- barians within the following century and a half. In 395 a
final partition of the Empire, naturally halved as it was by the Adriatic sea, was made; and the incapable sons of Theodosius, Arcadius and Honorius,[1] were seated as independent sovereigns on thrones in the East and West. During this period a central administrative energy to uphold Rome as an Imperial seat was entirely wanting; and a succession of feeble emperors maintained a mere shadow of authority while their provinces were being appropriated by the surplus populations of the north. Italy and south-west Gaul became the prey of East and West Goths; the valorous Franks under Clovis founded a kingdom which made itself permanently respected under the name of France; Vandals, with kindred tribes, gained possession of Spain and even erected a monarchy in north Africa, which extended beyond the limits of ancient Carthage; Britain, divested of Roman soldiers in 409, for centuries became the goal of acquisitive incursions by the maritime hordes who issued from the adjacent sea-*boards, Saxons, Angles, and Danes.
In the change from a nominally popular or constitutional monarchy to a professed despotism, a reconstitution of all subordinate authority was regarded as a matter of necessity. At first the Empire was administered in about forty provinces,
- ↑ Arcadius, as the elder, reigned in the East, a proof that it was esteemed to be the most brilliant position. The Notitia also, a contemporary work, places the East first as the superior dominion. No doubt the new tyrants found themselves in an uncongenial atmosphere at Rome, and the sterner stuff of the Western nations would not tolerate their sublime affectations. They could stand the follies of Nero, but not the vain-glory of Constantine, who soon fled from the covert sneers of the capital and merely paid it a couple of perfunctory visits afterwards. It is significant that the forms of adoration are omitted from the Notitia of the West; cf., however, Cassiodorus, Var. Ep., xii, 18, 20.
