and betrayed the unhappy province. Corinth, Argos, Sparta, yielded without resistance to the arms of the Goths; and the most fortunate of the inhabitants were saved, by death, from beholding the slavery of their families, and the conflagration of their cities.' The vases and statues were distributed among the barbarians, with moré regard to the value of the materials, than to the elegance of the workmanship: the female captives submitted 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 justified by the example of the heroic times." The descendants of that extraordinary people, who had considered valour and discipline 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 thyself." From Thermopyla to Sparta, the leader of the Goths pursued his victorious march without encountering any mortal antagonists: but one of the advocates of expiring Paganism has confidently asserted, that the walls of Athens were guarded by the goddess Minerva, with her formidable Ægis, and by the angry phantom of Achilles; and that the conqueror was dismayed by the presence of the hostile deities of Greece. In an age of miracles, it would perhaps be unjust to dispute thé * Claudian (in Rufin. lib. 2. 186, and de Bello Getico, 611, &c.) vaguely, though forcibly, delineates the scene of rapine and destruction. Tris panagıc Aavadi nai Terpanic, &c. These generous lines of Homer (Odyss. lib. 5. 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, possessed the purest source of good taste, a benevolent heart. (Plutarch, Symposiac. lib. 9. tom. 2. p. 757. edit Wechel.) 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 passion (of Eriphile for Achilles), is touched with admirable delicacy by Racine. "Plutarch (in Pyrrho, tom. 2. p. 471. edit. Brian) gave the genuine answer in the Laconic dialect. Pyrrhus attacked Sparta with twenty-five thousand foot, two thousand horse, and twenty-four elephants: and the defence of that open town is a fine comment on the laws of Lycurgus, even in the last stage of decay. • Such, perhaps, as Homer (Iliad 20. 64.) has so nobly painted him. claim of the historian Zosimus, to the common benefit; yet it cannot be dissembled, that the mind of Alaric wast ill prepared to receive, either in sleeping or waking visions, the impressions of Greek superstition. The songs of Homer, and the fame of Achilles, had probably never reached the ear of the illiterate barbarian; and the Christian faith, which he had devoutly embraced, taught him to despise the imaginary deities of Rome and Athens. The invasion of the Goths, instead of vindicating the honour, contributed, at least accidentally, to extirpate the last remains of Paganism; and the mysteries of Ceres, which had subsisted eighteen hundred years, did not survive the destruction of Eleusis, and the calamities of Greece.P He is at Stilicho. The last hope of a people who could no longer tacked by depend on their arms, their gods, or their soA. D. 397. vereign, was placed in the powerful assistance of the general of the west; and Stilicho, who had not been permitted to repulse, advanced to chastise, the invaders of Greece. A numerous fleet was equipped in the ports of Italy; and the troops, after a short and prosperous navigation over the Ionian sea, were safely disembarked on the Isthmus, near the ruins of Corinth. The woody and mountainous country of Arcadia, the fabulous residence 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 perseverance of the Roman at length prevailed; and the Goths, after sustaining a considerable loss from disease and desertion, gradually retreated to the lofty mountain of Pholoe, near the sources of the Peneus, and on the frontiers of Elis; a sacred country, which had formerly been exempted from the calamities of war. The P Eunapius (in Vit. Philosoph. p. 90-93.) intimates, that a troop of monks betrayed Greece, and followed the Gothic camp. 9 For Stilicho's Greek war, compare the honest narrative of Zosimus, (lib. 5. p. 295, 296.) with the curious circumstantial flattery of Claudian. (1. Cons. Stilich. lib, 172-186. 4 Cons. Hon. 459-487.) As the event was not glorious, it is artfully thrown into the shade. This security r The troops who marched through Elis delivered up their arms. camp of the barbarians was immediately besieged; the waters of the rivers were diverted into another channel; and while they laboured under the intolerable pressure of thirst and hunger, a strong line of circumvallation was formed to prevent their escape. After these precautions, Stilicho, too confident of victory, retired to enjoy his triumph, in the theatrical games, and lascivious dances, of the Greeks; his soldiers deserting their standards, spread themselves over the country of the allies; which they stripped of all that had been saved from the rapacious hands of the enemy. Alaric appears to have seized the favourable moment to execute one of those hardy enterprises, in which the abilities of a general are displayed with more genuine lustre, than in the tumult of a day of battle. To extricate himself from the prison of Peloponnesus, it was necessary that he should pierce