No More Learning

The Saxon Chronicle is our only authority for two stories dealing
with the early history of the kingdoms of Sussex and Wessex. The
foundation of the former kingdom is attributed to a certain Aelle, who
is said to have landed in 477. This person is mentioned by Bede as the
first king who gained a hegemony (imperium) over the neighbouring
English kings, though he gives no account of his exploits and assigns no
date for his reign. The foundation of the kingdom of Wessex is attri-
buted in the Chronicle to a certain Cerdic and his son Cynric, who are
said to have arrived about forty years after Hengest and to have


## p. 383 (#413) ############################################

375–630]
Other accounts. Probable date
383
eventually established their position after a number of conflicts with
the Britons. This story is connected, according to the same authority,
with the occupation of the Isle of Wight, which is said to have been
given by Cerdic to his nephews Stuf and Wihtgar (530).
It is difficult to determine how much historical fact underlies these
stories. Little value can be attached to the dates given in the Saxon
Chronicle. It is clear too that we have to deal with an aetiological
element, especially in the West Saxon story. Indeed this story is the
most suspicious of the three. In making Cynric the son of Cerdic the
account is at variance even with the genealogy contained in the Chronicle
itself, while it is also very curious that Cerdic, the founder of the kingdom,
bears what appears to be a Welsh name.
The only reference to the invasion which can be regarded as in any
way contemporary occurs in an anonymous Gaulish Chronicle' which
comes to an end in the year 452. It is there stated that in 441-2
after many disasters the provinces of Britain were subdued by the Saxons.
This date would appear to be irreconcilable with that given by Bede
for the arrival of Hengest, and the discrepancy has given rise to a
good deal of discussion. Yet another date 428-9 is given by an entry
in the Historia Brittonum, the source of which cannot be traced.
The difference in all these cases is of comparatively little moment.
Some scholars however hold that the invasions began at a much earlier
time, during the latter half of the fourth century. The authority
of the passage in the Historia Brittonum which states that the
Saxons came in 375 can hardly be upheld. More importance is perhaps
to be attached to the fact that part of the coast of Britain is called
Litus Saxonicum in the Notitia Dignitatum, which was drawn up in the
early years of the fifth century; as this may indicate that Saxon
settlements had already taken place in this island. Yet if this be so
these Saxons must have been subject to the Roman authorities. Whether
they had any connexion with Hengest's invasion we have no means of
determining
The first reference to the Saxons occurs in a work dating from the
middle of the second century A. D. , namely the Geography of Ptolemy
(11. 11. $ 8), in which they are said to occupy the neck of the Cimbric
Peninsula (presumably the region which now forms the province of
Schleswig), together with three islands off its west coast. The Angles
are mentioned half a century earlier by Tacitus in his Germania (cap. 40).
No precise indication is given of their position, but they are clearly
represented as a maritime people and the connexion in which their name
1 This Chronicle is printed by Mommsen in M. G. H. Tom. IX. He ascribes
its authorship to a monk of the south of France, perhaps of Marseilles, owing to
the commendation of Bishop Proculus contained in it. There are other references
to Britain in this Chronicle, which are apparently original, including a notice of
victories won by Maximus over the Picts and Scots.
CH. XIII.


## p. 384 (#414) ############################################

384
The Invaders. Early notices
occurs would suggest the Baltic coast, though Tacitus appears to have
little knowledge of that region. Such indications as are given are
perfectly compatible with the traditions of later times, which place the
original home of the Angles on the east coast of Schleswig. To the
Jutes we have no reference earlier than the sixth century.
The Saxons no doubt belonged to the same stock as the Old Saxons
of the Continent. In the fourth century we find this people settled in
the district between the lower Elbe and the Zuiderzee. According to
.
their own traditions they had come thither by sea, and certainly we have
no evidence of their presence in that region during the first century,
when it was well known to the Romans and frequently traversed by
their armies. Whether the Saxons who invaded Britain came from the
peninsula or from the region west of the Elbe cannot be decided with
certainty, but since they appear to have been practically indistinguishable
from the Angles the former alternative seems more probable. In any
case they were a maritime people and their piratical ravages are frequently
mentioned from the close of the third century onwards.
The Angles, on the other hand, are never mentioned by Roman
writers from the time of Tacitus until the sixth century, when they
were settled in Britain. In their case however we have certain heroic
traditions which appear to have been preserved independently both in
England and Denmark. These traditions centre round an old king
named Wermund and his son Offa, of whom the latter is said to have
won great glory in a single combat, the scene of which was fixed by
Danish tradition at Rendsburg on the Eider. From him the Mercian
royal family traced their descent, while the royal family of Wessex
claimed to derive their origin from a certain Wig the son of Freawine,
both of whom according to Danish tradition were governors of Schleswig
under the kings above mentioned. The date indicated by the genealogies
for the reigns of these kings is the latter half of the fourth century.
It is a much debated question whether the Jutes who settled in
Britain came from Jutland. In the course of the sixth century we hear
twice of a people of this name which came into conflict with the Franks,
probably in western Germany, but it is by no means impossible that
this also was a case of invasion from Jutland.
The same
probably occurs also in connexion with the heroic story of Finn and
Hengest, with regard to which our information is unfortunately very
defective.
We have no satisfactory evidence of any linguistic differences between
the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. The divergencies of dialect which appear
in our earliest records are at first only slight and such as may very well
have
grown up
after the invasion of Britain. The language as a whole
must be pronounced homogeneous, its nearest affinities being with the
Frisian dialects. Nor with regard to customs or institutions have we
any evidence of a distinction between the Angles and Saxons. On the
name


