him to a neigh-
boring village. The Mussulmans had seventy men killed, the
idolaters lost only twenty-two.

The Koreishites had no other fruit of their victory but the
gratification of a poor spirit of revenge. Henda, and the
women who had fled with her upon the first disorder of the
idolaters, now returned, and committed great barbarities upon
the dead bodies of the apostle's friends. They cut off their
ears and noses, and made bracelets and necklaces of them;
Henda pulled Hamza's liver out of his body, and chewed and
swallowed some of it. Abu Sofian, having cut pieces off the
cheeks of Hamza, put them upon the end of his spear, and
cried out aloud, "The success of war is uncertain; after the
battle of Beder comes the battle of Ohud; now, Hobal,1 thy
religion is victorious!" Notwithstanding this boasting, he
decamped the same day. Jannabi ascribes his retreat to a
panic; however that may have been, Abu Sofian sent to pro-
pose a truce for a year, which was agreed to.

When the enemy were retreated toward Mecca, Mahomet

1 An Arab of Kossay, named Ammer Ibn Lahay, is said to have first
introduced idolatry among his countrymen ; he brought the idol called
Hobal, from Hyt in Mesopotamia, and set it up in the Kaaba. It was
the Jupiter of the Arabians, and was made of red agate in the form of a
man holding in his hand seven arrows without heads or feathers, such as
the Arabs use in divination. At a subsequent period the Kaaba was
adorned with three hundred and sixty idols, corresponding probably to
the days of the Arabian year. — Burckhardf s Arabia, pp. 163, 164.

THE HEGIRA

went to the field of battle to look for the body of Hamza. Find-
ing it shamefully mangled, in the manner already related, he
ordered it to be wrapped in a black cloak, and then prayed over
it, repeating seven times, "Allah acbar," etc. ("God is great,"
etc.). In the same manner he prayed over every one of the
martyrs, naming Hamza again with every one of them; so
that Hamza had the prayers said over him seventy-two times.
But, as if this were not enough, he declared that Gabriel had
told him he had been received into the seventh heaven, and
welcomed with this eulogium, "Hamza, the lion of God, and
the lion of his prophet."

The Mussulmans were much chagrined at this defeat.
Some expressed a doubt of the prophet being as high in the
divine favor as he pretended, since he had suffered such an
overthrow by infidels. Others murmured at the loss of their
friends and relations. To pacify them he used various argu-
ments, telling them the sins of some had been the cause of
disgrace to all; that they had been disobedient to orders, in
quitting their post for the sake of plunder; that the devil put
it into the minds of those who turned back; their flight, how-
ever, was forgiven, because God is merciful; that their defeat
was intended to try them, and to show them who were believers
and who not ; that the event of war is uncertain ; that the enemy
had suffered as well as they; that other prophets before him
had been defeated in battle; that death is unavoidable. And
here Mahomet's doctrine of fate was of as great service to him
as it was afterward to his successors, tending as it did to make
his people fearless and desperate in fight. For he taught them
that the time of every man's death is so unalterably fixed that
he cannot die before the appointed hour; and, when that is
come, no caution whatever can prolong his life one moment ; l
so that they who were slain in battle would certainly have died
at the same time, if they had been at home in their houses;
but, as they now died fighting for the faith, they had thereby
gained a crown of martyrdom, and entered immediately into
paradise, where they were in perfect bliss with their Lord.

In the beginning of the next year the prophet had a revela-
tion, commanding him to prohibit wine and games of chance.
1 An opinion as ancient as Homer. — Iliad t vi. 487.

THE HEGIRA 215

Some say the prohibition was owing to a quarrel occasioned by
these things among his followers.1

In the fifth year of the Hegira, Mahomet, informed by his
spies of a design against Medina, surrounded it with a ditch,
which was no sooner finished than the Meccans, with several
tribes of Arabs, sat down before it, to the number of ten thou-
sand men. The appearance of so great a force threw the Mus-
sulmans into a consternation. Some were ready to revolt; and
one of them exclaimed aloud, " Yesterday the prophet promised us
theSwealth of Khusrau (Cosroes) and Caesar, and now he is forced
to hide himself behind a nasty ditch." In the mean time Ma-
homet, skilfully concealing his real concern, and setting as good
a face upon the matter as he could, marched out with three
thousand Mussulmans, and formed his army at a little distance
behind the intrenchment. The two armies continued facing
each other for twenty days, without any action, except a dis-

1 Several stories have been told as the occasion of Mahomet's pro-
hibiting the drinking of wine. Busbequius says :" Mahomet, making a
journey to a friend at noon, entered into his house, where there was a
marriage feast; and sitting down with the guests, he observed them to
be very merry and jovial, kissing and embracing one another, which was
attributed to the cheerfulness of their spirits raised by the wine ; so that
he blessed it as a sacred thing in being thus an instrument of much love
among men. But returning to the same house the next day, he beheld
another face of things, as gore-blood on the ground, a hand cut off, an
arm, foot, and other limbs dismembered, which he was told was the
effect of the brawls and fightings occasioned by the wine, which made
them mad, and inflamed them into a fury, thus to destroy one another.
Whereon he changed his mind, and turned his former blessing into a
curse, and forbade wine ever after to all his disciples." (Epist. 3.) " This
prohibition of wine hindered many of the prophet's contemporaries from
embracing his religion. Yet several of the most respectable of the pagan
Arabs, like certain of the Jews and early Christians, abstained totally
from wine, from a feeling of its injurious effects upon morals, and, in
their climate, upon health ; or, more especially, from the fear of being led
by it into the commission of foolish and degrading actions. Thus Keys,
the son of Asim, being one night overcome with wine, attempted to grasp
the moon, and swore that he would not quit the spot where he stood until
he had laid hold of it. After leaping several times with the view of
doing so, he fell flat upon his face; and when he recovered his senses,
and was acquainted with the cause of his face being bruised, he made a
solemn vow to abstain from wine ever after." — Lane's Arab. Nights, vol.
i. pp. 217, 218.

216 THE HEGIRA

charge of arrows on both sides. At length some champions
of the Koreishites, Amru son of Abdud, Acrema son of Abu
Jehel, and Nawfal son of Abdallah, coming to the ditch
leaped over it; and, wheeling about between the ditch and the
Moslem army, challenged them to fight. Ali readily accepted
the challenge, and came forward against his uncle Amru, who
said to him, " Nephew, what a pleasure am I now going to have
in killing you." Ali replied, "No; it is I that am to have a
much greater pleasure in killing you." Amru immediately
alighted, and, having hamstrung his horse, advanced toward
Ali, who had also dismounted and was ready to receive him.
They immediately engaged, and, in turning about to flank each
other, raised such a dust that they could not be distinguished,
only the strokes of their swords might be heard. At last, the
dust being laid, Ali was seen with his knee upon the breast of
his adversary, cutting his throat. Upon this, the other two
champions went back as fast as they came. Nawfal, however,
in leaping the ditch, got a fall, and being overwhelmed with a
shower of stones, cried out, " I had rather die by the sword than
thus." Ali hearing him, leaped into the ditch and despatched
him. He then pursued after Acrema, and having wounded
him with a spear, drove him and his companions back to the
army. Here they related what had happened; which put the
rest in such fear that they were ready to retreat; and when
some of their tents had been overthrown by a storm, and discord
had arisen among the allies, the Koreishites, finding themselves
forsaken by their auxiliaries, returned to Mecca. Mahomet
made a miracle of this retreat; and published upon it this verse
of the Koran, " God sent a storm and legions of angels, which
you did not see."

Upon the prophet's return into the town, while he was lay-
ing by his armor and washing himself, Gabriel came and
asked him, "Have you laid by your arms? we have not laid
by ours; go and attack them," pointing to the Koraidites, a
Jewish tribe confederated against him. Whereupon Mahomet
went immediately, and besieged them so closely in their castles
that after twenty-five days they surrendered at discretion.
He referred the settlement of the conditions to Saad, son of
Moad; who being wounded by an arrow at the ditch, had

THE HEGIRA 217

wished he might only live to be revenged. Accordingly, he
decreed that all the men, in number between six and seven
hundred, should be put to the sword, the women and children
sold for slaves, and their goods given to the soldiers for a prey.
Mahomet extolled the justice of this sentence, as a divine
direction sent down from the seventh heaven, and had it punc-
tually executed. Saad, dying of his wound presently after,
Mahomet performed his funeral obsequies, and made a ha-
rangue in praise of him.

One Salam, a Jew, having been very strenuous in stirring up
the people against the prophet, some zealous Casregites desired
leave to go and assassinate him. Permission being readily
granted, away they went to the Jew's house, and being let in
by his wife, upon their pretending they were come to buy
provisions, they murdered him in his bed, and made their
escape.

Toward the end of this year Mahomet, going into the
house of Zaid, did not find him at home, but happened to
espy his wife Zainab so much in dishabille as to discover beau-
ties enough to touch a heart so amorous as his was. He could
not conceal the impression made upon him, but cried out,
"Praised be God, who tumeth men's hearts as he pleases!"
Zainab heard him, and told it to her husband when he came
home. Zaid, who had been greatly obliged to Mahomet, was
very desirous to gratify him, and offered to divorce his wife.
Mahomet pretended to dissuade him from it, but Zaid easily
perceiving how little he was in earnest, actually divorced her.
Mahomet thereupon took her to wife, and celebrated the nup-
tials with extraordinary magnificence, keeping open house upon
the occasion. Notwithstanding, this step gave great offence to
many who could not bring themselves to brook that a prophet
should marry his son's wife; for he had before adopted Zaid
for his son. To salve the affair, therefore, he had recourse to
his usual expedient: Gabriel brought him a revelation from
heaven, in which God commands him to take the wife of his
adopted son, on purpose that forever after believers might
have no scruple in marrying the divorced wives or widows of
their adopted sons; which the Arabs had before looked upon
as unlawful. The apostle is even reproved for fearing men in

2i8 THE HEGIRA

this affair, whereas he ought to fear God. (Koran, chapter
xxxiii.)

In the sixth year he subdued several tribes of the Arabs.
Among the captives . was a woman of great beauty, named
Juweira, whom Mahomet took to wife and, by way of dowry,
released all her kindred that were taken prisoners.

When Mahomet went upon any expedition, it was gener-
ally determined by lots which of his wives should go with
him; at this time it fell to Ayesha's lot to accompany him.
Upon their return to Medina, Ayesha was accused of intriguing
with one of the officers of the army, and was in great disgrace
for about a month. The prophet was exceedingly chagrined
to have his best -beloved wife accused of adultery; but his
fondness for her prevailed over his resentment, and she was
restored to his favor, upon her own protestation of her inno-
cence. This, however, did not quite satisfy the world, nor,
indeed, was the prophet's mind perfectly at ease on the subject,
until Gabriel brought him a revelation, wherein Ayesha is
declared innocent of the crime laid to her charge; while those
who accuse believers of any crime, without proof, are severely
reproved, and a command given, that whosoever accuses chaste
women, and cannot produce four eye-witnesses in support of
the charge, shall receive eighty stripes. (Koran, chapter xxiv.)
In obedience to this command, all those who had raised this
report upon Ayesha were publicly scourged, except Abdallah,
son of Abu Solul, who was too considerable a man to be so dealt
with, notwithstanding he had been particularly industrious in
spreading the scandal.1

1 The following elucidation of the above circumstance is given by
Sale : " Mahomet having undertaken an expedition against the tribe of
Mostalek, in the sixth year of the Hegira, took his wife Ayesha with
him. On their return, when they were not far from Medina, the army
removing by night, Ayesha, on the road, alighted from her camel, and
stepped aside on a private occasion ; but on her return, perceiving she
had dropped her necklace, which was of onyxes of Dhafar, she went
back to look for it ; and in the mean time her attendants, taking it for
granted that she was got into her pavilion, set it again on the camel, and
led it away. When she came back to the road and saw her camel was
gone, she sat down there, expecting that when she was missed some
would be sent back to fetch her; and in a little time she fell asleep.
Early in the morning, Safwan Ebu al Moattel, who had stayed behind to

THE HEGIRA 219

Mahomet, being now increased in power, marched his
army against Mecca, and a battle being fought on the march,
wherein neither side gaming the advantage, a truce was agreed
upon for ten years, on the following conditions: All within
Mecca, who were disposed, were to be at liberty to join Ma-
homet; and those who had a mind to leave him and return to
Mecca, were to be equally free to do so; but, for the future, if
any Meccans deserted to him, they should be sent back upon
demand; and that Mahomet or any of the Mussulmans might
come to Mecca, provided they came unarmed, and tarried not
above three days at a time.

Mahomet was now so well confirmed in his power that
he took upon himself the authority of a king, and was, by
the chief men of his army, inaugurated under a tree near Me-
dina; and having, by the truce obtained for his followers, free
access to Mecca, he ordained they should henceforward make
their pilgrimages thither.1 Among the Arabs it had been an
ancient usage to visit the Kaaba once a year, to worship there
the heathen deities. Mahomet, therefore, thought it expedient
to comply with a custom with which they were pleased, and
which, besides, was so beneficial to his native place, by bring-
ing a great concourse of pilgrims to it, that when he afterward
came to be master of Mecca, he enforced the pilgrimage with
most of the old ceremonies belonging to it, only taking away
the idols and abolishing this worship. Though he now took
upon himself the sovereign command and the insignia of roy-
alty, he still retained the sacred character of chief pontiff of his
religion, and transmitted both these powers to his caliphs or
successors, who, for some time, not only ordered all matters of

rest himself, coming by, perceived somebody asleep, and found it was
Ayesha; upon which he awoke her, by twice pronouncing with a low
voice these words, ' We are God's, and unto him must we return.' Aye-
sha immediately covered herself with her veil; and Safwan set her on
his own camel, and led her after the army, which they overtook by noon,
as they were resting. This accident had like to have ruined Ayesha,
whose reputation was publicly called in question, as if she had been
guilty of adultery with Safwan." — Sale's Koran, xxiv. note.

1 He once thought to have ordered the pilgrimage to Jerusalem ; but
finding the Jews so inveterate against him, thought it more advisable to
oblige the Arabs.

220 THE HEGIRA

religion, but used, especially upon public occasions, to officiate
in praying and preaching in their mosques. In process of time
this came to be all the authority the caliphs had left, for, about
the year of the Hegira 325, the governors of provinces seized the
regal authority and made themselves kings of their several
governments. They continued, indeed, to pay a show of def-
erence to the caliph, who usually resided at Bagdad, whom,
however, they occasionally deposed. At this present time
most Mahometan princes have a person in their respective do-
minions who bears this sacred character, and is called the mufti
in Turkey, and in Persia the sadre. He is often appealed to as
the interpreter of the law; but, as a tool of state, usually gives
such judgment as he knows will be most acceptable to his prince.

Mahomet used at first, when preaching in his mosque at
Medina, to lean upon a post of a palm-tree driven into the
ground; but being now invested with greater dignity, by the
advice of one of his wives he had a pulpit built, which had
two steps up to it and a seat within. When Othman was
caliph he hung it with tapestry, and Moawiyah raised it six
steps higher, that he might be heard when he sat down, as he
was forced to do, being very fat and heavy; whereas his prede-
cessors all used to stand.

Mahomet had now a dream that he held in his hand the
key of the Kaaba, and that he and his men made the circuits
round it and performed all the ceremonies of the pilgrimage.
Having told his dream next morning, he and his followers were
all in high spirits upon it, taking it for an omen that they should
shortly be masters of Mecca. Accordingly, great preparations
were made for an expedition to this city. The prophet gave it
out that his only intent was to make the pilgrimage. He pro-
vided seventy camels for the sacrifice, which were conducted by
seven hundred men, ten to each camel; as, however, he appre-
hended opposition from the Koreishites, he took with him his
best troops, to the number of fourteen hundred men, besides
an incredible number of wandering Arabs from all parts. The
Koreishites, alarmed at the march of the Mussulmans, got
together a considerable force and encamped about six miles
from Mecca. Mahomet continued his march, but finding, by
his spies, the enemy had posted their men so as to stop the

THE HEGIRA 221

passes in his feints and counter-marches, came to a place where
his camel fell upon her knees. The people said she was restive,
but the prophet took it for a divine intimation that he should
not proceed any farther in his intended expedition, but wait
with resignation till the appointed tune. He therefore turned
back, and encamped without the sacred territory, at Hodaibia.
The Koreishites sent three several messengers, the two last men
of consequence, to demand what was his intention in coming
thither. He answered that it was purely out of a devout wish to
visit the sacred house, and not with any hostile design. Ma-
homet also sent one of his own men to give them the same
assurance; but the Koreishites cut the legs of his camel, and
would also have killed the man had not the Ahabishites inter-
posed and helped him to escape. Upon this he wished Omar
to go upon the same errand; but he excused himself, as not be-
ing upon good terms with the Koreishites. At last Othman
was sent; who delivered his message, and was coming away,
when they told him he might, if he wished, make his circuits
round the Kaaba. But upon his replying he would not do so
until the apostle of God had first performed his vow to make
the holy circuits, they were so greatly provoked that they laid
him in irons. In the Mussulman army it was reported that
he was killed, at which Mahomet was much afflicted and said
aloud, " We will not stir from hence till we have given battle to
the enemy." Thereupon the whole army took an oath of
obedience and fealty to the prophet, who, on his part, by the
ceremony of clapping his hands one against the other, took an
oath to stand by them as long as there was one of them left.

The Koreishites sent a party of eighty men toward the camp
of the Mussulmans to beat up their quarters. Being discovered
by the sentinels, they were surrounded, taken prisoners, and
brought before Mahomet; who, thinking it proper at that time
to be generous, released them. In return, Sohail son of Amru was
sent to him with proposals of peace, which he agreed to accept.

Mahomet, pretending he had a divine promise of a great
booty, returned to Medina and, having concluded a peace for
ten years with the Koreishites, was the better enabled to attack
the Jews, his irreconcilable enemies. Accordingly, he went
to Khaibar, a strong town about six days' journey northeast of

222 THE HEGIRA

Medina, and took that and several other strong places, whereto
the Jews had retired, and carried a vast deal of treasure; this
all fell into the hands of the Mussulmans. Being entertained
at Khaibar, a young Jewess, to try, as she afterward said,
whether he were a prophet or not, poisoned a shoulder of mut-
ton, a joint Mahomet was particularly fond of. One of those
who partook of it at the table, named Basher, died upon the
spot; but Mahomet, finding it taste disagreeable, spat it out,
saying, "This mutton tells me it is poisoned." The miracle-
mongers improve this story, by making the shoulder of mutton
speak to him ; but if it did, it spoke too late, for he had already
swallowed some of it; and of the effects of that morsel he com-
plained in his last illness, of which he died three years after.

In this year, Jannabi mentions Mahomet's being bewitched
by the Jews. Having made a waxen image of him, they hid it
in a well, together with a comb and a tuft of hair tied in eleven
knots. The prophet fell into a very wasting condition, till he
had a dream that informed him where these implements of
witchcraft were, and accordingly had them taken away. In
order to untie the knots Gabriel read to him the two last chap-
ters of the Koran, consisting of eleven verses ; each verse untied a
knot, and, when all were untied, he recovered.1

1 " An implicit belief in magic is entertained by almost all Mussul-
mans. Babil, or Babel, is regarded by the Mussulmans as the fountain-
head of the science of magic, which was, and, as most think, still is,
taught there to mankind by two fallen angels, named Haroot and Maroot,
who are there suspended by the feet in a great pit closed by a mass of
rock." — Lane's Arab. Nights, vol. i. pp. 66, 218.

" From another fable of these two magicians, we are told that the
angels in heaven, expressing their surprise at the wickedness of the sons
of Adam, after prophets had been sent to them with divine commissions,
God bid them choose two out of their own number, to be sent down to
be judges on earth. Whereupon they pitched upon Haroot and Maroot,
who executed their office with integrity for some time, in the province of
Babylon ; but while they were there, Zohara, or the planet Venus, de-
scended, and appeared before them in the shape of a beautiful woman,
bringing a complaint against her husband. As soon as they saw her
they fell in love with her, whereupon she invited them to dinner, and set
wine before them, which God had forbidden them to drink. At length,
being tempted by the liquor to transgress the divine command, they be-
came drunk, and endeavored to prevail on her to satisfy their desires ; to
which she promised to consent upon condition that one of them should

THE HEGIRA 223

This year Mahomet had a seal made with this inscription,
"Mahomet, the apostle of God." This was to seal his letters,
which he now took upon him to write to divers princes, inviting
them to Islamism. His first letter to this effect was sent to
Badham, viceroy of Yemen, to be forwarded to Khusrau, king
of Persia. Khusrau tore the letter, and ordered Badham to
restore the prophet to his right mind or send him his head.
Khusrau was presently after murdered by his son Siroes; Bad-
ham with his people turned Mussulmans, and Mahomet con-
tinued him in his government.

He also sent a letter of the same purport to the Roman em-
peror Heraclius. Heraclius received the letter respectfully,
and made some valuable presents to the messenger. He sent
another to Makawkas, viceroy of Egypt, who returned in an-
swer he would consider of the proposals, and sent, among
other presents, two young maidens. One of these, named
Mary, of fifteen years of age, Mahomet debauched. This
greatly offended two of his wives, Hafsa and Ayesha, and to
pacify them he promised, upon oath, to do so no more. But
he was soon taken again by them transgressing in the same
way. And now, that he might not stand in awe of his wives
any longer, down comes a revelation which is recorded in the
sixty-sixth chapter of the Koran, releasing the prophet from
his oath, and allowing him to have concubines, if he wished.1

first carry her to heaven, and the other bring her back again. They
immediately agreed to do so, but directly the woman reached heaven she
declared to God the whole matter, and as a reward for her chastity she
was made the morning star. The guilty angels were allowed to choose
whether they would be punished in this life or in the other ; and upon
their choosing the former, they were hung up by the feet by an iron chain
in a certain pit near Babylon, where they are to continue suffering the
punishment of their transgression until the day of judgment. By the
same tradition we also learn that if a man has a fancy to leam magic, he
may go to them and hear their voice, but cannot see them." — Sale's
Koran, ii. and notes.

1 Moore thus alludes to the circumstance in Lalla Rookh : —

" And here Mahomet, bom for love and guile,
Forgets the Koran in his Mary's smile,
Then beckons some kind angel from above,
With a new text to consecrate their love ! "

— Veiled Prophet of Khorassan.

224 THE HEGIRA

And the two wives of Mahomet, who, upon the quarrel about
Mary, had gone home to their fathers, being threatened in the
same chapter with a divorce, were glad to send their fathers to
him to make their peace with him, and obtain his permission
for their return. They were fain to come and submit to live
with him upon his own terms.

Mahomet sent letters at the same time to the king of Ethi-
opia, who had before professed Islamism, and now in his an-
swer repeated his profession of it. He wrote to two other
Arabian princes, who sent him disagreeable answers, which
provoked him to curse them. He sent also to Al Mondar, king
of Bahrain, who came into his religion, and afterward routed
the Persians and made a great slaughter of them. And now all
the Arabians of Bahrain had become converts to his religion.

Among the captives taken at Khaibar was Safia, betrothed
to the son of Kenana, the king of the Jews. Mahomet took
the former to wife, and put Kenana to the torture to make him
discover his treasure. In the action at Khaibar, it is said, Ali,
having his buckler struck out of his hand, took one of the gates
off its hinges, and used it for a buckler till the place was taken.
The narrator of this story asserts that he and seven men tried
to stir the gate, and were not able.

One of the articles of the peace being, that any Mussulman
might be permitted to perform his pilgrimage at Mecca, the
prophet went to that city to complete the visitation of the holy
places, which he could not do as he intended when at Hodaiba.
Hearing, upon this occasion, the Meccans talking of his being
weakened by the long marches he had made, to show the con-
trary, in going round the Kaaba seven times, he went the first
three rounds in a brisk trot, shaking his shoulders the while,
but performed the four last circuits in a common walking pace.
This is the reason why Mussulmans always perform seven cir-
cuits round the Kaaba in a similar manner.

In the eighth year of the Hegira, Kaled son of Al Walid,
Amru son of Al As, and Othman son of Telha, who presided
over the Kaaba, became Mussulmans; this was a considerable
addition to Mahomet's power and interest. The same year
Mahomet, having sent a letter to the governor of Bostra in
Syria, as he had to others, and his messenger being slain there,

224

THE HEGIRA

,

And the two wives of Mahomet, who, upon the quarrel about
home Uj^heir fathers, being threatened in the
.-^#bce, were glad to send their fathers to
with him, and obtain his permission
were fain to come and submit to

Mary, had
same ('
him to m;

for :

TheT

the Arabians

the same time to the king of Ethi-
Islamism, and now in his an-
It. He wrote to two other
disagreeable answers, which
hem". He sent also to Al Mondar, king
ipto his religion, and afterward routed
d ma$e'a».great slaughter of them. And now all
ome converts to his religion.
Khaibar was Safia, betrothed
of the Jews. Mahomet took
'*""u aa to the torture to make him
in the action at Khaibar, it is said, All,
having his im'.xkr struck out of his hand, took one of the p
off its hinges, «n«i usw! * }..»r a bulkier till the place was taken.
The narrator <rf tm« ->»ory 4^-ns *hfu h* •... -
to stir the gate, ami werr m>i Atte.
One of the articles ot the jiea. t-
might be permitted to ptrfor.n his , .
prophet went to that city to complete th.

places, which he could not do as he intended - Ttti H-Btt|fciba.
Hearing, upon this occasion, the Meccans talking of his being
weakened by the long marches he had made, to show the con-
trary, in going round the Kaaba seven times, he went the first
three rounds in a brisk trot, shaking his shoulders the while,
but performed the four last circuits in a common walking pace.

^.yO^T^iMN perforo1 seven cir-
cuits round the Kaaba in a
In the eighth year of t
Amru son of Al As, and C
over the Kaaba, became M

tht tmity of God,

his victorious followers able

ition to Mahomet's p*hltin* * A> Mudkr'

Mahomet, having sent a letter to the governor of Bostra in
Syria, as he had to others, and his messenger being slain there,

THE HEGIRA 225

sent Zaid, son of Hareth, with three thousand men to Muta in
Syria, against the Roman army, which, with their allies, maae a
body of nearly one hundred thousand men. Zaid being slain,
the command fell to Jaafar, and, upon kis death, to Abdallah
son of Rawahas, who was also killed.1 Thereupon the Mus-
sulmans unanimously chose Kaled for their leader, who de-
feated the enemy, and returned to Medina with a considerable
booty, on which account Mahomet gave him the title of the
"Sword of God."

The same year the Koreishites assisted some of their allies
against the Kozaites, who were in alliance with Mahomet.
This the latter resented as an infraction of the peace. Abu
Sofian was sent to try to make up matters, but Mahomet would
not vouchsafe to receive his explanation. But having made
his preparation to fall upon them before they could be prepared
to receive him, he advanced upon Mecca with about ten thou-
sand men. Abu Sofian having come out of the town in the
evening to reconnoitre, he fell in with Al Abbas, who, out of
friendship to his countrymen, had ridden from the army with the
hope of meeting some straggling Meccans whom he might send
back with the news of Mahomet's approach, and advise the
Meccans to surrender. Al Abbas, recognizing Abu Sofian's
voice, called to him, and advised him to get up behind him, and
go with him, and in all haste make his submission to Mahomet.
This he did, and, to save his life, professed Islamism, and was

1 "The death of Jaafar was heroic and memorable ; he lost his right
hand, he shifted the standard to his left, the left was severed from his
body, he embraced the standard with his bleeding stumps, till he was
transfixed to the ground with fifty honorable wounds. ' Advance,' cried
Abdallah, who stepped into the vacant place, ' advance with confidence;
either victory or paradise is our own.' The lance of a Roman decided
the alternative ; but the falling standard was rescued by Kaled, the prose-
lyte of Mecca; nine swords were broken in his hand; and his valor with-
stood and repulsed the superior numbers of the Christians. To console
the afflicted relatives of his kinsman Jaafar, Mahomet represented that,
in paradise, in exchange for the arms he had lost, he had been furnished
with a pair of wings, resplendent with the blushing glories of the ruby,
and with which he was become the inseparable companion of the arch-
angel Gabriel, in his volitations through the regions of eternal bliss.
Hence, in the catalogue of the martyrs he has been denominated Jaaffer
ieyaur (' the winged Jaaffer ')." — Milman's Gibbon, 1.
E., VOL. iv. — 15.

226 THE HEGIRA

afterward as zealous in propagating as he had hitherto been in
opposing it.

Mahomet had given orders to his men to enter Mecca peace-
ably, but Kaled meeting with a party who discharged some
arrows at him, fell upon them, and slew twenty-eight of them.
Mahomet sent one of his helpers to bid him desist from the
slaughter; but the messenger delivered quite the contrary order,
commanding him to show them no mercy. Afterward, when
Mahomet said to the helper, "Did not I bid you tell Kaled not
to kill anybody in Mecca?"

"It is true," said the helper, "and I would have done as you
directed me, but God would have it otherwise, and God's will
was done."

When all was quiet, Mahomet went to the Kaaba, and
rode round it upon his camel seven tunes, and touched with
his cane a corner of the black stone with great reverence. Hav-
ing alighted, he went into the Kaaba, where he found images of
angels, and a figure of Abraham holding in his hand a bundle of
arrows, which had been made use of for deciding things by lot.
All these, as well as three hundred and sixty idols which stood
on the outside of the Kaaba, he caused to be thrown down and
broken in pieces. As he entered the Kaaba, he cried with a
loud voice, "Allah acbar," seven times, turning round to all
the sides of the Kaaba. He also appointed it to be the Kebla,
or place toward which the Mussulmans should turn themselves
when they pray. Remounting his camel, he now rode once
more seven times round the Kaaba, and again alighting, bowed
himself twice before it. He next visited the well Zem-zem, and
from thence passed to the station of Abraham. Here he
stopped awhile, and ordering a pail of water to be brought from
the Zem-zem, he drank several large draughts, and then made
the holy washing called wodhu. Immediately all his followers
imitated his example, purifying themselves and washing their
faces. After this, Mahomet, standing at the door of the Kaaba,
made a harangue to the following effect: "There is no other
god but God, who has fulfilled his promise to his servant, and
who alone has put to flight his enemies, and put under my feet
everything that is visible, men, animals, goods, riches, except
only the government of the Kaaba and the keeping of the cup

THE HEGIRA 227

for the pilgrims to drink out of. As for you, O ye Koreishites
God hath taken from you the pride of paganism, which caused
you to worship as deities our fathers Abraham and Ishmael,
though they were men descended from Adam, who was created
out of the earth." Having a mind to bestow on one of his own
friends the prefecture of the Kaaba, he took the keys of it from
Othman the son of Telha, and was about to give them to Al
Abbas, who had asked for them, when a direction came to him
from heaven, in these words, " Give the charge to whom it be-
longs." Whereupon he returned the keys by Ali to Othman,
who, being agreeably surprised, thanked Mahomet, and made
a new profession of his faith. The pilgrim's cup, however, he
consigned to the care of Al Abbas, in whose family it became
hereditary.

The people of Mecca were next summoned to the hill Al
Safa, to witness Mahomet's inauguration. The prophet having
first taken an oath to them, the men first, and then the women,
bound themselves by oath to be faithful and obedient to what-
soever he should command them. After this he summoned
an extraordinary assembly, in which it was decreed that Mecca
should be henceforward an asylum or inviolable sanctuary,
within which it should be unlawful to shed the blood of man,
or even to fell a tree.

After telling the Meccans they were his slaves by conquest,
he pardoned and declared them free, with the exception of
eleven men and six women, whom, as his most inveterate ene-
mies, he proscribed, ordering his followers to kill them wherever
they should find them. Most of them obtained their pardon
by embracing Islamism, and were ever after the most zealous
of Mussulmans. One of these, Abdallah, who had greatly
offended Mahomet, was brought to him by Othman, upon
whose intercession Mahomet pardoned him. Before he granted
his pardon, he maintained a long silence, in expectation, as he
afterward owned, that some of those about him would fall upon
Abdallah and kill him. Of the women, three embraced Islam-
ism and were pardoned, the rest were put to death, one being
crucified.

Mahomet now sent out Kaled and others to destroy the
idols which were still retained by some of the tribes, and tc

228 THE HEGIRA

invite them to Islamism. Kaled executed his commission with
great brutality. The Jodhamites had formerly robbed and
murdered Kaled's uncle as he journeyed from Arabia Felix.
Kaled having proposed Islamism to them, they cried out, "they
professed Sabaeism." This was what he wanted. He imme-
diately fell upon them, killing some, and making others pris-
oners: of these, he distributed some among his men, and re-
served others for himself. As for the latter, having tied their
hands behind them, he put them all to the sword. On hearing
of this slaughter Mahomet lifted up his eyes and protested his
innocence of this murder, and immediately sent Ali with a sum
of money to make satisfaction for the bloodshed, and to restore
the plunder. Ali paid to the surviving Jodhamites as much as
they demanded, and generously divided the overplus among
them. This action Mahomet applauded and afterward re-
proved Kaled for his cruelty.

Upon the conquest of Mecca, many of the tribes of the Arabs
came and submitted to Mahomet; but the Hawazanites, the
Thakishites, and part of the Saadites, assembled to the number
of four thousand effective men, besides women and children,
to oppose him. He went against them at the head of twelve
thousand righting men. At the first onset the Mussulmans,
being received with a thick shower of arrows, were put to flight;
but Mahomet, with great courage, rallied his men, and finally
obtained the victory. The next considerable action was the
siege of Taif, a town sixty miles east from Mecca. The Mus-
sulmans set down before it and, having made several breaches
with their engines, marched resolutely up to them, but were
vigorously repulsed by the besieged. Mahomet, having by a
herald proclaimed liberty to all the slaves who should come
over to him, twenty-three deserted, to each of whom he assigned
a Mussulman for a comrade. So inconsiderable a defection
did not in the least abate the courage of the besieged; so that
the prophet began to despair of reducing the place, and, after a
dream, which Abu-Bekr interpreted unfavorably to the attempt,
determined to raise the siege. His men, however, on being or-
dered to prepare for a retreat, began to murmur; whereupon
he commanded them to be ready for an assault the next day.
The assault being made the assailants were beaten back with

THE HEGIRA 229

great loss. To console them in their retreat, the prophet
smiled, and said, "We will come here again, if it please God."
When the army reached Jesana, where all the booty taken from
the Hawazanites had been left, a deputation arrived from that
tribe to beg it might be restored. The prophet having given
them their option between the captives or their goods, they
chose to have their wives and children again. Their goods
being divided among the Mussulmans, Mahomet, in order to
indemnify those who had been obliged to give up their slaves,
gave up his own share of the plunder and divided it among
them. To Malec, however, son of Awf, the general of the
Hawazanites, he intimated that if he would embrace Islamism
he should have all his goods as well as his family, and a present
of one hundred camels besides. By this promise Malec was
brought over to be so good a Mussulman that he had the com-
mand given him of all his countrymen who should at any time
be converts, and was very serviceable against the Thakishites.

The prophet, after this, made a holy visit to Mecca, where
he appointed Otab, son of Osaid, governor, though not quite
twenty years of age; Maad, son of Jabal, imam, or chief priest,
to teach the people Islamism, and direct them in solemnizing
the pilgrimage. Upon his return to Medina his concubine,
Mary, brought him a son, whom he named Ibrahim, celebrat-
ing his birth with a great feast. The child, however, lived but
fifteen months.

In the ninth year of the Hegira envoys from all parts of
Arabia came to Mahomet at Medina, to declare the readiness
of their several tribes to profess his religion.

The same year Mahomet, with an army of thirty thousand
men, marched toward Syria, to a place called Tobuc, against
the Romans and Syrians, who were making preparation against
him, but, upon his approach, retreated. The Mussulmans,
in their march back toward Medina, took several forts of the
Christian Arabs, and made them tributaries. Upon his return
to Medina the Thakishites, having been blockaded in the Taif
by the Mussulman tribes, sent deputies offering to embrace
Islamism, upon condition of being allowed to retain a little
longer an idol to which their people were bigotedly attached.
When Mahomet insisted upon its being immediately demol-

23o THE HEGIRA

ished, they desired to be at least excused from using the Mus-
sulmans' prayers, but to this he answered very justly, "That a
religion without prayers was good for nothing." At last they
submitted absolutely.

During the same year Mahomet sent Abu-Bekr to Mecca,
to perform the pilgrimage, and sacrifice in his behalf twenty
camels. Presently afterward he sent Ali to publish the ninth
chapter of the Koran, which, though so placed in the present
confused copy, is generally supposed to have been the last that
was revealed. It is called "Barat," or Immunity; the purport
of it is that the associators with whom Mahomet had made a
treaty must, after four months' liberty of conscience, either
embrace Islamism or pay tribute. The command runs thus:
" When those holy months are expired, kill the idolaters wher-
ever ye shall find them." Afterward come these words, "If
they repent, and observe the times of prayer and give alms,
they are to be looked upon as your brethren in religion." The
same chapter also orders, "That nobody should, not having on
the sacred habit, perform the holy circuits round the Kaaba ; and
that no idolater should make the pilgrimage to Mecca." In
consequence, no person except a Mahometan may approach
the Kaaba, on pain of death.

The following account of Mahomet's farewell pilgrimage
is from Jaber, son of Abdallah, who was one of the company :
"The apostle of God had not made the pilgrimage for nine
years (for when he conquered Mecca he only made a visita-
tion). In the tenth year of the Hegira, he publicly proclaimed
his intention to perform the pilgrimage, whereupon a prodig-
ious multitude of people (some make the number near one hun-
dred thousand) flocked from all parts to Medina. Our chief
desire was to follow the apostle of God, and imitate him. When
we came to Dhul Holaifa, the apostle of God prayed in the
mosque there; then mounting his camel he rode hastily to the
plain Baida, where he began to praise God in the form that
professes his unity, saying, 'Here I am, O God, ready to obey
thee; thou hast no partner,' etc. When he came to the Kaaba,
he kissed the corner of the black stone, went seven times round
— three times in a trot, four times walking — then went to the
station of Abraham, and coming again to the black stone, rev-

THE HEGIRA 231

erently kissed it. Afterward he went through the gate of the
sons of Madhumi to the hill Safa, and went up it till he could
see the Kaaba; when, turning toward the Kebla, he professed
again the unity of God, saying, ' There is no God but one, his
is the kingdom, to him be praises, ne is powerful above every-
thing,' etc. After this profession he went down toward the hill
Merwan, I following him all the way through the valley; he then
ascended the hill slowly till he came to the top of Merwan; from
thence he ascended Mount Arafa. It being toward the going
down of the sun, he preached here till sunset; then going to
Mosdalefa, between Arafa and the valley of Mena, he made the
evening and the late prayers, with two calls to prayer, and two
risings up. Then he lay down till the dawn, and, having made
the morning prayer, went to the enclosure of the Kaaba, where
he remained standing till it grew very light. Hence he pro-
ceeded hastily, before the sun was up, to the valley of Mena;
where, throwing up seven stones, he repeated at each throw,
' God is great,' etc. Leaving now the valley, he went to the place
of sacrifice. Having made free sixty-three slaves, he slew sixty-
three victims 1 with his own hand, being then sixty-three years
old, and then ordered Ali to sacrifice as many more victims as
would make up the number to one hundred. The next thing
the apostle did was to shave his head, beginning on the right side
of it, and finishing it on the left. His hair, as he cut it off, he
cast upon a tree, that the wind might scatter it among the peo-
ple. Kaled was fortunate enough to catch a part of the fore-
lock, which he fixed upon his turban; the virtue whereof he
experienced in every battle he afterward fought. The limbs
of the victims being now boiled, the apostle sat down with no
other companion but Ali to eat some of the flesh and drink
some of the broth. The repast being over, he mounted his
camel again and rode to the Kaaba; where he made the noon-
tide prayer, and drank seven large draughts of the well Zem-
zem, made seven circuits round the Kaaba, and concluded his
career between the hills Safa and Merwan.

"The ninth day of the feast he went to perform his devo-

1 Mahomet's victims were camels ; they may, however, be sheep or
goats, but in this case they must be male ; if camels or kine, female. —
Sale, Prelim. Dis.t p. 120.

232 THE HEGIRA

tions on Mount Arafa. This hill, situated about a mile from
Mecca, is held in great veneration by the Mussulmans as a
place very proper for penitence. Its fitness in this respect is
accounted for by a tradition that Adam and Eve, on being
banished out of paradise, in order to do penance for their trans-
gression were parted from each other, and after a separation of
sixscore years met again upon this mountain."

At the conclusion of this farewell pilgrimage, as it was
called, being the last he ever made, Mahomet reformed the
calendar in two points: In the first place, he appointed the
year to be exactly lunar, consisting of twelve lunar months;
whereas before, in order to reduce the lunar to the solar year,
they used to make every third year consist of thirteen months.
And secondly, whereas the ancient Arabians held four months
sacred, wherein it was unlawful to commit any act of hostility,
he took away that prohibition, by this command, "Attack the
idolaters in all the months of the year, as they attack you in all."
(Koran, ix.)

In the eleventh year of the Hegira there arrived an em-
bassy from Arabia Felix, consisting of about one hundred who
had embraced Islamism. The same year Mahomet ordered
Osama to go to the place where Zaid his father was slain at the
battle of Muta, to revenge his death. This was the last expe-
dition he ever ordered, for, being taken ill two days after, he
died within thirteen days. The beginning of his sickness was
a slow fever, which made him delirious. In his frenzy he called
for pen, ink, and paper, and said he "would write a book that
should keep them from erring after his death." But Omar
opposed it, saying the Koran is sufficient, and that the prophet,
through the greatness of his malady, knew not what he said.
Others, however, expressing a desire that he would write, a
contention arose, which so disturbed Mahomet that he bade
them all begone. During his illness he complained of the
poisoned meat he had swallowed at Khaibar. Some say, when
he was dying, Gabriel told him the angel of death, who never
before had been, nor would ever again be, so ceremonious
toward anybody, was waiting for his permission to come in.
As soon as Mahomet had answered, "I give him leave," the
angel of death entered and complimented the prophet, telling

THE HEGIRA 233

him God was very desirous to have him, but had commanded
he should take his soul or leave it, just as he himself should
please to order. Mahomet replied, "Take it, then." [Accord-
ing to the testimony of all the Eastern authors Mahomet died
on Monday the i2th Reby ist, in the year u of the Hegira,
which answers in reality to the 8th of June, A.D. 632.]

His grave was dug under the bed whereon he lay, in the
chamber of Ayesha. The Arabian writers are very particular
to tell us everything about the washing and embalming his
body ; who dug his grave, who put him in, etc.1

The person of Mahomet is minutely described by Arabian
writers. He was of a middle stature, had a large head, thick
beard, black eyes, hooked nose, wide mouth, a thick neck,
flowing hair. They also tell us that what was called the seal of
his apostleship, a hairy mole between his shoulders, as large as
a pigeon's egg, disappeared at his death. Its disappearance
seems to have convinced those who would not before believe it
that he was really dead. His intimate companion Abu Horaira
said he never saw a more beautiful man than the prophet. He
was so reverenced by his bigoted disciples they would gather
his spittle up and swallow it.

The same writers extol Mahomet as a man of fine parts
and a strong memory, of few words, of a cheerful aspect, affable
and complaisant in his behavior. They also celebrate his
justice, clemency, generosity, modesty, abstinence, and humil-
ity. As an instance of the last virtue, they tell us he mended
his own clothes and shoes. However, to judge of him by his
actions as related by these same writers, we cannot help con-
cluding that he was a very subtle and crafty man, who put on
the appearance only of those good qualities, while the govern-
ing principles of hie soul were ambition and lust. For we see

1 There are many ridiculous stories told of Mahomet, which, being
notoriously fabulous, are not introduced here. Two of the most popular
are : That a tame pigeon used to whisper in his ear the commands of
God. [The pigeon is said to have been taught to come and peck some
grains of rice out of Mahomet's ear, to induce people to think that he
then received by the ministry of an angel the several articles of the Ko-
ran.] The other is that after his death he was buried at Medina, and
his coffin suspended, by divine agency or magnetic power, between the
ceiling and floor of the temple.

234 THE HEGIRA

him, as soon as he found himself strong enough to act upon the
offensive, plundering caravans, and, under a pretence of fight-
ing for the true religion, attacking, murdering, enslaving, and
making tributaries of his neighbors, in order to aggrandize and
enrich himself and his greedy followers, and without scruple
making use of assassination to cut off those who opposed him.
Of his lustful disposition we have a sufficient proof, in the pe-
culiar privileges he claimed to himself of having as many wives
as he pleased, and of whom he chose, even though they were
within forbidden degrees of affinity. The authors who give him
the smallest number of wives own that he had fifteen; whereas
the Koran allows no Mussulman more than four. As for him-
self, Mohamet had no shame in avowing that his chief pleasures
were perfumes and women.

