Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis.—Part VI

General Observations On The Fall Of The Roman Empire In The West.

The Greeks, after their country had been reduced into a province,
imputed the triumphs of Rome, not to the merit, but to the
fortune, of the republic. The inconstant goddess, who so blindly
distributes and resumes her favors, had now consented (such was
the language of envious flattery) to resign her wings, to descend
from her globe, and to fix her firm and immutable throne on the
banks of the Tyber. 1000 A wiser Greek, who has composed, with a
philosophic spirit, the memorable history of his own times,
deprived his countrymen of this vain and delusive comfort, by
opening to their view the deep foundations of the greatness of
Rome. 2000 The fidelity of the citizens to each other, and to the
state, was confirmed by the habits of education, and the
prejudices of religion. Honor, as well as virtue, was the
principle of the republic; the ambitious citizens labored to
deserve the solemn glories of a triumph; and the ardor of the
Roman youth was kindled into active emulation, as often as they
beheld the domestic images of their ancestors. 3000 The temperate
struggles of the patricians and plebeians had finally established
the firm and equal balance of the constitution; which united the
freedom of popular assemblies, with the authority and wisdom of a
senate, and the executive powers of a regal magistrate. When the
consul displayed the standard of the republic, each citizen bound
himself, by the obligation of an oath, to draw his sword in the
cause of his country, till he had discharged the sacred duty by a
military service of ten years. This wise institution continually
poured into the field the rising generations of freemen and
soldiers; and their numbers were reenforced by the warlike and
populous states of Italy, who, after a brave resistance, had
yielded to the valor and embraced the alliance, of the Romans.
The sage historian, who excited the virtue of the younger Scipio,
and beheld the ruin of Carthage, 4000 has accurately described
their military system; their levies, arms, exercises,
subordination, marches, encampments; and the invincible legion,
superior in active strength to the Macedonian phalanx of Philip
and Alexander. From these institutions of peace and war Polybius
has deduced the spirit and success of a people, incapable of
fear, and impatient of repose. The ambitious design of conquest,
which might have been defeated by the seasonable conspiracy of
mankind, was attempted and achieved; and the perpetual violation
of justice was maintained by the political virtues of prudence
and courage. The arms of the republic, sometimes vanquished in
battle, always victorious in war, advanced with rapid steps to
the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rhine, and the Ocean; and the
images of gold, or silver, or brass, that might serve to
represent the nations and their kings, were successively broken
by the iron monarchy of Rome. 5000

1000 (return) [ Such are the figurative expressions of Plutarch,
(Opera, tom. ii. p. 318, edit. Wechel,) to whom, on the faith of
his son Lamprias, (Fabricius, Bibliot. Graec. tom. iii. p. 341,)
I shall boldly impute the malicious declamation. The same
opinions had prevailed among the Greeks two hundred and fifty
years before Plutarch; and to confute them is the professed
intention of Polybius, (Hist. l. i. p. 90, edit. Gronov. Amstel.
1670.)]

2000 (return) [ See the inestimable remains of the sixth book of
Polybius, and many other parts of his general history,
particularly a digression in the seventeenth book, in which he
compares the phalanx and the legion.]

3000 (return) [ Sallust, de Bell. Jugurthin. c. 4. Such were the
generous professions of P. Scipio and Q. Maximus. The Latin
historian had read and most probably transcribes, Polybius, their
contemporary and friend.]

4000 (return) [ While Carthage was in flames, Scipio repeated two
lines of the Iliad, which express the destruction of Troy,
acknowledging to Polybius, his friend and preceptor, (Polyb. in
Excerpt. de Virtut. et Vit. tom. ii. p. 1455-1465,) that while he
recollected the vicissitudes of human affairs, he inwardly
applied them to the future calamities of Rome, (Appian. in
Libycis, p. 136, edit. Toll.)]

5000 (return) [ See Daniel, ii. 31-40. “And the fourth kingdom
shall be strong as iron; forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and
subdueth all things.” The remainder of the prophecy (the mixture
of iron and clay) was accomplished, according to St. Jerom, in
his own time. Sicut enim in principio nihil Romano Imperio
fortius et durius, ita in fine rerum nihil imbecillius; quum et
in bellis civilibus et adversus diversas nationes, aliarum
gentium barbararum auxilio indigemus, (Opera, tom. v. p. 572.)]

