and
despotic authority, which was afterwards exercised by Odoacer and
Theodoric. But his dominions were bounded by the Alps; and two Roman
generals, Marcellinus and AEgidius, maintained their allegiance to the
republic, by rejecting, with disdain, the phantom which he styled an
emperor. Marcellinus still adhered to the old religion; and the devout
Pagans, who secretly disobeyed the laws of the church and state,
applauded his profound skill in the science of divination. But he
possessed the more valuable qualifications of learning, virtue, and
courage; the study of the Latin literature had improved his taste; and
his military talents had recommended him to the esteem and confidence
of the great AEtius, in whose ruin he was involved. By a timely flight,
Marcellinus escaped the rage of Valentinian, and boldly asserted his
liberty amidst the convulsions of the Western empire. His voluntary, or
reluctant, submission to the authority of Majorian, was rewarded by
the government of Sicily, and the command of an army, stationed in
that island to oppose, or to attack, the Vandals; but his Barbarian
mercenaries, after the emperor's death, were tempted to revolt by
the artful liberality of Ricimer. At the head of a band of faithful
followers, the intrepid Marcellinus occupied the province of Dalmatia,
assumed the title of patrician of the West, secured the love of his
subjects by a mild and equitable reign, built a fleet which claimed the
dominion of the Adriatic, and alternately alarmed the coasts of Italy
and of Africa. AEgidius, the master-general of Gaul, who equalled, or at
least who imitated, the heroes of ancient Rome, proclaimed his immortal
resentment against the assassins of his beloved master. A brave and
numerous army was attached to his standard: and, though he was prevented
by the arts of Ricimer, and the arms of the Visigoths, from marching to
the gates of Rome, he maintained his independent sovereignty beyond the
Alps, and rendered the name of AEgidius, respectable both in peace and
war. The Franks, who had punished with exile the youthful follies of
Childeric, elected the Roman general for their king: his vanity, rather
than his ambition, was gratified by that singular honor; and when the
nation, at the end of four years, repented of the injury which they
had offered to the Merovingian family, he patiently acquiesced in the
restoration of the lawful prince. The authority of AEgidius ended only
with his life, and the