From A. D. 410. History. extends from the Rhine to the Somme. On the death of Clodion, one of the earliest Sovereigns of the first race, a dissension took place between his two sons; one of whom implored the protection of the Roman Government, while the other solicited the aid of Attila. The Hun, who had resolved to attack the Western Empire, eagerly availed himself of so favourable an opportunity for accomplishing his object, under the specious pretence of vindicating the rights of an injured Prince, who courted his alliance. to A. D. 455. Attila in vades Gaul, and lays siege to Orleans, A. D. 451. Besides the Visigoths and a large body of the Franks, the Lieutenant of Valentinianus had secured the services of a detachment of the Alani, which still possessed a part of Gaul, and of an army of Huns, who had separated themselves from the main camp on the Danube. There was some reason for doubt, indeed, whether, when opposed to Attila in the field of battle, their national predilections would not overcome their more recent attachment to the cause of the Empire; and it required, besides, no small degree of address to prevent their hereditary dislike of the Goths, Franks, and Burgundians, from precipitating all the Provinces South of the Rhine into the desolation of a Civil war. But no extent of preparation could save that fertile country from the projected inroad of the Huns. After a march of seven hundred miles from his head-quarters in the plains of Hungary, Attila mustered his formidable host on the frontiers of Gaul; where, after being joined by those Franks who supported the claims of the elder son of Clodion, he began hostilities by attacking the nearest towns, and by laying waste the fields whence they drew their supplies.* The History of this invasion of the Huns presents the usual description of havoc, ruin, and individual wretchedness, which marked the path of those savage warriors in all the Countries which they overran. Most of the cities North of the Loire were besieged and stormed, and generally given up to military execution; in which case the massacre of the inhabitants was promiscuous, involving the aged sire and the infant at the breast, the helpless female and the priest before the altar. Orleans, the walls of which had been recently strengthened, had the resolution and skill to make a successful resistance. Etius, it should seem, had promised to relieve it, and entreated the brave defenders to keep the enemy at bay until he could bring up an army sufficiently strong to combat the Huns. But the time necessary to accomplish this object somewhat exceeded his first calculation. The Bishop, whose name was Anianus, encouraged meanwhile the perseverance of the garrison, and exhorted the people to lend their aid in repelling the furious assault of the Barbarians; assuring them that, before the close of another day, the expected succour would arrive, and their ancient city would be saved. He sent a messenger to the highest tower, to see whether there were any appearance of troops in the distant horizon; but it was not till after he had been twice disappointed, that the welcome intelligence was announced to him of a small cloud of dust rising at the remotest verge to which the eye could reach. "It is the aid of God!" exclaimed the pious Prelate, and his words were instantly repeated in shouts of joy by all the citizens. Every eye was now fixed on the distant object which had revived their hopes; and no long time elapsed before they could clearly distinguish the banners of the Empire * Jornand. de Reb. Get. c. 36, 37. Chron. Idat. Roman Empire. From A. D. 410. to mixed with those of Theodoric, the King of the Visigoths, moving on rapidly for the relief of Orleans.* Attila, whose ranks had been thinned by the active service in which his army was engaged since he crossed the Rhine, saw the danger of risking a battle in the very heart of a Country where he had neither friends nor allies but such as were within the limits of his camp. He therefore immediately raised the siege, and retreated towards the extensive plains of Châlons; in Orleans rewhich, should he find it necessary to come to an action, lieved by his cavalry, he imagined, would secure him a great tius and advantage over the foot soldiers of the Roman General. Theodoric, The Visigoths, meanwhile, under Torismond, the eldest son of their King, pressed upon his rear so closely, that he could not prevent several bloody contests, in one of which not fewer than fifteen thousand of his Barbarians fell by the sword; and hardly had he arrived in the open country where he had determined to make a stand, when he found himself opposed by a powerful host, recruited from five or six different nations, but