WESTERN EMPIRE. 



of the Rhine, at that time without troops, as Sti- 

 licho had collected them to conquer in the fields of 

 Florence. At the same time, the Roman army in 

 Britain revolted, and determined to give themselves 

 an emperor ; but the third ono chosen, Constan- 

 tine, a common soldier, whose name was the cause 

 of his elevation, alone maintained himself. His 

 two predecessors Marcus and Giatian, perished by 

 the dagger, after a few months of power. Con- 

 stantine landed at Boulogne, and the Gallic pro- 

 vinces, forsaken by Honorius and conquered by the 

 Germans, willingly submitted to him. The Goth 

 Sarus, who was charged to bring the rebel's head to 

 Ravenna, thought himself fortunate, after an attack 

 of seven days upon the lines of the sovereign of 

 Gaul and Britain at Vienne, to lead back his ex- 

 hausted army across the Alps, which now formed 

 the barrier between Honorius and Constantine. 

 The latter, shortly after, in 408, added to his new 

 kingdom that of Spain, (where he had experienced a 

 slight resistance from four relations of the deceased 

 emperor Theodosius, who lived there in opulence), 

 and found the people well disposed to obey him. 

 While these events were taking place between the 

 Alps and the pillars of Hercules, others occurred at 

 the court of Ravenna, which, after a series of misfor- 

 tunes, of weaknesses, and of crimes, caused the final 

 overthrow of the Western empire. Alaric king of 

 the Goths, had obtained the friendship of his for- 

 mer opponent, Stilicho, and, in consequence of a 

 league of peace and amity with Honorius, was ap- 

 pointed commander-in-chief of the Roman army in 

 Illyria. Stilicho had long contemplated the re- 

 union of the eastern part of this territory with the 

 western, and wished also to employ Alaric at a dis- 

 tance from Italy, by directing him to the gates of 

 Constantinople. Alaric did, indeed, make a few 

 movements in Thessaly and Epirus ; but from 

 ^Emona he sent to Ravenna a demand for the re- 

 payment of large sums, expended in the service of 

 Honorius, and proposed that some western pro- 

 vince should be given to him as a permanent settle- 

 ment for his people, promising to reduce Constan- 

 tine to submission. After violent scenes in the 

 Roman senate, Stilicho carried his motion, that a 

 sum of 4000 pounds of gold should be given as a 

 subsidy to the impatient creditor. But the secret 

 anger of the senate at this act of condescension, 

 which was caused by Stilicho's better knowledge 

 of the power of the Goth, was shared, and perhaps 

 excited, by the army. Honorius began to fear his 

 old minister. It was now insinuated to him that 

 Stilicho intended to place his son Eucherius upon 

 the throne : he therefore gave his consent to the 

 execution of a man who had been thus far the sole 

 support of the tottering empire of the West. Sti- 

 licho lost his head in the year 408. His son, and 

 several of his friends, underwent a similar fate ; and 

 Honorius even^ivorced his second wife, Therman- 

 tia, second daughter of Stilicho. From this time 

 the weak monarch found himself in the hands of 

 favourites, who could not estimate how great a ser- 

 vice they had rendered Alaric, by causing the death 

 of Stilicho. The foreign mercenaries, who had 

 been faithfully devoted to the old general, reveng- 

 ed his death by passing over, to the number of 

 30,000, to the service of Alaric. The court at 

 Ravenna was still deliberating how it should ans- 

 wer the demands of Alaric, when the latter cross- 

 ed the Alps, the Po, pressed forward to Rimini, 

 seized the passes of the Apennines, and, in 408. 

 pitched his camp befort Rome, which he surround- 



ed so completely as to reduce the city to the most 

 deplorable extremity for want of food. When an 

 ambassador from Rome, sent to Alaric's camp, 

 dared to declare to him that, if he rejected an 

 honourable capitulation, the whole population would 

 rush out against him, the ferocious warrior answer- 

 ed abruptly, " The thicker the grass, the easier to 

 mow." After having demanded an enormous ran- 

 som for the city, he was asked, " And what will 

 you leave us, if you demand this of us ?" " Your 

 lives," was the reply. He yielded, however, in 

 some of his demands (see Alaric'), and left the 

 neighbourhood of Rome, to take up his winter-quar- 

 ters in Tuscany. Soon after, his army was increas- 

 ed to more than 100,000 men, his brother-in-law, 

 Adolphus (Ataulf,) having fought his way to him 

 from the Danube, with a body of Goths and Huns. 

 After fruitless negotiations for peace with Honorius, 

 Alaric, who had taken possession of the port and 

 town of Ostia, marched back to Rome, where, with 

 the consent of the people and the senate, he named 

 a new emperor, the prefect Attalus, and took him 

 with him to Ravenna in 409. Honorius was on 

 the point of throwing himself into the arms of his 

 cousin, the young emperor Theodosius, at Con- 

 stantinople, when he saw his throne saved by the 

 fidelity and wisdom of his general Heraclian in 

 Africa, by the fidelity of his body-guard, secured 

 by largesses, and by the imprudent measures of 

 Attalus. Alaric himself deposed Attalus, and sent 

 the ensigns of his dignity to Ravenna. But Sarua 

 the general of Honorius, attacked Alaric, killed 

 many of his followers, and declared him an enemy 

 of the empire, and unworthy of the alliance of his 

 emperor. He therefore returned to Rome, which 

 he took in the night of the 24th of August, 410, 

 one of the gates having been opened to him by the 

 treachery of slaves in the town. The old capital 

 of the world was pillaged, and in part burned. The 

 treasures of the inhabitants, including many valu- 

 able works of Roman or German art, became the 

 prey of the barbarians. The churches and their 

 treasures remained inviolate, by the special order 

 of Alaric. This took place 1163 years after the 

 building of the city by Romulus. Alaric now left 

 Rome, and pillaged the south of Italy, where he 

 died in 410. Adolphus, his successor, left Italy in 

 two years, laden with the booty of Rome and of 

 the southern provinces, after having received in 

 marriage Placidia, the sister of Honorius. He went, 

 in 412, to Gaul and to Spain, where he founded the 

 kingdom of the Visigoths. Italy now breathed 

 more freely. Rome arose proudly from its ashes ; 

 and the empire might perhaps have acquired new 

 vigour, but for the weakness of its ruler, who lived 

 eleven . years after the departure of Adolphus. 

 Gaul, indeed, was brought again under his power 

 by the valour of the Roman general Constantius, 

 who conquered Constantine, and obtained in re- 

 compense the hand of the widow of Adolphus, who 

 had shortly before been murdered, and a share 

 in the imperial power with Honorius. But Gaul, 

 as well as Spain, was incessantly torn by domestic 

 strife. Britain and Africa were lost, and the most 

 unhappy discord reigned at Ravenna, where Placi- 

 dia, a second time a widow, after the death of 

 Augustus Constantius, was seeking to retain her 

 power, when Honorius died, on the 24th August, 

 423, in the twenty-eighth year of his reign. Pla- 

 cidia carried the news to Constantinople, whither 

 she had fled with her children, on account of the 

 troubles at Ravenna. Under the protection of her 



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