<h2><SPAN name="chap31.4"></SPAN> Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of Territories By Barbarians.—Part IV. </h2>
<p>At the distance of fourteen centuries, we may be satisfied with relating
the military exploits of the conquerors of Rome, without presuming to
investigate the motives of their political conduct. In the midst of his
apparent prosperity, Alaric was conscious, perhaps, of some secret
weakness, some internal defect; or perhaps the moderation which he
displayed, was intended only to deceive and disarm the easy credulity of
the ministers of Honorius. The king of the Goths repeatedly declared, that
it was his desire to be considered as the friend of peace, and of the
Romans. Three senators, at his earnest request, were sent ambassadors to
the court of Ravenna, to solicit the exchange of hostages, and the
conclusion of the treaty; and the proposals, which he more clearly
expressed during the course of the negotiations, could only inspire a
doubt of his sincerity, as they might seem inadequate to the state of his
fortune. The Barbarian still aspired to the rank of master-general of the
armies of the West; he stipulated an annual subsidy of corn and money; and
he chose the provinces of Dalmatia, Noricum, and Venetia, for the seat of
his new kingdom, which would have commanded the important communication
between Italy and the Danube. If these modest terms should be rejected,
Alaric showed a disposition to relinquish his pecuniary demands, and even
to content himself with the possession of Noricum; an exhausted and
impoverished country, perpetually exposed to the inroads of the Barbarians
of Germany. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.82" name="linknoteref-31.82" id="linknoteref-31.82">82</SPAN> But the hopes of peace were disappointed by
the weak obstinacy, or interested views, of the minister Olympius. Without
listening to the salutary remonstrances of the senate, he dismissed their
ambassadors under the conduct of a military escort, too numerous for a
retinue of honor, and too feeble for any army of defence. Six thousand
Dalmatians, the flower of the Imperial legions, were ordered to march from
Ravenna to Rome, through an open country which was occupied by the
formidable myriads of the Barbarians. These brave legionaries, encompassed
and betrayed, fell a sacrifice to ministerial folly; their general,
Valens, with a hundred soldiers, escaped from the field of battle; and one
of the ambassadors, who could no longer claim the protection of the law of
nations, was obliged to purchase his freedom with a ransom of thirty
thousand pieces of gold. Yet Alaric, instead of resenting this act of
impotent hostility, immediately renewed his proposals of peace; and the
second embassy of the Roman senate, which derived weight and dignity from
the presence of Innocent, bishop of the city, was guarded from the dangers
of the road by a detachment of Gothic soldiers. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.83"
name="linknoteref-31.83" id="linknoteref-31.83">83</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.82" id="linknote-31.82">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
82 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.82">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Zosimus, l. v. p. 367
368, 369.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.83" id="linknote-31.83">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
83 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.83">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Zosimus, l. v. p. 360,
361, 362. The bishop, by remaining at Ravenna, escaped the impending
calamities of the city. Orosius, l. vii. c. 39, p. 573.]</p>
<p>Olympius <SPAN href="#linknote-31.84" name="linknoteref-31.84" id="linknoteref-31.84">84</SPAN> might have continued to insult the just
resentment of a people who loudly accused him as the author of the public
calamities; but his power was undermined by the secret intrigues of the
palace. The favorite eunuchs transferred the government of Honorius, and
the empire, to Jovius, the Prætorian praefect; an unworthy servant, who
did not atone, by the merit of personal attachment, for the errors and
misfortunes of his administration. The exile, or escape, of the guilty
Olympius, reserved him for more vicissitudes of fortune: he experienced
the adventures of an obscure and wandering life; he again rose to power;
he fell a second time into disgrace; his ears were cut off; he expired
under the lash; and his ignominious death afforded a grateful spectacle
to the friends of Stilicho. After the removal of Olympius, whose
character was deeply tainted with religious fanaticism, the Pagans and
heretics were delivered from the impolitic proscription, which excluded
them from the dignities of the state. The brave Gennerid, <SPAN href="#linknote-31.85" name="linknoteref-31.85" id="linknoteref-31.85">85</SPAN> a soldier of Barbarian origin, who still
adhered to the worship of his ancestors, had been obliged to lay aside
the military belt: and though he was repeatedly assured by the emperor
himself, that laws were not made for persons of his rank or merit, he
