Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/447

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 423 very scanty materials, to relate the particulars of this CHAP, war; but we are not disposed to believe that the prin- ^^^^' cipal leaders ^lianus and Amandus were christians % or to insinuate, that the rebellion, as it happened in the time of Luther, was occasioned by the abuse of those benevolent principles of Christianity, which in- culcate the natural freedom of mankind. Maximian had no sooner recovered Gaul from the A. D. 287. hands of the peasants, than he lost Britain by the carausius usurpation of Carausius. Ever since the rash but in Britain, successful enterprise of the Franks under the reign of Probus, their daring countrymen had constructed squad- rons of light brigantines, in which they incessantly ravaged the provinces adjacent to the ocean ^ To repel their desultory incursions, it was found necessary to create a naval power; and the judicious measure was prosecuted with prudence and vigour. Gessoria- cum, or Boulogne, in the straits of the British chan- nel, was chosen by the emperor for the station of the Roman fleet; and the command of it was intrusted to Carausius, a Menapian of the meanest origin'', but who had long signalized his skill as a pilot, and his valour as a soldier. The integrity of the new admiral corresponded not with his abilities. When the Ger- man pirates sailed from their own harbours, he con- nived at their passage, but he diligently intercepted their return, and appropriated to his own use an ample share of the spoil which they had acquired. The wealth of Carausius was, on this occasion, very justly considered as an evidence of his guilt; and Maximian which is probably of the seventh century. See Duchesne, Scripiores Rer. Francicar. torn. i. p. 662. the name of Saxons. But Eutropius lived in the ensuing century, and seems to use the language of his own times. '' The three expressions of Eutropius, Aurelius Victor, and Eumenius, " vilissirae natus," " Bataviae alumnus," and " Menapiae civis," give us a very doubtful account of the birth of Carausius. Dr. Stukely, however, (Hist, of Carausius, p. 62.) chooses to make him a native of St. David's, and a prince of the blood royal of Britain. T4ie former idea he had found in Richard of Cirencester, p. 44,
 * The fact rests indeed on very slight authority, a life of St. Babolinus,
 * Aurelius Victor calls them Germans. Eutropius (ix. 21.) gives them