THE KORAN

The Koran is held by the Mahometans in the greatest ven-
eration. The book must not be touched by anybody but a
Mussulman, nor even by a believer except he be free from
pollution. Whether the Koran be created or uncreated has
been the subject of a controversy fruitful of the most violent
persecutions. The orthodox opinion is that the original has
been written from all eternity on the preserved table. Of this
they believe a complete transcript was brought down to the
lower heaven (that of the moon) by the angel Gabriel, and
thence taken and shown to Mahomet, once every year of his
mission, and twice in the last year of his life. They assert,
however, that it was only piecemeal, that the several parts were
revealed by the angel to the prophet, and that he immediately
dictated what had been revealed to his secretary, who wrote it
down. Each part, as soon as it was thus copied out, was com-
municated to his disciples, to get by heart, and was afterward
deposited in what he called the chest of his apostleship. This
chest the prophet left in the custody of his wife Hafsa.

When we consider the way in which the Koran was com-
piled, we cannot wonder that it is so incoherent a piece as we
find it. The book is divided into chapters; of these some are
very long; others again, especially a few toward the end, very
short. Each chapter has a title prefixed, taken from the first

THE HEGIRA 235

word, or from some one particular thing mentioned in it, rarely
from the subject-matter of it; for if a chapter be of any length,
it usually runs into various subjects that have no connection
with each other. A celebrated commentator divides the con-
tents of the Koran into three general heads: i. Precepts or
directions, relating either to religion, as prayers, fasting, pil-
grimages, or to civil polity, as marriages, inheritances, judica-
tures. 2. Histories — whereof some are taken from the Script-
ures, but falsified with fabulous additions; others are wholly
false, having no foundation in fact. 3. Admonitions: under
which head are comprised exhortations to receive Islamism;
to fight for it, to practise its precepts, prayers, alms, etc.; the
moral duties, such as justice, temperance, etc., promises of
everlasting felicity to the obedient, ch'ssuasives from sin, threat-
enings of the punishments of hell to the unbelieving and diso-
bedient. Many of the threatenings are levelled against par-
ticular persons, and those sometimes of Mahomet's own family,
who had opposed him in propagating his religion.

In the Koran God is brought in saying, "We have given
you a book." By this it appears that the impostor published
early, in writing, some of his principal doctrines, as also some
of his historical relations. Thus, in his life of himself we find
his disciples reading the twentieth chapter of the Koran, before
his flight from Mecca; after which he pretended many of the
revelations in other chapters were brought to him. Undoubt-
edly, all those said to be revealed at Medina must be posterior
to what he had then published at Mecca; because he had not yet
been at Medina. Many parts of the Koran he declared were
brought to him by the angel Gabriel, on special occasions, of
which we have already met with several instances in his biog-
raphy. Accordingly, the commentators on the Koran often
explain passages in it by relating the occasion on which they were
first revealed. Without such a key many of them would be
perfectly unintelligible.

There are several contradictions in the Koran. To recon-
cile these, the Mussulman doctors have invented the doctrine
of abrogation, i.e., that what was revealed at one time was
revoked by a new revelation. A great deal of it is so absurd,
trifling, and full of tautology that it requires no little patience

236 THE HEGIRA

to read much of it at a time. Notwithstanding, the Koran is
cried up by the Mussulmans as inimitable; and in the seven-
teenth chapter of the Koran Mahomet is commanded to say,
"Verily if men and genii were purposely assembled, that they
might produce anything like the Koran, they could not produce
anything like unto it, though they assisted one another."
Accordingly, when the impostor was called upon, as he often
was, to work miracles in proof of his divine mission, he excused
himself by various pretences, and appealed to the Koran as a
standing miracle.1 Each chapter of the Koran is divided into
verses, that is, lines of different length, terminated with the
same letter, so as to make a different rhyme, but without any
regard to the measure of the syllables.

The Mahometan religion consists of two parts, faith and
practice. Faith they divide into six articles: i. A belief in the
unity of God, in opposition to those whom they call associators;
by which name they mean not only those who, besides the true
God, worship idols or inferior gods or goddesses, but the
Christians also, who hold our blessed Saviour's divinity and
the doctrine of the Trinity. 2. A belief of angels, to whom

1 Mirza Ibrahim (translated by Lee) states, however, that the miracles
recorded of Mahomet almost exceed enumeration. " Some of the doc-
tors of Islamism have computed them at four thousand four hundred and
fifty, while others have held that the more remarkable ones were not
fewer than a thousand, some of which are almost universally accredited :
as his dividing the moon into two parts ; the singing of the gravel in his
hand ; the flowing of the water from between his fingers ; the animals
addressing him, and complaining before him ; his satisfying a great mul-
titude with a small quantity of food, and many others. The miracle of
the speaking of the moon is thus related by Gagnier : On one occasion
Mahomet accepted a challenge to bring the moon from heaven in pres-
ence of the whole assembly. Upon uttering his command, that luminary,
full orbed, though but five days old, leaped from the firmament, and,
bounding through the air, alighted on the top of the Kaaba, after having
encircled it by seven distinct evolutions. It is said to have paid rever-
ence to the prophet, addressing him in elegant Arabic, in set phrase of
encomium, and concluding with the formula of the Mussulman faith.
This done, the moon is said to have descended from the Kaaba, to have
entered the right sleeve of Mahomet's mantle, and made its exit by
the left. After having traversed every part of his flowing robe, the
planet separated into two parts, as it mounted to the air. Then these
parts reunited in one round and luminous orb as before."

THE HEGIRA 237

they attribute various shapes, names, and offices, borrowed
from the Jews and Persians. 3. The Scriptures. 4. The
prophets: on this head the Koran teaches that God revealed
his will to various prophets, in divers ages of the world, and
gave it in writing to Adam, Seth, Enoch, Abraham, etc.; but
these books are lost: that afterward he gave the Pentateuch to
Moses, the Psalms to David, the Gospel to Jesus, and the Koran
to Mahomet. The Koran speaks with great reverence of
Moses and Jesus, but says the Scriptures left by them have
been greatly mutilated and corrupted. Under this pretence
it adds a great many fabulous relations to the history contained
in those sacred books, and charges the Jews and Christians
with suppressing many prophecies concerning Mahomet (a
calumny easily refuted, the Scriptures having been translated
into various languages long before Mahomet was born). 5.
The fifth article of belief is the resurrection and day of judg-
ment, while about the intermediate state Mahometan divines have
various opinions. The happiness promised to the Mussulmans
in paradise is wholly sensual, consisting of fine gardens, rich
furniture sparkling with gems and gold, delicious fruits, and
wines that neither cloy nor intoxicate; but above all, affording
the fruition of all the delights of love in the society of women
having large black eyes and every trait of exquisite beauty, who
shall ever continue young and perfect. Some of their writers
speak of these females of paradise in very lofty strains; telling
us, for instance, that if one of them were to look down from
heaven in the night she would illuminate the earth as the sun
does; and if she did but spit into the ocean, it would be imme-
diately turned as sweet as honey. These delights of paradise
were certainly, at first, understood literally; however Mahometan
divines may have since allegorized them into a spiritual sense.
As to the punishments threatened to the wicked, they are hell-
fire, breathing hot winds, the drinking of boiling and stinking
water, eating briers and thorns, and the bitter fruit of the tree
Zacom, which in their bellies will feel like boiling pitch. These
punishments are to be everlasting to all except those who em-
brace Islamism; for the latter, after suffering a number of
years, in proportion to their demerits, will then, if they have
had but so much faith as is equal to the weight of an ant, be

238 THE HEGIRA

released by the mercy of God, and, upon the intercession of
Mahomet, admitted into paradise.

The sixth article of belief is that God decrees everything
that is to happen, not only all events, but the actions and
thoughts of men, their belief or infidelity; that everything that
has or will come to pass has been, from eternity, written in the
preserved or secret table, which is a white stone of an immense
size, preserved in heaven, near the throne of God. Agreeable
to this notion one of their poets thus expresses himself : "What-
ever is written against thee will come to pass ; what is written
for thee shall not fail; resign thyself to God, and know thy Lord
to be powerful; his decrees will certainly take place; his ser-
vants ought to be silent."

Of their four fundamental points of practice, the first is
prayer. This duty is to be performed five times in the twenty-
four hours: i. In the morning before sunrise. 2. When noon
is past. 3. A little before sunset. 4. A little after sunset. 5.
Before the first watch of the night. Previous to prayer they
are to purify themselves by washing. Some kinds of pollution
require the whole body to be immersed in water, but commonly
it is enough to wash some parts only — the head, the face and
neck, hands and feet. In the latter ablution, called wodhu,
fine sand or dust may be used when water cannot be had; in
such case the palm of the hand, being first laid upon the sand,
is then to be drawn over the part required to be washed. The
Mahometans, out of respect to the divine Majesty before whom
they are to appear, are required to be clean and decent when they
go to public prayers in their mosques; but are yet forbidden to
appear there in sumptuous apparel, particularly clothes trimmed
with gold or silver, lest they should make them vain and arro-
gant. The women are not allowed to be in their mosques at
the same time with the men; this they think would make their
thoughts wander from their proper business there. On this
account they reproach the Christians with the impropriety of
the contrary usage. The next point of practice is alms-giving,
which is frequently enjoined in the Koran and looked upon as
highly meritorious. Many of them have been very exemplary
in the performance of this duty. The third point of practical
religion is fasting the whole month Ramadan, during which

THE HEGIRA 239

they are every day to abstain from eating or drinking, or
touching a woman, from daybreak to sunset; after that they
are at liberty to enjoy themselves as at other times. From this
fast an exception is made in favor of old persons and children.
Those also that are sick or on a journey, and women pregnant
or nursing, are also excused in this month. But then, the per-
son making use of this dispensation must expiate the omission
by fasting an equal number of days in some other month and
by giving alms to the poor. There are also some other days of
fasting, which are, by the more religious, observed in the man-
ner above described. The last practical duty is going the pil-
grimage to Mecca, which every man who is able is obliged to
perform once in his life. In the ceremonies of it they strictly
copy those observed by Mahomet. A pilgrimage can be made
only in the month Dulhagha; but a visitation to Mecca may be
made at any other time of the year.

THE MAHOMETAN CREED

As an illustration of the Mahometan creed and practice I
have thought it advisable to insert their famous Dr. Al-Gazali's
interpretation of the two articles of their faith, viz., "There is
no God but God; Mahomet is the apostle of God " :

"Praise be to God the Creator and Restorer of all things:
who does whatsoever he pleases, who is master of the glorious
throne and mighty force, and directs his sincere servants into
the right way and the straight path; who favoreth them who
have once borne testimony to the unity, by preserving their
confessions from the darkness of doubt and hesitation; who
directs them to follow his chosen apostle, upon whom be the
blessing and peace of God; and to go after his most honorable
companions, to whom he hath vouchsafed his assistance and
direction which is revealed to them in his essence and operations
by the excellences of his attributes, to the knowledge whereof
no man attains but he that hath been taught by hearing. To
these, as touching his essence, he maketh known that he is one,
and hath no partner: singular, without anything like him:
uniform, having no contrary: separate, having no equal. He
is ancient, having no first: eternal, having no beginning: re-
maining forever, having no end: continuing to eternity, with-

240 THE HEGIRA

out any termination. He persists, without ceasing to be,
remains without failing, and never did cease, nor ever shall
cease, to be described By glorious attributes, nor is subject to
any decree so as to be determined by any precise limits or set
times, but is the First and the Last, and is within and without.
' 'What God is not.] He (glorified be his name) is not a body
endued with form, nor a substance circumscribed with limits or
determined by measure; neither does he resemble bodies, as
they are capable of being measured or divided. Neither is he
a substance, neither do substances exist in him; neither is he an
accident, nor do accidents exist in him. Neither is he like to
anything that exists, neither is anything like to him; nor is he
determinate in quantity nor comprehended by bounds, nor
circumscribed by the differences of situation nor contained in
the heavens. He sits upon the throne, after that manner which
he himself hath described, and in that same sense which he him-
self means, which is a sitting far removed from any notion of
contact, or resting upon, or local situation; but both the throne
itself, and whatsoever is upon it, are sustained by the goodness
of his power, and are subject to the grasp of his hand. But he
is above the throne, and above all things, even to the utmost
ends of the earth; but so above as at the same time not to be a
whit nearer the throne and the heaven; since he is exalted by
(infinite) degrees above the throne no less than he is exalted
above the earth, and at the same time is near to everything that
hath a being; nay, nearer to men than their jugular veins, and
is witness to everything; though his nearness is not like the
nearness of bodies, as neither is his essence like the essence of
bodies. Neither doth he exist in anything, neither doth any-
thing exist in him; but he is too high to be contained in any
place, and too holy to be determined by time; for he was before
tune and place were created, and is now after the same manner
as he always was. He is also distinct from the creatures by his
attributes, neither is there anything besides himself in his
essence, nor is his essence in any other besides him. He is too
holy to be subject to change, or any local motion; neither do
any accidents dwell in him nor any contingencies befall him,
but he abides through all generations with his glorious attri-
butes, free from all danger of dissolution. As to the attribute

THE HEGIRA 241

of perfection, he wants no addition of his perfection. As to
being, he is known to exist by the apprehension of the under-
standing; and he is seen as he is by an ocular intuition, which
will be vouchsafed out of his mercy and grace to the holy in the
eternal mansion, completing their joy by the vision of his glori-
ous presence.

"His Power.] He, praised be his name, is living, powerful,
mighty, omnipotent, not liable to any defect or impotence,
neither slumbering nor sleeping, nor being obnoxious to decay
or death. To him belong the kingdom, and the power, and the
might. His is the dominion, and the excellency, and the crea-
tion, and the command thereof. The heavens are folded up
in his right hand, and all creatures are crouched within his grasp.
His excellency consists in his creating and producing, and his
unity hi communicating existence and a beginning of being.
He created men and their works, and measured out their main-
tenance and their determined times. Nothing that is possible
can escape his grasp, nor can the vicissitudes of things elude his
power. The effects of his might are innumerable, and the
objects of his knowledge infinite.

"His Knowledge.] He, praised be his name, knows all
things that can be understood, and comprehends whatsoever
comes to pass, from the extremities of the earth to the highest
heavens, even the weight of a pismire could not escape him
either in earth or heaven; but he would perceive the creeping
of the black pismire in the dark night upon the hard stone, and
discern the motion of an atom in the open air. He knows what
is secret and conceals it, and views the conceptions of the minds,
and the motions of the thoughts, and the inmost recesses of se-
crets, by a knowledge ancient and eternal, that never ceased to
be his attribute from eternal eternity, and not by any new knowl-
edge, superadded to his essence, either inhering or adventitious.

"His Will.] He, praised be his name, doth will those
things to be that are, and disposes of all accidents. Nothing
passes in the empire, nor the kingdom, neither little nor much,
nor small nor great, nor good nor evil, nor profitable nor hurt-
ful, nor faith nor infidelity, nor knowledge nor ignorance, nor
prosperity nor adversity, nor increase nor decrease, nor obe-
dience nor rebellion, but by his determinate counsel and decree,
E., VOL. rv. — 16.

242 THE HEGIRA

and his definite sense and will. Nor doth the wink of him that
seeth, nor the subtlety of him that thinketh, exceed the bounds
of his will: but it is he who gave all things their beginning; he
is the creator and restorer, the sole operator of what he pleases;
there is no reversing his decree nor delaying what he hath deter-
mined, nor iy there any refuge to man from his rebellion against
him, but only his help and mercy; nor hath any man any power
to perform any duty toward him, but through his love and will.
Though men and genii, angels and devils, should conspire to-
gether either to put one single atom in motion, or cause it to
cease its motion, without his will and approbation they would
not be able to do it. His will subsists in his essence among the
rest of his attributes, and was from eternity one of his eternal
attributes, by which he willed from eternity the existence of
those things that he had decreed, which were produced in their
proper seasons according to his eternal will, without any before
or after, and in agreement both with his knowledge and will,
and not by methodizing of thoughts, nor waiting for a proper
time, for which reason no one thing is in him a hinderance from
another.

" His Hearing and Sight.] And he, praised be his name,
is hearing and seeing, and heareth and seeth. No audible
object, how still soever, escapeth his hearing; nor is anything
visible so small as to escape his sight; for distance is no hin-
derance to his hearing, nor darkness to his sight. He sees with-
out pupil or eyelids, and hears without any passage or ear, even
as he knoweth without a heart, and performs his actions without
the assistance of any corporeal limb, and creates without any
instrument, for his attributes (or properties) are not like those
of men, any more than his essence is like theirs.

" His Word.] Furthermore, he doth speak, command, for-
bid, promise, and threaten by an eternal, ancient word subsist-
ing in his essence. Neither is it like to the word of the creatures,
nor doth it consist in a voice arising from the commotion of the
air and the collision of bodies, nor letters which are separated
by the joining together of the lips or the motion of the tongue.
The Koran, the Law, the Gospel, and the Psalter, are books
sent down by him to his apostles, and the Koran, indeed, is
read with tongues, written in books, and kept in hearts; yet as

THE HEGIRA 243

subsisting in the essence of God, it doth not become liable to
separation and division while it is transferred into the hearts
and the papers. Thus Moses also heard the word of God with-
out voice or letter, even as the saints behold the essence of God
without substance or accident. And that since these are his
attributes, he liveth and knoweth, is powerful and willeth and
operateth, and seeth and speaketh, by life and knowledge, and
will and hearing, and sight and word, not by his simple essence.
" His Works.] He, praised be his name, exists after such a
manner that nothing besides him hath any being but what is
produced by his operation, and floweth from his justice after the
best, most excellent, most perfect, and most just model. He
is, moreover, wise in his works and just in his decrees. But his
justice is not to be compared with the justice of men. For a
man may be supposed to act unjustly by invading the posses-
sion of another; but no injustice can be conceived of God, inas-
much as there is nothing that belongs to any other besides him-
self, so that wrong is not imputable to him as meddling with
things not appertaining to him. All things, himself only ex-
cepted, genii, men, the devil, angels, heaven, earth, animals,
plants, substance, accident, intelligible, sensible, were all cre-
ated originally by him. He created them by his power out of
mere privation, and brought them into light, when as yet they
were nothing at all, but he alone existing from eternity, neither
was there any other with him. Now he created all things in
the beginning for the manifestation of his power, and his will,
and the confirmation of his word, which was true from all
eternity. Not that he stood in need of them, nor wanted them;
but he manifestly declared his glory in creating, and producing,
and commanding, without being under any obligation, nor out
of necessity. Loving-kindness, and to show favor, and grace,
and beneficence, belong to him; whereas it is in his power to
pour forth upon men a variety of torments, and afflict them with
variousfjdnds of sorrows and diseases, which, if he were to do,
his justice could not be arraigned, nor would he be chargeable
with injustice. Yet he rewards those that worship him for their
obedience on account of his promise and beneficence, not of
their merit nor of necessity, since there is nothing which he can
be tied to perform; nor can any injustice be supposed in him,

244 THE HEGIRA

nor can he be under any obligation to any person whatsoever.
That his creatures, however, should be bound to serve him,
ariseth from his having declared by the tongues of the prophets
that it was due to him from them. The worship of him is not
simply the dictate of the understanding, but he sent messengers
to carry to men his commands, and promises, and threats, whose
veracity he proved by manifest miracles, whereby men are
obliged to give credit to them in those things that they relate.

" The signification o] the second article; that is, the testimony
concerning the Apostle.] He, the Most High, sent Mahomet,
the illiterate prophet of the family of the Koreish, to deliver his
message to all the Arabians and barbarians and genii and
men; and abrogated by his religion all other religions, except in
those things which he confirmed; and gave him the preeminence
over all the rest of the prophets, and made him lord over all
mortal men. Neither is the faith, according to his will, com-
plete by the testimony of the unity alone; that is, by simply
saying, There is but one God, without the addition of the tes-
timony of the apostle; i.e., without the further testimony,
Mahomet is the apostle of God. And he hath made it neces-
sary to men to give credit to Mahomet in those things which he
hath related, both with regard to this present world and the life
to come. For a man's faith is not accepted till he is fully per-
suaded of those things which the prophet hath affirmed shall
be after death. The first of these is the examination of Munkir
and Nakir. These are two angels, of a most terrible and fear-
ful aspect, who shall place [every] man upright in his grave,
consisting again both of soul and body, and ask him concerning
the unity and the mission [of the apostle], saying, Who is thy
Lord? and, What is thy religion? and, Who is thy prophet?
For these are the searchers of the grave, and their examination
the first trial after death. Everyone must also believe the tor-
ment of the sepulchre, and that it is due and right and just,
both upon the body and the soul, being according to the will of
God.

"He shall also believe in the balance with two scales and a
beam, that shall equal the extent of the heavens and the earth;
wherein the works [of men] shall be weighed by the power of
God. At which time weights not heavier than atoms, or mus-

THE HEGIRA 245

tard-seeds, shall be brought out, that things may be balanced
with the utmost exactness, and perfect justice administered.
Then the books of the good works, beautiful to behold, shall be
cast into the balance of light, by which the balance shall be
depressed according to their degrees, out of the favor of God.
But the books of evil deeds, nasty to look upon, shall be cast
into the balance of darkness, with which the scale shall lightly
ascend by the justice of the most high God.

" He must also believe that there is a real way, extended over
the middle of hell, which is sharper than a sword and finer than
a hair, over which all must pass. In this passage of it, while
the feet of the infidels, by the decree of God, shall slip, so as
they shall fall into hell-fire, the feet of the faithful shall never
stumble, but they shall arrive safely into the eternal habitation.

"He shall also believe the pond where they go down to be
watered, that is the pond of Mahomet (upon whom be the
blessing and peace of God), out of which the faithful, after they
have passed the way, drink before they enter into paradise; and
out of which whosoever once drinketh shall thirst no more for-
ever. Its breadth is a month's journey, it is whiter than milk
and sweeter than honey. Round about it stand cups as innu-
merable as the stars, and it hath two canals, by which the waters
of the [river] Cauthar flow into it.

"He shall also believe the [last] account, in which men shall
be divided into those that shall be reckoned withal with the
utmost strictness, and those that shall be dealt withal more
favorably, and those that shall be admitted into paradise with-
out any manner of examination at all; namely, those whom
God shall cause to approach near to himself. Moreover, he
shall believe that God will ask any of his apostles, whomsoever
he shall please, concerning their mission; of the infidels, and
whomsoever he shall please, what was the reason why, by their
unbelief, they accused those that were sent to them of lying.
He will also examine the heretics concerning tradition, and the
faithful concerning their good works.

" He shall also believe that all who confess one God shall,
upon the intercession of the prophets, next of the doctors, then
of the martyrs, and finally of the rest of the faithful — that is,
everyone according to his excellency and degree — at length go out

246 THE HEGIRA

of the fire after they have undergone the punishment due to their
sins.

" And if besides these remain any of the faithful, having no
intercessor, they shall go out by the grace of God; neither shall
any one of the faithful remain forever in hell, but shall go out
from thence though he had but so much faith in his heart as the
weight of an atom. And thus, by the favorable mercy of God,
no person shall remain in hell who in life acknowledge the unity
of the Godhead.

" It is also necessary that every true believer acknowledge the
excellency of the companions [of Mahomet] and their degrees;
and that the most excellent of men, next to Mahomet, is Abu-
Bekr, then Omar, then Othman, and then Ali. Moreover, he
must entertain a good opinion of all the companions, and cele-
brate their memories, according as God and his apostles hath
celebrated them. And all these things are received by tradi-
tion, and evinced by evident tokens; and he that confesseth all
these things, and surely believeth them, is to be reckoned among
the number of those that embrace truth, and of the congrega-
tion of those that walk in the received way, separated from the
congregation of those that err, and the company of heretics.

"These are the things that everyone is obliged to believe and
confess that would be accounted worthy of the name of a Mus-
sulman ; and that, according to the literal meaning of the words,
not as they may be made capable of any sounder sense; for,
says the author of this exposition, some pretending to go deeper
have put an interpretation upon those things that are delivered
concerning the world to come, such as the balance, and the way,
and some other things besides, but it is heresy."

THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA

A.D. 636

SIMON OCKLEY

Abu-Bekr was chosen caliph, or khalif (signifying successor) to Ma-
homet, but died after a reign of two years. His successor, Caliph Omar,
continued with unabated ardor the efforts for the spread of Islam which
Abu-Bekr had initiated by sending an invading expedition into Persia,
and another into the Roman provinces of Syria.

The victorious armies of the Crescent were by this time far advanced
beyond the frontiers of Arabia, and with fanatic zeal endeavoring to
obey the prophet's injunction to Islamize mankind. "Allah il Allah!"
(" God is God ! ") was their inspiring war-cry, and " Mahomet is the
prophet of God " their watchword. With cimeter and Koran in either
hand they offered the conquered " Infidels " " Islam or the sword."

The Oxus, which alone separated Saracen territory from that of Syria,
was easily passed. Damascus was conquered, and the impetuous spirit
of the Moslems led them rapidly on to Heliopolis, then to Hems or Emesa.
In subtlety they were no less practised than they were well proved in
courage, and by many arts they succeeded in creating diversions among
their adversaries, and of ten in enlisting them under the Saracen standard.
By making the Syrians understand something of their language, customs,
and religion, they prepared them for assimilation when once subjected.
In some cases dissensions among the Syrians led them to invoke the
intervention of those who came to subjugate them.

In less than two years the Saracens had conquered the Syrian plain
and valley, but still they reproached themselves for loss of time, and with
redoubled zeal pressed on to new victories. The forces arrayed against
them were greatly augmented both from Asia and Europe, but the dis-
ciplined veterans of the Roman emperor Heraclius, and the recruits from
the provinces, vainly confronted the Arabs, whose valor was of the nature
of religious frenzy, which no assault could cause to quail. They won, at
fearful cost to themselves, but with greater loss to their enemies at the
battle of Yermouk, and there caused the Roman army to abandon active
warfare against them.

It was then open to the victors to select their own objective among
the Syrian cities, and following the counsel of Ali, they entered at once
upon the siege of Jerusalem, although they held that city next to Mecca
and Medina in veneration.

247

248 THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA

After a siege of four months Jerusalem capitulated, her defenders hav-
ing no rest from the ceaseless assaults of the besiegers. Hard work still
lay before the Saracens in Syria ; but after the reduction of Aleppo, which
cost several months' siege, with great loss of lives to the invaders, they
passed on to Antioch and other strongholds, until, one by one, all had
been subdued ; the surrender of Caesarea completing the great conquest
and the subjection of Syria to the rule of the Caliph.

I_J ERACLIUS, wearied with a constant and uninterrupted suc-
cession of ill news, which like those of Job came every day
treading upon the heels of each other, grieved at the heart to
see the Roman Empire, once the mistress of the world, now
become the scorn and spoil of barbarian insolence, resolved, if
possible, to put an end to the outrages of the Saracens once for
all. With this view he raised troops in all parts of his domin-
ions, and collected so considerable an army as since the first
invasion of the Saracens had never appeared in Syria — not
much unlike one engaged in single combat who, distrustful of
his own abilities and fearing the worst, summons together his
whole strength in hopes of ending the dispute with one decisive
blow. Troops were sent to every tenable place which this in-
undation of the Saracens had not as yet reached, particularly
to Caesarea and all the sea-coast of Syria, as Tyre and Sidon,
Accah, Joppa, Tripolis, Beyrout, and Tiberias, besides another
army to defend Jerusalem. The main body, which was de-
signed to give battle to the whole force of the Saracens, was
commanded by one Mahan, an Armenian, whom I take to be
the very same that the Greek historians call Manuel. To his
generals the Emperor gave the best advice, charging them to
behave themselves like men, and especially to take care to avoid
all differences or dissensions. Afterward, when he had ex-
pressed his astonishment at this extraordinary success of the
Arabs, who were inferior to the Greeks, in number, strength,
arms, and discipline, after a short silence a grave man stood
up and told him that the reason of it was that the Greeks
had walked unworthily of their Christian profession, and
changed their religion from what it was when Jesus Christ first
delivered it to them, injuring and oppressing one another,
taking usury, committing fornication, and fomenting all manner
of strife and variance among themselves. The Emperor an-

THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA 249

swered, that he was "too sensible of it." He then told them
that he had thoughts of continuing no longer in Syria, but,
leaving his army to their management, he purposed to withdraw
to Constantinople. In answer to which they represented to
him how much his departure would reflect upon his honor,
what a lessening it would be to him in the eyes of his own sub-
jects, and what occasion of triumph it would afford to his
enemies the Saracens. Upon this they took their leave and
prepared for their march. Besides a vast army of Asiatics and
Europeans, Mahan was joined by Al Jabalah Ebn Al Ayham,
King of the Christian Arabs, who had under him sixty thousand
men. These Mahan commanded to march always in the front,
saying that there was nothing like diamond to cut diamond.
This great army, raised for the defence of Christian people,
was little less insupportable than the Saracens themselves,
committing all manner of disorder and outrage as they passed
along; especially when they came to any of those places which
had made any agreement with the Saracens, or surrendered
to them, they swore and cursed and reviled the inhabitants
with reproachful language, and compelled them by force to
bear them company. The poor people excused their submission
to the Saracens by their inability to defend themselves, and
told the soldiers that if they did not approve of what they had
done, they ought themselves to have come sooner to their
relief.

The news of this great army having reached the Saracens
while they were at Hems, filled them full of apprehensions,
and put them to a very great strait as to the best course to pur-
sue in this critical juncture. Some of them would very willingly
have shrunk back and returned to Arabia. This course, they
urged, presented a double advantage: on the one hand they
would be sure of speedy assistance from their friends; and on
the other, in that barren country the numerous army of the
enemy must needs be reduced to great scarcity. But Abu
Obeidah, fearing lest such a retreat might by the Caliph be
interpreted cowardice in him, durst not approve of this advice.
Others would rather die in the defence of those stately build-
ings, fruitful fields, and pleasant meadows they had won by the
sword, than voluntarily to return to their former starving con-

250 THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA

dition. They proposed therefore to remain where they were
and wait the approach of the enemy. But Kaled disapproved
of their remaining in their present position, as it was too near
Caesarea, where Constantine, the Emperor's son, lay with forty
thousand men; and recommended that they should march to
Yermouk, where they might reckon on assistance from the
Caliph. As soon as Constantine heard of their departure, he
sent a chiding letter to Mahan, and bade him mend his pace.
Mahan advanced, but made no haste to give the Saracens
battle, having received orders from the Emperor to make over-
tures of peace, which were no sooner proposed than rejected
by Abu Obeidah. Several messages passed between them.
The Saracens, endeavoring to bring their countryman Jabalah
Ebn Al Ayham, with his Christian Arabs, to a neutrality, were
answered that they were obliged to serve the Emperor, and
resolved to fight. Upon this Kaled, contrary to the general
advice, prepared to give him battle before Mahan should come
up, although the number of his men — who, however, were the
/lite of the whole army — was very inconsiderable, urging that
the Christians, being the army of the devil, had no advantage
by their numbers against the Saracens, the army of God. In
choosing his men, Kaled had called out more Ansers1 than
Mohajerins,2 which, when it was observed, occasioned some
grumbling, as it then was doubted whether it was because he
respected them most or because he had a mind to expose them
to the greater danger, that he might favor the others. Kaled
told them that he had chosen them without any such regard,
only because they were persons he could depend upon, whose
valor he had proved, and who had the faith rooted in their
hearts. One Cathib, happening to be called after his brother
Sahal, and looking upon himself to be the better man, resented
it as a high affront, and roundly abused Kaled. The latter,
however, gave him very gentle and modest answers, to the
great satisfaction of all, especially of Abu Obeidah, who, after
a short contention, made them shake hands. Kaled, indeed,

1 Those of Medina are called by that name because they helped Ma-
homet in his flight from Mecca.

8 Those that fled with him are called Mohajerins ; by these names the
inhabitants of Mecca and Medina are often distinguished.

THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA 251

was admirable in this respect, that he knew no less how to govern
his passions than to command the army; though, to most great
generals, the latter frequently proves the easier task of the two.
In this hazardous enterprise his success was beyond all ex-
pectation, for he threw Jabalah's Arabs into disorder and killed
a great many, losing very few of his own men on the field,
besides five prisoners, three of whom were Yezid Ebn Abu
Sofian, Rafi Ebn Omeira, and Derar Ebn Al Alzwar, all men
of great note. Abu Obeidah sent Abdallah Ebn Kort with an
express to Omar, acquainting him with their circumstances,
begging his prayers and some fresh recruits of Unitarians, a
title they glory in, as reckoning themselves the only asserters
of the unity of the Deity. Omar and the whole court were ex-
tremely surprised, but comforted themselves with the promises
made to them in the Koran, which seemed now to be all they
had left to trust to. To encourage the people, he went into the
pulpit and showed them the excellency of fighting for the cause
of God, and afterward returned an answer to Abu Obeidah,
full of such spiritual consolation as the Koran could afford.
Omar commanded Abdallah, as soon as ever he came near
the camp and before he delivered the letter, to cry out, " Good
news!" in order to comfort the Mussulmans and ease them in
some measure of the perplexing apprehensions they labored
under. As soon as he received this letter and message, together
with Omar's blessing, he prepared to set out on his return to the
army; but suddenly he remembered that he had omitted to
pay his respects at Mahomet's tomb, which it was very uncertain
whether he should ever see again. Upon this he hastened to
Ayesha's house (the place where Mahomet was buried), and
found her sitting by the tomb with Ali and Abbas, and Ali's
two sons, Hasan and Hosein, one sitting upon Ali's lap, the
other upon Abbas'. Ali was reading the chapter of beasts,
being the sixth of the Koran, and Abbas the chapter of Hud,
which is the eleventh. Abdallah, having paid his respects to
Mahomet, Ali asked him whether he did not think of going?
He answered, "Yes," but he feared he should not get to the
army before the battle, which yet he greatly wished to do, if
possible. "If you desired a speedy journey," answered Ali,
"why did not you ask Omar to pray for you ? Don't you know

252 THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA

that the prayers of Omar will not be turned back? Because
the apostle of God said of him : ' If there were a prophet to be
expected after me, it would be Omar, whose judgment agrees
with the book of God.' The prophet said of him besides, ' If
an [universal] calamity were to come from heaven upon man-
kind, Omar would escape from it.' Wherefore, if Omar prayed
for thee, thou shalt not stay long for an answer from God."
Abdallah told him that he had not spoken one word in praise
of Omar but what he was very sensible of before. Only he
desired to have not only his prayers but also those of all the
Mussulmans, and especially of those who were at the tomb of
the prophet. At these words all present lifted up their hands
to heaven, and Ali said, "O God, I beseech thee, for the sake
of this chosen apostle, in whose name Adam prayed, and thou
answeredst his petition and forgavest his sins, that thou wouldst
grant to Abdallah Ebn Kort a safe and speedy return, and
assist the followers of thy prophet with help, O thou who alone
art great and munificent!" Abdallah set out immediately, and
afterward returned to the camp with such incredible speed
that the Saracens were surprised. But their admiration ceased
when he informed them of Omar's blessing and Ali's prayers
at Mahomet's tomb.

Recruits were instantly raised in every part of Arabia to
send to the army. Said Ebn Amir commanded them, having
received a flag of red silk at the hands of Omar, who told him
that he gave him that commission in hopes of his behaving
himself well in it; advising him, among other things, not to
follow his appetites, and not forgetting to put him in hopes of
further advancement if he should deserve it. Said thanked
him for his advice, adding that if he followed it he should be
saved. "And now," said Said, "as you have advised me, so
let me advise you." "Speak on," said Omar. "I bid you then
[added the other] fear God more than men, and not the contrary;
and love all the Mussulmans as yourself and your family, as
well those at a distance as those near you. And command
that which is praiseworthy, and forbid that which is otherwise."
Omar, all the while he spoke, stood looking steadfastly upon
the ground, leaning his forehead upon his staff. Then he lifted
up his head, and the tears ran down his cheeks, and he said,

THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA 253

"Who is able to do this without the divine assistance?" Ah'
bade Said make good use of the Caliph's advice and dismissed
him. Said, as he marched toward the army, lost his way,
which turned out very unfortunate for the Christians, for by
that means he fell in with the prefect of Amman with five
thousand men. Said having cut all the foot to pieces, the pre-
fect fled with the horse, but was intercepted by a party which
had been sent out under Zobeir from the Saracen camp to
forage. Said at first thought they had fallen together by the
ears, and were fighting among themselves, but when he came
up and heard the techir, he was well satisfied. Zobeir ran the
prefect through with a lance; of the rest not a single man es-
caped. The Saracens cut off all their heads, then flayed them,
and so carried them upon the points of their lances, presenting
a most horrible spectacle to all that part of the country, till
they came to the army, which received fresh courage by the
accession of this reinforcement, consisting of eight thousand
men.

However, their satisfaction was greatly lessened by the loss
of the five prisoners whom Jabalah Ebn Al Ayham had taken.
Now it happened that Mahan desired Abu Obeidah to send
one of his officers to him for a conference. This being complied
with, Kaled proffered his services, and being accepted by Abu
Obeidah, by his advice he took along with him a hundred men,
chosen out of the best soldiers in the army. Being met and
examined by the out-guards, the chief of whom was Jabalah
Ebn Al Ayham, they were ordered to wait till the general's
pleasure should be known. Mahan would have had Kaled
come to him alone and leave his men behind him. But as
Kaled refused to hear of this, they were commanded as soon
as they came near the general's tent to alight from their horses
and deliver their swords; and when they would not submit to
this either, they were at last permitted to enter as they pleased.
They found Mahan sitting upon a throne, and seats prepared
for themselves. But they refused to make use of them, and,
removing them, sat down upon the ground. Mahan asked
them the reason of their doing so, and taxed them with want
of breeding. To which Kaled answered that that was the best
breeding which was from God, and what God has prepared

254 THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA

for us to sit down upon is purer than your tapestries, defending
their practice from a sentence of their prophet Mahomet,
backed with this text of the Koran, "Out of it [meaning the
earth] we have created you, and to it we shall return you, and
out of it we shall bring you another time." Mahan began then
to expostulate with Kaled concerning their coming into Syria,
and all those hostilities which they had committed there. Mahan
seemed satisfied with Kaled's way of talking, and said that
he had before that time entertained a quite different opinion
of the Arabs, having been informed that they were a foolish,
ignorant people. Kaled confessed that that was the condition
of most of them till God sent their prophet Mahomet to lead
them into the right way, and teach them to distinguish good
from evil, and truth from error. During this conference they
would argue very coolly for a while, and then again fly into a
violent passion. At last it happened that Kaled told Mahan
that he should one day see him led with a rope about his neck
to Omar to be beheaded. Upon this Mahan told him that the
received law of all nations secured ambassadors from violence,
which he supposed had encouraged him to take that indecent
freedom; however, he was resolved to chastise his insolence in
the persons of his friends, the five prisoners, who should in-
stantly be beheaded. At this threat Kaled, bidding Mahan
attend to what he was about to say, swore by God, by Mahomet,
and the holy temple of Mecca, that if he killed them he should
die by his hands, and that every Saracen present should kill
his rnan, be the consequences what they might, and immediately
rose from his place and drew his sword. The same was done
by the rest of the Saracens. But when Mahan told him that
he would not meddle with him for the aforesaid reasons, they
sheathed their swords and talked calmly again. And then
Mahan made Kaled a present of the prisoners, and begged of
him his scarlet tent, which Kaled had brought with him, and
pitched hard by. Kaled freely gave it him, and refused to
take anything in return (though Mahan gave him his choice of
whatever he liked best), thinking his own gift abundantly repaid
by the liberation of the prisoners.

Both sides now prepared for that fight which was to deter-
mine the fate of Syria. The particulars are too tedious to be

THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA 255

related, for they continued fighting for several days. Abu
Obeidah resigned the whole command of the army to Kaled,
standing himself in the rear, under the yellow flag which
Abu-Bekr had given him at his first setting forth into Syria,
being the same which Mahomet himself had fought under at
the battle of Khaibar. Kaled judged this the most proper place
for Abu Obeidah, not only because he was no extraordinary
soldier, but because he hoped that the reverence for him would
prevent the flight of the Saracens, who were now like to be as
hard put to it as at any time since they first bore arms. For the
same reason the women were placed in the rear. The Greeks
charged so courageously and with such vast numbers that the
right wing of the Saracen horse was quite borne down and cut
off from the main body of the army. But no sooner did they
turn their backs than they were attacked by the women, who
used them so ill and loaded them with such plenty of reproaches
that they were glad to return every man to his post, and chose
rather to face the enemy than endure the storm of the women.
However, they with much difficulty bore up, and were so hard
pressed by the Greeks that occasionally they were fain to forget
what their generals had said a little before the fight, who told
them that paradise was before them and the devil and hell-fire
behind them. Even Abu Sofian, who had himself used that
very expression, was forced to retreat, and was received by one
of the women with a hearty blow over the face with a tent-pole.
Night at last parted the two armies at the very time when the
victory began to incline to the Saracens, who had been thrice
beaten back, and as often forced to return by the women.
Then Abu Obeidah said at once those prayers which belonged
to two several hours. His reason for this was, I suppose, a
wish that his men, of whom he was very tender, should have
the more time to rest. Accordingly, walking about the camp
he looked after the wounded men, oftentimes binding up their
wounds with his own hands, telling them that their enemies
suffered the same pain that they did, but had not that reward
to expect from God which they had.

Among other single combats, of which several were fought
between the two armies, it chanced that Serjabil Ebn Shahhnah
was engaged with an officer of the Christians, who was much

256. THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA

too strong for him. The reason which our author assigns for
this is, because Serjabil was wholly given up to watching and
fasting. Derar, thinking he ought not to stand still and see
the prophet's secretary killed, drew his dagger, and while the
combatants were over head and ears in dust, came behind the
Christian and stabbed him to the heart. The Saracens gave
Derar thanks for his service, but he said that he would receive
no thanks but from God alone. Upon this a dispute arose be-
tween Serjabil and Derar concerning the spoil of this officer.
Derar claimed it as being the person that killed him; Serjabil
as having engaged him and tired him out first. The matter
being referred to Abu Obeidah, he proposed the case to the
Caliph, concealing the names of the persons concerned, who
sent him word that the spoil of any enemy was due to him that
killed him. Upon which Abu Obeidah took it from Serjabil
and adjudged it to Derar.

Another day the Christian archers did such execution that
besides those Saracens which were killed and wounded in other
parts there were seven hundred which lost each of them one
or both of their eyes, upon which account the day in which
that battle was fought is called Yaumo'ttewir, "The Day of
Blinding." And if any of those who lost their eyes that day
were afterward asked by what mischance he was blinded, he
would answer that it was not a mischance, but a token of favor
from God, for they gloried as much in those wounds they re-
ceived in the defence of their superstition as our enthusiasts do
in what they call persecution, and with much the same reason.
Abdallah Ebn Kort, who was present in all the wars in Syria,
says that he never saw so hard a battle as that which was fought
on that day at Yermouk; and though the generals fought most
desperately, yet after all they would have been beaten if the
fight had not been renewed by the women. Caulah, Derar's
sister, being wounded, fell down; but Opheirah revenged her
quarrel and struck off the man's head that did it. Upon Opheirah
asking her how she did, she answered, "Very well with God,
but a dying woman." However, she proved to be mistaken,
for in the evening she was able to walk about as if nothing had
happened, and to look after the wounded men.

In the night the Greeks had another calamity added to their

THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA 257

misfortune of losing the victory in the day. It was drawn upon
them by their own inhuman barbarity. There was at Yermouk
a gentleman of a very ample fortune, who had removed thither
from Hems for the sake of the sweet salubrity of its air. When
Mahan's army came to Yermouk this gentleman used to enter-
tain the officers and treat them nobly. To requite him for his
courtesy, while they were this day revelling at his house, they
bade him bring out his wife to them, and upon his refusing
they took her by force and abused her all night, and to aggravate
their barbarity they seized his little son and cut his head off.
The poor lady took her child's head and carried it to Mahan,
and having given him an account of the outrages committed
by his officers, demanded satisfaction. He took but little notice
of the affair, and put her off with a slight answer; upon which
her husband, resolved to take the first opportunity of being
revenged, went privately over to the Saracens and acquainted
them with his design. Returning back to the Greeks, he told
them it was in his power to do them singular service. He there-
fore takes a great number of them, and brings them to a great
stream, which was very deep, and only fordable at one place.
By his instructions five hundred of the Saracen horse had crossed
over where the water was shallow, and after attacking the
Greeks, in a very little time returned in excellent order by the
same way they came. The injured gentleman calls out and
encourages the Greeks to pursue, who, not at all acquainted
with the place, plunged into the water confusedly and perished
in great numbers. In the subsequent engagements before
Yermouk (all of which were in November, 636), the Christians
invariably were defeated, till at last, Mahan's vast army being
broken and dispersed, he was forced to flee, thus leaving the
Saracens masters of the field, and wholly delivered from those
terrible apprehensions with which the news of his great prep-
arations had filled them.

