100 Checks to Population among the ancient Bk. i. 



sence, and dismayed and exhausted by the ill suc- 

 cess of their last emigration, submitted to any 

 terms that the conquerors might impose.* Pro- 

 bus, and afterwards Diocletian,-)" adopted the plan 

 of recruiting the exhausted provinces of the em- 

 pire by granting lands to the fugitive or captive 

 barbarians, and disposing of their superfluous num- 

 bers where they might be the least likely to be 

 dangerous to the state; but such colonizations were 

 an insufficient vent for the population of the north, 

 and the ardent temper of the barbarians would not 

 always bend to the slow labours of agriculture.^ 

 During the vigorous reign of Diocletian, unable to 

 make an effectual impression on the Roman fron- 

 tiers, the Goths, the Vandals, the Gepidse, the 

 Burgundians, and the Allemanni, wasted each 

 other's strength by mutual hostilities, while the 

 subjects of the empire enjoyed the bloody specta- 

 cle, conscious that, whoever vanquished, they van- 

 quished the enemies of Rome.§ 



Under the reign of Constantine the Goths were 

 again formidable. Their strength had been re- 

 stored by a long peace, and a new generation had 

 arisen, which no longer remembered the misfortunes 

 of ancient days.|| In two successive wars great 

 numbers of them were slain. Vanquished on every 

 side, they were driven into the mountains; and, 

 in the course of a severe campaign, above a hun- 



* Gibbon, vol. ii. c. xii. p. 79, A. D. 277. 



f Id. c. xiii. p. 132, A. D. 296. 



X Id. c. xii. p. 84. 



§ Id. c. xiii. p. 130. 



|| Id. c. xiv. p. 254, A. D. 322. 



