yet been committed, which could furnish Maximus with an excuse for putting his intentions in execution. The military genius of the usurper is said to have displayed itself whilst he was in Britain, by successfully repulsing an incursion of the Picts and Scots". His campaign against Gratian, though it was terminated more by the defection of the people, than by the arms of the invader, yet naturally tended to augment the military reputation of Maximus. But, in spite of these advantages, the usurper was more given to practise the arts of fraud than of force. When, by his arbitrary proceedings against the heretics of the West, and his loudly expressed indignation at the heterodox practices of Valentinian, he had conceived himself sufficiently secure in the good will of his people, Maximus meditated how he might attain a still higher pitch of greatness. His ambitious mind suggested to him the incompleteness of the Western empire, so long as his hated rival possessed some of its fairest provinces, and he secretly planned the destruction of the prince who stood in the way of his designs. But, to secure the conquest of Italy, it was necessary that his troops should Occupy the passes of the Alps, which are the natural barriers of that peninsula.

Valentinian's war against the barbarians in Pannonia furnished a pretext, and Maximus urged the ambassador Domninus to receive for his master a body of troops to serve in the Pannonian war. "The penetration of Ambrose had discovered the snares of an enemy under the professions of friendship; but the Syrian Domninus was corrupted or deceived, by the liberal favour of

the court of Treves; and the council of Milan obstinately rejected the suspicion of danger, with a blind confidence, which was the effect not of courage, but of fear. The march of the auxiliaries was guided by the ambassador; and they were admitted, without distrust, into the fortresses of the Alps. But the crafty tyrant followed, with hasty and silent steps, in the rear; and, as he diligently intercepted all intelligence of his motions, the gleam of armour, and the dust excited by the troops of cavalry, first announced the hostile approach of a stranger to the gates of Milan." It was in vain for the feeble sovereign of Italy to think of protecting himself by arms. If there had been even time to make preparations for defence, the lazy soldiery of Italy, enfeebled by long cessation from war, would have wanted the inclination to meet the invaders in the field, even if their emperor had enjoyed the love and confidence of his subjects. Flight, therefore, was the only safety of Valentinian and his mother Justina; Aquileia received them within her impregnable walls, until a galley, which had been secretly provided, conveyed them in safety to the dominions of Theodosiusd. The eastern emperor no longer hesitated from any motives of public policy to oppose the progress of Maximus, and it has been said by historians, that not the least powerful argument which led him to espouse the cause of Valentinian, was the beauty of his sister Galla, who was a fugitive with her brother and mother.

It happened opportunely for Theodosius that he had in his service a large body of barbarian auxiliaries, who had not laid aside their armour since they had

с

Gibbon, Decline and Fall, c. xxvii.

Oros. vii. 34. Prosper. Pseudochron. Zosimus vii. 13.

become subjects of the Eastern empire, and their native ferocity, which was still untamed, might, with safety and advantage to the public, be discharged against the legions of Britain, Gaul, and Germany, which had invaded Italy. The whole of Greece now resounded with the din of martial preparation, and the usurper, as he took his seat within the walls of Aquileia on the throne which he had coveted and obtained, was told that two armies and a numerous fleet were already on their way against him. Along the shores of the Danube marched a body of troops under the command of Arbogastes, who had received instructions to penetrate into Gaul, whilst Theodosius himself led a second army through Pannonia, and a numerous fleet reconveyed Valentinian and his mother the empress Justina to resume the throne of Italy.

The emergency was too great for Maximus; he was unable steadily to view the clouds which were breaking over him. In a crisis of such a nature, the safety of a nation or of a cause depends upon the moral energies of its leader. The troops of Maximus speedily partook of the imbecility of their chief. Some sharp skirmishes took place, which ended with their throwing down their arms before the superior generalship of Theodosius. The citizens of Emona had alone remained faithful to the cause of Valentinian, and had reaped the reward of their loyalty in being closely besieged by Maximus. The victory of Theodosius delivered them from further danger; but the emperor, without waiting to receive their thanks, pressed after Maximus, who fled as he approached. The walls of Aquileia, impregnable when manned by a faithful garrison, were unable to defend an usurping and Sozomen, Hist. Eccles. vii. 13.

e

coward tyrant from the wrath of a legitimate and victorious emperor. Maximus was seized and hurried into the presence of Theodosius: a brief sentence was passed upon him, and when the head of the usurper rolled in the dust, Theodosius felt that Heaven, and not his own arms, had exacted full vengeance for the murder of Gratian'.

f

Pacatus, Paneg. Theod. dict. A. D. 391, c. 38.

Aurel. Victor,

c. 48. Orosius, c. 34. Prosper, Chron. A.D. 388. et Pseudo

chron. A. D. 388.

CHAP. XXI.

BRITAIN EXHAUSTED BY SUCCESSIVE EMIGRATIONS-THEODOSIUSCHRYSANTHUS VICEROY OF BRITAIN-ARCADIUS AND HONORIUS EMPERORS-STILICHO-PICTS AND SCOTS-MARCUS, AND GRATIAN MUNICEPS, TYRANTS IN BRITAIN, SLAIN BY THEIR SOLDIERS-CONSTANTINE EMPEROR IN BRITAIN-CONQUERS GAUL AND SPAINIS SLAIN BY CONSTANTIUS.

It is the lot of him who traces the history of Britain through the obscurity of the first five centuries, to be continually drawn from his subject, according as the many adventurers, whose fortunes took their rise from this island, despising the narrow limits of insular sovereignty, take flight successively to the continent, as a nobler arena on which to contend for empire. Of the tyrants, as they are invidiously denominated by the arrogance of the Roman writers, who arose in Britain, Carausius alone had the wisdom to discern the advantages which an island possesses, and the security which the intervening sea affords as a protection against foreign enemies.

The continual drain of its population in the service of Rome, had ever been an obstacle to Britain's greatness. We cannot consider the island to have contained, in the times which we are speaking of, more than a tenth part of the numbers with which it is now crowded: and the consequences which resulted from the departure of more than a hundred thousand persons, who are said