GOTHIC INVASION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 415 of the gospel, but by the civil magistrate; and their profession is suitable to the influence by which it is brought about. Can any thing be more manifest than that, according to the constitution of this reformed church, men may have the character of good Christians, and as such be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of communion in that church, while following the course of this evil world, and taking up with it as their portion? Can it be denied that the greater part of the Clergy of the Church of England are as sordid and worldly-minded as those of the Church of Rome, notwithstanding the benefits of the Reformation? No doubt the Lord's hand was remarkably seen at the Reformation, in reviving the light of the glorious Gospel; and making some of the kings of the earth in a measure to withdraw their power from the beast; and our own country was of the number of these: yet a form of godliness was still drawn over the nation, and multitudes were called by the Christian name, who were in reality of the world, contrary to the Saviour's own account of his disciples and kingdom. I cannot, therefore, exempt the church of England, even in her reformed state, from being "part and parcel" of the Antichristian kingdom! We now return from this apparent digression to resume the thread of the history. On the death of Theodosius, whose history was adverted to towards the close of the last Lecture, the government of the Roman empire devolved upon his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, who, by the unanimous consent of their subjects, were saluted as the lawful emperors of the east and the west. Arcadius was then eighteen years of age, and took up his residence at Constantinople, swaying the sceptre over the provinces of Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, comprising what was termed the Eastern empire. His brother Honorius assumed, in the eleventh year of his age, the government of Italy, Africa, Gaul, Spain, and Britain, under the denomination of the Western. Their father died in the month of January, 395; and before the end of the winter, in the same year, the Gothic nation was in arms. From the northern part of Europe, then denominated Scythia, immense hordes of savage warriors availed themselves of the freezing up of the river Danube, to cross over with their ponderous waggons, and migrate into the south of Europe, pouring into every part of the Roman empire; and wherever they marched their route was marked with blood. But the genius of Rome expired with Theodosius. He was the last of the successors of Augustus and Constantine who appeared in the field at the head of their armies, and whose authority was paramount throughout the whole extent of the empire. Nothing could form a more striking contrast than the character of those Gothic tribes and that of the Romans at the period of which I am treating. The Barbarians, as they were called, breathed nothing but wartheir martial spirit was yet in its vigour their sword was their right, and they exercised it without remorse as the right of nature. Simple and severe in their manners, they were unacquainted with the name of luxury; any thing was sufficient for their extreme frugality. Inured to exercise and toil, their bodies seemed impenetrable to pain or disease; they sported with danger, and met death with expressions of joy. The Roman character, on the contrary, had then become the reverse of all this. Habituated to repose and luxury, they had degenerated into a dastardly and effeminate race, overwhelmed with fear and folly. That enormous fabric, the Roman empire, had, for a succession of ages, groaned under its own unwieldy bulk, and every method had been resorted to, that human wisdom could devise, for the purpose of preventing the superstructure from crumbling into ruins. Theodosius had attempted to appease the invaders by voluntary contributions of money. Tributes were multiplied upon tributes, until the empire was drained of its treasure. Another expedient was then adopted: large bodies of the barbarians were taken into pay and opposed to other barbarians. This mode of defence answered for the moment, but it terminated in the subversion of the empire.* The consequence of the irruption of these savage tribes into the empire was, that the most fertile and populous provinces were converted into deserts. The wretched inhabitants submitted to the calamities which, in the course of twenty years, were almost grown familiar to their imagination, and the various troops of barbarians, who gloried in the Gothic name, spread themselves from the shores of Dalmatia to the walls of Constan * Dr. Robertson's Hist. Charles V. vol. i. sect. i. and Russell's History of Modern Europe, vol. i. lett. i. GOTHIC INVASION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 417 tinople. Under the bold and enterprising genius of Alaric, their renowned leader, they invaded and possessed themselves of Macedonia and Thessaly, stretching from east to west to the edge of the sea-shore. The fertile fields of Phocis and Boeotia, says Mr. Gibbon, were instantly covered by a deluge of barbarians, who massacred the males of an age to bear arms, and drove away the beautiful females, with the spoil and cattle, to the flaming villages. The cities of Corinth, Argos, and Sparta, yielded without resistance to the arms of the Goths, and the most fortunate of their inhabitants were saved, by death, from beholding the slavery of their families and the conflagration of their cities. This invasion, instead of vindicating the honour, contributed, at least accidentally, to extirpate the last remains of Paganism; and a system which had then subsisted 1800 years did not survive the calamities of Greece.' Having completely ravaged the entire territories of Greece, Alaric proceeded to invade Italy, and the citizens of Rome were, at his approach, thrown into the utmost consternation. The emperor, Honorius, had taken up