Dalmatia, to the walls of Conftantinople (3). The inter- CHA P. ruption, or at least the diminution, of the fubfidy, which the XXX. Goths had received from the prudent liberality of Theodofius, was the fpecious pretence of their revolt; the affront was embittered by their contempt for the unwarlike fons of Theodofius; and their resentment was inflamed by the weaknefs, or treachery, of the minifter of Arcadius. The frequent vifits of Rufinus to the camp of the Barbarians, whose arms and apparel he affected to imitate, were confidered as a fufficient evidence of his guilty correfpondence: and the public enemy, from a motive either of gratitude or of policy, was attentive, amidst the general devastation, to spare the private eftates of the unpopular præfect. The Goths, instead of being impelled by the blind and headftrong paffions of their chiefs, were now directed by the bold and artful genious of Alaric. That renowned leader was descended from the noble race of the Balti (4); which yielded only to the royal dignity of the Amali: he had folicited the command of the Roman armies; and the Imperial court provoked him to demonftrate the folly of their refufal, and the importance of their lofs. Whatever hopes might be entertained of the conqueft of Conftantinople, the judicious general foon abandoned an impracticable enterprife. In the midst of a divided court, and a discontented people, the emperor Arcadius was terrified by the aspect of the Gothic arms: but the want of wisdom and valour was fupplied by the ftrength of the city; and the fortifications, both of the fea and land, might fecurely brave the impotent and random darts of the BarbariAlaric difdained to trample any longer on the proftrate. and ruined countries of Thrace and Dacia, and he refolved to seek a plentiful harvest of fame and riches in a province which had hitherto escaped the ravages of war (5) ans. (3) Jerom, tom. i. p. 26. He endeavours to comfort his friend Heliodorus, bishop of Altinum, for the lofs of his nephew Nepotian, by a curious recapi tulation of all the public and private misfortunes of the times. See Tillemont, Mem. Ecclef. tom. xii. p. 200, &c. (4) Baltha, or bold; origo mirifica, fays Jornandes (c. 29.). This illuftrious race long continued to flourish in France, in the Gothic province of Septimania, or Languedoc; under the corrupted appellation of Baux; and a branch of that family afterwards fettled in the kingdom of Naples (Grotius in Prolegom, ad Hift. Gothic, p. 53.). The lords of Baux, near Arles, and of seventy-nine fubordinate places, were independent of the courts of Provence (Longuerue, Défcription de la France, tom. i. p. 357.). (5) Zofimus (1. v. p. 293–295.) is our beft guide for the conqueft of Greece: but the hints and allufion of Claudian are fo many rays of historic light. CHAP. Alaric marches into Greece, The character of the civil and military officers, on whom Rufinus had devolved the government of Greece, confirmed the public fufpicion, that he had betrayed the ancient feat of freedom and learning to the Gothic invader. The proconful Antiochus was the unworthy son of a refpectable father; A. D. 396. and Gerontius, who commanded the provincial troops, was much better qualified to execute the oppreffive orders of a tyrant, than to defend, with courage and ability, a country moft remarkably fortified by the hand of nature. Alaric had traverfed, without refiftance, the plains of Macedonia and Theffaly, as far as the foot of Mount Oeta, a fteep and woody range of hills, almost impervious to his cavalry. They stretched from East to Weft, to the edge of the fea-fhore; 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 fingle carriage (6). In this narrow pafs of Thermopyle, where Leonidas and the three hundred Spartans had glorioufly devoted their lives, the Goths might have been stopped, or destroyed, by a skilful general, and perhaps the view of that facred fpot might have kindled fome fparks of military ardour in the breafts of the degenerate Greeks. The troops which had been posted to defend the ftreights of Thermopylæ, retired, as they were directed, without attempting to disturb the secure and rapid passage of Alaric (7); and the fertile fields of