time invaded by the Persians; but Sápor having received a severe defeat, and the Armenian prince Páras, on whose aid he relied, having been treacherously murdered by the Romans, the truce was once more renewed.

In the western empire Valentinian had been succeeded by his sons Gratian and Valentinian II.; the latter, a child only five years old, was added as a colleague to Gratian by the general council of the army. Gratian II. commenced his reign by punishing those ministers and senators who had been guilty of extortion; but yielding to the suggestions of envious courtiers, he sanctioned the execution of the gallant Theodósius, who had just completed his conquest of the Moors: the emperor, after some time, discovered by what gross misrepresentations he had been led to commit so great a crime, and bitterly repented of his guilt. He made several laws favorable to the interest of the church, ordaining that all controversies respecting religion should be decided by the bishop and synod of the provinces in which they occurred; that the clergy should be free from personal charges; and that all places where heterodox doctrines were taught should be confiscated.

The western empire was enjoying profound peace, and the eastern provinces were beginning to taste the unusual sweets of repose, when a people more ferocious than any barbarians hitherto known appeared for the first time on the northeastern frontiers. The Huns, crossing the Tanaïs (Don) and Pálus Mæotis (Sea of Azov), drove before them the nations that dwelt north of the Danube; and these fugitives, hurled one upon another, were forced to invade the Roman provinces, and commence the dismemberment of the empire. The earliest accounts of the Huns are to be found in the Chinese historians, who call these savages, "Huíng Nú," and describe them as masters of the country between the river Irtish, the Altaïan mountains, the Chinese wall, and Mantchew Tartary. Their personal appearance was almost a caricature of humanity; so that the Romans compared them to a block of wood which had been only partially trimmed: this is said to have been in some degree caused by the strange custom of flattening the nose of male infants the moment they were born, in order that the vizor which they wore in battle should fit closer to the face, and also to their plucking out the beard by the roots as soon as it began to grow. They lived on raw flesh, or at best only sodden by being placed under their saddles and pressed against the backs of their steeds during a sharp gallop: devoted to war and the chase, they left the cultivation of their fields to women and slaves; they built no cities; they erected no houses; any place encircled by walls they looked upon as a sepulchre, and never believed themselves in safety beneath a roof. About the commencement of the second century of the Christian era, the southern Huns, aided by the Chinese and the eastern Tartars, expelled their northern brethren from their ancient habitations, and compelled them to seek refuge in the territories of the Bashkirs. Here they were brought into contact with a fiercer but less warlike race, the A'lans, whom they gradually drove before them, being pressed forward themselves by fresh hordes from the east, until they took possession of the plains between the Rha (Volga) and the Tanaïs.

Joined by the A'lans and other barbarous tribes that they had con

quered, the innumerable cavalry of the Huns passed the lower Tanais, and swept the rich fields of the Ostrogoths. The Gothic armies were defeated, and at length the greater part of that nation abandoned the country that they had laboriously brought to a high state of cultivation, and retired beyond the Borys'thenes (Dnieper) and the Danas'tus (Dniester). The Huns made a horrible carnage of those who remained, sparing neither women nor children; and all who did not save themselves by a precipitate flight, perished by the edge of the sword. The conquerors soon passed the Danas'tus, and inflicted the same calamities on the Visigoths to which they had already subjected their eastern brethren. Athan'aric, the Gothic monarch, after having suffered a severe defeat, saw no better mode of defence than to fortify himself between the Hieras'sus (Pruth) and the Danube, by a wall extending from one river to the other, leaving the rest of his country exposed to the ravages of the dreadful Huns.

The whole Gothic nation was reduced to despair; their warriors, who had so often maintained a fierce struggle against the legions, now appeared as suppliants on the banks of the Danube, petitioning for permission to cultivate the waste lands of Thrace. Their request was granted, on condition of their resigning their arms; but the officers sent to see this stipulation enforced were bribed to neglect their duty: most of the Goths retained their weapons, which they regarded as the means of obtaining more valuable possessions than those they had lost.

