Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/56

 36 THE DECLINE AND FALL arts ; and his numerous levies of Roman and Barbarian youth were severely trained in all the exercises of war. The progress of the work, which was sometimes opposed by modest rej)resenta- tions, and sometimes by hostile attempts, secured the tranquillity of Ciaul during the nine subsequent years of the administration of V^alentinian.^^ The Bur That prudent emperor, who diligently practised the wise A^.in' maxims of Diocletian, was studious to foment and excite the ^ intestine divisions of the tribes of Germany. About the middle of the fourth century, the countries, perhaps of Lusace and Thuringia, on either side of the Elbe were occupied by the vague dominion of the Burgundians ; a warlike and numerous people of the Vandal race,'^-^ whose obscure name insensibly swelled into a powerful kingdom, and has finally settled on a flourishing province. The most remarkable circumstance in the ancient manners of the Burgundians appears to have been the difference of their civil and ecclesiastical constitution. The appellation of Hendifios was given to the king or general, and the title of Sinistus to the high priest, of the nation. The person of the priest was sacred, and his dignity perpetual ; but the temporal government was held by a very precarious tenure. If the events of war accused the courage or conduct of the king, he was immediately deposed ; and the injustice of his subjects made him responsible for the fertility of the earth and the regularity of the seasons, which seemed to fall more properly within the sacerdotal department.' "^"^ The disputed possession of some salt-pits ^'^^ engaged the Alemanni and the Burgundians in frequent contests : the latter were easily tempted by the secret solicitations and liberal offers of the emperor ; and their fabulous descent from the Roman soldiers who had formerly been left to garrison the fortresses of Drusus was admitted with 98Amniian. xxviii. 2. Zosimus, 1. iv. p. 214 [c. 16]. The younger Victor mentions the mechanical genius of Valentinian, nova arma meditari ; fingere terra seu lirao simulacra [Epit. 45]. 99 Bellicosos et pubis immensae viribus affluentes ; et ideo metuendos finitimis universis. Ammian. xxviii. 5. [Pliny represented them as a subdivision of the Vandalic branch. They were closely allied to the Goths and Vandals.] ICO I am always apt to suspect historians and travellers of improving extraordinary facts into general laws. Ammianus ascribes a similar custom to Egypt : and the Chinese have imputed it to the Tatsin, or Roman empire (de Guignes, Hist, des Huns, tom. ii. part i. p. 79). i"! Salinarum finiumque causd Alemannis saepe jurgabant. Ammian. xxviii. 5. Possibly they disputed the possession of the Sa/a, a river which produced salt, and which had been the object of ancient contention. Tacit. Annal. xiii. 57, and I Lipsius ad loc