CHAPTER XIX.
THE FIFTH CENTURY.
Christianity the only Possible Religion.—Adventures of Placidia.—Her Marriage with Adolphus the Goth.—Scenes of Violence and Crime.—Attila the Hun.—Nuptials of Idaho.—Eudoxia and her Fate.—Triumph of Odoacer the Goth.—Character of the Roman Nobles.—Conquests of Theodoric.—John Chrysostom.—The Origin of Monasticism.—Augustine.—His Dissipation, Conversion, and Christian Career.—His “Confessions.”
HE fifth century dawned luridly upon our sad world. There was no stable government anywhere. The Roman empire, which, oppressive as it had often been, was far better than anarchy, had now become but a crumbling ruin, which no human energy or skill could rebuild. The attempt by Julian the Apostate to reinstate paganism had proved so utter and humiliating a failure, that there was no possibility of the undertaking being ever again repeated.
There can be but one religion which an enlightened world will accept; and that is Christianity. If Christianity is renounced, the world will never adopt any substitute which has yet been proposed. The superstitions of barbarians are all too senseless to be thought of for a moment. Though there was a political party in the Roman empire who rallied around Julian, even many of his partisans regarded his efforts to reinstate paganism with ridicule and contempt. The wits of the day lampooned him mercilessly.
Honorius, Emperor of the West, after a disastrous reign oftwenty-eight years, died in the year 423. Weary scenes of anarchy and bloodshed ensued, which we have no space to describe. Placidia, a Christian princess, daughter of the great Theodosius, had been carried away captive by the Goths. The splendor of her birth, her marvellous personal beauty, and the elegance of her manners, won universal admiration. The young Gothic king Adolphus, who was a man of unusual grace both of person and mind, won the hand and heart of his captive. The nuptials were attended with great splendor at Narbonne, as we have mentioned in the previous chapter.
“The bride,” writes Gibbon, “attired and adorned like a Roman empress, was placed on a throne of state; and the king of the Goths, who assumed on this occasion the Roman habit, contented himself with a less honorable seat by her side. The nuptial gift, which, according to the custom of his nation, was offered to Placidia, consisted of the rare and magnificent spoils of her country. The barbarians enjoyed the insolence of their triumph;and the provincials rejoiced in this alliance, which tempered by the mild influence of love and reason the fierce spirit of their Gothic lord.”[194]
The love of Adolphus for his beautiful bride was not abated by time or possession. A year passed, when they rejoiced in the birth of a son, whom they named Theodosius, after his illustrious grandfather. The death of this child in his infancy caused great grief to his parents. He was buried in a silver coffin in one of the churches near Barcelona. Soon after this, Adolphus was assassinated in his palace, at Barcelona, by one of his followers,—Sarus. Singeric, the brother of Sarus, seized the Gothic throne. He immediately murdered the six children of Adolphus, the issue of a former marriage. Placidia was treated with the most cruel and wanton insult. The daughter of the renowned Emperor Theodosius was driven on foot, amidst a crowd of vulgar captives, twelve miles, before the horse of a barbarian who had murdered her husband.
Singeric enjoyed his elevation but seven days, when assassination terminated his earthly being. Wallia, who by the suffrages of the Goths succeeded to the throne, restored Placidia to her brother Honorius. The reign of the barbarians in Gaul, with their wars and their plunderings, caused for a time the ruin of those once opulent provinces.
Attila the Hun, to whom we have alluded, with an innumerable horde of the ferocious warriors, invaded Italy, everywhere perpetrating atrocious acts of cruelty. The barbarians massacred their prisoners, inflicting upon them inhuman tortures, apparently from the mere love of cruelty. Two hundred beautiful young maidens were exposed to every cruelty which savage ingenuity could devise. Their bodies were torn asunder by wild horses, and their mutilated limbs left unburied. Attila overran the rich plains of Lombardy, and established himself in the palace of Milan. The senate of Rome, terror-stricken, sent an embassage to implore peace of the barbarian. Attila demanded the Princess Honoria, daughter of the Emperor Valentinian, for his bride, and one-half of the kingdom of Italy as her dowry. While negotiations were pending, and Honoria was trembling in anticipation of her dreadful doom, the fierce Hun ravaged large portions of Gaul and Italy at the head of half a million of warriors as fierce and merciless as wolves.