## p. 385 (#415) ############################################

Language of the Invaders.
Their civilisation
385
other hand the Kentish laws exhibit a marked divergence from those of
the other kingdoms, in respect of the constitution of society, a diver-
gence which can scarcely have come into existence subsequent to the
invasion. We have no information with regard to the characteristics
of the Hampshire Jutes.
It
may be doubted whether all those who took part in the invasion
of Britain belonged to the three nationalities which we have been
discussing. The attempts made from time to time to trace the presence
of settlers belonging to other peoples cannot be pronounced successful,
and when Procopius speaks of Frisians inhabiting our island together
with Angles and Britons it is possible that he may mean either the
Jutes or the Saxons. Yet considering the numbers which must have
been required for such an undertaking, it is highly probable that the
invading forces were augmented by adventurers from all the regions
bordering on the North Sea, perhaps even from districts more remote.
With regard to the state of civilisation attained by the maritime
Teutonic peoples at the period when these settlements took place, a good
deal of information is afforded by their earliest cemeteries in this country
as well as by others on the opposite side of the North Sea. Amongst
the latter perhaps the most important is that of Borgstedterfeld near
Rendsburg, where the remains found shew much affinity to those
discovered in this country. Much is also to be learnt from the great
bog-deposits at Thorsbjaerg and Nydam in the east of Schleswig, the
latter of which appears to be only slightly earlier than the cemetery of
Borgstedterfeld. In a district slightly more remote, at Vi in Fyen, a
still larger deposit has been found dating from about the same period.
Among the most interesting objects found at Nydam were two clinker-
built boats about seventy feet long which are preserved practically
complete. A very large number of weapons were also found in this and
the other deposits. At Nydam were found 550 spears and 106 swords,
a large number of which bear the marks of Roman provincial workshops.
At Vi was discovered a complete coat of mail containing twenty thousand
rings. Fragments of such articles together with silver and bronze helmets
were found at Thorsbjaerg. This deposit also yielded some articles of
clothing in a fair state of preservation, among them cloaks, coats, long
trousers and shoes. Taken together the evidence of the various deposits
shews conclusively not only that the warriors of the period were armed
in a manner not substantially improved upon for many centuries
afterwards, but also that certain arts, such as that of weaving, had been
carried to a high degree of perfection.
The form of writing employed by the invaders of Britain was the
Runic alphabet. The origin of this is uncertain, but it was widely used
by the inhabitants of Scandinavian countries from perhaps the fourth
century A. D. until late in the Middle Ages. A few early inscriptions
have been found in Germany. In England itself we have scarcely any
C. MED. H. VOL. I. CH. XIII.
25


## p. 386 (#416) ############################################

386
Archaeological and Literary evidence
inscriptions dating from the first two centuries after the invasion, but
in the seventh century the Mercian kings engraved their coins with it,
and about the same time and perhaps down to the end of the eighth
century it was used on sepulchral monuments in Northumbria as well as
on various small articles found in different parts of the country.
It may be noted that inscriptions in the same alphabet were found in
the deposits at Thorsbjaerg and Nydam and also on one of the two
magnificent horns found at Gallehus in Jutland, which perhaps represent
the highest point reached by the art of the period.
Apart from this archaeological evidence a considerable amount of
information may be derived from the remains of ancient heroic poetry.
For although these poems, as we have them, date only from the seventh
century, there is no reason for supposing that the civilisation which they
portray differs substantially from that of a century or two earlier. The
weapons and other articles which they describe appear to be identical in
type with those found in the deposits already mentioned, while the dead
are disposed of by cremation, a practice which apparently went out of
use during the sixth century. The poems are essentially court works,
and scanty as they unfortunately are, they give us a vivid picture of the
court life of the period with which they deal. This period is substantially
that of the Conquest of Britain, namely, from the fourth to the sixth
century, but it is a remarkable fact that these works never mention
Britain itself and very seldom persons of English nationality. The
scene of Beowulf is laid in Denmark and Sweden and the characters
belong to the same regions, while Waldhere is concerned with the
Burgundians and their neighbours. Many of these characters can be
traced in German and Norse literature, and the evidence seems to point
to the existence of a widespread court poetry which we may perhaps
almost describe as international.
Concerning the religion of the invading peoples little can be stated
with certainty. Almost all that we know of Teutonic mythology comes
from Icelandic sources, and it is difficult to determine how much of this
was peculiar to Iceland and how much was common to Scandinavian
countries and to the Teutonic nations in general. The English evidence
unfortunately is particularly scanty. However there is little doubt that
the chief divinity among the military class was Woden, from whom
most of the royal families claimed to be descended. Thunor, presumably
the Thunder-God, may be traced in many place-names and Ti (Tiw) is
found in glosses as a translation of Mars. All these deities together
with Frig have left a record of themselves in the names of the days of
the week. The East Saxon royal family claimed descent from a certain
Seaxneat who appears to have been a divinity. There is evidence also
of belief in elves, valkyries and other supernatural beings.
On their forms of worship we have scarcely any more information.
In Northumbria at any rate there seems to have been a special class of


## p. 387 (#417) ############################################

Religion. Calendar. Agriculture
387
priests who were not allowed to bear arms or to ride except on mares.
Sanctuaries are occasionally mentioned, but we do not know whether
these were temples or merely sacred groves. A number of religious
festivals are also recorded by Bede, especially during the winter months.
It may be remarked in passing that the calendar appears to have been of
the “modified lunar” type with an intercalary month added from time
to time. The year is said to have begun-approximately, we must
presume—at the winter solstice. There are some indications however
which suggest that at an earlier period it may have begun after the
harvest.
There is no doubt that the invading peoples possessed a highly
developed system of agriculture long before they landed in this country.
Many agricultural implements have been found among the bog-deposits
in Schleswig. Representations of ploughing operations occur in rock-
carvings in Bohuslän (Sweden) which date from the Bronze Age, at least
a thousand years earlier than the invasion. All the ordinary cereals
were well known and cultivated, though on the other hand the system of
cultivation followed in this country was probably a continuation of that
which had previously been employed here. There is no evidence that
the heavy plough with eight oxen was used before the invasion by the
conquerors. The water-mill doubtless first became known to them
in Britain, and for ages afterwards it failed to oust the quern. In
horticulture the advance made was very great: the names of practically
all vegetables and fruits are derived from Latin, and though the
knowledge of a few of their names may have filtered through from the
Rhine provinces, there can be little doubt that the great bulk were first
acquired in this country.
These considerations bring us to the much disputed question as to
what became of the native population. The insignificance of the British
element in the English language is scarcely explicable unless the invaders
came over in very large numbers. On the other hand, many scholars
have probably gone too far in supposing that the native population was
entirely blotted out. British records say that they were massacred or
enslaved. In later times, i. e. in the eleventh century, the number of
slaves in England was not great, but it is not safe to infer that such was
the case four or five centuries earlier. Indeed the little evidence that
we have on this question suggests that in some districts at least they
were a very numerous class. There can be little doubt at all events that
the first invasions were essentially of a military character. Attempts
have been made to trace in various quarters settlements of kindreds
especially from the occurrence of place-names with the suffixes -ingas,
-ingatun, etc. , but the evidence is at best exceedingly ambiguous.
Among the Scandinavians who took part in the great invasion of 866
we can trace various grades of officials (corlas, holdas, etc. ) between whom
the land appears to have been partitioned, and although we have no
CH. XIII.
25-2