refused to accept any partial dispensation, and persevered in honorable
disgrace, till he had extorted a general act of justice from the distress
of the Roman government. The conduct of Gennerid in the important station
to which he was promoted or restored, of master-general of Dalmatia,
Pannonia, Noricum, and Rhaetia, seemed to revive the discipline and
spirit of the republic. From a life of idleness and want, his troops were
soon habituated to severe exercise and plentiful subsistence; and his
private generosity often supplied the rewards, which were denied by the
avarice, or poverty, of the court of Ravenna. The valor of Gennerid,
formidable to the adjacent Barbarians, was the firmest bulwark of the
Illyrian frontier; and his vigilant care assisted the empire with a
reenforcement of ten thousand Huns, who arrived on the confines of Italy,
attended by such a convoy of provisions, and such a numerous train of
sheep and oxen, as might have been sufficient, not only for the march of
an army, but for the settlement of a colony. But the court and councils
of Honorius still remained a scene of weakness and distraction, of
corruption and anarchy. Instigated by the praefect Jovius, the guards
rose in furious mutiny, and demanded the heads of two generals, and of
the two principal eunuchs. The generals, under a perfidious promise of
safety, were sent on shipboard, and privately executed; while the favor
of the eunuchs procured them a mild and secure exile at Milan and
Constantinople. Eusebius the eunuch, and the Barbarian Allobich,
succeeded to the command of the bed-chamber and of the guards; and the
mutual jealousy of these subordinate ministers was the cause of their
mutual destruction. By the insolent order of the count of the domestics,
the great chamberlain was shamefully beaten to death with sticks, before
the eyes of the astonished emperor; and the subsequent assassination of
Allobich, in the midst of a public procession, is the only circumstance
of his life, in which Honorius discovered the faintest symptom of courage
or resentment. Yet before they fell, Eusebius and Allobich had
contributed their part to the ruin of the empire, by opposing the
conclusion of a treaty which Jovius, from a selfish, and perhaps a
criminal, motive, had negotiated with Alaric, in a personal interview
under the walls of Rimini. During the absence of Jovius, the emperor was
persuaded to assume a lofty tone of inflexible dignity, such as neither
his situation, nor his character, could enable him to support; and a
letter, signed with the name of Honorius, was immediately despatched to
the Prætorian praefect, granting him a free permission to dispose of the
public money, but sternly refusing to prostitute the military honors of
Rome to the proud demands of a Barbarian. This letter was imprudently
communicated to Alaric himself; and the Goth, who in the whole
transaction had behaved with temper and decency, expressed, in the most
outrageous language, his lively sense of the insult so wantonly offered
to his person and to his nation. The conference of Rimini was hastily
interrupted; and the praefect Jovius, on his return to Ravenna, was
compelled to adopt, and even to encourage, the fashionable opinions of
the court. By his advice and example, the principal officers of the state
and army were obliged to swear, that, without listening, in any
circumstances, to any conditions of peace, they would still persevere in
perpetual and implacable war against the enemy of the republic. This rash
engagement opposed an insuperable bar to all future negotiation. The
ministers of Honorius were heard to declare, that, if they had only
invoked the name of the Deity, they would consult the public safety, and
trust their souls to the mercy of Heaven: but they had sworn by the
sacred head of the emperor himself; they had touched, in solemn ceremony,
that august seat of majesty and wisdom; and the violation of their oath
would expose them to the temporal penalties of sacrilege and rebellion.
<SPAN href="#linknote-31.86" name="linknoteref-31.86" id="linknoteref-31.86">86</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.84" id="linknote-31.84">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
84 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.84">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ For the adventures of
Olympius, and his successors in the ministry, see Zosimus, l. v. p. 363,
365, 366, and Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 180, 181. ]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.85" id="linknote-31.85">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
85 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.85">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Zosimus (l. v. p. 364)
relates this circumstance with visible complacency, and celebrates the
character of Gennerid as the last glory of expiring Paganism. Very
different were the sentiments of the council of Carthage, who deputed four
bishops to the court of Ravenna to complain of the law, which had been
just enacted, that all conversions to Christianity should be free and
voluntary. See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 409, No. 12, A.D. 410, No.
