5. V.
But though the insurrectionists were quelled, or
quieted, the general discontent following internal strife
and unaccustomed privation was not so readily subdued.
War and disaffection had brought their own troubles
along with them; and, as in the old condition of all the
European states there never could have been any sympathy
between the ruler and the great body of the ruled,
the intrigues of the oppressed Jews had opened the eyes
of thousands, in other classes, to their own oppression.
In the general ferment, the Gothic nobles, who were
luxurious and sensual, had their sufficient share; and
by their arts the people were stimulated to that fever
which was to be their own death. They were no longer
the brave barbarians who, under Euric, had vanquished
the martial nobles of the Tarragonese provinces, had
penetrated to the heart of Lusitania, and, when Odoacer
usurped the sovereignty of Italy, compelled him to yield
up, as far as the Rhine and the ocean, all the Roman
conquests beyond the Alps. They were no longer the
people whose dauntless valour overcame the hardy discipline
of the Roman legion. They too had soon fallen
into all the degeneracies and the tastes of Rome. Like
her, and with far greater rapidity, they had sunk from all
the attributes of that forward valour and manly simplicity
of character which had made them, like her, the sovereigns
of the world and period. To a people so deteriorated,
the consequences of unaccustomed warfare may
readily be told. Discontent among the people grew with
increasing expenditure on the part of the nobles. The
latter, under oppressions not sanctioned by popular sympathy,
had occasioned expenditures which that people
were yet to satisfy. This taught them the difference of
interest which, once known, must overthrow every rule
—the difference between the people and their rulers—
the consciousness of a dissimilarity of purpose and
position, at once provoking discontent and demanding
hostility. Nor was this spirit of dissatisfaction entirely
confined to the people. The inferior nobles had their
discontents also; discontents which continued to increase
as they surveyed the excesses in which the more
wealthy of their order engaged. They craved equally
their indulgences, but they lacked the necessary resources.
To oppress the inferior, therefore—to imitate
the exactions of those above them—was the resort of this
latter division. The Jews, for whom, after their late
intrigue, there was little sympathy, were the first and
legitimate victims. Their goods were the common spoil,
and what they could not withhold or secrete, became, in
great part, the prey of their oppressors. After these,
the inferior orders of the Christians—for religion does
not hold ground against misrule—succeeded to their fate,
and a reckless and rash spirit of provocation throughout
the land paved the way for a downfall of that power in
which the sway of the government seemed to be deposited.
Nothing could limit the excesses of this petty
nobility, which did not content itself with the possessions
of the inferior, but, in the end, proceeded to subject to
its unrefined desires the wives and daughters of the
classes most unprivileged, or seeming least secure.
