CHAP. the whole multitude, which was not less than XXX. two hundred thousand fighting men, might be Radagaifus invades Italy, increased, by the acceffion of women, of children, and of flaves, to the amount of four hundred thousand perfons. This formidable emigration iffued from the fame coaft of the Baltic, which had poured forth the myriads of the Cimbri and Teutones, to affault Rome and Italy in the vigour of the republic. After the departure of thofe Barbarians, their native country, which was marked by the veftiges of their greatnefs, long ramparts, and gigantic moles 69, remained, during fome ages, a vaft and dreary folitude ; till the human fpecies was renewed by the powers of generation, and the vacancy was filled by the influx of new inhabitants. The nations who now ufurp an extent of land, which they are unable to cultivate, would soon be affifted by the industrious pov. rty of their neighbours, if the government of Europe did not protect the claims of dominion and property. The correfpondence of nations was, in that age, fo imperfect and precarious, that the revoA.D. 406. lutions of the North might efcape the knowledge of the court of Ravenna; till the dark cloud, which was collected along the coaft of the Baltic, burst in thunder upon the banks of the Upper Danube. The emperor of the Weft, if his minifters difturbed his amufements by the news of they were the princes and nobles, with their faithful companions; the knights with their 'fquires, as they would have been styled some centuries afterwards. 69 Tacit. de Moribus Germanorum, c. 37. the 71 XXX. the impending danger, was fatisfied with being CHAP. the occafion, and the spectator of the war 70. The fafety of Rome was entrusted to the counfels, and the fword, of Stilicho; but fuch was the feeble and exhausted state of the empire, that it was impoffible to restore the fortifications of the Danube, or to prevent, by a vigorous effort, the invasion of the Germans "1. The hopes of the vigilant minifter of Honorius were confined to the defence of Italy. He once more abandoned the provinces, recalled the troops, preffed the new levies, which were rigorously exacted, and pufillanimously eluded; employed the most efficacious means to arreft, or allure, the deferters; and offered the gift of freedom, and of two pieces of gold, to all the flaves who would enlift ". By these efforts he painfully collected, from the fubjects of a great empire, an army of thirty or forty thousand men, which, in the days of Scipio or Camillus, would have been inftantly furnished by 72 Spectator vel caufa fui. Claudian, vi Conf. Hon. 439. is the modeft language of Honorius, in speaking of the Gothic war, which he had feen fomewhat nearer. 71 Zofimus (1. v. p. 331.) transports the war, and the victory of Stilicho, beyond the Danube. A ftrange error, which is awkwardly and imperfectly cured, by reading Agvov for ispov (Tillemont, Hift. des Emp. tom. v. p. 807.). In good policy, we must use the service of Zofimus, without esteeming or trusting him. 72 Codex Theodof. 1. vii. tit. xii. leg. 16. The date of this law (A.D. 406, May 18.) fatisfies me, as it had done Godefroy (tom. ii. p. 387.), of the true year of the invafion of Radagaisus. Tillemont, Pagi, and Muratori, prefer the preceding year; but they are bound, by certain obligations of civility and refpect, to St. Paulinus of Nola. XXX. CHAP. the free citizens of the territory of Rome ". The thirty legions of Stilicho were reinforced by a large body of Barbarian auxiliaries; the faithful Alani were perfonally attached to his fervice; and the troops of Huns and of Goths, who marched under the banners of their native princes, Huldin and Sarus, were animated by intereft and refentment to oppofe the ambition of Radagaifus. The king of the confederate Germans paffed, without refiftance, the Alps, the Po, and the Apennine; leaving on one hand the inacceffible palace of Honorius, fecurely buried among the marshes of Ravenna; and, on the other, the camp of Stilicho, who had fixed his head-quarters at Ticinum, or Pavia, but who feems to have avoided a decifive battle, till he had affembled his diftant forces. Many cities of Italy were pillaged, or destroyed; and the fiege of Flo rence 74, by Radagaifus, is one of the earliest events in the hiftory of that celebrated republic; whofe firmness checked and delayed the unfkilful fury of the Barbarians. The fenate and people trembled at their approach within an hundred and Befieges 73 Soon after Rome had been taken by the Gauls, the fenate, on a fudden emergeney, armed ten legions, 3000 horfe, and 42,000 foot; a force which the city could not have fent forth under Auguftus (Livy, vii. 25.). This declaration may puzzle an antiquary, but it is clearly explained by Montefquieu. 