Whether fame, or conqueft, or riches, were the object of Alaric, he pursued that object with an indefatigable ardour, which could neither be quelled by adverfity, nor fatiated by fuccefs. No fooner had he reached the extreme land of Italy, than he was attracted by the neighbouring prospect of a fertile and peaceful ifland. Yet even the poffeffion of Sicily, he confidered only as an intermediate step to the important expedition, which he already meditated against the continent of Africa. The ftreights of Rhegium and Meffina 27 are twelve miles in length, and, in the narroweft paffage, about one mile and a half broad; and the fabulous monfters of the deep, the rocks of Scylla, and the whirlpool of Charybdis, could terrify none but the most timid and unfkilful mariners. Yet as foon as the firft divifion of the Goths had embarked, a fudden tempeft arofe, which funk, or scattered, many of the transports; their courage was daunted by the terrors of a new element; and the whole design was defeated by the premature death of Alaric, which fixed, after a fhort illness, the fatal term of his conquefts. The ferocious character of the Barbarians was displayed, in the funeral of a hero, whofe valour, and fortune, they celebrated with mournful applaufe. By the labour of a captive multitude, they forcibly diverted the courfe of 127 For the perfect defcription of the Streights of Meffina, Scylla, Charybdis. &c. fee Cluverius (Ital. Antiq. 1. iv. p. 1293. and Sicilia Antiq. 1. i. p. 60-76.), who had diligently ftudied the ancients, and furveyed with a curious eye the actual face of the country, the С НАР. XXXI. Death of Alaric, A.D. 410. XXXI. CHAP. the Bufentinus, a fmall river that washes the walls of Confentia. The royal fepulchre, adorned with the fplendid fpoils, and trophies, of Rome, was conftructed in the vacant bed; the waters were then restored to their natural channel; and the fecret fpot, where the remains of Alaric had been depofited, was for ever concealed by the inhuman maffacre of the prifoners, who had been employed to execute the work Adolphus king of the Goths, concludes a peace with the empire, and marches A.D. 412. 128 The perfonal animofities, and hereditary feuds, of the Barbarians, were fufpended by the ftrong neceffity of their affairs; and the brave Adolphus, the brother-in-law of the deceased monarch, was unanimously elected to fucceed to his throne. The character and political fyftem of the new into Gaul, king of the Goths, may be beft understood from his own converfation with an illuftrious citizen of Narbonne; who afterwards, in a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, related it to St. Jerom, in the prefence of the historian Orofius. "In the full "confidence of valour and victory, I once aspired " (faid Adolphus) to change the face of the uni« verfe; to obliterate the name of Rome; to " erect on its ruins the dominion of the Goths; and to acquire, like Auguftus, the immortal "fame of the founder of a new empire. By re"peated experiments, I was gradually convinced, "that laws are effentially neceffary to maintain "and regulate a well-conftituted state; and that "the fierce untractable humour of the Goths "was incapable of bearing the falutary yoke of 123 Jornandes, de Reb. Get. c. 30. p. 654. laws, XXXI. "laws, and civil government. From that mo- CHAP. "ment I proposed to myself a different object of glory and ambition; and it is now my fincere wifh, that the gratitude of future ages fhould " acknowledge the merit of a stranger, who employed the fword of the Goths, not to fubvert, "but to restore and maintain, the profperity of "the Roman empire 29." With thefe pacific views, the fucceffor of Alaric fufpended the operations of war; and seriously negociated with the Imperial court a treaty of friendship and alliance. It was the intereft of the minifters of Honorius, who were now releafed from the obligation of their extravagant oath, to deliver Italy from the intolerable weight of the Gothic powers; and they readily accepted their fervice against the tyrants and Barbarians, who infested the provinces beyond the Alps 3°. Adolphus, affuming the character of a Roman general, directed his march from the extremity of Campania to the fouthern provinces of Gaul. His troops, either by force or agreement, immediately occupied the cities of Narbonne, Thouloufe, and Bourdeaux; and though they were repulfed by Count Boniface from the walls of Marfeilles, they foon ex 130 129 Orofius, 1. vii. c. 43. p. 584, 585. He was fent by St. Auguftin, in the year 415, from Africa to Palestine, to vifit St. Jerom, and to confult with him on the fubject of the Pelagian controversy. 130 Jornandes fuppofes, without much probability, that Adolphus visited and plundered Rome a fecond time (more locuftarum erasit). Yet he agrees with Orofius in fuppofing, that a treaty of peace was concluded between the Gothic prince and Honorius. See Orof. 1. vii. c. 43. p. 584, 585. Jornandes, de Reb. Geticis, c. 31. p. 654, 655. tended XXXI. CHAP. tended their quarters from the Mediterranean to the Ocean. The oppreffed provincials might exclaim, that the miferable remnant, which the enemy had fpared, was cruelly ravished by their pretended allies; yet fome fpecious colours were not wanting to palliate, or juftify, the violence of the Goths. The cities of Gaul, which they attacked, might perhaps be confidered as in a ftate of rebellion against the government of Honorius the articles of the treaty, or the fecret inftructions of the court, might fometimes be alleged in favour of the feeming ufurpations of Adolphus; and the guilt of any irregular, unfuccefsful, act of hoftility, might always be imputed, with an appearance of truth, to the ungovernable spirit of a Barbarian host, impatient of peace or difcipline. The luxury of Italy had been lefs effectual to foften the temper, than to relax the courage, of the Goths; and they had imbibed the vices, without imitating the arts and inftitutions, of civilifed fociety 3. His marriage with Placidia, 131 The profeffions of Adolphus were probably fincere, and his attachment to the caufe of the reA.D.414 public was fecured by the afcendant which a Roman princess had acquired over the heart and underftanding of the Barbarian king. Placidia 32, 131 The retreat of the Goths from Italy, and their first transactions in Gaul, are dark and doubtful. I have derived much affiftance from Mafcou (Hift. of the ancient Germans, 1. viii. c. 29. 35, 36, 37.), who has illustrated, and connected, the broken chronicles and fragments of the times. 132 See an account of Placidia in Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 72.; and Tillemont, Hift. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 260. 386, &c. tom. vi. p. 240. the 133 XXXI. the daughter of the great Theodofius, and of CHAP. Galla, his fecond wife, had received a royal education in the palace of Conftantinople; but the eventful story of her life is connected with the revolutions which agitated the Weftern empire under the reign of her brother Honorius. When Rome was first invested by the arms of Alaric, Placidia, who was then about twenty years of age, refided in the city; and her ready consent to the death of her coufin Serena, has a cruel and ungrateful appearance, which, according to the circumftances of the action, may be aggravated, or excused, by the confideration of her tender age The victorious Barbarians detained, either as a hoftage or a captive 34, the fifter of Honorius; but, while fhe was expofed to the difgrace of following round Italy the motions of a Gothic camp, she experienced, however, a decent and respectful treatment. The authority of Jornandes, who praises the beauty of Placidia, may perhaps be counterbalanced by the filence, the expreffive filence, of her flatterers: yet the splendour of her birth, the bloom of youth, the elegance of manners, and the dexterous infinuation which the condefcended to employ, made a deep impreffion on the mind of Adolphus; and the Gothic king afpired to call himself the brother of the emperor. The minifters of Honorius rejected with difdain the propofal of an alliance, fo injurious to every 133 Zofim. 1. v. p. 350. 134 Zofim. 1. vi. p. 383. Orofius (1. vii. c. 40. p. 576.), and the Chronicles of Marcellinus and Idatius feem to fuppofe, that the Goths did not carry away Placidia till after the last siege of Rome, fentiment |