OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE 233 tyrant of Africa before the tribunal which had formerly judged the kings and nations of the earth ; and the image of the republic was revived, after a long interval, under the reign of Honorius. The emperor transmitted an accurate and ample detail of the complaints of the provincials and the crimes of Gildo to the Roman senate ; and the members of that venerable assembly were required to pronounce the condemnation of the rebel. Their unanimous suffrage declared him the enemy of the republic ; and the decree of the senate added a sacred and legitimate sanction to the Roman arms.*^ A people who still remembered that their ancestors had been the masters of the world would have applauded, with conscious pride, the represen- tation of ancient freedom ; if they had not long since been accustomed to prefer the solid assurance of bread to the un- substantial visions of liberty and greatness. The subsistence of Rome depended on the harvests of Afi'ica ; and it was evident that a declaration of war would be the signal of famine. The praefect Symmachus, who presided in the deliberations of the senate, admonished the ministers of his just apprehension that, as soon as the revengeful Moor should prohibit the exportation of corn, the tranquillity, and perhaps the safety, of the capital would be threatened by the hungry rage of a turbulent multi- tude.*- The prudence of Stilicho conceived and executed with- out delay the most effectual measure for the relief of the Roman people. A large and seasonable supply of corn, collected in the inland provinces of Gaul, was embarked on the rapid stream of the Rhone, and transported, by an easy navigation, from the Rhone to the Tiber. During the whole term of the African war, the granaries of Rome were continually filled, her dignity was vindicated from the humiliating dependence, and the minds of an immense people were quieted by the calm confidence of peace and plenty.*^ The cause of Rome and the conduct of the African war were The African ,,-,.,., , . ,, war. A.D. 393 entrusted, by htilicho, to a general active and ardent to avenge his private injuries on the head of the tyrant. The spirit of discord which prevailed in the house of Nabal had excited a
- i Symmachus (1. iv. epist. 4. [5, Seeck]) expresses the judicial forms of the
senate ; and Claudian (i. Cons. Stilich. 1. i. 325, &c. ) seems to feel the spirit of a Roman. [Cp. Seeck, in his ed. of Symmachus, p. l.xvii. sqq.'^
- ^ Claudian finely displays these complaints of Symmachus in a speech of the
goddess of Rome before the throne of Jupiter (de Bell. Gildon. 28-128). ^3 See^Claudian (in Eutrop. 1. i. 401, &c. i. Cons. Stil. 1. 1. 306, &c. ii. Cons. Stilich. 91, &c.).
