GOTHS. 
7!6 
with an accumulated force, to the hanks of the Lower 
D inube. The Roma'n general who commanded the 
military and naval powers of the Thraci m froiuier, 
foon perceived that his (iioerioriry would be difadvan- 
tageous to the public fervice ; and diat the barbarians, 
awed by the preience ot his fleet and legions, would 
probably defer the palfage of the river till the ap\ roach- 
ing winter. The dexterity of the fpies, whom he fent 
into tl'.e Gothic camp, allured the barbarians into a fatal 
I'nare. They were perfuaded, that, by a bold attempt, 
they might Curprife, in tlie filence and davknefs of the 
r.ig'ht, the lleeping army of the Romans ; and th.e whole 
multitude, according to Zolimus, lib. iv. p. 253, v/as 
liaftily embarked in a fleet of three th ufand canoes. 
The braved of the Oltrogoths led the van; the main 
body confided of the remainder of their fubjecfs and 
I'oldiers ; and the women and children fecurely fbliowed 
in the rear. One of the nights w'ithoiit a moon had 
been feiedted for the execution of tlijs defign ; and 
they, had almod reached tlie (butliern bank of the Da¬ 
nube, in the firm confidence that they fhould find an 
eaiy landing, and an unguarded camp. But the pro- 
giei's of the barbarians was fiiddenly dopped by an un¬ 
expected obdacle; a triple line of vedels, drongly con¬ 
nected vvirii each other, and whicli formed an impene¬ 
trable chain of two miles and a lialf along the river. 
While they draggled to force their way in the unequal 
conflicl:, their right flank was overwhelmed by the irre- 
lidible attack of a fleet of gailies, which were urged 
down the dream by the qnited impulfe of oars and of 
tlie tide. Tlie weight and velocity of thofe fliips of 
war broke and funk the feeble canoes of the barbarians: 
their valour was ined'ectual ; and Alaiheus, the general 
ot the Oltrogoths, peridied, with liis braved troops, 
either by the fword of the Romans, or in the waves of 
the Danube. The lad divifionof this unfortunate fleet 
might regain the oppolite fnore : but the didrefs and 
dilorder of the multitude rendered them alike incapable 
either of abtion or counfel ; and they foon implored the 
clemency of the viftorious enemy. 
1 he original treaty which fixed the fettlement of the 
Goths, was now, in 383, lenewed by Theodofius. A 
numerous colony of the Viligoths was to be feated in 
Thrace ; the remains of the Odrogoths were planted in 
Phrygia and Lydia; their immediate wants were I'up- 
plied by a didribution of corn and cattle ; and their fu¬ 
ture indudry was encouraged by an exemption from tri¬ 
bute, during a certain term of years. 1 he barbarians 
required, and obtained, the foie poUellion of tlie vil. 
lages and diftricts affigned for their refidence ; they che- 
rilhed and propagated tluir native manners and lan¬ 
guage ; alierted the freedom of domedic government ; 
and acknowledged the foveieigniy ot the emp.eror, 
without iubmitting to the inferior jtirifditlion of the 
magidrates ot Rome. I’he hereditary chiefs of tlie 
tribes and tamilies were permitted to command their 
followers in peace and war; but the royal dignity was 
abolillied ; and the generals of the Goths were appointed 
and removed at the plealure of the emperor. An army 
of forty thoutaiid Goths was maintained for the perpe¬ 
tual fervice ot the empire of the ead ; and 7 ueocioiius 
had the addiefs to perluade Jiis alfies, that the condi¬ 
tions of peace whicii had been extorted from him by 
prudence and neceliity, were tlie voluntary expreliions 
of his dneere friendihip for the Gothic nation. Tiie 
barbarians Ifill wore a favage and holtile alpect ; but 
the experience of pud times might encourage the liope, 
that they W'ould acquire the habits of indultry and obe¬ 
dience j that tiieir manners would be polilhed by time, 
education, and the influence of Chridiamty ; and that 
their potierity would iuRnfibly blend with the great 
body of the Roman people. . 
