exhalations of low and marshy grounds, was distinguished like the neighbourhood of Alexandria as uncommonly pure and salubrious; and this singular advantage was ascribed to the regular tides of the Hadriatic, which swept the canals, interrupted the unwholesome stagnation of the waters, and floated, every day, the vessels of the adjacent country into the heart of Ravenna. The gradual retreat of the sea has left the modern city at the distance of four miles from the Hadriatic; and as early as the fifth or sixth century of the Christian era, the port of Augustus was converted into pleasant orchards; and a lonely grove of pines covered the ground where the Roman fleet once rode at anchor.a Even this alteration contributed to increase the natural strength of the place; and the shallowness of the water was a sufficient barrier against the large ships of the enemy. This advantageous situation was fortified by art and labour; and in the twentieth year of his age, the emperor of the west, anxious only for his personal safety, retired to the perpetual confinement of the walls and morasses of Ravenna. The example of Honorius was imitated by his feeble successors, the Gothic kings, and afterward the exarchs, who occupied the throne and palace of the emperors; and, till the middle of the eighth century, Ravenna was considered as the seat of government, and the capital of Italy."

The revo

Scythia.

The fears of Honorius were not without founlutions of dation, nor were his precautions without effect. A. D. 400. While Italy rejoiced in her deliverance from the Goths, a furious tempest was excited among the nations of Germany, who yielded to the irresistible impulse, that appears to have been gradually communicated from the eastern extremity of the continent of

The fable of Theodore and Honoria, which Dryden has so admirably transplanted from Boccaccio, (Giornata, 3. novell. 8.) was acted in the wood of Chiassi, a corrupt word from Classis, the naval station, which, with the intermediate road or suburb, the Via Casaris, constituted the triple city of Ravenna.

From the year 404, the dates of the Theodosian Code become sedentary at Constantinople and Ravenna. See Godefroy's Chronology of the Laws, tom. 1. p. 148, &c.

Asia. The Chinese annals, as they have been interpreted by the learned industry of the present age, may be usefully applied to reveal the secret and remote causes of the fall of the Roman empire. The extensive territory to the north of the great wall, was possessed, after the flight of the Huns, by the victorious Siempi; who were sometimes broken into independent tribes, and sometimes reunited under a supreme chief; till at length, styling themselves Topa, or masters of the earth, they acquired a more solid consistence, and a more formidable power. The Topa soon compelled the pastoral nations of the eastern desert to acknowledge the superiority of their arms; they invaded China in a period of weakness and intestine discord; and these fortunate Tartars, adopting the laws and manners of the vanquished people, founded an imperial dynasty, which reigned near one hundred and sixty years over the northern provinces of the monarchy. Some generations before they ascended the throne of China, one of the Topa princes had enlisted in his cavalry a slave of the name of Moko, renowned for his valour; but who was tempted by the fear of punishment, to desert his standard, and to range the desert at the head of a hundred followers. This gang of robbers and outlaws swelled into a camp, a tribe, a numerous people distinguished by the appellation of Geougen; and their hereditary chieftains, the posterity of Moko the slave, assumed their rank among the Scythian monarchs. The youth of Toulun, the greatest of his descendants, was exercised by those misfortunes which are the school of heroes. He bravely struggled with adversity, broke the imperious yoke of the Topa, and became the legislator of his nation, and the conqueror of Tartary. His troops were distributed into regular bands of a hundred and of a thousand men; cowards were stoned to death; the most splendid honours were proposed as the reward of valour; and Toulun, who had knowledge enough to despise the learning of

China, adopted only such arts and institutions as were favourable to the military spirit of his government. His tents, which he removed in the winter season to a more southern latitude, were pitched, during the summer, on the fruitful banks of the Selinga. His conquests stretched from Corea far beyond the river Irtish. He vanquished, in the country to the north of the Caspian sea, the nation of the Huns; and the new title of Khan, or Cagan, expressed the fame and power which he derived from this memorable victory."

Emigra

northern

The chain of events is interrupted, or rather tion of the is concealed, as it passes from the Volga to the Germans. Vistula, through the dark interval which sepaA.D. 405. rates the extreme limits of the Chinese, and of the Roman geography. Yet the temper of the barbarians, and the experience of successive emigrations, sufficiently declare, that the Huns, who were oppressed by the arms of the Geougen, soon withdrew from the presence of an insulting victor. The countries towards the Euxine were already occupied by their kindred tribes; and their hasty flight, which they soon converted into a bold attack, would more naturally be directed towards the rich and level plains, through which the Vistula gently flows into the Baltic sea. The north must again have been alarmed, and agitated by the invasion of the Huns; and the nations who retreated before them, must have pressed with incumbent weight on the confines of Germany. The inhabitants of those regions, which the ancients have assigned to the Suevi, the Vandals, and the Burgundians, might embrace the resolution of abandoning, to the fugitives of Sarmatia, their woods and morasses; or at least of discharging their superfluous

$38.

