CHAP. III.] 



KOMAN CAVALRY. 



113 



Avhen sloth and negligence had rendered the exercioes less 

 frequent, the soldiers carrying them only rarely, soon 

 found them too heavy to wear, and demanded of the 

 Emperor, first to be relieved of the cuirass, and then of 

 the helmet. As the Romans abandoned the armour they 

 had carried victoriously all over the world, the barbarians 

 began to adopt it, and th3 cavalry of the Goths, Huns, 

 and Alani were clad in defensive armour. The Roman 

 infantry soon found themselves opposed with their heads 

 and bodies defenceless against the Goths, who destroyed 

 them by the multitude of their archers. In spite of many 

 defeats, and the ruin of splendid cities, no general dared 

 to compel his soldiers to resume the use of heavy armour. 

 The result was that the soldier thought more of flight 

 than of fighting. Vegetius makes an eloquent appeal 

 in favour of the restoration of armour.' " Those who find 

 the old arms so burdensome," he says, " must either receive 

 wounds upon their naked bodies and die, or what is 

 worse still, run the risk of being made prisoners, or of 

 betraying their country by flight. Thus, to avoid fatigue, 

 they allow themselves to be butchered shamefully, like 

 cattle." 



One can hardly imagine that the above description 

 refers to the successors of the splendid infantry that fought 

 at the Trebbia, and which in a thousand years of victory 

 had won so high a reputation. The legions which had 

 maintained the dignity of the Roman name along the 

 immense frontiers of the empire, retained their miHtary 

 qualities long after the seeds of decay had been destroy- 

 ing the life of the state at its heart. They soon how- 

 ever became corrupted by the laxity of the emperors, 

 and soon deserved such a character as that given them by 

 Vegetius. The barbarians were not long in discovering 

 their weakness, and lost no time in taking advantage of it. 



The Romans, in the mean time, relying on the g'reat 

 distance of the frontier from the home provinces, fon^^^'" 

 believed themselves secure from barbarian invasion. The 

 <lelusion was rudely dispelled by an irruption of the 

 Goths, in the reign of Pliilip, about the year 248, which 



' Vegetius. i. c. 20. 



I 



fil' 



