five feet ten
inches, and in the best corps, six Roman feet. Sed tunc erat amplior
multitude se et plures sequebantur militiam armatam. Vegetius de Re
Militari l. i. c. v.]

[Footnote 136: See the two titles, De Veteranis and De Filiis
Veteranorum, in the seventh book of the Theodosian Code. The age at
which their military service was required, varied from twenty-five to
sixteen. If the sons of the veterans appeared with a horse, they had
a right to serve in the cavalry; two horses gave them some valuable
privileges]

[Footnote 137: Cod. Theod. l. vii. tit. xiii. leg. 7. According to the
historian Socrates, (see Godefroy ad loc.,) the same emperor Valens
sometimes required eighty pieces of gold for a recruit. In the following
law it is faintly expressed, that slaves shall not be admitted inter
optimas lectissimorum militum turmas.]

[Footnote 138: The person and property of a Roman knight, who had
mutilated his two sons, were sold at public auction by order of
Augustus. (Sueton. in August. c. 27.) The moderation of that artful
usurper proves, that this example of severity was justified by the
spirit of the times. Ammianus makes a distinction between the effeminate
Italians and the hardy Gauls. (L. xv. c. 12.) Yet only 15 years
afterwards, Valentinian, in a law addressed to the praefect of Gaul,
is obliged to enact that these cowardly deserters shall be burnt alive.
(Cod. Theod. l. vii. tit. xiii. leg. 5.) Their numbers in Illyricum were
so considerable, that the province complained of a scarcity of recruits.
(Id. leg. 10.)]

[Footnote 139: They were called Murci. Murcidus is found in Plautus and
Festus, to denote a lazy and cowardly person, who, according to Arnobius
and Augustin, was under the immediate protection of the goddess
Murcia. From this particular instance of cowardice, murcare is used
as synonymous to mutilare, by the writers of the middle Latinity. See
Linder brogius and Valesius ad Ammian. Marcellin, l. xv. c. 12]

Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.--Part V.

The introduction of Barbarians into the Roman armies became every day
more universal, more necessary, and more fatal. The most daring of the
Scythians, of the Goths, and of the Germans, who delighted in war, and
who found it more profitable to defend than to ravage the provinces,
were enrolled, not only in the auxiliaries of their respective nations,
but in the legions themselves, and among the most distinguished of the
Palatin