Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/450

 430 THE DECLINE AND FALL and the Eastern em- pire. A.D. the obscurity of numerous and contradictor)' laws ; the tedious and expensive forms of judicial proceedings ; the partial ad- ministration of justice ; and the universal corruption, which in- creased the influence of the rich, and aggravated the misfor tunes of the poor. A sentiment of patriotic sympathy was at length revived in the breast of the fortunate exile ; and he lamented, with a flood of tears, the guilt or weakness of those magistrates who had perverted tlie wisest and most salutary institutions. *^2 Treaty of The timid, or selfish, policy of the Western Romans had tweenAttiia abandoned the Eastern empire to the Huns.^^ The loss of armies, and the want of discipline or virtue, were not supplied by the personal character of the monarch. Theodosius might still afl^ect the style, as well as the title, of Invincible Augiisiiis ; but he was reduced to solicit the clemency of Attila, who im- periously dictated these harsh and humiliating conditions of peace. I. The emperor of the P^ast resigned, by an express or tacit convention, an extensive and important territory', which stretched along the southern banks of the Danube, from Singidunum, or Belgrade, as far as Novae, in the diocese of Thrace. The breadth was defined by the vague computation of fifteen days' journey ; but, from the proposal of Attila to remove the situation of the national market, it soon appeared that he comprehended the ruined city of Naissus within the limits of his dominions. II. The king of the Huns required and obtained, that his tribute or subsidy should be augmented from seven hundred pounds of gold to the annual sum of two thousand one hundred ; and he stipulated the immediate pay- ment of six thousand pounds of gold to defray the expenses, or to expiate the guilt, of the war. One might imagine that such a demand, which scarcely equalled the measure of private wealth, would have been readily discharged by the opulent empire of the East ; and the public distress affords a remarkable proof of the impoverished, or at least of the disorderly, state of the finances. A large proportion of the taxes, extorted from the people, was detained and intercepted in their passage, through the foulest channels, to the treasuiy of Constantinople. The revenue was dissipated by Theodosius and his favourites in wasteful and profuse luxury ; which was disguised by the names 33 See the whole conversation in Priscus, p. 59-62 [p. 86-3"^]. Occidentalibus ferrentur auxilia. [Chron. Gall. .■. D. 452, ed. Momnisen, Chron. Min. i. p. 662, ad ann. 447.] Prosper-Tiro [see App. i] composed his Chronicle in the West, and his observation implies a censure. [Slatova] [Nltzeh] [£270,000]
 * Nova iterum Orienti assurgit [/^^. consurgit J ruina . . . quum nulla ab