The rise of a city, which swelled into an empire, may deserve, as
a singular prodigy, the reflection of a philosophic mind. But the
decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of
immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay;
the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest;
and as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial
supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its
own weight. The story of its ruin is simple and obvious; and
instead of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we
should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long. The
victorious legions, who, in distant wars, acquired the vices of
strangers and mercenaries, first oppressed the freedom of the
republic, and afterwards violated the majesty of the purple. The
emperors, anxious for their personal safety and the public peace,
were reduced to the base expedient of corrupting the discipline
which rendered them alike formidable to their sovereign and to
the enemy; the vigor of the military government was relaxed, and
finally dissolved, by the partial institutions of Constantine;
and the Roman world was overwhelmed by a deluge of Barbarians.

The decay of Rome has been frequently ascribed to the translation
of the seat of empire; but this History has already shown, that
the powers of government were divided, rather than removed. The
throne of Constantinople was erected in the East; while the West
was still possessed by a series of emperors who held their
residence in Italy, and claimed their equal inheritance of the
legions and provinces. This dangerous novelty impaired the
strength, and fomented the vices, of a double reign: the
instruments of an oppressive and arbitrary system were
multiplied; and a vain emulation of luxury, not of merit, was
introduced and supported between the degenerate successors of
Theodosius. Extreme distress, which unites the virtue of a free
people, imbitters the factions of a declining monarchy. The
hostile favorites of Arcadius and Honorius betrayed the republic
to its common enemies; and the Byzantine court beheld with
indifference, perhaps with pleasure, the disgrace of Rome, the
misfortunes of Italy, and the loss of the West. Under the
succeeding reigns, the alliance of the two empires was restored;
but the aid of the Oriental Romans was tardy, doubtful, and
ineffectual; and the national schism of the Greeks and Latins was
enlarged by the perpetual difference of language and manners, of
interests, and even of religion. Yet the salutary event approved
in some measure the judgment of Constantine. During a long period
of decay, his impregnable city repelled the victorious armies of
Barbarians, protected the wealth of Asia, and commanded, both in
peace and war, the important straits which connect the Euxine and
Mediterranean Seas. The foundation of Constantinople more
essentially contributed to the preservation of the East, than to
the ruin of the West.

As the happiness of a future life is the great object of
religion, we may hear without surprise or scandal, that the
introduction or at least the abuse, of Christianity had some
influence on the decline and fall of the Roman empire. The clergy
successfully preached the doctrines of patience and
pusillanimity: the active virtues of society were discouraged;
and the last remains of military spirit were buried in the
cloister: a large portion of public and private wealth was
consecrated to the specious demands of charity and devotion; and
the soldiers’ pay was lavished on the useless multitudes of both
sexes, who could only plead the merits of abstinence and
chastity. 511 Faith, zeal, curiosity, and the more earthly
passions of malice and ambition, kindled the flame of theological
discord; the church, and even the state, were distracted by
religious factions, whose conflicts were sometimes bloody, and
always implacable; the attention of the emperors was diverted
from camps to synods; the Roman world was oppressed by a new
species of tyranny; and the persecuted sects became the secret
enemies of their country. Yet party spirit, however pernicious or
absurd, is a principle of union as well as of dissension. The
bishops, from eighteen hundred pulpits, inculcated the duty of
passive obedience to a lawful and orthodox sovereign; their
frequent assemblies, and perpetual correspondence, maintained the
communion of distant churches; and the benevolent temper of the
gospel was strengthened, though confined, by the spiritual
alliance of the Catholics. The sacred indolence of the monks was
devoutly embraced by a servile and effeminate age; but if
superstition had not afforded a decent retreat, the same vices
would have tempted the unworthy Romans to desert, from baser
motives, the standard of the republic. Religious precepts are
easily obeyed, which indulge and sanctify the natural
inclinations of their votaries; but the pure and genuine
influence of Christianity may be traced in its beneficial, though
imperfect, effects on the Barbarian proselytes of the North. If
the decline of the Roman empire was hastened by the conversion of
Constantine, his victorious religion broke the violence of the
fall, and mollified the ferocious temper of the conquerors.

511 (return) [ It might be a curious speculation, how far the
purer morals of the genuine and more active Christians may have
compensated, in the population of the Roman empire, for the
secession of such numbers into inactive and unproductive
celibacy.—M.]