A short time after Abu Obeidah wrote to the Caliph the fol-
lowing letter:

"In the name of the most merciful God, etc.
"This is to acquaint thee that I encamped at Yermouk,
where Mahan was near us with such an army as that the Mussul-
E., VOL. rv. — 17.

258 THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA

mans never beheld a greater. But God, of his abundant grace
and goodness, overthrew this multitude and gave us the victory
over them. We killed of them about a hundred and fifty thou-
sand, and took forty thousand prisoners. Of the Mussulmans
were killed four thousand and thirty, to whom God had decreed
the honor of martyrdom. Finding some heads cut off, and not
knowing whether they belonged to the Mussulmans or Chris-
tians, I prayed over them and buried them. Mahan was after-
ward killed at Damascus by Nooman Ebn Alkamah. There
was one Abu Joaid that before the battle had belonged to them,
having come from Hems; he drowned of them a great number
unknown to any but God. As for those that fled into the deserts
and mountains, we have destroyed them all, and stopped all
the roads and passages, and God has made us masters of their
country, and wealth, and children. Written after the victory
from Damascus, where I stay expecting thy orders concerning
the division of the spoil. Fare thee well, and the mercy and
blessing of God be upon thee and all the Mussulmans."

Omar, in a short letter, expressed his satisfaction, and gave
the Saracens thanks for their perseverance and diligence, com-
manding Abu Obeidah to continue where he was till further
orders. As Omar had mentioned nothing concerning the spoil,
Abu Obeidah regarded it as left to his own discretion and divided
it without waiting for fresh instructions. To a horseman he
gave thrice as much as to a footman, and made a further differ-
ence between those horses which were of the right Arabian
breed (which they looked upon to be far the best) and those
that were not, allowing twice as much to the former as to the
latter. And when they were not satisfied with this distribution,
Abu Obeidah told them that the prophet had done the same
after the battle of Khaibar; which, upon appeal made to Omar,
was by him confirmed. Zobeir had at the battle of Yermouk
two horses, which he used to ride by turns. He received five
lots, three for himself and two for his horses. If any slaves
had run away from their masters before the battle, and were
afterward retaken, they were restored to their masters, who
nevertheless received an equal share of the spoil with the rest.

The Saracens having rested a month at Damascus, and

THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA 259

refreshed themselves, Abu Obeidah sent to Omar to know
whether he should go to Caesarea or Jerusalem. All being
present when Omar was deliberating, said, to Jerusalem first,
adding that he had heard the prophet say as much. This city
they had a great longing after, as being the seat and burying
place of a great many of the ancient prophets, in whom they
reckoned none to have so deep an interest as themselves. Abu
Obeidah having received orders to besiege it, sent Yezid Ebn
Abu Sofian thither first with five thousand men; and for five
days together sent after him considerable numbers of men un-
der his most experienced and trustworthy officers. The lerosoly-
mites expressed no signs of fear, nor would they vouchsafe so
much as to send out a messenger to parley; but, planting their
engines upon the walls, made preparation for a vigorous defence.
Yezid at last went near the walls with an interpreter, to know
their minds, and to propose the usual terms. When these were
rejected, the Saracens would willingly have assaulted the town
forthwith, had not Yezid told them that the general had not
commanded them to make any assault, but only to sit down
before the city ; and thereupon sent to Abu Obeidah, who forth-
with gave them order to fight. The next morning the generals
having said the morning prayer, each at the head of his re-
spective division, they all, as it were with one consent, quoted
this versicle out of the Koran, as being very apposite and perti-
nent to their present purpose: "O people! enter ye into the
holy land which God hath decreed for you," being the twenty-
fourth verse of the fifth chapter of the Koran, where the im-
postor introduces Moses speaking to the children of Israel, and
which words the Saracens dexterously interpreted as belonging
no less to themselves than to their predecessors, the Israelites.
Nor have our own parts of the world been altogether destitute
of such able expositors, who apply to themselves, without limi-
tation or exception, whatever in Scripture is graciously expressed
in favor of the people of God; while whatever is said of the
wicked and ungodly, and of all the terrors and judgments de-
nounced against them, they bestow with a liberal hand upon
their neighbors. After their prayers were over, the Saracens
began their assault. The lerosolymites never flinched, but
sent them showers of arrows from the walls, and maintained

26o THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA

the fight with undaunted courage till the evening. Thus they
continued fighting ten days, and on the eleventh Abu Obeidah
came up with the remainder of the army. He had not been
there long before he sent the besieged the following letter:

"In the name of the most merciful God.

" From Abu Obeidah Ebn Aljerahh, to the chief commanders
of the people of ^Elia and the inhabitants thereof, health and
happiness to everyone that follows the right way and believes
in God and the apostle. We require of you to testify that there
is but one God, and Mahomet is his apostle, and that there
shall be a day of judgment, when God shall raise the dead out
of their sepulchres; and when you have borne witness to this,
it is unlawful for us either to shed your blood or meddle with
your sustenance or children. If you refuse this, consent to pay
tribute and be under us forthwith; otherwise I shall bring men
against you who love death better than you do the drinking
of wine, or eating hogs' flesh: nor will I ever stir from you, if
it please God, till I have destroyed those that fight for you and
made slaves of your children."

The eating swine's flesh and drinking wine are both for-
bidden in the Koran, which occasioned that reflection of Abu
Obeidah upon the practice of the Christians. The besieged,
not a whit daunted, held out four whole months entire, during all
which time not one day passed without fighting; and it being
winter time, the Saracens suffered a great deal of hardships
through the extremity of the weather. At last, when the be-
sieged had well considered the obstinacy of the Saracens; who,
they had good reason to believe, would never raise the siege till
they had taken the city, whatever time it took up or whatever
pains it might cost them, Sophronius the patriarch went to
the wall, and by an interpreter discoursed with Abu Obeidah,
telling him that Jerusalem was the holy city, and whoever came
into the Holy Land with any hostile intent would render him-
self obnoxious to the divine displeasure. To which Abu Obeidah
answered : "We know that it is a noble city, and that our prophet
Mahomet went from it in one night to heaven, and approached
within two bows' shot of his Lord, or nearer; and that it is the

mine of the prophets, and their sepulchres are in it. But we
are more worthy to have possession of it than you are; neither
will we leave besieging it till God delivers it up to us, as he hath
done other places before it." At last the patriarch consented
that the city should be surrendered upon condition that the
inhabitants received the articles of their security and protection
from the Caliph's own hands, and not by proxy. Accordingly,
Abu Obeidah wrote to Omar to come, whereupon he advised
with his friends. Othman, who afterward succeeded him in
the government, dissuaded him from going, in order that the
lerosolymites might see that they were despised and beneath
his notice. Ali was of a very different opinion, urging that the
Mussulmans had endured great hardship in so long a siege,
and suffered much from the extremity of the cold; that the
presence of the Caliph would be a great refreshment and encour-
agement to them, and adding that the great respect which the
Christians had for Jerusalem, as being the place to which they
went on pilgrimage, ought to be considered; that it ought not
to be supposed that they would easily part with it, but that it
would soon be reinforced with fresh supplies. This advice of
Ali being preferred to Othman's, the Caliph resolved upon his
journey; which, according to his frugal style of living, required
no great expense or equipage. When he had said his prayers
in the mosque and paid his respects at Mahomet's tomb, he
appointed Ali his substitute, and set forward with a small
retinue, the greatest part of which, having kept him company a
little way, returned back to Medina.

Omar, having all the way he went set things aright that
were amiss,. and distributed justice impartially, for which he
was singularly eminent among the Saracens, came at last into
the confines of Syria; and when he drew near Jerusalem he
was met by Abu Obeidah, and conducted to the Saracen camp,
where he was welcomed with the liveliest demonstrations of joy.

As soon as he came within sight of the city he cried out, "Al-
lah acbar [O God], give us an easy conquest." Pitching his
tent, which was made of hair, he sat down in it upon the ground.
The Christians hearing that Omar was come, from whose hands
they were to receive their articles, desired to confer with him
personally; upon which the Mussulmans would have persuaded

262 THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA

him not to expose his person for fear of some treachery. But
Omar resolutely answered, in the words of the Koran: "Say,
' There shall nothing befall us but what God hath decreed for
us; he is our Lord, and in God let all the believers put their
trust.'" After a brief parley the besieged capitulated, and
those articles of agreement made by Omar with the lerosolymites
are, as it were, the pattern which the Mahometan princes have
chiefly imitated.

The articles were these: "i. The Christians shall build no
new churches, either in the city or the adjacent territory. 2.
They shall not refuse the Mussulmans entrance into their
churches, either by night or day. 3. They should set open the
doors of them to all passengers and travellers. 4. If any Mus-
sulman should be upon a journey, they shall be obliged to
entertain him gratis for the space of three days. 5. They should
not teach their children the Koran, nor talk openly of their
religion, nor persuade anyone to be of it; neither should they
hinder any of their relations from becoming Mahometans, if
they had an inclination to it. 6. They shall pay respect to the
Mussulmans, and if they were sitting rise up to them. 7. They
should not go like the Mussulmans in their dress, nor wear the
same caps, shoes, nor turbans, nor part their hair as they do,
nor speak after the same manner, nor be called by the names
used by the Mussulmans. 8. They shall not ride upon saddles,
nor bear any sort of arms, nor use the Arabic tongue in the in-
scriptions of their seals. 9. They shall not sell any wine. 10.
They shall be obliged to keep to the same sort of habit where-
soever they went, and always wear girdles upon their waists,
n. They shall set no crosses upon their churches, nor show
their crosses nor their books openly in the streets of the Mussul-
mans. 12. They shall not ring, but only toll their bells; nor
shall they take any servant that had once belonged to the Mus-
sulmans. 13. They shall not overlook the Mussulmans in
their houses : and some say that Omar commanded the inhab-
itants of Jerusalem to have the foreparts of their heads shaved,
and obliged them to ride upon their pannels sideways, and not
like the Mussulmans."

Upon these terms the Christians had liberty of conscience,
paying such tribute as their masters thought fit to impose upon

THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA 263

them; and Jerusalem, once the glory of the East, was forced
to submit to a heavier yoke than ever it had borne before. For
though the number of the slain and the calamities of the be-
sieged were greater when it was taken by the Romans, yet the
servitude of those that survived was nothing comparable to
this, either in respect of the circumstances or the duration.
For however it might seem to be utterly ruined and destroyed
by Titus, yet by Hadrian's time it had greatly recovered itself.
Now it fell, as it were, once for all, into the hands of the most
mortal enemies of the Christian reh'gion, and has continued so
ever since, with the exception of a brief interval of about ninety
years, during which it was held by the Christians in the holy
war.

The Christians having submitted on these terms, Omar
gave them the following writing under his hand :

"In the name of the most merciful God.

"From Omar Ebn Al Khattab, to the inhabitants of ^Elia.
They shall be protected and secured both in their lives and
fortunes, and their churches shall neither be pulled down nor
made use of by any but themselves."

Upon this the gates were immediately opened, and the
Caliph and those that were with him marched in. The Patriarch
kept them company, and the Caliph talked with him familiarly,
and asked him many questions concerning the antiquities of
the place. Among other places which they visited, they went
into the Temple of the Resurrection, and Omar sat down in
the midst of it. When the time of prayers was come (the Ma-
hometans have five set times of prayer in a day), Omar told
the patriarch that he had a mind to pray, and desired him to
show him a place where he might perform his devotion. The
Patriarch bade him pray where he was; but this he positively
refused. Then taking him out from thence, the Patriarch went
with him into Constantine's Church, and laid a mat for him to
pray there, but he would not. At last he went alone to the steps
which were at the east gate of St. Constantine's Church, and
kneeled by himself upon one of them. Having ended his
prayers, he sat down and asked the Patriarch if he knew why

264 THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA

he had refused to pray in the church. The Patriarch confessed
that he could not tell what were his reasons. "Why, then,"
says Omar, "I will tell you. You know I promised you that
none of your churches should be taken away from you, but
that you should possess them quietly yourselves. Now if I had
prayed in any one of these churches, the Mussulmans would in-
fallibly take it away from you as soon as I had departed home-
ward. And notwithstanding all you might allege, they would
say, This is the place where Omar prayed, and we will pray here,
too. And so you would have been turned out of your church,
contrary both to my intention and your expectation. But be-
cause my praying even on the steps of one may perhaps give
some occasion to the Mussulmans to cause you disturbance on
this account, I shall take what care I can to prevent that."
So calling for pen, ink, and paper, he expressly commanded
that none of the Mussulmans should pray upon the steps in any
multitudes, but one by one. That they should never meet there
to go to prayers; and that the muezzin, or crier, that calls the
people to prayers (for the Mahometans never use bells), should
not stand there. This paper he gave to the patriarch for a
security, lest his praying upon the steps of the church should
have set such an example to the Mussulmans as might occasion
any inconvenience to the Christians — a noble instance of sin-
gular fidelity and the religious observance of a promise. This
Caliph did not think it enough to perform what he engaged
himself, but used all possible diligence to oblige others to do so
too. And when the unwary patriarch had desired him to pray
in the church, little considering what might be the consequence,
the Caliph, well knowing how apt men are to be superstitious
in the imitation of their princes and great men, especially such
as they look upon to be successors of a prophet, made the best
provision he could, that no pretended imitation of him might
lead to the infringement of the security he had already given.

In the same year that Jerusalem was taken, Said Ebn Abi
Wakkas, one of Omar's captains, was making fearful havoc
in the territories of Persia. He took Madayen, formerly the treas-
ury and magazine of Khusrau (Cosroes), King of Persia; where
he found money and rich furniture of all sorts, inestimable. El-
makin says that they found there no less than three thousand

THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA 265

million of ducats, besides Khusrau's crown and wardrobe, which
was exceedingly rich, his clothes being all adorned with gold
and jewels of great value. Then they opened the roof of Khus-
rau's porch, where they found another considerable sum. They
also plundered his armory, which was well stored with all sorts
of weapons. Among other things they brought to Omar a piece
of silk hangings, sixty cubits square, all curiously wrought with
needle-work. That it was of great value appears from the
price which Ali had for that part of it which fell to his share
when Omar divided it; which, though it was none of the best,
yielded him twenty thousand pieces of silver. After this, in
the same year, the Persians were defeated by the Saracens in a
great battle near Jaloulah.

Omar, having taken Jerusalem, continued there about ten
days to put things in order.

Omar now thought of returning to Medina, having first
disposed his affairs after the following manner : Syria he divided
into two parts, and committed all that lies between Hauran
and Aleppo to Abu CJbeidah, with orders to make war upon it
till he had completely subdued it. Yezid Ebn Abu Sofian was to
take the charge of all Palestine and the sea-shore. Amrou Ebn
Al Aas was sent to invade Egypt, no inconsiderable part of the
Emperor's dominions, which were now continually mouldering
away. The Saracens at Medina had almost given Omar over,
and began to conclude that he would never stir from Jerusalem,
but be won to stay there from the richness of the country and
the sweetness of the air; but especially by the thought that it
was the country of the prophets and the Holy Land, and the
place where we must all be summoned together at the resur-
rection. At last he came, the more welcome the less he had
been expected. Abu Obeidah, in the mean time, reduced Kin-
nisrin and Alhadir, the inhabitants paying down five thousand
ounces of gold, and as many of silver, two thousand suits of
clothes of several sorts of silk, and five hundred asses' loads of
figs and olives. Yezid marched against Caesarea in vain, that
place being too well fortified to be taken by his little army,
especially since it had been reinforced by the Emperor, who had
sent a store of all sorts of provision by sea, and a reinforcement
to the garrison of two thousand men. The inhabitants of Aleppo

266 THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA

were much disheartened by the loss of Kinnisrin and Alhadir,
well knowing that it would not be long before their turn would
come to experience themselves what, till then, they had known
only by report. They had two governors, brothers, who dwelt
in the castle (the strongest in all Syria), which was not at that
time encompassed by the town, but stood out of it, at a little
distance. The name of one of these brethren, if my author
mistakes not, was Youkinna, the other John. Their father
held of the emperor Heraclius all the territory between Aleppo
and Euphrates, after whose decease Youkinna managed the
affairs; John, not troubling himself with secular employments,
did not meddle with the government, but led a monkish life,
spending his time in retirement, reading, and deeds of charity.
He tried to persuade his brother to secure himself, by compound-
ing with the Arabs for a good round sum of money ; but he told
him that he talked like a monk, and did not understand what
belonged to a soldier; that he had provisions and warlike
means enough, and was resolved to make the best resistance
he could. Accordingly the next day he called his men together,
among whom there were several Christian Arabs, and having
armed them, and for their encouragement distributed some
money among them, told them that he was fully purposed to
act offensively, and, if possible, give the Saracens battle before
they should come too near Aleppo. He was informed that the
Saracen army was divided and weakened, a part being gone to
Caesarea, another to Damascus, and a third into Egypt. Hav-
ing thus inspirited his men, he marched forward with twelve
thousand. Abu Obeidah had sent before him Kaab Ebn
Damarah with one thousand men, but with express orders not
to fight till he had received information of the strength of the
enemy. Youkinna's spies found Kaab and his men resting them-
selves and watering their horses, quite secure and free from
all apprehension of danger; upon which Youkinna laid an
ambuscade, and then, with the rest of his men, fell upon the
Saracens. The engagement was sharp, and the Saracens had
the best of it at first; but the ambuscade breaking in upon them,
they were in great danger of being overpowered with numbers;
one hundred and seventy of them being slain, and most of the
rest being grievously wounded that they were upon the very

THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA 267

brink of despair, and cried out, " Ya Mahomet! Ya Mahomet I"
("O Mahomet! O Mahomet!") However, with much diffi-
culty they made shift to hold up till night parted them, ear-
nestly expecting the coming of Abu Obeidah.

In the mean time while Youkinna was going out with his
forces to engage the Saracens, the wealthy and trading people
of Aleppo, knowing very well how hard it would go with them
if they should stand it out obstinately to the last and be taken
by storm, resolved upon debate to go and make terms with
Abu Obeidah, that, let Youkinna's success be what it would,
they might be secure.

As they were going back they chanced to meet with one of
Youkinna's officers, to whom they gave an account of the whole
transaction. Upon this he hastened with all possible speed to
his master, who was waiting with impatience for the morning,
that he might despatch Kaab and his men, whom the coming
of the night had preserved; but hearing this news he began to
fear lest an attempt should be made upon the castle in his ab-
sence, and thought it safest to make the best of his way home-
ward. In the morning the Saracens were surprised to see no
enemy, and wondered what was the matter with them. Kaab
would have pursued them, but none of his men had any inclina-
tion to go with him; so they rested themselves, and in a little
time Kaled and Abu Obeidah came up with the rest of the
army.

Abu Obeidah reminded Kaled of the obligation they were
under to protect the Aleppians, now their confederates, who were
likely to be exposed to the outrage and cruelty of Youkinna,
for, in all probability, he would severely resent their defection.
They therefore marched as fast as they could, and when they
drew near Aleppo found that they had not been at all wrong in
their apprehensions. Youkinna had drawn up his soldiers with
the design to fall upon the townsmen, and threatened them with
present death unless they would break their covenant with the
Arabs and go out with him to fight them, and unless they
brought out to him the first contriver and proposer of the con-
vention. At last he fell upon them in good earnest and killed
about three hundred of them. His brother John, who was in
the castle, hearing a piteous outcry and lamentation, came

268 THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA

down from the castle and entreated his brother to spare the
people, representing to him that Jesus Christ had commanded
us not to contend with our enemies, much less with those of
our own religion. Youkinna told him that they had agreed
with the Arabs and assisted them ; which John excused, telling
him, "That what they did was only for their own security,
because they were no fighting men." In short, he took their
part so long till he provoked his brother to that degree that he
charged him with being the chief contriver and manager of the
whole business ; and at last, in a great passion, cut his head off.
While he was murdering the unhappy Aleppians, Kaled (better
late than never) came to their relief. Youkinna, perceiving his
arrival, retired with a considerable number of soldiers into the
castle. The Saracens killed that day three thousand of his
men. However, he prepared himself to sustain a siege, and
planted engines upon the castle walls.

Abu Obeidah next deliberated in a council of war what
measures were most proper to be taken. Some were of opinion
that the best way would be to besiege the castle with some part
of the army, and let the rest be sent out to forage. Kaled would
not hear of it, but was for attacking the castle at once with their
whole force; that, if possible, it might be taken before fresh
supplies could arrive from the Emperor. This plan being
adopted, they made a vigorous assault, in which they had as
hard fighting as any in all the wars of Syria. The besieged
made a noble defence, and threw stones from the walls in such
plenty that a great many of the Saracens were killed and a
great many more maimed. Youkinna, encouraged with his
success, determined to act on the offensive and turn everything
to advantage. The Saracens looked upon all the country as
their own, and knowing that there was no army of the enemy
near them, and fearing nothing less than an attack from the
besieged, kept guard negligently. In the dead of night, there-
fore, Youkinna sent out a party who, as soon as the fires were
out in the camp, fell upon the Saracens, and having killed about
sixty, carried off fifty prisoners. Kaled pursued and cut off
about a hundred of them, but the rest escaped to the castle
with the prisoners, who by the command of Youkinna were the
next day beheaded in the sight of the Saracen army. Upon

THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA 269

this Youkinna ventured once more to send out another party,
having received information from one of his spies (most of
which were Christian Arabs) that some of the Mussulmans
were gone out to forage. They fell upon the Mussulmans,
killed a hundred and thirty of them, and seized all their camels,
mules, and horses, which they either killed or hamstrung, and
then they retired into the mountains, in hopes of lying hid during
the day and returning to the castle in the silence of the night.
In the mean time some that had escaped brought the news to
Abu Obeidah, who sent Kaled and Derar to pursue the Chris-
tians. Coming to the place of the fight, they found their men
and camels dead, and the country people making great lamen-
tation, for they were afraid lest the Saracens should suspect
them of treachery, and revenge upon them their loss. Falling
down before Kaled, they told him they were altogether innocent,
and had not in any way, either directly or indirectly, been in-
strumental in the attack; but that it was made solely by a party
of horse that sallied from the castle. Kaled, having made them
swear that they knew nothing more, and taking some of them
for guides, closely watched the only passage by which the
sallying party could return to the castle. When about a fourth
part of the night was passed, they perceived Youkinna's men
approaching, and, falling upon them, took three hundred pris-
oners and killed the rest. The prisoners begged to be allowed
to ransom themselves, but they were all beheaded the next
morning in front of the castle.

The Saracens pressed the siege for a while very closely, but
perceiving that they made no way, Abu Obeidah removed the
camp about a mile's distance from the castle, hoping by this
means to tempt the besieged to security and negligence in their
watch, which might eventually afford him an opportunity of
taking the castle by surprise. But all would not do, for Youkinna
kept a very strict watch and suffered not a man to stir out.

The siege continued four months, and some say five. In
the mean time Omar was very much concerned, having heard
nothing from the camp in Syria. He wrote, therefore, to Abu
Obeidah, letting him know how tender he was over the Mussul-
mans, and what a great grief it was to him to hear no news of
them for so long a time. Abu Obeidah answered that Kinnisrin,

270 THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA

Hader, and Aleppo were surrendered to him, only the castle of
Aleppo held out, and that they had lost a considerable number
of men before it; that he had some thoughts of raising the siege,
and passing forward into that part of the country which lies
between Aleppo and Antioch; but only he stayed for his answer.
About the time that Abu Obeidah's messengers reached Medina,
there also arrived a considerable number of men out of the
several tribes of the Arabs, to proffer their service to the Caliph.
Omar ordered seventy camels to help their foot, and despatched
them into Syria, with a letter to Abu Obeidah, in which he
acquainted him "that he was variously affected, according to
the different success they had met, but charged them by no
means to raise the siege of the castle, for that would make them
look little, and encourage their enemies to fall upon them on
all sides. Wherefore," adds he, "continue besieging it till God
shall determine the event, and forage with your horse round
about the country."

Among those fresh supplies which Omar had just sent to
the Saracen camp, there was a very remarkable man, whose
name was Dames, of a gigantic size, and an admirable soldier.
When he had been in the camp forty-seven days, and all the
force and cunning of the Saracens availed nothing toward taking
the castle, he desired Abu Obeidah to let him have the command
of thirty men, and he would try his best against it. Kaled had
heard much of the man, and told Abu Obeidah a long story of
a wonderful performance of this Dames in Arabia, and that he
looked upon him as a very proper person for such an under-
taking. Abu Obeidah selected thirty men to go with him, and
bade them not to despise their commander because of the mean-
ness of his condition, he being a slave, and swore that, but for
the care of the whole army which lay upon him, he would be
the first man that should go under him upon such an enterprise.
To which they answered with entire submission and profound
respect. Dames, who lay hid at no great distance, went out
several times, and brought in with him five or six Greeks, but
never a man of them understood one word of Arabic, which
made him angry and say: "God curse these dogs! What a
strange, barbarous language they use."

At last he went out again, and seeing a man descend from

THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA 271

the wall, he took him prisoner, and by the help of a Christian
Arab, whom he captured shortly afterward, examined him.
He learned from him that immediately upon the departure of
the Saracens, Youkinna began to ill use the townsmen who
had made the convention with the Arabs, and to exact large
sums of money of them; that he being one of them had en-
deavored to make his escape from the oppression and tyranny
of Youkinna, by leaping down from the wall. Upon this the
Saracens let him go, as being under their protection by virtue
of the articles made between Abu Obeidah and the Aleppians,
but beheaded all the rest.

In the evening, after having sent two of his men to Abu
Obeidah, requesting him to order a body of horse to move for-
ward to his support about sunrise, Dames has recourse to the
following stratagem : Taking out of a knapsack a goat's skin,
he covered with it his back and shoulders, and holding a dry
crust in his hand, he crept on all-fours as near to the castle as
he could. When he heard a noise, or suspected anyone to be
near, to prevent his being discovered he began to make a noise
with his crust, as a dog does when gnawing a bone; the rest of
his company came after him, sometimes skulking and creeping
along, at other times walking. When they came near to the
castle, it appeared almost inaccessible. However Dames was
resolved to make an attempt upon it. Having found a place
where the walls seemed easier to scale than elsewhere, he sat
down upon the ground, and ordered another to sit upon his
shoulders; and so on till seven of them had mounted up, each
sitting upon the other's shoulders, and all leaning against the
wall, so as to throw as much of their weight as possible upon it.
Then he that was uppermost of all stood upright upon the
shoulders of the second, next the second raised himself, and so
on, all in order, till at last Dames himself stood up, bearing the
weight of all the rest upon his shoulders, who however did all
they could to relieve him by bearing against the wall. By this
means the uppermost man could just make a shift to reach the
top of the wall, while in an undertone they all cried, " O apostle
of God, help us and deliver us!" When this man had got up
on the wall, he found a watchman drunk and asleep. Seizing
him hand and foot, he threw him down among the Saracens,

272 THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA

who immediately cut him to pieces. Two other sentinels, whom
he found in the same condition, he stabbed with his dagger and
threw down from the wall. He then let down his turban, and
drew up the second, they two the third, till at last Dames was
drawn up, who enjoined them to wait there in silence while he
went and looked about him. In this expedition he gained a
sight of Youkinna, richly dressed, sitting upon a tapestry of
scarlet silk flowered with gold, and a large company with him,
eating and drinking, and very merry. On his return he told his
men that because of the great inequality of their numbers, he
did not think it advisable to fall upon them then, but had rather
wait till break of day, at which time they might look for help from
the main body. In the mean time he went alone, and privately
stabbing the sentinels, and setting open the gates, came back
to his men, and bade them hasten to take possession of the gates.
This was not done so quietly, but they were at last taken notice
of and the castle alarmed. There was no hope of escape for
them, but everyone expected to perish. Dames behaved him-
self bravely, but, overpowered by superior numbers, he and his
men were no longer able to hold up, when, as the morning began
to dawn, Kaled came to their relief. As soon as the besieged
perceived the Saracens rushing in upon them, they threw down
their arms, and cried, "Quarter!" Abu Obeidah was not far
behind with the rest of the army. Having taken the castle, he
proposed Mohametanism to the Christians. The first that
embraced it was Youkinna, and his example was followed by
some of the chief men with him, who immediately had their
wives and children and all their wealth restored to them. Abu
Obeidah set the old and impotent people at liberty, and having
set apart the fifth of the spoil (which was of great value), divided
the rest among the Mussulmans. Dames was talked of and
admired by all, and Abu Obeidah, in order to pay him marked
respect, commanded the army to continue in their present
quarters till he and his men should be perfectly cured of their
wounds.

Obeidah's next thoughts, after the capture of the castle of
Aleppo, were to march to Antioch, then the seat of the Grecian
Emperor. But Youkinna, the late governor of the castle of
Aleppo, having, with the changing of his religion, become a

THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA 273

deadly enemy of the Christians, persuaded him to defer his
march to Antioch, till they had first taken the castle of Aa-
zaz.

The armies before Antioch were drawn out in battle array
in front of each other. The Christian general, whose name was
Nestorius, went forward and challenged any Saracen to single
combat. Dames was the first to answer him ; but in the engage-
ment, his horse stumbling, he was seized before he could recover
himself, and, being taken prisoner, was conveyed by Nestorius
to his tent and there bound. Nestorius, returning to the army
and offering himself a second time, was answered by one Dehac.
The combatants behaved themselves bravely, and, the victory
being doubtful, the soldiers were desirous of being spectators,
and pressed eagerly forward. In the jostling and thronging
both of horse and foot to see this engagement, the tent of Nesto-
rius, with his chair of state, was thrown down. Three servants
had been left in the tent, who, fearing they should be beaten
when their master came back, and having nobody else to help
them, told Dames that if he would lend them a hand to set up
the tent and put things in order they would unbind him, upon
condition that he should voluntarily return to his bonds again
till their master came home, at which time they promised to
speak a good word for him. He readily accepted the terms;
but as soon as he was at liberty he immediately seized two of
them, one hi his right hand, the other in his left, and dashed
their two heads so violently against the third man's that they all
three fell down dead upon the spot. Then opening a chest and
taking out a rich suit of clothes, he mounted a good horse of
Nestorius', and having wrapped up his face as well as he could
he made toward the Christian Arabs, where Jabalah, with the
chief of his tribe, stood on the left hand of Heraclius. In the
mean time Dehac and Nestorius, being equally matched, con-
tinued fighting till both their horses were quite tired out and
they were obliged to part by consent to rest themselves. Nes-
torius, returning to his tent, and finding things in such con-
fusion, easily guessed that Dames must be the cause of it. The
news flew instantly through all the army, and everyone was
surprised at the strangeness of the action. Dames, in the mean
time, had gotten among the Christian Arabs, and striking off
E., VOL. iv.— 18.

274 THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA

at one blow the man's head that stood next him, made a speedy
escape to the Saracens.

Antioch was not lost without a set battle; but through the
treachery of Youkinna and several other persons of note, to-
gether with the assistance of Derar and his company, who were
mixed with Youkinna's men, the Christians were beaten en-
tirely. The people of the town, perceiving the battle lost, made
agreement and surrendered, paying down three hundred thou-
sand ducats; upon which Abu Obeidah entered into Antioch
on Tuesday, being the 2ist day of August, A.D. 638.

Thus did that ancient and famous city, the seat of so many
kings and princes, fall into the hands of the infidels. The
beauty of the site and abundance of all things contributing to
delight and luxury were so great that Abu Obeidah, fearing his
Saracens should be effeminated with the delicacies of that
place, and remit their wonted vigor and bravery, durst not let
them continue there long. After a short halt of three days to
refresh his men, he again marched out of it.

Then he wrote a letter to the Caliph, in which he gave him
an account of his great success in taking the metropolis of Syria,
and of the flight of Heraclius to Constantinople, telling him
withal what was the reason why he stayed no longer there,
adding that the Saracens were desirous of marrying the Grecian
women, which he had forbidden. He was afraid, he said, lest
the love of the things of this world should take possession of
their hearts and draw them off from their obedience to God.

Constantine, the emperor Heraclius' son, guarded that part
of the country where Amrou lay, with a considerable army.
The weather was very cold, and the Christians were quite dis-
heartened, having been frequently beaten and discouraged with
the daily increasing power of the Saracens, so that a great many
grew weary of the service and withdrew from the army. Con-
stantine, having no hopes of victory, and fearing lest the Sara-
cens should seize Caesarea, took the opportunity of a tempest-
uous night to move off, and left his camp to the Saracens.
Amrou, acquainting Abu Obeidah with all that had happened,
received express orders to march directly to Caesarea, where he
promised to join him speedily, in order to go against Tripoli,
Acre, and Tyre. A short time after this, Tripoli was surprised

THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA 275

by the treachery of Youkinna, who succeeded in getting posses-
sion of it on a sudden, and without any noise. Within a few
days of its capture there arrived in the harbor about fifty ships
from Cyprus and Crete, with provisions and arms which were
to go to Constantine. The officers, not knowing that Tripoli
was fallen into the hands of new masters, made no scruple of
landing there, where they were courteously received by You-
kinna, who proffered the utmost of his service, and promised
to go along with them, but immediately seized both them and
their ships, and delivered the town into the hands of Kaled, who
was just come.

With these ships the traitor Youkinna sailed to Tyre, where
he told the inhabitants that he had brought arms and provisions
for Constantine's army; upon which he was kindly received,
and, landing, he was liberally entertained with nine hundred of
his men. But being betrayed by one of his own soldiers, he
and his crew were seized and bound, receiving all the while
such treatment from the soldiers as their villanous practices
well deserved. In the mean time Yezid Ebn Abu Sofian, being
detached by Abu Obeidah from the camp before Caesarea,
came within sight of Tyre. The governor upon this caused
Youkinna and his men to be conveyed to the castle, and there
secured, and prepared for the defence of the town. Perceiving
that Yezid had with him but two thousand men in all, he re-
solved to make a sally. In the mean time the rest of the inhabi-
tants ran up to the walls to see the engagement. While they
were fighting, Youkinna and his men were set at liberty by one
Basil, of whom they give the following account, viz. : That this
Basil going one day to pay a visit to Bahira the monk, the cara-
van of the Koreishites came by, with which were Kadija's
camels, under the care of Mahomet. As he looked toward the
caravan, he beheld Mahomet in the middle of it, and above
him there was a cloud to keep him from the sun. Then the
caravan having halted, as Mahomet leaned against an old,
withered tree, it immediately brought forth leaves. Bahira,
perceiving this, made an entertainment for the caravan, and
invited them into the monastery. They all went, leaving Ma-
homet behind with the camels. Bahira, missing him, asked if
they were all present. "Yes," they said, "all but a little boy

276 THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA

we have left to look after their things and feed the camels."
" What is his name ? " says Bahira. They told him, " Mahomet
Ebn Abdallah." Bahira asked if his father and mother were
not both dead, and if he was not brought up by his grandfather
and his uncle. Being informed that it was so, he said: "O
Koreish! Set a high value upon him, for he is your lord, and
by him will your power be great both in this world and that to
come; for he is your ornament and glory." When they asked
him how he knew that, Bahira answered, " Because as you were
coming, there was never a tree nor stone nor clod but bowed
itself and worshipped God." Moreover, Bahira told this Basil
that a great many prophets had leaned against this tree and sat
under it since it was first withered, but that it never bore any
leaves before. And I heard him say, says this same Basil:
"This is the prophet concerning whom Isa (Jesus) spake.
Happy is he that believes in him and follows him and gives
credit to his mission." This Basil, after the visit to Bahira,
had gone to Constantinople and other parts of the Greek Em-
peror's territories, and upon information of the great success
of the followers of this prophet was abundantly convinced of
the truth of his mission. This inclined him, having so fair an
opportunity offered, to release Youkinna and his men; who,
sending word to the ships, the rest of their forces landed and
joined them. In the mean time a messenger in disguise was sent
to acquaint Yezid with what was done. As soon as he returned,
Youkinna was for falling upon the townsmen upon the wall;
but Basil said, "Perhaps God might lead some of them into
the right way," and persuaded him to place the men so as to
prevent their coming down from the wall. This done, they
cried out, "La Ilaha," etc. The people, perceiving themselves
betrayed and the prisoners at liberty, were in the utmost con-
fusion, none of them being able to stir a step or lift up a hand.
The Saracens in the camp, hearing the noise in the city, knew
what it meant, and, marching up, Youkinna opened the gates
and let them in. Those that were in the city fled, some one way
and some another, and were pursued by the Saracens and
put to the sword. Those upon the wall cried, "Quarter!" but
Yezid told them that since they had not surrendered, but
the city was taken by force, they were all slaves. "However,"

THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA 277

said he, "we of our own accord set you free, upon condition
you pay tribute; and if any of you has a mind to change his
religion, he shall fare as well as we do." The greatest part of
them turned Mahometans. When Constantine heard of the
loss of Tripoli and Tyre his heart failed him, and taking ship-
ping with his family and the greater part of his wealth he de-
parted for Constantinople. All this while Amrou ben-el-Ass
lay before Caesarea. In the morning when the people came to
inquire after Constantine, and could hear no tidings of him
nor his family, they consulted together, and with one consent
surrendered the city to Amrou, paying down for their security
two thousand pieces of silver, and delivering into his hands all
that Constantine had been obliged to leave behind him of his
property. Thus was Caesarea lost in the year of our Lord 638,
being the seventeenth year of the Hegira and the fifth of
Omar's reign, which answers to the twenty-ninth year of the
emperor Heraclius. After the taking of Caesarea all the other
places in Syria which as yet held out, namely, Ramlah, Acre,
Joppa, Ascalon, Gaza, Sichem (or Nablos), and Tiberias, sur-
rendered, and in a little time after the people of Beiro Zidon,
Jabalah, and Laodicea followed their example; so that there
remained nothing more for the Saracens to do in Syria, who,
in little more than six years from the time of their first expe-
dition in Abu-Beker's reign, had succeeded in subduing the whole
of that large, wealthy, and populous country.

Syria did not remain long in the possession of those persons
who had the chief hand in subduing it, for in the eighteenth
year of the Hegira the mortality in Syria, both among men
and beasts, was so terrible, particularly at Emaus and the
adjacent territory, that the Arabs called that year the year of
destruction. By that pestilence the Saracens lost five-and-twenty
thousand men, among whom were Abu Obeidah, who was then
fifty-eight years old; Serjabil Ebn Hasanah, formerly Mahomet's
secretary; and Yezid Ebn Abu Sofian, with several other officers
of note. Kaled survived them about three years, and then died ;
but the place of his burial — consequently of his death, for they
did not use in those days to carry them far — is uncertain; some
say at Hems, others at Medina.

SARACENS CONQUER EGYPT

DESTRUCTION OF THE LIBRARY AT
ALEXANDRIA

A.D. 640

WASHINGTON IRVING

Who shall estimate the loss to civilization and the world that has been
caused by the destruction of accumulated stores of books, through the
crass ignorance or stupid bigotry of benighted rulers? The chronicles
record a number of such vandal acts. Hwangti, one of China's greatest
monarchs, he who built the Great Wall of China, attempted the complete
extinction of literature in that country, B.C. 213. That prince, being at
one time strongly opposed by certain men of letters, expressed his hatred
and contempt, not only of the literary class, but of literature itself, and
resorted to extreme measures of coercion. All books were proscribed,
and orders issued to burn every work except those relating to medicine,
agriculture, and science. The destruction was carried out with terrible
completeness. The burning of the books was accompanied by the execu-
tion of five hundred of the literati and by the banishment of many thou-
sands.

The destruction of the Alexandrian Library, by command of Omar,
was as complete as the extinction of literature in China by Hwangti, as
head of the Moslem religion.

Omar, using the intrepid Amru, was vicariously proselyting in true
Mahometan style — in one hand offering the Koran, the while the other
extended the sword.

After a successful campaign in Palestine, Omar's victorious banners
were planted in the historic soil of the Pharaohs. A protracted siege of
seven months found Amru master of the royal city of Alexandria. The
library there was famed as the greatest magazine of literature. But this
availed nothing with the ruthless Omar, for he doomed it to annihila-
tion.

Prof. Thomas Smith says : " The library had been collected at fabu-
lous expense of labor and money, from all countries of the world. Its
destruction was a wanton act; but its perpetrator showed, like the Mov-
ing spouse ' of another noted personage, that 'though on pleasure he was
bent, he had a frugal mind.' He did not consume the books on their
shelves, or in whatever repositories contained them, although doubtless
they would have made a beautiful blaze. He utilized them as fuel for

278

THE SARACENS CONQUER EGYPT 279

heating the baths of the city ; and we are told that they sufficed to heat the
water for four thousand such baths for six months. With an average
share of persuasibility, when it is not against our will to be convinced, we
stagger at the statement that seven hundred and thirty thousand furnaces
• could have been supplied with fuel from the contents of even that mag-
nificent palace, and therefore venture to suggest that the papyri and palm-
leaf manuscripts were used rather as fire-lighters than as fuel. Even this
is a rather large order; but undoubtedly the collection was enormous.
The reason tradition ascribes to Omar for this act has never, so far as we
know, been disputed till quite recently, when ' historical criticism ' has
taken it in hand. 'The contents of these books are either in accordance
with the teaching of the Koran or they are opposed to it. If in accord,
then they are useless, since the Koran itself is sufficient ; and if in oppo-
sition, they are pernicious and must be destroyed.'

" But the piecemeal destruction of many hundreds of thousands of
manuscripts was no trifling task, even for a despotic caliph. A few es-
caped their doom ; how, we do not know. Perhaps some officer an-
nexed for himself some manuscript that struck him as specially beautiful ;
or perhaps some stoker at some bath rejected one as slow of ignition.
At all events a few— probably very few — were preserved, and among
them must have been copies of the writings of Euclid and Ptolemy, the
Elements of the one, the Almagest of the other."

A PROOF of the religious infatuation, or the blind confi-
dence in destiny, which hurried the Moslem commanders of
those days into the most extravagant enterprises, is furnished in
the invasion of the once proud empire of the Pharaohs, the
mighty, the mysterious Egypt, with an army of merely five
thousand men. The caliph Omar himself, though he had
suggested this expedition, seems to have been conscious of its
rashness, or rather to have been chilled by the doubts of his
prime counsellor Othman; for, while Amru was on the march,
he despatched missives after him to the following effect: "If
this epistle reach thee before thou hast crossed the boundary of
Egypt, come instantly back ; but if it find thee within the Egyp-
tian territory, march on with the blessing of Allah, and be
assured I will send thee all necessary aid."

The bearer of the letter overtook Amru while yet within the
bounds of Syria; that wary general either had secret informa-
tion or made a shrewd surmise as to the purport of his errand,
and continued his march across the border without admitting
him to an audience. Having encamped at the Egyptian village
of Arish, he received the courier with all due respect, and read

28o THE SARACENS CONQUER EGYPT

the letter aloud in the presence of his officers. When he had
finished, he demanded of those about him whether they were
in Syria or Egypt. "In Egypt," was the reply. "Then," said
Amru, "we will proceed, with the blessing of Allah, and fulfil
the commands of the Caliph."

The first place to which he laid siege was Farwak, or Pe-
lusium, situated on the shores of the Mediterranean, on the
isthmus which separates that sea from the Arabian Gulf, and
connects Egypt with Syria and Arabia. It was therefore con-
sidered the key to Egypt. A month's siege put Amru in pos-
session of the place; he then examined the surrounding country
with more forethought than was generally manifested by the
Moslem conquerors, and projected a canal across the isthmus,
to connect the waters of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.
His plan, however, was condemned by the Caliph as calcu-
lated to throw open Arabia to a maritime invasion of the Chris-
tians.

Amru now proceeded to Misrah, the Memphis of the an-
cients, and residence of the early Egyptian kings. This city was
at that time the strongest fortress in Egypt, except Alexandria,
and still retained much of its ancient magnificence. It stood
on the western bank of the Nile, above the Delta, and a little
east of the pyramids. The citadel was of great strength and
well garrisoned, and had recently been surrounded with a deep
ditch, into which nails and spikes had been thrown, to impede
assailants.

The Arab armies, rarely provided with the engines necessary
for the attack of fortified places, generally beleaguered them,
cut off all supplies, attacked all foraging parties that sallied
forth, and thus destroyed the garrison in detail or starved it
to a surrender. This was the reason of the long duration of
their sieges. This of Misrah, or Memphis, lasted seven months,
in the course of which the little army of Amru was much re-
duced by frequent skirmishings. At the end of this time he
received a reinforcement of four thousand men, sent to him at
his urgent entreaties by the Caliph. Still his force would have
been insufficient for the capture of the place had he not been
aided by the treachery of its governor, Mokawkas.