the intrenchments which surrounded his camp; that he should perform a difficult and dangerous march of thirty miles, as far as the gulf of Corinth; and that he should transport his troops, his captives, and his spoil, over an arm of the sea, which, in the narrow interval between Rhium and the opposite shore, is at least half a mile in breadth. The operations of Escapes to Alaric must have been secret, prudent, and rapid, since the Roman general was confounded by the intelligence, that the Goths, who had eluded his efforts, were in full possession of the important province of Epirus. This unfortunate delay allowed Alaric sufficient time to con Epirus. enriched the Eleans, who were lovers of a rural life. Riches begat pride; they disdained their privilege, and they suffered. Polybius advises them to retire once more within their magic circle. Šee a learned and judicious discourse on the Olympic games, which Mr. West has prefixed to his translation of Pindar. Claudian (in 4 Cons. Hon. 490.) alludes to the fact, without naming the river: perhaps the Alpheus. (1 Cons. Stil. lib. 1. 185.) -Et Alpheus Geticis augustus acervis Tardior ad Siculos etiamnum pergit amores. Yet I should prefer the Peneus, a shallow stream in a wide and deep bed, which runs through Elis, and falls into the sea below Cylenne. It had been joined with the Alpheus to cleanse the Augean stable. (Cellarius, tom. 1. p. 760. Chandler's Travels, p. 286.) Strabo, lib. 8. p. 517. Plin. Hist. Natur. 4. 3. Wheler, p. 308. Chandler, p. 274. They measured, from different points, the distance between the two lands, clude the treaty which he secretly negotiated, with the ministers of Constantinople. The apprehension of a civil war compelled Stilicho to retire, at the haughty mandate of his rivals, from the dominions of Arcadius; and he respected, in the enemy of Rome, the honourable character of the ally and servant of the emperor of the east. Alaric is master the eastern A Grecian philosopher," who visited Condeclared stantinople soon after the death of Theodogeneral of sius, published his liberal opinions concerning Illyricum, the duties of kings, and the state of the Roman A.D.S98; republic. Synesius observes, and deplores, the fatal abuse, which the imprudent bounty of the late emperor had introduced into the military service, The citizens and subjects had purchased an exemption from the indispensable duty of defending their country; which was supported by the arms of barbarian mercenaries. The fugitives of Scythia were permitted to disgrace the illustrious dignities of the empire; the ferocious youth, who disdained the salutary restraint 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 stone of Tantalus, perpetually suspended over the peace and safety of the devoted state. The measures which Synesius recommends, are the dictates of a bold and generous patriot. He exhorts the emperor to revive the courage of his subjects, 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 such a moment of public danger, the mechanic from his shop, and the philosopher from his school; to rouse the indolent citizen from Synesius passed three years (A. D. 397-400.) at Constantinople, as deputy from Cyrene to the emperor Arcadius. He presented him with a crown of gold, and pronounced before him the instructive oration, de Regno. (p. 1-32. edit. Petav. Paris, 1612.) The philosopher was made bishop of Ptolemais, A.D. 410, and died about 430. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. 12. p. 499. 554, 683–685. his dream of pleasure, and to arm, for the protection of agriculture, the hands of the laborious husbandman. At the head of such troops, who might deserve the name, and would display the spirit, of Romans, he animates the son of Theodosius to encounter a race of barbarians, who were destitute of any real courage; and never to lay down his arms, till he had chased them far away into the solitudes of Scythia; or had reduced them to the state of ignominious servitude, which the Lacedemonians formerly imposed on the captive Helots.* The court of Arcadius indulged the zeal, applauded the eloquence, and neglected the advice of Synesius. Perhaps the philosopher, who addresses the emperor of the east in the language of reason and virtue, which he might have used to a Spartan king, had not condescended to form a practicable scheme, consistent with the temper and circumstances of a degenerate age. Perhaps the pride of the ministers, whose business was seldom interrupted by reflection, might reject, as wild and visionary, every proposal 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 conversation, 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 justly indignant, that the ruin of Greece and Epirus should be so liberally rewarded. The Gothic conqueror was received as a lawful magistrate in the cities which he had so lately besieged. The fathers, whose sons he had massacred, the husbands, whose wives he had violated, were subject to his authority; and the success of his rebellion encouraged the ambition of every leader of the foreign mercenaries. * Synesius de Regno, p. 21-26. |