## p. 388 (#418) ############################################

388
Probable nature and course of the Invasion (552–866
a
contemporary evidence of what took place in the Saxon invasion, there
is a prima facie probability that a similar course was followed. To the
present writer it seems incredible that so great an undertaking as the
invasion of Britain should have been accomplished without the employ-
ment of large and organised forces. The earliest records we possess
furnish abundant evidence for the existence of a very numerous military
class of different grades, while the provincial government appears to
have been vested in the hands of royal officials and not in popular bodies.
From archaeological evidence and from the character of local
nomenclature we can to a certain extent determine the area occupied
by the invaders at various periods, although very much remains to be
done in these fields of investigation. Thus the practice of cremation is
found in early cemeteries in the valley of the Trent and in various parts
of the Thames valley as far west as Brighthampton in Oxfordshire,
but there is scarcely any evidence for its employment further to the
west. In local nomenclature again changes may be observed—thus
the proportion of place-names ending in the suffix -ham to those ending
in the suffix -ton decreases as we proceed from east to west. So far
as the evidence is at present collected it would seem to indicate that
the eastern and south-eastern counties, together with the banks of the
large rivers for some distance inland, shew an earlier type of Saxon
nomenclature than the rest of the country. But it is highly probable
that as in the case of the invasion of 866 a much larger area was
ravaged by the invaders than was actually settled by them at first.
The account of the invasion given by Gildas, vague as it unfortunately
is, points distinctly to the same conclusion. He speaks in the first place
of a time when the country was harried far and wide, when the cities
were spoiled, and the inhabitants slain or enslaved. Then came a time
when the natives under Ambrosius Aurelianus began to offer a more
effective resistance, from which time forward war continued with varying
success until the siege of Mons Badonicus. From the time of that
siege until the date when Gildas wrote, the Britons had had no serious
trouble from the invaders, though faction was rife among themselves.
Unfortunately he supplies us with no means of dating the course of
events with certainty except that apparently the period of comparative
peace had lasted forty-four years. The Cambrian Annals date the siege
of Mons Badonicus in 518, but they also date in 549 the death of Maelgwn
king of Gwynedd who is mentioned by Gildas as alive. The majority
of scholars accept the latter of these dates and reject the former, placing
the date of the siege towards the end of the fifth century. The evidence
of Gildas then on the whole leads us to conclude that the Conquest of
Britain may be divided into two distinct periods. The first occupied
some fifty years from the beginning of the invasion, while the second can
hardly have begun much before the middle of the sixth century.
Among the invaders themselves a number of separate kingdoms


## p. 389 (#419) ############################################

552–688] The English kingdoms. Growth of Wessex
389
arose.
It is commonly held that these kingdoms were the outcome of
separate invasions, but no evidence is forthcoming in favour of such a
view, and it seems at least as likely that several of them arose out of
subsequent divisions, as was the case after the Scandinavian invasion in
the ninth century. The kingdoms which we find actually existing in
our earliest historical records are ten in number: (1) Kent, (2) Sussex,
(3) Essex, (4) Wessex, (5) East Anglia, (6) Mercia, (7) Hwicce, (8) Deira,
(9) Bernicia, (10) Isle of Wight. There are traces also of a kingdom
in the district between Mercia, Middle Anglia, East Anglia and Essex
—perhaps Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire—while from Lindsey we
have what appears to be the genealogy of a royal family. There is no
clear evidence that Middlesex and Surrey were separate kingdoms at any
time, though (if certain disputed charters are genuine) the latter was
under a ruler who styled himself subregulus in the latter part of the
seventh century. The balance of probability is in favour of the view
that both these provinces originally formed part of Essex.
We have already mentioned that little value is to be attached to the
dates given for the foundation and early progress of the kingdom of
Wessex. They are apparently quite incompatible with the testimony of
Gildas. Moreover that part of the story which relates to the Isle of
Wight is difficult to reconcile with Bede's account, since it altogether
ignores the existence of Jutish settlements in this quarter. According
to Bede the Isle of Wight retained a dynasty of its own until the time
of Ceadwalla (685-688), by whom it was mercilessly ravaged. The
Chronicle states, as we have seen, that the island was given by Cerdic to
his nephews Stuf and Wihtgar and barely mentions the devastations of
Ceadwalla. Further, according to Bede, the greater part of the coast
of Hampshire was occupied by Jutes. These likewise are ignored by
the Chronicle, which seems to imply that the West Saxon invasion
started from this quarter. In view of these difficulties some scholars
have been inclined to suspect that the annals dealing with the early
part of the West Saxon invasion are entirely of a fictitious character,
and that the West Saxon invaders really spread from a different quarter,
perhaps the valley of the Thames, and at a later date than that assigned
by the Chronicle. It is to be hoped that in the future archaeological
research may throw light on this difficult question.
The difficulties presented by Gildas cease when we reach the middle
of the sixth century. From this time onwards, although we have no
means of checking them, the entries in the Chronicle may be records
of real events which took place approximately at the times assigned to
them. The first entry of this series is the account of a fight between
Cynric and the Britons at Salisbury in 552: the second records a
similar conflict in 556 at Beranburg, which has been identified with
Barbury Camp near Swindon. In 560 Cynric is said to have been
succeeded by Ceawlin, who in 568 had a successful encounter with
CH. XIII.


