Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/293

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. ;275 strange expedient was so commonly practised, as to CHAP. deserve the severe animadversion of the laws^, and a [_ pecuUar name in the Latin language '. The introduction of barbarians into the Roman Increase of, -,. 1 barbarian armies became every day more universal, more neces- auxiliaries, sary, and more fatal. The most daring of the Scy- thians, of the Goths, and of the Germans, who de- lighted in war, and who found it more profitable to defend than to ravage the provinces, were enrolled, not only in the auxiliaries of their respective nations, but in the legions themselves, and among the most dis- tinguished of the palatine troops. As they freely mingled with the subjects of the empire, they gradually learned to despise their manners, and to imitate their arts. They abjured the implicit reverence which the pride of Rome had exacted from their ignorance, while they acquired the knowledge and possession of those advantages by which alone she supported her declining greatness. 'I'he barbarian soldiers who displayed any military talents, were advj^nced, without exception, to the most important commands; and the names of the tribunes, of the counts and dukes, and of the generals themselves, betray a foreign origin, which they no lon- ger condescended to disguise. They were often in- trusted with the conduct of a war against their country- men ; and though most of them preferred the ties of allegiance to those of blood, they did not always avoid the guilt, or at least the suspicion, of holding a treason- two sons, were sold at public auction by the order of Augustus. Sueton. in August, c. 27. The moderation of that artful usurper proves, that this ex- ample of severity was justified by the spirit of the times. Ammianus makes a distinction between the effeminate Italians and the hardy Gauls: 1. xv. c. 12. Yet only fifteen years afterwards, Valentinian, in a law addressed to the prefect of Gaul, is obliged to enact that these cowardly deserters shall be burnt alive. Cod. Theod. 1. vii. tit. xiii. leg. 5. Their numbers iu II- lyricum were so considerable, that the province complained of a scarcity of recruits. Id. leg. 10. " They were called Murci. Murcidus is found in Plautus and Festus, to denote a lazy and cowardly person, who, according to Arnobius and Au- gustine, was under the immediate protection of the goddess Murcia. From this particular instance of cowardice, murcare is used as synonymous to m«- tilare, by the writers of the middle Latinity. See Lindenbrogius, and Va- lesius ad Ammian. Marcellin. 1. xv. c. 12.
 * The person and property of a Roman knight, who had mutilated his