Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/528

Rh 514 HONORIUS. laws was employed to hasten the downfal of the corrupt and worn-out system of paganism ; and under Honorius the prohibition was completed by se- veral laws, especially by one very stringent ordinance (Cod. Theod. 16. tit. 10. s. 19), dated from Rome, and addressed to the praetorian praefect of Italy, confiscating the revenues {annonae) of the temples for the support of the army, ordaining that all statues yet remaining in the temples, and to which any religious worship was paid, should be thrown down, all altars pulled down, the temples them- selves, if the property of the crown, converted to public uses ; or, if private property, to be pulled down by their owners ; and all heathen rites abo- lished. To the discontent caused by this sup- pression of all the ordinances of the old religion may perhaps be ascribed the frequent revolts of the following years, and which might have been avoided, had the now triumphant Christians been content to trust to the native power of truth in its conflict with heathen error. The years 400 — 403 were marked by the ravage of the northern part of Italy by the Visi-Goths-, under Alaric. Tillemont doubts whether this in- vasion was made by Alaric as an independent prince, or as an officer of the Eastern emperor Ar- cadius, who had appointed him praefect of Eastern lUyricum. Honorius had never been on good terms with his brother since the death of Theodosius ; or rather, the two divisions of the empire were con- tinually embroiled by the intrigues or hostilities of their rival ministers, Stilicho in the West, and Ru- finus and Eutropius in the East. It is probable that his invasion of Italy was on his own account, as independent king of the Visi-Goths. Jomandes ascribes his hostility to the diminution or with- holding of the subsidies paid to the Goths, the sons of Theodosius wasting in luxury the revenues ap- plicable to this purpose. Whether Alaric con- tinued in Italy during the whole of the three years 400 — 402, or whether, as is more likely, he was compelled or induced for a time to recross the Julian Alps, is not quite clear. In 400, ap- parently near the end of the year, he ravaged the neighbourhood of Aquileia, and besieged that city ; and in 402 he ravaged Venetia and Liguria. Rome was alarmed, and the ancient walls of the city were repaired, in apprehension of the approach of the Goths ; and Honorius, if we may trust Claudian, was contemplating a flight into Gaul, or, which is more likely, had actually secured himself within the walls of Ravenna. The forces of the West were chiefly engaged in Rhaetia, but the diligence of Stilicho collected a force with which he defeated the Visi-Goths at Pollentia (Polenza, on the Ta- naro, in Piedmont, on or about the 29th March, 403), and compelled them to retreat into Pannonia. Honorius remained during the greater part of the year 403 at Ravenna (which, from this alarming crisis, became his ordinary residence) ; but during several months of the year 404, which was the year of his sixth consulship (his fifth was in A. D. 402), he was at Rome. The abolition of the gladiatorial combats, which the edicts of Constantine had not been able to suppress, is ascribed to this year ; and the incident which gave immediate occasion to it, by working on the feelings of the young emperor [Telkmachus, the Ascetic], is simply told by Theodoret in his Ecclesiastical Hist. ( v. 26). The progress of Christianity had prepared the way for this act, but much of the credit of it seems to be HONORIUS. due to Honorius himself, and the populace of Rome perhaps sacrificed their own inclination, in hope of propitiating his favour, and securing his abode among them. The people of Milan were anxious for his return to that city ; but Honorius had been too thoroughly alarmed by the Gothic invasion to fix his permanent residence any where but in the impregnable fortress of Ravenna. He soon had to congratulate himself on the choice he had made. Italy was devastated by a new host of barbarians from Germany, under the pagan Goth lladagaisus, or Rhadagaisus, or Rhodogaisus ('Po- Zo'yaicTO'i). His army, according to Orosius, con- sisted of 200,000 Goths : the other nations swelled the amount, if we may trust Zosiraus, to 400,000. It was divided into three parts: that which Rada- gaisus in person commanded was stopped at Florence by the valiant resistance of the townsmen, and driven into the Apennines above Fesulae (Fiezole), and starved into a surrender by the generalship of Stilicho. Of the remainder of the barbarian host, part probably (see Gibbon) constituted the force which (A. D. 407) ravaged Gaul; and some were perhaps, as Zosimus states, driven across the Da- nube, and surprised and cut to pieces by Stilicho on their native soil. The defeat of Radagaisus is placed by Prosper Aquitanicus and Tillemont, in A. D. 405 ; by Marcellinus and by Gibbon in a. n. 406. Possibly he invaded Italy in a. d. 405, and was defeated in 406. The interval of peace in Italy which followed the defeat of Radagaisus, was occupied by Honorius in interceding for Chrysostom, then at variance with the court of Constantinople ; and by Stilicho in negotiations with Alaric to deprive the Eastern empire of that part of Illyricum which belonged to it, and incorporate it with the Western empire. Meanwhile, Gaul was ravaged by a promiscuous multitude, consisting for the most part of Vandals, Suevi, and Alans, which Orosius, Marcellinus, and Prosper Tiro, and apparently Jerome, state to have been excited by Stilicho : and while the tide of bar- barian invasion yet rolled over that province, the troops in Britain revolted, and after electing and murdering two emperors in succession, crossed over into Gaul, under the guidance of Constantine, the third usurper whom they had invested with the purple. Some successes against the German in- vaders aided apparently in obtaining his recognition by the provincials ; and establishing himself in Gaul, he sent his son Constans to secure Spain. Stilicho sent Sarus, a Goth, to attack him, but Sarus was compelled to retreat. Meanwhile, alien- ation was taking place between Honorius and Stilicho. The ambition of Stilicho appears to have led him to aspire to the direction of affairs in the Eastern empire, when, by the death of Arcadius, the crown devolved about this time to Theodosius II., a child of seven years. But Serena, anxious to maintain the peace between the two empires, did not co-operate with her husband ; and Stilicho, by her opposition, lost much of the benefit of his connection with the imperial family. Another cause of estrangement existed : Maria was dead, and Honorius wished to marry her sister, Ther- mantia. Serena was favourable to his wish ; but Stilicho, if we maj^ judge from the mutilated text of Zosimus, was opposed to it. The marriage, however, took place. The intrigues of Olympius, an officer of the imperial household, who, according to Zosimus, concealed his great malignity under a