Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/418

 398 THE DECLINE AND FALL Admlnistra tion of hia mother Pla- cidia. AD. 425-450 Her two generali, AetiOB and Boniface [A.D. 412] [A.D. 422] municate them, subscribed with his own hand, for the approba- tion of his independent eollea^ue." V'alentinian, when he received tlie title of Augustus, was no more thaii six years of age ; and his long minority was intrusted to the guardian care of a mother, who might assert a female claim to the succession of the Western Empire. Placidia envied, but she could not equal, the reputation and virtues of the wife and sister of Theodosius : the elegant genius of Eudocia, the wise and successful policy of Pulcheria. The mother of Valentinian was jealous of the power, which she was incapable of exercising;^ she reigned twenty-five years, in the name of her son ; and the character of that unworthy emperor gradually countenanced the suspicion that Placidia had enervated his youth by a dissolute education and studiously diverted his attention from every manly and honourable pursuit. Amidst the decay of military spirit, her armier were commanded by two generals, Aetius '^ and Boniface,^*' who may be deservedly named as the last of the Romans. Their union might have supported a sinking empire ; their discord was the fatal and immediate cause of the loss of Africa. The invasion and defeat of Attila has immortalized the fame of Aetius ; and, though time has thrown a shade over the exploits of his rival, the defence of Mai'seilles and the deliverance of Africa ^^ attest ■^ See the first Navel of Theodosius, by which he ratifies and communicates (A.D. 438) the Theodosian Code. About forty years before that time, the unity of legislation had been proved by an exception. The Jews, who were numerous in the cities of Apulia and Calabria, produced a law of the East to justify their ex- emption from municipal offices (Cod. Theod. 1. xvi. tit. viii. leg. 13) ; and the Western emperor was obliged to invalidate, by a special edict, the law, quam constat meis partibus esse damnosam. Cod. Theod. 1. xi. [leg. xii.], tit. i. leg. 153. Placidia and Amalasuntha. He arraigns the weakness of the mother of Valen- tinian, and praises the virtues of his royal mistress. On this occasion flattery seems to have spoken the language of truth. 9 Philostorgius, 1. xii. c. 12, and Godefroy's Dissertat. p. 493, &c. ; and Renatus Frigeridus, apud Gregor. Turon. 1. ii. c. 8, in torn. ii. p. 163. The father of Aetius was Gaudentius, an illustrious citizen of the province of Scythia, and master-general of the cavalrv ; his mother was a rich and noble Italian. From his earliest youth, Aetius, as a soldier and a hostage, had conversed with the Barbarians. I*' For the character of Boniface, see Olympiodorus, apud Phot. p. 196 [F. H.G. iv. fr. 42] ; and St. Augustin, apud Tillemont, M6moires Ecclds. tom. xiii. p. 712-715, 886. The bishop of Hippo at length deplored the fall of his friend, who, after a solemn vow of chastity, had married a second wife of the Arian sect, and who was suspected of keeping several concubines in his house. 1' [From the invasions of Moorish tribes ; he went to Africa from Spain in 422 A.D., without a regular commission.]
 * Cassiodorius (Varior. 1. xi. epist. i. p. 238) has compared the regencies of