X. But a fingle fact, the only one indeed of which CHA P. we have any diftinct knowledge, erafes, in a great measure, these monuments of vanity and adulation. The Rhine, though dignified with ravage Spain, the title of Safeguard of the provinces, was an imperfect barrier against the daring spirit of enterprise with which the Franks were actuated. Their rapid devaftations ftretched from the river to the foot of the Pyrenees: nor were they ftopped by thofe mountains. Spain, which had never dreaded, was unable to refift, the inroads of the Germans. During twelve years, the greateft part of the reign of Gallienus, that opulent country was the theatre of unequal and deftructive hoftilities. Tarragona, the flourishing capital of a peaceful province, was facked and almoft deftroyed"; and fo late as the days of Orofius, who wrote in the fifth century, wretched cottages, fcattered amidst the ruins of magnificent cities, ftill recorded the rage of the barbarians". When the exhausted country no longer fupplied a variety of plunder, the Franks feized on fome veffels in the ports of Spain", and transported them- and pass felves into Mauritania. The diftant province was aftonished with the fury of these barbarians, 77 Aurel. Victor, c. 33. Inftead of Pæne direpto, both the fenfe and the expreffion require deleto, though indeed, for different reasons, it is alike difficult to correct the text of the best, and of the worst, writers. 78 In the time of Aufonius (the end of the fourth century) Ilerda or Lerida was in a very ruinous ftate (Aufon. Epift. xxv. 58.), which probably was the confequence of this invasion. 79 Valefius is therefore mistaken in fuppofing that the Franks had invaded Spain by sea. over into Africa. who X. CHAP. who feemed to fall from a new world, as their name, manners, and complexion, were equally unknow on the coast of Africa. Origin and renown of the Suevi. II. In that part of Upper Saxony beyond the Elbe, which is at prefent called the Marquifate of Luface, there exifted, in ancient times, a facred wood, the awful feat of the superstition of the Suevi. None were permitted to enter the holy precincts, without confeffing, by their fervile bonds and fuppliant posture, the immediate prefence of the fovereign Deity. Patriotifm contributed as well as devotion to confecrate the Sonnenwald, or wood of the Semnones 2. It was univerfally believed, that the nation had received its first existence on that facred fpot. At ftated periods, the numerous tribes who gloried in the Suevic blood reforted thither by their ambaffadors; and the memory of their common extraction was perpetuated by barbaric rites and human facrifices. The wide-extended name of Suevi filled the interior countries of Germany, from the banks of the Oder to thofe of the Danube. They were distinguished from the other Germans by their peculiar mode of dreffing their long hair, which they gathered into a rude knot on the crown of the head; and they delighted in an ornament that shewed their ranks more lofty and terrible in the eyes of the enemy 3. Jealous as the Germans were of military renown, they 80 Aurel. Victor. Eutrop. ix. 6. 83 82 Cluver. Germ Antiq. iii. 25. 83 Sic Suevi a ceteris Germanis, fic Suevorum ingenui a fervis feparantur. A proud separation ! all X. all confeffed the fuperior valour of the Suevi; CHA P. and the tribes of the Ufipetes and Tencteri, who, with a vaft army, encountered the dictator Cæfar, declared that they efteemed it not a difgrace to have fled before a people, to whofe arms the immortal gods themfelves were unequal $4. 84 Suevi af Alemanni, In the reign of the Emperor Caracalla, an A mixed innumerable fwarm of Suevi appeared on the body of banks of the Mein, and in the neighbourhood fume the of the Roman provinces, in queft either of name of food, of plunder, or of glory "5. The hafty army of volunteers gradually coalefced into a great and permanent nation, and as it was compofed from fo many different tribes, affumed the name of Alemanni, or All-men; to denote at once their various lineage, and their common bravery". The latter was foon felt by the Romans in many a hostile inroad. The Alemanni fought chiefly on horseback; but their cavalry was rendered ftill more formidable by a mixture of light infantry, felected from the braveft and moft active of the youth, whom frequent exercife had enured to accompany the horseman in the longest march, the moft rapid charge, or the most precipitate retreat 87. 84 Cæfar in Bello Gallico, iv. 7. 85 Victor in Caracal. Dion Caffius, lxvii. p. 1350. 86 This etymology (far different from those which amuse the fancy of the learned) is preserved by Afinius Quadratus, an original hiftorian, quoted by Agathias, i. c. 5. 87 The Suevi engaged Cæfar in this manner, and the manœuvre deferved the approbation of the conqueror (in Bello Gallico, i. 48.). VOL. I. EE This CHAP. X. invade This warlike people of Germans had been aftonished by the immenfe preparations of Alexander Severus, they were difmayed by the arms of his Gaul and fucceffor, a barbarian equal in valour and fierceItaly, nefs to themselves. But ftill hovering on the frontiers of the empire, they increased the general disorder that enfued after the death of Decius. They inflicted fevere wounds on the rich provinces of Gaul; they were the firft who removed the veil that covered the feeble majesty of Italy. A numerous body of the Alemanni penetrated across the Danube, and through the Rhætian Alps, into the plains of Lombardy, advanced as far as Ravenna, and displayed the victorious banners of barbarians almoft in fight of Rome ". The infult and the danger rekindled in the fenate fome are repulf- fparks of their ancient virtue. Both the Emperors were engaged in far diftant wars, Valerian Rome by the fenate in the Eaft, and Gallienus on the Rhine. All the and people. hopes and refources of the Romans were in them ed from felves. In this emergency, the fenators refumed the defence of the republic, drew out the Prætorian guards, who had been left to garrifon the capital, and filled up their numbers, by inlifting into the public fervice the ftouteft and most willing of the Plebeians. The Alemanni, astonished with the fudden appearance of an army more numerous than their own, retired into Germany, laden with spoil; and their retreat was esteemed as a victory by the unwarlike Romans ". 88 Hift. Auguft. p. 215, 216. Dexippus in the Excerpta Lega- When X. tors ex military When Gallienus received the intelligence that CHA P. his capital was delivered from the barbarians, he was much lefs delighted, than alarmed, with the The fenacourage of the fenate, fince it might one day cluded by prompt them to rescue the public from domeftic Gallienus tyranny, as well as from foreign invafion. His from the timid ingratitude was published to his fubjects, fervice. in an edict which prohibited the fenators from exercifing any military employment, and even from approaching the camps of the legions. But his fears were groundless. The rich and luxurious nobles, finking into their natural character, accepted, as a favour, this difgraceful exemption from military fervice; and as long as they were indulged in the enjoyment of their baths, their theatres, and their villas, they cheerfully refigned the more dangerous cares of empire, to the rough hands of peasants and foldiers 9o. an alliance Another invasion of the Alemanni, of a more Gallienus formidable afpect, but more glorious event, is contracts mentioned by a writer of the lower empire. with the Three hundred thousand of that warlike people Alemanni. are faid to have been vanquished, in a battle near Milan, by Gallienus in perfon, at the head of only ten thousand Romans ". We may however, with great probability, ascribe this incredible victory, either to the credulity of the hiftorian, or to fome exaggerated exploits of one of the Emperor's lieutenants. It was by 90 Aurel. Victor, in Gallieno et Probo. His complaints breathe an uncommon spirit of freedom. 9 Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 631. |