About the same time, Arianism was established among the Goths, by the exertions of their bishop, the celebrated Ul'philas, who invented the Gothic alphabet: this subsequently aggravated their hostility to the Romans; for the enmity of rival sects had, toward the close of the fourth century, become greater than that between Christians and pagans. The officers whom Valens chose to superintend the settlement of the Goths were the most profligate extortioners even of his corrupt court; instead of supplying provisions to the fugitives until their new lands would yield a harvest, as had been promised, they closed the magazines, and charged exorbitant prices for the worst and most revolting kinds of food. At length Lupicínus attempted to murder Frit'igern and the other chiefs of the Goths, at a banquet in Marcianop'olis (Pravadí) to which they had been treacherously invited. The plot exploded prematurely; the Gothic leaders escaped; and their followers took revenge for the atrocious breach of hospitality by massacring the greater part of the Roman legions. In the meantime, the Ostrogoths, pressed forward by the Huns, had crossed the Danube and reinforced Frit'igern just as the war was about to commence: thus supported, the irritated sovereign devastated Thrace, Macedon, and Thessaly, approached the walls of Constantinople, and destroyed its suburbs. Valens wrote to Gratian for aid; and the young emperor, though harassed by wars with the Germanic tribes and the A'lans, marched to his assistance. He was delayed, however, by illness at Sir'mium; and before he could resume his march, Valens was no more. The eastern emperor, baffled by the artifices and enraged by the boldness of Frit'igern, hazarded a decisive battle near Adrianople, in which he was defeated and slain (A. D. 378). The Romans had not suffered so severe a loss since they were overthrown by Han'nibal at Canna: two thirds of the legions,

including thirty-five tribunes and commanders of cohorts, fell in the fatal field.

Gratian was incapable of remedying this disaster without the aid of a colleague, for he could not advance against the Goths without leaving the western provinces a prey to the Germans. He chose as his associate Theodósius, afterward named the Great, son of the elder Theodósius, whom he had unjustly put to death.

The accession of Theodósius was hailed with delight by all the eastern provinces; he defeated the Goths in the field; but what was of still greater importance, he won their affections by his justice and moderation; so that they voluntarily promised not only to abstain from hostilities, but to protect the frontiers of the Danube. Being himself sincerely attached to the orthodox faith, he summoned a general council at Constantinople to check the progress of heresy, and issued several edicts to restrain the teachers of erroneous opinions. While he was thus engaged, Max'imus, the governor of Britain, revolted against Gratian, and was joined by the whole of the western legions. The emperor, seeing himself abandoned by his troops, fled toward Italy, but was overtaken at Lugdúnum (Lyons), and put to death (A. D. 383). St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, courageously went into Gaul, claimed the body of the deceased emperor from the usurper, obtained it after some delay, and honorably interred the remains of Gratian in the sepulchre that had been raised for the Valentinian family in the Milanese cathedral

Max'imus, to support his usurpation, had brought with him the flower of the British youth; but the Roman province, thus deprived of its defenders, was exposed to the ravages of the Picts and Scots, who broke through the Roman wall, and pushed their incursions far into the south. Theodósius, harassed by the attacks of the barbarians in the east, at first entered into a treaty with Max'imus but the usurper, encouraged by impunity, soon meditated depriving Valentinian II. of Italy, though that prince had shown little inclination to revenge the murder of Gratian, his brother and benefactor. Valentinian, unable to defend his territories, fled to Theodósius, who instantly marched against Max'imus. The usurper was defeated in two decisive battles; he sought shelter in Aquileía; but he was arrested by his own soldiers, brought in chains to Theodósius, and executed (A. D. 388). It is said that his death was hastened by the imperial ministers, who feared that he might extort a pardon from their master's compassion.

