The Dark Ages Collection. David Hume
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invaded the province of Upper Belgica (A.D. 435). Against the Burgundians he does not appear to have sent a Roman army; he asked his friends the Huns to chastise them. The Huns knew how to strike. It is said that 20,000 Burgundians were slain, and King Gundahar was one of those who fell (A.D. 436). Thus came to an end the first Burgundian kingdom in Gaul, with its royal residence at Worms. It was the background of the heroic legends which passed into the German epic — the Nibelungenlied. The Burgundians were not exterminated, and a few years later the Roman government assigned territory to the remnant of the nation in Sapaudia (Savoy), south of Lake Geneva (A.D. 443).43
Narbonne was besieged by Theoderic in A.D. 436, but was relieved by Litorius,44 who was probably the Master of Soldiers in Gaul. Three years later the same commander drove the Goths back to the walls of their capital Toulouse, and it is interesting to find him gratifying his Hun soldiers by the performance of pagan rites and the consultation of auspices. These ceremonies did not help him. He was defeated and taken prisoner in a battle outside the city.45 Avitus, the Praetorian Prefect of Gaul, who had great influence with Theoderic, then brought about the conclusion of peace. In these years there were also troubles in the provinces north of the Loire,46 where the Armoricans rebelled, and Aetius or his lieutenant Litorius was compelled to reimpose upon them the “liberty” of Imperial rule.
In A.D. 437 Aetius was consul for the second time, and in that year Valentinian went to Constantinople to wed his affianced bride, Licinia Eudoxia. Now assuredly, if not before, the regency was at an end, and henceforward Aetius had to do in all high affairs not with the Empress who distrusted and disliked him but with an inexperienced youth. Valentinian was weak and worthless. He had been spoiled by his mother, and grown up to be a man of pleasure who took no serious interest in his Imperial duties. He associated, we are told, with astrologers and sorcerers, and was constantly engaged in amours with other men’s wives, though his own wife was exceptionally beautiful.47 He had some skill in riding and in archery and was a good runner, if we may believe Flavius Vegetius Renatus, who dedicated to him a treatise on the art of war.48 From the end of the regency to his own death, Aetius was master of the Empire in the west, and it must be imputed to his policy and arms that Imperial rule did not break down in all the provinces by the middle of the fifth century.
Of his work during these critical years we have no history. We know little more than what we can infer from some bald notices in chronicles written by men who selected their facts without much discrimination. If we possessed the works of the court poet of the time we might know more, for even from the few fragments which have survived we learn facts unrecorded elsewhere. The Spaniard, Flavius Merobaudes, did for Valentinian and Aetius what Claudian had done for Honorius and Stilicho, though with vastly inferior talent. Like Claudian, he enjoyed the honour having a bronze statue erected to him at Rome, in the Forum of Trajan.49 His name was known and appreciated at the court of Constantinople, for Theodosius conferred upon him the rank of patrician.50
He celebrated the three consulships of Aetius,51 and we have part of a poem which he wrote for the second birthday of the general’s younger son Gaudentius.52 We may be as certain as of anything that has not been explicitly recorded, that he wrote an ode for the nuptials of Valentinian and Eudoxia, and it is little less probable that he celebrated the birth of their elder child Eudocia, who was born in A.D. 438. But of all the poems he composed for the court only two have partly been preserved, both composed soon after the birth of the Emperor’s younger daughter Placidia.53 One of these is a description of mosaic pictures in a room in the Palace of Ravenna, representing scenes from the Emperor’s life. He and Eudoxia shone in the centre of the ceiling like bright stars, and all around were scenes in which he appeared with his mother, his sister, his children, and his cousin Theodosius.54
Like another more famous man of letters, his younger contemporary Sidonius, Merobaudes was called upon to fill a high office and to assist Aetius in the work of maintaining order in the provinces. We are told that he was appointed Master of Both Services and went to his native province of Baetica to suppress a rebellion of turbulent peasants (bacaudae), that he successfully accomplished this task but was recalled to Rome through the machination of his enemies (A.D. 443). His immediate predecessor in the command had been his father-in-law, Asturius.55
It must not be thought that Asturius and Merobaudes, in bearing the title “Master of Both Services,” had succeeded to the post of Aetius and were supreme commanders of the army. Aetius had not resigned the supreme command; he was still Master of Both Services. The command which Asturius and Merobaudes held, and which Sigisvult had held two years before,56 was simply that of the magister equitum praesentalis under a new name. Under Stilicho, Constantius, and Felix the magister equitum had been subordinate to the magister utriusque militiae, and this arrangement undoubtedly continued still, but some time before A.D. 440 he received the same title as his superior, doubtless because it was found convenient to place legions as well as cavalry under his command. The superior Master of Both Services, the Emperor’s principal statesman and director of affairs, is from this time forward generally designated as “the Patrician” — the Emperor’s Patrician, the Patrician in a superlative sense.57
The position of Aetius in these years as the supreme minister was confirmed by the betrothal of his son to the Emperor’s daughter Placidia,58 an arrangement which can hardly have been welcome to Galla Placidia, the Augusta. With Valentinian himself he can hardly have been on intimate terms. The fact that he had supported the tyrant John was probably never forgiven. And it cannot have been agreeable to the young Emperor that it was found necessary to curtail his income and rob his privy purse in order to help the State in its financial straits.59 Little revenue could come from Africa, suffering from the ravages of the Vandals, and in A.D. 439, as we shall see, the richest provinces of that country passed into the hands of the barbarians.
The income derived from Gaul must have been very considerably reduced, and we are not surprised to find the government openly acknowledging in A.D. 444 that “the strength of our treasury is unable to meet the necessary expenses.” In that year two new taxes were imposed, one on the senatorial class, and one on sales, expressly for the purpose of maintaining the army. New recruits were urgently wanted, and there was not enough money in the treasury to feed and clothe the existing regiments. Senators of illustrious rank were required to furnish the money for maintaining three soldiers, senators of the second class one, senators of the third one-third; that meant 90, 30, and 10 solidi respectively, as the annual cost of a soldier was estimated at 30.60 A duty of 1/24th was imposed on sales — a siliqua in a solidus — of which the seller and the buyer each paid half.61 The government would have done better if it had forced the rich senators of Italy to contribute substantial sums, as they could well have afforded to do, to the needs of the State.62
§ 4. Settlement of the Vandals in Africa (A.D. 435-442)
The treaty of A.D. 435 was soon violated by Gaiseric. He did not intend to stop short of the complete conquest of Roman Africa. In less than five years Carthage was taken (October 19, A.D. 439).63 If there was any news that could shock or terrify men who remembered that twenty years before Rome herself had been in the hands of the Goths, it was the news that an enemy was in possession of the city which in long past ages had been her most formidable rival. Italy trembled, for with a foe master of Carthage she felt that her own shores and cities were not safe. And, in fact, not many months passed before it was known that Gaiseric had a large fleet prepared to sail, but its destination was unknown.64 Rome and Naples were put into a state of defence;65 Sigisvult, Master of Soldiers, took steps to guard the coasts; Aetius and his army were summoned from Gaul; and the Emperor Theodosius prepared to send help.66 There was indeed some reason for alarm at Constantinople. The Vandal pirates could afflict the eastern as well as the western coasts of the Mediterranean; the security of commerce was threatened. It was even thought advisable to fortify the shore and harbours of Constantinople.
Gaiseric, aware that Italy was prepared, directed his attack upon Sicily, where he laid siege to Panormus.67