Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/143

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 123 reared by the labours of successive ages, could not be over- turned by the misfortune of a single day, if the fatal pov/er of the imagination did not exaggerate the real measure of the calamity. The loss of forty thousand Romans, who fell in the plains of Hadrianople, might have been soon recruited in the populous provinces of the East, which contained so many millions of inhabitants. The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest, and most common, quality of human nature ; and sufficient skill to encounter an undisciplined foe might have been speedily taught by the care of the surviving cen- turions. If the Barbarians were mounted on the horses, and equipped with the armour, of their vanquished enemies, the numerous studs of Cappadocia and Spain would have supplied new squadrons of cavalry ; the thirty-four arsenals of the empire were plentifully stored with magazines of offensive and defensive arms ; and the wealth of Asia might still have yielded an ample fund for the expenses of the war. But the effects which were produced by the battle of Hadrianople on the minds of the Barbarians, and of the Romans, extended the victory of the former, and the defeat of the latter, far be3'ond the limits of a single day. A Gothic chief was heard to declare, with insolent moderation, that, for his own part, he was fatigued with slaughter ; but that he was astonished how a people who fled before him like a flock of sheep could still presume to dispute the possession of their treasures and provinces. ^^^ The same terrors which the name of the Huns had spread among the Gothic tribes were inspired, by the formidable name of the Goths, among the subjects and soldiers of the Roman empire. ^^^ If Theodosius, hastily collecting his scattered forces, had led them into the field to encounter a victorious enemy, his army would have been vanquished by their own fears ; and his rash- ness could not have been excused by the chance of success. But the great Theodosius, an epithet which he honourably deserved on this momentous occasion, conducted himself as the firm and faithful guardian of the republic. He fixed his headquarters at Thessalonica, the capital of the Macedonian [spring ad. 3791 diocese ; ^-^ from whence he could watch the irregular motions iischrysostom, torn. i. p. 344, edit. Montfaucon. I have verified and examined this passage; but I should never, without the aid of Tillemont (Hist, des Emp, torn. V. p. 152), have detected an historical anecdote, in a strange medley of moral and mystic exhortations, addressed by the preacher of Antioch to a young widow. 119 Eunapius, in Excerpt. Legation, p. 21 [F. H. G. iv. p. 32]. 120 See Godefroy's Chronology of the Las. Codex Theodos, torn. i. Prole- gomen. p. xcix.-civ. [Cp. Cod. Theod. x. i, 12.]