47, 48.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.86" id="linknote-31.86">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
86 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.86">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Zosimus, l. v. p. 367,
368, 369. This custom of swearing by the head, or life, or safety, or
genius, of the sovereign, was of the highest antiquity, both in Egypt
(Genesis, xlii. 15) and Scythia. It was soon transferred, by flattery, to
the Caesars; and Tertullian complains, that it was the only oath which the
Romans of his time affected to reverence. See an elegant Dissertation of
the Abbe Mossieu on the Oaths of the Ancients, in the Mem de l’Academie
des Inscriptions, tom. i. p. 208, 209.]</p>
<p>While the emperor and his court enjoyed, with sullen pride, the security
of the marches and fortifications of Ravenna, they abandoned Rome, almost
without defence, to the resentment of Alaric. Yet such was the moderation
which he still preserved, or affected, that, as he moved with his army
along the Flaminian way, he successively despatched the bishops of the
towns of Italy to reiterate his offers of peace, and to conjure the
emperor, that he would save the city and its inhabitants from hostile
fire, and the sword of the Barbarians. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.87"
name="linknoteref-31.87" id="linknoteref-31.87">87</SPAN> These impending
calamities were, however, averted, not indeed by the wisdom of Honorius,
but by the prudence or humanity of the Gothic king; who employed a milder,
though not less effectual, method of conquest. Instead of assaulting the
capital, he successfully directed his efforts against the Port of Ostia,
one of the boldest and most stupendous works of Roman magnificence. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.88" name="linknoteref-31.88" id="linknoteref-31.88">88</SPAN>
The accidents to which the precarious subsistence of the city was
continually exposed in a winter navigation, and an open road, had
suggested to the genius of the first Caesar the useful design, which was
executed under the reign of Claudius. The artificial moles, which formed
the narrow entrance, advanced far into the sea, and firmly repelled the
fury of the waves, while the largest vessels securely rode at anchor
within three deep and capacious basins, which received the northern branch
of the Tyber, about two miles from the ancient colony of Ostia. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.89" name="linknoteref-31.89" id="linknoteref-31.89">89</SPAN>
The Roman Port insensibly swelled to the size of an episcopal city, <SPAN href="#linknote-31.90" name="linknoteref-31.90" id="linknoteref-31.90">90</SPAN>
where the corn of Africa was deposited in spacious granaries for the use
of the capital. As soon as Alaric was in possession of that important
place, he summoned the city to surrender at discretion; and his demands
were enforced by the positive declaration, that a refusal, or even a
delay, should be instantly followed by the destruction of the magazines,
on which the life of the Roman people depended. The clamors of that
people, and the terror of famine, subdued the pride of the senate; they
listened, without reluctance, to the proposal of placing a new emperor on
the throne of the unworthy Honorius; and the suffrage of the Gothic
conqueror bestowed the purple on Attalus, praefect of the city. The
grateful monarch immediately acknowledged his protector as master-general
of the armies of the West; Adolphus, with the rank of count of the
domestics, obtained the custody of the person of Attalus; and the two
hostile nations seemed to be united in the closest bands of friendship and
alliance. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.91" name="linknoteref-31.91" id="linknoteref-31.91">91</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.87" id="linknote-31.87">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
87 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.87">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Zosimus, l. v. p. 368,
369. I have softened the expressions of Alaric, who expatiates, in too
florid a manner, on the history of Rome]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.88" id="linknote-31.88">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
88 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.88">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ See Sueton. in Claud.
c. 20. Dion Cassius, l. lx. p. 949, edit Reimar, and the lively
description of Juvenal, Satir. xii. 75, &c. In the sixteenth century,
when the remains of this Augustan port were still visible, the
antiquarians sketched the plan, (see D’Anville, Mem. de l’Academie des
Inscriptions, tom. xxx. p. 198,) and declared, with enthusiasm, that all
the monarchs of Europe would be unable to execute so great a work,
(Bergier, Hist. des grands Chemins des Romains, tom. ii. p. 356.)]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.89" id="linknote-31.89">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
89 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.89">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ The Ostia Tyberina,
(see Cluver. Italia Antiq. l. iii. p. 870-879,) in the plural number, the
two mouths of the Tyber, were separated by the Holy Island, an equilateral
triangle, whose sides were each of them computed at about two miles. The
colony of Ostia was founded immediately beyond the left, or southern, and
the Port immediately beyond the right, or northern, branch of hte river;
and the distance between their remains measures something more than two
miles on Cingolani’s map. In the time of Strabo, the sand and mud
deposited by the Tyber had choked the harbor of Ostia; the progress of the
same cause has added much to the size of the Holy Islands, and gradually
left both Ostia and the Port at a considerable distance from the shore.
The dry channels (fiumi morti) and the large estuaries (stagno di Ponente,
di Levante) mark the changes of the river, and the efforts of the sea.
Consult, for the present state of this dreary and desolate tract, the
excellent map of the ecclesiastical state by the mathematicians of
Benedict XIV.; an actual survey of the Agro Romano, in six sheets, by
Cingolani, which contains 113,819 rubbia, (about 570,000 acres;) and the
large topographical map of Ameti, in eight sheets.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.90" id="linknote-31.90">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
90 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.90">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ As early as the third,
(Lardner’s Credibility of the Gospel, part ii. vol. iii. p. 89-92,) or at
least the fourth, century, (Carol. a Sancta Paulo, Notit. Eccles. p. 47,)
the Port of Rome was an episcopal city, which was demolished, as it should
seem in the ninth century, by Pope Gregory IV., during the incursions of
the Arabs. It is now reduced to an inn, a church, and the house, or
palace, of the bishop; who ranks as one of six cardinal-bishops of the
Roman church. See Eschinard, Deserizione di Roman et dell’ Agro Romano, p.