This awful revolution may be usefully applied to the instruction
of the present age. It is the duty of a patriot to prefer and
promote the exclusive interest and glory of his native country:
but a philosopher may be permitted to enlarge his views, and to
consider Europe as one great republic whose various inhabitants
have obtained almost the same level of politeness and
cultivation. The balance of power will continue to fluctuate, and
the prosperity of our own, or the neighboring kingdoms, may be
alternately exalted or depressed; but these partial events cannot
essentially injure our general state of happiness, the system of
arts, and laws, and manners, which so advantageously distinguish,
above the rest of mankind, the Europeans and their colonies. The
savage nations of the globe are the common enemies of civilized
society; and we may inquire, with anxious curiosity, whether
Europe is still threatened with a repetition of those calamities,
which formerly oppressed the arms and institutions of Rome.
Perhaps the same reflections will illustrate the fall of that
mighty empire, and explain the probable causes of our actual
security.

I. The Romans were ignorant of the extent of their danger, and
the number of their enemies. Beyond the Rhine and Danube, the
Northern countries of Europe and Asia were filled with
innumerable tribes of hunters and shepherds, poor, voracious, and
turbulent; bold in arms, and impatient to ravish the fruits of
industry. The Barbarian world was agitated by the rapid impulse
of war; and the peace of Gaul or Italy was shaken by the distant
revolutions of China. The Huns, who fled before a victorious
enemy, directed their march towards the West; and the torrent was
swelled by the gradual accession of captives and allies. The
flying tribes who yielded to the Huns assumed in their turn the
spirit of conquest; the endless column of Barbarians pressed on
the Roman empire with accumulated weight; and, if the foremost
were destroyed, the vacant space was instantly replenished by new
assailants. Such formidable emigrations can no longer issue from
the North; and the long repose, which has been imputed to the
decrease of population, is the happy consequence of the progress
of arts and agriculture. Instead of some rude villages, thinly
scattered among its woods and morasses, Germany now produces a
list of two thousand three hundred walled towns: the Christian
kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden, and Poland, have been successively
established; and the Hanse merchants, with the Teutonic knights,
have extended their colonies along the coast of the Baltic, as
far as the Gulf of Finland. From the Gulf of Finland to the
Eastern Ocean, Russia now assumes the form of a powerful and
civilized empire. The plough, the loom, and the forge, are
introduced on the banks of the Volga, the Oby, and the Lena; and
the fiercest of the Tartar hordes have been taught to tremble and
obey. The reign of independent Barbarism is now contracted to a
narrow span; and the remnant of Calmucks or Uzbecks, whose forces
may be almost numbered, cannot seriously excite the apprehensions
of the great republic of Europe. 6000 Yet this apparent security
should not tempt us to forget, that new enemies, and unknown
dangers, may possibly arise from some obscure people, scarcely
visible in the map of the world, The Arabs or Saracens, who
spread their conquests from India to Spain, had languished in
poverty and contempt, till Mahomet breathed into those savage
bodies the soul of enthusiasm.

6000 (return) [ The French and English editors of the
Genealogical History of the Tartars have subjoined a curious,
though imperfect, description, of their present state. We might
question the independence of the Calmucks, or Eluths, since they
have been recently vanquished by the Chinese, who, in the year
1759, subdued the Lesser Bucharia, and advanced into the country
of Badakshan, near the source of the Oxus, (Mémoires sur les
Chinois, tom. i. p. 325-400.) But these conquests are precarious,
nor will I venture to insure the safety of the Chinese empire.]

II. The empire of Rome was firmly established by the singular and
perfect coalition of its members. The subject nations, resigning
the hope, and even the wish, of independence, embraced the
character of Roman citizens; and the provinces of the West were
reluctantly torn by the Barbarians from the bosom of their mother
country. 7000 But this union was purchased by the loss of
national freedom and military spirit; and the servile provinces,
destitute of life and motion, expected their safety from the
mercenary troops and governors, who were directed by the orders
of a distant court. The happiness of a hundred millions depended
on the personal merit of one or two men, perhaps children, whose
minds were corrupted by education, luxury, and despotic power.
The deepest wounds were inflicted on the empire during the
minorities of the sons and grandsons of Theodosius; and, after
those incapable princes seemed to attain the age of manhood, they
abandoned the church to the bishops, the state to the eunuchs,
and the provinces to the Barbarians. Europe is now divided into
twelve powerful, though unequal kingdoms, three respectable
commonwealths, and a variety of smaller, though independent,
states: the chances of royal and ministerial talents are
multiplied, at least, with the number of its rulers; and a
Julian, or Semiramis, may reign in the North, while Arcadius and
Honorius again slumber on the thrones of the South. The abuses of
tyranny are restrained by the mutual influence of fear and shame;
republics have acquired order and stability; monarchies have
imbibed the principles of freedom, or, at least, of moderation;
and some sense of honor and justice is introduced into the most
defective constitutions by the general manners of the times. In
peace, the progress of knowledge and industry is accelerated by
the emulation of so many active rivals: in war, the European
forces are exercised by temperate and undecisive contests. If a
savage conqueror should issue from the deserts of Tartary, he
must repeatedly vanquish the robust peasants of Russia, the
numerous armies of Germany, the gallant nobles of France, and the
intrepid freemen of Britain; who, perhaps, might confederate for
their common defence. Should the victorious Barbarians carry
slavery and desolation as far as the Atlantic Ocean, ten thousand
vessels would transport beyond their pursuit the remains of
civilized society; and Europe would revive and flourish in the
American world, which is already filled with her colonies and
institutions. 8000