all animated with one spirit, and directed by the prudent valour of Etius. He could not, had he been inclined, pursue his retreat any further. Resolving, therefore, to fight, he laboured to revive the drooping courage of his Huns, by reminding them of their former exploits, and by holding out the certainty of a decisive triumph in the approaching combat. He had indeed consulted his priests, who found, in the entrails of their victims, indications of disaster to the Scythian warriors, but who, at the same time, could assure the King that the success of his enemies, if it occurred, must be purchased by the death of their principal leader. A. D. 455. King of the Visigoths. Whatever might be his impressions, he began the Battle of conflict with his usual intrepidity, and used every argu- Chalons, ment which could affect the pride or superstition of his and defeat men, to induce them to follow his example. A frightful of Attila. scene of carnage ensued. The fortune of battle seemed to waver between the bravery of the contending armies, and the issue was long doubtful. Theodoric, the Sovereign of the Visigoths, received a mortal wound, and son, the gallant Torismond, soon revenged his death, by was trampled under the feet of the horsemen; but his advancing at the head of his nation, and throwing the whole weight of a united charge upon the exhausted lines of the Huns, who were compelled to turn their backs. The approach of night enabled Attila to withdraw his troops within the entrenchment of waggons, which usually formed his camp; while the victors, unwilling to irritate the despair of so determined a character, did not attempt to expel him from his temporary fortress. In truth, the slaughter, which amounted to sides so much, that the battle was not renewed; and it a hundred and sixty-two thousand, had weakened both was only because Attila dreaded some ulterior movement nication with the Danube might be intercepted, that he on the part of his able adversary, by which his commuresolved upon returning across the Rhine, and relinquishing all his conquests in Gaul.† vades Italy A. D. 452. back from the Provinces beyond the Alps, desolated the In the following year the inundation, which had rolled Attila infairest parts of Italy. The King of the Huns, whose prey was snatched from his hands by the military talent of Etius, augmented his forces during the winter, and was ready, in the early months of Spring, to pass the Sidon. Apoll. lib. viii. Ep. xv. Jornand. de Reb. Get. c. 41. From A. D. 410. to A. D. 455. History, mountain barrier which protected the land of the Cæsars, and to resume his course of victory within sight of the walls of Ravenna. The siege of Aquileia first occupied his arms, and, owing to the ignorance of his men in the art of reducing fortresses, delayed his progress more than three months. The resolution and skill displayed by the defenders exhausted the patience of Attila: his provisions were consumed, and his troops were becoming clamorous; the season for active operations was fast passing away, and time was given to the Imperial Generals to reinforce the Italian armies, and to arrange their plans for a vigorous campaign. These considerations had induced him to issue orders for raising the siege, when the simple circumstances of seeing a stork leave its nest, built on one of the walls, and fly away towards the country, revived the confidence of the invader, and inspired new hope into his followers. A furious assault was made on the fortifications; the Huns effected an entry; and Aquileia soon ceased to exist but as a heap of ruins. A similar fate awaited the other cities on the coast of the Adriatic, as far as the river Po, including Altinum, Concordia, Padua, Vicenza, and Verona. Milan and Pavia, which opened their gates on the first approach of the conqueror, and which could sooth his avarice by the surrender of their wealth, were allowed to preserve their public edifices, and even to retain the greater part of their inhabitants. But, in general, the unhappy people were stripped of Origin of their property, deprived of their dwellings, and comVenice, pelled to seek safety in distant flight. Thousands of them took refuge in those small islands which stud the upper extremity of the Adriatic sea; and there, by exercising the industry which had already begun to adorn and enrich the towns from whence they were expelled, they laid the foundations of the Venetian commonwealth.