Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/207

OF THE EOMAN EMPIEE 187 The effeminate luxury which infected the manners of courts The infan- and cities had instilled a secret and destructive poison into the asLelheir camps of the legions ; and their degeneracy has been marked """'" by the pen of a military writer who had accurately studied the genuine and ancient principles of Roman discipline. It is the just and important observation of Vegetius that the infantry was invariably covered with defensive armour, from the founda- tion of the city to the reign of the emperor Gratian. The relaxation of discipline and the disuse of exercise rendered the soldiers less able, and less willing, to support the fatigues of the service ; they complained of the weight of the armour, which they seldom wore ; and they successfully obtained the permission of laying aside both their cuirasses and their helmets. The heavy weapons of their ancestors, the short sword and the formidable pilum, which had subdued the world, insensibly dropped from their feeble hands. As the use of the shield is incompatible with that of the bow, they reluctantly marched into the field ; condemned to suffer either the pain of wounds or the ignominy of flight, and always disposed to prefer the more shameful alternative. The cavalry of the Goths, the Huns and the Alani had felt the benefits, and adopted the use, of defensive armour ; and, as they excelled in the manage- ment of missile weapons, they easily overwhelmed the naked and trembling legions, whose heads and breasts were exposed, without defence, to the arrows of the Barbarians. The loss of armies, the destruction of cities, and the dishonour of the Roman name ineffectually solicited the successors of Gratian to restore the helmets and cuirasses of the infantry. The enervated soldiers abandoned their own and the public defence ; and their pusillanimous indolence may be considered as the immediate cause of the downfall of the empire. ^^s 128 Vegetius, de Re Militari, 1. i. c. lo. The series of calamities which he marks compel us to believe that the Hero to whom he dedicates his book is the last and most inglorious of the Valentinians. [This view is maintained by O. Seeck (Hermes, ii, 6-Lsqq.), who contests the usual identification with Theodosius i. Theo- dosius ii. has also been conjectured. The minor limit for the date of the Epitome rei Militaris is A.D. 450 (determined by the entry in some Mss. : Fl. Eutropius emendavi sine exemplario Constantinopolim Valentiniano Aug vii et Abieni). The work is by no means critical or trustworthy. Cp. Forster, de fide Vegetii, 1879.]