Notw'iihdanding tiiele fanguine hopes and expefta- 
tions, it was apparent to every dilceniing eye, that the 
•GolitS would aoi long remain tiie friends and allies of 
the Roman empire. Theodofius died in the month of 
January 395; and before the end of .the winter of the 
fame year, the Gothic nation was in arms. The barba¬ 
rian auxiliaries ereided their independent dandard; and 
boldly avowed the hodlle defigns which they had long 
cherilhed in their ferocious minds. Their countrymen, 
who had been bound by the conditions of the lad treaty 
to a life of tranquillity and labour, deferted their farms 
at the fird found of the trumpet; and eagerly refumed 
the weapons w'hich they had reliuSfantly laid afide. 
The barriers of the Danube were thrown open ; the fa¬ 
vage warriors of Scythia iflTued from their foreds ; and 
the unco ! mon feverity of the winter allowed the poet 
to remark, “that they rolled their ponderous waggons 
over tlie broad and icy back of the indignant river.” 
The unhappy natives of the provinces to the foiith of 
the Danube, fubmitted to the calamities, w'hich, in the 
courfe of twenty years, were almolf grown familiar to 
their imagination ; and the various troops of barbarians, 
who gloried in the Gothic name, were irregularly fpread 
from the woody fiiores of Dalmatia to the walls o’f 
Condantinople. The interruption, or at lead the dimi¬ 
nution, of the fublidy, which the Goths had received 
from the liberality of Theodofius, was made the fpe- 
cious pretence of their revolt ; the affront was embit¬ 
tered by their contempt for the unw'arlike fons of Theo- 
dofiiis ; and their refentment was inflamed by the weak, 
nels, or treachery, of the minider of Arcadius. The 
Goths, indead of being impelled by the headdrong paf- 
fions of difeordant chiefs, were now diredted by the 
bold and artful genius of Alaric. That renowned leader 
was'defeended from the noble race of the Balti, which 
yielded only to the royal dignity of the Amali; he had 
vtiinly-folicited the command of the Roman armies; 
and the imperial court provoked him to demondrate 
the folly of their refufal, by the importance of their 
lofs. Whatever hopes might be entertained of the coti- 
qued of Condantinople, tlie judicious general foon 
abandoned Inch an impradficable enterprife. In the 
niidd of a divided court, and a difeontented people, 
the emperor Arcadius was teVrified by tlie afpeft of the 
Gothic arms; but the want of wifdom and valour was 
fupplied by the drength of the city ; and the fortifica¬ 
tions, bo'h of the fea and land, might fecurely brave 
the impotent and random darts of the barbarians. 
Alaric dildained to trample any longer on the prodrate 
and ruined countries of Thrace and Dacia, and he re- 
Iblved to feek a plentiful harved of fame and riches in 
a province which had' hitherto efcaped the ravages of 
war. Alaric, in 396, traverfed, without reliltance, the 
plains of Macedonia and Thelfaly, as far as the foot of 
Mount Oeta, a deep and woody range of hills, almod 
impervious to his cavalry. They dretched from ead 
to wed, to the edge of the fea-lliore ; and left between 
the precipice and the Malian Gulf, an interval of three 
hundred feet, which, in fome places, was contracted to 
a road capable of admitting only a liiigle carriage. In 
tl.is narrow pafs of 'i iieniiopylte, where Leonidas and 
the three hundred Spartans had glurioully devoted their 
lives, the Goths might have been (topped, or dedroyed, 
by a flrilful general ; and perhaps, the view of that la- 
cred fpot niiglu liave kindled loine Iparks of military 
ardour in the breads of the degenerate Greeks. 1 he 
troops which had been poded to defend the Itraits of 
Theriuop) ite, retired, as they were directed, without 
attempting to didui b the fecure and rapid pailage of 
Alaric ; and the fertile fields of Pliocis, and Boeotia, 
were indantly covered by a deluge of barbarians ; who 
malfacred the males of an age to bear arms, and drove 
away the beautiful females as captives, with the fpoil 
and cattle of the flaming viilages. '1 he travellers, 
who vilited Greece leveral years afterwards, couiu ea- 
fily dilcover the deep and bloody traces 01 the maich 
of the Goths; and Thebes was lei's indebted for her 
prefervation to the drength of her ieven gates, than to 
th€ 