## p. 390 (#420) ############################################

390
The Hwicce. .
Mercia. Deira
[571-615
Aethelberht king of Kent. In 571 another prince apparently West
Saxon, by name Cuthwulf, fought with the Britons at a place called
Bedcanford, commonly supposed to be Bedford, and gained possession
of Bensington, Aylesbury, Eynsham and perhaps Lenborough. If we are
to trust this entry it would seem to mean that Buckinghamshire and
Oxfordshire were conquered by the West Saxons at this time. In 577
Ceawlin and another West Saxon prince named Cuthwine are said to
have fought against the Britons at Deorham (identified with Dyrham
in Gloucestershire) and gained possession of Bath, Cirencester and
Gloucester.
Ceawlin is the first West Saxon king mentioned by Bede. The same
historian states that he was the first English king after Aelle, whose
overlordship (imperium) was recognised by the other kings. We need
not doubt that the records of his victories have some solid foundation,
About a century later we find in the basins of the Severn and Avon, in
Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and part of Warwickshire, the kingdom
of the Hwicce with a dynasty of its own which lasted down to the time
of Offa. This kingdom can hardly have come into existence before
Ceawlin's successful westward movements, but we have no information
as to its origin, as to the date when it was separated from Wessex, or
whether its dynasty was a branch of the West Saxon royal family.
In the basin of the Trent both north and south of that river lay the
Mercian kingdom, the name of which seems to imply that it grew out
of frontier settlements. Its royal family traced its descent from the
ancient kings of Angel, but we do not know whether the kingdom
itself was due to an independent movement, or whether like that of the
Hwicce it was an offshoot from one or more eastern kingdoms. The
first king of whom we have any definite record is a certain Cearl who
flourished early in the seventh century and married his daughter to the
Northumbrian king Edwin. Eventually the kingdom of Mercia absorbed
all its immediate neighbours, Lindsey, Middle Anglia and Hwicce,
together with parts of Essex and Wessex. In the sixth century however
it was probably of comparatively limited extent. Chester appears to
have remained in possession of the Britons until about the year 615,
and it is scarcely probable that the western districts of the Wreocensaete
and Magasaete, corresponding to the present counties of Shropshire and
Herefordshire, were occupied until still later.
To the north of the Humber we find the two kingdoms of Deira and
Bernicia. Concerning the former, which appears to have coincided with
the eastern half of Yorkshire, we have very little information. The first
king of whom we have record is a certain Aelle who was reigning at the
time when Gregory met with English slave-boys in Rome (585–8).
The
date given for his reign by the Chronicle (560-588) cannot be trusted.
Eventually this kingdom came into the hands of the Bernician king
Aethelfrith, who married Aelle's daughter. If we are to believe the


## p. 391 (#421) ############################################

547-605] Bernicia and Aethelfrith. Aethelberht of Kent 391
account given in the Historia Brittonum that Aethelfrith reigned twelve
years in Deira, the date of this event would be about 605. The western
part of Yorkshire appears to have been known as Elmet and to have
remained in British hands until the reign of Edwin.
The northernmost kingdom founded by the invaders in Britain was
that of Bernicia. Ida, from whom subsequent kings claimed descent, is
said to have begun to reign in 547. After his death, which took place
twelve years later, he was followed by several of his sons in swift
succession. Of these the most important was Theodric, who according
to ancient chronological computation reigned from about 572 to about
579. The Historia Brittonum relates that he fought against several
British kings, amongst them Urien who appears in ancient Welsh
poetry, and Rhydderch Hen, who as we know from Adamnan's Life of
St Columba reigned at Dumbarton. On one occasion the Britons are
said to have besieged Theodric in Lindisfarne. The chief centre of the
Bernician kingdom appears to have been Bamborough, but we have
no occasion to suppose that it attained to any great dimensions or
significance until the reign of Aethelfrith. He seems to have become
king in 592-3, and is said by Bede to have harried the Britons more
than any other English prince. The chief exploits for which his name
has been handed down are firstly his encounter with the Dalriadic king
Aedan who came against him probably in support of the Britons in 603,
and secondly the massacre of the Britons at Chester about twelve years
later. The former of these events is said to have occurred at a place called
Degsastan. If this place is rightly identified with Dawston in Liddesdale,
it would seem that the Bernician kingdom had already extended some
distance into what is now Scotland; but its northern and western
boundaries must be regarded as very uncertain at the time of which we
are speaking
Aethelfrith's successes had the effect of placing the later Northumbrian
kings in a position of superiority to their southern rivals. At the close
of the sixth century however the chief English ruler was Aethelberht of
Kent, whose authority was recognised by all the more southern kings.
The precise nature of the imperium which he exercised has been much
disputed, but we can hardly doubt that it implied some such recogni-
tion of personal overlordship as we find in later times, for example, in
the relations of the northern princes with Edward the Elder. His power
too was sufficient to guarantee a safe conduct to foreign missionaries as
far as the western border of Wessex. He married the Christian Berhta
(Bertha), daughter of the Frankish prince Chariberht, and shortly before
the close of the century was confronted by Augustine who had been sent
to Britain by Gregory the Great. This event had far-reaching conse-
quences in the history of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, which will be
described in a later chapter of this work.
CH. XIII.


