History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 2Gibbon, Edward
History
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 2
Gibbon, Edward
Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.
the ocean; and by the terror, as well as by the success, of his
arms, soon reduced the suppliant tribes to implore the clemency,
and to obey the commands, of their conqueror. The Chamavians
submissively retired to their former habitations beyond the
Rhine; but the Salians were permitted to possess their new
establishment of Toxandria, as the subjects and auxiliaries of
the Roman empire. 82 The treaty was ratified by solemn oaths; and
perpetual inspectors were appointed to reside among the Franks,
with the authority of enforcing the strict observance of the
conditions. An incident is related, interesting enough in itself,
and by no means repugnant to the character of Julian, who
ingeniously contrived both the plot and the catastrophe of the
tragedy. When the Chamavians sued for peace, he required the son
of their king, as the only hostage on whom he could rely. A
mournful silence, interrupted by tears and groans, declared the
sad perplexity of the Barbarians; and their aged chief lamented
in pathetic language, that his private loss was now imbittered by
a sense of public calamity. While the Chamavians lay prostrate at
the foot of his throne, the royal captive, whom they believed to
have been slain, unexpectedly appeared before their eyes; and as
soon as the tumult of joy was hushed into attention, the Cæsar
addressed the assembly in the following terms: “Behold the son,
the prince, whom you wept. You had lost him by your fault. God
and the Romans have restored him to you. I shall still preserve
and educate the youth, rather as a monument of my own virtue,
than as a pledge of your sincerity. Should you presume to violate
the faith which you have sworn, the arms of the republic will
avenge the perfidy, not on the innocent, but on the guilty.” The
Barbarians withdrew from his presence, impressed with the warmest
sentiments of gratitude and admiration. 83
79 (return) [ Libanius (Orat. iii. p. 137) draws a very lively
picture of the manners of the Franks.]
80 (return) [ Ammianus, xvii. 2. Libanius, Orat. x. p. 278. The
Greek orator, by misapprehending a passage of Julian, has been
induced to represent the Franks as consisting of a thousand men;
and as his head was always full of the Peloponnesian war, he
compares them to the Lacedæmonians, who were besieged and taken
in the Island of Sphatoria.]
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