Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/129

 OF THE EOMAN EMPIEE 109 While Gratian deserved and enjoyed the applause of his sub- vaiens jects, the emperor Vaiens, who, at length, had removed hisSgttorthe court and army from Antioch, was received by the people ofsm'Sia/s?^ Constantinople as the author of the public calamity. Before he ^""^ " had reposed himself ten days in the capital, he was urged, bv the licentious clamours of the Hippodrome, to march against the Barbarians whom he had invited into his dominions : and the citizens, who are always brave at a distance from any real danger, declared, with confidence, that, if they were supplied with arms, they alone would undertake to deliver the province from the ravages of an insulting foe.^'^ The vain reproaches of an ignorant multitude hastened the downfall of the Roman empire ; they provoked the desperate rashness of Vaiens, who did not find, either in his reputation or in his mind, any motives to support with firmness the public contempt. He was soon persuaded, by the successful achievements of his lieutenants, to despise the power of the Goths, who, by the diligence of Friti- gem, were now collected in the neighbourhood of Hadrianople. The march of the Taifalae had been intercepted by the valiant Frigerid ; the king of those licentious Barbarians was slain in [a.d. stt] battle ; and the suppliant captives were sent into distant exile to cultivate the lands of Italy which were assigned for their settlement in the vacant territories of Modena and Parma. ^i The exploits of Sebastian,^^ ^Jiq -^^^g recently engaged in the service of Vaiens and promoted to the rank of master-general of the infantry, were still more honourable to himself and useful to the republic. He obtained the permission of selecting three hundred soldiers from each of the legions ; and this separate detachment soon acquired the spirit of discipline and the exercise of arms, which were almost forgotten under the reign of Vaiens. By the vigour and conduct of Sebastian, a large body of the 90 Moratus paucissimos dies, seditione popularium levium pulsus. Ammian. xxxi. II. Socrates (1. iv. c. 38) supplies the dates and some circumstances. [And cp. Eunapius, p. 46, ed. Miiller.] siVivosque omnes circa Mutinam, Regiumque, et Parmam, Italica oppida, rura cultures exterminavit. Ammianus, xxxi. 9. Those cities and districts, about ten years after the colony of the Taifalae [Taifali], appear in a very desolate state. See Muratori, Dissertazioni sopra le Antichiti Italiana, torn. i. Dissertat. xxi. p. 354._ [Frigeridus fortified the pass of Succi (between Sofia and Philippopolis), but his incompetent successor Maurus sustained a defeat there, Amm. xx. 4, 18, Hodgkin, i. 266 ; see below, p. 115.] 82 Ammian. xxxi. 11. Zosimus, 1. iv. p. 228-230 [23]. The latter expatiates on the desultory exploits of Sebastian, and dispatches, in a few lines, the important battle of Hadrianople. According to the ecclesiastical critics, who hate Sebastian, the praise of Zosimus is disgrace (Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs, torn. v. p. 121). His prejudice and ignorance undoubtedly render him a very questionable judge of merit.