Selfishness a canker of the Empire 413 



secure refuge for the Moors, to destroy which Theodosius had to employ 

 battering-rams. These are not the only instances. And forts (castella) 

 and walled towns are often referred to. Along the northern borders 

 the necessity for such precautions was much greater. Still it seems 

 that few if any in the latter part of the fourth century foresaw that 

 frontier defences would at no distant date give way before the barbarian 

 flood. A high imperial official, with whose corrupt connivance 1 gross 

 wrongs had been perpetrated (370) in Africa, on being superseded in 

 office withdrew to his native Rhineland, and ' devoted himself 2 to rural 

 affairs.' The retired ease for which he apparently hoped was soon ended, 

 though not by barbarian raiders. The malignity of a praetorian prefect 

 tracked him to his retreat and by persecution drove him to suicide. 



This last episode may remind us that the weakening of the empire 

 was not wholly due to failure of an economic kind or to decay of 

 military skill. The farmers might raise crops enough, the armies might 

 prove their superiority in the 'field, but nevertheless the great organism 

 was in decline. A general mistrust, fatal to loyal cooperation for the 

 common good, was the moral canker by which the exertions of farmer 

 and soldier were hampered and rendered vain. Officials seeking to ruin 

 each other, emperors turning to murders and confiscations as a source 

 of revenue, all classes bound fast in rigid corporations or gilds under 

 laws which it was their study to evade; the failure of individual enter- 

 prise, lacking the joy of individual freedom, and the stimulus of expected 

 reward ; in short, everyone ready to sacrifice his neighbour to save his 

 own skin: how was a society characterized by such phenomena to 

 maintain a moral advantage over the rude barbarians? That it was 

 now protected by alien swords, that aliens were even commanding 3 

 the Roman armies, was not the main cause of its overthrow. As a rule 

 these barbarians kept their bargain, and shed their blood freely for the 

 empire that enlisted them in masses. But we must distinguish between 

 two or three different classes of these alien defenders. The mere mer- 

 cenaries need not detain us. More significant were the contingents 

 taken over in large bodies by agreement with the tribes. A good in- 

 stance 4 is that of the year 376, when a vast host of Goths sought leave to 

 pass the Danube with the hope of settling on vacant lands south of the 

 river. We are told that the Roman commanders on that front got over 

 their first alarm and took the line that really the emperor was in luck. 

 Here was a huge supply of recruits 5 brought to him from the ends of the 

 earth, an unlooked-for reinforcement ready to be blended with his own 

 troops, and to make up an unconquerable army. Instead of spending 



1 xxvin 6 8. 2 xxx 2 10 negotiis se ruralibus dedit. 



3 There was much jealousy on this score, and a powerful reaction, as after the death of 

 Valentinian in 375, but even then the foreign element prevailed. Schiller II 389. 



4 xxxi 4 4, 5. 5 e-x ultimis terris tot tirocinia. Cf xix u 7. 