Phocis, and Bæotia, were inftantly covered by a deluge of Barbarians; who maffacred the males of an age to bear arms, and drove away the beautiful females, with the fpoil, and cattle, of the flaming villages. The travellers, who vifited Greece feveral years afterwards, could easily discover the deep and bloody traces of the march of the Goths; and Thebes was lefs indebted for her preservation to the ftrength of her feven gates, than to the eager hafte of Alaric, who advanced to occupy the city of Athens, and the important harbour of the Piræus. The fame impatience urged him to prevent the delay and danger of a fiege, by the offer of a capitulation; and as foon as the Athenians heard the voice of the Gothic herald, they were eafily perfuaded to deliver the greateft part of their wealth, as the ranfom (6) Compare Herodotus (1. vii. c. 176.) and Livy (xxxvi, 15.). The narrow entrance of Greece was probably enlarged by each successive ravisher. (7) He paffed, fays Eunapius (in Vit. Philofoph. p. 93. edit. Commelin, 1596), through the fircights, da rwy wuha: (of Thermopyla) wagnλdev, womèg δια ςαδίω, και ίπποκριτα πεδια εξέχων. XXX. ranfom of the city of Minerva, and its inhabitants. The CHA P. treaty was ratified by folemn oaths, and obferved with mutual fidelity The Gothic prince, with a small and felect train, was admitted within the walls; he indulged himself in the refreshment of the bath, accepted a fplendid banquet which was provided by the magiftrate, and affected to fhew that he was not ignorant of the manners of civilifed nations (8). But the whole territory of Attica, from the promontory of Sunium to the town of Megara, was blafted by his baleful prefence; and, if we may ufe the comparifon of a contemporary philosopher, Athens itself refembled the bleeding and empty fkin of a flaughtered victim. The distance between Megara and Corinth could not much exceed thirty miles; but the bad road, an expreffive name, which it still bears among the Greeks, was, or might eafily have been made, impaffable for the march of an enemy. The thick and gloomy woods of Mount Citharon covered the inland country; the Scironian rocks approached the water's edge, and hung over the narrow and winding path, which was confined above fix miles along the fea-fhore (9). The påffage of thofe rocks, fo infamous in every age, was terminated by the ifthmus of Corinth; and a small body of firm and intrepid foldiers might have fuccefsfully defended a temporary intrenchment of five or fix miles from the Ionian to the Ægean sea. The confidence of the cities of Peloponnefus, in their natural rampart, had tempted them to neglect the care of their antique walls; and the avarice of the Roman governors. had exhausted and betrayed the unhappy province (10). Corinth, Argos, Sparta, yielded without refiftance to the arms of the Goths; and the most fortunate of the inhabitants were faved, by death, from (8) In obedience to Jerom, and Claudían (in Rufin. 1. ii. 191.), I have mixed fome darker colours in the mild representation of Zofimus, who wished to foften the calamities of Athens. Nec fera Cecropias traxiffent vincula matres. Synefius (Epift. clvi. p. 272. edit Petav.) observes, that Athens, whose sufferings he imputes to the proconful's avarice, was at that time lefs famous for her fchools of philosophy than for her trade of honey. (9) Vallata mari Scironia rupes Et duo continuo connectens æquora muro Claudian de Bell. Getico, 188. The Scironian rocks are described by Paufanias (1. i. c. 44. p. 107. edit. Kuhn) and our modern travellers, Wheeler (p. 436.) and Chandler (p. 298.). Hadrian made the road paffable for two carriages. (10) Claudian (in Rufin. l. ii, 186. and de Bello Getico, 611, &c) vaguely, though forcibly, delineates the scene of rapine and deftruction. CHA P. from beholding the flavery of their families, and the conflaXXX. gration of their cities (11). The vafes and ftatues were diftributed among the Barbarians, with more regard to the value of the materials, than to the elegance of the workmanfhip; the female captives fubmitted to the laws of war; the enjoyment of beauty was the reward of valour; and the Greeks could not reasonably complain of an abuse, which was juftified by