This man, an original Egyptian, or Copt, by birth, and of

THE SARACENS CONQUER EGYPT 281

noble rank, was a profound hypocrite. Like most of the Copts,
he was of the Jacobite sect, who denied the double nature of
Christ. He had dissembled his sectarian creed, however, and
deceived the emperor Heraclius by a show of loyalty, so as to
be made prefect of his native province and governor of the
city. Most of the inhabitants of Memphis were Copts and Jac-
obite Christians, and held their Greek fellow-citizens, who
were of the regular Catholic Church of Constantinople, in great
antipathy.

Mokawkas, in the course of his administration, had collected,
by taxes and tribute, an immense amount of treasure, which
he had deposited in the citadel. He saw that the power of the
Emperor was coming to an end in this quarter, and thought
the present a good opportunity to provide for his own fortune.
Carrying on a secret correspondence with the Moslem general,
he agreed to betray the place into his hands on condition of
receiving the treasure as a reward for his treason. He accord-
ingly, at an appointed time, removed the greater part of the
garrison from the citadel to an island in the Nile. The fortress
was immediately assailed by Amru, at the head of his fresh
troops, and was easily carried by assault, the Copts rendering
no assistance.

The Greek soldiery, on the Moslem standard being hoisted
on the citadel, saw through the treachery, and, giving up all as
lost, escaped in their ships to the mainland; upon which the
prefect surrendered the place by capitulation. An annual trib-
ute of two ducats a head was levied on all the inhabitants of the
district, with the exception of old men, women, and boys under
the age of sixteen years. It was further conditioned that the
Moslem army should be furnished with provisions, for which
they would pay, and that the inhabitants of the country should
forthwith build bridges over all the streams on the way to Alex-
andria. It was also agreed that every Mussulman travelling
through the country should be entitled to three days' hospitality,
free of charge.

The traitor Mokawkas was put in possession of his ill-gotten
wealth. He begged of Amru to be taxed with the Copts and
always to be enrolled among them, declaring his abhorrence of
the Greeks and their doctrines; urging Amru to persecute them

282 THE SARACENS CONQUER EGYPT

with unremitting violence. He extended his sectarian bigotry
even into the grave, stipulating that at his death he should be
buried in the Christian Jacobite church of St. John at Alex-
andria.

Amru, who was politic as well as brave, seeing the irrecon-
cilable hatred of the Coptic or Jacobite Christians to the
Greeks, showed some favor to that sect, in order to make use
of them in his conquest of the country. He even prevailed upon
their patriarch Benjamin to emerge from his desert and hold a
conference with him, and subsequently declared that "he had
never conversed with a Christian priest of more innocent man-
ners or venerable aspect." This piece of diplomacy had its
effect, for we are told that all the Copts above and below Mem-
phis swore allegiance to the Caliph.

Amru now pressed on for the city of Alexandria, distant
about one hundred and twenty-five miles. According to stipu-
lation, the people of the country repaired the roads and erected
bridges to facilitate his march; the Greeks, however, driven
from various quarters by the progress of their invaders, had
collected at different posts on the island of the Delta and the
channels of the Nile, and disputed with desperate but fruitless
obstinacy the onward course of the conquerors. The severest
check was given at Keram al Shoraik, by the late garrison of
Memphis, who had fortified themselves there after retreating
from the island of the Nile. For three days did they maintain
a gallant conflict with the Moslems, and then retired in good
order to Alexandria. With all the facilities furnished to them
on their march, it cost the Moslems two-and-twenty days to
fight their way to that great city.

Alexandria now lay before them, the metropolis of wealthy
Egypt, the emporium of the East, a place strongly fortified,
stored with all the munitions of war, open by sea to all kinds
of supplies and reinforcements, and garrisoned by Greeks, ag-
gregated from various quarters, who here were to make the
last stand for their Egyptian empire. It would seem that noth-
ing short of an enthusiasm bordering on madness could have
led Amru and his host on an enterprise against this powerful
city.

The Moslem leader, on planting his standard before the

THE SARACENS CONQUER EGYPT 283

place, summoned it to surrender on the usual terms, which
being promptly refused, he prepared for a vigorous siege. The
garrison did not wait to be attacked, but made repeated sallies
and fought with desperate valor. Those who gave greatest
annoyance to the Moslems were their old enemies, the Greek
troops from Memphis. Amru, seeing that the greatest defence
was from a main tower, or citadel, made a gallant assault upon
it and carried it, sword in hand. The Greek troops, however,
rallied to that point from all parts of the city; the Moslems,
after a furious struggle, gave way, and Amru, his faithful
slave Werdan, and one of his generals, named Moslema Ibn al
Mokalled, fighting to the last, were surrounded, overpowered,
and taken prisoners.

The Greeks, unaware of the importance of their captives,
led them before the governor. He demanded of them, haugh-
tily, what was their object in thus overrunning the world and
disturbing the quiet of peaceable neighbors. Amru made the
usual reply that they came to spread the faith of Islam; and
that it was their intention, before they laid by the sword, to
make the Egyptians either converts or tributaries. The bold-
ness of his answer and the loftiness of his demeanor awakened
the suspicions of the governor, who, supposing him to be a war-
rior of note among the Arabs, ordered one of his guards to
strike off his head. Upon this Werdan, the slave, understand-
ing the Greek language, seized his master by the collar, and,
giving him a buffet on the cheek, called him an impudent dog,
and ordered him to hold his peace, and let his superiors speak.
Moslema, perceiving the meaning of the slave, now interposed,
and made a plausible speech to the governor, telling him that
Amru had thoughts of raising the siege, having received a
letter to that effect from the Caliph, who intended to send am-
bassadors to treat for peace, and assuring the governor that, if
permitted to depart, they would make a favorable report to
Amru.

The governor, who, if Arabian chronicles may be believed
on this point, must have been a man of easy faith, ordered the
prisoners to be set at liberty; but the shouts of the besieging
army on the safe return of their general soon showed him how
completely he had been duped.

284 THE SARACENS CONQUER EGYPT

But scanty details of the siege of Alexandria have reached
the Christian reader, yet it was one of the longest, most ob-
stinately contested, and sanguinary in the whole course of the
Moslem wars. It endured fourteen months with various suc-
cess; the Moslem army was repeatedly reinforced and lost
twenty-three thousand men. At length their irresistible ardor
and perseverance prevailed; the capital of Egypt was con-
quered and the Greek inhabitants were dispersed in all direc-
tions. Some retreated in considerable bodies into the interior
of the country, and fortified themselves in strongholds; others
took refuge in the ships and put to sea.

Amru, on taking possession of the city, found it nearly
abandoned; he prohibited his troops from plundering, and,
leaving a small garrison to guard the place, hastened with his
main army in pursuit of the fugitive Greeks. In the mean time
the ships, which had taken off a part of the garrison, were still
lingering on the coast, and tidings reached them that the Mos-
lem general had departed and had left the captured city nearly
defenceless. They immediately made sail back for Alexandria,
and entered the port in the night. The Greek soldiers surprised
the sentinels, got possession of the city, and put most of the
Moslems they found there to the sword.

Amru was in full pursuit of the Greek fugitives when he
heard of the recapture of the city. Mortified at his own neg-
ligence in leaving so rich a conquest with so slight a guard, he
returned in all haste, resolved to retake it by storm. The
Greeks, however, had fortified themselves strongly in the
castle and made stout resistance. Amru was obliged, there-
fore, to besiege it a second time, but the siege was short. The
castle was carried by assault; many of the Greeks were cut to
pieces, the rest escaped once more to their ships and now gave
up the capital as lost. All this occurred in the nineteenth year
of the Hegira, and the year 640 of the Christian era.

On this second capture of the city by force of arms, and
without capitulation, the troops were clamorous to be permit-
ted to plunder. Amru again checked their rapacity, and com-
manded that all persons and property in the place should re-
main inviolate, until the will of the Caliph could be known.
So perfect was his command over his troops that not the most

THE SARACENS CONQUER EGYPT 285

trivial article was taken. His letter to the Caliph shows what
must have been the population and splendor of Alexandria,
and the luxury and effeminacy of its inhabitants at the time
of the Moslem conquest. It states the city to have contained
four thousand palaces, five thousand baths, four hundred thea-
tres and places of amusement, twelve thousand gardeners
which supply it with vegetables, and forty thousand tributary
Jews. It was impossible, he said, to do justice to its riches
and magnificence. He had hitherto held it sacred from plun-
der, but his troops, having won it by force of arms, considered
themselves entitled to the spoils of victory.

The caliph Omar, hi reply, expressed a high sense of his
important services, but reproved him for even mentioning the
desire of the soldiery to plunder so rich a city, one of the great-
est emporiums of the East. He charged him, therefore, most
rigidly to watch over the rapacious propensities of his men; to
prevent all pillage, violence, and waste; to collect and make
out an account of all moneys, jewels, household furniture, and
everything else that was valuable, to be appropriated toward
defraying the expenses of this war of the faith. He ordered
the tribute also, collected in the conquered country, to be treas-
ured up at Alexandria for the supplies of the Moslem troops.

The surrender of all Egypt followed the capture of its capi-
tal. A tribute of two ducats was laid on every male of mature
age, besides a tax on all lands in proportion to their value, and
the revenue which resulted to the Caliph is estimated at twelve
millions of ducats.

It is well known that Amru was a poet in his youth ; and
throughout all his campaigns he manifested an intelligent and
inquiring spirit, if not more highly informed, at least more
liberal and extended in its views than was usual among the
early Moslem conquerors. He delighted, in his hours of
leisure, to converse with learned men, and acquire through
their means such knowledge as had been denied to him by
the deficiency of his education. Such a companion he found
at Alexandria in a native of the place, a Christian of the sect
of the Jacobites, eminent for his philological researches, his
commentaries on Moses and Aristotle, and his laborious trea-
tises of various kinds, surnamed Philoponus, from his love of

286 THE SARACENS CONQUER EGYPT

study, but commonly known by the name of John the Gram-
marian.

An intimacy soon arose between the Arab conqueror and
the Christian philologist; an intimacy honorable to Amru,
but destined to be lamentable in its result to the cause of let-
ters. In an evil hour, John the Grammarian, being encour-
aged by the favor shown him by the Arab general, revealed to
him a treasure hitherto unnoticed, or rather unvalued, by the
Moslem conquerors. This was a vast collection of books or
manuscripts, since renowned in history as the Alexandrian
Library. Perceiving that in taking an account of everything
valuable in the city, and sealing up all its treasures, Amru had
taken no notice of the books, John solicited that they might be
given to him. Unfortunately the learned zeal of the Gram-
marian gave a consequence to the books in the eyes of Amru,
and made him scrupulous of giving them away without per-
mission of the Caliph. He forthwith wrote to Omar, stating
the merits of John, and requesting to know whether the books
might be given to him. The reply of Omar was laconic, but fatal.
"The contents of those books," said he, "are in conformity with
the Koran, or they are not. If they are, the Koran is sufficient
without them; if they are not, they are pernicious. Let them,
therefore, be destroyed."

Amru, it is said, obeyed the order punctually. The books
and manuscripts were distributed as fuel among the five thou-
sand baths of the city; but so numerous were they that it took
six months to consume them. This act of barbarism, recorded
by Abulpharagius, is considered somewhat doubtful by Gib-
bon, in consequence of its not being mentioned by two of the
most ancient chroniclers, Elmacin in his Saracenic history, and
Eutychius in his annals, the latter of whom was patriarch of
Alexandria and has detailed the conquest of that city. It is
inconsistent, too, with the character of Amru as a poet and a
man of superior intelligence; and it has recently been reported,
we know not on what authority, that many of the literary
treasures thus said to have been destroyed do actually exist
in Constantinople. Their destruction, however, is generally
credited and deeply deplored by historians. Amru, as a man
of genius and intelligence, may have grieved at the order of the

THE SARACENS CONQUER EGYPT 287

Caliph, while, as a loyal subject and faithful soldier, he felt
bound to obey it.

The fall of Alexandria decided the fate of Egypt and like-
wise that of the emperor Heraclius. He was already afflicted
with a dropsy, and took the loss of his Syrian and now that of
his Egyptian dominions so much to heart that he underwent
a paroxysm, which ended in his death, about seven weeks after
the loss of his Egyptian capital. He was succeeded by his son
Constantine.

While Amru was successfully extending his conquests, a
great dearth and famine fell upon all Arabia, insomuch that
the caliph Omar had to call upon him for supplies from the
fertile plains of Egypt; whereupon Amru despatched such a
train of camels laden with grain that it is said, when the first
of the line had reached the city of Medina, the last had not yet
left the land of Egypt. But this mode of conveyance proving
too tardy, at the command of the Caliph he dug a canal of
communication from the Nile to the Red Sea, a distance of
eighty miles, by which provisions might be conveyed to the
Arabian shores. This canal had been commenced by Trajan,
the Roman emperor.

The able and indefatigable Amru went on in this manner,
executing the commands and fulfilling the wishes of the Ca-
liph, and governed the country he had conquered with such
sagacity and justice that he rendered himself one of the most
worthily renowned among the Moslem generals.

The life and reign of the caliph Omar, distinguished by
such great and striking events, were at length brought to a sud-
den and sanguinary end. Among the Persians who had been
brought as slaves to Medina, was one named Firuz, of the sect
of the Magi, or fire- worshippers. Being taxed daily by his
master two pieces of silver out of his earnings, he complained
of it to Omar as an extortion. The Caliph inquired into his
condition, and, finding that he was a carpenter, and expert in
the construction of windmills, replied that the man who ex-
celled in such a handicraft could well afford to pay two dirhems
a day. "Then," muttered Firuz, "I'll construct a windmill
for you that shall keep grinding until the day of judgment."
Omar was struck with his menacing air. " The slave threatens

288 THE SARACENS CONQUER EGYPT

me," said he, calmly. "If I were disposed to punish anyone
on suspicion, I should take off his head " ; he suffered him,
however, to depart without further notice.

Three days afterward, as he was praying in the mosque,
Firuz entered suddenly and stabbed him thrice with a dagger.
The attendants rushed upon the assassin. He made furious
resistance, slew some and wounded others, until one of his
assailants threw his vest over him and seized him, upon which
he stabbed himself to the heart and expired. Religion may
have had some share in prompting this act of violence; per-
haps revenge for the ruin brought upon his native country.
"God be thanked," said Omar, "that he by whose hand it was
decreed I should fall was not a Moslem!"

The Caliph gathered strength sufficient to finish the prayer
in which he had been interrupted; "for he who deserts his
prayers," said he, "is not in Islam." Being taken to his
house, he languished three days without hope of recovery, but
could not be prevailed upon to nominate a successor. "I can-
not presume to do that," said he, "which the prophet himself
did not do." Some suggested that he should nominate his
son Abdallah. "Omar's family," said he, "has had enough
in Omar, and needs no more." He appointed a council of six
persons to determine as to the succession after his decease, all
of whom he considered worthy of the caliphate; though he
gave it as his opinion that the choice would be either Ali or
Othman. "Shouldst thou become caliph," said he to Ali,
"do not favor thy relatives above all others, nor place the house
of Haschem on the neck of all mankind " ; and he gave the same
caution to Othman in respect to the family of Omeya.

Ibn Abbas and Ali now spoke to him in words of comfort,
setting forth the blessings of Islam, which had crowned his
administration, and that he would leave no one behind him
who could charge him with injustice. "Testify this for me,"
said he, earnestly, "at the day of judgment." They gave him
their hands in promise; but he exacted that they should give
him a written testimonial, and that it should be buried with
him in the grave.

Having settled all his worldly affairs, and given directions
about his sepulture, he expired, the seventh day after his assas-

THE SARACENS CONQUER EGYPT 289

sination, in the sixty-third year of his age, after a triumphant
reign of ten years and six months.

Three days after the death of Omar, Othman Ibn Affan
was elected as his successor. He was seventy years of age at
the tune of his election. He was tall and swarthy, and his
long gray beard was tinged with henna. He was strict in
his religious duties, but prone to expense and lavish of his
riches.

"In the conquests of Syria, Persia, and Egypt," says a mod-
ern writer, "the fresh and vigorous enthusiasm of the personal
companions and proselytes of Mahomet was exercised and ex-
pended, and the generation of warriors whose simple fanati-
cism had been inflamed by the preaching of the pseudo-prophet
was La a great measure consumed in the sanguinary and per-
petual toils of ten arduous campaigns."

We shall now see the effect of those conquests on the na-
tional character and habits; the avidity of place and power
and wealth superseding religious enthusiasm; and the enervat-
ing luxury and soft voluptuousness of Syria and Persia sap-
ping the rude but masculine simplicity of the Arabian desert.
Above all, the single-mindedness of Mahomet and his two
immediate successors is at an end. Other objects besides the
mere advancement of Islamism distract the attention of its
leading professors; and the struggle for worldly wealth and
worldly sway, for the advancement of private ends, and the
aggrandizement of particular tribes and families, destroy the
unity of the empire, and beset the caliphate with intrigue,
treason, and bloodshed.

It was a great matter of reproach against the caliph Oth-
man that he was injudicious in his appointments, and had an
inveterate propensity to consult the interests of his relatives
and friends before that of the public. One of his greatest er-
rors in this respect was the removal of Amrou ben-el-Ass from
the government of Egypt, and the appointment of his own
foster-brother, Abdallah Ibn Saad, in his place. This was the
same Abdallah who, in acting as amanuensis to Mahomet, and
writing down his revelations, had interpolated passages of his
own, sometimes of a ludicrous nature. For this and for his
apostasy he had been pardoned by Mahomet at the solicitation
E., VOL. iv. — 19.

29o THE SARACENS CONQUER EGYPT

of Othman, and had ever since acted with apparent zeal, his
interest coinciding with his duty.

He was of a courageous spirit, and one of the most expert
horsemen of Arabia; but what might have fitted him to com-
mand a horde of the desert was insufficient for the govern-
ment of a conquered province. He was new and inexperienced
in his present situation; whereas Amru had distinguished him-
self as a legislator as well as a conqueror, and had already won
the affections of the Egyptians by his attention to their inter-
ests, and his respect for their customs and habitudes. His
dismission was, therefore, resented by the people, and a dis-
position was manifested to revolt against the new governor.

The emperor Constantine, who had succeeded to his father
Heraclius, hastened to take advantage of these circumstances.
A fleet and army were sent against Alexandria under a prefect
named Manuel. The Greeks in the city secretly cooperated
with him, and the metropolis was, partly by force of arms,
partly by treachery, recaptured by the imperialists without
much bloodshed.

Othman, made painfully sensible of the error he had com-
mitted, hastened to revoke the appointment of his foster-
brother, and reinstated Amru in the command in Egypt. That
able general went instantly against Alexandria with an army,
in which were many Copts, irreconcilable enemies of the
Greeks. Among these was the traitor Mokawkas, who, from
his knowledge of the country and his influence among its
inhabitants, was able to procure abundant supplies for the
army.

The Greek garrison defended the city bravely and obsti-
nately. Amru, enraged at having thus again to lay siege to a
place which he had twice already taken, swore, by Allah, that
if he should master it a third time, he would render it as easy
of access as a brothel. He kept his word, for when he took
the city he threw down the walls and demolished all the forti-
fications. He was merciful, however, to the inhabitants, and
checked the fury of the Saracens, who were slaughtering all
they met. A mosque was afterward erected on the spot at
which he stayed the carnage, called the Mosque of Mercy.
Manuel, the Greek general, found it expedient to embark

THE SARACENS CONQUER EGYPT 291

with all speed with such of his troops as he could save, and
make sail for Constantinople.

Scarce, however, had Amru quelled every insurrection and
secured the Moslem domination in Egypt, when he was again
displaced from the government, and Abdallah Ibn Saad ap-
pointed a second time in his stead.

Abdallah had been deeply mortified by the loss of Alexan-
dria, which had been ascribed to his incapacity; he was emu-
lous, too, of the renown of Amru, and felt the necessity of vin-
dicating his claims to command by some brilliant achievement.
The north of Africa presented a new field for Moslem enter-
prise. We allude to that vast tract extending west from the
desert of Libya or Barca to Cape Non, embracing more than
two thousand miles of sea-coast; comprehending the ancient
divisions of Mamarica, Cyrenaica, Carthage, Numidia, and
Mauritania; or, according to modern geographical designa-
tions, Barca, Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco.

Toward this rich land of promise, yet virgin of Islamitish
seed, Abdallah, at the head of the victorious Saracens, now
hopefully bent his ambitious steps.

EVOLUTION OF THE DOGESHIP IN
VENICE

A.D. 697

WILLIAM CAREW HAZLITT

The early authentic history of Venice is intimately connected with that
of the Lombards, of whom the first mention is made by Paterculus, the
Roman historian, who wrote during the first quarter of the first century
of our era. He speaks of the Langobardi ' (Lombards) as dwelling on the
west bank of the Elbe. Tacitus also mentions them in his Germany.
From the Elbe they wandered to the Danube, and there encountered the
Gepida, a branch of the Goths. The Lombards subdued this tribe, after
a contest of thirty years.

By this victory Alboin, the young Lombard King, rose to great power
and fame. His beauty and renown were sung by German peasants even
in the days of Charlemagne. His name " crossed the Alps and fell, with
a foreboding sound, upon the startled ears of the Italians," and toward
Italy he turned for conquest. From Scythia and Germany adventurous
youth flocked to his standard. Many clans and various religions were
represented in his ranks, but these diversities were overshadowed by a
common devotion to the hero-leader.

In 568 the Lombards marched from Pannonia into Italy, conquered
the northern part, still called Lombardy, and founded the kingdom of that
name, which was afterward greatly extended, and existed until overthrown
by Charlemagne in 774.

Before the invading hosts of Alboin, wealthy inhabitants of the larger
cities of the province of Venetia fled to the islands of Venice, where ear-
lier fugitives had sought shelter from King Attila and his Huns. A thriv-
ing maritime community had been established, which about this time had
developed into a semi-independent protectorate of the Byzantine or East-
ern Empire, attached to the exarchate of Ravenna.

1 Some modern writers question the etymology which in the name of
the Langobardi finds a reference to the length of their beards. Sheppard
thinks that " long-spears," rather than "long-beards" was the original
signification. Since, on the banks of the Elbe, Borde or Bord still means
"a fertile plain beside a river," others derive their name from the district
they inhabited. Langobardi would thus signify " people of the long bord
of the river."

292

EVOLUTION OF THE DOGESHIP 293

Afterward Venice underwent many political changes, among which
one of the most interesting to students of history is that of the institution
of the dogeship, as hereafter related. This step was taken for more than
one reason of internal organization and policy, and it was also made
urgent by the encroachments of the Lombards, which had become a men-
ace to Venetian territory and commerce.

'"THE republic (Venetian) on her part contemplated with in-
quietude the rise of one monarchy after another on the
skirts of the Lagoon, for the Venetians not unnaturally feared
that as soon as these fresh usurpers had established themselves,
they might form the design of adding the islands of the Adriatic
to their dominion, and of acquiring possession of the commercial
advantages which belonged to the situation held by the settlers.
For the Lombards, though not ranking among maritime com-
munities, were not absolutely strangers to the laws of navigation,
or to the use of ships, which might place them in a position to
reduce to their control a small, feeble, and thinly peopled area,
separated from their own territories only by a narrow and ter-
raqueous strait. Moreover, the predatory visits of Leupus, duke
of Friuli, whose followers traversed the canals at low tide on
horseback, and despoiled the churches of Heraclia, Equilo, and
Grado, soon afforded sufficient proof that the equestrian skill
of the strangers was capable of supplying to some extent any
deficiency in nautical knowledge.

Venice at present formed a federative state, united by the
memory of a common origin and the sense of a common inter-
est; the arrengo, which met at Heraclia, the parent capital, at
irregular intervals to deliberate on matters of public concern,
was too numerous and too schismatical to exercise immediate
control over the nation; and each island was consequently
governed, after the abolition of the primeval consulate, in the
name of the people, by a gastaldo or tribune, whose power,
nominally limited, was virtually absolute. This administration
had lasted nearly two centuries and a half, during which period
the republic passed through a cruel ordeal of anarchy, oppres-
sion, and bloodshed. The tribunes conspired against each
other; the people rebelled against the tribunes. Family rose
against family, clan against clan. Sanguinary affrays were of
constant occurrence on the thinly peopled lidi, and amid the

294 EVOLUTION OF THE DOGESHIP

pine- woods, with which much of the surface was covered; and
it is related that in one instance at least the bodies of the dead
were left to be devoured by beasts and birds of prey, which then
haunted the more thickly afforested parts.

Jealousy and intolerance of the pretensions of Heraclia to
a paramount voice in the policy of the community may be
securely assigned as the principal and permanent source of
friction and disagreement ; but the predominance of that town-
ship seems to have resisted every effort of the others to supplant
its central authority and wide sphere of influence; and during
centuries it preserved its power, through its ostensible choice
as the residence of the most capable and influential citizens.

The scandalous and destructive outrages attendant on the
rule of the tribunes had become a vast constitutional evil. They
sapped the general prosperity; they obstructed trade and in-
dustries; they made havoc on public and private property; they
banished safety and repose, and they impoverished and scandal-
ized the Church.

The depredations of the Lombards, which grew in the course
of time bolder and more systematic in their character, certainly
indicated great weakness on the part of the government. Yet
it was equally certain that the weakness proceeded less from
the want than from the division of strength.

The sacrilegious inroads were not without their beneficial
result; for they afforded those who might be disposed to in-
stitute reforms an admirable ground not only for bringing the
matter more closely and immediately under the public observa-
tion, but they enlisted in the cause the foremost ecclesiastics,
who might recognize in this internal disunion a danger of inter-
minable attacks and depredations from without, if not an even-
tual loss of political independence; and, accordingly, in the
course of the spring of 697-698, the patriarch of Grado himself
submitted to the arrengo at Heraclia a scheme, which had been
devised by him and his friends, for changing the government.
The proposal of the metropolitan was to divest the tribunes of
the sovereignty, and to have once more a magistrate (capo del
tribuni), in whom all power might be concentrated. His title
was to be duke. His office was to be for life. With him was to
rest the whole executive machinery. He was to preside over

EVOLUTION OF THE DOGESHIP 295

the synod as well as the arrengo, either of which it was com-
petent for him to convoke or dissolve at pleasure; merely spir-
itual matters of a minor nature were alone, in future, to be
intrusted to the clergy; and all acts of convocations, the ordina-
tion of a priest or deacon, the election of a patriarch or bishop,
were to be subject to the final sanction of the ducal throne. In
fact, the latter became virtually, and in all material respects,
autocrat of Venice, not merely the tribunes, but even the hier-
archy, which was so directly instrumental in creating the
dignity, having now no higher function than that of advisers
and administrators under his direction; and it was in matters
of general or momentous concern only that the republic ex-
pected her First Magistrate to seek the concurrence or advice
of the national convention.

In a newly formed society, placed in the difficult situation
in which the republic found herself at the close of the seventh
century, and where also a superstitious reverence for the pontiff
might at present exist, apart from considerations of interest,
it ought to create no surprise that the patriarch and his support-
ers should have formed a unanimous determination, and have
taken immediate steps to procure the adhesion of the Holy See,
before the resolutions of the popular assembly were definitively
carried into effect.

This measure simply indicates the character of the opin-
ions which were received at the tune in Europe, as well as
the strong consciousness on the part of the patriarch, and those
who acted with him, of the expediency of throwing the voice
and countenance of the Church into the scale alike against the
tribunitial oligarchy and against local jealousies and prejudices.
There was perhaps in this case the additional inducement that
the proposal to invest the doge with supreme power and juris-
diction over the Church, as well as over the state, might seem
to involve an indirect surrender, either now or hereafter, on the
part of the Holy See of some of its power, as a high-priest or
grand pontiff, who was also a secular prince, might prove less
pliant than an ordinary liegeman of the Church. But the men
of 697 acted, as we must allow, sagaciously enough, when they
presented their young country to the consideration of the papacy
as possessing a party of order, into which the Church entered,

2o6 EVOLUTION OF THE DOGESHIP

and from which it now stood conspicuously and courageously
out to take this very momentous initiative.

The creation of an ecclesiastical system had been one of
the foremost aims of the first founders, who discerned in the
transplantation of the churches of the terra firma, and their
familiar pastors to the islands the most persuasive reconcile-
ment of the fugitives to a hard and precarious lot; and after
all the intervening years it was the elders of the Church who
once more stepped forward and delivered their views on the
best plan for healing discord, and making life in the lagoons
tolerable for all. They sought some system of rule, after trying
several, which would enable them to live in peace at home,
and to gain strength to protect themselves from enemies. They
would have been the most far-seeing of human beings if they
had formed a suspicion of what kind of superstructure they
were laying on the foundation. The nearest model for their
adoption or imitation was the Lombard type of government
almost under their very eyes; and so far as the difference of
local postulates suffered, it was that to which they had recourse,
when they vested in their new chieftain undivided jurisdiction,
but primarily military attributes and a title then recognized
as having, above all, a military significance.

On the receipt of the desired reply, the patriarch lost no time
in calling on the national assembly to follow up their late vote
to its legitimate consequences; and the choice of the people
fell on Pauluccio Anafesto, a native of Heraclia, whose name
occurs here for the first time, but who may be supposed to have
had some prominent share in promoting the late revolution.
Anafesto was conducted to a chair which had been prepared
for him in his parish church, and solemnly invested by the
metropolitan with the insignia of authority, one of which is
said to have been an ivory sceptre — a symbol and a material
borrowed from the Romans.

It is not an unusual misconception that this organic change
in the government involved the simultaneous extinction of the
tribunitial office and title. But the truth is that the tribunes con-
tinued to exercise municipal and subordinate functions many
generations after the revolution of 697 ; each island of impor-
tance, such as Malamocco and Equilo, had its own tribune, while

EVOLUTION OF THE DOGESHIP 297

of the smaller islands several contributed to form a tribunate
or governorship ; and office, though neither strictly nor properly
hereditary, still preserved its tendency to perpetuate itself in a
limited number of families. It is only subsequently to the
twelfth century that less is heard of the tribunes; and the
progress of administrative reform led to the gradual disappear-
ance of this old feudal element in the constitution.

In the time of Anafesto, the larger islands of the dogado
formed the seats of powerful factions ; the disproportion in point
of influence between the Crown and the tribune of Malamocco
or the tribune of Equilo was but slightly marked; and the
abolition of that magistracy was a much more sweeping measure
than the first makers of a doge would have dared to propose.

The military complexion of the ducal authority was not
confined to the personal character of the supreme officer of
state, for under him, not as a novel element in the constitution,
but as one which preexisted side by side with the tribunitial
system, served a master o] the soldiers, whom there is a fairly
solid ground for regarding as second to the doge or duke in
precedence, and above the civil tribunes of the respective town-
ships.

To find in so small and imperfectly developed a state the
two leading functionaries or ingredients deriving their appel-
lations from a command and control over the rude feudal
militia, might alone warrant the conclusion that the most es-
sential requirement of Venice, even when it had so far modified
the form of administration, was felt to be the possession, under
responsible direction, of a means of securing internal order and
withstanding external aggression, if it were not the case that
from the Gothic era onward we hear of schola militia cum
patronis, manifestly the schools of instruction for the body over
which the magister militum presided. These seminaries existed
in the days of the exarch Narses, generations before a doge was
given to Venice. Yet, through all the time which has now elapsed
since the first erection of a separate political jurisdiction, not
only the Church, on which such stress was at the very outset
laid, but a civil government, and regulations for trade and
shipping, must have been active forces, always tending to grow
in strength and coherence.

298 EVOLUTION OF THE DOGESHIP

The Venetians, in constructing by degrees, and even some-
what at random, a constitutional fabric, very naturally followed
the precedents and models which they found in the regions which
bordered on them, and from which their forefathers had emi-
grated. The Lombard system, which was of far longer duration
than its predecessors on the same soil, borrowed as much as
possible from that which the invaders saw in use and favor
among the conquered; and the earliest institutions of the only
community not subjugated by their arms were counterparts
either of the Lombard, the Roman, or the Greek customary
law. The doge, in some respects, enjoyed an authority similar
to that which the Romans had vested in their ancient kings;
but, while he was clothed with full ecclesiastical jurisdiction,
he did not personally discharge the sacerdotal functions or
assume a sacerdotal title. The Latins had had their magistri
populi; and in the Middle Ages they recognized at Naples and
at Amalfi a master oj the soldiers; at Lucca, Verona, and else-
where, a captain of the people. But all these magistrates were
in possession of the supreme power, were kings in everything
save the name; and the interesting suggestion presents itself
that in the case of Venice the master oj the soldiers had been
part of the tribunitial organization, if not of the consular one,
and that one of the tribunes officiated by rotation, bearing to
the republic the same sort of relationship as the bretwalda bore
to the other Anglo-Saxon reguli. There can be no doubt that
Venice kept in view the prototypes transmitted by Rome, and
learned at last to draw a comparison between the two empires;
and down to the fifteenth century the odor of the Conscript
Fathers lingered in the Venetian fancy.

Subsequently to the entrance of the dux, duke, or doge on
the scene, and the shrinkage of the tribunitial power to more
departmental or municipal proportions, the master oj the soldiers,
whatever he may have been before, became a subordinate element
in the administration. His duties must have certainly embraced
the management of the militia and the maintenance of the doge's
peace within the always widening pale of the ducal abode. He
was next in rank to the crown or throne.

Thus we perceive that, after a series of trials, the Venetians
eventually reverted to the form of government which appeared

EVOLUTION OF THE DOGESHIP 299

to be most agreeable, on the whole, to their conditions and ge-
nius.

The consular triumviri, not perhaps quite independent of
external influences, were originally adopted as a temporary
expedient. The tribunes, who next succeeded, had a duration
of two hundred and fifty years. Their common fasti are scanty
and obscure; and we gain only occasional glimpses of a barbar-
ous federal administration, which barely sufficed to fulfil the
most elementary wants of a rising society of traders. They
were alike, more or less, a machinery of primitive type, deficient
in central force, and without any safeguards against the abuse
of authority, without any definite theory of legislation and po-
lice. The century and a half which intervened between the
abrogation of monarchy in the person of a tribune, and its
revival in the person of a doge (574-697), beheld the republic
laboring under the feeble and enervating sway of rival aristo-
cratic houses, on which the sole check was the urban body
subsequently to emerge into importance and value as the militia
of the six wards, and its commandant, the master oj the sol-
diers.

But while the institution of the dogeship brought with it a
certain measure of equilibrium and security, it left the political
framework in almost every other respect untouched. The work
of reform and consolidation had merely commenced. The first
stone only had been laid of a great and enduring edifice. The
first permanent step had been taken toward the unification of a
group of insular clanships into a homogeneous society, with a
sense of common interests.

The late tribunitial ministry has transmitted to us as its
monument little beyond the disclosure of a chronic disposition
to tyranny and periodical fluctuations of preponderance. The
so-called chair of Attila at Torcello is supposed to have been the
seat where the officer presiding over that district long held his
court sub dio.

The doge Anafesto appears to have pacified, by his energy
and tact, the intestine discord by which his country had suffered
so much and so long, and the Equilese, especially — who had
risen in open revolt, and had refused to pay their proportion of
tithes — were persuaded, after some fierce struggles in the pineto

300 EVOLUTION OF THE DOGESHIP

or pine woods, which still covered much of the soil, to return to
obedience. The civil war which had lately broken out between
Equilo and Heraclia was terminated by the influential media-
tion of one of the tribunes, and the Lombards now condescended
to ratify a treaty assigning to the Venetians the whole of the
territory lying between the greater and lesser Piave, empowering
the republic to erect boundary lines, and prohibiting either of
the contracting parties from building a stronghold within ten
miles of those lines. A settlement of confines between two such
close neighbors was of the highest importance and utility. But
a still more momentous principle was here involved.

The republic had exercised a clear act of sovereign inde-
pendence. It had made its first Italian treaty. This was a
proud step and a quotable precedent.

SARACENS IN SPAIN: BATTLE OF THE
GUADALETE

A.D. 711

AHMED IBN MAHOMET AL-MAKKARI

When assailed by the Saracen power, the Gothic kingdom in Spain,
which had endured for three centuries, had long been suffering a decline.
Political disorders and social demoralization had made its condition such
as might well invite the Moslem armies, flushed with victories on the
African side, to cross the narrow Strait of Gibraltar for new conquests.

The final subjection of North Africa had been accomplished by the
Arab general, Musa Ibn Nosseyr, only the fortress of Ceuta, on the shore
of the strait, still remaining in possession of the Goths. The Saracens
knew that a fresh revolution in Spain had placed on the throne Roderic
— who proved to be the last of the Gothic kings. At Ceuta the com-
mandant, Count Ilyan (Julian), when he was attacked, made a feeble de-
fence, virtually betraying the post into the hands of the Moslems. The
reason, according to some authorities, for the defection of Ilyan was his
desire to avenge an injury inflicted upon him by Roderic, who is said to
have dishonored Ilyan's daughter, the Lady Flormda. Others attribute
the treason of Ilyan to his real loyalty to the rivals of Roderic, the latter
being regarded by him as a usurper.

It is recorded that Ilyan proposed to Musa the conquest of Anda-
lusia, whose wealth in productiveness and other natural attractions he
glowingly described. The people, Ilyan declared, were enervated by
reason of prolonged peace, and were destitute of arms. He was induced
entirely to desert the Gothic cause and join the Moslems, and made a
successful incursion into the country of his former friends, returning to
Africa loaded with spoil. From this time Ilyan served under the Mos-
lem standard.

Another invasion was made by the Saracens with like results, and then
Musa, having received authority from the Caliph, prepared to enter upon
the conquest of Spain. The events which followed were not only of
great moment in the affairs of that country, but foreshadowed others
which seemed to involve the fate of Europe and of Christendom in the
outcome of the Mahometan advance.

\A USA strengthened himself in his intention of invading Anda-
lusia; to this effect he called a freed slave of his, to whom
he had on different occasions intrusted important commands
in his armies, and whose name was Tarik Ibn Zeyad Ibn Ab-

3°'

302 BATTLE OF THE GUADALETE

clillah, a native of Hamdan, in Persia, although some pretend
that he was not a freedman of Musa Ibn Nosseyr, but a free-
born man of the tribe of Sadf, while others make him a mauli
of Lahm. It is even asserted that some of his posterity, who
lived in Andalusia, rejected with indignation the supposition
of their ancestor having ever been a liberated slave of Musa
Ibn Nosseyr. Some authors, and they are the greatest number,
say that he was a Berber.

To this Tarik, therefore, the Arabian governor of Africa
committed the important trust of conquering the kingdom of
Andalusia, for which end he gave him the command of an army
of seven thousand men, chiefly Berbers and slaves, very few
only being genuine Arabs. To accompany and guide Tarik
in this expedition, Musa sent Ilyan, who provided four vessels
from the ports under his command, the only places on the coast
where vessels were at that time built. Everything being got
ready, a division of the army crossed that arm of the sea which
divides Andalusia from Africa, and landed with Tarik at the
foot of the mountain, which afterward received his name, on
a Saturday, in the month of Shaban, of the year [of the Hegira]
92 (July, 711), answering to the month of Agosht (August);
and the four vessels were sent back, and crossed and recrossed
until the rest of Tarik's men were safely put on shore.

It is otherwise said that Tarik landed on the 24th of Rejeb
(June i pth, A.D. 711), in the same year. Another account
makes the number of men embarked on this occasion amount
to twelve thousand, all but sixteen, a number consisting almost
entirely of Berbers, there being but few Arabs among them;
but the same writer agrees that Ilyan transported this force at
various times to the coast of Andalusia in merchant vessels —
whence collected, it is not known — and that Tarik was the last
man on board.

Various historians have recorded two circumstances con-
cerning Tarik's passage, and his landing on the coast of Anda-
lusia, which we consider worthy of being transcribed. They
say that while he was sailing across that arm of the sea which
separates Africa from Andalusia, he saw in a dream the prophet
Mahomet, surrounded by Arabs of the Muhajirm and Anssar,
who with unsheathed swords and bended bows stood close by

BATTLE OF THE GUADALETE 303

him, and that he heard the prophet say: "Take courage, O
Tarik! and accomplish what thou art destined to perform";
and that having looked round him he saw the messenger of
God, who with his companions was entering Andalusia. Tarik
then awoke from his sleep, and, delighted with this good omen,
hastened to communicate the miraculous circumstance to his
followers, who were much pleased and strengthened. Tarik
himself was so much struck by the apparition that from that
moment he never doubted of victory.

The same writers have preserved another anecdote, which
sufficiently proves the mediation of the Almighty in permitting
that the conquest of Andalusia should be achieved by Tarik.
Directly after his landing on the rock Musa's freedman brought
his forces upon the plain, and began to overrun and lay waste
the neighboring country. While he was thus employed, an old
woman from Algesiras presented herself to him, and among
other things told him what follows: "Thou must know, O
stranger! that I had once a husband, who had the knowledge
of future events; and I have repeatedly heard him say to the
people of this country that a foreign general would come to this
island and subject it to his arms. He described him to me as a
man of prominent forehead, and such, I see, is thine; he told
me also that the individual designated by the prophecy would
have a black mole covered with hair on his left shoulder. Now,
if thou hast such a mark on thy body, thou art undoubtedly the
person intended."

When Tarik heard the old woman's reasoning, he imme-
diately laid his shoulder bare, and the mark being found, as pre-
dicted, upon the left one, both he and his companions were
filled with delight at the good omen.

Ibnu Hayyan's account does not materially differ from
those of the historians from whom we have quoted. He agrees
in saying that Ilyan, lord of Ceuta, incited Musa Ibn Nosseyr
to make the conquest of Andalusia; and that this he did out of
revenge, and moved by the personal enmity and hatred he had
conceived against Roderic. He makes Tarik's army amount
only to seven thousand, mostly Berbers, which, he says, crossed
in four vessels provided by Ilyan. According to his account,
Tarik landed on a Saturday, in the month of Shaban, of the

304 BATTLE OF THE GUADALETE

year 92, and the vessels that brought him and his men on shore
were immediately sent back to Africa, and never ceased going
backward and forward until the whole of the army was safely
landed on the shores of Andalusia.

On the other side, Ibnu Khaldun reckons the army under
the orders of Tarik at three hundred Arabs and ten thousand
Berbers. He says that before starting on his expedition, Tarik
divided his army into two corps, he himself taking the command
of one, and placing the other under the immediate orders of
Tarif An-najai. Tarik, with his men, landed at the foot of the
rock now called Jebalu-l-jatah, "the mountain of the entrance,"
and which then received his name, and was called Jebal-Tarik,
"the mountain of Tarik"; while his companion, Tarif, landed
on the island afterward called after him Jezirah-Tarij, "the
island of Tarif." In order to provide for the security of their
respective armies, both generals selected, soon after their land-
ing, a good encampment, which they surrounded with walls and
trenches, for no sooner had the news of their landing spread
than the armies of the Goths began to march against them from
all quarters.

No sooner did Tarik set his foot in Andalusia than he was
attacked by a Goth named Tudmir (Theodomir), to whom
Roderic had intrusted the defence of that frontier. Theodomir,
who is the same general who afterward gave his name to a
province of Andalusia, called Belad Tudmir, "the country of
Theodomir," having tried, although in vain, to stop the im-
petuous career of Tarik's men, despatched immediately a mes-
senger to his master, apprising him how Tarik and his followers
had landed in Andalusia. He also wrote him a letter thus con-
ceived: " This our land has been invaded by people whose name,
country, and origin are unknown to me. I cannot even tell
whence they came — whether they fell from the skies or sprang
from the earth."

When this news reached Roderic, who was then in the
country of the Bashkans (Basques), making war in the terri-
tory of Banbilonah (Pamplona), where serious disturbances
had occurred, he guessed directly that the blow came from Ilyan.
Sensible, however, of the importance of this attack made upon
his dominions, he left what he had in hand, and, moving toward

BATTLE OF THE GUADALETE 305

the south with the whole of his powerful army, arrived in
Cordova, which is placed in the centre of Andalusia. There
he took up his abode in the royal castle, which the Arabs called
after him Roderic's castle. In this palace Roderic took up his
residence for a few days, to await the arrival of the numerous
troops which he had summoned from the different provinces of
his kingdom.

