22 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xxxvi imposed a fine of fifty pounds of gold (two thousand pounds sterling) on every magistrate who should presume to grant such illegal and scandalous licence; and threatened to chastise the criminal obedience of their subordinate officers by a severe whipping and the amputation of both their hands. In the last instance, the legislature might seem to forget the proportion of guilt and punishment ; but his zeal arose from a generous principle, and Majorian was anxious to protect the monuments of those ages in which he would have desired and deserved to live. The emperor conceived that it was his interest to in- crease the number of his subjects ; that it was his duty to guard the purity of the marriage-bed ; but the means which he employed to accomplish these salutary purposes are of an [Tit. 6] ambiguous, and perhaps exceptionable, kind. The pious maids, who consecrated their virginity to Christ, were restrained from taking the veil till they had reached their fortieth year. Widows under that age were compelled to form a second alliance within the term of five years, by the forfeiture of half their wealth to their nearest relations or to the state. Unequal marriages were condemned or annulled. The punishment of confiscation and exile was deemed so inadequate to the guilt of adultery, that, if the criminal returned to Italy, he might, by the express declaration of Majorian, be slain with impunity. 63 Majorian While the emperor Majorian assiduously laboured to restore tomvade the happiness and virtue of the Romans, he encountered the 457 [458] AD ' arms of Genseric, from his character and situation, their most formidable enemy. A fleet of Vandals and Moors landed at the mouth of the Liris, or Garigliano ; but the Imperial troops surprised and attacked the disorderly Barbarians, who were encumbered with the spoils of Campania ; they were chased with slaughter to their ships, and their leader, the king's brother-in-law, was found in the number of the slain. 54 Such vigilance might announce the character of the new reign ; but the strictest vigilance and the most numerous forces were in- sufficient to protect the long-extended coast of Italy from the depredations of a naval war. The public opinion had imposed r,:i The emperor chides the lenity of Rogatian, consular of Tuscany, in a style of acrimonious reproof, which sounds almost like personal resentment (Novell, lit. ix. p. 47). The law of Majorian, whioh punished obstinate widows, was soon afterwards repealed by his successor Severus (Novell. Sever, tit. i. p. 37). "Sidon. Panegyr. Majorian. 385-440.