7000 (return) [ The prudent reader will determine how far this
general proposition is weakened by the revolt of the Isaurians,
the independence of Britain and Armorica, the Moorish tribes, or
the Bagaudae of Gaul and Spain, (vol. i. p. 328, vol. iii. p.
315, vol. iii. p. 372, 480.)]

8000 (return) [ America now contains about six millions of
European blood and descent; and their numbers, at least in the
North, are continually increasing. Whatever may be the changes of
their political situation, they must preserve the manners of
Europe; and we may reflect with some pleasure, that the English
language will probably be diffused ever an immense and populous
continent.]

III. Cold, poverty, and a life of danger and fatigue, fortify the
strength and courage of Barbarians. In every age they have
oppressed the polite and peaceful nations of China, India, and
Persia, who neglected, and still neglect, to counterbalance these
natural powers by the resources of military art. The warlike
states of antiquity, Greece, Macedonia, and Rome, educated a race
of soldiers; exercised their bodies, disciplined their courage,
multiplied their forces by regular evolutions, and converted the
iron, which they possessed, into strong and serviceable weapons.
But this superiority insensibly declined with their laws and
manners; and the feeble policy of Constantine and his successors
armed and instructed, for the ruin of the empire, the rude valor
of the Barbarian mercenaries. The military art has been changed
by the invention of gunpowder; which enables man to command the
two most powerful agents of nature, air and fire. Mathematics,
chemistry, mechanics, architecture, have been applied to the
service of war; and the adverse parties oppose to each other the
most elaborate modes of attack and of defence. Historians may
indignantly observe, that the preparations of a siege would found
and maintain a flourishing colony; 9000 yet we cannot be
displeased, that the subversion of a city should be a work of
cost and difficulty; or that an industrious people should be
protected by those arts, which survive and supply the decay of
military virtue. Cannon and fortifications now form an
impregnable barrier against the Tartar horse; and Europe is
secure from any future irruptions of Barbarians; since, before
they can conquer, they must cease to be barbarous. Their gradual
advances in the science of war would always be accompanied, as we
may learn from the example of Russia, with a proportionable
improvement in the arts of peace and civil policy; and they
themselves must deserve a place among the polished nations whom
they subdue.

9000 (return) [ On avoit fait venir (for the siege of Turin) 140
pieces de canon; et il est a remarquer que chaque gros canon
monte revient a environ ecus: il y avoit 100,000 boulets; 106,000
cartouches d’une facon, et 300,000 d’une autre; 21,000 bombes;
27,700 grenades, 15,000 sacs a terre, 30,000 instruments pour la
pionnage; 1,200,000 livres de poudre. Ajoutez a ces munitions, le
plomb, le fer, et le fer-blanc, les cordages, tout ce qui sert
aux mineurs, le souphre, le salpetre, les outils de toute espece.
Il est certain que les frais de tous ces preparatifs de
destruction suffiroient pour fonder et pour faire fleurir la plus
aombreuse colonie. Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV. c. xx. in his
Works. tom. xi. p. 391.]