They say that while he was staying in Cordova he wrote to
the sons of Wittiza to come and join him against the common
enemy; for, although it is true that Roderic had usurped the
throne of their father, and persecuted the sons, yet he had spared
their lives; since these two sons of Wittiza are the same who,
when Tarik attacked the forces of King Roderic on the plains
of Guadalete, near the sea, turned back and deserted their
ranks, owing to a promise made them by Tarik to restore them
to the throne of their father, if they helped him against Roderic.
However, when Roderic arrived in Cordova, the sons of Wittiza
were busily engaged in some distant province collecting troops
to march against the invaders, and he wrote to them to come
and join him with their forces, in order to march against the
Arabs; and, cautioning them against the inconvenience and
danger of private feuds at that moment, engaged them to join
him and attack the Arabs in one mass. The sons of Wittiza
readily agreed to Roderic's proposition, and collecting all their
forces, came to meet him, and encamped not far from the village
of Shakandah, on the opposite side of the river, and on the
south of the palace of Cordova.

There they remained for some time, not daring to enter the
capital or to trust Roderic, until at last, having ascertained the
truth of the preparations, and seeing the army march out of
the city and him with it, they entered Cordova, united their
forces to his, and marched with him against the enemy, al-
though, as will be seen presently, they were already planning
the treachery which they afterward committed. Others say
that the sons of Wittiza did not obey the summons sent them by
the usurper Roderic; on the contrary, that they joined Tarik
with all their forces.

When Tarik received the news of the approach of Roderic's
army, which is said to have amounted to nearly one hundred
E., VOL. rv.— 20.

306 BATTLE OF THE GUADALETE

thousand men, provided with all kinds of weapons and military
stores, he wrote to Musa for assistance, saying that he had taken
Algesiras, a port of Andalusia, thus becoming, by its possession,
the master of the passage into that country; that he had sub-
dued its districts as far as the bay; but that Roderic was now
advancing against him with a force which it was not in his
power 10 resist, except it was God Almighty's will that it should
be so. Musa, who since Tarik's departure for this expedition
had been employed in building ships, and had by this time col-
lected a great many, sent by them a reinforcement of five thou-
sand Moslems, which, added to the seven thousand of the first
expedition, made the whole forces amount to twelve thousand
men, eager for plunder and anxious for battle. Ilyan was also
sent with his army and the people of his states to accompany
this expedition, and to guide it through the passes in the country,
and gather intelligence for them.

In the mean while Roderic was drawing nearer to the Mos-
lems, with all the forces of the barbarians, their lords, their
knights, and their bishops; but the hearts of the great people
of the kingdom being against him, they used to see each other
frequently, and in their private conversations they uttered their
sentiments about Roderic in the following manner: "This
wretch has by force taken possession of the throne to which he
is not justly entitled, for not only he does not belong to the
royal family, but he was once one of our meanest menials; we
do not know how far he may carry his wicked intentions against
us. There is no doubt but that Tarik's followers do not intend
to settle in this country; their only wish is to fill their hands
with spoil, and then return. Let us then, as soon as the battle
is engaged, give way, and leave the usurper alone to fight the
strangers, who will soon deliver us from him; and, when they
shall be gone, we can place on the throne him who most de-
serves it."

In these sentiments all agreed, and it was decided that the
proposed plan should be put into execution; the two sons of
Wittiza, whom Roderic had appointed to the command of the
right and left wings of his army, being at the head of the con-
spiracy, in the hope of gaining the throne of their father.

When the armies drew nearer to each other, the princes began

BATTLE OF THE GUADALETE 307

to spin the web of their treason; and for this purpose a mes-
senger was sent by them to Tarik, informing him how Roderic,
who had been a mere menial and servant to their father, had,
after his death, usurped the throne; that the princes had by
no means relinquished their rights, and that they implored pro-
tection and security for themselves. They offered to desert,
and pass over to Tarik with the troops under their command,
on condition that the Arab general would, after subduing the
whole of Andalusia, secure to them all their father's possessions,
amounting to three thousand valuable and chosen farms, the
same that received after this the name of Safaya-l-moluk, " the
royal portion." This offer Tarik accepted; and, having agreed
to the conditions, on the next day the sons of Wittiza deserted
the ranks of the Gothic army in the midst of battle, and passed
over to Tarik, this being, no doubt, one of the principal causes
of the conquest.

Roderic arrived on the banks of the Guadalete with a for-
midable army, which most historians compute at one hundred
thousand cavalry; although Ibnu Khaldun makes it amount
to forty thousand men only. Roderic brought all his treasures
and military stores in carts: he himself came in a litter placed
between two mules, having over his head an awning richly set
with pearls, rubies, and emeralds. On the approach of this
formidable host the Moslems did not lose courage, but pre-
pared to meet their adversary. Tarik assembled his men, com-
forted them by his words, and after rendering the due praises
to the Almighty God, and returning thanks for what had already
been accomplished, proceeded to implore his mighty help for
the future. He then encouraged the Moslems, and kindled
their enthusiasm with the following address:

"Whither can you fly? — the enemy is in your front, the
sea at your back. By Allah! there is no salvation for you but
in your courage and perseverance. Consider your situation:
here you are on this island, like so many orphans cast upon the
world; you will soon be met by a powerful enemy, surrounding
you on all sides like the infuriated billows of a tempestuous sea,
and sending against you his countless warriors, drowned in
steel, and provided with every store and description of arms.
What can you oppose to them? You have no other weapons

3o8 BATTLE OF THE GUADALETE

than your swords, no provisions but those that you may snatch
from the hands of your enemies; you must therefore attack
them immediately, or otherwise your wants will increase; the
gales of victory may no longer blow in your favor, and perchance
the fear that lurks in the hearts of your enemies may be changed
into indomitable courage.

" Banish all fear from your hearts, trust that victory shall
be ours, and that the barbarian king will not be able to with-
stand the shock of our arms. Here he comes to make us the
master of his cities and castles, and to deliver into our hands
his countless treasures; and if you only seize the opportunity
now presented, it may perhaps be the means of your becoming
the owners of them, besides saving yourselves from certain
death. Do not think that I impose upon you a task from which
I shrink myself, or that I try to conceal from you the dangers
attending this our expedition. No; you have certainly a great
deal to encounter, but know that if you only suffer for a while,
you will reap in the end an abundant harvest of pleasures and
enjoyments. And do not imagine that while I speak to you I
mean not to act as I speak; for as my interest in this affair is
greater, so will my behavior on this occasion surpass yours.
You must have heard numerous accounts of this island, you
must know how the Grecian maidens, as handsome as houris,
their necks glittering with innumerable pearls and jewels, their
bodies clothed with tunics of costly silks, sprinkled with gold,
are waiting your arrival, reclining on soft couches in the sump-
tuous palaces of crowned lords and princes.

"You know well that the caliph Abdu-1-Malek Ibnu-1-walid
has chosen you, like so many heroes, from among the brave;
you know that the great lords of this island are willing to
make you their sons and brethren by marriage, if you only
rush on like so many brave men to the fight, and behave like
true champions and valiant knights; you know that the recom-
penses of God await you if you are prepared to uphold his words,
and proclaim his religion in this island ; and, lastly, that all the
spoil shall be yours, and of such Moslems as may be with
you.

"Bear in mind that God Almighty will select, according to
this promise, those that distinguish themselves most among you,

BATTLE OF THE GUADALETE 309

and grant them due reward, both in this world and in the
future; and know likewise that I shall be the first to set you
the example, and to put in practice what I recommend you to
do; for it is my intention, on the meeting of the two hosts, to
attack the Christian tyrant Roderic, and kill him with my
own hand, if God be pleased. When you see me bearing against
him, charge along with me; if I kill him, the victory is ours;
if I am killed before I reach him, do not trouble yourselves
about me, but fight as if I were still alive and among you, and
follow up my purpose; for the moment they see their King fall,
these barbarians are sure to disperse. If, however, I should
be killed, after inflicting death upon their King, appoint a man
from among you who unites both courage and experience and
may command you in this emergency and follow up the success.
If you attend to my instructions, we are sure of the victory."

When Tarik had thus addressed his soldiers and exhorted
them to fight with courage and to face the dangers of war
with a stout heart — when he had thus recommended them to
make a simultaneous attack upon Roderic's men, and promised
them abundant reward if they routed their enemies — their
countenances were suddenly expanded with joy their hopes
were strengthened, the gales of victory began to blow on their
side, and they all unanimously answered him: "We are ready
to follow thee, O Tarik ! We shall all, to one man, stand by thee
and fight for thee; nor could we avoid it were we otherwise
disposed — victory is our only hope of salvation."

After this Tarik mounted his horse, and his men did the same;
and they all passed that night in constant watch for fear of the
enemy. On the following morning, when day dawned, both
armies prepared for battle; each general formed his cavalry
and his infantry, and, the signal being given, the armies met
with a shock, similar to that of two mountains dashing against
each other.

King Roderic came, borne on a throne, and having over his
head an awning of variegated silk to guard him from the rays
of the sun, surrounded by warriors, cased in bright steel, with
fluttering pennons and a profusion of banners and standards.

Tarik's men were differently arrayed; their breasts were
covered with mail armor; they wore white turbans on their

3io BATTLE OF THE GUADALETE

heads, the Arabian bow slung across their backs, their swords
suspended in their girdles, and their long spears firmly grasped
in their hands.

They say that when the two armies were advancing upon
each other, and the eyes of Roderic fell upon the men in the
first ranks, he was horror-stricken, and was heard to exclaim:
"By the faith of the Messiah! These are the very men I saw
painted on the scroll found in the mansion of science at Toledo;"
and from that moment fear entered his heart ; and when Tarik
perceived Roderic, he said to his followers, "This is the King of
the Christians," and he charged with his men, the warriors who
surrounded Roderic being on all sides scattered and dispersed ;
seeing which, Tarik plunged into the ranks of the enemy until
he reached the King, and wounded him with his sword on the
head and killed him on his throne; and when Roderic's men
saw their King fall, and his bodyguard dispersed, the rout be-
came general, and victory remained with the Moslems.

The rout of the Christians was complete, for instead of
rallying on one spot, they fled in all directions, and, their panic
being communicated to their countrymen, cities opened their
gates, and castles surrendered without resistance.

The preceding account we have borrowed from a writer of
great note, but we deem it necessary to warn the readers that
the assertion that Roderic died by the hands of Tarik has been
contradicted by several historians, since his body, although dili-
gently sought on the field of battle, could nowhere be found.

We shall proceed to recount in detail that memorable battle,
when Almighty God was pleased to put King Roderic's army
to flight and grant the Moslems a most complete victory.
Several authors who have described at large this famous en-
gagement state that Tarik encamped near Roderic, toward the
middle of the month of Ramadan of the year 92 (September,
A.D. 711), and although there is some difference as to the dates,
all agree that the battle was fought on the banks of the Gua-
dalete. They say also that while both armies were encamped
in front of each other, the barbarian King, wishing to ascertain
the exact amount of Tarik's forces, sent one of his men, whose
valor and strength he knew, and in whose fidelity he placed
unbounded confidence, with instructions to penetrate into

BATTLE OF THE GUADALETE 3n

Tarik's camp, and bring him an account of their number, arms,
accoutrements, and vessels.

The Christian proceeded to execute his commission, and
reached a small elevation, whence he had a commanding view
of the whole camp. However, he had not remained long in his
place of observation before he was discovered by some Mos-
lems, who pursued him; but the Christian fled before them, and
escaped through the swiftness of his horse.

Arrived at the Christian camp, he addressed Roderic in the
following words: "These people, O King! are the same that
thou sawest painted on the scroll of the enchanted palace.
Beware of them! for the greatest part of them have bound
themselves by oath to reach thee or die in the attempt; they
have set fire to their vessels, to destroy their last hope of escape;
they are encamped along the sea-shore, determined to die or to
vanquish, for they know well that there is not in this country
a place whither they can fly." On hearing this account, King
Roderic was much disheartened, and he trembled with fear.
However, the two armies engaged near the lake or gulf; they
fought resolutely on both sides till the right and left wings of
Roderic's army, under the command of the sons of Wittiza,
gave way. The centre, in which Roderic was, still held firm
for a while, and made the fate of the battle uncertain for some
time; they fled at last, and Roderic before them. From that
moment the rout became general, and the Moslems followed
with ardor the pursuit of the scattered bands, inflicting death
wherever they went.

Roderic disappeared in the midst of the battle, and no cer-
tain intelligence was afterward received of him. It is true that
some Moslems found his favorite steed, a milk-white horse,
bearing a saddle of gold, sparkling with rubies, plunged in the
mud of the river, as also one of his sandals, adorned with rubies
and emeralds, but the other was never found ; nor was Roderic,
although diligently searched for, ever discovered either dead or
alive, a circumstance which led the Moslems to believe that he
perished in the stream, the weight of his armor preventing him
from struggling against the current, and he was drowned; but
God only knows what became of him.

According to Ar-razi, the contest began on Sunday, two days

3i2 BATTLE OF THE GUADALETE

before the end of Ramadan, and continued till Sunday, the
5th of Shawal; namely, eight whole days; at the end of which
God Almighty was pleased to put the idolaters to flight, and
grant the victory to the Moslems; and he adds that so great
was the number of the Goths who perished in the battle that
for a long time after the victory the bones of the slain were to be
seen covering the field of action.

They say also that the spoil found by the Moslems in the
camp of the Christians surpassed all computation, for the
princes and great men of the Goths who had fallen were dis-
tinguished by the rings of gold they wore on their fingers, those
of an inferior class by similar ornaments of silver, while those
of the slaves were made of brass. Tarik collected all the spoil
and divided it into five shares or portions, when, after deducting
one-fifth, he distributed the rest among nine thousand Moslems,
besides the slaves and followers.

When the people on the other side of the straits heard of
this success of Tarik, and of the plentiful spoils he had acquired,
they flocked to him from all quarters, and crossed the sea on
every vessel or bark they could lay hold of. Tarik's army being
so considerably reinforced, the Christians were obliged to shut
themselves up in their castles and fortresses, and, quitting the
flat country, betake themselves to their mountains.

BATTLE OF TOURS

A.D. 732

SIR EDWARD SHEPHERD CREASY

When the Saracens had completed the conquest of Spain and all that
country was wholly under their dominion, they determined to extend their
authority over the neighboring country of the Franks.

Having crossed the Pyrenees they met with but slight opposition
and soon succeeded in making themselves masters of Southern France,
thereby furthering and encouraging their boastful ambition to conquer
and Islamize the whole world.

Already had Africa, Asia Minor, and Eastern Europe acknowledged
their rule, and the final subjugation of all Christendom by the Mahome-
tan sword seemed certain and imminent.

Their long and uninterrupted career of success had fed their arro-
gance and filled them with a proud confidence in the invincibility of their
arms, and their farther advance into the heart of Europe seemed, in the
eyes of Christian and pagan alike, to be the irresistible march of des-
tiny.

The Saracen host had not penetrated far into the Frankish territory
when they encountered " a lion in the path," in the person of Charles (or
Karl), the great palace-mayor — so called, but who was in reality the de-
facto sovereign of the Frankish kingdoms.

To Charles, famous for his military skill and prestige, came the re-
cently defeated Eudes, the count of Aquitaine, and the remnant of his
force, craving his protection and leadership against the advancing Saracen
horde.

Charles' signal victory over the Saracen invaders proved to be the
turning-point in the Moslem career of conquest. The question whether
the Koran or the Bible, the Crescent or the Cross, Mahomet or Christ,
should rule Europe and the western world was decided forever upon the
bloody field of Tours.

HTHE broad tract of champaign country which intervenes
between the cities of Poitiers and Tours is principally
composed of a succession of rich pasture lands, which are
traversed and fertilized by the Cher, the Creuse, the Vienne,
the Claine, the Indre, and other tributaries of the river Loire.
Here and there the ground swells into picturesque eminences,

313

314 BATTLE OF TOURS

and occasionally a belt of forest land, a brown heath, or a clus-
tering series of vineyards breaks the monotony of the wide-
spread meadows; but the general character of the land is that
of a grassy plain, and it seems naturally adapted for the evolu-
tions of numerous armies, especially of those vast bodies of
cavalry which principally decided the fate of nations during
the centuries that followed the downfall of Rome and preceded
the consolidation of the modern European powers.

This region has been signalized by more than one mem-
orable conflict; but it is principally interesting to the historian
by having been the scene of the great victory won by Charles
Martel over the Saracens, A.D. 732, which gave a decisive check
to the career of Arab conquest in Western Europe, rescued
Christendom from Islam, preserved the relics of ancient and
the germs of modern civilization, and reestablished the old
superiority of the Indo-European over the Semitic family of
mankind.

Sismondi and Michelet have underrated the enduring in-
terest of this great Appeal of Battle between the champions
of the Crescent and the Cross. But, if French writers have
slighted the exploits of their national hero, the Saracenic trophies
of Charles Martel have had full justice done to them by Eng-
lish and German historians. Gibbon devotes several pages
of his great work * to the narrative of the battle of Tours, and
to the consideration of the consequences which probably would
have resulted if Abderrahman's enterprise had not been crushed
by the Frankish chief. Schlegel speaks of this "mighty vic-
tory" in terms of fervent gratitude, and tells how "the arm of
Charles Martel saved and delivered the Christian nations of the
West from the deadly grasp of all-destroying Islam " ; and Ranke
points out, as "one of the most important epochs in the history
of the world, the commencement of the eighth century, when
on the one side Mahometanism threatened to overspread Italy
and Gaul, and on the other the ancient idolatry of Saxony and
Friesland once more forced its way across the Rhine. In this

1 Gibbon remarks that if the Saracen conquests had not then been
checked, " perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught
in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circum-
cised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet."

BATTLE OF TOURS 315

peril of Christian institutions, a youthful prince of Germanic
race, Charles (or Karl) Martel, arose as their champion, main-
tained them with all the energy which the necessity for self-
defence calls forth, and finally extended them into new regions."

Arnold ranks the victory of Charles Martel even higher
than the victory of Arminius, "among those signal deliverances
which have affected for centuries the happiness of mankind."
In fact, the more we test its importance, the higher we shall be
led to estimate it; and, though all authentic details which we
possess of its circumstances and its heroes are but meagre, we
can trace enough of its general character to make us watch with
deep interest this encounter between the rival conquerors of
the decaying Roman Empire. That old classic world, the his-
tory of which occupies so large a portion of our early studies,
lay, in the eighth century of our era, utterly exanimate and
overthrown. On the north the German, on the south the Arab,
was rending away its provinces. At last the spoilers encoun-
tered one another, each striving for the full mastery of the prey.
Their conflict brought back upon the memory of Gibbon the
old Homeric simile, where the strife of Hector and Patroclus
over the dead body of Cebriones is compared to the combat of
two lions, that in their hate and hunger fight together on the
mountain tops over the carcass of a slaughtered stag; and the
reluctant yielding of the Saracen power to the superior might
of the northern warriors might not inaptly recall those other
lines of the same book of the Iliad, where the downfall of Patro-
clus beneath Hector is likened to the forced yielding of the pant-
ing and exhausted wild boar, that had long and furiously
fought with a superior beast of prey for the possession of the
scanty fountain among the rocks at which each burned to drink.

Although three centuries had passed away since the Ger-
manic conquerors of Rome had crossed the Rhine, never to
repass that frontier stream, no settled system of institutions
or government, no amalgamation of the various races into
one people, no uniformity of language or habits had been
established in the country at the time when Charles Martel
was called to repel the menacing tide of Saracenic invasion
from the south. Gaul was not yet France. In that, as in
other provinces of the Roman Empire of the West, the do-

316 BATTLE OF TOURS

minion of the Caesars had been shattered as early as the
fifth century, and barbaric kingdoms and principalities had
promptly arisen on the ruins of the Roman power. But few
of these had any permanency, anH none of them consolidated
the rest, or any considerable number of the rest, into one co-
herent and organized civil and political society.

The great bulk of the population still consisted of the con-
quered provincials, that is to say, of Romanized Celts, of a
Gallic race which had long been under the dominion of the
Caesars, and had acquired, together with no slight infusion of
Roman blood, the language, the literature, the laws, and the
civilization of Latium. Among these, and dominant over them,
roved or dwelt the German victors; some retaining nearly all
the rude independence of their primitive national character,
others softened and disciplined by the aspect and contact of
the manners and institutions of civilized life ; for it is to be borne
in mind that the Roman Empire in the West was not crushed
by any sudden avalanche of barbaric invasion. The German
conquerors came across the Rhine, not in enormous hosts, but
in bands of a few thousand warriors at a time. The conquest
of a province was the result of an infinite series of partial local
invasions, carried on by little armies of this description. The
victorious warriors either retired with their booty or fixed
themselves in the invaded district, taking care to keep suffi-
ciently concentrated for military purposes, and ever ready for
some fresh foray, either against a rival Teutonic band or some
hitherto unassailed city of the provincials.

Gradually, however, the conquerors acquired a desire for
permanent landed possessions. They lost somewhat of the
restless thirst for novelty and adventure which had first made
them throng beneath the banner of the boldest captains of their
tribe, and leave their native forests for a roving military life on
the left bank of the Rhine. They were converted to the Chris-
tian faith, and gave up with their old creed much of the coarse
ferocity which must have been fostered in the spirits of the
ancient warriors of the North by a mythology which promised,
as the reward of the brave on earth, an eternal cycle of fighting
and drunkenness in heaven.

But, although their conversion and other civilizing influ«

BATTLE OF TOURS 317

ences operated powerfully upon the Germans in Gaul, and
although the Franks — who were originally a confederation of
the Teutonic tribes that dwelt between the Rhine, the Maine,
and the Weser — established a decisive superiority over the other
conquerors of the province, as well as over the conquered pro-
vincials, the country long remained a chaos of uncombined and
shifting elements. The early princes of the Merovingian dy-
nasty were generally occupied in wars against other princes
of their house, occasioned by the frequent subdivisions of the
Frank monarchy; and the ablest and best of them had found
all their energies tasked to the utmost to defend the barrier of
the Rhine against the pagan Germans who strove to pass that
river and gather their share of the spoils of the Empire.

The conquests which the Saracens effected over the south-
ern and eastern provinces of Rome were far more rapid than
those achieved by the Germans in the North, and the new
organizations of society which the Moslems introduced were
summarily and uniformly enforced. Exactly a century passed
between the death of Mahomet and the date of the battle of
Tours. During that century the followers of the prophet had
torn away half the Roman Empire; and besides their conquests
over Persia, the Saracens had overrun Syria, Egypt, Africa, and
Spain, in an unchecked and apparently irresistible career of
victory. Nor, at the commencement of the eighth century of
our era, was the Mahometan world divided against itself, as
it subsequently became. All these vast regions obeyed the
Caliph; throughout them all, from the Pyrenees to the Oxus,
the name of Mahomet was invoked in prayer and the Koran
revered as the book of the law.

It was under one of their ablest and most renowned com-
manders, with a veteran army, and with every apparent advan-
tage of time, place, and circumstance, that the Arabs made their
great effort at the conquest of Europe north of the Pyrenees.
The victorious Moslem soldiery in Spain,

" A countless multitude,
Syrian, Moor, Saracen, Greek renegade,
Persian, and Copt, and Tartar, in one bond
Of erring faith conjoined — strong in the youth
And heat of zeal — a dreadful brotherhood,"

3i8 BATTLE OF TOURS

were eager for the plunder of more Christian cities and shrines,
and full of fanatic confidence in the invincibility of their arms.

" Nor were the chiefs
Of victory less assured, by long success
Elate, and proud of that o'erwhelming strength
Which, surely they believed, as it had rolled
Thus far uncheck'd, would roll victorious on,
Till, like the Orient, the subjected West
Should bow in reverence at Mahomet's name ;
And pilgrims from remotest arctic shores
Tread with religious feet the burning sands
Of Araby and Mecca's stony soil."

— Southey^s Roderick.

It is not only by the modern Christian poet, but by the old
Arabian chroniclers also, that these feelings of ambition and
arrogance are attributed to the Moslems who had overthrown
the Visigoth power in Spain. And their eager expectations of
new wars were excited to the utmost on the reappointment by
the Caliph of Abderrahman Ibn Abdillah Alghafeki to the gov-
ernment of that country, A.D. 729, which restored them a general
who had signalized his skill and prowess during the conquests
of Africa and Spain, whose ready valor and generosity had made
him the idol of the troops, who had already been engaged in
several expeditions into Gaul, so as to be well acquainted with
the national character and tactics of the Franks, and who was
known to thirst, like a good Moslem, for revenge for the slaugh-
ter of some detachments of the "true believers," which had
been cut off on the north of the Pyrenees.

In addition to his cardinal military virtues Abderrahman
fs described by the Arab writers as a model of integrity and
justice. The first two years of his second administration in
Spain were occupied in severe reforms of the abuses which under
his predecessors had crept into the system of government, and
in extensive preparations for his intended conquest in Gaul.
Besides the troops which he collected from his province, he
obtained from Africa a large body of chosen Berber cavalry,
officered by Arabs of proved skill and valor; and in the summer
of 732 he crossed the Pyrenees at the head of an army which
some Arab writers rate at eighty thousand strong, while some

BATTLE OF TOURS 319

of the Christian chroniclers swell its numbers to many hundreds
of thousands more. Probably the Arab account diminishes,
but of the two keeps nearer to the truth.

It was from this formidable host, after Eudes, the count of
Aquitaine, had vainly striven to check it, after many strong
cities had fallen before it, and half the land had been overrun,
that Gaul and Christendom were at last rescued by the strong
arm of Prince Charles, who acquired a surname (Martel, the
"Hammer") like that of the war-god of his forefathers' creed,
from the might with which he broke and shattered his enemies
in the battle.

The Merovingian kings had sunk into absolute insignificance,
and had become mere puppets of royalty before the eighth cen-
tury. Charles Martel, like his father, Pe*pin He'ristal, was duke
of the Austrasian Franks, the bravest and most thoroughly Ger-
manic part of the nation, and exercised, in the name of the titular
king, what little paramount authority the turbulent minor rulers
of districts and towns could be persuaded or compelled to
acknowledge. Engaged with his national competitors in per-
petual conflicts for power, and in more serious struggles for
safety against the fierce tribes of the unconverted Frisians,
Bavarians, Saxons, and Thuringians, who at that epoch as-
sailed with peculiar ferocity the Christianized Germans on the
left bank of the Rhine, Charles Martel added experienced skill
to his natural courage, and he had also formed a militia of vet-
erans among the Franks.

Hallam has thrown out a doubt whether, in our admiration
of his victory at Tours, we do not judge a little too much by the
event, and whether there was not rashness in his risking the
fate of France on the result of a general battle with the invaders.
But when we remember that Charles had no standing army, and
the independent spirit of the Frank warriors who followed his
standard, it seems most probable that it was not in his power to
adopt the cautious policy of watching the invaders, and wear-
ing out their strength by delay. So dreadful and so widespread
were the ravages of the Saracenic light cavalry throughout Gaul
that it must have been impossible to restrain for any length of
time the indignant ardor of the Franks. And, even if Charles
could have persuaded his men to look tamely on while the Arabs

320 BATTLE OF TOURS

stormed more towns and desolated more districts, he could not
have kept an army together when the usual period of a military
expedition had expired. If, indeed, the Arab account of the
disorganization of the Moslem forces be correct, the battle was
as well timed on the part of Charles as it was, beyond all ques-
tion, well fought.

The monkish chroniclers, from whom we are obliged to
glean a narrative of this memorable campaign, bear full evi-
dence to the terror which the Saracen invasion inspired, and
to the agony of that great struggle. The Saracens, say they,
and their King, who was called Abdirames, came out of Spain,
with all their wives, and their children, and their substance, in
such great multitudes that no man could reckon or estimate
them. They brought with them all their armor, and whatever
they had, as if they were thenceforth always to dwell in
France.

" Then Abderrahman, seeing the land filled with the multi-
tude of his army, pierces through the mountains, tramples over
rough and level ground, plunders far into the country of the
Franks, and smites all with the sword, insomuch that when
Eudes came to battle with him at the river Garonne, and fled
before him, God alone knows the number of the slain. Then
Abderrahman pursued after Count Eudes, and while he strives
to spoil and burn the holy shrine at Tours he encounters the
chief of the Austrasian Franks, Charles, a man of war from his
youth up, to whom Eudes had sent warning. There for nearly
seven days they strive intensely, and at last they set themselves
in battle array, and the nations of the North, standing firm as a
wall and impenetrable as a zone of ice, utterly slay the Arabs
with the edge of the sword."

The European writers all concur in speaking of the fall of
Abderrahman as one of the principal causes of the defeat of the
Arabs; who, according to one writer, after finding that their
leader was slain, dispersed in the night, to the agreeable surprise
of the Christians, who expected the next morning to see them
issue from their tents and renew the combat. One monkish
chronicler puts the loss of the Arabs at three hundred and sev-
enty-five thousand men, while he says that only one thousand and
seven Christians fell; a disparity of loss which he feels bound

BATTLE OF TOURS 321

to account for by a special interposition of Providence. I have
translated above some of the most spirited passages of these
writers; but it is impossible to collect from them anything
like a full or authentic description of the great battle itself, or
of the operations which preceded and followed it.

Though, however, we may have cause to regret the meagre-
ness and doubtful character of these narratives, we have the
great advantage of being able to compare the accounts given of
Abderrahman's expedition by the national writers of each side.
This is a benefit which the inquirer into antiquity so seldom can
obtain that the fact of possessing it, in the case of the battle of
Tours, makes us think the historical testimony respecting that
great event more certain and satisfactory than is the case in
many other instances, where we possess abundant details re-
specting military exploits, but where those details come to us
from the annalist of one nation only, and where we have, con-
sequently, no safeguard against the exaggerations, the distor-
tions, and the fictions which national vanity has so often put
forth in the garb and under the title of history. The Arabian
writers who recorded the conquests and wars of their country-
men in Spain have narrated also the expedition into Gaul of
their great Emir, and his defeat and death near Tours, in battle
with the host of the Franks under "King Caldus," the name
into which they metamorphose Charles Martel.

They tell us how there was war between the count of the
Frankish frontier and the Moslems, and how the count gath-
ered together all his people, and fought for a time with doubt-
ful success. "But," say the Arabian chroniclers, "Abderrah-
man drove them back; and the men of Abclerrahman were
puffed up in spirit by their repeated successes, and they were
full of trust in the valor and the practice in war of their Emir.
So the Moslems smote their enemies, and passed the river
Garonne, and laid waste the country, and took captives without
number. And that army went through all places like a deso-
lating storm. Prosperity made these warriors insatiable. At
the passage of the river Abderrahman overthrew the count, and
the count retired into his stronghold, but the Moslems fought
against it, and entered it by force and slew the count; for every-
thing gave way to their cimeters, which were the robbers of lives.

E., VOL. IV.— 21.

322 BATTLE OF TOURS

"All the nations of the Franks trembled at that terrible army,
and they betook them to their king 'Caldus,' and told him of
the havoc made by the Moslem horsemen, and how they rode
at their will through all the land of Narbonne, Toulouse, and
Bordeaux, and they told the King of the death of their count.
Then the King bade them be of good cheer, and offered to aid
them. And in the ii4th year1 he mounted his horse, and he
took with him a host that could not be numbered, and went
against the Moslems. And he came upon them at the great
city of Tours. And Abderrahman and other prudent cavaliers
saw the disorder of the Moslem troops, who were loaded with
spoil; but they did not venture to displease the soldiers by or-
dering them to abandon everything except their arms and war-
horses. And Abderrahman trusted in the valor of his soldiers,
and in the good fortune which had ever attended him. But,
the Arab writer remarks, such defect of discipline always is
fatal to armies.

" So Abderrahman and his host attacked Tours to gain still
more spoil, and they fought against it so fiercely that they
stormed the city almost before the eyes of the army that came
to save it, and the fury and the cruelty of the Moslems toward
the inhabitants of the city were like the fury and cruelty of
raging tigers. It was manifest," adds the Arab, "that God's
chastisement was sure to follow such excesses, and Fortune
thereupon turned her back upon the Moslems.

"Near the river Owar," the two great hosts of the two lan-
guages and the two creeds were set in array against each other.
The hearts of Abderrahman, his captains, and his men, were
filled with wrath and pride, and they were the first to begin the
fight. The Moslem horsemen dashed fierce and frequent for-
ward against the battalions of the Franks, who resisted man-
fully, and many fell dead on either side, until the going down
of the sun. Night parted the two armies, but in the gray of the
morning the Moslems returned to the battle. Their cavaliers
had soon hewn their way into the centre of the Christian host.
But many of the Moslems were fearful for the safety of the
spoil which they had stored in their tents, and a false cry arose
in their ranks that some of the enemy were plundering the
1 Of the Hegira. * Probably the Loire.

BATTLE OF TOURS 323

camp; whereupon several squadrons of the Moslem horsemen
rode off to protect their tents. But it seemed as if they fled, and
all the host was troubled.

* "And while Abderrahman strove to check their tumult and
to lead them back to battle, the warriors of the Franks came
around him, and he was pierced through with many spears,
so that he died. Then all the host fled before the enemy and
many died in the flight. This deadly defeat of the Moslems,
and the loss of the great leader and good cavalier Abderrah-
man, took place in the hundred and fifteenth year." 1

It would be difficult to expect from an adversary a more
explicit confession of having been thoroughly vanquished
than the Arabs here accord to the Europeans. The points
on which their narrative differs from those of the Christians —
as to how many days the conflict lasted, whether the assailed
city was actually rescued or not, and the like — are of little mo-
ment compared with the admitted great fact that there was a
decisive trial of strength between Frank and Saracen, in which
the former conquered. The enduring importance of the battle
of Tours in the eyes of the Moslems is attested not only by the
expressions of "the deadly battle" and "the disgraceful over-
throw" which their writers constantly employ when referring
to it, but also by the fact that no more serious attempts at con-
quest beyond the Pyrenees were made by the Saracens.

Charles Martel and his son and grandson were left at leis-
ure to consolidate and extend their power. The new Christian
Roman Empire of the West, which the genius of Charlemagne
founded, and throughout which his iron will imposed peace on
the old anarchy of creeds and races, did not indeed retain its
integrity after its great ruler's death. Fresh troubles came
over Europe, but Christendom, though disunited, was safe.
The progress of civilization, and the development of the nation-
alities and governments of modern Europe, from that tune
forth went forward in not uninterrupted, but ultimately certain,

career.

'An. Heg.

P£PIN THE SHORT USURPS THE PRANKISH

CROWN

A.D. 751

FRANCOIS P. G. GUIZOT

The Merovingians, the first dynasty of the Frankish kings in Gaul,
was founded by the greatest of their kings, Clovis, who in 486 overthrew
the Gallo-Roman sway under Syagrius, near Soissons. After his death
in 511 his kingdom was divided among four sons who were mere boys
ranging from twelve to eighteen years of age. The young princes ex-
tended the conquests of their father until they had secured from the em-
peror Justinian title to the whole of Gaul. The last survivor of the
brother-kings was Clotaire I. Under his rule the whole Frankish em-
pire had been united in one ; but on his decease it was again divided
among sons. This division cut the kingdom into three separate sover-
eignties.

The reign of these brothers was one of horrible cruelty and blood-
shed. A second Clotaire survived them and brought the monarchy under
one sceptre. But power slipped fast from this royal representative of the
Merovingian race, and the mayor of the palace (major-domus) began to
exercise an authority which in time resulted in supremacy. When Pe*pin
of He'ristal, the greatest territorial lord of Austrasia, took upon himself
the office of major-domus, he compelled the Merovingian King, at the
battle of Testry in 687, to invest him with the powers of that office in the
three Frankish states, Neustria, Austrasia, and Burgundy. This being
accomplished Pe*pin was practically dictator, and the Merovingians,
though allowed to remain on the throne, were simply figure-heads from
that time forth. Charles Martel was a son worthy of Pe'pin of He'ristal.
His most notable achievement was the defeat of the Saracen invaders at
the battle of Tours, A.D. 732, which ended the advance of Mahometanism
through Western Europe.

(CHARLES MARTEL died October 22, 741, at Kiersey-sur-

Oise, aged fifty-two years, and his last act was the least

wise of his life. He had spent it entirely in two great works:

the reestablishment throughout the whole of Gaul of the Franco-

324

CARLOVINGIAN DYNASTY FOUNDED 325

Gallo-Roman Empire, and the driving back, from the frontiers
of his empire, of the Germans in the North and the Arabs in the
South. The consequence, as also the condition, of this double
success was the victory of Christianity over paganism and Is-
lamism.

Charles Martel endangered these results by falling back
into the groove of those Merovingian kings whose shadow he
had allowed to remain on the throne. He divided between his
two legitimate sons, Pepin, called the Short, from his small
stature, and Carloman, this sole dominion which he had with
so much toil reconstituted and defended. Pepin had Neustria,
Burgundy, Provence, and the suzerainty of Aquitaine; Carlo-
man, Austrasia, Thuringia, and Alemannia. They both, at
their father's death, took only the title of mayor of the palace,
and, perhaps, of duke. The last but one of the Merovingians,
Thierry IV, had died in 737. For four years there had been
no king at all.

But when the works of men are wise and true, that is, in
conformity with the lasting wants of peoples and the natural
tendency of social facts, they get over even the mistakes of
their authors. Immediately after the death of Charles Martel,
the consequences of dividing his empire became manifest. In
the North, the Saxons, the Bavarians, and the Alamannians
renewed their insurrections. In the South, the Arabs of Septi-
mania recovered their hopes of effecting an invasion; and
Hunald, duke of Aquitaine, who had succeeded his father Eudes
after his death in 735, made a fresh attempt to break away from
Frankish sovereignty and win his independence. Charles
Martel had left a young son, Grippo, whose legitimacy had been
disputed, but who was not slow to set up pretensions and to
commence intriguing against his brothers.

Everywhere there burst out that reactionary movement
which arises against grand and difficult works when the strong
hand that undertook them is no longer by to maintain them;
but this movement was of short duration and to little purpose.
Brought up in the school and in the fear of their father, his
two sons, Pepin and Carloman, were inoculated with his ideas
and example; they remained united in spite of the division of
dominions, and labored together, successfully, to keep down,

326 CARLOVINGIAN DYNASTY FOUNDED

in the North the Saxons and Bavarians, in the South the Arabs
and Aquitanians, supplying want of unity by union, and pur-
suing with one accord the constant aim of Charles Martel —
abroad the security and grandeur of the Prankish dominion,
at home the cohesion of all its parts and the efficacy of its
government.

Events came to the aid of this wise conduct. Five years
after the death of Charles Martel, in 746 in fact, Carloman,
already weary of the burden of power, and seized with a fit of
religious zeal, abdicated his share of sovereignty, left his domin-
ions to his brother Pepin, had himself shorn by the hands of
Pope Zachary, and withdrew into Italy to the monastery of
Monte Cassino. The preceding year, in 745, Hunald, duke of
Aquitaine, with more patriotic and equally pious views, also
abdicated in favor of his son Waifre, whom he thought more
capable than himself of winning the independence of Aquitaine,
and went and shut himself up in a monastery in the island of
Rhe*, where was the tomb of his father Eudes. In the course
of divers attempts at conspiracy and insurrection, the Frankish
princes' young brother, Grippo, was killed in combat while
crossing the Alps. The furious internal dissensions among the
Arabs of Spain, and their incessant wars with the Berbers, did
not allow them to pursue any great enterprise in Gaul. Thanks
to all these circumstances, P£pm found himself, in 747, sole
master of the heritage of Clovis, and with the sole charge of
pursuing, in state and church, his father's work, which was
the unity and grandeur of Christian France.

Pepin, less enterprising than his father, but judicious, perse-
vering, and capable of discerning what was at the same time
necessary and possible, was well fitted to continue and con-
solidate what he would, probably, never have begun and created.
Like his father, he, on arriving at power, showed pretensions
to moderation or, it might be said, modesty. He did not take
the title of king; and, in concert with his brother Carloman, he
went to seek, heaven knows in what obscure asylum, a forgotten
Merovingian, son of Childe'ric II, the last but one of the sluggard
kings, and made him king, the last of his line, with the title of
Childe'ric III, himself, as well as his brother, taking only the
style of mayor of the palace. But at the end of ten years, and

CARLOVINGIAN DYNASTY FOUNDED 327

when he saw himself alone at the head of the Prankish dominion,
Pe'pin considered the moment arrived for putting an end to
this fiction. In 751 he sent to Pope Zachary at Rome Burchard,
bishop of Wuerzburg, and Fulrad, abbot of St. Denis, " to con-
sult the pontiff," says Eginhard, "on the subject of the kings
then existing among the Franks, and who bore only the name
of king without enjoying a tittle of royal authority."

The Pope, whom St. Boniface, the great missionary of
Germany, had prepared for the question, answered that "it
was better to give the title of king to him who exercised the
sovereign power "; and next year, in March, 752, in the presence
and with the assent of the general assembly of "leudes" and
bishops gathered together at Soissons, Pe'pin was proclaimed
king of the Franks, and received from the hand of St. Boniface
the sacred anointment. They cut off the hair of the last Mero-
vingian phantom, Childe'ric III, and put him away in the mon-
astery of St. Sithiu, at St. Omer. Two years later, July 28,
754, Pope Stephen II, having come to France to claim Pe'pin's
support against the Lombards, after receiving from him assur-
ance of it, "anointed him afresh with the holy oil in the church
of St. Denis, to do honor in his person to the dignity of royalty,"
and conferred the same honor on the king's two sons, Charles
and Carloman. The new Gallo-Frankish kingship and the
papacy, in the name of their common faith and common inter-
ests, thus contracted an intimate alliance. The young Charles
was hereafter to become Charlemagne.

The same year, Boniface, whom six years before Pope Zach-
ary had made archbishop of Mayence, gave up one day the
episcopal dignity to his disciple Lullus, charging him to carry
on the different works himself had commenced among the
churches of Germany, and to uphold the faith of the people.
"As for me," he added, "I will put myself on my road, for the
time of my passing away approacheth. I have longed for this
departure, and none can turn me from it; wherefore, my son,
get all things ready, and place in the chest with my books the
winding-sheet to wrap up my old body." And so he departed
with some of his priests and servants to go and evangelize the
Prisons, the majority of whom were still pagans and barba-
rians. He pitched his tent on their territory, and was arranging

328 CARLOVINGIAN DYNASTY FOUNDED

to celebrate their Lord's supper, when a band of natives came
down and rushed upon the archbishop's retinue. The servitors
surrounded him, to defend him and themselves, and a battle
began.

"Hold, hold, my children!" cried the archbishop; " Scripture
biddeth us return good for evil. This is the day I have long
desired, and the hour of our deliverance is at hand. Be strong
in the Lord: hope in him, and he will save your souls." The
barbarians slew the holy man and the majority of his company.
A little while after, the Christians of the neighborhood came in
arms and recovered the body of St. Boniface. Near him was
a book which was stained with blood and seemed to have
dropped from his hands; it contained several works of the
fathers, and among others a writing of St. Ambrose, On the
Blessing of Death. The death of the pious missionary was as
powerful as his preaching in converting Friesland. It was a
mode of conquest worthy of the Christian faith, and one of
which the history of Christianity had already proved the effec-
tiveness.

St. Boniface did not confine himself to the evangelization of
the pagans; he labored ardently in the Christian Gallo-Frank-
ish Church to reform the manners and ecclesiastical discipline,
and to assure, while justifying, the moral influence of the clergy
by example as well as precept. The councils, which had almost
fallen into desuetude in Gaul, became once more frequent and
active there: from 742 to 753 there may be counted seven,
presided over by St. Boniface, which exercised within the Church
a salutary action. King Pe"pin, recognizing the services which
the archbishop of Mayence had rendered him, seconded his
reformatory efforts at one time by giving the support of his
royal authority to the canons of the councils, held often simul-
taneously with and almost confounded with the laic assemblies
of the Franks; at another by doing justice to the protests of the
churches against the violence and spoliation to which they were
subjected.

"There was an important point," says M. Fauriel, "in
respect of which the position of Charles Martel's sons turned
out to be pretty nearly the same as that of their father: it was
touching the necessity of assigning warriors a portion of the

CARLOVINGIAN DYNASTY FOUNDED 329

ecclesiastical revenues. But they, being more religious, per-
haps, than Charles Martel, or more impressed with the impor-
tance of humoring the priestly power, were more vexed and
more anxious about the necessity under which they found them-
selves of continuing to despoil the churches and of persisting
in a system which was putting the finishing stroke to the ruin
of all ecclesiastical discipline. They were more eager to miti-
gate the evil and to offer the Church compensation for their
share in this evil to which it was not in their power to put a stop.
Accordingly, at the March parade, held at Leptines in 743, it
was decided, in reference to ecclesiastical lands applied to the
military service: ist, that the churches having the ownership
of those lands should share the revenue with the lay holder;
2d, that on the death of a warrior in enjoyment of an eccle-
siastical benefice, the benefice should revert to the Church; 3d,
that every benefice, by deprivation whereof any church would
be reduced to poverty, should be at once restored to her.

