Bello Gildonico, 165, 189.

Baronius condemns, still more severely, the licentiousness of Gildo;
as his wife, his daughter, and his sister, were examples of perfect
chastity. The adulteries of the African soldiers are checked by one of
the Imperial laws.]

[Footnote 39: Inque tuam sortem numerosas transtulit urbes. Claudian
(de Bell. Gildonico, 230-324) has touched, with political delicacy,
the intrigues of the Byzantine court, which are likewise mentioned by
Zosimus, (l. v. p. 302.)]

When Stilicho had given a firm and decisive answer to the pretensions of
the Byzantine court, he solemnly accused the 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. [40] A
people, who still remembered that their ancestors had been the
masters of the world, would have applauded, with conscious pride, the
representation of ancient freedom; if they had not since been accustomed
to prefer the solid assurance of bread to the unsubstantial visions of
liberty and greatness. The subsistence of Rome depended on the harvests
of Africa; 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 minister of his just
apprehension, that as soon as the revengeful Moor should prohibit the
exportation of corn, the and perhaps the safety, of the capital would
be threatened by the hungry rage of a turbulent multitude. [41] The
prudence of Stilicho conceived and executed, without 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 Tyber. 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