that every rank of subjects imitated the effeminate manners
of their sovereign; and that every species of corruption polluted the
course of public and private life; and that the feeble restraints of
order and decency were insufficient to resist the progress of that
degenerate spirit, which sacrifices, without a blush, the consideration
of duty and interest to the base indulgence of sloth and appetite. [124]
The complaints of contemporary writers, who deplore the increase of
luxury, and depravation of manners, are commonly expressive of their
peculiar temper and situation. There are few observers, who possess a
clear and comprehensive view of the revolutions of society; and who
are capable of discovering the nice and secret springs of action, which
impel, in the same uniform direction, the blind and capricious passions
of a multitude of individuals. If it can be affirmed, with any degree of
truth, that the luxury of the Romans was more shameless and dissolute in
the reign of Theodosius than in the age of Constantine, perhaps, or
of Augustus, the alteration cannot be ascribed to any beneficial
improvements, which had gradually increased the stock of national
riches. A long period of calamity or decay must have checked the
industry, and diminished the wealth, of the people; and their profuse
luxury must have been the result of that indolent despair, which enjoys
the present hour, and declines the thoughts of futurity. The uncertain
condition of their property discouraged the subjects of Theodosius from
engaging in those useful and laborious undertakings which require
an immediate expense, and promise a slow and distant advantage. The
frequent examples of ruin and desolation tempted them not to spare the
remains of a patrimony, which might, every hour, become the prey of the
rapacious Goth. And the mad prodigality which prevails in the confusion
of a shipwreck, or a siege, may serve to explain the progress of luxury
amidst the misfortunes and terrors of a sinking nation.

[Footnote 124: Zosimus, l. iv. p. 244.]

The effeminate luxury, which infected the manners of courts and cities,
had instilled a secret and destructive poison into the camps of the
legions; and their degeneracy has been marked by the pen of a military
writer, who had accurately studied the genuine and ancient principles of
Roman discipline. It is the just and important observation of Vegetius,
that the infantry was invariably covered with defensive armor,