" That this capitular was carried out, or even capable of being
carried out, is very doubtful; but the less Carloman and Pe*pin
succeeded in repairing the material losses incurred by the Church
since the accession of the Carlovingians, the more zealous they
were in promoting the growth of her moral power and the res-
toration of her discipline. . . . That was the time at which
there began to be seen the spectacle of the national assemblies
of the Franks, the gatherings at the March parades transformed
into ecclesiastical synods under the presidency of the titular
legate of the Roman pontiff, and dictating, by the mouth of
the political authority, regulations and laws with the direct and
formal aim of restoring divine worship and ecclesiastical dis-
cipline, and of assuring the spiritual welfare of the people."

Pe"pin, after he had been proclaimed king and had settled
matters with the Church as well as the warlike questions re-
maining for him to solve permitted, directed all his efforts tow-
ard the two countries which, after his father's example, he
longed to reunite to the Gallo-Frankish monarchy, that is,
Septimania, still occupied by the Arabs, and Aquitaine, the
independence of which was stoutly and ably defended by Duke
Eudes' grandson, Duke Waifre. The conquest of Septimania
was rather tedious than difficult. The Franks, after having

330 CARLOVINGIAN DYNASTY FOUNDED

victoriously scoured the open country of the district, kept in-
vested during three years its capital, Narbonne, where the
Arabs of Spain, much weakened by their dissensions, vainly
tried to throw in reinforcements. Besides the Mussulman
Arabs, the population of the town numbered many Christian
Goths, who were tired of suffering for the defence of their
oppressors, and who entered into secret negotiations with the
chiefs of Pdpin's army, the end of which was that they opened
the gates of the town. In 759, then, after forty years of Arab
rule, Narbonne passed definitively under that of the Franks, who
guaranteed to the inhabitants free enjoyment of their Gothic
or Roman law and of their local institutions. It even appears
that, in the province of Spain bordering on Septimania, an
Arab chief, called Soliman, who was in command at Gerona
and Barcelona, between the Ebro and the Pyrenees, submitted
to Pe'pin, himself and the country under him. This was an
important event, indeed, in the reign of Pepin, for here was the
point at which Islamism, but lately aggressive and victorious
in Southern Europe, began to feel definitively beaten and to re-
coil before Christianity.

The conquest of Aquitaine and Vasconia was much more
keenly disputed and for a much longer time uncertain. Duke
Waif re was as able in negotiation as in war; at one time he
seemed to accept the pacific overtures of Pe'pin, or, perhaps,
himself made similar, without bringing about any result; at
another, he went to seek and found even in Germany allies
who caused P6pin much embarrassment and peril. The
population of Aquitaine hated the Franks; and the war,
which for their duke was a question of independent sover-
eignty, was for themselves a question of passionate national
feeling.

Pe'pin, who was naturally more humane and even more gen-
erous, it may be said, in war than his predecessors had usually
been, was nevertheless induced, in his struggle against the Duke
of Aquitaine, to ravage without mercy the countries he scoured,
and to treat the vanquished with great harshness. It was only
after nine years' war and seven campaigns full of vicissitudes
that he succeeded, not in conquering his enemy in a decisive
battle, but in gaining over some servants who betrayed their

CARLOVINGIAN DYNASTY FOUNDED 331

master. In the month of July, 759, "Duke Waif re was slain
by his own folk, by the King's advice," says Fre'de'gaire ; and
the conquest of all Southern Gaul carried the extent and power
of the Gallo-Frankish monarchy farther and higher than it
had ever yet been, even under Clovis.

In 753 Pe'pin had made an expedition against the Britons
of Armorica, had taken Vannes and "subjugated," add certain
chroniclers, "the whole of Brittany." In point of fact, Brittany
was no more subjugated by Pepin than by his predecessors;
all that can be said is that the Franks resumed under him an
aggressive attitude toward the Britons, as if to vindicate a right
of sovereignty.

Exactly at this epoch Pe'pin was engaging in a matter which
did not allow him to scatter his forces hither and thither. It
has been stated already, that in 741 Pope Gregory III had
asked aid of the Franks against the Lombards who were threat-
ening Rome, and that, while fully entertaining the Pope's
wishes, Charles Martel had been in no hurry to interfere by
deed in the quarrel. Twelve years later, in 753, Pope Stephen,
in his turn threatened by Astolphus, King of the Lombards,
after vain attempts to obtain guarantees of peace, repaired
to Paris, and renewed to Pe'pin the entreaties used by
Zachary. It was difficult for Pepin to turn a deaf ear; it was
Zachary who had declared that he ought to be made king;
Stephen showed readiness to anoint him a second time, himself
and his sons; and it was the eldest of these sons, Charles,
scarcely twelve years old, whom Pepin, on learning the near
arrival of the Pope, had sent to meet him and give brilliancy to
his reception.

Stephen passed the winter at St. Denis, and gained the favor
of the people as well as that of the King. Astolphus peremptorily
refused to listen to the remonstrances of Pe'pin, who called upon
him to evacuate the towns in the exarchate of Ravenna, and to
leave the Pope unmolested in the environs of Rome as well as
in Rome itself. At the March parade held at Braine, in the
spring of 754, the Franks approved of the war against the Lom-
bards; and at the end of the summer Pepin and his army de-
scended into Italy by Mount Cenis, the Lombards trying in
vain to stop them as they debouched into the valley of Suza.

332 CARLOVINGIAN DYNASTY FOUNDED

Astolphus, beaten, and, before long, shut up in Pavia, promised
all that was demanded of him; and Pepin and his warriors,
laden with booty, returned to France, leaving at Rome the Pope,
who conjured them to remain awhile in Italy, for to a certainty,
he said, King Astolphus would not keep his promises. The
pope was right. So soon as the Franks had gone, the King of
the Lombards continued occupying the places in the exarchate
and molesting the neighborhood of Rome.

The Pope, in despair and doubtful of his auxiliaries' return,
conceived the idea of sending uto the King, the chiefs, and the
people of the Franks, a letter written, he said, by Peter, apostle
of Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, to announce to them
that, if they came in haste, he would aid them as if he were
alive according to the flesh among them, that they would con-
quer all their enemies and make themselves sure of eternal life!"
The plan was perfectly successful : the Franks once more crossed
the Alps with enthusiasm, once more succeeded in beating the
Lombards, and once more shut up in Pavia King Astolphus,
who was eager to purchase peace at any price. He obtained it
on two principal conditions: (i) That he would not again
make a hostile attack on Roman territory, or wage war against
the Pope or people of Rome; (2) that he would henceforth
recognize the sovereignty of the Franks, pay them tribute, and
cede forthwith to Pepin the towns and all the lands belonging
to the jurisdiction of the Roman Empire, which were at that
time occupied by the Lombards. By virtue of these conditions
Ravenna, Rimini, Pesaro, that is to say, the Romagna, the
duchy of Urbino, and a portion of the Marches of Ancona,
were at once given up to Pepin, who, regarding them as his own
direct conquest, the fruit of victory, disposed of them forthwith
in favor of the popes, by that famous deed of gift which com-
prehended pretty nearly what has since formed the Roman
States, and which founded the temporal independence of the
papacy, the guarantee of its independence in the exercise of
the spiritual power.

At the head of the Franks as mayor of the palace from 741,
and as king from 752, P6pin had completed in France and
extended in Italy the work which his father, Charles Martel,
had begun and carried on, from 714 to 741, in state and

CARLOVINGIAN DYNASTY FOUNDED 333

church. He left France reunited in one and placed at the
head of Christian Europe. He died at the monastery of St.
Denis, September 18, 768, leaving his kingdom and his dy-
nasty thus ready to the hands of his son, whom history has
dubbed Charlemagne.

CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE

A.D. 772-814

FRANCOIS P. G. GUIZOT

In Charles, the son of Pe'pin the Short, later known as Charlemagne,
or Charles the Great, the Carlovingians saw the culminating glory of their
line, while in French history the splendor of his name outshines that of
all other rulers. It seemed an act of fate that his brother and joint heir
to the Frankish kingdom should die and leave the monarchy wholly in his
hands, for his genius was to prove equal to its field of action.

The kingdom which Charlemagne inherited was great in extent, lying
mainly between the Loire and the Rhine, including Alemannia and Bur-
gundy, while his sphere of influence — to use the modern phrase— cov-
ered many provinces and districts over which his rule was wholly or in
part acknowledged — Aquitaine, Bavaria, Brittany, Frisia, Thuringia, and
others.

To enlarge still further the bounds of his kingdom was the task to
which the young monarch at once addressed himself, and upon which he
entered with all the advantages of family prestige, a commanding and
engaging personality, proven courage and skill in war, as well as talent
and accomplishments in civil affairs.

The central purpose of Charlemagne, to the service of which all his
policies and his conduct were directed, was the maintenance of the Chris-
tian religion as embodied in the Western Church, whose great champion
he became, and in that character occupies his lofty place in the history
of Europe and of the world. At this period the two great powers in the
Christian world were the Roman pontiff and the Frankish king; and
when, on Christmas Day, A.D. 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne
emperor of the Romans, and in the Holy Roman Empire restored the
Western Empire, extinct since 476, he welded church and state in what
long proved to be indissoluble bonds, somewhat — it must be added— to
the chagrin of the Byzantine emperors of the Eastern Roman Empire at
Constantinople. This was an event the significance of which only later
times could learn to estimate. The Holy Roman Empire henceforth
held a leading part in the world's affairs, the influence of which is still
active in the survivals of its power among nations.

Charlemagne served the Church and fulfilled his own purposes through
the military subjugation of all whom he could overcome among the bar-
barians and heathens of his time. And the powers which he gained as
conqueror he exercised with equal ability and steadfastness of purpose

334

CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE 335

in his capacity as foremost secular ruler in the world. By the union of
the Teutonic with the Roman interests, and of northern vigor with the
culture of the South, it is considered by the historians of our own day
that Charlemagne proved himself the beginner of a new era — in fact, as
Bryce declares, of modern history itself.

Gibbon has said that of all the heroes to whom the title of " the Great "
has been given, Charlemagne alone has retained it as a permanent ad-
dition to his name.

""PHE most judicious minds are sometimes led blindly by tra-
dition and habit, rather than enlightened by reflection and
experience. Pepin the Short committed at his death the same
mistake that his father, Charles Martel, had committed: he
divided his dominions between his two sons, Charles and Carlo-
man, thus destroying again that unity of the Gallo-Frankish
monarchy which his father and he had been at so much pains
to establish. But, just as had already happened in 746 through
the abdication of P6pin's brother, events discharged the duty
of repairing the mistake of men. After the death of Pe'pin,
and notwithstanding that of Duke Waifre, insurrection broke
out once more in Aquitaine; and the old duke, Hunald, issued
from his monastery in the island of Rbie* to try and recover
power and independence. Charles and Carloman marched
against him; but, on the march, Carloman, who was jealous
and thoughtless, fell out with his brother, and suddenly quitted
the expedition, taking away his troops. Charles was obliged
to continue it alone, which he did with complete success. At
the end of this first campaign, Pepin's widow, the queen-mother
Bertha, reconciled her two sons; but an unexpected incident,
the death of Carloman two years afterward in 771, reestablished
unity more surely than the reconciliation had reestablished
harmony. For, although Carloman left sons, the grandees
of his dominions, whether laic or ecclesiastical, assembled at
Corbe'ny, between Laon and Rheims, and proclaimed in his
stead his brother Charles, who thus became sole king of the
Gallo-Franco-Germanic monarchy. And as ambition and
manners had become less tinged with ferocity than they had
been under the Merovingians, the sons of Carloman were not
killed or shorn or even shut up in a monastery: they retired
with their mother, Gerberge, to the court of Didier, King of the
Lombards. "King Charles," says Eginhard, "took their de-

336 CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE

parture patiently, regarding it as of no importance." Thus
commenced the reign of Charlemagne.

The original and dominant characteristic of the hero of this
reign, that which won for him, and keeps for him after more
than ten centuries, the name of great, is the striking variety
of his ambition, his faculties, and his deeds. Charlemagne
aspired to and attained to every sort of greatness — military
greatness, political greatness, and intellectual greatness; he
was an able warrior, an energetic legislator, a hero of poetry.
And he united, he displayed all these merits in a time of general
and monotonous barbarism when, save in the church, the minds
of men were dull and barren. Those men, few in number, who
made themselves a name at that epoch, rallied round Charle-
magne and were developed under his patronage. To know
him well and appreciate him justly, he must be examined under
those various grand aspects, abroad and at home, in his wars
and in his government.

From 769 to 813, in Germany and Western and Northern
Europe, Charlemagne conducted thirty-one campaigns against
the Saxons, Frisians, Bavarians, Avars, Slavons, and Danes; in
Italy, five against the Lombards; in Spain, Corsica, and Sar-
dinia, twelve against the Arabs; two against the Greeks;
and three in Gaul itself, against the Aquitanians and the Brit-
ons; in all, fifty-three expeditions; among which those he un-
dertook against the Saxons, the Lombards, and the Arabs were
long and difficult wars. It were undesirable to recount them in
detail, for the relation would be monotonous and useless; but
it is obligatory to make fully known their causes, their char-
acteristic incidents, and their results.

Under the last Merovingian kings, the Saxons were, on the
right bank of the Rhine, in frequent collision with the Franks,
especially with the Austrasian Franks, whose territory they
were continually threatening and often invading. Pepin the
Short had more than once hurled them back far from the very
uncertain frontiers of Germanic Austrasia; and, on becoming
king, he dealt his blows still farther, and entered, in his turn,
Saxony itself. "In spite of the Saxon's stout resistance," says
Eginhard, "he pierced through the points they had fortified to
bar entrance into their country, and, after having fought here

CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE 337

and there battles wherein fell many Saxons, he forced them to
promise that they would submit to his rule; and that every year,
to do him honor, they would send to the general assembly of
Franks a present of three hundred horses. When these con-
ventions were once settled, he insisted, to insure their perform-
ance, upon placing them under the guarantee of rites peculiar
to the Saxons; then he returned with his army to Gaul."

Charlemagne did not confine himself to resuming his fa-
ther's work; he before long changed its character and its scope.
In 772, being left sole master of France after the death of his
brother Carloman, he convoked at Worms the general assembly
of the Franks, "and took," says Eginhard, "the resolution of
going and carrying war into Saxony. He invaded it without
delay, laid it waste with fire and sword, made himself master
of the fort of Ehresburg, and threw down the idol that the
Saxons called Irminsul" And in what place was this first
victory of Charlemagne won? Near the sources of the Lippe,
just where, more than seven centuries before, the German Ar-
minius (Herman) had destroyed the legions of Varus, and
whither Germanicus had come to avenge the disaster of Varus.
This ground belonged to Saxon territory; and this idol, called
Irminsul, which was thrown down by Charlemagne, was prob-
ably a monument raised in honor of Arminius (Hermann-
Seule, or Herman's pillar), whose name it called to mind.
The patriotic and hereditary pride of the Saxons was passion-
ately roused by this blow; and, the following year, "thinking
to find in the absence of the King the most favorable oppor-
tunity," says Eginhard, they entered the lands of the Franks,
laid them waste in their turn, and, paying back outrage for
outrage, set fire to the church not long since built at Fritzlar,
by Boniface, martyr. From that time the question changed
its aspect; it was no longer the repression of Saxon invasions
of France, but the conquest of Saxony by the Franks that was
to be dealt with; it was between the Christianity of the Franks
and the national paganism of the Saxons that the struggle was
to take place.

For thirty years such was its character. Charlemagne re-
garded the conquest of Saxony as indispensable for putting a
stop to the incursions of the Saxons, and the conversion of the
E., VOL. rv.— 22.

338 CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE

Saxons to Christianity as indispensable for assuring the con-
quest of Saxony. The Saxons were defending at one and the
same time the independence of their country and the gods of
their fathers. Here was wherewithal to stir up and foment,
on both sides, the profoundest passions; and they burst forth,
on both sides, with equal fury. Whithersoever Charlemagne
penetrated he built strong castles and churches; and, at his
departure, left garrisons and missionaries. When he was gone
the Saxons returned, attacked the forts, and massacred the
garrisons and the missionaries. At the commencement of the
struggle, a priest of Anglo-Saxon origin, whom St. Willibrod,
bishop of Utrecht, had but lately consecrated — St. Liebwin,
in fact — undertook to go and preach the Christian religion in
the very heart of Saxony, on the banks of the Weser, amid
the general assembly of the Saxons. "What do ye?" said he,
cross in hand; "the idols ye worship live not, neither do they
perceive: they are the work of men's hands; they can do
naught either for themselves or for others. Wherefore the one
God, good and just, having compassion on your errors, hath
sent me unto you. If ye put not away your iniquity, I foretell
unto you a trouble that ye do not expect, and that the King of
Heaven hath ordained aforetime: there shall come a prince,
strong and wise and indefatigable, not from afar, but from nigh
at hand, to fall upon you like a torrent, in order to soften your
hard hearts and bow down your proud heads. At one rush he
shall invade the country; he shall lay it waste with fire and
sword, and carry away your wives and children into captivity."
A thrill of rage ran through the assembly; and already many
of those present had begun to cut, in the neighboring woods,
stakes sharpened to a point to pierce the priest, when one of
the chieftains, named Buto, cried aloud: "Listen, ye who are
the most wise. There have often come unto us ambassadors
from neighboring peoples, Northmen, Slavons, or Frisians; we
have received them in peace, and when their messages had been
heard, they have been sent away with a present. Here is an
ambassador from a great God, and ye would slay him ! " Whether
it were frpm sentiment or from prudence, the multitude was
calmed, or, at any rate, restrained; and for this time the priest
retired safe and sound.

CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE 339

Just as the pious zeal of the missionaries was of service to
Charlemagne, so did the power of Charlemagne support and
sometimes preserve the missionaries. The mob, even in the
midst of its passions, is not throughout or at all times inacces-
sible to fear. The Saxons were not one and the same nation,
constantly united in one and the same assembly, and governed
by a single chieftain. Three populations of the same race,
distinguished by names borrowed from their geographical situ-
ation, just as had happened among the Franks in the case of
the Austrasians and Neustrians, to wit, Eastphalian or Eastern
Saxons, Westphalian or Western, and Angrians, formed the
Saxon confederation. And to them was often added a fourth
people of the same origin, closer to the Danes, and called North-
Albingians, inhabitants of the northern district of the Elbe.
These four principal Saxon populations were subdivided into a
large number of tribes, who had their own particular chieftains,
and who often decided, each for itself, their conduct and their
fate. Charlemagne, knowing how to profit by this want of
cohesion and unity among his foes, attacked now one and now
another of the large Saxon peoplets or the small Saxon tribes,
and dealt separately with each of them, according as he found
them inclined to submission or resistance. After having, in
four or five successive expeditions, gained victories and sus-
tained checks, he thought himself sufficiently advanced in his
conquest to put his relations with the Saxons to a grand trial.
In 777, he resolved, says Eginhard, "to go and hold, at the
place called Paderborn (close to Saxony) the general assembly
of this people. On his arrival he found there assembled the
senate and people of this perfidious nation, who, conformably
to his orders, had repaired thither, seeking to deceive him by a
false show of submission and devotion. . . . They earned their
pardon, but on this condition, however, that, if hereafter they
broke their engagements, they would be deprived of country
and liberty. A great number among them had themselves bap-
tized on this occasion; but it was with far from sincere inten-
tions that they had testified a desire to become Christians."

There had been absent from this great meeting a Saxon
chieftain, called Wittikind, son of Wernekind, King of the
Saxons at the north of the Elbe. He had espoused the sister

340 CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE

of Siegfried, King of the Danes; and he was the friend of Rat-
bod, King of the Frisians. A true chieftain at heart as well as
by descent, he was made to be the hero of the Saxons just
as, seven centuries before, the Cheruscan Herman (Arminius)
had been the hero of the Germans. Instead of repairing to
Paderborn, Wittikind had left Saxony, and taken refuge with
his brother-in-law, the King of the Danes. Thence he encour-
aged his Saxon compatriots, some to persevere in their resist-
ance, others to repent them of their show of submission. War
began again; and Wittikind hastened back to take part in it.
In 778 the Saxons advanced as far as the Rhine; but, "not
having been able to cross this river," says Eginhard, "they set
themselves to lay waste with fire and sword all the towns and
all the villages from the city of Duitz (opposite Cologne) as far
as the confluence of the Moselle. The churches as well as the
houses were laid in ruins from top to bottom. The enemy, in
his frenzy, spared neither age nor sex, wishing to show thereby
that he had invaded the territory of the Franks, not for plunder,
but for revenge!" For three years the struggle continued,
more confined in area, but more and more obstinate. Many
of the Saxon tribes submitted; many Saxons were baptized;
and Siegfried, King of the Danes, sent to Charlemagne a depu-
tation, as if to treat for peace. Wittikind had left Denmark;
but he had gone across to her neighbors, the Northmen; and,
thence reentering Saxony, he kindled there an insurrection as
fierce as it was unexpected. In 782 two of Charlemagne's
lieutenants were beaten on the banks of the Weser, and killed
in the battle, "together with four counts and twenty leaders,
the noblest in the army; indeed, the Franks were nearly all
exterminated. At news of this disaster," says Eginhard,
" Charlemagne, without losing a moment, reassembled an army
and set out for Saxony. He summoned into his presence all the
chieftains of the Saxons, and demanded of them who had been
the promoters of the revolt. AH agreed in denouncing Witti-
kind as the author of this treason. But as they could not deliver
him up, because immediately after his sudden attack he had
taken refuge with the Northmen, those who, at his instigation,
had been accomplices in the crime, were placed, to the number
of four thousand five hundred, in the hands of the King; and,

CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE 341

by his order, all had their heads cut off the same day, at a place
called Werden, on the river Aller. After this deed of vengeance
the King retired to Thionville to pass the winter there."

But the vengeance did not put an end to the war. For three
years Charlemagne had to redouble his efforts to accomplish
in Saxony, at the cost of Prankish as well as Saxon blood, his
work of conquest and conversion: "Saxony," he often repeated,
"must be Christianized or wiped out." At last, in 785, after
several victories which seemed decisive, he went and settled
down in his strong castle of Ehresburg, "whither he made his
wife and children come, being resolved to remain there all the
bad season," says Eginhard, and applying himself without
cessation to scouring the country of the Saxons and wearing
them out by his strong and indomitable determination. But
determination did not blind him to prudence and policy. "Hav-
ing learned that Wittikind and Abbio, another great Saxon
chieftain, were abiding in the part of Saxony situated on the
other side of the Elbe, he sent to them Saxon envoys to prevail
upon them to renounce their perfidy, and come, without hesi-
tation, and trust themselves to him. They, conscious of what
they had attempted, dared not at first trust to the King's word;
but having obtained from him the promise they desired of im-
punity, and, besides, the hostages they demanded as guarantee
of their safety, and who were brought to them, on the King's
behalf, by Amalwin, one of the officers of his court, they came
with the said lord and presented themselves before the King in
his palace of Attigny [Attigny-sur-Aisne, whither Charlemagne
had now returned], and there received baptism."

Charlemagne did more than amnesty Wittikind; he named
him Duke of Saxony, but without attaching to the title any right
of sovereignty. Wittikind, on his side, did more than come to
Attigny and get baptized there; he gave up the struggle, re-
mained faithful to his new engagements, and led, they say,
so Christian a life that some chroniclers have placed him on
the list of saints. He was killed in 807, in a battle against
Gerold, Duke of Suabia, and his tomb is still to be seen at Ratis-
bon. Several families of Germany hold him for their ancestor;
and some French genealogists have, without solid ground, dis-
covered in him the grandfather of Robert the Strong, great-

342 CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE

grandfather of Hugh Capet. However that may be, after mak-
ing peace with Wittikind, Charlemagne had still, for several
years, many insurrections to repress and much rigor to exercise
in Saxony, including the removal of certain Saxon peoplets out
of their country, and the establishment of foreign colonists in
the territories thus become vacant; but the great war was at
an end, and Charlemagne might consider Saxony incorporated
in his dominions.

He had still, in Germany and all around, many enemies to
fight and many campaigns to reopen. Even among the Ger-
manic populations, which were regarded as reduced under the
sway of the King of the Franks, some, the Frisians and Saxons,
as well as others, were continually agitating for the recovery of
their independence. Farther off, toward the north, east, and
south, people differing in origin and language — Avars, Huns,
Slavons, Bulgarians, Danes, and Northmen — were still pressing
or beginning to press upon the frontiers of the Frankish domin-
ion, for the purpose of either penetrating within or settling at
the threshold as powerful and formidable neighbors. Charle-
magne had plenty to do, with the view at one time of checking
their incursions, and at another of destroying or hurling back
to a distance their settlements; and he brought his usual vigor
and perseverance to bear on this second struggle. But by the
conquest of Saxony he had attained his direct national object:
the great flood of population from east to west came, and broke
against the Gallo-Franco-Germanic dominion as against an
insurmountable rampart.

This was not, however, Charlemagne's only great enterprise
at this epoch, nor the only great struggle he had to maintain.
While he was incessantly fighting in Germany, the work of
policy commenced by his father Pepin in Italy called for his
care and his exertions. The new King of the Lombards, Didier,
and the new Pope, Adrian I, had entered upon a new war; and
Didier was besieging Rome, which was energetically defended
by the Pope and its inhabitants. In 773, Adrian invoked the
aid of the King of the Franks, whom his envoys succeeded, not
without difficulty, in finding at Thionville. Charlemagne could
not abandon the grand position left him by his father as pro-
tector of the papacy and as patrician of Rome. The possessions,

CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE 343

moreover, wrested by Didier from the Pope were exactly those
which Pe*pin had won by conquest from King Astolphus, and
had presented to the Papacy. Charlemagne was besides, on
his own account, on bad terms with the King of the Lombards,
whose daughter, Desiree, he had married, and afterward re-
pudiated and sent home to her father, in order to marry Hilde-
garde, a Suabian by nation. Didier, in dudgeon, had given an
asylum to Carloman's widow and sons, on whose intrigues
Charlemagne kept a watchful eye. Being prudent and careful
of appearances, even when he was preparing to strike a heavy
blow, Charlemagne tried, by means of special envoys, to obtain
from the King of the Lombards what the Pope demanded. On
Didier's refusal he at once set to work, convoked the general
meeting of the Franks, at Geneva, in the autumn of 773, gained
them over, not without encountering some objections, to the
projected Italian expedition, and forthwith commenced the
campaign with two armies. One was to cross the Valais and
descend upon Lombardy by Mount St. Bernard; Charlemagne
in person led the other, by Mount Cenis. The Lombards, at
the outlet of the passes of the Alps, offered a vigorous resistance;
but when the second army had penetrated into Italy by Mount
St. Bernard, Didier, threatened in his rear, retired precipitately,
and, driven from position to position, was obliged to go and
shut himself up in Pavia, the strongest place in his kingdom,
whither Charlemagne, having received on the march the sub-
mission of the principal counts and nearly all the towns of Lom-
bardy, came promptly to besiege him.

To place textually before the reader a fragment of an old
chronicle will serve better than any modern description to
show the impression of admiration and fear produced upon his
contemporaries by Charlemagne, his person and his power.
At the close of this ninth century a monk of the abbey of St.
Gall, in Switzerland, had collected, direct from the mouth of
one of Charlemagne's warriors, Adalbert, numerous stories of
his campaigns and his life. These stories are full of fabulous
legends, puerile anecdotes, distorted reminiscences and chrono-
logical errors, and they are written sometimes with a credulity
and exaggeration of language which raise a smile; but they re-
veal the state of men's minds and fancies within the circle of

344 CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE

Charlemagne's influence and at the sight of him. This monk
gives a naive account of Charlemagne's arrival before Pavia,
and of the King of the Lombard's disquietude at his approach.
Didier had with him at that time one of Charlemagne's most
famous comrades, Ogier the Dane, who fills a prominent place
in the romances and epopoeias, relating to chivalry, of that age.
Ogier had quarrelled with his great chief and taken refuge with
the King of the Lombards. It is probable that his Danish origin
and his relations with the King of the Danes, Gottfried, for a
long time an enemy of the Franks, had something to do with
his misunderstanding with Charlemagne. However that may
have been, "when Didier and Ogger (for so the monk calls
him) heard that the dread monarch was coming, they ascended
a tower of vast height whence they could watch his arrival from
afar off and from every quarter. They saw, first of all, engines
of war such as must have been necessary for the armies of
Darius or Julius Caesar. 'Is not Charles,' asked Didier of Ogger,
'with his great army?' But the other answered, 'No.' The
Lombard, seeing afterward an immense body of soldiery gath-
ered from all quarters of the vast empire, said to Ogger, ' Certes,
Charles advanceth in triumph in the midst of this throng.' ' No,
not yet; he will not appear so soon,' was the answer. 'What
should we do, then,' rejoined Didier, who began to be per-
turbed, ' should he come accompanied by a larger band of war-
riors ? ' ' You will see what he is when he comes,' replied Ogger,
'but as to what will become of us, I know nothing.' As they
were thus parleying appeared the body of guards that knew no
repose; and at this sight the Lombard, overcome with dread,
cried, 'This time 'tis surely Charles.' 'No,' answered Ogger,
'not yet.' In their wake came the bishops, the abbots, the
ordinaries of the chapels royal, and the counts; and then Didier,
no longer able to bear the light of day or to face death, cried
out with groans, 'Let us descend and hide ourselves in the
bowels of the earth, far from the face and the fury of so terrible
a foe.' Trembling the while, Ogger, who knew by experience
what were the power and might of Charles, and who had learned
the lesson by long consuetude in better days, then said, 'When
ye shall behold the crops shaking for fear in the fields, and the
gloomy Po and the Ticino overflowing the walls of the city with

CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE 345

their waves blackened with steel (iron), then may ye think that
Charles is coming.' He had not ended these words when there
began to be seen in the west, as it were a black cloud, raised by
the northwest wind or by Boreas, which turned the brightest
day into awful shadows. But as the Emperor drew nearer and
nearer, the gleam of arms caused to shine on the people shut up
within the city a day more gloomy than any kind of night.
And then appeared Charles himself, that man of steel, with
his head encased in a helmet of steel, his hands garnished
with gauntlets of steel, his heart of steel and his shoulders
of marble protected by a cuirass of steel, and his left hand
armed with a lance of steel which he held aloft in the air,
for as to his right hand he kept that continually on the hilt of
his invincible sword. The outside of his thighs, which the rest,
for their greater ease in mounting a-horseback, were wont to
leave unshackled even by straps, he wore encircled by plates of
steel. What shall I say concerning his boots? All the army
were wont to have them invariably of steel; on his buckler there
was naught to be seen but steel; his horse was of the color and
the strength of steel. All those who went before the monarch,
all those who marched at his side, all those who followed after,
even the whole mass of the army had armor of the like sort, so
far as the means of each permitted. The fields and the high-
ways were covered with steel: the points of steel reflected the
rays of the sun; and this steel, so hard, was borne by a people
with hearts still harder. The flash of steel spread terror through-
out the streets of the city. 'What steel! alack, what steel!'
Such were the bewildered cries the citizens raised. The firm-
ness of manhood and of youth gave way at sight of the steel;
and the steel paralyzed the wisdom of graybeards. That which
I, poor tale-teller, mumbling and toothless, have attempted to
depict in a long description, Ogger perceived at one rapid glance,
and said to Didier, ' Here is what ye have so anxiously sought ' :
and while uttering these words he fell down almost lifeless."

The monk of St. Gall does King Didier and his people wrong.
They showed more firmness and valor than he ascribes to them;
they resisted Charlemagne obstinately, and repulsed his first
assaults so well that he changed the siege into an investment,
and settled down before Pavia, as if making up his mind for a

346 CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE

long operation. His camp became a town; he sent for Queen
Hildegarde and her court; and he had a chapel built where he
celebrated the festival of Christmas. But on the arrival of spring,
close upon the festival of Easter, 774, wearied with the duration
of the investment, he left to his lieutenants the duty of keeping
it up, and, attended by a numerous and brilliant following, set
off for Rome, whither the Pope was urgently pressing him to
come.

On Holy Saturday, April i, 774, Charlemagne found, at
three miles from Rome, the magistrates and the banner of the
city, sent forward by the Pope to meet him ; at one mile all the
municipal bodies and the pupils of the schools carrying palm
branches and singing hymns; and at the gate of the city, the
cross, which was never taken out save for exarchs and patri-
cians. At sight of the cross Charlemagne dismounted, entered
Rome on foot, ascended the steps of the ancient basilica of St.
Peter, repeating at each step a sign of respectful piety, and
was received at the top by the Pope himself. All around him
and in the streets a chant was sung, "Blessed be he that cometh
in the name of the Lord!" At his entry and during his sojourn
at Rome, Charlemagne gave the most striking proofs of Chris-
tian faith and respect for the head of the Church. According
to the custom of pilgrims he visited all the basilicas, and in that
of Sta. Maria Maggiore he performed his solemn devotions.
Then, passing to temporal matters, he caused to be brought
and read over, in his private conferences with the Pope, the
deed of territorial gift made by his father Pe*pin to Stephen II,
and with his own lips dictated the confirmation of it, adding
thereto a new gift of certain territories which he was in course
of wresting by conquest from the Lombards. Pope Adrian, on
his side, rendered to him, with a mixture of affection and dignity,
all the honors and all the services which could at one and the
same time satisfy and exalt the King and the priest, the protector
and the protected. He presented to Charlemagne a book con-
taining a collection of the canons written by the pontiffs from
the origin of the Church, and he put at the beginning of the
book, which was dedicated to Charlemagne, an address in forty-
five irregular verses, written with his own hand, which formed
an anagram: "Pope Adrian to his most excellent son, Charle-

347

magne, king" (Domino excellentissimo filio Carolo Magno regi,
Hadrianus papa). At the same time he encouraged him to
push his victory to the utmost and make himself king of the
Lombards, advising him, however, not to incorporate his con-
quest with the Frankish dominions, as it would wound the pride
of the conquered people to be thus absorbed by the conquerors,
and to take merely the title of "King of the Franks and Lom-
bards." Charlemagne appreciated and accepted this wise ad-
vice; for he could preserve proper limits in his ambition and in
the hour of victory. Three years afterward he even did more
than Pope Adrian had advised. In 777 Queen Hildegarde bore
him a son, Pepin, whom in 781 Charlemagne had baptized and
anointed King of Italy at Rome by the Pope, thus separating
not only the two titles, but also the two kingdoms, and restoring
to the Lombards a national existence, feeling quite sure that
so long as he lived the unity of his different dominions would
not be imperilled. Having thus regulated at Rome his own
affairs and those of the Church, he returned to his camp, took
Pavia, received the submission of all the Lombard dukes and
counts, save one only, Aregisius, Duke of Beneventum, and
entered France again, taking with him, as prisoner, King Didier,
whom he banished to a monastery, first at Li&ge and then at
Corbie, where the dethroned Lombard, say the chroniclers,
ended his days in saintly fashion.

The prompt success of this war in Italy, undertaken at the
appeal of the head of the Church, this first sojourn of Charle-
magne at Rome, the spectacles he had witnessed and the
homage he had received, exercised over him, his plans and his
deeds, a powerful influence. This rough Frankish warrior,
chief of a people who were beginning to make a brilliant ap-
pearance upon the stage of the world, and issue himself of a
new line, had a taste for what was grand, splendid, ancient,
and consecrated by time and public respect ; he understood and
estimated at its full worth the moral force and importance of
such allies. He departed from Rome in 774, more determined
than ever to subdue Saxony, to the advantage of the Church
as well as of his own power, and to promote, in the South as in
the North, the triumph of the Frankish Christian dominion.

Three years afterward, hi 777, he had convoked at Pader-

348 CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE

born, in Westphalia, that general assembly of his different
peoples at which Wittikind did not attend, and which was
destined to bring upon the Saxons a more and more obstinate
war. "The Saracen Ibn-al-Arabi," says Eginhard, "came to
this town, to present himself before the King. He had arrived
from Spain, together with other Saracens in his train, to sur-
render to the King of the Franks himself and all the towns which
the King of the Saracens had confided to his keeping." For a
long time past the Christians of the West had given the Mussul-
mans, Arab or other, the name of Saracens. Ibn-al-Arabi was
governor of Saragossa, and one of the Spanish-Arab chieftains
in league against Abdel-Rhaman, the last offshoot of the Om-
miad caliphs, who, with the assistance of the Berbers, had seized
the government of Spain. Amid the troubles of his country
and his nation, Ibn-al-Arabi summoned to his aid, against
Abdel-Rhaman, the Franks and the Christians, just as, but
lately, Maurontius, Duke of Aries, had summoned to Provence,
against Charles Martel, the Arabs and the Mussulmans.

Charlemagne accepted the summons with alacrity. With
the coming of spring in the following year, 778, and with the
full assent of his chief warriors, he began his march toward
the Pyrenees, crossed the Loire, and halted at Casseneuil, at
the confluence of the Lot and the Garonne, to celebrate there
the festival of Easter, and to make preparations for his expedi-
tion thence. As he had but lately done for his campaign in
Italy against the Lombards, he divided his forces into two
armies: one composed of Austrasians, Neustrians, Burgun-
dians, and divers German contingents, and commanded by
Charlemagne in person, was to enter Spain by the valley of
Roncesvalles, in the western Pyrenees, and make for Pampe-
luna; the other, consisting of Provencals, Septimanians, Lom-
bards, and other populations of the South, under the command
of Duke Bernard, who had already distinguished himself in
Italy, had orders to penetrate into Spain by the eastern Pyre-
nees, to receive on the march the submission of Gerona and
Barcelona, and not to halt till they were before Saragossa,
where the two armies were to form a junction, and which Ibn-
al-Arabi had promised to give up to the King of the Franks.
According to this plan, Charlemagne had to traverse the terri-

CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE 349

tones of Aquitaine and Vasconia, domains of Duke Lupus II,
son of Duke Waifre, so long the foe of Pepin the Short, a Mero-
vingian by descent, and, in all these qualities, little disposed to
favor Charlemagne. However, the march was accomplished
without difficulty. The King of the Franks treated his power-
ful vassal well; and Duke Lupus swore to him afresh, "or for
the first time," says M. Fauriel, "submission and fidelity; but
the event soon proved that it was not without umbrage or
without all the feelings of a true son of Waifre that he saw
the Franks and the son of Pepin so close to him."

The aggressive campaign was an easy and a brilliant one.
Charles with his army entered Spain by the valley of Ronces-
valles without encountering any obstacle. On his arrival before
Pampeluna the Arab governor surrendered the place to him,
and Charlemagne pushed forward vigorously to Saragossa. But
there fortune changed. The presence of foreigners and Chris-
tians on the soil of Spain caused a suspension of interior quarrels
among the Arabs, who rose in mass, at all points, to succor
Saragossa. The besieged defended themselves with obstinacy;
there was more scarcity of provisions among the besiegers than
inside the place; sickness broke out among them; they were
incessantly harassed from without; and rumors of a fresh
rising among the Saxons reached Charlemagne. The Arabs
demanded negotiation. To decide the King of the Franks upon
an abandonment of the siege, they offered him "an immense
quantity of gold," say the chroniclers, hostages, and promises
of homage and fidelity. Appearances had been saved; Charle-
magne could say, and even perhaps believe, that he had pushed
his conquests as far as the Ebro; he decided on retreat, and all
the army was set in motion to recross the Pyrenees. On arriv-
ing before Pampeluna Charlemagne had its walls completely
razed to the ground, "in order that," as he said, "that city might
not be able to revolt." The troops entered those same passes
of Roncesvalles which they had traversed without obstacle a
few weeks before; and the advance-guard and the main body
of the army were already clear of them. The account of what
happened shall be given in the words of Eginhard, the only
contemporary historian whose account, free from all exag-
geration, can be considered authentic. "The King," he says,

350 CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE

"brought back his army without experiencing any loss, save
that at the summit of the Pyrenees he suffered somewhat from
the perfidy of the Vascons (Basques). While the army of the
Franks, embarrassed in a narrow defile, was forced by the
nature of the ground to advance in one long close line, the
Basques, who were in ambush on the crest of the mountain — for
the thickness of the forest with which these parts are covered
is favorable to ambuscade — descend and fall suddenly on the
baggage-train and on the troops of the rear-guard, whose duty
it was to cover all in their front, and precipitate them to the
bottom of the valley. There took place a fight in which the
Franks were killed to a man. The Basques, after having plun-
dered the baggage-train, profited by the night which had come
on to disperse rapidly. They owed all their success in this
engagement to the lightness of their equipment and to the nat-
ure of the spot where the action took place ; the Franks, on the
contrary, being heavily armed and in an unfavorable position,
struggled against too many disadvantages. Eginhard, master
of the household of the King; Anselm, count of the palace;
and Roland, prefect of the marches of Brittany, fell in this en-
gagement. There were no means, at the time, of taking revenge
for this check; for, after their sudden attack, the enemy dis-
persed to such good purpose that there was no gaining any trace
of the direction in which they should be sought for."

History says no more; but in the poetry of the people there
is a longer and a more faithful memory than in the court of
kings. The disaster of Roncesvalles and the heroism of the
warriors who perished there, became in France the object of
popular sympathy and the favorite topic for the exercise of the
popular fancy. The Song of Roland, a real Homeric poem in
its great beauty, and yet rude and simple as became its national
character, bears witness to the prolonged importance attained
in Europe by this incident in the history of Charlemagne.
Four centuries later the comrades of William the Conqueror,
marching to battle at Hastings for the possession of England,
struck up The Song oj Roland, "to prepare themselves for victory
or death," says M. Vitel in his vivid estimate and able trans-
lation of this poetical monument of the manners and first im-
pulses toward chivalry of the Middle Ages. There is no de-

CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE 351

termining how far history must be made to participate in these
reminiscences of national feeling; but, assuredly, the figures
of Roland and Oliver, and Archbishop Turpin, and the pious,
unsophisticated, and tender character of their heroism are not
pure fables invented by the fancy of a poet or the credulity of
a monk. If the accuracy of historical narrative must not be
looked for in them, their moral truth must be recognized in
their portrayal of a people and an age.

The politic genius of Charlemagne comprehended more fully
than would be imagined from his panegyrist's brief and dry
account all the gravity of the affair of Roncesvalles. Not only
did he take immediate vengeance by hanging Duke Lupus of
Aquitaine, whose treason had brought down this mishap, and
by reducing his two sons, Adalric and Sancho, to a more feeble
and precarious condition; but he resolved to treat Aquitaine
as he had but lately treated Italy, that is to say, to make of it,
according to the correct definition of M. Fauriel, "a special
kingdom, an integral portion, indeed, of the Frankish empire,
but with an especial destination, which was that of resisting
the invasions of the Andalusian Arabs, and confining them as
much as possible to the soil of the peninsula." This was, in some
sort, giving back to the country its primary task as an indepen-
dent duchy; and it was the most natural and most certain way
of making the Aquitanians useful subjects, by giving play to
their national vanity, to their pretensions of forming a separate
people, and to their hopes of once more becoming, sooner or
later, an independent nation. Queen Hildegarde, during her
husband's sojourn at Casseneuil, in 778, had borne him a son
whom he called Louis, and who was afterward Louis the De-
bonair. Charlemagne, summoned a second time to Rome, in
781, by the quarrels of Pope Adrian I with the imperial court of
Constantinople, brought with him his two sons, Pepin, aged only
four years, and Louis, only three years, and had them anointed
by the Pope — the former King of Italy, and the latter King
of Aquitaine. On returning from Rome to Austrasia, Charle-
magne sent Louis at once to take possession of his kingdom.
From the banks of the Meuse to Orleans the little prince was
carried in his cradle; but once on the Loire, this manner of
travelling beseemed him no longer; his conductors would that

352 CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE

his entry into his dominions should have a manly and warrior-
like appearance; they clad him in arms proportioned to his
height and age; they put him and held him on horseback; and
it was in such guise that he entered Aquitaine. He came thither
accompanied by the officers who were to form his council of
guardians, men chosen by Charlemagne, with care, among
the Frankish Leudes, distinguished not only for bravery and
firmness, but also for adroitness, and such as they should be
to be neither deceived nor scared by the cunning, fickle, and
turbulent populations with whom they would have to deal.
From this period to the death of Charlemagne, and by his sover-
eign influence, though all the while under his son's name, the
government of Aquitaine was a series of continued efforts to
hurl back the Arabs of Spain beyond the Ebro, to extend to
that river the dominion of the Franks, to divert to that end the
forces as well as the feelings of the populations of Southern Gaul,
and thus to pursue, in the South as in the North, against the
Arabs as well as against the Saxons and Huns, the grand design
of Charlemagne, which was the repression of foreign invasions
and the triumph of Christian France over Asiatic paganism and
Islamism.

