And so the count Constantius, having set out into Gaul with an army, shut up the emperor Constantine in the city of Arelate, took him, and slew him. Henceforth—to speak as briefly as possible from the catalogue of tyrants—Constans, the son of Constantine, was killed at Vienna by Gerontius, his own count, a man more worthless than honest, who set up in his place a certain Maximus. But Gerontius himself was slain by his own soldiers. Maximus, stripped of the purple and deserted by the Gallic soldiers—who were transported into Africa and then recalled into Italy—now wanders in exile, destitute, among the barbarians in Spain. Iovinus afterward, a most noble man of the Gauls, rose up into tyranny and as soon fell.
Sebastianus, his brother, chose this one thing only—to die as a tyrant; for he was killed as soon as he was proclaimed. What shall I say of the most wretched Attalus, for whom to be slain among the tyrants was an honor, and to die was gain? In him Alaric, after making, unmaking, remaking, and at last casting off an emperor—all these acts done sooner almost than they could be told—laughed at the mime and watched the farce of empire; nor is it any wonder if by this very pageant the wretch was justly made a plaything, that shadow-consul of his, Tertullus, having dared to say in the senate-house: 'I shall speak to you, conscript fathers, as consul and pontiff, one of which offices I hold, the other I hope for'—hoping it from one who had no hope, and accursed indeed, because he had placed his hope in man.
And so Attalus, like an empty image of empire, was carried off with the Goths as far as the Spains; departing thence and attempting a venture by ship upon an uncertain course, he was captured at sea and brought to the count Constantius, then presented to the emperor Honorius, and with his hand cut off was left alive. Meanwhile Heraclianus, sent as count of Africa while that same Attalus bore the shadow of empire, having vigorously defended Africa against the agents sent by him, obtained the consulship; puffed up with arrogance by this, he chose as his son-in-law Sabinus, his own retainer, a man crafty in mind and skillful and diligent in industry, and one to be called wise had he but applied the powers of his spirit to peaceful pursuits;
with whom, while he was beset by suspicions of certain dangers, he brought matters to a head; and after the African grain-supply had for some time been irregularly withheld, he himself at last set out for Rome with an immense fleet of ships—one certainly almost incredible in our times. For he is said to have had then three thousand seven hundred ships, a number which the histories report not even Xerxes, that famous king of the Persians, nor Alexander the Great, nor any other of kings, ever to have possessed. As soon as, advancing toward the City with a column of soldiers, he disembarked upon the shore, terrified by the onset of the count Marinus and put to flight, he seized a single ship and returned alone to Carthage, and there was forthwith slain by a band of soldiers.
His son-in-law Sabinus fled to Constantinople, whence after some time he was dragged back and condemned to exile. This whole catalogue—as I have said—whether of manifest tyrants or of disobedient generals, the emperor Honorius, by his excellent piety and good fortune, deserved to see ended, and the count Constantius brought to a close with great industry and speed; and rightly indeed, since in these very days, at the bidding of Honorius and with the help of Constantius, peace and unity were restored throughout all Africa to the Catholic Church, and the body of Christ, which we are, having had its rending healed, was made whole again, the execution of the sacred command having been laid upon the tribune Marcellinus, a man before all things prudent and industrious and most eager for all good studies.
Whom the count Marinus, at Carthage—it is uncertain whether goaded by zeal or corrupted by gold—put to death: he was straightway recalled from Africa, and being made a private man, was dismissed either to punishment or to the repentance of his conscience. In the year 1168 from the founding of the City, the count Constantius, stationed at Arelate, a city of Gaul, with great industry in conducting affairs drove the Goths from Narbo and compelled them to depart into Spain, chiefly by interdicting and cutting off all transport of ships and all use of the traders' commerce. Over the peoples of the Goths there then presided King Athaulf, who, after the breaking into the City and the death of Alaric, having—as I have said—taken in marriage the captive Placidia, the emperor's sister, had succeeded Alaric in the kingship.