## p. 392 (#422) ############################################

392
CHAPTER XIV.
ITALY AND THE WEST, 410-476.
The process of history in the Western Empire, during the period
which lies between the death of Alaric (410) and the fall of Romulus
Augustulus (476), is towards the establishment of Teutonic kingdoms,
partly displacing and partly embracing the old local administration
within their boundaries, but as a rule remaining in some sort of
nominal connexion with the imperial system itself. In the course of
this process, therefore, the imperial scheme, in which the invading
barbarians take a regular place under the name of foederati, still
survives, along with much of the old provincial machinery, which they
find too useful to be disturbed ; but while much that is old survives,
much is also added which is new. Germanic tribes, with their kings and
their dooms, their moots and their fyrds, settle bodily on the soil, as
new forces in the domain of politics and economics, of religion and of
law. The Latinised provincial pays a new allegiance to the tribal
king: the Roman possessor has to admit the tribesmen as his “guests
on part of his lands; the Catholic priest is forced to reconcile himself to the
Arianism, which these tribes had inherited from the days of Ulfila; and
the Roman jurist, if he can still occupy himself by reducing the Codex
Theodosianus into a Breviarium Alaricianum, must also admit the
entrance of strange Leges Barbarorum into the field of jurisprudence.
This process of history may be said to have entered on its effective
stage in the West with Alaric's invasion of Italy. But it had been
present, as a potentiality and a menace, for many years before Alaric
heard the voice that drew him steadily towards Rome. The frontier-
war along the limes was as old as the second century. The pressure of the
population of the German forests upon the Roman world was so ancient
and inveterate, and so much of that population had in one way or
another entered the Empire for so long a period, that when the barrier
finally broke, the flood came as no cataclysm, but as something which
was almost in the natural order of things. There may have been move-
ments in Central Asia which explain the final breach of the Roman
barriers ; but even without invoking the Huns to our aid, we can see
that at the beginning of the fifth century the Germans would finally


## p. 393 (#423) ############################################

376–476]
The Barbarians and the Empire
393
have passed the limes, and the Romans at last have failed to stem their
advance, owing to the simple operation of causes which had long been
at work on either side. Among the Germans population had grown by
leaps and bounds, while subsistence had increased in less than an arith-
metical ratio; and the necessity of finding a quieta patria, an unthreatened
territory of sufficient size and productivity, with an ancient tradition of
more intensive culture than they had themselves attained, had become
for them a matter of life and death. Among the Romans population
had decayed for century after century, and the land had gone steadily
out of cultivation, until nature herself seemed to have created the
vacuum into which, in time, she inevitably attracted the Germans. The
rush begins with the passage of the Danube by the Goths in 376, and
is continued in the passage of the Rhine by the Vandals, Alans, and
Sueves in 406. A hundred years after the passage of the Danube the
final result of the movement begins to appear in the West. The
praefecture of Gaul now sees in each of its three former dioceses Teutonic
kingdoms established—Saxons and Jutes in the Britains ; Visigoths
(under their great king Euric) in the Seven Provinces of Gaul proper ;
Sueves (along with Visigoths) in the Spains. In the praefecture of Italy
two of the three dioceses are under powerful barbarian rulers: Odovacar
has just made himself king of Italy, and Gaiseric has long been king of
Africa ; while the diocese of Illyricum is still in the melting-pot.
If we regard the movement of events from 410 to 476 internally,
and from a Roman point of view, we shall find in the domestic
politics of the period much that is the natural correlative of the Völker-
wanderung without. Already, in the very beginning of this period, and
indeed long before, the barbarian has settled in every part of the
Empire, and among every class of society. Masses of barbarians have
been attached to the soil as cultivators (inquilini), to fill the gaps in the
population and reclaim the derelict soil: masses, again, have entered the
army, until it has become almost predominantly German. Barbarian
cultivators and soldiers thus formed the basis of the pyramid; but
barbarians might also climb to the apex. Under Theodosius I, who
had made it his policy to cultivate the friendship of the barbarians, the
Frank Arbogast already appears as magister militiae, and attempts, like
Ricimer afterwards, to use his office for the purpose of erecting a puppet
as emperor. He fell before Theodosius in the battle of the Frigidus
(394); but the Vandal Stilicho (to whom he is said to have commended
the care of his children and the defence of the Empire) was the heir of
his position, and Stilicho had for successor Aëtius—the “last of the
Romans,” but also the friend of the Huns—as Aëtius was succeeded in
turn by Ricimer the Sueve. It is these barbaric or semi-barbaric figures,
vested with the office of commander-in-chief of the troops of the West,
which form the landmarks in the history of the fifth century; and we
should be most true to reality if we distinguished the divisions of this
:
CH. XIV.


## p. 394 (#424) ############################################

394
The Magister Militiae
( 395—454
period not by the regna of an Honorius or a Valentinian, but by the
magisteria of Constantius, Aëtius, and Ricimer. These “empire-
"
destroying saviours of the Western Empire” were in reality the prime
ministers of their generation, prime ministers resting not on a parliament
(though they might, like Stilicho, affect to rely on the Senate), but on
their control of a barbarian soldiery. Their power depended, partly on
their influence with this wild force, which the Empire at once needed
and dreaded, partly on the fact that the nominal representatives of
imperial rule were weaklings or boys, whose court was under the influence
of women and eunuchs; but the de facto position which they held was
also sanctioned, since the time of Theodosius, by something of a legal
guarantee. Treating the West, after the battle of the Frigidus, as a
conquered territory, whose main problem was certain to be that of
military defence, Theodosius had left it under the nominal rule of his
son, but under the real government of Stilicho; and in his hands he had
combined the two commands of infantry and cavalry, which in the East
continued to remain distinct. In this position of magister utriusque
militiae (already anticipated for a time by Arbogast), Stilicho, and his
successors who inherited the title, controlled at once the imperial infantry
and cavalry, along with the fleets on seas and on rivers: they supervised
the barbaric settlements within the Empire; and they nominated the
heads of the staffs of subordinate officers. As imperial generalissimo, in
an age of military exigencies, the barbarian magister militiae was the
ultimate sovereign; and the title of patricius, sometimes united with the
name of parens, which in the fifth century came to be applied peculiarly
to the “master of the troops,” proclaimed his sovereignty to the world'.
Dependent upon barbarian troops, and himself often of barbarian
origin, the policy of the “master of the troops” towards the barbarians
outside the pale, who sought to enter the Empire, was bound to be
dubious. Orosius practically accuses Stilicho of complicity with Alaric,
and certainly charges him with the invitation of the Vandals, Alans and
Sueves into Gaul in 406: Aëtius was for years the friend of the Huns :
Ricimer was apparently not averse to inciting the Visigoths to war
against a Roman commander in Gaul. Inevitably, therefore, a Roman
party formed itself in opposition to the master of the troops, a party
curiously uniting within its ranks the senate, the eunuchs of the court,
and some jealous soldier with his followers. The result would be a coup
d'état, such as those of 408 or 454 ; but inevitably a new magister
succeeds to the assassinated Stilicho or Aëtius, and if the struggle still
continues to be waged (as for instance between Anthemius and Ricimer),
its predestined end—the foundation of a kingdom of Italy by some real
1 Priscus, as Freeman noticed in his article on Aëtius and Boniface, speaks of
“ Aëtius and the emperor of the West” as sending an embassy to the Huns-
recognising the de facto sovereignty of the magister militum (Müller, Fragm. Hist.
Graec. iv. p. 85).