Although continually obliged to watch, and often still to
fight, Charlemagne might well believe that he had nearly gained
his end. He had everywhere greatly extended the frontiers of
the Frankish dominions and subjugated the populations com-
prised in his conquests. He had proved that his new frontiers
would be vigorously defended against new invasions or danger-
ous neighbors. He had pursued the Huns and the Slavons to
the confines of the Empire of the East, and the Saracens to the
islands of Corsica and Sardinia. The centre of the dominion
was no longer in ancient Gaul; he had transferred it to a point
not far from the Rhine, in the midst and within reach of the
Germanic populations, at the town of Aix-la-Chapelle, which
he had founded, and which was his favorite residence; but
the principal parts of the Gallo-Frankish kingdom, Austrasia,
Neustria, and Burgundy, were effectually welded in one single
mass. What he had done with Southern Gaul has just been
pointed out ; how he had both separated it from his own king-
dom, and still retained it under his control. Two expeditions

CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE 353

into Armorica, without taking entirely from the Britons their
independence, had taught them real deference, and the great
warrior Roland, installed as count upon their frontier, warned
them of the peril any rising would encounter. The moral in-
fluence of Charlemagne was on a par with his material power;
he had everywhere protected the missionaries of Christianity;
he had twice entered Rome, also in the character of protector,
and he could count on the faithful support of the Pope at least
as much as the Pope could count on him. He had received
embassies and presents from the sovereigns of the East, Chris-
tian and Mussulman, from the emperors of Constantinople and
the caliphs of Bagdad. Everywhere, in Europe, in Africa, and
in Asia, he was feared and respected by kings and people. Such,
at the close of the eighth century, were, so far as he was con-
cerned, the results of his wars, of the superior capacity he had
displayed, and of the successes he had won and kept.

In 799 he received, at Aix-la-Chapelle, news of serious dis-
turbances which had broken out at Rome; that Pope Leo III
had been attacked by conspirators, who, after pulling out, it
was said, his eyes and his tongue, had shut him up in the mon-
astery of St. Erasmus, whence he had with great difficulty
escaped, and that he had taken refuge with Winigisius, Duke
of Spoleto, announcing his intention of repairing thence to the
Prankish King. Leo was already known to Charlemagne; at
his accession to the pontificate, in 795, he had sent to him, as
to the patrician and defender of Rome, the keys of the prison
of St. Peter, and the banner of the city. Charlemagne showed
a disposition to receive him with equal kindness and respect.
The Pope arrived, in fact, at Paderborn, passed some days
there, according to Eginhard, and returned to Rome on the
3oth of November, 799, at ease regarding his future, but with-
out knowledge on the part of anyone of what had been settled
between the King of the Franks and him. Charlemagne re-
mained all the winter at Aix-la-Chapelle, spent the first months
of the year 800 on affairs connected with Western France, at
Rouen, Tours, Orleans, and Paris, and, returning to Mayence
in the month of August, then for the first time announced to
the general assembly of Franks his design of making a journey
to Italy. He repaired thither, in fact, and arrived on the 23d
E., VOL. rv.— 23.

354 CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE

of November, 800, at the gates of Rome. The Pope " received
him there as he was dismounting; then, the next day, standing
on the steps of the basilica of St. Peter and amid general halle-
lujahs, he introduced the King into the sanctuary of the blessed
.1 apostle, glorifying and thanking the Lord for this happy event."
Some days were spent in examining into the grievances which
had been set down to the Pope's account, and in receiving two
monks arrived from Jerusalem to present to the King, with the
patriarch's blessing, the keys of the Holy Sepulchre and Cal-
vary, as well as the sacred standard. Lastly, on the 25th of
December, 800, "the day of the Nativity of our Lord," says
E^inhard, "the King came into the basilica of the blessed St.
Peter, apostle, to attend the celebration of mass. At the moment
when, in his place before the altar, he was bowing down to pray,
Pope Leo placed on his head a crown, and all the Roman people
shouted, 'Long life and victory to Charles Augustus, crowned
by God, the great and pacific Emperor of the Romans!' After
this proclamation the Pontiff prostrated himself before him and
paid him adoration, according to the custom established in the
days of the old emperors; and thenceforward Charles, giving
up the title of patrician, bore that of emperor and augustus."

Eginhard adds, in his Life of Charlemagne: "The King at
first testified great aversion for this dignity, for he declared
that, notwithstanding the importance of the festival, he would
not on that day have entered the church if he could have fore-
seen the intentions of the sovereign Pontiff. However, this
event excited the jealousy of the Roman emperors (of Con-
stantinople), who showed great vexation at it; but Charles
met their bad graces with nothing but great patience, and
thanks to this magnanimity which raised him so far above them,
he managed, by sending to them frequent embassies and giving
them in his letters the name of brother, to triumph over their
conceit."

No one, probably, believed, in the ninth century, and no one,
assuredly, will nowadays believe that Charlemagne was in-
nocent beforehand of what took place on the 25th of December,
800, in the basilica of St. Peter. It is doubtful, also, if he were
seriously concerned about the ill- temper of the emperors of the
East. He had wit enough to understand the value which al-

CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE 355

ways remains attached to old traditions, and he might have
taken some pains to secure their countenance to his title of em-
peror; but all his contemporaries believed, and he also un-
doubtedly believed, that he had on that day really won and set
up again the Roman Empire.

What, then, was the government of this empire of which
Charlemagne was proud to assume the old title ? How did this
German warrior govern that vast dominion which, thanks to
his conquests, extended from the Elbe to the Ebro, from the
North Sea to the Mediterranean; which comprised nearly all
Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland, and the north of Italy
and of Spain, and which, sooth to say, was still, when Charle-
magne caused himself to be made emperor, scarce more than
the hunting-ground and the battle-field of all the swarms of
barbarians who tried to settle on the ruins of the Roman world
they had invaded and broken to pieces? The government of
Charlemagne in the midst of this chaos is the striking, compli-
cated, and transitory fact which is now to be passed in review.

A word of warning must be first of all given touching this
word government with which it is impossible to dispense. For
a long time past the word has entailed ideas of national unity,
general organization, and regular and efficient power. There
has been no lack of revolutions which have changed dynasties
and the principles and forms of the supreme power in the
State; but they have always left existing, under different names,
the practical machinery whereby the supreme power makes
itself felt and exercises its various functions over the whole
country. Open the Almanac, whether it be called the Imperial,
the Royal, or the National, and you will find there always the
working system of the government of France; all the powers
and their agents, from the lowest to the highest, are there indi-
cated and classed according to their prerogatives and relations.
Nor have we there a mere empty nomenclature, a phantom of
theory; things go on actually as they are described — the book
is the reflex of the reality. It were easy to construct, for the
empire of Charlemagne, a similar list of officers; there might
be set down hi it dukes, counts, vicars, centeniers, and sheriffs
(scabini), and they might be distributed, in regular gradation,
over the whole territory; but it would be one huge lie, for most

356 CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE

frequently, in the majority of places, these magistracies were
utterly powerless and themselves in complete disorder. The
efforts of Charlemagne, either to establish them on a firm foot-
ing or to make them act with regularity, were continual but
unavailing. In spite of the fixity of his purpose and the energy
of his action the disorder around him was measureless and in-
surmountable. He might check it for a moment at one point;
but the evil existed wherever his terrible will did not reach,
and wherever it did the evil broke out again as soon as it had
been withdrawn. How could it be otherwise? Charlemagne
had not to grapple with one single nation or with one single
system of institutions; he had to deal with different nations,
without cohesion, and foreign one to another. The authority
belonged, at one and the same time, to assemblies of free men,
to landholders over the dwellers on their domains, and to the
king over the leudes and their following. These three powers
appeared and acted side by side in every locality as well as in
the totality of the State. Their relations and their prerogatives
were not governed by any generally recognized principle, and
none of the three was invested with sufficient might to habitually
prevail against the independence or resistance of its rivals.
Force alone, varying according to circumstances and always
uncertain, decided matters between them. Such was France at
the accession of the second line. The coexistence of and the
struggle between the three systems of institutions and the three
powers just alluded to had as yet had no other result. Out of
this chaos Charlemagne caused to issue a monarchy, strong
through him alone and so long as he was by, but powerless and
gone like a shadow when the man was lost to the institution.

Whoever is astonished either at this triumph of absolute
monarchy through the personal movement of Charlemagne, or
at the speedy fall of the fabric on the disappearance of the
moving spirit, understands neither what can be done by a great
man, when, without him, society sees itself given over to deadly
peril, nor how unsubstantial and frail is absolute power when
the great man is no longer by, or when society has no longer
need of him.

It has just been shown how Charlemagne by his wars, which
had for their object and result permanent and well-secured

CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE 357

conquests, had stopped the fresh incursions of barbarians, that
is, had stopped disorder coming from without. An attempt
will now be made to show by what means he set about sup-
pressing disorder from within and putting his own rule in the
place of the anarchy that prevailed in the Roman world which
lay in ruins, and in the barbaric world which was a prey to
blind and ill-regulated force.

A distinction must be drawn between the local and central
governments.

Far from the centre of the State, in what have since been
called the provinces, the power of the Emperor was exercised
by the medium of two classes of agents, one local and perma-
nent, the other despatched from the centre and transitory.

In the first class we find :

i st. The dukes, counts, vicars of counts, centeniers, sheriffs
(scabini), officers or magistrates residing on the spot, nominated
by the Emperor himself or by his delegates, and charged with
the duty of acting in his name for the levying of troops, render-
ing of justice, maintenance of order, and receipt of imposts.

2d. The beneficiaries or vassals of the Emperor, who held
of him, sometimes as hereditaments, more often for life, and
more often still without fixed rule or stipulation, lands; do-
mains, throughout the extent of which they exercised, a little
bit in their own name and a little bit in the name of the Emperor,
a certain jurisdiction and nearly all the rights of sovereignty.
There was nothing very fixed or clear in the position of the
beneficiaries and in the nature of their power; they were at
one and the same time delegates and independent owners and
enjoyers of usufruct, and the former or the latter character
prevailed among them according to circumstances. But, alto-
gether, they were closely bound to Charlemagne, who, in a
great number of cases, charged them with the execution of his
orders in the lands they occupied.

Above these agents, local and resident, magistrates or bene-
ficiaries, were the missi dominici, temporary commissioners,
charged to inspect, in the Emperor's name, the condition of the
provinces; authorized to penetrate into the interior of the free
lands as well as of the domains granted with the title of ben-
efices; having the right to reform certain abuses, and bound

358 CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE

to render an account of all to their master. The missi dominici
were the principal instruments Charlemagne had, throughout
the vast territory of his empire, of order and administration.

As to the central government, setting aside for a moment
the personal action of Charlemagne and of his counsellors, the
general assemblies, to judge by appearances and to believe
nearly all the modern historians, occupied a prominent place
in it. They were, in fact, during his reign, numerous and ac-
tive; from the year 770 to the year 813 we may count thirty-
five of these national assemblies, March-parades and May-
parades, held at Worms, Valenciennes, Geneva, Paderborn,
Aix-la-Chapelle, Thionville, and several other towns, the ma-
jority situated round about the two banks of the Rhine. The
number and periodical nature of these great political reunions
are undoubtedly a noticeable fact. What, then, went on in
their midst? What character and weight must be attached to
their intervention in the government of the State? It is im-
portant to sift this matter thoroughly.

There is extant, touching this subject, a very curious docu-
ment. A contemporary and counsellor of Charlemagne, his
cousin-german Adalbert, abbot of Corbie, had written a treatise
entitled "Of the Ordering of the Palace" (de Ordine Palatii),
and designed to give an insight into the government of Charle-
magne, with especial reference to the national assemblies.
This treatise was lost; but toward the close of the ninth century
Hincmar, the celebrated archbishop of Rheims, reproduced it
almost in its entirety, in the form of a letter of instructions,
written at the request of certain grandees of the kingdom who
had asked counsel of him with respect to the government of
Carloman, one of the sons of Charles the Stutterer. We read
therein :

"It was the custom at this time to hold two assemblies every
year. ... In both, that they might not seem to have been
convoked without motive, there was submitted to the examina-
tion and deliberation of the grandees . . . and by virtue of or-
ders from the King, the fragments of law called capitula, which
the King himself had drawn up under the inspiration of God or
the necessity for which had been made manifest to him in the
intervals between the meetings."

CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE 359

Two striking facts are to be gathered from these words : the
first, that the majority of the members composing these assem-
blies probably regarded as a burden the necessity for being
present at them, since Charlemagne took care to explain their
convocation by declaring to them the motive for it, and by
always giving them something to do; the second, that the pro-
posal of the capitularies, or, in modern phrase, the initiative,
proceeded from the Emperor. The initiative is naturally exer-
cised by him who wishes to regulate or reform, and, in his time,
it was especially Charlemagne who conceived this design.
There is no doubt, however, but that the members of the assem-
bly might make on their side such proposals as appeared to
them suitable; the constitutional distrusts and artifices of our
time were assuredly unknown to Charlemagne, who saw in these
assemblies a means of government rather than a barrier to his
authority. To resume the text of Hincmar:

"After having received these communications, they delib-
erated on them two or three days or more, according to the
importance of the business. Palace messengers, going and
coming, took their questions and carried back the answers.
No stranger came near the place of their meeting until the
result of their deliberations had been able to be submitted to
the scrutiny of the great prince, who then, with the wisdom
he had received from God, adopted a resolution which all
obeyed."

The definite resolution, therefore, depended upon Charle-
magne alone; the assembly contributed only information and
counsel.

Hincmar continues, and supplies details worthy of repro-
duction, for they give an insight into the imperial government
and the action of Charlemagne himself amid those most ancient
of the national assemblies :

"Things went on thus for one or two capitularies, or a
greater number, until, with God's help, all the necessities of
the occasion were regulated.

"While these matters were thus proceeding out of the King's
presence, the prince himself, in the midst of the multitude,
came to the general assembly, was occupied in receiving the
presents, saluting the men of most note, conversing with those

360 CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE

he saw seldom, showing toward the elder a tender interest, dis-
porting himself with the youngsters, and doing the same thing,
or something like it, with the ecclesiastics as well as the seculars.
However, if those who were deliberating about the matter sub-
mitted to their examination showed a desire for it, the King
repaired to them and remained with them as long as they wished;
and then they reported to him, with perfect familiarity, what
they thought about all matters, and what were the friendly
discussions that had arisen among them. I must not forget to
say that, if the weather were fine, everything took place in the
open air; otherwise, in several distinct buildings, where those
who had to deliberate on the King's proposals were separated
from the multitude of persons come to the assembly, and then
the men of greater note were admitted. The places appointed
for the meeting of the lords were divided into two parts, in such
sort that the bishops, the abbots, and the clerics of high rank
might meet without mixture with the laity. In the same way
the counts and other chiefs of the State underwent separation,
in the morning, until, whether the King was present or absent,
all were gathered together; then the lords above specified, the
clerics on their side, and the laics on theirs, repaired to the
hall which had been assigned to them, and where seats had
been with due honor prepared for them. When the lords laical
and ecclesiastical were thus separated from the multitude, it
remained in their power to sit separately or together, accord-
ing to the nature of the business they had to deal with, eccle-
siastical, secular, or mixed. In the same way, if they wished
to send for anyone, either to demand refreshment or to put
any question, and to dismiss him after getting what they wanted,
it was at their option. Thus took place the examination of
affairs proposed to them by the King for deliberation.

"The second business of the King was to ask of each what
there was to report to him or enlighten him touching the part
of the kingdom each had come from. Not only was this per-
mitted to all, but they were strictly enjoined to make inquiries
during the interval between the assemblies, about what happened
within or without the kingdom; and they were bound to seek
knowledge from foreigners as well as natives, enemies as well
as friends, sometimes by employing emissaries, and without

CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE 361

troubling themselves much about the manner in which they ac-
quired their information. The King wished to know whether
in any part, in any corner, of the kingdom, the people were
restless, and what was the cause of their restlessness; or whether
there had happened any disturbance to which it was necessary
to draw the attention of the council-general, and other similar
matters. He sought also to know whether any of the subju-
gated nations were inclined to revolt; whether any of those who
had revolted seemed disposed toward submission; and whether
those that were still independent were threatening the kingdom
with any attack. On all these subjects, whenever there was any
manifestation of disorder or danger, he demanded chiefly what
were the motives or occasion of them."

f~ There is need of no great reflection to recognize the true char-
acter of these assemblies : it is clearly imprinted upon the sketch
drawn by Hincmar. The figure of Charlemagne alone fills
the picture: he is the centre-piece of it and the soul of every-
thing. 'Tis he who wills that the national assemblies should
meet and deliberate; 'tis he who inquires into the state of the
country; 'tis he who proposes and approves of, or rejects the
laws; with him rest will and motive, initiative and decision.
He has a mind sufficiently judicious, unshackled, and elevated
to understand that the nation ought not to be left in darkness
about its affairs and that he himself has need of communicating
with it, of gathering information from it, and of learning its
opinions. But we have here no exhibition of great political
liberties, no people discussing its interests and its business,
interfering effectually in the adoption of resolutions, and, in
fact, taking in its government so active and decisive a part as
to have a right to say that it is self-governing, or, in other
words, a free people. It is Charlemagne and he alone who
governs; it is absolute government marked by prudence, ability,
i and grandeur.

When the mind dwells upon the state of Gallo-Frankish
society in the eighth century, there is nothing astonishing in
such a fact. Whether it be civilized or barbarian, that which
every society needs, that which it seeks or demands first of all
in its government, is a certain degree of good sense and strong
will, of intelligence and innate influence, so far as the public

362 CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE

interests are concerned; qualities, in fact, which suffice to keep
social order maintained or make it realized, and to promote
respect for individual rights and the progress of the general
well-being. This is the essential aim of every community of
men; and the institutions and guarantees of free government
are the means of attaining it. It is clear that, in the eighth cen-
tury, on the ruins of the Roman and beneath the blows of the
barbaric world, the Gallo-Frankish nation, vast and with-
out cohesion, brutish and ignorant, was incapable of bring-
ing forth, so to speak, from its own womb, with the aid of
its own wisdom and virtue, a government of the kind. A
host of different forces, without enlightenment and without
restraint, were everywhere and incessantly struggling for do-
minion, or, in other words, were ever troubling and endangering
the social condition. Let there but arise, in the midst of this
chaos of unruly forces and selfish passions, a great man, one
of those elevated .minds and strong characters that can under-
stand the essential aim of society, and then urge it forward,
and at the same time keep it well in hand on the roads that
lead thereto, and such a man will soon seize and exercise the
personal power almost of a despot, and people will not only
make him welcome, but even celebrate his praises, for they do
not quit the substance for the shadow, or sacrifice the end to
the means. Such was the empire of Charlemagne. Among
annalists and historians, some, treating him as a mere con-
queror and despot, have ignored his merits and his glory; others,
that they might admire him without scruple, have made of him
a founder of free institutions, a constitutional monarch. Both
are equally mistaken: Charlemagne was, indeed, a conqueror
and a despot; but by his conquests and his personal power he,
so long as he was by, that is, for six-and-forty years, saved
Gallo-Frankish society from barbaric invasion without and
anarchy within. That is the characteristic of his government
_and his title to glory.

What he was in his wars and his general relations with
his nation has just been seen; he shall now be exhibited
in all his administrative activity and his intellectual life,
as a legislator and as a friend to the human mind. The
same man will be recognized in every case; he will grow in

CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE 363

greatness, without changing, as he appears under his various
aspects.

There are often joined together, under the title of Capitula-
ries (capitula — small chapters, articles) a mass of acts, very
different in point of dates and objects, which are attributed
indiscriminately to Charlemagne. This is a mistake. The
Capitularies are the laws or legislative measures of the Prank-
ish kings, Merovingian as well as Carlovingian. Those of the
Merovingians are few in number, and of slight importance,
and among those of the Carlo vingians, which amount to 152,
65 only are due to Charlemagne. When an attempt is made
to classify these last according to their object, it is impossible
not to be struck with their incoherent variety; and several
of them are such as we should nowadays be surprised to meet
with in a code or in a special law. Among Charlemagne's 65
Capitularies, which contain 1,151 articles, may be counted 87
of moral, 293 of political, 130 of penal, no of civil, 85 of re-
ligious, 305 of canonical, 73 of domestic, and 12 of incidental
legislation. And it must not be supposed that all these articles
are really acts of legislation, laws properly so called; we find
among them the texts of ancient national laws revised and pro-
mulgated afresh; extracts from and additions to these same
ancient laws, Salic, Lombard, and Bavarian; extracts from
acts of councils; instructions given by Charlemagne to his
envoys in the provinces; questions that he proposed to put to
the bishops or counts when they came to the national assembly;
answers given by Charlemagne to questions addressed to him
by the bishops, counts, or commissioners (missi dominici);
judgments, decrees, royal pardons, and simple notes that Charle-
magne seems to have had written down for himself alone, to
remind him of what he proposed to do; in a word, nearly all
the various acts which could possibly have to be framed by an
earnest, far-sighted, and active government. Often, indeed,
these Capitularies have no imperative or prohibitive character;
they are simple counsels, purely moral precepts. We read
therein, for example :

" Covetousness doth consist in desiring that which others
possess, and in giving away naught of that which oneself pos-
sesseth; according to the apostle, it is the root of all evil."

364 CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE

And,

"Hospitality must be practised."

The Capitularies which have been classed under the heads
of political, penal, and canonical legislation are the most numer-
ous, and are those which bear most decidedly an imperative
of prohibitive stamp; among them a prominent place is held
by measures of political economy, administration, and police;
you will find therein an attempt to put a fixed price on pro-
visions, a real trial of a maximum for cereals, and a prohibition
of mendicity, with the following clause :

"If such mendicants be met with, and they labor not with
their hands, let none take thought about giving unto them."

The interior police of the palace was regulated thereby, as
well as that of the empire:

"We do will and decree that none of those who serve in our
palace shall take leave to receive therein any man who seeketh
refuge there and cometh to hide there, by reason of theft, homi-
cide, adultery, or any other crime. That if any free man do
break through our interdicts and hide such malefactor in our
palace, he shall be bound to carry him on his shoulders to the
public quarter, and be there tied to the same stake as the male-
factor."

Certain Capitularies have been termed religious legislation,
in contradistinction to canonical legislation, because they are
really admonitions, religious exhortations, addressed not to
ecclesiastics alone, but to the faithful, the Christian people in
general, and notably characterized by good sense and, one
might almost say, freedom of thought.

For example:

"Beware of venerating the names of martyrs falsely so
called, and the memory of dubious saints."

"Let none suppose that prayer cannot be made to God save
in three tongues [probably Latin, Greek, and Germanic, or
perhaps the vulgar tongue; for the last was really beginning to
take form], for God is adored in all tongues, and man is heard
if he do but ask for the things that be right."

These details are put forward that a proper idea may be
obtained of Charlemagne as a legislator, and of what are called
his laws. We have here, it will be seen, no ordinary legislator

CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE 365

and no ordinary laws : we see the work, with infinite variations
and in disconnected form, of a prodigiously energetic and watch-
ful master, who had to think and provide for everything, who
had to be everywhere the moving and the regulating spirit.
This universal and untiring energy is the grand characteristic
of Charlemagne's government, and was, perhaps, what made his
superiority most incontestable and his power most efficient.

It is noticeable that the majority of Charlemagne's Capitu-
laries belong to that epoch of his reign when he was Emperor
of the West, when he was invested with all the splendor of
sovereign power. Of the 65 Capitularies classed under differ-
ent heads, 13 only are previous to the 25th of December, 800,
the date of his coronation as Emperor at Rome; 52 are com-
prised between the years 801 and 804.

The energy of Charlemagne as a warrior and a politician
having thus been exhibited, it remains to say a few words
about his intellectual energy. For that is by no means the
least original or least grand feature of his character and his
influence.

Modern times and civilized society have more than once
seen despotic sovereigns filled with distrust toward scholars of
exalted intellect, especially such as cultivated the moral and
political sciences, and little inclined to admit them to their
favor or to public office. There is no knowing whether, in our
days, with our freedom of thought and of the press, Charle-
magne would have been a stranger to this feeling of antipathy;
but what is certain is that in his day, in the midst of a barbaric
society, there was no inducement to it, and that, by nature, he
was not disposed to it. His power was not in any respect ques-
tioned; distinguished intellects were very rare; Charlemagne
had too much need of their services to fear their criticisms, and
they, on their part, were more anxious to second his efforts
than to show, toward him, anything like exaction or indepen-
dence. He gave rein, therefore, without any embarrassment or
misgiving, to his spontaneous inclination toward them, their
studies, their labors, and their influence. He drew them into
the management of affairs. In Guizot's History of Civilization
in France there is a list of the names and works of twenty-three
men of the eighth and ninth centuries who have escaped oblivion,

366 CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE

and they are all found grouped about Charlemagne as his own
habitual advisers, or assigned by him as advisers to his sons
Pe"pin and Louis in Italy and Aquitaine, or sent by him to all
points of his empire as his commissioners, or charged in his
name with important negotiations. And those whom he did
not employ at a distance formed, in his immediate neighbor-
hood, a learned and industrious society, a school of the palace,
according to some modern commentators, but an academy and
not a school, according to others, devoted rather to conversation
than to teaching.

It probably fulfilled both missions; it attended Charle-
magne at his various residences, at one time working for him
at questions he invited them to deal with, at another giving to
the regular components of his court, to his children, and to him-
self lessons hi the different sciences called liberal: grammar,
rhetoric, logic, astronomy, geometry, and even theology, and
the great religious problems it was beginning to discuss. Two
men, Alcuin and Eginhard, have remained justly celebrated
in the literary history of the age. Alcuin was the principal
director of the school of the palace, and the favorite, the confi-
dant, the learned adviser of Charlemagne. "If your zeal were
imitated," said he one day to the Emperor, "perchance one
might see arise in France a new Athens, far more glorious than
the ancient — the Athens of Christ."

Eginhard, who was younger, received his scientific education
in the school of the palace, and was head of the public works
to Charlemagne, before becoming his biographer, and, at a
later period, the intimate adviser of his son Louis the Debonair.
Other scholars of the school of the palace, Angilbert, Leidrade,
Adalhard, Agobard, Theodulph, were abbots of St. Riquier or
Corbie, archbishops of Lyons, and bishops of Orleans. They
had all assumed, in the school itself, names illustrious in pa-
gan antiquity: Alcuin called himself Flaccus; Angilbert, Homer;
Theodulph, Pindar. Charlemagne himself had been pleased
to take, in their society, a great name of old, but he had borrowed
from the history of the Hebrews — he called himself David; and
Eginhard, animated, no doubt, by the same sentiments, was
Bezaleel, that nephew of Moses to whom God had granted the
gift of knowing how to work skilfully in wood and all the ma-

CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE 367

terials which served for the construction of the ark and the
tabernacle. Either in the lifetime of their royal patron or after
his death all these scholars became great dignitaries of the
Church, or ended their lives in monasteries of note; but, so
long as they lived, they served Charlemagne or his sons not
only with the devotion of faithful advisers, but also as followers
proud of the master who had known how to do them honor
by making use of them.

It was without effort and by natural sympathy that Charle-
magne had inspired them with such sentiments; for he, too,
really loved sciences, literature, and such studies as were then
possible, and he cultivated them on his own account and for
his own pleasure, as a sort of conquest. It has been doubted
whether he could write, and an expression of Eginhard's might
authorize such a doubt; but, according to other evidence, and
even according to the passage in Eginhard, one is inclined to
believe merely that Charlemagne strove painfully, and without
much success, to write a good hand. He had learned Latin,
and he understood Greek. He caused to be commenced, and,
perhaps, himself commenced the drawing up of the first Ger-
manic grammar. He ordered that the old barbaric poems, in
which the deeds and wars of the ancient kings were celebrated,
should be collected for posterity. He gave Germanic names to
the twelve months of the year. He distinguished the winds by
twelve special terms, whereas before his time they had but four
designations. He paid great attention to astronomy. Being
troubled one day at no longer seeing in the firmament one of
the known planets, he wrote to Alcuin: "What thinkest thou
of this Mars, which, last year, being concealed in the sign of
Cancer, was intercepted from the sight of men by the light of
the sun? Is it the regular course of his revolution? Is it the
influence of the sun ? Is it a miracle ? Could he have been two
years about performing the course of a single one ? "

In theological studies and discussions he exhibited a par-
ticular and grave interest. "It is to him," say Ampere and
Haure"au, "that we must refer the honor of the decision taken
in 794 by the council of Frankfort in the great dispute about
images; a temperate decision which is as far removed from the
infatuation of the image-worshippers as from the frenzy of the

368 CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE

image-breakers." And at the same time that he thus took part
in the great ecclesiastical questions, Charlemagne paid zealous
attention to the instruction of the clergy whose ignorance he
deplored. "Ah," said he one day, "if only I had about me a
dozen clerics learned in all the sciences, as Jerome and Augustin
were!" With all his puissance it was not in his power to make
Jeromes and Augustins; but he laid the foundation, in the
cathedral churches and the great monasteries, of episcopal and
cloistral schools for the education of ecclesiastics, and, carrying
his solicitude still further, he recommended to the bishops and
abbots that, in those schools, " they should take care to make no
difference between the sons of serfs and of free men, so that they
might come and sit on the same benches to study grammar,
music, and arithmetic." Thus, in the eighth century, he fore-
shadowed the extension which, in the nineteenth, was to be
accorded to primary instruction, to the advantage and honor
not only of the clergy, but also of the whole people.

After so much of war and toil at a distance, Charlemagne
was now at Aix-la-Chapelle, finding rest in this work of peaceful
civilization. He was embellishing the capital which he had
founded, and which was called the king's court. He had built
there a grand basilica, magnificently adorned. He was com-
pleting his own palace there. He fetched from Italy clerics
skilled in church music, a pious joyance to which he was much
devoted, and which he recommended to the bishops of his
empire. In the outskirts of Aix-la-Chapelle "he gave full
scope," says Eginhard, "to his delight in riding and hunting.
Baths of naturally tepid water gave him great pleasure. Being
passionately fond of swimming, he became so dexterous that
none could be compared with him. He invited not only his sons,
but also his friends, the grandees of his court, and sometimes
even the soldiers of his guard, to bathe with him, insomuch
that there were often a hundred and more persons bathing at
a time."

When age arrived, he made no alteration in his bodily habits ;
but, at the same time, instead of putting away from him the
thought of death, he was much taken up with it, and prepared
himself for it with stern severity. He drew up, modified, and
completed his will several times over. Three years before his

CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE 369

death he made out the distribution of his treasures, his money,
his wardrobe, and all his furniture, in the presence of his friends
and his officers, in order that their voice might insure, after
his death, the execution of this partition, and he set down his
intentions in this respect in a written summary, in which he
massed all his riches in three grand lots. The first two were
divided into twenty-one portions, which were to be distributed
among the twenty-one metropolitan churches of his empire.
After having put these first two lots under seal, he willed to
preserve to himself his usual enjoyment of the third so long as
he lived. But after his death, or voluntary renunciation of the
things of this world, this same lot was to be subdivided into four
portions. His intention was that the first should be added to
the twenty-one portions which were to go to the metropolitan
churches; the second set aside for his sons and daughters, and
for the sons and daughters of his sons, and redivided among
them in a just and proportionate manner; the third dedicated,
according to the usage of Christians, to the necessities of the
poor; and, lastly, the fourth distributed in the same way, under
the name of alms, among the servants, of both sexes, of the
palace for their lifetime. As for the books which he had amassed,
a large number in his library, he decided that those who wished
to have them might buy them at their proper value, and that
the money which they produced should be distributed among
the poor."

Having thus carefully regulated his own private affairs and
bounty, he, two years later, hi 813, took the measures necessary
for the regulation, after his death, of public affairs. He had
lost, in 811, his oldest son, Charles, who had been his constant
companion in his wars, and, in 810, his second son, Pe*pin, whom
he had made King of Italy; and he summoned to his side his
third son, Louis, King of Aquitaine, who was destined to suc-
ceed him. He ordered the convocation of five local councils
which were to assemble at Mayence, Rheims, Chalons, Tours,
and Aries, for the purpose of bringing about, subject to the
King's ratification, the reforms necessary in the Church. Passing
from the affairs of the Church to those of the State, he convoked
at Aix-Ia-Chapelle a general assembly of bishops, abbots, counts,
laic grandees, and of the entire people, and, holding council in
E.. VOL. iv.— 24.

370 CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE

his palace with the chief among them, " he invited them to make
his son Louis king-emperor; whereto all assented, saying that
it was very expedient, and pleasing, also, to the people. On
Sunday in the next month, August, 813, Charlemagne repaired,
crown on head, with his son Louis to the cathedral of Aix-la-
Chapelle, laid upon the altar another crown, and, after praying,
addressed to his son a solemn exhortation respecting all his
duties as king toward God and the Church, toward his family
and his people, asked him if he were fully resolved to fulfil them,
and, at the answer that he was, bade him take the crown that
lay upon the altar, and place it with his own hands upon his
head, which Louis did amid the acclamations of all present,
who cried, 'Long live the emperor Louis!' Charlemagne then
declared his son emperor jointly with him, and ended the solem-
nity with these words: 'Blessed be thou, O Lord God, who hast
granted me grace to see with mine own eyes my son seated on
my throne!' " And Louis set out again immediately for Aqui-
taine.

He was never to see his father again. Charlemagne, after
his son's departure, went out hunting, according to his custom,
in the forest of Ardenne, and continued during the whole
autumn his usual mode of life. "But in January, 814, he was
taken ill," says Eginhard, "of a violent fever, which kept him
to his bed. Recurring forthwith to the remedy he ordinarily
employed against fever, he abstained from all nourishment, per-
suaded that this diet would suffice to drive away or at the least
assuage the malady; but added to the fever came that pain in
the side which the Greeks call pleurisy; nevertheless the Em-
peror persisted in his abstinence, supporting his body only by
drinks taken at long intervals; and on the seventh day after that
he had taken to his bed, having received the holy communion,"
he expired about 9 A.M., on Saturday, the 28th of January,
814, in his seventy-first year.

"After performance of ablutions and funeral duties, the
corpse was carried away and buried, amid the profound mourn-
ing of all the people, in the church he had himself had built;
and above his tomb there was put up a gilded arcade with his
image and this superscription: 'In this tomb reposeth the body
of Charles, great and orthodox Emperor, who did gloriously

CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE 371

extend the kingdom of the Franks, and did govern it happily
for forty-seven years. He died at the age of seventy years, in
the year of the Lord 814, in the seventh year of the Indiction,
on the 5th of the Kalends of February.' "

If we sum up his designs and his achievements, we find an
admirably sound idea and a vain dream, a great success and a
great failure.

Charlemagne took in hand the work of placing upon a solid
foundation the Frankish Christian dominion by stopping, hi
the North and South, the flood of barbarians and Arabs, pagan-
ism and Islamism. In that he succeeded; the inundations of
Asiatic populations spent their force in vain against the Gallic
frontier. Western and Christian Europe was placed, territo-
rially, beyond reach of attacks from the foreigner and infidel.
No sovereign, no human being, perhaps, ever rendered greater
service to the civilization of the world.

Charlemagne formed another conception and made another
attempt. Like more than one great barbaric warrior, he ad-
mired the Roman Empire that had fallen, its vastness all in one,
and its powerful organization under the hand of a single master.
He thought he could resuscitate it, durably, through the vic-
tory of a new people and a new faith, by the hand of Franks
and Christians. With this view he labored to conquer, convert,
and govern. He tried to be, at one and the same time, Caesar,
Augustus, and Constantine. And for a moment he appeared
to have succeeded; but the appearance passed away with him-
self. The unity of the empire and the absolute power of the
emperor were buried in his grave. The Christian religion and
human liberty set to work to prepare for Europe other govern-
ments and other destinies.

EGBERT BECOMES KING OF THE ANGLO-
SAXON HEPTARCHY

A.D. 827

DAVID HUME

From the time that the Britons called upon the Saxons to assist them
against the Picts and Scots, about A.D. 410, the domination of the hardy
Teutonic people in England was a foregone conclusion. The Britons had
become exhausted through their long exposure to Roman influences, and
in their state of enfeeblement were unable to resist the attacks of the rude
highland tribes.

The Saxons rescued the Britons from their plight, but themselves be-
came masters of the country which they had delivered. They were joined
by the Angles and Jutes, and divided the territory into the kingdoms
known in history as the Saxon Heptarchy,1 which had an existence of
about two hundred and fifty years. The various members were involved
in endless controversies with each other, often breaking out into savage
wars, and the Saxons were also exposed to conflicts with their common
enemies, the Britons. Their power was greatly impaired by the civil
strifes which distracted them.

This condition continued until it became essential that under a strong
hand a more solid union of the Saxons should be formed. And it was
to Egbert, King of the West Saxons, the son of Ealhmund, King of Kent,
that this great constructive task was committed. He took the throne of
Wessex in 802, for twelve years enjoyed a peaceful reign, then became
involved in wars, first with the Cornish and afterward with the Mercians.
His victories in these wars resulted in the final establishment of his au-
thority over the entire heptarchy, and this made him in fact, though not
in name, the first real king of England.

\A7HEN Brithric obtained possession of the government of
Wessex, he enjoyed not that dignity without inquietude.
Eoppa, nephew to King Ina, by his brother Ingild, who died
before that prince, had begot Eata, father to Alchmond, from
whom sprung Egbert, a young man of the most promising

1 The seven kingdoms founded in England by seven different Saxon
invaders. They were Kent, Sussex, Wessex, Essex, Northumbria, East
Anglia, and Mercia.

372

EGBERT KING OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS 373

hopes, who gave great jealousy to Brithric, the reigning prince,
both because he seemed by his birth better entitled to the crown
and because he had acquired, to an eminent degree, the affec-
tions of the people. Egbert, sensible of his danger from the suspi-
cions of Brithric, secretly withdrew into France, where he was
well received by Charlemagne. By living in the court, and
serving in the armies of that prince, the most able and most
generous that had appeared in Europe during several ages,
he acquired those accomplishments which afterward enabled
him to make such a shining figure on the throne. And fa-
miliarizing himself to the manners of the French, who, as
Malmesbury observes, were eminent both for valor and civility
above all the western nations, he learned to polish the rudeness
and barbarity of the Saxon character; his early misfortunes
thus proved of singular advantage to him.

It was not long ere Egbert had opportunities of displaying
his natural and acquired talents. Brithric, King of Wessex,
had married Eadburga, natural daughter of Offa, King of
Mercia, a profligate woman, equally infamous for cruelty and
for incontinence. Having great influence over her husband,
she often instigated him to destroy such of the nobility as were
obnoxious to her; and where this expedient failed, she scrupled
not being herself active in traitorous attempts against them.
She had mixed a cup of poison for a young nobleman, who
had acquired her husband's friendship, and had on that account
become the object of her jealousy; but unfortunately the King
drank of the fatal cup along with his favorite, and soon after
expired. This tragical incident, joined to her other crimes,
rendered Eadburga so odious that she was obliged to fly into
France; whence Egbert was at the same time recalled by the
nobility, in order to ascend the throne of his ancestors. He
attained that dignity in the last year of the eighth century.

In the kingdoms qf the heptarchy, an exact rule of succes-
sion was either unknown or not strictly observed; and thence
the reigning prince was continually agitated with jealousy
against all the princes of the blood, whom he still considered
as rivals, and whose death alone could give him entire security
in his possession of the throne. From this fatal cause, together
with the admiration of the monastic life, and the opinion of

374 EGBERT KING OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS

merit attending the preservation of chastity even in a married
state, the royal families had been entirely extinguished in all
the kingdoms except that of Wessex; and the emulations,
suspicions, and conspiracies, which had formerly been con-
fined to the princes of the blood alone, were now diffused
among all the nobility in the several Saxon states. Egbert
was the sole descendant of those first conquerors who subdued
Britain, and who enhanced their authority by claiming a pedi-
gree from Woden, the supreme divinity of their ancestors.
But that prince, though invited by this favorable circumstance
to make attempts on the neighboring Saxons, gave them for
some time no disturbance, and rather chose to turn his arms
against the Britons in Cornwall, whom he defeated in several
battles. He was recalled from the conquest of that country
by an invasion made upon his dominions by Bernulf, King of
Mercia.

The Mercians, before the accession of Egbert, had very
nearly attained the absolute sovereignty in the heptarchy:
they had reduced the East Angles under subjection, and estab-
lished tributary princes in the kingdoms of Kent and Essex.
Northumberland was involved in anarchy; and no state of
any consequence remained but that of Wessex, which, much
inferior in extent to Mercia, was supported solely by the great
qualities of its sovereign. Egbert led his army against the
invaders; and encountering them at Ellandun, in Wiltshire,
obtained a complete victory, and, by the great slaughter which
he made of them in their flight, gave a mortal blow to the power
of the Mercians. While he himself, in prosecution of his victory,
entered their country on the side of Oxfordshire, and threatened
the heart of their dominions, he sent an army into Kent, com-
manded by Ethelwulf, his eldest son, and, expelling Baldred,
the tributary King, soon made himself master of that country.

The kingdom of Essex was conquered with equal facility,
and the East Angles, from their hatred of the Mercian gov-
ernment, which had been established over them by treachery
and violence, and probably exercised with tyranny, immedi-
ately rose in arms and craved the protection of Egbert. Ber-
nulf, the Mercian King, who marched against them, was de-
feated and slain; and two years after, Ludican, his successor,

EGBERT KING OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS 375

met with the same fate. These insurrections and calamities
facilitated the enterprises of Egbert, who advanced into the
centre of the Mercian territories and made easy conquests over
a dispirited and divided people. In order to engage them more
easily to submission, he allowed Wiglef, their countryman, to
retain the title of king, while he himself exercised the real powers
of sovereignty. The anarchy which prevailed in Northumber-
land tempted him to carry still further his victorious arms; and
the inhabitants, unable to resist his power, and desirous of pos-
sessing some established form of government, were forward, on
his first appearance, to send deputies, who submitted to his
authority and swore allegiance to him as their sovereign. Eg-
bert, however, still allowed to Northumberland, as he had done
to Mercia and East Anglia, the power of electing a king, who
paid him tribute and was dependent on him.

Thus were united all the kingdoms of the heptarchy in
one great state, near four hundred years after the first arrival
of the Saxons in Britain; and the fortunate arms and prudent
policy of Egbert at last effected what had been so often at-
tempted in vain by so many princes. Kent, Northumberland,
and Mercia, which had successfully aspired to general domin-
ion, were now incorporated in his empire; and the other sub-
ordinate kingdoms seemed willingly to share the same fate.
His territories were nearly of the same extent with what is now
properly called England ; and a favorable prospect was afforded
to the Anglo-Saxons of establishing a civilized monarchy, pos-
sessed of tranquillity within itself, and secure against foreign
invasion. This great event happened in the year 827.

The Saxons, though they had been so long settled in the
island, seem not as yet to have been much improved beyond
their German ancestors, either in arts, civility, knowledge,
humanity, justice, or obedience to the laws. Even Christianity,
though it opened the way to connections between them and the
more polished states of Europe, had not hitherto been very effec-
tual in banishing their ignorance or softening their barbarous
manners. As they received that doctrine through the corrupted
channels of Rome, it carried along with it a great mixture cf
credulity and superstition, equally destructive to the under-
standing and to morals. The reverence toward saints and relics

376 EGBERT KING OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS

seems to have almost supplanted the adoration of the Supreme
Being; monastic observances were esteemed more meritorious
than the active virtues; the knowledge of natural causes was
neglected, from the universal belief of miraculous interposi-
tions and judgments; bounty to the Church atoned for every
violence against society; and the remorses for cruelty, murder,
treachery, assassination, and the more robust vices, were
appeased, not by amendment of life, but by penances, servility
to the monks, and an abject and illiberal devotion.1 The rev-
erence for the clergy had been carried to such a height that
wherever a person appeared in a sacerdotal habit, though on the
highway, the people flocked around him, and, showing him all
marks of profound respect, received every word he uttered as
the most sacred oracle. Even the military virtues, so inherent
in all the Saxon tribes, began to be neglected; and the nobility,
preferring the security and sloth of the cloister to the tumults
and glory of war, valued themselves chiefly on endowing mon-
asteries, of which they assumed the government. The several
kings, too, being extremely impoverished by continual bene-
factions to the Church, to which the states of their kingdoms had
weakly assented, could bestow no rewards on valor or military
services, and retained not even sufficient influence to support
their government.

Another inconvenience which attended this corrupt species
of Christianity was the superstitious attachment to Rome, and
the gradual subjection of the kingdom to a foreign jurisdiction.
The Britons, having never acknowledged any subordination
to the Roman pontiff, had conducted all ecclesiastical govern-
ment by their domestic synods and councils; but the Saxons,
receiving their religion from Roman monks, were taught at the
same time a profound reverence for that see, and were natu-

' These abuses were common to all the European churches ; but the
priests in Italy, Spain, and Gaul made some atonement for them by
other advantages which they rendered society. For several ages they
were almost all Romans, or, in other words, the ancient natives ; and they
preserved the Roman language and laws, with some remains of the former
civility. But the priests in the heptarchy, after the first missionaries,
were wholly Saxons, and almost as ignorant and barbarous as the laity.
They contributed, therefore, little to the improvement of society in
knowledge or the arts.