See M. de Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. 1. p. 179-189. tom. 2. p. 295. 334

Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. lib. 1. c. 3. p. 182.) has observed an emigration from the Palus Mæotis to the north of Germany, which he ascribes to famine. But his views of ancient history are strangely darkened by ignorance and error.

numbers on the provinces of the Roman empire." About four years after the victorious Toulun had assumed the title of Khan of the Geougen, another barbarian, the haughty Rhodogast, or Radagaisus,* marched from the northern extremities of Germany almost to the gates of Rome, and left the remains of his army to achieve the destruction of the west. The Vandals, the Suevi, and the Burgundians, formed the strength of this mighty host; but the Alani, who had found an hospitable reception in their new seats, added their active cavalry to the heavy infantry of the Germans; and the Gothic adventurers crowded so eagerly to the standard of Radagaisus, that, by some historians, he has been styled the King of the Goths. Twelve thousand warriors, distinguished above the vulgar by their noble birth, or their valiant deeds, glittered in the van; and the whole multitude, which was not less than two hundred thousand fighting men, might be increased by the accession of women, of children, and of slaves, to the amount of four hundred thousand persons. This formidable emigration issued from the same coast of the Baltic, which had poured forth the myriads of the Cimbri and Teutones, to assault Rome and Italy in the vigour of the republic. After the departure of those barbarians, their native country, which was marked by the vestiges of their greatness, long ramparts, and gigantic moles," remained, during some ages, a vast and dreary solitude; till the human species was renewed by the powers of

u Zosimus (lib. 5. p. 331.) uses the general description of the nations beyond the Danube and the Rhine. Their situation, and consequently their names, are manifestly shewn, even in the various epithets which each ancient writer may have casually added.

* The name of Rhadagast was that of a local deity of the Obotrites (in Mecklenburgh.) A hero might naturally assume the appellation of his tutelar god; but it is not probable that the barbarians should worship an unsuccessful hero. See Mascou, Hist. of the Germans, 8. 14.

y Olympiodorus (apud Photium, p. 180.) uses the Greek word Oriμaro; which does not convey any precise idea. I suspect that they were the princes and nobles, with their faithful companions; the knights, with their squires, as they would have been styled some centuries afterward.

Tacit. de Moribus Germanorum, c. 37.

generation, and the vacancy was filled by the influx of new inhabitants. The nations who now usurp an extent of land, which they are unable to cultivate, would soon be assisted by the industrious poverty of their neighbours, if the government of Europe did not protect the claims of dominion and property.

Radagaisus invades Italy. A.D. 406.

The correspondence of nations was, in that age, so imperfect and precarious, that the revolutions of the north might escape the knowledge of the court of Ravenna; till the dark cloud, which was collected along the coast of the Baltic, burst in thunder upon the banks of the Upper Danube. The emperor of the west, if his ministers disturbed his amusements by the news of the impending danger, was satisfied with being the occasion, and the spectator of the war. The safety of Rome was intrusted to the counsels and the sword of Stilicho; but such was the feeble and exhausted state of the empire, that it was impossible to restore the fortifications of the Danube, or to prevent, by a vigorous effort, the invasion of the Germans. The hopes of the vigilant minister of Honorius were confined to the defence of Italy. He once more abandoned the provinces, recalled the troops, pressed the new levies, which were rigorously exacted, and pusillanimously eluded; employed the most efficacious means to arrest or allure the deserters; and offered the gift of freedom, and of two pieces of gold, to all the slaves who would enlist. By these efforts, he painfully

-Cujus agendi

Spectator vel causa fui,

Claudian, 6. Cons. Hon. 439.

is the modest language of Honorius, in speaking of the Gothic war, which he had seen somewhat nearer.

b Zosimus (lib. 5. p. 331.) transports the war and the victory of Stilicho, beyond the Danube. A strange error, which is awkwardly and imperfectly cured, by reading Apve for lopov. (Tillemont, Hist. des Emp. tom. 5. p. 807.) In good policy, we must use the service of Zosimus, without esteeming or trusting him.

Codex Theodos. lib. 7. tit. 13. leg. 16. The date of this law (A. D. 406. May 18.) satisfies me, as it had done Godefroy, (tom. 2. p. 387.) of the true year of the invasion of Radagaisus. Tillemont, Pagi, and Muratori, prefer the preceding year; but they are bound by certain obligations of civility and respect to St. Paulinus of Nola.