328. * Note: Compare Sir W. Gell. Rome and its Vicinity vol. ii p. 134.—M.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.91" id="linknote-31.91">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
91 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.91">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ For the elevation of
Attalus, consult Zosimus, l. vi. p. 377-380, Sozomen, l. ix. c. 8, 9,
Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 180, 181, Philostorg. l. xii. c. 3, and
Godefroy’s Dissertat. p. 470.]</p>
<p>The gates of the city were thrown open, and the new emperor of the Romans,
encompassed on every side by the Gothic arms, was conducted, in tumultuous
procession, to the palace of Augustus and Trajan. After he had distributed
the civil and military dignities among his favorites and followers,
Attalus convened an assembly of the senate; before whom, in a formal and
florid speech, he asserted his resolution of restoring the majesty of the
republic, and of uniting to the empire the provinces of Egypt and the
East, which had once acknowledged the sovereignty of Rome. Such
extravagant promises inspired every reasonable citizen with a just
contempt for the character of an unwarlike usurper, whose elevation was
the deepest and most ignominious wound which the republic had yet
sustained from the insolence of the Barbarians. But the populace, with
their usual levity, applauded the change of masters. The public discontent
was favorable to the rival of Honorius; and the sectaries, oppressed by
his persecuting edicts, expected some degree of countenance, or at least
of toleration, from a prince, who, in his native country of Ionia, had
been educated in the Pagan superstition, and who had since received the
sacrament of baptism from the hands of an Arian bishop. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.92" name="linknoteref-31.92" id="linknoteref-31.92">92</SPAN>
The first days of the reign of Attalus were fair and prosperous. An
officer of confidence was sent with an inconsiderable body of troops to
secure the obedience of Africa; the greatest part of Italy submitted to
the terror of the Gothic powers; and though the city of Bologna made a
vigorous and effectual resistance, the people of Milan, dissatisfied
perhaps with the absence of Honorius, accepted, with loud acclamations,
the choice of the Roman senate. At the head of a formidable army, Alaric
conducted his royal captive almost to the gates of Ravenna; and a solemn
embassy of the principal ministers, of Jovius, the Prætorian praefect, of
Valens, master of the cavalry and infantry, of the quaestor Potamius, and
of Julian, the first of the notaries, was introduced, with martial pomp,
into the Gothic camp. In the name of their sovereign, they consented to
acknowledge the lawful election of his competitor, and to divide the
provinces of Italy and the West between the two emperors. Their proposals
were rejected with disdain; and the refusal was aggravated by the
insulting clemency of Attalus, who condescended to promise, that, if
Honorius would instantly resign the purple, he should be permitted to pass
the remainder of his life in the peaceful exile of some remote island. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.93" name="linknoteref-31.93" id="linknoteref-31.93">93</SPAN>
So desperate indeed did the situation of the son of Theodosius appear, to
those who were the best acquainted with his strength and resources, that
Jovius and Valens, his minister and his general, betrayed their trust,
infamously deserted the sinking cause of their benefactor, and devoted
their treacherous allegiance to the service of his more fortunate rival.
Astonished by such examples of domestic treason, Honorius trembled at the
approach of every servant, at the arrival of every messenger. He dreaded
the secret enemies, who might lurk in his capital, his palace, his
bed-chamber; and some ships lay ready in the harbor of Ravenna, to
transport the abdicated monarch to the dominions of his infant nephew, the
emperor of the East.</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.92" id="linknote-31.92">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
92 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.92">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ We may admit the
evidence of Sozomen for the Arian baptism, and that of Philostorgius for
the Pagan education, of Attalus. The visible joy of Zosimus, and the
discontent which he imputes to the Anician family, are very unfavorable to
the Christianity of the new emperor.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.93" id="linknote-31.93">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
93 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.93">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ He carried his
insolence so far, as to declare that he should mutilate Honorius before he
sent him into exile. But this assertion of Zosimus is destroyed by the
more impartial testimony of Olympiodorus; who attributes the ungenerous
proposal (which was absolutely rejected by Attalus) to the baseness, and
perhaps the treachery, of Jovius.]</p>
<p>But there is a Providence (such at least was the opinion of the historian
Procopius) <SPAN href="#linknote-31.94" name="linknoteref-31.94" id="linknoteref-31.94">94</SPAN> that watches over innocence and folly; and
the pretensions of Honorius to its peculiar care cannot reasonably be
disputed. At the moment when his despair, incapable of any wise or manly
resolution, meditated a shameful flight, a seasonable reenforcement of
four thousand veterans unexpectedly landed in the port of Ravenna. To
these valiant strangers, whose fidelity had not been corrupted by the
factions of the court, he committed the walls and gates of the city; and
