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CHAPTER VII: Roman

From this time repeated incursions of hardy adventurers from the north of Europe, under various names, took place; but though often beaten, they renewed their attempts with a degree of courage and perseverance that required all the energy and superior discipline of the Roman legions to overcome. From the death of Aurelius to the reign of Diocletian, many of the Roman emperors were mere sensualists: there were, however, some splendid exceptions; and by the warlike genius of such the incursions of the barbarians were from time to time arrested. The Romans had also for a long period met with a most powerful adversary in the Persians; and when, in 260, the emperor Valerian was defeated and taken prisoner by them, the empire seemed to be hastening to utter and irremediable destruction. While Gallienus, the son of Valerian and his associate in power, was revelling in luxury at Rome, numerous claimants of the imperial dignity arose in the different provinces. These were designated the "thirty tyrants," (though their number did not exceed twenty, and there was no good reason for designating them tyrants). Their dominion was, however, not of long duration; and on the death of Gallienus he was succeeded by Claudius, who had the merit of delivering Italy from the Goths. After him came Aurelian, who introduced order into the state, restored internal tranquillity, and defeated his enemies both in Europe and Asia. Under Tacitus, Probus, and Carus the empire was in a measure restored to its former lustre; but the barbarians still pressed onward; and when the government fell into the hands of Diocletian, he changed its form, sharing the imperial dignity with Maximian, to whom he committed the West, while he ruled in the East. In this manner was the government administered 1 till the days of Constantine, who in A. D. 330 removed the imperial seat to Byzantium, which he named Constantinople; became a convert to Christianity; and put an end to one of the most virulent persecutions against its professors that ever disgraced the world. The immediate successors of Constantine did little to uphold the Roman power; and Julian, who ascended the throne in 361, renounced Christianity and openly professed the ancient religion; but he was both too politic and too humane to persecute his Christian subjects. We find, however, that the decline of the empire was everywhere visible. After his death its internal corruption and weakness continued to increase; that strict discipline which had formerly rendered the Roman legions invincible, relaxed; and while corruption and injustice rendered the government odious at home, its frontier towns were attacked and its distant provinces overrun by fierce and uncivilized hordes issuing from the north, east and west. It is at this period that we read of Alaric, the Visigoth, who plundered Rome, A. D. 409: of Genseric, the powerful king of the Vandals; and of Attila, the Hun, emphatically termed "the scourge of God." In fact, the Scythians, Sarmatians, Goths, Huns, Vandals, and other barbarous nations, watched all occasions to break into it: and though some of the emperors bravely withstood their attacks, no efforts could finally stem the ruthless torrent which kept pouring in on all sides. At length the Heruli, a people who migrated from the shores of the Baltic, and had grown formidable as they proceeded southwards, appeared in Italy. They were headed by the valiant Odoacer; and being joined by other tribes, quickly became masters of Italy, and the city of Rome itself surrendered to their victorious arms, A. D. 476.

The fall of the western empire was thus consummated; but the Romans still maintained their sway at Constantinople. The eastern empire, in fact, at this time comprehended all Asia Minor and Syria, Egypt, and Greece; but neither its domestic management nor its military prowess gave hopes of a lengthened dominion. Luxury, effeminacy, and superstition sapped its vitals; continual wars with the Persians, Bulgarians, and other barbarous nations, exhausted its strength; and a similar fate to that of the western empire appeared to await it at no very distant period. Still, as we follow the stream of history, we shall find that it not only survived the wreck for several centuries, but at times displayed an energy and power worthy of the Roman name.

Revolutions succeeded one another among the savage conquerors of the west with fearful rapidity. The Heruli under Odoacer were driven out by the Goths under Theodoric. The Goths were expelled by the Romans under their able general Belisarius; but while he was absent quelling an insurrection in Africa, they regained their footing, and again took possession of Rome. The Franks next invaded Italy, and made themselves masters of the province of Venetia; but at last the superior fortune of the emperor Justinian prevailed, and the Goths were finally subdued by his proconsul Narses, A. D. 552. From that time till the year 568, Narses governed Italy with great prudence and success, as a province of the eastern empire; but he incurred the emperor's displeasure, and Longinus was appointed to succeed him, and was invested with absolute power. He assumed the title of exarch, and resided at Ravenna, whence his government was called the exarchate of Ravenna; and having placed in each city of Italy a governor, whom he distinguished with the title of duke, he abolished the name of senate and consuls at Rome. But while he was establishing this new sovereignty, a great portion of Italy was overrun by the Lombards. In short, we find that they steadily marched on from Pannonia, accompanied by an army of Saxon allies, and were not long before they became masters of all Italy, with the exception of Rome, Ravenna, and some of the eastern sea-coast.

A warlike nation, called Franks, who were divided into several tribes, had been gradually rising into importance; and quitting the banks of the Lower Rhine, they had made themselves masters of no inconsiderable part of Gaul. A warlike and ambitious chief among them, named Clovis, undertook the conquest of the whole country; and having defeated and killed his powerful rival, Alaric, king of the Goths, he possessed himself of all the countries lying between the Rhine and the Loire, and thus became the founder of the French monarchy, A. D. 487.

A few years before the conquest of Rome by the Heruli, the Visigoths erected a kingdom in Spain; and as they advanced eastward, about the same time that Clovis was extending his conquests to the west, the river Loire was the natural boundary of the two kingdoms; but a war soon broke out between them, which ended in favor of Clovis. Another kingdom had previously been founded in the western parts of Spain by the Suevi, who were subdued by the Goths under Theodoric, in 409; and eventually, A. D. 584, these restless warriors subjugated nearly the whole of Spain.