* Conduct of Elius, Etius, meanwhile, exerted all the influence which belonged to his commanding character to raise an army that might enable him to repeat, in the plains of Italy, the noble triumph which he had gained the former year in the neighbourhood of Châlons. He urged Valentinianus to call his people into the field, and solicited the Emperor of the East to send a powerful reinforcement from Pannonia and Illyricum; so that, by cutting off the retreat of the Barbarians through the passes of the Alps, they might complete the destruction of their main Body, and terminate for ever the career of Attila. But the son of Placidia was a stranger to the alarms and duties of war; and rather than expose his person to the danger and fatigue of protracted hostility, he would have consented to abandon the finest part of his Empire to the ravages of the Huns. That he might have the means of escaping into Gaul, whenever the advance of Attila should render his position insecure, he left the strong fortress of Ravenna, and removed his Court to Rome. In such circumstances all the efforts of Etius proved unavailing. At the head of the small body of troops who were attached to his interests, and who preferred death to the dishonour of their Country, he hovered round the camp of the Huns, attacked their outposts, and harassed their march. But as the mass of the Romans were now unacquainted with the exercise of arms, and had long ceased to feel those generous emotions which rendered their ancestors invincible, the liberator of Gaul, so far from being supported in his * Procop. de Bell. Vandal. lib. i. c. 4. Jornand, de Reb, Get. c. 42. From A. D. 410. to A. D. 455. No sooner had the Emperor arrived at the Capital, than it was suggested by his counsellors that an attempt ought to be made to deprecate the wrath of Attila, and to procure Peace. The King of the Huns had for several years claimed Honoria, the sister of Valentinianus, as his wife; and even after that Princess was married to another, he demanded to be put in possession Peace obof the dowry or territorial rights which were supposed tained by to belong to her as the grandaughter of Theodosius. the Romans. The Roman Senators, employed to negotiate the Treaty, The Princess informed him that his claims were now fully recognised Honoria. by the Imperial Government, and that if he would withdraw his army beyond the Alps, the wealth of Honoria should be put into his hands. The Barbarian Chief was gratified with this concession, as well as with the respect shown to his character in the selection of the embassy; for he beheld in his camp, as suppliants from the Emperor, Avienus and Trigetius, men of Consular dignity, and who had discharged the highest offices in the State, as also Leo, the Bishop of Rome, an Ecclesiastic of great celebrity. He granted the Peace, which was asked in a manner so flattering to his vanity, and accepted the treasure bestowed in the name of Honoria; but so far was he from relinquishing his imaginary right to her person that, if she were not delivered up to his ambassadors within a limited period, he threatened to renew the invasion of the Empire at the head of a more formidable army than had yet appeared under his banners.† . Attila. A. D. 453. But the final term of his conquests and of his life Death of was now nearly expired. Upon his return to the royal village beyond the Danube, he solemnized his marriage with Ildico, a beautiful maiden, whom he chose to add to the number of his wives, and was found dead in bed the morning after the festivity. The bursting of a blood-vessel deprived the Huns of their warlike monarch, and put an end to their power in Europe. The various nations which had assembled under his standard, and acknowledged his supremacy, immediately separated, and turned their arms against one another; while the sons of Attila, instead of striving to perpetuate the unity of their father's Empire, quarrelled about the succession, and partitioned his territories. The Gepida, the Ostrogoths, the Alani, the Suevi, and the Heruli, after losing the best of their warriors in a succession of battles, seized the Provinces on either side of the Danube, and spread out their colonies from Pannonia to the shores of the Euxine. The remainder of the Huns retired into Scythia, and laboured to preserve their name among a kindred people; but the fortune of war still proving unfavourable, they were compelled to give way to a more powerful horde from the North, and finally to resign all pretensions to an independent sovereignty.