СНАР.
XXX.

He is attacked by Stilicho,

years, did not survive the deftruction of Eleufis, and the calamities of Greece ".

The laft hope of a people who could no longer depend on their arms, their gods, or their foveA.D. 97. reign, was placed in the powerful affiftance of the general of the Weft; and Stilicho, who had not been permitted to repulfe, advanced to chaftife, the invaders of Greece 16. A numerous fleet was equipped in the ports of Italy; and the troops, after a fhort and profperous navigation over the Ionian fea, were fafely difembarked on the ifthmus, near the ruins of Corinth. The woody and mountainous country of Arcadia, the fabulous refidence of Pan and the Dryads, became the scene of a long and doubtful conflict between two generals not unworthy of each other. The fkill and perfeverance of the Roman at length prevailed: and the Goths, after fuftaining a confiderable lofs from disease and desertion, gradually retreated to the lofty mountain of Pholoe, near the fources of the Peneus, and on the frontiers of Elis; a facred country, which had formerly been exempted from the calamities of war". The camp of the Barbarians

15 Eunapius (in Vit. Philofoph. p. 90-93.) intimates, that a troop of Monks betrayed Greece, and followed the Gothic camp.

16 For Stilicho's Greek war, compare the honeft narrative of Zofimus (1. v. p. 295, 296.), with the curious circunftantial flattery of Claudian (i Conf. Stilich, 1. i. 172–186. iv Conf. Hon. 459-487.). As the event was not glorious, it is artfully thrown into the fhade.

17 The troops who marched through Elis delivered up their arms, This fecurity enriched the Eleans, who were lovers of a rural life.

Riches

XXX.

barians was immediately befieged: the waters of CHAP. the river were diverted into another channel;

18

and while they laboured under the intolerable
preffure of thirst and hunger, a ftrong line of cir-
cumvallation was formed to prevent their efcape.
After these precautions, Stilicho, too confident of
victory, retired to enjoy his triumph, in the the-
atrical games, and lafcivious dances, of the
Greeks; his foldiers, deferting their standards,
spread themselves over the country of their allies,
which they stripped of all that had been faved from
the rapacious hands of the
enemy. Alaric appears to
have seized the favourable moment to execute one
of those hardy enterprifes, in which the abilities of
a general are difplayed with more genuine luftre,
than in the tumult of a day of battle. To extri-
cate himself from the prifon of Peloponnefus, it
was neceffary that he fhould pierce the intrench-
ments which furrounded his camp; that he should
perform a difficult and dangerous march of thirty
miles, as far as the Gulf of Corinth; and that he
fhould tranfport his troops, his captives, and his

Riches begat pride; they difdained their privilege, and they suffered.
Polybius advifes them to retire once more within their magic circle.
See a learned and judicious discourse on the Olympic games, which
Mr. Weft has prefixed to his tranflation of Pindar.

18 Claudian (in iv Conf. Hon. 480.) alludes to the fact, without
naming the river: perhaps the Alpheus (i Conf. Stil. l. i. 185.).
-Et Alpheus Geticis anguftus acervis

Tardior ad Siculos etiamnum pergit amores.

Yet I fhould prefer the Peneus, a fhallow ftream in a wide and deep bed, which runs through Elis, and falls into the fea below Cylenne. It had been joined with the Alpheus, to cleanse the Augean stable (Cellarius, tom. i. p. 760. Chandler's Travels, p. 286.).

8

fpoil,

XXX.

efcapes to Epirus.

The

CHAP. fpoil, over an arm of the fea, which, in the narrow interval between Rhium and the oppofite fhore, is at least half a mile in breadth 19. operations of Alaric must have been fecret, prudent, and rapid; fince the Roman general was confounded by the intelligence that the Goths, who had eluded his efforts, were in full poffeffion of the important province of Epirus. This unfortunate delay allowed Alaric fufficient time to conclude the treaty, which he fecretly negociated, with the minifters of Conftantinople. The apprehenfion of a civil war compelled Stilicho to retire, at the haughty mandate of his rivals, from the dominions of Arcadius; and he refpected, in the enemy of Rome, the honourable character of the ally and fervant of the emperor of the Eaft.

