The Empire. 
The Empire. R 0 
despised, and himself absent in Syria, busied with his 
preparations against the Goths; Procopius, clothed in a 
purple vest, appeared in the midst of Constantinople. The 
soldiers received him with shouts of joy and vows of fidelity: 
the malcontents flocked to his standard; the magistrates were 
seized; the prisons and arsenals broke open; and, in the space 
of a few hours, Procopius became master of the imperial city. 
The Gothic princes gladly contracted an alliance with him; 
and several cities and provinces either voluntarily acknow¬ 
ledged the dominion of the usurper, or submitted to the force 
of his arms. The countenance and support of Faustina, 
widow of the emperor Constantius, added dignity to his 
claims; and the princess Constants, scarcely five years old, 
being shewn to the army, they unanimously swore that they 
would protect the royal infant with the last drop of their 
blood. 
Valens was at. Caesarea when he first received intelligence 
of this rebellion. Despairing pf his fortune on account of 
the external foes he had at the same time to combat, he pro¬ 
posed to negociate with the usurper, and abdicate the purple. 
From this design he was dissuaded by his ministers. The 
prefect, Sallust, who had been displaced, was again restored 
to his authority; and the affections of the people being in 
some measure conciliated, by this appointment, the soldiers 
of Procopius began to desert his standard, as rapidly as they 
had joined it. In two successive engagements at Thyatira 
and Nacosia, the kinsman of Julian was betrayed by his 
troops; and after wandering some time among the woods, he 
was taken up, and carried bound to the emperor, who caused 
him to be decapitated. 
Had Valens only exerted himself to defend the power with 
•which he was legitimately invested against all opponents, he 
might have appeared respectable, if not praise- worthy; but 
his cruel absurdity in attempting to fetter the consciences of 
men, and tormenting his subjects for their opinions, deserves 
our execration. A zealous Arian himself, he inveterately 
persecuted the orthodox, against whom he thought disgrace, 
exclusion from offices, and spoliations of property, and even 
exile, insufficient; lie also employed tortures and death. 
Eighty ecclesiastics deputed by the clergy of Constantinople,, 
to complain of having an Arian bishop placed over them by 
the emperor, were ordered to be put to death. The praefect, 
however, fearing lest such an execution should excite com¬ 
motions, put them on board a vessel, which being carried to 
a sufficient distance from the shore by the ministers of his 
vengeance, was cruelly set on fire, and consumed; the 
assassins escaping in a boat. 
With all the superstitious prejudices of a little mind, the 
attention of Valens was equally directed to divines, to sorcerers 
and astrologers, deliverers of oracles, fortune-tellers, and the 
deceivers and deceived of every.kind. Every book contain¬ 
ing circles or lines, figures of animals, or delineations of the 
human body, was held to be the abominable collections of a 
diabolical science, and an instrument of sorcery, deserving 
to be committed to the flames. These were sought for with 
the most vexatious industry and persevering diligence: his in¬ 
quisitors multiplied the number of the guilty, by concealing in¬ 
terdicted books in certain houses to obtain the stipulated reward. 
Festus, the proconsul of Asia, put the philosopher 
Caeranius to death, merely for having, in a letter to his wife, 
made use of a term employed in sorcery. A woman, by 
certain words, cured the pro-consul’s daughter of a fever, and 
was rewarded by being condemned to death as an infernal 
agent. 
During the whole reign of Valens, he had carried on war 
with the Goths; and these people, though repeatedly beaten 
and admitted to terms, were too numerous to be quiet, and 
had too many enemies not to pant for revenge. Having been 
expelled from their possessions along the mouths of the 
Borysthenes and Niester.and impelled forwards by the Huns, 
a barbarous nation from the north-west of Asia, they presented 
themselves on the banks of the Danube, to the number of two 
hundred thousand men, earnestly entreating the Romans to 
grant them a passage, and receive them into the empire. 
