Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/514

 492 APPENDIX Fm-trenn : they were possibly the people previously called Boresti, but thct is by no means certain." (Rhj^s, ib. p. 93.) The Atecotti seem to have occupied part of the land between the walls of Hadrian and Antoninus, where the Jlaeatae dwelled (see Mr. Haverfield's map of Roman Britain, in Poole's Historical Atlas of Modern Europe). Prof. Rhf s proposes to identify them -mth the earlier Geniinians {Vtvowia nolpa of Pausanias, 8, 43) and the later Plots of Galloway (ib. p. 89, 90). 3. THE DEATH OF COUNT THEODOSITJS— (P. 50) The cause of the sudden execution of Theodosius at Carthage in 396 a.d. is obscure. We can only suppose that he had powerful enemies — friends of the governor Romanus. H. Richter (das westromische Reich, p. 401) imputes the responsibility to Merobaudes. But Merobaudes was the minister of Gratian in Gaul, and not of Justina and Valeutinian in Mediolanum (as Mr. Hodgkin observes). Mr. Hodgldn conjectures that the blow came not from ISIediolanum but from Antioch. The name of Theodosius began with the four fatal letters e o 5, "and it seems therefore allowable to suppose that the incantation scene at Antioch four years previously — the laurel tripod, the person in linen mantle and wth linen socks, who shook the magic cauldron and made the ring dance up and down among the twenty-fom- letters of the al]jhabtt — were links in the chain of causation which led the blameless veteran to his doom " (Italy and her Invaders, i, p. 292). And certainly we can well imagine that the superstitious Valens watched with apprehension the career of every eminent officer whose name began with those four letters, and observing the distinguished services of the Count of Africa used influence at Jlilan to procure liis fall. 4. MELLOBAUDES— (P. 50, 67) Gibbon has confused Mellobaudes with the more eminent Merobaudes in two places (p. 50 and 67). Mellobaudes (or IMallobaudes : the IMss. of Ammian vary) was a Frank Idng and held tlie post of comes domesticorum under Gratian. See Ammian, 30, '6, 7, and 31, 10, 6. This jNIeUobaudes must also be distinguished from another less important Mellobaudes (or MaUobaudes), a Frank who was tribunus armaturarum under Constantius ; see Ammian, 14, 11, 21, and 15, 5, 6. These namesakes are con- founded in the index of Gardthausen's Ammianus. See Richter, Das westro- mische Reich, p. 283. jMerobaudes deserves prominence as the first of a series of men of barbarian origin who rose to power in the Imperial service ; Merobaudes, Arbogast, Stilicho, Aetius, Ricimer. He married into the family of Valentinian (Victor. Epit. 45), and was consul in a.d. 377. 5. LIST OF KINGS OF PERSIA, FROM SAPOR II. TO KOBAD— (P. 55) Sapor (Shapur) ii. dies a.d. ."79. Ardashir ii. succeeds a.d. 379, Aug. 19. Sapor iii. ,, a.d. 383, Aug. 18. Bahram iv. ., .t>. 388, Aug. 16. Yezdegerdi. ,, a.d. 399, Aug. 14. Bahram v. „ a.d. 420, Aug. 8. Yezdegerd ii. ,, a.d. 438, Aug. 4. Hormizd iii. ,, a.d. 457, July 30. Peroz came to the throne in 459, but counted from the first year of Hormizd, whom he deposed. Balash succeeds a.d. 484, July 23. Kobad (Kavadh) succeeds a.d. 488, July 22 ; died Sept. 13, a.d. 531. The dates given are those of the beginning of the Persian year in which the king succeeded and from which he counted, not the actual days of accession ; and are taken from Noldeke, Excurs i. to his Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sassaniden. Thus Bahram v. did not actually possess the throne tiU 421 (spring).