‡ A. D. 454. Three years before the death of Attila, the mother of ValentiniValentinianus paid the debt of nature, and left him to anus murthe intrigues of the eunuch Heraclius. This unworthy ders Ætius. Minister succeeded in stirring up in the weak mind of his master a deep feeling of jealousy towards Etius, the main protector of his Country. The reputation which he had acquired in the war with Attila, his great wealth, and the attachment of the army, did, no doubt, *Chron. Prosp. and Idat. Priscus, p. 56. Jornand. de Reb. Get. c. 42, From A. D. 410. to A. D. 455. Death of anus, A. D. * History. confer upon the Patrician a degree of power incompatible with the rank of a subject. But the victor of Châlons had on all occasions employed his influence for the welfare of the State and the security of the Throne, and had studiously rendered his ambition subservient to the honour of a Roman and to the duty of a Commander. Animated with the consciousness of innocence, or regardless of the danger with which he was threatened, he went to the Palace to remind the Emperor of a promise in favour of his son; and while he was urging his claim with some degree of vehemence, Valentinianus drew his sword and plunged it in the breast of the General, to whom he had been twice indebted for the preservation of his Country. To this horrible crime the son of Placidia soon added Valentini- another, which brought upon him the punishment of both. Having fraudulently enticed the wife of Petronius Maximus into the Palace, he accomplished by force that which he had not been able to gain by all the arts of seduction, and thereby entirely alienated from him the minds of all the noble families resident in Rome. Maximus did not allow his revenge to slumber; and finding fit agents among the friends of Etius, he stimulated them to an act which their affection for their late patron invested with the character of justice and gratitude. Seizing an opportunity afforded by the presence of Valentinianus at some Military Games in the Campus Martius, they rushed upon him with arms in their hands, and stabbed him to the heart. In this manner fell the last Emperor of the House of Theodosius, despised for his weakness, and abhorred for his crimes; one whose conduct in his latter years, and especially towards Etius and Maximus, fully justified the comparison made in his hearing by an honest courtier, who likened him to a man who cuts off his right hand with his left.† 455. Petronius Maximus throne. Petronius Maximus, whose domestic injury had ren dered vacant the Throne of the West, was immediately ascends the summoned by the shouts of the people to receive the Imperial dignity. His birth was illustrious, his fortune was ample, and he had already filled the highest offices which could be discharged by a subject. To the reputation which he had acquired by his able conduct in public life, he added the wise enjoyments of literature and elegant society at home; and, till the moment that he permitted himself to be arrayed in the Purple, his condition might be regarded as a rare instance of human felicity. To strengthen his Government, indeed, he procured the marriage of his son with the eldest daughter of the late Emperor; and with the same view, perhaps, he insisted on Eudoxia, the widow of Valentinianus, becoming his own wife. But the means which he thus employed to ensure a happy reign, and to transmit to his family a hereditary right to the Empire, proved the occasion of bringing his days to a close, and of involving his Country in misery and disgrace. The Empress, indignant at the violence which had been inflicted upon her feelings, and suspicious that Maximus had planned the murder of her former husband, resolved to be revenged on the usurper, although this solace to her injured affections should be purchased at the exinvites the pense of the Roman people. She invited Genseric to undertake the invasion of Italy, an object for which he Eudoxia Vandals. * Procop. de Bell. Vandal, lib. i. c. 4. Chron. Marcel. Idat. and Prosp. Sidon. Panegyr. Avit. + Procop. ubi suprà. From A. D. 410. to A. D. 455. No sooner had the King of the Vandals landed at the mouth of the Tiber than the fate of Maximus was decided. The soldiers joined with the populace in their detestation of a Prince who was only bold to avenge his private wrongs, and had taken no steps to secure the public safety. He was overwhelmed with a Death of shower of stones in the streets of Rome, and his body Maximus thrown into the river; the domestics of Eudoxia, and the adherents of the late Emperor, being among the most active of the assailants. Genseric advanced towards Rome, prepared to con- TheVandal tend for the prize which it contained with the army, advance to which had been formed during the active adminis- Rome. tration of the Patrician Etius. But the Capital of the world no longer trusted for her defence to the arms of her soldiers. The Barbarian auxiliaries, who had taken the place of her Legions, felt no interest in the protection of a city with which they were not connected by any recollections of ancestry or sentiments of honour. The Vandals, accordingly, met with no opposition as they approached the walls; but as they drew nearer, they saw issuing from the gates a procession of priests and anchorites, headed by the Bishop, coming forth to implore the clemency of the invader, to entreat that he would spare the helpless multitude within, and to save the buildings from fire. The voice of Leo again soothed a conqueror; and Genseric, like Attila, consented to reverence the seat of Religion, reserving to himself, however, the infliction of such punishment on the luxurious and the wanton as the justice of Heaven might direct him to administer.