## p. 395 (#425) ############################################

395–471]
The Western and Eastern Empires
395
or virtual generalissimo—draws constantly nearer.
In the course of this
struggle religious motives apparently intertwine themselves with the
underlying motive of racial feeling. Stilicho would seem to have stood
for toleration : and a Catholic reaction, headed by the Court, followed
upon his fall, and gave to the episcopate an increase of jurisdiction,
while it banished all enemies of the faith from the imperial service.
Yet Litorius, the lieutenant of Aëtius, put his trust" in the responses of
seers and the monitions of demons” as late as 439: Ricimer, though no
pagan, was an Arian. The extreme orthodoxy of the Court of Ravenna,
contrasted with the dubious faith of the soldiery and its leaders, must
thus have helped to whet the intensity of party strife.
In the period which we are to consider, it would thus appear that
the great feature, from an external point of view, is the occupation of
successive portions of the Western Empire by barbaric kings, of whom
the greatest is Gaiseric, the hero of the last scene of the Wandering
of the Nations, who links by his subtle policy the various enemies of
the Empire into one system of attack; while internally the dominant
factor is the transmutation of the Diocletian autocracy into a quasi-
constitutional monarchy, in which the last members of the Theodosian
house sink into empereurs fainéants, and the commander-in-chief
becomes, as it were, a mayor of the palace. Yet another feature in
external policy is the relation of the Western Emperors to those of the
East, and other features deserving of notice in internal development are
the growth of the Papacy, and the new importance from time to time
assumed by the Senate.
Upon the Eastern Empire the West is again and again forced to
rely. The Eastern Emperors give the West its rulers-Valentinian III,
Anthemius, Nepos; or in any case they give a legitimate title to the
rulers whom the West, in one way or another, has found for itself. Not
only so, but upon occasion they give to the West the succour, which
again and again it is forced to beg in the course of its struggle with the
Vandals. Theoretically, as always, the unity of the Empire persists :
there is still one Empire, with two joint rulers. But in practice, after
395, there are two separate States with separate policies and separate
lines of development; and both Priscus in the East, and Sidonius
Apollinaris in the West, acknowledge the fact of the separation? . In
these separate States there is, indeed, much that is parallel. The East
has to face the Huns and the Goths equally with the West; like the
West, it has its barbarian magistri militiae (with the great difference,
however, that there are generally two concurrent magistri to weaken each
other by their rivalry) and the Eastern Emperor has to deal with
Aspar in 471, as Valentinian III had dealt with Aëtius in 454. In
both Empires, again, the house of Theodosius became extinct at much
1 See Priscus, frag. 30 in Müller (F. H. G. iv. p. 104); Sidon. Apoll. Carm. 11. 65.
CH. XIV.


## p. 396 (#426) ############################################

396
The Growth of the Papacy
[408–476
the same time. But here the parallel ends. In the West the death
of Valentinian III was followed by the rule of the emperor-makers
(Ricimer, Gundobad and Orestes), and by a succession of nine emperors
in twenty-one years : in the East new and powerful emperors arose, who
found the office of “master of the troops” far weaker than in the West, and
were able, by the alliance they formed with the Isaurians, to discover in
their own realms a substitute and an antidote for barbaric auxiliaries,
and thus to prolong the existence of their Empire for a thousand
years. Meanwhile ecclesiastical development confirmed the separation
and widened the differences between the two Empires. While Eastern
theologians pursued their metaphysical inquiries into the unity of the
Godhead, a new school of churchmanship, of a legal rather than a
metaphysical complexion, arose in the West under the influence of
St Augustine; and the growth of the Papacy, especially under the rule
of Leo I (440-461), gave to this new school a dogmatic arbiter and
an administrative ruler of its own.
The development of the Papacy, like the new vigour which the
Senate occasionally displays, is largely the result of the decadence of
the Western Emperors and of their seclusion in the marshes of
Ravenna. The pietism of the Court, under the influence of Placidia,
helped to confirm a power, which its withdrawal to Ravenna had already
begun to establish ; while the victories of Pope Leo over heresies in
Italy, his successful interference against Monophysitism in the East, and
the prestige of his mission to Attila in 451 and his mediation with
Gaiseric in 455, contributed to the increase both of his ecclesiastical
power and of his political influence. Meanwhile the bishops, every.
where in the West, tended to become the leading figures in their
dioceses. The constitutions of 408 gave them civil jurisdiction in their
dioceses and the power of enforcing the laws against heresy. In the
chief town of his diocese each bishop gradually came to discharge the
duties, even if he did not assume the office, of the defensor civitatis; and
wherever a barbarian kingdom was established, the bishop was a natural
mediator between the conquerors and their subjects.
The new importance assumed by the Senate in the course of the fifth
century is evident both at Constantinople and at Rome. During the
minority of Theodosius II it is chiefly the Senate of Constantinople which
aids the regent Pulcheria and her minister Anthemius, the praetorian
praefect, in the conduct of affairs ; and though the Roman Senate hardly
exerts any continuous influence, again and again in times of crisis it
helps to determine the course of events. The autocracy consolidated
by Diocletian begins to revert to the original dyarchy of princeps and
senatus which Augustus had founded. In the early years of the fifth
century, partly in the later years of Stilicho, who made it his policy
to favour the Senate, and partly during the interregnum in the effective
exercise of the office of magister militiae, which lasted from the fall of