the slumbers of the emperor were no longer disturbed by the apprehension
of imminent and internal danger. The favorable intelligence which was
received from Africa suddenly changed the opinions of men, and the state
of public affairs. The troops and officers, whom Attalus had sent into
that province, were defeated and slain; and the active zeal of Heraclian
maintained his own allegiance, and that of his people. The faithful count
of Africa transmitted a large sum of money, which fixed the attachment of
the Imperial guards; and his vigilance, in preventing the exportation of
corn and oil, introduced famine, tumult, and discontent, into the walls of
Rome. The failure of the African expedition was the source of mutual
complaint and recrimination in the party of Attalus; and the mind of his
protector was insensibly alienated from the interest of a prince, who
wanted spirit to command, or docility to obey. The most imprudent measures
were adopted, without the knowledge, or against the advice, of Alaric; and
the obstinate refusal of the senate, to allow, in the embarkation, the
mixture even of five hundred Goths, betrayed a suspicious and distrustful
temper, which, in their situation, was neither generous nor prudent. The
resentment of the Gothic king was exasperated by the malicious arts of
Jovius, who had been raised to the rank of patrician, and who afterwards
excused his double perfidy, by declaring, without a blush, that he had
only seemed to abandon the service of Honorius, more effectually to ruin
the cause of the usurper. In a large plain near Rimini, and in the
presence of an innumerable multitude of Romans and Barbarians, the
wretched Attalus was publicly despoiled of the diadem and purple; and
those ensigns of royalty were sent by Alaric, as the pledge of peace and
friendship, to the son of Theodosius. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.95"
name="linknoteref-31.95" id="linknoteref-31.95">95</SPAN> The officers who
returned to their duty, were reinstated in their employments, and even the
merit of a tardy repentance was graciously allowed; but the degraded
emperor of the Romans, desirous of life, and insensible of disgrace,
implored the permission of following the Gothic camp, in the train of a
haughty and capricious Barbarian. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.96"
name="linknoteref-31.96" id="linknoteref-31.96">96</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.94" id="linknote-31.94">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
94 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.94">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Procop. de Bell.
Vandal. l. i. c. 2.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.95" id="linknote-31.95">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
95 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.95">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ See the cause and
circumstances of the fall of Attalus in Zosimus, l. vi. p. 380-383.
Sozomen, l. ix. c. 8. Philostorg. l. xii. c. 3. The two acts of indemnity
in the Theodosian Code, l. ix. tit. xxxviii. leg. 11, 12, which were
published the 12th of February, and the 8th of August, A.D. 410, evidently
relate to this usurper.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.96" id="linknote-31.96">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
96 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.96">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ In hoc, Alaricus,
imperatore, facto, infecto, refecto, ac defecto... Mimum risit, et ludum
spectavit imperii. Orosius, l. vii. c. 42, p. 582.]</p>
<p>The degradation of Attalus removed the only real obstacle to the
conclusion of the peace; and Alaric advanced within three miles of
Ravenna, to press the irresolution of the Imperial ministers, whose
insolence soon returned with the return of fortune. His indignation was
kindled by the report, that a rival chieftain, that Sarus, the personal
enemy of Adolphus, and the hereditary foe of the house of Balti, had been
received into the palace. At the head of three hundred followers, that
fearless Barbarian immediately sallied from the gates of Ravenna;
surprised, and cut in pieces, a considerable body of Goths; reentered the
city in triumph; and was permitted to insult his adversary, by the voice
of a herald, who publicly declared that the guilt of Alaric had forever
excluded him from the friendship and alliance of the emperor. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.97" name="linknoteref-31.97" id="linknoteref-31.97">97</SPAN>
The crime and folly of the court of Ravenna was expiated, a third time, by
the calamities of Rome. The king of the Goths, who no longer dissembled
his appetite for plunder and revenge, appeared in arms under the walls of
the capital; and the trembling senate, without any hopes of relief,
prepared, by a desperate resistance, to defray the ruin of their country.
But they were unable to guard against the secret conspiracy of their
slaves and domestics; who, either from birth or interest, were attached to
the cause of the enemy. At the hour of midnight, the Salarian gate was
silently opened, and the inhabitants were awakened by the tremendous sound
of the Gothic trumpet. Eleven hundred and sixty-three years after the
foundation of Rome, the Imperial city, which had subdued and civilized so
considerable a part of mankind, was delivered to the licentious fury of
the tribes of Germany and Scythia. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.98"
name="linknoteref-31.98" id="linknoteref-31.98">98</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.97" id="linknote-31.97">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
97 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.97">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Zosimus, l. vi. p. 384.