the example of the heroic times (12). The def cendants of that extraordinary people, who had confidered valour and difcipline as the walls of Sparta, no longer remembered the generous reply of their ancestors to an invader more formidable than Alaric. "If thou art a god, thou ❝ wilt not hurt those who have never injured thee; if thou art ❝ a man, advance :-and thou wilt find men equal to thyfelf "(13)." From Thermopyla to Sparta, the leader of the Goths purfued his victorious march without encountering any mortal antagonift: but one of the advocates of expiring Paganifm has confidently afferted, that the walls of Athens were guarded by the goddefs Minerva, with her formidable Ægis, and by the angry phantom of Achilles (14); and that the conqueror was difmayed by the prefence of the hoftile deities of Greece. In an age of miracles, it would perhaps be unjuft to difpute the claim of the historian Zofimus to the common benefit; yet it cannot be diffembled, that the mind of Alaric was ill prepared to receive, either in fleeping or waking vifions, the impreffions of Greek fuperftition. The fongs of Homer, and the fame of Achilles, had probably never reached the ear of the illiterate Barbarian; and the Chriftian faith, which he had devoutly embraced, taught him to defpife the imaginary deities of Rome and Athens. The invafion (11) Τρις μάκαρες Δαναοι και τετρακις, &c. There generous lines of Homer (Odyff,1. v. 306.) were transcribed by one of the captive youths of Corinth: and the tears of Mummius may prove that the rude conqueror, though he was ignorant of the value of an original picture, poffeffed the pureft source of good tafte, a benevolent heart (Plutarch, Sympofiac, 1. ix. tom. ii. p. 737edit, Wechel.). (12) Homer perpetually describes the exemplary patience of those female captives, who gave their charms, and even their hearts, to the murderers of their fathers, brothers, &c. Such a paffion (of Eriphile for Achilles) is touched with admirable delicacy by Racine. (13) Plutarch (in Pyrrho, tom. ii. p. 471. edit. Brian) gives the genuine anfwer in the Laconic dialect. Pyrrhus attacked Sparta with 25,000 foot, 2000 horfe, and 24 elephants: and the defence of that open town is a fine comment on the laws of Lycurgus, even in the laft ftage of decay. (14) Such, perhaps, as Homer (Iliad, xx, 164.) has fo nobly painted him. XXX. invafion of the Goths, inftead of vindicating the honour, CHAP. contributed, at least accidentally, to extirpate the last remains, of Paganifm; and the myfteries of Ceres, which had fubfifted eighteen hundred years, did not furvive the deftruction of Eleufis, and the calamities of Greece (15). Stilicho, The laft hope of a people who could no longer depend on He is attheir arms, their gods, or their fovereign, was placed in the tacked by powerful affiftance of the general of the Weft; and Stilicho, who had not been permitted to repulse, advanced to chastise, the invaders of Greece (16). A numerous fleet was equip ped in the ports of Italy; and the troops, after a fhort and profperous navigation over the Ionian fea, were safely 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 skill 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 (17). The camp of the Barbarians was immediately befieged the waters of the river (18) were diverted into another channel; and while they laboured under the intolerable preffure of thirst and hunger, a strong line of circumvallation was formed to prevent their efcape. After thefe (15) Eunapius (in Vit. Philosoph. 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 circumftantial 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 begat pride; they difdained their privilege, and they fuffered. Polybius advises them to retire once more within their magic circle. See a learned and judicious difcourfe 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. I. i. 185.). Alpheus Geticis anguftus acervis Tardior ad Siculos etiamnum pergit amores. Yet I fhall prefer the Peneus, a fhallow ftream in a wide and deep bed, which runs through Elis, and falls into the fea below Cyllene. It had been joined with the Alpheus, to cleanse the Augean ftable (Cellarius, tom. i. p. 769. Chandler's Travels, p. 286.). |