† The Vandals and Moors, not feeling themselves bound Sack it, a by the scruples of their leader, pillaged the city, and carry off t carried off to their ships whatever wealth had been left plunder to Carthage. by Alaric, or had been accumulated during an interval of nearly fifty years. The precious ornaments of the Capitol were torn down and removed, and the spoils which Titus brought from the Temple of Jerusalem, the golden table, and the candlestick of seven branches composed of the same material, were hurried on board and conveyed to Carthage. The rich furniture of the Palace, the massy plate, and the rare jewels which decorated the ensigns of office, were seized by the rude hands of the soldiers, and classed with the common booty. Nor were the persons of the highest rank in the State protected from robbery and violence. Even Eudoxia herself, who had expected to meet a friend in Genseric, was deprived of her most costly ornaments, and, with her two daughters, compelled to join the train of the conqueror, and to accompany him to Africa. Thousands of meaner captives were, in like manner, forced into domestic servitude, or sold for slaves in the streets of Carthage; many of whom, from change of climate and the hardships of the voyage, sank under the pressure of disease, and thus surrendered in a foreign land the life which had been deceitfully spared in their own Country. + * Sidon. Apoll. lib. i. Ep. xiii. Sidon, in Panegyr. Avit. v. 441. Procop. de Bell. Vandal. lib. i. c. 4. Vict. + Evag. lib. ii. c. 7. Chron. Idat. Prosp. Marcel. sub, ann. Viten. lib. i. c. 8. Jornand. de Reb. Get. c. 45. Procop. ubi suprà. HISTORY. CHAPTER XLVIII. FROM THE SACK OF ROME BY THE VANDALS TO THE EXTINCTION OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. FROM A. D. 455. TO A. D. 476. History. From A. D. 455. to A. D. cians, THE inactivity of the Emperor of the East during these misfortunes of Rome, cannot be regarded without surprise. Few of the Sovereigns who filled that throne have left to posterity a more unblemished reputation, or appear to have been more attentive than Marcianus to the happiness of their subjects; and it is difficult to 476. assign a motive for his seeming indifference to the Inactivity calamities of the Sister Empire. In the deficiency of of Mar- authentic materials for the History of his reign, we have been presented with a legend, which, nevertheless, when stripped of its marvellous accompaniments, may not be without a foundation in truth. It is said that Marcianus, while acting as Secretary of the Patrician Aspar during the African war, was taken prisoner by Genseric. The captive was brought into the Palace Court preparatory to an inspection by the Barbarian King, and there, while awaiting his arrival, Marcianus, overpowered by fatigue, fell asleep upon the ground. In this position, and exposed to the burning rays of a Tropical sun, the prisoner was not without assistance; an eagle hovered over him while he slept, and expanded his broad wings as a shade. Genseric, who accidentally viewed this occurrence from his apartment, interpreted it as a prodigy; and concluding that his captive was destined to be the future possessor of the Imperial dignity, granted him liberty, upon a stipulation that he would never make war upon the Vandals.* The Emperor remembered, and adhered to his promise. Death of A. D. The decease of the Empress Pulcheria occurred four Pacheria. years before that of her nominal husband. She died in the odour of virginity, and her treasures having been 453. bequeathed to charitable uses, she was a successful claimant of the honour of canonization. The Festival of St. Pulcheria is still observed by the modern Greeks; and similar honours are partaken by her consort. If, And of Mar- during the six years of his reign, he did not affect the glory of a warrior, he successfully established himself in the affections of his subjects, by innocence and simplicity of manners, by extraordinary piety, and by zeal for Religion. A. D. 457. Accession of Leo the Great. Aspar has not escaped suspicion of compassing the death of his Sovereign; nevertheless, since from Religious