me from the
wild goats, its original inhabitants, whose place was occupied by a new
colony of a strange and savage appearance. "The whole island (says an
ingenious traveller of those times) is filled, or rather defiled, by
men who fly from the light. They call themselves Monks, or solitaries,
because they choose to live alone, without any witnesses of their
actions. They fear the gifts of fortune, from the apprehension of
losing them; and, lest they should be miserable, they embrace a life of
voluntary wretchedness. How absurd is their choice! how perverse their
understanding! to dread the evils, without being able to support the
blessings, of the human condition. Either this melancholy madness is the
effect of disease, or exercise on their own bodies the tortures which
are inflicted on fugitive slaves by the hand of justice." [46] Such
was the contempt of a profane magistrate for the monks as the chosen
servants of God. [47] Some of them were persuaded, by his entreaties,
to embark on board the fleet; and it is observed, to the praise of
the Roman general, that his days and nights were employed in prayer,
fasting, and the occupation of singing psalms. The devout leader, who,
with such a reenforcement, appeared confident of victory, avoided the
dangerous rocks of Corsica, coasted along the eastern side of Sardinia,
and secured his ships against the violence of the south wind, by casting
anchor in the and capacious harbor of Cagliari, at the distance of one
hundred and forty miles from the African shores. [48]

[Footnote 43: He was of a mature age; since he had formerly (A.D. 373)
served against his brother Firmus (Ammian. xxix. 5.) Claudian, who
understood the court of Milan, dwells on the injuries, rather than the
merits, of Mascezel, (de Bell. Gild. 389-414.) The Moorish war was not
worthy of Honorius, or Stilicho, &c.]

[Footnote 44: Claudian, Bell. Gild. 415-423. The change of discipline
allowed him to use indifferently the names of Legio Cohors, Manipulus.
See Notitia Imperii, S. 38, 40.]

[Footnote 45: Orosius (l. vii. c. 36, p. 565) qualifies this account
with an expression of doubt, (ut aiunt;) and it scarcely coincides with
Zosimus, (l. v. p. 303.) Yet Claudian, after some declamation about
Cadmus, soldiers, frankly owns that Stilicho sent a small army lest the
rebels should fly, ne timeare times, (i. Cons. Stilich. l. i. 314 &c.)]

[Footnote 46: Claud. Rutil. Numatian. Itinerar. i. 439-448. He
afterwards (