Sozomen, l. ix. c. 9. Philostorgius, l. xii. c. 3. In this place the text
of Zosimus is mutilated, and we have lost the remainder of his sixth and
last book, which ended with the sack of Rome. Credulous and partial as he
is, we must take our leave of that historian with some regret.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.98" id="linknote-31.98">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
98 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.98">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Adest Alaricus,
trepidam Romam obsidet, turbat, irrumpit. Orosius, l. vii. c. 39, p. 573.
He despatches this great event in seven words; but he employs whole pages
in celebrating the devotion of the Goths. I have extracted from an
improbable story of Procopius, the circumstances which had an air of
probability. Procop. de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 2. He supposes that the
city was surprised while the senators slept in the afternoon; but Jerom,
with more authority and more reason, affirms, that it was in the night,
nocte Moab capta est. nocte cecidit murus ejus, tom. i. p. 121, ad
Principiam.]</p>
<p>The proclamation of Alaric, when he forced his entrance into a vanquished
city, discovered, however, some regard for the laws of humanity and
religion. He encouraged his troops boldly to seize the rewards of valor,
and to enrich themselves with the spoils of a wealthy and effeminate
people: but he exhorted them, at the same time, to spare the lives of the
unresisting citizens, and to respect the churches of the apostles, St.
Peter and St. Paul, as holy and inviolable sanctuaries. Amidst the horrors
of a nocturnal tumult, several of the Christian Goths displayed the fervor
of a recent conversion; and some instances of their uncommon piety and
moderation are related, and perhaps adorned, by the zeal of ecclesiastical
writers. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.99" name="linknoteref-31.99" id="linknoteref-31.99">99</SPAN> While the Barbarians roamed through the city
in quest of prey, the humble dwelling of an aged virgin, who had devoted
her life to the service of the altar, was forced open by one of the
powerful Goths. He immediately demanded, though in civil language, all the
gold and silver in her possession; and was astonished at the readiness
with which she conducted him to a splendid hoard of massy plate, of the
richest materials, and the most curious workmanship. The Barbarian viewed
with wonder and delight this valuable acquisition, till he was interrupted
by a serious admonition, addressed to him in the following words: “These,”
said she, “are the consecrated vessels belonging to St. Peter: if you
presume to touch them, the sacrilegious deed will remain on your
conscience. For my part, I dare not keep what I am unable to defend.” The
Gothic captain, struck with reverential awe, despatched a messenger to
inform the king of the treasure which he had discovered; and received a
peremptory order from Alaric, that all the consecrated plate and ornaments
should be transported, without damage or delay, to the church of the
apostle. From the extremity, perhaps, of the Quirinal hill, to the distant
quarter of the Vatican, a numerous detachment of Goths, marching in order
of battle through the principal streets, protected, with glittering arms,
the long train of their devout companions, who bore aloft, on their heads,
the sacred vessels of gold and silver; and the martial shouts of the
Barbarians were mingled with the sound of religious psalmody. From all the
adjacent houses, a crowd of Christians hastened to join this edifying
procession; and a multitude of fugitives, without distinction of age, or
rank, or even of sect, had the good fortune to escape to the secure and
hospitable sanctuary of the Vatican. The learned work, concerning the City
of God, was professedly composed by St. Augustin, to justify the ways of
Providence in the destruction of the Roman greatness. He celebrates, with
peculiar satisfaction, this memorable triumph of Christ; and insults his
adversaries, by challenging them to produce some similar example of a town
taken by storm, in which the fabulous gods of antiquity had been able to
protect either themselves or their deluded votaries. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.100" name="linknoteref-31.100" id="linknoteref-31.100">100</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.99" id="linknote-31.99">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
99 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.99">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Orosius (l. vii. c. 39,
p. 573-576) applauds the piety of the Christian Goths, without seeming to
perceive that the greatest part of them were Arian heretics. Jornandes (c.
