XVIL vices of civil life. They were either degraded by CHAP. the industry of mechanic trades, or enervated by the luxury of baths and theatres. They soon became careless of their martial exercises, curious in their diet and apparel; and while they inspired terror to the subjects of the empire, they trembled at the hostile approach of the barbarians." The chain of fortifications which Diocletian and his colleagues had extended along the banks of the great rivers, was no longer maintained with the same care, or defended with the same vigilance. The numbers which still remained under the name of the troops of the frontier, might be sufficient for the ordinary defence: but their spirit was degraded by the humiliating reflection, that they who were exposed to the hardships and dan gers of a perpetual warfare, were rewarded only with about two-thirds of the pay and emoluments which were lavished on the troops of the court. Even the bands or legions that were raised the nearest to the level of those unworthy favourites, were in some measure disgraced by the title of honour which they were allowed to assume. It was in vain that Constantine repeated the most dreadful menaces of fire and sword against the borderers who should dare to desert their colours, to connive at the inroads of the barbarians, or to n Ferox erat in suos miles et rapax, ignavus vero in hostes et fractus. Ammian. 1. xxii, c. 4. He observes that they loved downy beds and houses of marble; and that their cups were heavier than their swords. CHAP. participate in the spoil. The mischiefs which XVII. flow from injudicious counsels are seldom removed Reduction of the legions. by the application of partial severities: and though succeeding princes laboured to restore the strength and numbers of the frontier garrisons, the empire, till the last moment of its dissolution, continued to languish under the mortal wound which had been so rashly or so weakly inflicted by the hand of Constantine. The same timid policy of dividing whatever is united, of reducing whatever is eminent, of dreading every active power, and of expecting that the most feeble will prove the most obedient, seems to pervade the institutions of several princes, and particularly those of Constantine. The martial pride of the legions, whose victorious camps had so often been the scene of rebellion, was nourished by the memory of their past exploits, and the consciousness of their actual strength. As long as they maintained their ancient establishment of six thousand men, they subsisted, under the reign of Diocletian, each of them singly, a visible and important object in the military history of the Roman empire. A few years afterwards, these gigantic bodies were shrunk to a very diminutive size; and when seven legions, with some auxiliaries, defended the city of Amida against the Persians, the total garrison, with the • Cod. Theod. 1. vii, tit. i, leg. 1. tit. xii, leg. 1. See Howell's Hist. of the World, vol. ii, p. 19. That learned historian, who is not sufficiently known, labours to justify the character and policy of Constantine. XVII. inhabitants of both sexes, and the peasants of the CHAP. deserted country, did not exceed the number of twenty thousand persons. From this fact, and from similar examples, there is reason to believe; that the constitution of the legionary troops, to which they partly owed their valour and discipline, was dissolved by Constantine; and that the bands of Roman infantry, which still assumed the same names and the same honours, consisted only of one thousand or fifteen hundred men. The conspiracy of so many separate detachments, each of which was awed by the sense of its own weakness, could easily be checked; and the successors of Constantine might indulge their love of ostentation, by issuing their orders to one hundred and thirty-two legions, inscribed on the muster-roll of their numerous armies. The remainder of their troops was distributed into several hundred cohorts of infantry, and squadrons of cavalry. Their arms, and titles, and ensigns, were calculated to inspire terror, and to display the variety of nations who marched under the imperial standard. And not a vestige was left of that severe simplicity, which, in the ages of freedom and victory, had distinguished the line of battle of a Roman army from the confused host of an Asiatic monarch." A more particular enumeration, P Ammian. 1. xix, c. 2. He observes (c. 5) that the desperate sallies of two Gallic legions were like an handful of water thrown on a great conflagration. 4 Pancirolus ad Notitiam, p. 96. Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxv, p. 491. * Romana acies unius prope formæ erat et hominum et armorum genere. Regia acies 'varia magis multis gentibus dissimilitudine armorum CHAP. drawn from the Notitia, might exercise the dili. XVII. gence of an antiquary; but the historian will con Difficulty of levies. tent himself with observing, that the number of permanent stations or garrisons established on the frontiers of the empire, amounted to five hundred and eighty-three; and that, under the successors of Constantine, the complete force of the military establishment was computed at six hundred and forty-five thousand soldiers. An effort so prodigious surpassed the wants of a more ancient, and the faculties of a later, period. In the various states of society, armies are recruited from very different motives. Barbarians are urged by the love of war; the citizens of a free republic may be prompted by a principle of duty; the subjects, or at least the nobles of a monarchy, are animated by a sentiment of honour; but the timid and luxurious inhabitants of a declining empire must be allured into the service by the hopes of profit, or compelled by the dread of punishment. The resources of the Roman treasury were exhausted by the increase of pay, by the repetition of donatives, and by the invention of new emoluments and indulgences, which, in the opinion of the provincial youth, might compensate the hardships and dangers of a mlitary life. Yet, although the stature was lower armorum auxiliorumque erat. T. Liv. 1. xxxvii, c. 39-40, Flaminius, even before this event, had compared the army of Antiochus to a supper, in which the flesh of one vile animal was diversi. fied by the skill of the cooks. See the life of Flaminius in Plutarch, Agathias, 1. v, p. 157, edit. Louvre. m XVII. ed, although slaves, at least by a tacit conni- CHAP. vance, were indiscriminately received into the ranks, the insurmountable difficulty of procuring a regular and adequate supply of volunteers, obliged the emperors to adopt more effectual and coercive methods. The lands bestowed on the veterans, as the free reward of their valour, were henceforward granted under a condition, which contains the first rudiments of the feudal tenures; that their sons, who succeeded to the inheritance, should devote themselves to the profession of arms, as soon as they attained the age of manhood; and their cowardly refusal was punished by the loss of honour, of fortune, or even of life." But as the annual growth of the sons of the veterans bore a very small proportion to the demands of the service, levies of men were frequently required from the provinces, and every proprietor was obliged either to take up arms, or to procure a substitute, or to purchase his exemption by the payment of a heavy fine. The sum of forty-two pieces of gold, to which it was reduced, ascertains the exorbitant price of volunteers, and the reluct Valentinian (Cod. Theodos. 1. vii, tit. xiii, leg. 3) fixes the standard at five feet seven inches, about five feet four inches and a half English measure. It had formerly been five feet ten inches, and in the best corps six Roman feet. Sed tunc erat amplior multitudo, et plures sequebantur militiam armatum. Vegetius de Re Militari, 1. i, c. 5. D 'n See the two titles, De Veteranis, and De Filiis Veteranorum, them some valuable |