## p. 397 (#427) ############################################

411–472]
The Position of the Senate
397
a
Stilicho till the appearance of Constantius (411), it had shewn con-
siderable activity ; but the period of its greatest influence covers the last
twenty-five years of the Western Empire. It was with two of the chief
senators that Pope Leo went to meet Attila in 451: it was before the
Senate that Valentinian defended himself for the assassination of Aëtius
in 454. The assassination of Valentinian himself was followed by the
accession of Maximus, a member of the great senatorial family of the
Anicii; and it has even been suggested that the accession of Maximus
perhaps indicates an attempt of the Anicii to establish a new govern-
ment in the West, independent of Constantinople and resting on the
support of the Senate. Maximus fell; but his successor, Avitus, who
came to the throne by the support of a Gallo-Roman party, was resisted
by the Senate, and fell in his turn. The accession of the next emperor,
Majorian, is at any rate in form a triumph for the Senate ; in his first
constitution Majorian thanks the Senate for letting its choice fall upon
him, and promises to govern by its advice. But the reign of Anthemius
(467-472) seems to mark the zenith of senatorial power. It was the
appeal of the Senate to Constantinople which led to his accession; during
his reign the Senate is powerful enough to try and condemn Arvandus,
the praetorian praefect of Gaul, on a charge of treason; and in the civil
war which precedes his fall, the Senate takes his side against his adver-
sary Ricimer. Thus, in the paralysis of the imperial authority, the
Senate stands side by side, and sometimes face to face, with the military
power, as the representative of public authority and civil order. Its
effective power is indeed little; the sword is too strong and too keen
for that; but at any rate, in the agonies of the Empire, it behaves not
unworthily of its secular tradition. And indeed in still other ways
one cannot but feel that the end of Rome was not unworthy of herself.
Her last work in her age-long task of ruling the peoples was to give
into the hands of the Teutonic tribes her structure of law and her
system of administration : to the one, as late as 438, the Codex
Theodosianus had just been added, while the other was being reformed
and purified as late as the days of the last real Emperor of the West,
Majorian. So Rome handed on the torch, as it were, newly trimmed;
and though we must admit that in fact the imperial government of the
fifth century suffered from the impotence of over-centralisation, we
must also allow that she was in intention, as Professor Dill has well said,
“ probably never so anxious to check abuses of administration, or so
compassionate for the desolate and the suffering, as in the years when
her forces were being paralysed. "
The figures in the drama of the last years of the Western Empire,
which have perhaps had the greatest appeal for the imagination of the
historian, are those of Galla Placidia and of Attila. Both figures have,
indeed, a significance, which deserves some little consideration. Ravenna
still testifies to-day to the fame of Placidia ; and her name suggests the
CH. XIV.


## p. 398 (#428) ############################################

398
Placidia and Attila
[412–451
names of many others, her kinswomen and contemporaries, Pulcheria,
Eudocia, Eudoxia, and Honoria, whose influence appears, in the pages
of the Byzantine historians, to have largely determined the destinies of
their age. “It is indeed,” writes Gregorovius, “a remarkable historic
phenomenon, that in periods of decadence some female figure generally
rises into prominence”; and Professor Bury has also remarked that the
influence of women was a natural result of the new mode of palatial life
-a result which is obviously apparent in the attribution of the title of
Augusta to Eudoxia in the East and to Placidia in the West.
cannot but feel that the Byzantine historians have been led by a certain
“feminism," if it may be so called, which is characteristic of their
historiography, to attribute to women, at any rate as regards the
West, an excessive influence on the politics of the period. The fifth
century was the age of the erotic novel-of Daphnis and Chloe, of
Leucippe and Cleitophon; and it would almost appear as if Byzantine
historians had infused into their history the eroticism of contemporary
novels'. It is therefore permissible to doubt whether Honoria was
really responsible for the attack of Attila upon the West, or Eudoxia
for the sack of Rome by Gaiseric: whether Olympiodorus' account of
the relations of Honorius and Placidia after the death of Constantius is
not a play of fancy, and the story given by Joannes Antiochenus” and
Procopius of the seduction of the wife of Maximus by Valentinian III,
which led Maximus to compass his death, is not equally fanciful.
The figure of Attila owes much of its fascination to the vivid descrip-
tions which Priscus gives of his court and Jordanes of the great battle of
the Mauriac plain ; and the Nibelungenlied has added the attraction of
legend to the appeal of history. Attila has, indeed, his significance in
the history of the world. It matters little that he was vanquished in
one of the so-called “ decisive battles of the world”: if he had been the
victor on the Mauriac plain, and had lived for twenty years afterwards,
instead of two, he would none the less have fallen at last, if only the
allies who stood together in that battle had continued their alliance.
The real significance of Attila lies in the fact, that the pressure of his
Huns forced the Romans and the Teutons to recognise that the common
interest of civilisation was at stake, and thus drove them to make the
great alliance, on which the future progress of the world depended. The
fusion of Romans and Teutons, of which the marriage of Ataulf and
Placidia, as it is described in the pages of Olympiodorus, may seem to be
a harbinger, is cemented in the bloodshed of the Mauriac plain.
1 Most striking is the fragment of Malchus (Müller, F. H. G. iv. p. 117)
describing the amour of Harmatius and Zenonis. It reads like the
passage
in Dante
which tells the story of Paolo and Francesca.
2 The fragment of Joannes Antiochenus in which this story occurs (Müller,
F. H. G. iv. p. 614) contradicts another fragment, in which a totally different
version is given; and it is rejected as spurious by Bury, History of the Later
Roman Empire, 1. p. 181 n. 4.


