Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/63

 OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE 43 Six years after the death of Constantine, the destructive Their invaBion inroads of the Scots and Picts required the presence of his A.i). 343-366 youngest son, who reigned in the western empire. Constans visited his British dominions ; but we may form some estimate of the importance of his achievements by the language of pane- gyric, which celebrates only his triumph over the elements ; or, in other words, the good fortune of a safe and easy passage from the port of Boulogne to the harbour of Sandwich. ^^^ The calamities which the afflicted provincials continued to experience, from foreign war and domestic tyranny, were aggravated by the feeble and corrupt administration of the eunuchs of Constantius ; and the transient relief which they might obtain from the virtues of Julian was soon lost by the absence and death of their bene- factor. The sums of gold and silver which had been painfully collected, or liberally transmitted, for the payment of the troops were intercepted by the avarice of the commanders ; discharges, or, at least, exemptions, from the military service were publicly sold ; the distress of the soldiers, who were injuriously deprived of their legal and scanty subsistence, provoked them to frequent desertion ; the nerves of discipline were relaxed, and the high- ways were infested with robbers.^^^ The oppression of the good and the impunity of the wicked equally contributed to diffuse through the island a spirit of discontent and revolt ; and every ambitious subject, every desperate exile, might entertain a reasonable hope of subverting the weak and distracted govern- ment of Britain. The hostile tribes of the North, who detested the pride and power of the King of the World, suspended their domestic feuds ; and the Barbarians of the land and sea, the Scots, the Picts, and the Saxons, spread themselves, with rapid and irresistible fury, from the wall of Antoninus to the possessed the monarchy of Ireland. After these concessions, the remaining difference between Mr. Whital<er and his adversaries is minute and obscure. The genuine history which he produces of a Fergus, the cousin of Ossian, who was transplanted (a.d. 320) from Ireland to Caledonia, is built on a conjectural supplement to the Erse poetry, and the feeble evidence of Richard of Cirencester, a monk of the fourteenth century. The lively spirit of the learned and ingenious antiquarian has tempted him to forget the nature of a question, which he so vehemently debates, and so absolutely decides. [It is now generally admitted that the Scots of Scotland were immigrants from (the north-east of) Ireland. See Ap- pendi.x 2.] 115 Hyeme tumentes ac saevientes undas calcastis Oceani sub remis vestris ;. . . insperatam imperatoris faciem Britannus expavit. Julius Firmicus Maternus de errore Profan. Relig. p. 464, edit. Gronov. ad calcem Minuc. FeL See Tillemont (Hist, des Empereurs, torn. iv. p. 336). nsLibanius, Orat. Parent, c. xxxix. p. 264. This curious passage has escaped the diligence of our British antiquaries.