30, p. 653) and Isidore of Seville, (Chron. p. 417, edit. Grot.,) who were
both attached to the Gothic cause, have repeated and embellished these
edifying tales. According to Isidore, Alaric himself was heard to say,
that he waged war with the Romans, and not with the apostles. Such was the
style of the seventh century; two hundred years before, the fame and merit
had been ascribed, not to the apostles, but to Christ.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.100" id="linknote-31.100">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
100 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.100">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ See Augustin, de
Civitat. Dei, l. i. c. 1-6. He particularly appeals to the examples of
Troy, Syracuse, and Tarentum.]</p>
<p>In the sack of Rome, some rare and extraordinary examples of Barbarian
virtue have been deservedly applauded. But the holy precincts of the
Vatican, and the apostolic churches, could receive a very small proportion
of the Roman people; many thousand warriors, more especially of the Huns,
who served under the standard of Alaric, were strangers to the name, or at
least to the faith, of Christ; and we may suspect, without any breach of
charity or candor, that in the hour of savage license, when every passion
was inflamed, and every restraint was removed, the precepts of the Gospel
seldom influenced the behavior of the Gothic Christians. The writers, the
best disposed to exaggerate their clemency, have freely confessed, that a
cruel slaughter was made of the Romans; <SPAN href="#linknote-31.101"
name="linknoteref-31.101" id="linknoteref-31.101">101</SPAN> and that the
streets of the city were filled with dead bodies, which remained without
burial during the general consternation. The despair of the citizens was
sometimes converted into fury: and whenever the Barbarians were provoked
by opposition, they extended the promiscuous massacre to the feeble, the
innocent, and the helpless. The private revenge of forty thousand slaves
was exercised without pity or remorse; and the ignominious lashes, which
they had formerly received, were washed away in the blood of the guilty,
or obnoxious, families. The matrons and virgins of Rome were exposed to
injuries more dreadful, in the apprehension of chastity, than death
itself; and the ecclesiastical historian has selected an example of female
virtue, for the admiration of future ages. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.102"
name="linknoteref-31.102" id="linknoteref-31.102">102</SPAN> A Roman lady, of
singular beauty and orthodox faith, had excited the impatient desires of a
young Goth, who, according to the sagacious remark of Sozomen, was
attached to the Arian heresy. Exasperated by her obstinate resistance, he
drew his sword, and, with the anger of a lover, slightly wounded her neck.
The bleeding heroine still continued to brave his resentment, and to repel
his love, till the ravisher desisted from his unavailing efforts,
respectfully conducted her to the sanctuary of the Vatican, and gave six
pieces of gold to the guards of the church, on condition that they should
restore her inviolate to the arms of her husband. Such instances of
courage and generosity were not extremely common. The brutal soldiers
satisfied their sensual appetites, without consulting either the
inclination or the duties of their female captives: and a nice question of
casuistry was seriously agitated, Whether those tender victims, who had
inflexibly refused their consent to the violation which they sustained,
had lost, by their misfortune, the glorious crown of virginity. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.103" name="linknoteref-31.103" id="linknoteref-31.103">103</SPAN>
Their were other losses indeed of a more substantial kind, and more
general concern. It cannot be presumed, that all the Barbarians were at
all times capable of perpetrating such amorous outrages; and the want of
youth, or beauty, or chastity, protected the greatest part of the Roman
women from the danger of a rape. But avarice is an insatiate and universal
passion; since the enjoyment of almost every object that can afford
pleasure to the different tastes and tempers of mankind may be procured by
the possession of wealth. In the pillage of Rome, a just preference was
given to gold and jewels, which contain the greatest value in the smallest
compass and weight: but, after these portable riches had been removed by
the more diligent robbers, the palaces of Rome were rudely stripped of
their splendid and costly furniture. The sideboards of massy plate, and
the variegated wardrobes of silk and purple, were irregularly piled in the
wagons, that always followed the march of a Gothic army. The most
exquisite works of art were roughly handled, or wantonly destroyed; many a
statue was melted for the sake of the precious materials; and many a vase,
in the division of the spoil, was shivered into fragments by the stroke of
a battle-axe.</p>
<p>The acquisition of riches served only to stimulate the avarice of the
rapacious Barbarians, who proceeded, by threats, by blows, and by
tortures, to force from their prisoners the confession of hidden treasure.
<SPAN href="#linknote-31.104" name="linknoteref-31.104" id="linknoteref-31.104">104</SPAN>
Visible splendor and expense were alleged as the proof of a plentiful
fortune; the appearance of poverty was imputed to a parsimonious
disposition; and the obstinacy of some misers, who endured the most cruel
torments before they would discover the secret object of their affection,
was fatal to many unhappy wretches, who expired under the lash, for
refusing to reveal their imaginary treasures. The edifices of Rome, though
the damage has been much exaggerated, received some injury from the
violence of the Goths. At their entrance through the Salarian gate, they
fired the adjacent houses to guide their march, and to distract the
attention of the citizens; the flames, which encountered no obstacle in
the disorder of the night, consumed many private and public buildings; and
the ruins of the palace of Sallust <SPAN href="#linknote-31.105"
name="linknoteref-31.105" id="linknoteref-31.105">105</SPAN> remained, in the
age of Justinian, a stately monument of the Gothic conflagration. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.106" name="linknoteref-31.106" id="linknoteref-31.106">106</SPAN>
Yet a contemporary historian has observed, that fire could scarcely
consume the enormous beams of solid brass, and that the strength of man
was insufficient to subvert the foundations of ancient structures. Some
truth may possibly be concealed in his devout assertion, that the wrath of
Heaven supplied the imperfections of hostile rage; and that the proud
Forum of Rome, decorated with the statues of so many gods and heroes, was
levelled in the dust by the stroke of lightning. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.107"
name="linknoteref-31.107" id="linknoteref-31.107">107</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.101" id="linknote-31.101">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
101 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.101">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Jerom (tom. i. p.