is, utsaepeauditumatqueultimoexitueiusprobatumest, satisstudiosesectatorpacismilitarefideliterHonorioimperatoriacprodefendendaRomanarepublicainpendereuiresGothorumpraeoptauit. namegoquoqueipseuirumquendamNarbonenseminlustrissubTheodosiomilitiae, etiamreligiosumprudentemqueetgrauem, apudBethleemoppidumPalaestinaebeatissimoHieronymopresbyteroreferentemaudiui, sefamiliarissimumAthaulfoapudNarbonamfuisseacdeeosaepesubtestificationedidicisse, quodille, cumessetanimouiribusingenioquenimius, referresolitusesset:
He, as has often been heard and as was proved by his very end, being a sufficiently zealous follower of peace, preferred to serve the emperor Honorius faithfully in arms and to expend the strength of the Goths on behalf of defending the Roman commonwealth. For I myself also heard a certain man of Narbo, of illustrious military service under Theodosius, and moreover religious, prudent, and grave, relating at the town of Bethlehem in Palestine to the most blessed presbyter Jerome, that he had been on the most intimate terms with Athaulf at Narbo, and had often learned from him, under solemn affirmation, that Athaulf—being a man of excessive spirit, strength, and ability—was wont to relate:
that he had at first ardently longed that, the Roman name being blotted out, he might make and call all Roman soil the empire of the Goths, and that there might be—to speak in common terms—a Gothia where Romania had been, and that Athaulf might now become what Caesar Augustus once was; but when by much experience he had proved both that the Goths could in no way obey laws because of their unbridled barbarism, and that the laws of the commonwealth ought not to be abolished, without which a commonwealth is not a commonwealth, he had chosen at least to seek for himself glory by restoring whole and increasing the Roman name through the strength of the Goths, and to be reckoned among posterity the author of the Roman restoration, since he had not been able to be its transformer.
For this reason he strove to abstain from war, for this reason to long after peace, being especially tempered by the persuasion and counsel of his wife Placidia—a woman certainly of most keen intellect and sufficiently approved in religion—toward every work of good ordinances. And while he was most zealously pressing on to seek and offer this peace, he was, as is reported, slain by the treachery of his own men at Barcino, a city of Spain. After him Segeric was made king by the Goths, and although he too, by the judgment of God, was inclined to peace, he was nonetheless killed by his own people. Then Vallia succeeded to the kingdom, elected by the Goths to this end, that he might break the peace, ordained by God to this end, that he might confirm the peace.
He, therefore—being above all terrified by the judgment of God, because, when a year earlier a great band of the Goths, equipped with arms and ships, was attempting to cross over into Africa, it had perished by a wretched end, caught by a storm twelve miles out in the strait of Cadiz; mindful too of that disaster received under Alaric, when the Goths, having attempted to cross into Sicily, were wretchedly seized and drowned in the sight of their own people—made the best of peace with the emperor Honorius, having given the choicest hostages; he restored the emperor's sister Placidia, kept honorably and decently with him, to her brother; he offered his own peril for the security of the Romans, that he might fight on behalf of the Romans against the other nations which had settled throughout the Spains, and conquer for the Romans.
although the other kings of the Alans, Vandals, and Suevi too had come to terms with us in the same agreement, sending word to the emperor Honorius: 'Do thou keep peace with all and receive the hostages of all; we fight among ourselves, we perish for ourselves, we conquer for thee, and with immortal gain indeed to thy commonwealth, if both of us should perish.' Who would believe these things, did not the facts teach them? And so now daily we learn, by frequent and certain reports, that wars of the nations are being waged among the Spains and slaughters carried out on both sides of the barbarians; and they say especially that Vallia, king of the Goths, is bent upon accomplishing peace. From which, in any case, I shall grant that the Christian times may be freely censured, if it be shown to me that, from the founding of the world even until now, anything has been done with like felicity.
We have made manifest, I think, and have shown, almost more by pointing the finger than by word, that countless wars have been laid to rest, that very many tyrants have been wiped out, and that the most savage nations have been checked, hemmed in, made tributary, and emptied out—with the least blood, in no battle, and almost without slaughter. It remains that our detractors should repent of their machinations and blush before the truth, and should believe, fear, love, and follow the true and only God, who is able to do all things, all of whose works—even those they reckon evil—they have learned to be good.
I have, with Christ's help, unfolded according to your command, most blessed father Augustine, from the beginning of the world even to the present day—that is, through five thousand six hundred and eighteen years—the desires and the punishments of sinful men, the conflicts of the age and the judgments of God, as briefly and as simply as I could, yet the Christian times being set apart from that confusion of unbelief, the more on account of the present grace of Christ. So now I enjoy the sure and sole fruit of my obedience, which alone I ought to have desired; but as to the quality of these little works, it is for you, who gave the command, to see: they are to be adjudged yours if you publish them, judged by you if you destroy them.