## p. 399 (#429) ############################################

410—476]
Ataulf in Italy
399
Between the death of Alaric and the fall of Romulus Augustulus, the
progress of events may be arranged in three definite stages. A period,
which is marked by the patriciate of Constantius, begins in 410 and ends
with the death of Honorius in 423; during this period there takes place
the Visigothic settlement in the South of France. A second period,
marked by the patriciate of Aëtius, covers the reign of Valentinian III,
and ends in 455: it is the period of the Vandal settlement in Africa,
and of Hunnish inroads into Gaul and Italy. A final period, in which
the patriciate is held by Ricimer, follows upon the extinction of the
Theodosian house in the West: it ends, in the phrase of Count Mar-
cellinus, who alone seems to have realised the importance of the event,
with the “ extinction of the Western Empire of the Roman race," and
the settlement of Odovacar in Italy.
At the end of 410 Rufinus, as he wrote the preface to his translation
of the homilies of Origen in a Sicilian villa which looked across to
Reggio, saw the city in flames, and witnessed the gathering of the ships
with which Alaric was preparing to invade Africa. A little later, and
he may have seen the ships destroyed by a tempest; a little later still,
and he may have heard of Alaric's death and of his burial in the bed of
the Busento. The Gothic king was succeeded by his brother-in-law
Ataulf; and upon the doings of Ataulf, for the next two years, there
rests a cloud of darkness. We know, indeed, that he stayed in Italy till
the spring of 412; we learn from the Theodosian Code that he was in
Tuscany in 411; and we are told by Jordanes that at this time he was
spoiling Italy of public and private wealth alike, and that his Goths
stripped Rome once more, like a flock of locusts, while Honorius sat
powerless behind the walls of Ravenna—the one rock left to the
Emperor in the deluge which at this time covered Italy, Gaul, and
Spain. But the story of Jordanes is probably apocryphal. Orosius and
Olympiodorus, who are excellent contemporary authorities, both remark
on the prosperity of Rome in the years that followed on the sack of 410:
“recent as is the sack, we would think, as we look at the multitude of
the Roman people, that nothing at all had happened, were it not for
some traces of fire. ” In the face of this evidence, a second plundering of
Rome by Ataulf is improbable ; and it appears equally improbable,
when we consider the character of the new Gothic king and the natural
line of his policy. A Narbonese citizen, who had perhaps witnessed the
marriage of Ataulf to Galla Placidia in 414 at Narbonne and heard
the shouts of acclamation, from Romans and Goths alike, which hailed
the marriage festivities, reported to St Jerome at Bethlehem, in the
hearing of Orosius, the words which he had often heard fall from the lips
of Ataulf. “I have found by experience, that my Goths are too
savage to pay any obedience to laws, but I have also found, that without
laws a State is never a State ; and so I have chosen the glory of seeking
CH. XIV.


## p. 400 (#430) ############################################

400
The position in Gaul
(406–412
to restore and to increase by Gothic strength the name of Rome.
Wherefore I avoid war and strive for peace. " In 411 Ataulf had
indeed already strong motives for seeking peace. He had abandoned
the African expedition of Alaric, but he needed the supplies which that
expedition had been meant to procure, and which he could now only
gain from the Emperor; and he had in his train the captive Placidia,
the sister of Honorius, whose hand would carry the succession to her
brother's throne. To negotiate with Honorius for supplies and for
formal consent to his marriage with Placidia was thus the natural policy
of Ataulf; and in such negotiations the year 411 may have passed.
But if there were negotiations, there was no treaty? Honorius had
been strengthened by the arrival of a Byzantine fleet with an army on
board ; and he shewed himself obdurate. When Ataulf was driven
from Italy into Gaul, apparently by lack of supplies, in the spring of
412, he did not come as the friend and ally of Honorius.
In 412 Gaul was beginning to emerge from a state of whirling chaos.
The usurper within, and the barbarian from without, had divided the
country since 406. There had been two swarms of invaders, and two
different “ tyrants. ” In 406 the Vandals, Alans and Sueves had poured
into Gaul, surged to the feet of the Pyrenees, and falling back for å
while had then, with the aid of treachery, poured over the mountains
and vanished into Spain, which henceforth became the prey of “four
plagues—the sword, and famine, and pestilence, and the noisome beast”
(409). In the wake of this tide had followed an influx of Franks,
Alemanni and Burgundians; and in 411 these three peoples were still
encamped in Gaul, along the western bank of the Rhine, preparing for
a permanent settlement. The usurpation of Constantine in 406 had
synchronised with the invasion of Gaul by the Vandals, Alans and
Sueves; and indeed, the invasion was probably the result of the usur-
pation, for Stilicho would seem to have invited these peoples into Gaul,
in the hope of barring the usurper's way into Italy. In 409 a second
tyrant had arisen in Spain: Gerontius, one of Constantine's own
officers, had created a rival emperor, called Maximus ; and it was this
usurpation which had caused the invasion of Spain by the Vandals and
their allies, Gerontius having invited them into Spain, as Stilicho had
before invited them into Gaul, in order to gain their alliance in his
struggle with Constantine. In 411 Gerontius had advanced into Gaul,
L. Schmidt (Geschichte der deutschen Stämme, p. 225) thinks that Ataulf's
policy of peace was only conceived towards 414, under the influence of Placidia.
But did not Ataulf think of marrying Placidia, and therefore of “Romanising,"
from the
very
first?
2 F. Martroye (Genséric, pp. 92–3) is inclined to believe that there was a treaty:
otherwise, he thinks, Ataulf would not have had sufficient supplies to maintain
himself in Italy for the year, and Honorius would not have been able to despatch
Constantius with an army into Gaul. But the fact remains that Ataulf entered
Gaul as a free-lance, and not as a man under treaty.


## p. 401 (#431) ############################################

411-413)
Ataulf in Gaul
401
and was besieging Constantine in Arles, while Constantine was hoping
for the arrival of an army of relief from the barbarians on the Rhine.
At this moment Constantius, the new “master of the troops,” arrived in
Gaul to defend the cause of the legitimate emperor, Honorius. He
met with instant success. Gerontius was overwhelmed and perished :
.
Constantine's barbarian reinforcements were attacked and defeated ;
Constantine himself was captured, and sent to Italy for execution. By
the end of 411 Gaul was clear of both usurpers; and the Roman general
stood face to face with the Franks, Alemanni and Burgundians, who had
meanwhile, during the operations round Arles, created a new emperor,
Jovinus, to give a colour of legality to their position in Gaul.