121, ad Principiam) has applied to the sack of Rome all the strong
expressions of Virgil:—</p>
<p>Quis cladem illius noctis, quis funera fando,<br/>
Explicet, &c.<br/></p>
<p class="foot">
Procopius (l. i. c. 2) positively affirms that great numbers were slain by
the Goths. Augustin (de Civ. Dei, l. i. c. 12, 13) offers Christian
comfort for the death of those whose bodies (multa corpora) had remained
(in tanta strage) unburied. Baronius, from the different writings of the
Fathers, has thrown some light on the sack of Rome. Annal. Eccles. A.D.
410, No. 16-34.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.102" id="linknote-31.102">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
102 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.102">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Sozomen. l. ix. c.
10. Augustin (de Civitat. Dei, l. i. c. 17) intimates, that some virgins
or matrons actually killed themselves to escape violation; and though he
admires their spirit, he is obliged, by his theology, to condemn their
rash presumption. Perhaps the good bishop of Hippo was too easy in the
belief, as well as too rigid in the censure, of this act of female
heroism. The twenty maidens (if they ever existed) who threw themselves
into the Elbe, when Magdeburgh was taken by storm, have been multiplied to
the number of twelve hundred. See Harte’s History of Gustavus Adolphus,
vol. i. p. 308.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.103" id="linknote-31.103">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
103 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.103">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ See Augustin de
Civitat. Dei, l. i. c. 16, 18. He treats the subject with remarkable
accuracy: and after admitting that there cannot be any crime where there
is no consent, he adds, Sed quia non solum quod ad dolorem, verum etiam
quod ad libidinem, pertinet, in corpore alieno pepetrari potest; quicquid
tale factum fuerit, etsi retentam constantissimo animo pudicitiam non
excutit, pudorem tamen incutit, ne credatur factum cum mentis etiam
voluntate, quod fieri fortasse sine carnis aliqua voluptate non potuit. In
c. 18 he makes some curious distinctions between moral and physical
virginity.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.104" id="linknote-31.104">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
104 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.104">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Marcella, a Roman
lady, equally respectable for her rank, her age, and her piety, was thrown
on the ground, and cruelly beaten and whipped, caesam fustibus
flagellisque, &c. Jerom, tom. i. p. 121, ad Principiam. See Augustin,
de Civ. Dei, l. c. 10. The modern Sacco di Roma, p. 208, gives an idea of
the various methods of torturing prisoners for gold.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.105" id="linknote-31.105">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
105 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.105">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ The historian
Sallust, who usefully practiced the vices which he has so eloquently
censured, employed the plunder of Numidia to adorn his palace and gardens
on the Quirinal hill. The spot where the house stood is now marked by the
church of St. Susanna, separated only by a street from the baths of
Diocletian, and not far distant from the Salarian gate. See Nardini, Roma
Antica, p. 192, 193, and the great I’lan of Modern Rome, by Nolli.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.106" id="linknote-31.106">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
106 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.106">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ The expressions of
Procopius are distinct and moderate, (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 2.) The
Chronicle of Marcellinus speaks too strongly partem urbis Romae cremavit;
and the words of Philostorgius (l. xii. c. 3) convey a false and
exaggerated idea. Bargaeus has composed a particular dissertation (see
tom. iv. Antiquit. Rom. Graev.) to prove that the edifices of Rome were
not subverted by the Goths and Vandals.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.107" id="linknote-31.107">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
107 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.107">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Orosius, l. ii. c.
19, p. 143. He speaks as if he disapproved all statues; vel Deum vel
hominem mentiuntur. They consisted of the kings of Alba and Rome from
Aeneas, the Romans, illustrious either in arms or arts, and the deified
Caesars. The expression which he uses of Forum is somewhat ambiguous,
since there existed five principal Fora; but as they were all contiguous
and adjacent, in the plain which is surrounded by the Capitoline, the
Quirinal, the Esquiline, and the Palatine hills, they might fairly be
considered as one. See the Roma Antiqua of Donatus, p. 162-201, and the
Roma Antica of Nardini, p. 212-273. The former is more useful for the
ancient descriptions, the latter for the actual topography.]</p>
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