scruples he refused to renounce his profession of Arianism, the sole barrier between himself and the *Evagrius, p. 284. His Roman From A. D. 455. to A. D. 476. Imperial diadem, it is probable that he has been unjustly accused. But the power which he was too Empire. conscientious or too prudent to accept openly, in his own person, he resolved to wield through that of another. Hereditary command during three generations had placed the armies of the East at his disposal, and the wealth which he had long painfully accumulated, and now lavishly distributed, secured to him the willing suffrages of the Capital, which, if it had shown reluctance, he was equally prepared to overawe. choice fell upon a private individual, of obscure origin, Leo, by birth a Thracian, who hitherto had attained no higher offices than those of Military Tribune and Chief Steward of Aspar's household. The new Emperor was elected by the unanimous voice of the Senate, and his inauguration was attended with an unusual solemnity. Anastatius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, placed the crown upon his brows, and established a precedent which, in after-times, has been for the most part adopted throughout all Christian Monarchies. The foreign policy of Leo I. is necessarily intermingled with the particulars which are presently to be described of the occurrences in the West. We shall in this place treat only of his more immediate personal History. In his domestic administration he was gentle and munificent, a patron of Learning and the Arts, and studiously pacific. The chief troubles of his reign were occasioned by those hands which had raised him to the throne. Ariadne, the eldest of his two daughters, was bestowed Presumpin marriage upon Andaburius, the son of Aspar; but tion of the haughty Patrician, in his eagerness to elevate his Aspar. family, forgot those maxims of prudence which had tempered his own ambition when the sceptre was within his grasp. He demanded the title of Cæsar for his son, and having urged upon his Prince the heavy debt of obligation which was his due, and the powerful means which he possessed of enforcing his demands, he crowned his importunities by an act of gross personal affront. Laying hold of the Imperial robe, he shook it with indignation, and added, "It is not fit that he who wears the Purple should stoop to a falsehood."* Emperor replied with dignity and moderation, "Neither is it fit that he should surrender his judgment, like a slave, to the will of a subject." In spite of this remark 263 *Cedrenus, p. 345. The From A. D. 455. to A. D. 476. His insur. rection History. able interview, it is asserted that Andaburius was declared Cæsar; but any reconciliation between the offended Prince and his presumptuous General thenceforward must have been confined to outward profession. The populace of Constantinople loudly expressed their discontent at the appointment; and in their hatred of Arianism, they forgot both the splendour of Aspar's military reputation, and the frequency of his largesses. Leo was not backward in profiting by these demonstrations of popular feeling, and he secretly encouraged the dislike which seemed to promise him a release from the insufferable burden of a master. We are ill acquainted with the precise nature of the occurrences which at length placed Aspar in open rebellion. It seems as if a protracted struggle ensued, and that the streets of Constantinople more than once were stained with the blood of the contending parties. But in the end the fortune of the Emperor prevailed, and Aspar And death, and his son fell by the hands of the Eunuchs of the Palace. The widow of Andaburius became the bride of an Isaurian, the fortunate Trascalisseus, who exchanged that barbarous sound for the Grecian appellation of Zeno,* under which he afterwards ascended the Throne of his father-in-law. Accession of Leo II. A. D. 474. And of Avitus is A. D. 455. The reign of Leo continued seventeen years, and, though undistinguished by brilliant events, Historians have concurred in bestowing upon him a title which has rarely been earned at so cheap a rate-it may be added, and the recollection is a melancholy one, at so small a sacrifice of human happiness. It is perhaps chiefly to distinguish him from the many other and more weak Sovereigns who have borne the same name, that he is known as the Great. Before his death he associated with himself in the Empire, the infant son of Zeno and his daughter Ariadne, a child scarcely six years of age. A single year after the decease of his grandfather terminated the rule of this unhappy boy. The title of Cæsar had already been bestowed upon Zeno, and the premature death of his son opened the way to a succession, contrary