EGBERT KING OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS 377

rally led to regard it as the capital of their religion. Pilgrim-
ages to Rome were represented as the most meritorious acts of
devotion. Not only noblemen and ladies of rank undertook
this tedious journey, but kings themselves, abdicating their
crowns, sought for a secure passport to heaven at the feet of the
Roman pontiff. New relics, perpetually sent from that inex-
haustible mint of superstition, and magnified by lying miracles,
invented in convents, operated on the astonished minds of the
multitude. And every prince has attained the eulogies of the
monks, the only historians of those ages, not in proportion to
his civil and military virtues, but to his devoted attachment tow-
ard their order, and his superstitious reverence for Rome.

The sovereign pontiff, encouraged by this blindness and
submissive disposition of the people, advanced every day in
his encroachments on the independence of the English churches.
Wilfrid, bishop of Lindisferne, the sole prelate of the North-
umbrian kingdom, increased this subjection in the eighth cen-
tury, by his making an appeal to Rome against the decisions
of an English synod, which had abridged his diocese by the
erection of some new bishoprics. Agatho, the pope, readily
embraced this precedent of an appeal to his court; and Wilfrid,
though the haughtiest and most luxurious prelate of his age,
having obtained with the people the character of sanctity, was
thus able to lay the foundation of this papal pretension.

The great topic by which Wilfrid confounded the imagina-
tions of men was that St. Peter, to whose custody the keys of
heaven were intrusted, would certainly refuse admittance to
everyone who should be wanting in respect to his successor.
This conceit, well suited to vulgar conceptions, made great im-
pression on the people during several ages, and has not even at
present lost all influence in the Catholic countries.

Had this abject superstition produced general peace and
tranquillity, it had made some atonement for the ills attending
it; but besides the usual avidity of men for power and riches,
frivolous controversies in theology were engendered by it,
which were so much the more fatal as they admitted not,
like the others, of any final determination from established
possession. The disputes, excited in Britain, were of the most
ridiculous kind, and entirely worthy of those ignorant and

378 EGBERT KING OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS

barbarous ages. There were some intricacies, observed by
all the Christian churches, in adjusting the day of keeping
Easter, which depended on a complicated consideration of
the course of the sun and moon; and it happened that the
missionaries who had converted the Scots and Britons had
followed a different calendar from that which was observed at
Rome, in the age when Augustine converted the Saxons.

The priests also of all the Christian churches were accus-
tomed to shave part of their head ; but the form given to this ton-
sure was different in the former from what was practised in the
latter. The Scots and Britons pleaded the antiquity of their
usages; the Romans and their disciples, the Saxons, insisted
on the universality of theirs. That Easter must necessarily be
kept by a rule which comprehended both the day of the year
and age of the moon, was agreed by all; that the tonsure of a
priest could not be omitted without the utmost impiety was a
point undisputed; but the Romans and Saxons called their
antagonists schismatics, because they celebrated Easter on
the very day of the full moon in March, if that day fell on a
Sunday, instead of waiting till the Sunday following; and
because they shaved the fore part of their head from ear to
ear, instead of making that tonsure on the crown of the head,
and in a circular form. In order to render their antagonists
odious they affirmed that once in seven years they concurred
with the Jews in the time of celebrating that festival; and that
they might recommend their own form of tonsure they main-
tained that it imitated symbolically the crown of thorns worn
by Christ in his passion; whereas the other form was invented
by Simon Magus, without any regard to that representation.

These controversies had from the beginning excited such
animosity between the British and Romish priests that, instead
of concurring in their endeavors to convert the idolatrous
Saxons, they refused all communion together, and each re-
garded his opponent as no better than a pagan. The dispute
lasted more than a century, and was at last finished, not by
men's discovering the folly of it, which would have been too
great an effort for human reason to accomplish, but by the
entire prevalence of the Romish ritual over the Scotch and
British. Wilfrid, bishop of Lindisferne, acquired great merit,

EGBERT KING OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS 379

both with the court of Rome and with all the southern Saxons,
by expelling the " quartodeciman " schism, as it was called, from
the Northumbrian kingdom, into which the neighborhood of
the Scots had formerly introduced it.

Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, called, in the year
680, a synod at Hatfield, consisting of all the bishops in Britain,
where was accepted and ratified the decree of the Lateran
council, summoned by Martin, against the heresy of the Mono-
thelites. The council and synod maintained, in opposition to
these heretics, that, though the divine and human nature in
Christ made but one person, yet had they different inclinations,
wills, acts, and sentiments, and that the unity of the person
implied not any unity in the consciousness. This opinion it
seems somewhat difficult to comprehend; and no one, unac-
quainted with the ecclesiastical history of those ages, could
imagine the height of zeal and violence with which it was then
inculcated. The decree of the Lateran council calls the Mono-
thelites impious, execrable, wicked, abominable, and even dia-
bolical, and curses and anathematizes them to all eternity.

The Saxons, from the first introduction of Christianity
among them, had admitted the use of images; and perhaps
that religion, without some of those exterior ornaments, had
not made so quick a progress with these idolaters; but they
had not paid any species of worship or address to images;
and this abuse never prevailed among Christians till it received
the sanction of the second council of Nice.

The kingdoms of the heptarchy, though united by so
recent a conquest, seemed to be firmly cemented into one state
under Egbert; and the inhabitants of the several provinces
had lost all desire of revolting from that monarch or of restoring
their former independent governments. Their language was
everywhere nearly the same, their customs, laws, institutions,
civil and religious; and as the race of the ancient kings was
totally extinct in all the subjected states, the people readily trans-
ferred their allegiance to a prince who seemed to merit it by
the splendor of his victories, the vigor of his administration, and
the superior nobility of his birth. A union also in government
opened to them the agreeable prospect of future tranquillity;
and it appeared more probable that they would thenceforth

380 EGBERT KING OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS

become formidable to their neighbors than be exposed to their
inroads and devastations. But these flattering views were
soon overcast by the appearance of the Danes, who, during some
centuries, kept the Anglo-Saxons in perpetual inquietude, com-
mitted the most barbarous ravages upon them, and at last re-
duced them to grievous servitude.

CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL
HISTORY

EMBRACING THE PERIOD COVERED IN THIS VOLUME
A.D. 410-842

JOHN RUDD, LL.D.

CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL
HISTORY

EMBRACING THE PERIOD COVERED IN THIS VOLUME
A.D. 410-842

JOHN RUDD, LL.D.

Events treated at length are here indicated in large
type ; the numerals following give volume and page.

Separate chronologies of the various nations, and of
the careers of famous persons, will be found in the INDEX
VOLUME, with volume and page references showing where
the several events are fully treated.

A.D.

410. Britain is abandoned by the Roman Empire.
Franks join in the Barbarian attack on Gaul.

Siege, capture, and pillage of Rome by Alaric; he dies and is suc-
ceeded by Adolphus. See "VISIGOTHS PILLAGE ROME," iv, i.

411. Count Gerontius makes Constans prisoner and slays him; he
besieges Constantino in Aries, where he is put to flight by Constantius,
Honorius' general, and, after being deserted by his soldiers, he stabs
himself. Constantine surrenders to Constantius, is sent to Ravenna and
beheaded.

Jovirius revolts at Mainz.

Conference between Catholics and Donatistsat Carthage, after which
more severe Jaws are enacted against the latter.

412. Jovinus makes his brother Sebastian his colleague. The Visi-
goths enter Gaul.

413- Adolphus overcomes Jovinus and Sebastian and sends their heads
to Honorius.

Title of augusta taken by Pulcheria at Constantinople ; she governs
in the East in the name of her brother Theodosius.

415. Adolphus lays the foundation of the Visigoth dominion in Spain.

Brutal murder of Hypatia, a lovely woman and a Neo-Platonic phi-
losopher of Alexandria.

Persecution of Jews at Alexandria.

Adolphus assassinated at Barcelona by Sigeric, who usurps the

383

384 CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY

throne, but is killed seven days afterward, and Wallia chosen king by the
Visigoths.

418. Wallia relinquishes a part of his conquests in Spain to Honorius,
and receives the province of Aquitaine in Gaul.

420. St. Jerome dies in Palestine.

A persecution of the Christians in Persia leads to war between that
nation and the Eastern Empire.

422. Peace concluded with Persia.
Incursion of the Huns into Thrace.

423. Death of Honorius ; usurpation of Joannes the Notary.

425. Joannes is beheaded. The young Valentinian is proclaimed em-
peror, and his mother, Placidia, regent.

A synod at Carthage forbids appeals to the Bishop of Rome.
The revenues of the Church are become very large.

428. Conquests of the Vandals in Spain.

Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople, founds the sect of Nestorians,
which still subsists in Persia and Turkey.

429. Wild Moors join the Vandals who have invaded Africa.

430. Bonifacius unsuccessfully opposes the Vandals in Africa ; they
besiege Hippo Regius. St. Augustine dies there in the third month of
the siege.

431. Hippo Regius falls.

Third general council of the Church, held at Ephesus ; one of the most
turbulent in history.

432. Bonifacius, although victorious, perishes in the conflict with his
rival Aetius.

433. Attila, King of the Huns, begins his reign.*
St. Patrick preaches in Ireland.

435. Nestorius exiled to the Libyan desert.

439. The Vandals, under Genseric, take Carthage.

440. Leo the Great elected pope.

441. Attila and his Huns pass the Danube ; they invade Illyricum.
See "HUNS INVADE THE EASTERN ROMAN EMPIRE," iv, 28.

442. Valentinian by a treaty of peace cedes Africa to Genseric.
A comet is visible.

444- Attila murders his brother, Bleda, and rules alone over the Huns.

446. Britons in vain apply to Aetius for aid against the Picts and
Scots.

Thermopylae passed by the Huns ; the Eastern Emperor makes hu-
miliating terms of peace with Attila. See" HUNS INVADE THE EAST-
ERN ROMAN EMPIRE," iv, 28.

Pope Leo assumes a tone of high authority, and asserts the supremacy
of the Roman Pontiff over all other bishops.

449. Landing of the Jutes under Hengist and Horsa in Britain, called
there to repel the Picts and Scots. See "THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF
BRITAIN," iv, 55.

* Date uncertain.

CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY 385

The "Robber Synod "meets at Ephesus. It reinstates Eutyches in
the office of priest and archimandrite, from which he had been expelled,
and deposes Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople, who is so roughly
attacked that he dies soon afterward of his injuries.

A synod at Rome reverses the acts at Ephesus.

450. Death of Theodosius II ; by a nominal marriage his sister Pul-
cheria raises Marcian to the throne.

Attila demands the princess Honoria in marriage.

451. Gaul invaded by Attila; battle of Chalons. See " ATTILA IN-
VADES WESTERN EUROPE," iv, 72.

Fourth general council of the Church, held at Chalcedon ; the acts of
the " Robber Synod " are annulled.

452. Attila, after withdrawing from Gaul, ravages Italy; he besieges
and destroys Aquileia ; its inhabitants flee to the marshes ; Rome is saved
by its Bishop, Leo the Great. Venice is founded. See " FOUNDATION
OF VENICE," iv, 95.

453. Death of Attila; dissolution of his empire.
Death of the empress Pulcheria.

454. Hengist founds the kingdom of Kent.

455. Maximus murders Valentinian III and usurps the throne of the
Western Empire ; at the end of three months Maximus is killed by the
people.

The Vandals pillage Rome. Avitus is proclaimed emperor of the
West.

456. Ricimer, commander of the Barbarian mercenaries in the West,
destroys a Vandal fleet near Corsica ; he declares against Avitus, who
abdicates.

457. Majorian placed on the throne of the West by Ricimer and the
senate.

Leo I ascends the throne in the East.

460. Genseric destroys Majorian's fleet at Carthagena. Peace is made
between them.

461. Majorian is assassinated by Ricimer, who places his puppet Sev-
erus on the throne, exercising the Imperial power himself.

465. Death of Severus ; Ricimer still wields the supreme power in
Rome.

467. Anthemius made emperor of the West.

The Vandals ravage the coasts of Italy and Sicily.

468. Leo I, Emperor of the East, aided by the Western Empire,
makes an earnest but ineffectual effort against the Vandals under Gen-
seric.

472. Ricimer besieges and storms Rome ; death of Ricimer and of
Anthemius; Olybrius and Glycerius are emperors successively.

473. Invasion of Italy by the Ostrogoths diverted to Gaul.
Glycerius emperor of the West.

474. Julius Nepos becomes emperor of the West.
Zeno rules the Eastern Empire.

E., VOL. rv. — 25.

386 CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY

475. Romulus Augustulus emperor of the West.
Zeno and his wife flee to Isauria.

476. Odoacer, a leader of German mercenaries, dethrones Augustulus
and puts an end to the Western Empire for three centuries. The title of
king of Italy assumed by Odoacer.

486. Clovis founds the kingdom of the Franks. He defeats Syagrius
at Soissons, and thus puts an end to Roman dominion in Gaul. See
"CLOVIS FOUNDS THE KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS," iv, 113.

488. The Eastern Emperor commissions Theodoric, King of the Os-
trogoths, to invade Italy.

489. Theodoric defeats Odoacer at Verona.

490. Odoacer is again defeated ; he retires to Ravenna.

491. Anastasius becomes emperor of the East by marrying the widow
of Zeno, who had recently died.

The South Saxons capture Anderida.

492. Anastasius grants liberty of conscience and remits oppressive
taxes.

493. Theodoric besieges Odoacer in Ravenna; he is captured and
murdered; Theodoric becomes king of the whole of Italy.

494. An earthquake overthrows the cities of Laodicea, Hierapolis,
and Tripolis.

Pope Gelasius makes the distinction between the canonical and apoc-
ryphal books of the Scriptures. He asserts his divine right, as Bishop
of Rome, to universal supremacy.

495.* Cerdic and his band of Saxons, who sail in five ships, land in
Britain.

496. Clovis vanquishes the Alemanni ; he is baptized. See " CLOVIS
FOUNDS THE KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS," iv, 113.

497. The Arabs (Saracens) invade Syria ; they are repulsed by Euge-
nius.

Many Athanasian bishops are banished from Africa to Sardinia.

498. Publication of the Babylonian Talmud or Gemaras.

Violent contest between Symmachus and Laurentius for the episcopal
throne at Rome, decided by Theodoric in favor of the former.

500. Clovis, King of the Franks, defeats the Burgundians near Dijon.
502. Syria and Palestine ravaged by the Saracens.
The Bulgarians again devastate Thrace.

504. Expulsion by the Franks of the Alemanni from the Middle Rhine.
Theodoric defeats the Bulgarians and retakes Sirmium, which they

had captured.

505. Peace is declared between the Eastern Empire and Persia, end-
ing desultory conflicts that had continued some years.

507. Clovis overthrows the Visigoths near Poitiers ; he becomes mas-
ter of nearly the whole of Aquitania. See " CLOVIS FOUNDS THE KING-
DOM OF THE FRANKS," iv, 113.

Amalarich, Alaric's infant son, and Giselich, his natural son, are pro-
* Date uncertain.

CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY 387

claimed joint kings of the Visigoths by Thcodoric ; he preserves for
them all Spain and a part of Gaul.

508. Natanleod, a British prince, is defeated and slain, in a desperate
battle, by Cerdic the Saxon.

510. Clovis adds the territory of certain minor Frank princes to his
own territory ; he makes Paris his capital. See " CLOVIS FOUNDS THE
KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS," iv, 113.

511. Death of Clovis ; the Frankish kingdom is divided equally among
his four sons : Theodoric I (Thierry), Metz ; Clodomir, Orleans ; Childe-
bert I , Paris ; and Clotair , Soissons.

Monophysite riot at Constantinople, caused by the controversy re-
specting the nature of Christ.

512. Second Monophysite riot at Constantinople.

515. A body of Huns breaks through the Caspian gates and invades
Cappadocia.

Publication of St. Benedict's monastic rule.

518. Death of Anastasius, the Eastern Emperor, and accession of
Justin I.

519. Cerdic gives the name of Wessex to that part of Britain con-
quered by him ; he assumes the title of king ; Cynric is his coadjutor.

523. Sigismund, the Burgundian King, assumes the monastic habit,
but is betrayed into the hands of the Franks, who throw him, with his
wife and children, into a well at Orleans. His brother, Gondemar, is
elected king.

525. Theodoric, King of Italy, orders the execution of Boethius and
Symmachus.

526. Death of Theodoric and accession of Athalaric.

Great earthquake at An tioch, which destroys the city ; 250,000 persons
perish.

The Eastern Empire begins war with Persia.

527. Justinian proclaimed joint augustus, soon after which, by the
death of Justin, he becomes sole emperor.

Use of the Christian era introduced by Dionysius Exiguus.

528. Thuringia conquered by the Franks.

529. Julian, leader of a Jewish and Samaritan revolt, is made prisoner
and beheaded.

Justinian issues edicts against philosophers, heretics, and pagans.
See " PUBLICATION OF THE JUSTINIAN CODE," iv, 138.
Closing of the schools at Athens.

530. Benedict founds his new monastic order ; the principal seat is
Monte Casino, Campania.*

Belisarius, the greatest general of the Byzantine empire, defeats the
Persians at Dara.

531. Alamundarus, at the head of the Persians and Saracens, defeats
Belisarius, who maintains his ground against their nearly overwhelming
force.

* Date uncertain.

388 CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY

Accession of Khusrau to the throne of Persia.

532. End of the war between the Eastern Empire and Persia.

533- Justinian's general, Belisarius, destroys the Vandal kingdom in
Africa.

Publication of the Pandects and Institutes of Justinian. See " PUBLI-
CATION OF THE JUSTINIAN CODE," iv, 138.

Philosophers, who were driven from Constantinople by Justinian's
orders, return disappointed from Persia.

534. Overthrow of the Burgundian kingdom by the Franks, who di-
vide the dominions between the three Frankish kings.

Solomon, left by Belisarius to command in Africa, defeats the Moors.

535. Belisarius is sent by Justinian to recover Italy from the Ostro-
goths; he occupies Sicily.

536. Rome is occupied by Belisarius.

537. Vitiges unsuccessfully besieges Belisarius in Rome ; great dis-
tress in the city.

538. Vitiges retreats from before Rome and takes shelter in Ravenna.

539. The Franks, under Theodebert, invade Italy and plunder Genoa ;
attacked by disease they return into Gaul.

540. Vitiges surrenders Ravenna and is sent a prisoner to Constan-
tinople. Justinian recalls Belisarius from Italy.

Khusrau, King of Persia, invades Syria and takes Antioch.

A total eclipse of the sun, June 2oth.

Justinian makes a formal relinquishment of Gaul to the Franks.

541. Belisarius takes the command of the Roman forces against the
Persians ; he defeats Khusrau.

Totila, King of the Ostrogoths, is successful in Italy.
End of the succession of Roman consuls.

542. Belisarius compels the Persians to recross the Euphrates.

The great plague spreads from Egypt and rages for many years in
Asia and Europe.

543. Naples surrenders to Totila, who then advances against Rome.
Belisarius recalled from the East, after which the Persians again ad-
vance and defeat the Romans.

Moors renew the war in Africa ; Solomon is slain in battle against
them ; Sergius, his successor, is incompetent.
Spain invaded by the Franks.

544. Again Belisarius is sent into Italy, but without supplies and with
very inadequate forces.

Stotzas, leader of the Moors, defeats the Romans, but is slain in the
battle.

545. While Belisarius awaits reinforcements Totila takes Asculum and
Spoletum, and lays siege to Rome.

546. Rome is betrayed to Totila ; Belisarius is joined by fresh troops,
but arrives too late to prevent the capture and pillage.

547. Rome is utterly deserted for six weeks ; it is retaken by Belisa-
rius, who repairs the walls.

CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY 389

Ida founds the kingdom of Bernicia, in Northumberland, and builds
Bam borough.

Bavaria becomes subject to the Franks.

548. Death of Theodora, Empress of the East.

Crotona and Tarentum are captured by Belisarius, after which he is
recalled to the East.

549. Second siege and capture of Rome by Totila.

The Lazic War begins — a contest of Rome and Persia on the Phasis ;
called Lazic from the Lazi, a tribe which still subsists.

550. Vigilius, at Constantinople, urges Justinian to rescue Italy from
the dominion of Arians.

Illyrium is freed of the Slavonians.

551. Totila restores the senate at Rome.

Silkworms said to have been first reared in Europe from eggs brought
out of the East.

552. Totila defeated and slain by Narses, Belisarius' successor, to
whom the greater part of Italy submits.

Teias is appointed their king by the Ostrogoths.

Cyric puts the Britons to flight at the battle of Searobyrig (Sarum).

553. Narses puts an end to the power of the Ostrogoths in Italy, and
annexes it to the Eastern Empire.

Fifth general council of the Church at Constantinople.
The exarch is established at Ravenna, representing the Emperor of
the East.

554. Italy is invaded by the Franks and Alemanni; they are defeated
by Narses.

555. Tzathes declared king of the Lazi ; the Persians are defeated by
the Romans at Phasis.

War between Clotaire and the Saxons.

558. Death of Childebert ; the Salic Law prevents his daughters reign-
ing ; their brother, Clotaire, becomes sole king of the Franks.

559. Belisarius' last achievement is to expel the Bulgarians, who ad-
vanced to within twenty miles of Constantinople.

561. Death of Clotaire ; the Frankish kingdom again divided.

The services of Belisarius excite the jealousy of Justinian and his
courtiers.

562. Conspiracy of Marcellus and Sergius against Justinian ; Belisarius
unjustly accused of having taken part in the plot.

563. Belisarius is acquitted of the charges brought against him ; he is
restored to his honors.

St. Columba founds the monastery of lona in Scotland.

565. Death of Belisarius, also of the emperor Justinian. Justin II
succeeds to the throne.

566.* Alboin, at the head of the Lombards, and aided by the Avars,
destroys the kingdom of the Gepidae in Pannonia.

War in Britain between the kings of Kent and Wessex.
* Date uncertain.

390 CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY

567. Austrasia, Neustria, and Burgundy formed by the division of the
Frankish kingdom.

568. Invasion of Italy by the Lombards; Pavia besieged.
Longinus, the successor of Narses, is styled the exarch of Ravenna

by the Byzantines.

570.* Birth of Mahomet. See "THE HEGIRA," iv, 198.
Death of Narses.

571. Khusrau persecuting the Armenians, they place themselves under
the protection of Justin; this leads to war between the Persians and
Romans.

Uffa founds the kingdom of East Anglia in Britain.

572. Marcianus is sent by Rome to conduct the war against the Per-
sians.

Alboin, Lombardy, grants allotments of territory to his chief cap-
tains, with titles of princes or dukes, for which they are to render mili-
tary service.

573. Alboin, King of the Lombards, is murdered by Rosamond, his
wife ; she flees to Ravenna with her lover Helmichis, where she poisons
him ; before he dies he compels her to drain the cup. Cleoph is elected
king of Lombardy.

The Visigoths subjugate the Suevi in Spain.

574. Tiberius is appointed caesar at Rome ; he concludes a peace with
the Persians. He is defeated by the Avars on the Danube.

Cleoph, the Lombard King, is slain ; his son being a child, many of
the dukes assume royal power and great anarchy prevails.

575. Justinian, son of Germanus, defeats the Persians and advances
to the Araxes.

576. Armenia is occupied by the Persians; Justinian arrives too late
to prevent it.

578. Death of Justin. Accession of the emperor Tiberius Constan-
tinus in the East.

579. Maurice, commanding the Romans, is victorious over the Per-
sians.

580. Further successes of Maurice in Mesopotamia.

582. Death of Tiberius and accession of Maurice, Emperor in the
East.

584. Many native Gauls retire into Armorica, where they preserve
their Celtic tongue.

586. Cridda founds the last Saxon kingdom of Mercia. The Britons
retire to the western side of the island, unite in a general league, and call
themselves Cymri.

588. Northumberland is founded by the union of the kingdoms of Ber-
nicia and Deira, under Ethelric.

589. Arianism is abandoned by the Visigoths in Spain.
591. Peace between Persia and the Eastern Empire.

597. Augustine sent by Gregory the Great to preach Christianity to
•Date uncertain.

CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY 391

the Anglo-Saxons. See "AUGUSTINE'S MISSIONARY WORK IN ENG-
LAND," iv, 182.

602. Revolt in Constantinople ; Phocas is proclaimed emperor ; flight
of Maurice with his family ; they are taken and put to death.

603. Khusrau, the Persian ruler, declares war against Phocas to re-
venge the death of his benefactor, Maurice.

605. Phocas begins his cruelties ; Constantina, the widow of Maurice,
is tortured and afterward beheaded with her daughters; Narses is de-
coyed to Constantinople and there burned alive. The hippodrome is
defaced by the heads and mangled remains of the tyrant's victims.

607. Phocas concedes to Boniface III the supremacy of Rome over
all Christian churches.

608. Boniface IV consecrates the Pantheon— built by Agrippa to the
memory of his divine ancestors B.C. 27 — as the Church of Santa Maria
Rotunda.

Khusrau II, King of Persia, invades Asia Minor.
610. Phocas is given up to Heraclius and beheaded; Heraclius de-
clared emperor of the East.

Venetia has an incursion of the Avars.

612. Caesarea, Cappadocia, taken by the Persians.
Syria is invaded by the Saracens.

613. Clotaire unites under his rule all the territories of the Franks.
The youthful AH becomes Mahomet's vizier.

614. Damascus and Jerusalem are taken by the Persians under Khus-
rau II.

616. Alexandria and Egypt conquered by the Persians ; another army
encamps at Chalcedon. Their general, Saen, introduces to Khusrau an
embassy from Heraclius, for which he is flayed alive, and the ambas-
sador imprisoned.

Death of Ethelbert; his son Eadbald succeeds him and restores
the pagan worship to England ; he is afterward converted to Chris-
tianity.

First expulsion of the Jews from Spain.

619. Heraclius, while holding a conference with Baian, is treacherously
attacked by the Avars ; he escapes with difficulty.

622. Roused from his apathy, Heraclius leaves Constantinople and
lands at Alexandria ; he defeats the Persians, recovers Cilicia, and places
his army in secure winter quarters.

Flight of Mahomet from Mecca to Medina : the era of the Hegira
commences, July i6th. See "THE HEGIRA," iv, 198.

623. Heraclius occupies Armenia, takes Thebarma (Ooramiah), the
birthplace of Zoroaster, reconquers Colchis and Iberia, and winters in
Albania, having released 50,000 captives.

Suintilla takes the few remaining places in Spain that were still held
by the Greek empire.

624. Ispahan, Persia, is taken by Heraclius; he defeats Sarbaraza at
Salban.

392 CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY

6*5. Heraclius carries away an immense booty from Persia ; he re-
covers Amida and Samosata.

626. Constantinople is besieged by the Persians and Avars ; the siege
fails. The emperor Heraclius contracts an alliance with the Turks, who,
passing the Caspian gates, invade Persia.

627. Khusrau II is overwhelmed by Heraclius and his Turkish allies.
King Edwin, of Northumberland, embraces Christianity and builds

the first minster of wood, at York.

628. Recovery of Jerusalem and of the presumed true Cross by Herac-
lius from the Persians.

Khusrau 1 1 deposed and slain ; by treaty all the possessions captured
by the Persians are restored to Rome.

630 (629). Mecca surrenders to Mahomet; he invades Palestine.

631. After many revolutions in Persia, Cesra is made king.
Dagobert I reunites the Frankish empire.

632. Death of Mahomet ; his successor, Abu-Bekr, sends an army into
Syria. See "THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA," iv, 247.

Oswald builds the first minster of stone at York.

634. Death of Abu-Bekr ; accession of Omar as head of the Saracens.

635. Defeat of the Welsh by the English at Heavenfield.

636. The Roman army is overcome by the Saracens. See " THE SAR-
ACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA," iv, 247.

637. Emesa, Balbec, and Jerusalem taken by the Saracens.

638. Heraclius, unable to resist the Mahometans, retires to Constan-
tinople, where he publishes his Ecthesis.

Death of Dagobert; his two sons succeed, Clovis to Neustria and
Burgundy, Sigebert to Austrasia.

640. Capture of Czesarea. Invasion of Egypt by Amru, the general
of Omar. See " SARACENS CONQUER EGYPT," iv, 278.

641. Death of Heraclius, Emperor of the East; three rival emperors
succeed ; accession of Constans 1 1 .

The Sassanian kingdom ends.

642. Victory at Nehavend by the Saracens ; this places Persia in their
power.

Istria and Dalmatia invaded by the Slavonians.

643. Rotharis publishes the Lombard code of laws.

644. Assassination of Omar; Othman succeeds. See "SARACENS
CONQUER EGYPT," iv, 278.

646. Alexandria recaptured by the Greeks and again lost.

647. Abdallah advances, at the head of the Saracens, from Egypt to
Roman Africa.

648. Constans II issues his Type, or model of faith.

649. Constans II orders the new exarch Olympius to enforce the
adoption of his Type by the Western Church ; it is rejected by the First
Lateran Council.

650. The Moslems conquer Merv, Balkh, and Herat.*

* Date uncertain.

CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY 393

Many orthodox churches are plundered by Constans II.

651. Death of Yezdejerd and end of the Persian kingdom.

652. Conversion of the East Saxons in England.

653. Pope Martin I is seized and banished by Constans II.

654. Martin, in Constantinople, is stripped of his pontifical robes and
imprisoned ; after long hesitation Eugenius is elected pope in his stead.

656. Assassination of Caliph Othman; Ali succeeds; Moawiyah re-
volts against him ; he is supported by Ayesha the widow of Mahomet,
Amru, Telhar, and Zobeir. These dissensions suspend the conquests of
the Saracens. Ali is victorious on " the Day of the Camel " ; Telhar and
Zobeir are slain ; Ayesha is made prisoner and sent to Medina.

657. Kufa is made the seat of government by Caliph Ali.

658. Constans takes the field against the Slavonians and repulses
them.

Amru is sent by Moawiyah into Egypt and expels Ali's partisans.
The two caliphs publicly pray for each other while waging fierce war.

660. Ali is assassinated ; Hasan, his eldest son, is elected caliph.

661. Hasan resigns the caliphate; Moawiyah, the first of the Ommi-
ads, becomes undisputed ruler of the Moslems ; he makes Damascus his
capital.

Death of Aribert ; Lombardy is divided between his two sons.
Constans, detested by all classes, leaves Constantinople and goes to
Italy; the senate detains the Empress and his sons.

663. Constans visits Rome and carries away much spoil and retires to
Syracuse.

664. Caliph Moawiyah appoints as his lieutenant in Persia, India, and
the East his half-brother, Ziyad, " the greatest man of the age."

668. Constans is assassinated in a bath at Syracuse; Constans IV
succeeds to the throne of the Eastern Empire.

The Sicilians set up Mecezius as emperor.
Constantinople is first besieged by the Saracens.

669. Sicily is invaded by the Saracens, who capture Syracuse.

670. Kairwan, or Kayrawan, a holy Mahometan city in Northern
Africa, founded.

Death of Clotaire III; Theodoric, or Thierry III, becomes king of
Neustria and Burgundy.

671. Ebroin and Thierry are compelled by the Franks to retire into a
monastery ; Childeric for a time reigns alone.

672. Death of Ziyad ; his son, appointed by Caliph Moawiyah lieu-
tenant of Khorassan, penetrates into Bokhara and defeats the Turks.

673. First council of the Anglo-Saxon Church, at Hereford.

Year after year the Saracens repeat their attacks on Constantinople ;
Callinicus invents the Greek fire used successfully in its defence.

Thierry III and Ebroin leave their monastery and resume the govern-
ment of Neustria.

Birth of the Venerable Bede.*

* Date uncertain.

394 CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY

674. Revolts of the Gascons and Duke Paulus repressed by Wamba,
King of the Visigoths in Spain.

The Bavarians, Thuringians, and other German subjects of Austrasia
regain their independence.

677. Siege of Constantinople raised by the Mahometans ; peace con-
cluded.*

Domnus restores the authority of Rome over the Church at Ravenna.

678. Bulgarians establish themselves in the north of Thrace.
Egfrid expels Wilfrid from York and divides his diocese; Wilfrid

goes to Rome and obtains from Pope Agatho an order for his restoration.
Egfrid resists the papal interference.
A large comet visible for three months.

679. A council held at Rome for the reunion of the Greek and Latin
churches.

680. Sixth general council of the Church, at Constantinople ; Mon-
othelite heresy condemned.

Establishment of a kingdom in Moesia (modem Bulgaria) by the Bul-
garians.*

Hoseyn, son of Ali, and his followers massacred at Kerbela.

Murder of Dagobert II, after which Pe*pin of Hdristal and Martin
rule Austrasia with the title of dukes.

Attempt to poison Wamba ; he resigns his crown and retires into a
monastery ; Ervigius succeeds him as king of the Visigoths.

683. For twelve months the papacy is vacant after the death of Leo II.

684. Constantine sends to Rome locks of the hair of his two sons, in
token of their adoption by the Church.

Egfrid sends Beort with an army into Ireland and lays waste the
country.

685. Justinian II becomes emperor of the East on the death of Con-
stantine IV.

The Picts defeat the Angles of Northumbria under King Ecgfrith, at
Nactansmere.

687. Battle of Testri ; the victory of Pdpin of Hdristal gives him the
sway over the whole Frankish empire.

688. Caedwalla resigns the crown of Wessexto Ina and goes to Rome;
he dies there one year later.

690. On the death of Theodore, Berthwald becomes the first arch-
bishop of Canterbury.

Two Anglo-Saxon bishops, Kilian and Wilbrord, preach in Germany.
Pdpin allows Clovis III to succeed Thierry III as nominal ruler of
Neustria.

691. Council of Constantinople, called " Quinisextum in Trullo"; not
acknowledged by the Western Church.

692. The Mahometans defeat the army collected by Justinian at Se-
bastopolis.

Armenia is conquered by the Mahometans.
* Date uncertain.

CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY 395

694. Justinian's two ministers provoke his subjects by their oppres-
sions ; Leon tiu s imprisoned.

695. Leontius, released from prison, is proclaimed emperor of the
East; Justinian, with his nose cut off, is banished.

696. Pe"pin favors the preaching of the Anglo-Saxon missionaries
among the Franks and Frisians; he appoints Wilbrord, under the name
of Clemens, bishop of Utrecht.

697. Election of the first doge, with a council of tribunes and judges,
in Venice. See " EVOLUTION OF THE DOGESHIP IN VENICE," iv, 292.

698. Hasan, at the head of the Saracens, storms and destroys Car-
thage.

699. At Mount Atlas the Berbers, or wild shepherds, successfully re-
sist the advance of the Mahometans.

705. An army of Bulgarians, under Terbelis, restores Justinian to his
throne ; he inflicts bloody vengeance for his expulsion.

Accession of Caliph Welid.

706. Pope John VII refuses to accept, or even revise, the acts of the
Council of Constantinople, A.D. 691, which Justinian requires him to
adopt.

707. The Mahometans, under Musa, overcome the Berbers and are
masters of all Northern Africa ; they establish themselves in the valley
of the Indus and conquer Karisme, Bokhara, and Samarkand, whence
they introduce the manufacture of paper.

708. Justinian, unmindful of his obligations to Terbelis, attacks the
Bulgarians, but is defeated.

709. Roderic ascends the Gothic throne in Spain.

Theodoras, by order of the Emperor Justinian, plunders Ravenna and
sends the principal inhabitants to Constantinople, where they are cruelly
murdered.

711. Tarik, with a large force of Arab-Moors, lands in Spain. See
"SARACENS IN SPAIN," iv, 301.

Justinian's continued cruelties provoke a revolt at Ravenna ; he sends
a fleet and army to destroy Cherson and massacre its inhabitants. The
citizens of Cherson proclaim Bardanes emperor, under the name of
Philippicus ; his cause is espoused by both the fleet and army, which
conduct him to Constantinople, where he is acknowledged, and Justinian
is put to death.

713. Musa, at the head of the Saracens, crosses the Pyrenees.

715. Charles Martel gains the ascendency in Austrasia ; he contends
against Chilperic II, the successor of Dagobert in Neustria.

717. Leo the Isaurian ascends the throne of the Eastern Empire.
Constantinople is again besieged by the Moslems.

The Saracens suffer a disastrous defeat at the Cave of Covadonga,
Spain.

718. Charles Martel is victorious at Soissons ; both Prankish king-
doms acknowledge him.

719. Narbonne is captured and occupied by the Saracens under Zana.

396 CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY

721. Zana defeated and slain at the battle of Toulouse.
Egbert, Abbot of lona, translates the four gospels into Anglo-Saxon.
726. Iconoclastic edicts by Leo the Isaurian, against the worship of
images, causes tumult and insurrection in Constantinople.

730. Image worship prohibited throughout the Eastern Empire.

731. Last confirmation of a papal election by the Eastern Emperor,
the occasion being the election of Gregory III.

732. Battle of Tours, when Charles Martel utterly routs the Saracens
and saves the empire of the Franks. See " BATTLE OF TOURS," iv, 313.

Pope Gregory III calls a council at Rome ; an edict is issued against
the iconoclasts.

733. Emperor Leo marries his son Constantine to a Tartar or Turkish
princess, who at her baptism takes the name of Irene.

740. The Saracens are expelled from the greater part of France by
Charles Martel and his ally, Lieutprand.

Death of Leo the Isaurian ; accession of Constantine V as emperor of
the East.

742. Birth of Charlemagne.

744. Carloman defeats the Saxons ; they are forced into baptism.

746. King Carloman relinquishes the throne of the Franks, and re-
tires into a monastery. See " FOUNDING OF THE CARLOVINGIAN DY-
NASTY," iv, 324.

747. Great plague in Constantinople.

748. Venetian merchants having purchased slaves to be sold in Africa
to the Saracens, Pope Zachary forbids the traffic.

Virgilius, a priest, convicted of heresy for believing in the existence
of the antipodes.

750. End of the Ommiad and rise of the Abbasside dynasty of caliphs ;
all the family of the former, except Abderrahman, put to death.

751. Pe'pin the Short founds the Carlovingian dynasty of the Franks.
See " FOUNDING OF THE CARLOVINGIAN DYNASTY," iv, 324.

752. Extinction of the exarchate of Ravenna by the Lombards under
Astolphus.

753. Pope Stephen II journeys to France.

754. Pe'pin the Short is crowned by Stephen II. See " FOUNDING OF
THE CARLOVINGIAN DYNASTY," iv, 324.

755. Pe'pin the Short defeats Astolphus, King of the Lombards, and
invests Pope Stephen II with Ravenna, and other places taken from the
Lombards. The Papal States founded.

St. Boniface is martyred in Germany.

756. Abderrahman founds the kingdom of the Ommiads at Cordova.

757. Emperor Constantine courts the favor of Pe'pin ; among other
presents he sends him the first organ known in France.

759- Pe'pin conquers Narbonne and expels the last Saracens from
France.

762.* Founding of Bagdad, the capital of the eastern caliphs.
* Date uncertain.

CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY 397

767. Death of Pope Paul I ; usurpation of Constantino, antipope.

768. Pe'pin dies and is succeeded by his sons Charles (Charlemagne)
and Carloman. See " CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE," iv, 334.

769. Council of Rome annuls all acts of the deposed pope Constan-
tine ; he, although blinded by the populace, is led into the assembly,
insulted, and beaten. Laymen are declared incapable of being made
bishops.

771. Death of Carloman ; Charlemagne becomes sole king of the
Franks. See " CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE," iv, 334.

773. Charlemagne begins his long war against the Saxons.

774. Charlemagne visits Rome ; he captures Pavia after a siege of
eight months ; and also puts an end to the kingdom of Lombardy. The
papal temporalities are increased by Charlemagne. Forgery of the
" Donation of Constantine " used as a plea to urge Charlemagne still
more to aggrandize the see of Rome.

778. Spain is invaded by Charlemagne; on his return to repel the
Saxons his rear-guard is surprised ; there ensues the " Dolorous Rout "
of Roncesvalles. See " CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE," iv, 334.

780. The government of the Eastern Empire is assumed by Irene in
the name of her son, Constantine VI.

781. Charlemagne visits Rome; his two sons are crowned by the Pope
— one king of Italy, the other of Aquitaine.

785. Irene proposes a general council to establish the worship of
images.

Fierce struggle of the Saxons against Charlemagne; Wittikind and
Alboin submit and profess Christianity.

786. On the death of Al Hadi, the famous Harun-al-Rashid suc-
ceeds to the eastern caliphate.

787. Second Council of Nice — the seventh general council of the
Church ; it decrees the worship of images.

788. Bavaria is brought completely under the sway of Charlemagne.
789.* The first recorded inroad of the Northmen (Danes) into Eng-
land.

790.* Publication of the Caroline Books, being the judgments of the
general council of the bishops of the West on certain religious dogmas.

791. First campaign of Charlemagne against the Avars or Huns ; they
are defeated.

792. King Offa murders Ethelbert and annexes East Anglia to Mer-
cia ; in atonement for his crime he levies a tax on his subjects to support
the school founded at Rome by Ina ; this is afterward converted into
" Peter's pence."

797. Irene deposes and puts out the eyes of her son, Emperor Con-
stantine VI of the Eastern Empire.

799. Charlemagne finally conquers the Avars or Huns.

800. Pope Leo III presides at the coronation of Charlemagne as em-
peror of the West. See " CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE," iv, 334.

* Date uncertain.

398 CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY

Egbert is recalled from France by the West Saxons, who make him
their king ; the name of England is given to his dominions.

801. Barcelona is conquered from the Moors by the Franks.

802. Harun-al-Rashid murders the Barmecides, a powerful Persian
family of high renown.

807. Harun-al-Rashid founds public schools; he sends an embassy
to Charlemagne with rich presents, among which is a curious clock of
brass.

The Saracens of Spain repulsed in their attempt on Sardinia and Cor-
sica.

812. Civil war ensues between the sons of Harun-al-Rashid, who had
died three years previously.

813. Constantinople menaced by the Bulgarian khan Krumn.

814. Death of Charlemagne ; Louis le Dtbonnaire, his only surviving
son, succeeds.

815. Louis exacts an apology from Pope Leo for having exercised
civil judicial power at Rome.

817. Partition of the Frankish empire by Louis le Dtbonnaire.

826. Harold of South Jutland baptized; he receives from Louis a
grant of land in Friesland.

827. The Saxon heptarchy founded by Egbert, King of Wessex. See
" EGBERT BECOMES KING OF THE ANGLO-SAXON HEPTARCHY," iv, 372.

Beginning of the Saracen conquest of Sicily.

828. Syracuse and a great part of Catalonia captured by the Saracens.

829. North Wales submits to Egbert. Dungallo, a monk who had
written a book in defence of image-worship, is placed over the school of
Pavia.

830. First rebellion of the sons of Louis le Dtbonnaire.

832. Danes land on the Isle of Sheppey, England.

833. Louis is a prisoner in the hands of his son Lothair, who assumes
full imperial power after the " Field of Lies."

Danes land in Wessex from thirty-five ships, and defeat Egbert.
The regular succession of Scottish kings begins with Alpine.

834. Continuance of the differences between the Anglo-Saxon and Ro-
man clergy in England. See " EGBERT BECOMES KING OF THE ANGLO-
SAXON HEPTARCHY," iv, 372.

Lothair compelled by his brother to restore their father, Louis, to
his throne.

835. Egbert defeats a combined army of Danes and Cornish Britons
at Hengston.

Danes invade the Netherlands and sack Utrecht.

836. Antwerp is burned and Flanders ravaged by the Danes.
Death of the first English king, Egbert.

837. First incursion of the Danes up the Rhine.

838. The Danes sail up the Loire and ravage the country as far as
Tours.

Caliph Montassem invades Asia Minor.

CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY 399

839. Venetians repress the piracy of the Dalmatians, but lose their
ships in an attack on the Saracens at Tarento.

840. Death of Louis le Debonnaire at Ingelheim; his empire divided
into three separate states: Lothair (Emperor), taking Italy; Charles,
France ; Louis, Bavaria or Germany. Disputes follow.

841. Louis and Charles unite to resist the pretensions of Lothair; he
is defeated at the battle of Fontenailles (Fontenay).

Rouen plundered by the Danes under Hastings.

842. A final sanction to image-worship is given by the Council of
Constantinople.

The "Oath of Strasburg," a valuable matter of philology and his-
tory, which shows that in 841 the distinctions of race and language were
beginning to make themselves felt. It sealed the pact made between
Louis of Austrasia and Charles of Neu stria.

END OF VOLUME IV

I I U 1 U

D 23 .J6
v.4 SMC

The Great events by

famous historians
AKK-9046