74 Machiavel has explained, at least as a philofopher, the origin of Florence, which infenfibly defcended, for the benefit of trade, from the rock of Fæfule to the banks of the Arno (Iftoria Florentin. tom. i. l. ii. p. 36. Londra, 1747.). The Triumvirs fent a colony to Florence, which, under Tiberius (Tacit. Annal. i. 79.), deserved the reputation and name of a flourishing city. See Cluver. Ital. Antiq. tom. i. p. 507, &c. eighty XXX. eighty miles of Rome; and anxiously compared CHAP. the danger which they had efcaped, with the new perils to which they were expofed. Alaric was a Chriftian and a foldier, the leader of a difciplined army; who understood the laws of war, who refpected the fanctity of treaties, and who had familiarly converfed with the fubjects of the empire in the fame camps, and the fame churches. The favage Radagaifus was a stranger to the manners, the religion, and even the language, of the civilifed nations of the South. The fierceness of his temper was exafperated by cruel fuperftition; and it was univerfally believed, that he had bound himself, by a folemn vow, to reduce the city in- and threatto a heap of ftones and afhes, and to facrifice the moft illuftrious of the Roman fenators, on the altars of thofe gods, who were appeased by human blood. The public danger, which fhould have reconciled all domeftic animofities, difplayed the incurable madness of religious faction. The oppreffed votaries of Jupiter and Mercury respected, in the implacable enemy of Rome, the character of a devout Pagan; loudly declared, that they were more apprehenfive of the facrifices, than of the arms, of Radagaifus; and fecretly rejoiced in the calamities of their country, which condemned the faith of their Chriftian adversaries 75. 75 Yet the Jupiter of Radagaisus, who worshipped Thor and Woden, was very different from the Olympic or Capitoline Jove. The accommodating temper of Polytheism might unite those various and remote deities; but the genuine Romans abhorred the human facrifices of Gaul and Germany. Florence ens Rome. СНАР. deftruction of his ar my by Sti licho, A.D. 406. Florence was reduced to the laft extremity; and the fainting courage of the citizens was fupDefeat and ported only by the authority of St. Ambrofe; who had communicated, in a dream, the promise of a speedy deliverance 76, On a fudden they beheld, from their walls, the banners of Stilicho, who advanced, with his united force, to the relief of the faithful city; and who foon marked that fatal spot for the grave of the Barbarian hoft. The apparent contradictions of those writers who variously relate the defeat of Radagaifus, may be. reconciled, without offering much violence to their respective teftimonies. Orofius and Auguftin, who were intimately connected by friendfhip and religion, afcribe this miraculous victory to the providence of God, rather than to the valour of man "7. They strictly exclude every idea of chance, or even of bloodfhed; and pofitively affirm, that the Romans, whofe camp was the fcene of plenty and idleness, enjoyed the distress of the Barbarians, flowly expiring on the fharp and barren ridge of the hills of Fæfulæ, which rife above the city of Florence. Their extravagant affertion, that not a fingle foldier of the Chriftian army was killed, or even wounded, may 76 Paulinus (in Vit. Ambrof. c. 50.) relates this ftory, which he received from the mouth of Panfophia herfelf, a religious matron of Florence. Yet the archbishop foon ceased to take an active part in the business of the world, and never became a popular saint. 571. 77 Auguftin de Civitat. Dei, v. 23. Orofius, 1. vii. c. 37. p. 557— The two friends wrote in Africa, ten or twelve years after the victory; and their authority is implicitly followed by ifidore of Seville (in Chron. p. 713. edit. Grot.). How many interesting facts might Orofius have inferted in the vacant space which is devoted to pious nonfenfe! be |