to the order of Nature, and creating a very natural suspicion of the means by which it had been secured. The turbulent scenes which followed will find a more convenient place in another part of our narrative. We now return to the transactions of the Western Empire. The next Emperor owed his elevation to the partiality raised to the of the Gauls, and to the power of Theodoric, the King throne by of the Visigoths. Maximus, to relieve his Italian GoTheodoric, the Visigoth. vernment from the care of the Provinces beyond the Alps, had nominated Avitus, a native of that Country, to the command of the army, as well as to the administration of Civil affairs, in all the districts South of the Rhone and the Loire. The new Master-General soon discovered that the Visigoths exercised, in the Gallic Assembly, a degree of influence which entirely superseded the authority of the Emperor, and, consequently, that it was more for his interest to stand well with the Court of Thoulouse than with the Senate of Rome. Theodoric was at this time the Sovereign of the Goths, having put to death his elder brother, the brave Torismond, who contributed so much to the success of his countrymen at the battle of Châlons. When the news reached Gaul that Maximus had fallen the victim of popular fury, the Gothic Prince urged Avitus to assume the Purple; promising not only to assist him with his * Gibbon, c. 39. Roman From A. D. 455. to A. D. 476. A. D. 456. arms in subduing the reluctance of the Romans, but also to promote his interests in Gaul and Spain, by Empire waging war with the Suevi and the other Barbarous nations within the Pyrenees, who still refused to acknowledge the supremacy of the Empire. The General hesitated until the consent of Marcian could be obtained; after which he allowed himself to be announced as the successor of Maximus, and, in due time, crossed the Alps to receive the congratulations of his people.** The short reign of this monarch derived its sole Victories Theodorid glory from the triumphs of Theodoric over Rechiarius, in Spain. the King of the Suevi. Several sanguinary conflicts took place between these rivals, which ended in the entire defeat and death of the latter; but the success which attended the ally of the Romans did not materially strengthen their interests on either side of the Pyrenees, for the Sovereign of the Visigoths looked rather to the extension of his own dominions than to the perpetuity of the Imperial Government. Avitus, on the other hand, possessed neither ambition nor activity sufficient to excite his vigilance or carry him into the field in person. He plunged, with an avidity unbecoming his age, into the luxuries and even the dissipation of the Capital, and thereby soon dissolved the slight bonds which had united him with the affections of his people. The feelings of the Senate, who had not been consulted in the elevation of the Master-General of Gaul, were readily penetrated by Count Ricimer, the grandson of Wallia, King of the Visigoths; who, after having displayed his valour against a fleet of Vandals, which threatened the Court of Italy, had just returned to Rome amidst the shouts of the populace. He was dissatisfied with the feeble administration of a Prince who, on that side of the Alps, could not be viewed but as an usurper; for which reason he intimated to Avitus that it were wise for him to retire from the toils of Government, and enter once more upon the enjoyment of a private life. The Emperor was easily induced to exchange his Throne for the Chair of a Bishop in the Church of Placentia · but soon afterwards, when attempting to escape into Death of Gaul, he was overtaken either by disease or by the hand Avitus. of an assassin, and died before he could descend from A. D. the mountains into his native Province of Auvergne.† 456. A. D. 457. Ricimer, whose Barbarian origin might still have Elevation been viewed as an obstacle to the highest preferment, Majorianu consulted the interests of his adopted Country, by raising to the Throne a true patriot and a distinguished soldier. Majorianus had been bred in the school of Etius, to whom he was sincerely attached by the deepest sentiments of gratitude and respect, and to whose military reputation he had greatly contributed by his steady valour and professional knowledge. He had been recently appointed to the high office of Master-General of the army, and was so much esteemed by all classes of the Romans, that the grandson of Wallia resolved, since he himself durst not aspire to the sovereign power, to gratify the wishes of the Senate and People by supporting his election. The short reign of Majorianus is a bright spot amid the general gloom which dimmed the evening of the |