his residence at his palace in Milan, where he thought himself secured by the rivers of Italy, which lay between him and the Gothic chief. But, the season proving remarkably dry, the barbarians were enabled to traverse, without obstruction, the wide and stony beds, whose centre was faintly marked by the course of a shallow stream; and as Alaric approached the walls, or suburbs of Milan, he enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing the emperor of the Romans flying before him. The danger to which the latter had been exposed now urged him to seek a retreat in some inaccessible fortress of Italy, where he might securely remain while the open country was covered by a deluge of barbarians; and in the twentieth year of his age, anxious only about his own personal safety, Honorius retired to the perpetual confinement of the walls and morasses of Ravenna. His example was followed by his feeble successors, the Gothic kings, and afterwards the Exarchs, who occupied the throne and palace of the emperors, and, till the middle of the eighth century, Ravenna was considered as the seat of govern ment, and the capital of Italy. In all the long period of 619 years, the city of Rome had VOL. I. * Gibbon's Decline and Fall, ch. xxx. 2 E never been insulted by the presence of a foreign enemy; but, in the year 408, Alaric commenced the blockade of this proud metropolis. By a skilful disposition of his numerous forces, he encompassed the walls, commanded the twelve principal gates, intercepted all communication with the adjacent country, and vigilantly guarded the navigation of the Tyber, from which the inhabitants of the city derived the surest and most plentiful supply of provisions. The first emotion of the nobility and of the people was that of surprise and indignation, that a vile barbarian should dare to insult the capital of the world; but their arrogance was soon humbled by misfortune. The imperial city, long the mistress of the world, gradually experienced the distress of scarcity, and eventually the horrible calamities of famine. The daily allowance of three pounds of bread was reduced to one half to one third-to nothing! Unable to procure the necessaries of life, the poorer class of citizens solicited the precarious charity of the rich; but private and occasional donations were insufficient to appease the hunger of a numerous people. Food the most repugnant to sense or imagination, and aliments the most unwholesome and pernicious to the constitution, were eagerly devoured, and fiercely disputed by the rage of hunger. A dark suspicion was entertained that some wretches fed on the bodies of their fellow creatures, whom they had secretly murdered, and even mothers are said to have tasted the flesh of their slaughtered infants. Many thousands of the inhabitants of the city of Rome expired in their own houses, or in the streets, for want of sustenance; and, as the public cemetery was without the walls and in the possession of the enemy, the stench which issued from so many putrid and unburied carcases infected the air, and the miseries of famine were succeeded and augmented by the contagion of a pestilential disease: and the proud and insolent Romans were at length compelled to seek relief in the clemency of the Gothic chief. The senate appointed two ambassadors to negociate with the enemy. On being introduced into his presence, they told him, in a style somewhat more lofty than became their abject condition, that the Romans were determined to maintain their dignity either in peace or war; and that, if Alaric refused them a fair and honourable capitulation, he might sound his trumpets ROME BESIEGED BY THE GOTHS. 419 and prepare for battle with a countless number of people, exercised in arms and animated by despair. The laconic reply of the Gothic chief, accompanied as it was by a loud and insulting laud, was very characteristic of the people with whom the Romans now had to do: "The thicker the hay, the easier it is mown," said he. Alaric then condescended to fix the ransom which he would receive as the price of his retreat from the walls of Rome. It was ALL the gold and silver in the city, whether it were the property of the state or of individuals—ALL the rich and valuable moveables-and ALL the slaves that could prove their title to the name of Barbarians. "If such are your demands, O king," said the ambassadors, "what do you intend to leave us?" "Your lives," replied Alaric: on which they trembled and retired. After allowing them time for reflection, the Gothic chief thought proper to relax from his rigorous demands, and at length consented to raise the siege on an immediate payment of five thousand pounds of gold, thirty thousand pounds of silver, four thousand robes of silk, three thousand pieces of fine scarlet cloth, and three thousand pounds of pepper. But the public treasury was exhausted; the annual rents of the nobles were intercepted by the calamities of war; the gold and gems had been exchanged, during the famine, for the vilest sustenance. Recourse was therefore had to the hoards of secret wealth which had been concealed by the obstinacy of avarice, and some remains of consecrated spoils, which afforded the only means of averting the impending ruin of the city. As soon as the Romans had satisfied the rapacious demands of Alaric, they were restored in some measure to the enjoyment of peace and plenty. Among the conditions which the Gothic chief had imposed on the city of Rome, previously to his withdrawing the army from before its gates, was the payment of an annual subsidy of corn and money, which the treacherous Romans now sought to evade; and in the year 409, to punish their perfidy, Alaric, a second time, laid siege to their city. Instead, however, of assaulting the capital, on this occasion, he directed his efforts against the port of Ostia, one of the boldest and most stupendous works of Roman magnificence. It was a port or harbour, where the corn imported from Africa was deposited in spacious granaries for the |