racter of Theodosius, the public safety seemed to depend on the life and abilities of a single man'. The death of this warlike prince did, in fact, prove the signal, for the blast of the first trumpet, and for the commencement of the symbolical hailstorm of the north. Scarcely was he laid in his grave, and scarcely had the Empire been finally divided between his two sons, when the tempest began to rage. ' 3. With respect to the operation of the great northern hail-storm, we must observe, that it falls indiscriminately upon the whole earth, but yet that a third part only of the earth is parched up by it. en The import of this prediction is no less plain, than its accomplishment has been minutely accurate. It was on the whole Roman Empire, in all its three divisions, that the tempest of northern invasion impetuously descended : but it was the western third part alone, that was permanently burned or parched up by it. The East recovered from the effects of the storm; and the Gothic hailstones soon melted away upon the sunny coast of Africa, leaving behind them not a trace of Scythian domination : but the West was finally lost to the Roman sceptre; the hail never melted away from its surface; the Latin Empire was first desolated and then partitioned by those northern warriors, whose descendants even at the present hour are the undisputed lords of its territory. Hist. of Decline, vol. iv, p. 443. headstrong passions of their chiefs, the Goths were now directed by the bold and artful genius of Alaric. That renowned leader disdained to trample any longer on the prostrate and ruined countries of Thrace and Dacia : and he resolved to seek a plentiful harvest of fame and riches in a province, which had hitherto escaped the ravages of war. The fertile fields of Phocis and Boeotia were instantly covered by a deluge of barbarians ; who massacred the males of an age to bear arms, and drove away the beautiful females with the spoil and cattle of the flaming villages. The travellers, who visited Greece several years afterward, could easily discover the deep and bloody traces of the march of the Goths : and Thebes was less indebted for her preservation to the strength of her seven gates, than to the eager haste of Alaric who advanced to occupy the city of Athens. From the promontory of Sunium to the town of Megara, the whole territory of Attica was blasted by his baleful presence : Corinth, Argos, Sparta, yielded without resistance to the arms of the Goths : and the most fortunate of the inhabitants were saved by death from beholding the slavery of their families and the conflagration of their cities ! Having thus ravaged Greece, this first tempest of the symbolical hail-storm was next carried into Italy and the West. Under the guidance of the . Hist. of Decline, vol. v. p. 176-182. same powerful leader, now proclaimed King of the Visigoths, it passed over Pannonia, Istria, and Venetia; and threatened the destruction of imperial Rome herself. At length it was driven out of Italy by Stilicho. But, upon the death of that general, it soon began to beat afresh: the Gothic sovereign again invaded Italy: and the seven-hilled city, after three successive sieges, was pillaged and sacked by the warriors of the north 1. (2.) Meanwhile, another dark cloud, as the historian unconsciously speaks in the figured language of prophecy, generated like its fellow in the cold regions of northern Europe, burst in thunder upon the banks of the Upper Danube, and thence passed into Italy 2. Headed by Rhadagast, the Germans, in the year 406, emigrated from their native land, besieged Florence, and threatened Rome. Stilicho was again victorious but the remnant of the vanquished host was still sufficient to invade and desolate the province of Gaul. The banks of the Rhine were crowned, like those of the Tiber, with elegant houses and well cultivated farms. This scene of peace and plenty was suddenly changed into a desert; and the prospect of the smoking ruins could alone distinguish the solitude of nature from the desolations of man. The flourishing city of Ments was surprised and destroyed; and 1 Hist. of Decline, vol. v. p. 186-204, 250-329. 2 Hist. of Decline, vol. v. P. 214. many thousand Christians were inhumanly massacred in the church. Worms perished, after a long and obstinate siege : Strasburgh, Spires; Rheims, Tournay, Arras, Amiens, experienced the cruel oppression of the German yoke : and the consuming flames of war spread from the banks of the Rhine over the greatest part of the seventeen provinces of Gaul. That rich and extensive country, as far as the ocean, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, was delivered to the barbarians ; who drove before them, in a promiscuous crowd, the bishop, the senator, and the virgin, laden with the spoils of their houses and altars! (3.) While the East and the West were thus harassed by Alaric and Rhadagast, the South was destined to suffer under the merciless ferocity of Genseric. In the year 409, Spain was overrun and ravaged by the Suevi, the Vandals, and the Alans; who were afterward, in their turn, compelled to submit to the arms of the Goths". The Vandals, however, still prevailed in Gallicia : and, in order (as it were) that no part of the Roman earth should escape the devastating influence of the northern hail-storm, they soon afterward invaded the African provinces. In the year 429, they crossed the strait of Gibraltar under the command of Genseric, invited by the mistaken policy of Boniface. At that period, the · Hist, of Decline, vol. v. p. 225. |