Should these speculations be found doubtful or fallacious, there
still remains a more humble source of comfort and hope. The
discoveries of ancient and modern navigators, and the domestic
history, or tradition, of the most enlightened nations, represent
the human savage, naked both in body and mind and destitute of
laws, of arts, of ideas, and almost of language. 1001 From this
abject condition, perhaps the primitive and universal state of
man, he has gradually arisen to command the animals, to fertilize
the earth, to traverse the ocean and to measure the heavens. His
progress in the improvement and exercise of his mental and
corporeal faculties 1101 has been irregular and various;
infinitely slow in the beginning, and increasing by degrees with
redoubled velocity: ages of laborious ascent have been followed
by a moment of rapid downfall; and the several climates of the
globe have felt the vicissitudes of light and darkness. Yet the
experience of four thousand years should enlarge our hopes, and
diminish our apprehensions: we cannot determine to what height
the human species may aspire in their advances towards
perfection; but it may safely be presumed, that no people, unless
the face of nature is changed, will relapse into their original
barbarism. The improvements of society may be viewed under a
threefold aspect. 1. The poet or philosopher illustrates his age
and country by the efforts of a single mind; but those superior
powers of reason or fancy are rare and spontaneous productions;
and the genius of Homer, or Cicero, or Newton, would excite less
admiration, if they could be created by the will of a prince, or
the lessons of a preceptor. 2. The benefits of law and policy, of
trade and manufactures, of arts and sciences, are more solid and
permanent: and many individuals may be qualified, by education
and discipline, to promote, in their respective stations, the
interest of the community. But this general order is the effect
of skill and labor; and the complex machinery may be decayed by
time, or injured by violence.

3. Fortunately for mankind, the more useful, or, at least, more
necessary arts, can be performed without superior talents, or
national subordination: without the powers of one, or the union
of many. Each village, each family, each individual, must always
possess both ability and inclination to perpetuate the use of
fire 1201 and of metals; the propagation and service of domestic
animals; the methods of hunting and fishing; the rudiments of
navigation; the imperfect cultivation of corn, or other nutritive
grain; and the simple practice of the mechanic trades. Private
genius and public industry may be extirpated; but these hardy
plants survive the tempest, and strike an everlasting root into
the most unfavorable soil. The splendid days of Augustus and
Trajan were eclipsed by a cloud of ignorance; and the Barbarians
subverted the laws and palaces of Rome. But the scythe, the
invention or emblem of Saturn, 1302 still continued annually to
mow the harvests of Italy; and the human feasts of the
Laestrigons 1401 have never been renewed on the coast of
Campania.

1001 (return) [ It would be an easy, though tedious, task, to
produce the authorities of poets, philosophers, and historians. I
shall therefore content myself with appealing to the decisive and
authentic testimony of Diodorus Siculus, (tom. i. l. i. p. 11,
12, l. iii. p. 184, &c., edit. Wesseling.) The Icthyophagi, who
in his time wandered along the shores of the Red Sea, can only be
compared to the natives of New Holland, (Dampier’s Voyages, vol.
i. p. 464-469.) Fancy, or perhaps reason, may still suppose an
extreme and absolute state of nature far below the level of these
savages, who had acquired some arts and instruments.]

1101 (return) [ See the learned and rational work of the
president Goguet, de l’Origine des Loix, des Arts, et des
Sciences. He traces from facts, or conjectures, (tom. i. p.
147-337, edit. 12mo.,) the first and most difficult steps of
human invention.]

1201 (return) [ It is certain, however strange, that many nations
have been ignorant of the use of fire. Even the ingenious natives
of Otaheite, who are destitute of metals, have not invented any
earthen vessels capable of sustaining the action of fire, and of
communicating the heat to the liquids which they contain.]

1302 (return) [ Plutarch. Quaest. Rom. in tom. ii. p. 275.
Macrob. Saturnal. l. i. c. 8, p. 152, edit. London. The arrival
of Saturn (of his religious worship) in a ship, may indicate,
that the savage coast of Latium was first discovered and
civilized by the Phoenicians.]

1401 (return) [ In the ninth and tenth books of the Odyssey,
Homer has embellished the tales of fearful and credulous sailors,
who transformed the cannibals of Italy and Sicily into monstrous
giants.]

Since the first discovery of the arts, war, commerce, and
religious zeal have diffused, among the savages of the Old and
New World, these inestimable gifts: they have been successively
propagated; they can never be lost. We may therefore acquiesce in
the pleasing conclusion, that every age of the world has
increased, and still increases, the real wealth, the happiness,
the knowledge, and perhaps the virtue, of the human race. 1501

1501 (return) [ The merit of discovery has too often been stained
with avarice, cruelty, and fanaticism; and the intercourse of
nations has produced the communication of disease and prejudice.
A singular exception is due to the virtue of our own times and
country. The five great voyages, successively undertaken by the
command of his present Majesty, were inspired by the pure and
generous love of science and of mankind. The same prince,
adapting his benefactions to the different stages of society, has
founded his school of painting in his capital; and has introduced
into the islands of the South Sea the vegetables and animals most
useful to human life.]