XI.] The Races of the Danube. 223 



their invasion was in an all-important respect very- 

 different from the invasions of Huns or Avars. The 

 followers of Alaric, Hengist, and Chlodwig came to 

 colonise, whereas the followers of Attila came but 

 to riot and destroy. The vandalism of the former 

 was incidental, while that of the latter was funda- 

 mental. 



The Teutonic and Slavic invaders, once over the first 

 intoxication of victory, began, as by natural instinct, 

 to found rural estates and cultivate the soil ; and thus 

 becoming property-holders, although their title rested 

 on violence, it became their interest to assist in pre- 

 serving the political system so far as practicable. The 

 date 476, which the old historians made to mark the 

 political fall of the Roman Empire, in reality marked 

 nothing at all at the time except a paltry intrigue 

 by which the German Odoacer, having got rid of a 

 faineant emperor who was too near at hand, con- 

 tinued to administer the affairs of Italy under corn- 

 mission from the government at Constantinople. In 

 reality the identity of interests between the Teutonic 

 settlers and the imperial system became more 

 and more manifest during the three following cen- 

 turies, until it was definitely declared in 800 in the 

 coronation of Charles the Great, whereby the head- 

 ship of the western world was restored to Rome, 