Valens imprudently gave them settlements in Thrace: but 
Vol. XXII. No. 1502. 
soon after being irritated with bad usage, they took up arm 8 
under their king Fritigern, and, being joined by the Huns 
and Alans, once more prepared to take the field. 
During these distractions in the East, the emperor Gratian, 
who had mounted the throne on the death of his father, and 
had his infant brother Valentinian associated with him, was 
engaged in a serious and bloody contest with the Alemanni. 
The intelligence that Gratian intended to lead his forces to 
the assistance of his uncle Valens, pointed out to the turbulent 
Alemanni the moment of successful invasion. They passed 
the Rhine on the ice, amounting to forty thousand men; and 
the youthful emperor having collected his forces, marched 
against them, accompanied by the experienced Nanienus, and 
Mellobaudes, who united in his person the characters of count 
of the domestics and king of the Franks. In the plains of 
Alsace, the well-practised evolutions of the Romans triumphed 
over the valour of the Alemanni, five thousand of whom, 
after the death of their king, escaped into the woods and 
mountains. The emperor pursued the enemy into their own- 
country, and compelled them to sue for peace. Gratian, 
though then only nineteen years of age, gave such an earnest 
of courage and conduct, that he inspired his subjects with 
the firm hopes of a long and auspicious reign. 
While Gratian was thus receiving the homage and applause 
of his subjects, Valens was detested by his people, and sur¬ 
rounded by enemies. At last he was urged by the clamours 
of the multitude to march against the barbarians whom he 
had incautiously admitted into his dominions. The turbu¬ 
lence of the citizens conspired with the rashness of Valens 
to hasten the downfall of the Roman empire. Some of the 
generals of the emperor having obtained partial victories 
over the Goths, and abundance of spoil, Valens now deter¬ 
mined to share in the glory of their victories, and with a 
numerous army advanced to Adrianople. 
The imperial camp was pitched under the walls of that 
city, and a council assembled to decide the fate of the em¬ 
peror and the empire. The obsequious eloquence of those 
prevailed, who represented every doubt of victory as un¬ 
worthy the majesty of the Roman monarch; and though 
certain intelligence was brought that Gratian was advancing 
by hasty marches, at the head of his victorious legions, to 
insure, by his junction, the success of the Gothic war, the 
evil genius of Valens, reinforced by the insidious advice of 
his lieutenants, pursued him; and he rushed with a blind 
impetuosity on death and destruction. 
Leaving his baggage and military treasure under a strong 
guard, the emperor marched from Adrianople to attack the 
Goths, who were encamped about twelve miles distant. By 
some mistake, the right wing arrived in sight of the enemy 
a considerable time before the left; and the soldiers of the 
latter, in endeavouring to quicken their pace, were 
thrown into unavoidable confusion. The treachery 
of Fritigern, one of the emperor’s lieutenants, secured 
the success of his countrymen the Goths; and in a 
short time the imperial cavalry fled before the Gothic 
squadrons, while the Roman infantry, abandoned and 
surrounded on every side, was broken and cut to pieces. 
Valens, wounded and deserted by his guards, is said to have 
been removed from the field of battle, by a few faithful 
adherents, to a neighbouring cottage, which, while they en¬ 
deavoured to dress his wound, was set on fire by the enemy, 
and in it was consumed the emperor of the East. A boy, 
who escaped from a window, alone survived to inform the 
barbarians of the prize they had lost by the conflagration. 
The pride of the Goths was elated by their victory, but 
their avarice was disappointed by the obstinate resistance of 
Adrianople, in which the greatest part of the imperial wealth 
had been secured. At length, raising the siege, they poured 
into the suburbs of Constantinople ; and while they gazed 
with admiration on the imperial capital of the east, a paity 
of Saracens, in the Roman pay, rushing from one of the 
gates, put them to the rout. The Goths retiring, possessed 
themselves of the narrow pass of the Succi in the defiles of 
Mount Hsemus, whence they gradually spread themselves as 
far as the confines of Italy and the Adriatic sea. 
4 H On 