Alaric is

declared

mafter

A Grecian philofopher 20, who vifited Conftantinople foon after the death of Theodofius, pubgeneral of lifhed his liberal opinions concerning the duties of Illyricum, kings, and the ftate of the Roman republic. A.D. 398. Synefius obferves, and deplores, the fatal abuse,

the Ealtern

which the imprudent bounty of the late emperor had introduced into the military service. The citizens, and fubjects, had purchased an exemption from the indifpenfable duty of defending

19 Strabo, 1. viii. p. 517. Plin. Hift. Natur. iv. 3. Wheeler, p. 308. Chandler, p. 275. They measured, from different points, the distance between the two lands.

20 Synefius paffed three years (A. D. 397–400.) at Constantinople, as deputy from Cyrene to the emperor Arcadius. He prefented him with a crown of gold, and pronounced before him the inftructive oration de Regno (p. 1-32. edit. Petav. Paris 1612.). The philofopher was made bishop of Ptolemais, A. D. 410, and died about 430. See Tillemont, Mem. Ecclef. tom. xii. p. 499. 554. 683-685.

XXX.

their country; which was fupported by the arms CHAP. of Barbarian mercenaries. The fugitives of Scythia were permitted to difgrace the illuftrious dignity of the empire; their ferocious youth, who difdained the falutary reftraint of laws, were more anxious to acquire the riches, than to imitate the arts, of a people, the object of their contempt and hatred; and the power of the Goths was the ftone of Tantalus, perpetually fufpended over the peace and safety of the devoted state. The measures, which Synefius recommends, are the dictates of a bold and generous patriot. He exhorts the emperor to revive the courage of his fubjects, by the example of manly virtue; to banish luxury from the court, and from the camp; to substitute, in the place of the Barbarian mercenaries, an army of men interested in the defence of their laws and of their property; to force, in fuch a moment of public danger, the mechanic from his fhop, and the philofopher from his fchool; to rouse the indolent citizen from his dream of pleafure, and to arm, for the protection of agriculture, the hands of the laborious husbandman. At the head of fuch troops, who might deferve the name, and would display the fpirit, of Romans, he animates the son of Theodofius to encounter a race of Barbarians, who were deftitute of any real courage; and never to lay down his arms, till he had chaced them far away into the folitudes of Scythia; or had reduced them to the ftate of ignominious fervitude, which the Lacedæmonians formerly impofed on the captive Helots". The

21 Synefius de Regno, p. 21–26.

court

XXX.

CHAP. Court of Arcadius indulged the zeal, applauded the eloquence, and neglected the advice, of Synefius. Perhaps the philofopher, who addreffes the emperor of the Eaft, in the language of reason and virtue, which he might have used to a Spartan king, had not condefcended to form a practicable scheme, confiftent with the temper, and circumftances, of a degenerate age. Perhaps the pride of the minifters, whofe business was seldom interrupted by reflection, might reject, as wild and vifionary, every propofal, which exceeded the measure of their capacity, and deviated from the forms and precedents of office. While the oration of Synesius, and the downfal of the Barbarians, were the topics of popular converfation, an edict was published at Constantinople, which declared the promotion of Alaric to the rank of master-general of the Eastern Illyricum. The Roman provincials, and the allies, who had respected the faith of treaties, were juftly indignant, that the ruin of Greece and Epirus fhould be fo liberally rewarded. The Gothic conqueror was received as a lawful magiftrate, in the cities which he had fo lately befieged. The fathers, whofe fons he had maffacred, the hufbands, whose wives he had violated, were subject to his authority and the fuccefs of his rebellion encouraged the ambition of every leader of the foreign mercenaries. The ufe to which Alaric applied his new command, diftinguishes the firm and judicious character of his policy. He issued his orders to the four magazines and manufactures of offenfive and defenfive arms, Margus, Rațiaria, Naif

fus,