The generous conqueror not only restored Valentinian to his ancient dominions, but resigned to him the provinces that had belonged to Gratian. Having visited Rome, and sanctioned some severe measures for extirpating idolatry in that city, he returned to the east, where he made similar efforts to crush pagan superstitions and Christian heresies. The young Valentinian did not long retain his throne; he was murdered by Arbogas'tes, a Frank, whom he had unwisely admitted to too great a share of sovereign power (A. D. 392). The Frank did not dare to assume the purple himself, but he conferred the empire on one of the royal secretaries, named Eugénius, whom he trusted that he could make the mere instrument of his ambition.

Theodósius refused to enter into any negotiation with the usurper,

but made preparations for war. Having levied a powerful army, he forced the passes of the Alps (A D. 394), and encountering the forces of Eugenius on the banks of the Frig'idum (Wibach), put them to the rout. The usurper was murdered by his own soldiers, and Arbogas'tes committed suicide.Theodósius, in consequence of this victory, became master of the whole Roman empire, which was thus once more reunited under a single head.

SECTION X.-The Overthrow of the Western Empire.

FROM A. D. 394 тo a. D. 476.

THEODÓSIUS was well aware that the partition of the empire originally made by Valentinian was rendered necessary by the condition of the Roman dominions in Europe and Asia; he therefore invited his younger son Honórius to receive the sceptre of the western empire, appointing Arcádius, the elder, his successor on the throne of Constantinople. He did not long survive this arrangement; the ease and luxury in which he indulged after his victory proved fatal to a constitution already enfeebled by the fatigues of a severe campaign: he died universally lamented by his subjects, who knew too well that they "ne'er should look upon his like again."

Arcádius and Honórius ascended the thrones bequeathed to them by their father, but both abandoned the cares of empire to their ministers Rufinus and Stil'icho. There are few greater stains on the character of Theodosius than his elevation of such an unworthy favorite as Rufínus, a wretch whom all parties describe as stained with every crime. He was the scourge of the east, and was universally hated: aware of his unpopularity, he resolved to secure his power by uniting Arcádius in marriage with his daughter; but some courtiers, jealous of his influence, took advantage of his absence to persuade the young emperor to share his throne with Eudox'ia, universally regarded as the most beautiful woman of her age. Though disappointed in this darling object of his ambition, the wealth and power of Rufinus enabled him to triumph over Arcádius and his courtiers; but he dreaded more justly his great rival in the western empire.

Stil'icho, the minister and master-general of the west, was worthy of the eminent station to which he had been raised by Theodósius. On his death-bed the emperor recommended to him the charge of both empires; but some pretext was necessary for assembling a force sufficient to depose Rufinus, without giving such alarm as would put that wary statesman on his guard. The Gothic war furnished the desired excuse; Stil'icho led his forces round the Adriatic; but he had scarcely reached Thessalonica, when he received orders to return, with a threat that his nearer approach to Constantinople would be considered a declaration of war. Leaving the army in the charge of the Gaínas, Stil'icho returned to Italy; and Rufinus, believing all danger past, went to review the western troops. As he passed along the ranks, he was suddenly surrounded by a chosen band, and, on a signal from Gaínas, pinned to the earth by a lance, and mangled with a thousand wounds. If Stil'icho had contrived this murder, he derived no advantage from it.

Gaínas, the eunuch Eutropius, and the empress Eudox'ia, combined to exclude him from Constantinople; their puppet Arcádius procured a decree from his obsequious senate, declaring him a public enemy, and confiscating all his property in the east.

Instead of hazarding a civil war, Stil'icho exerted himself to suppress the revolt which Gil'do, the brother of Fir'mus, had excited in Africa. He intrusted the command of the forces raised for this purpose to Mas'cezel, the brother and deadly enemy of Gil'do. Accident left the Romans an almost bloodless victory. Before giving the signal to engage, Mas'cezel rode to the front of the lines with fair offers of peace and pardon; he encountered one of the standard-bearers of the Africans, and, on his refusal to yield, struck him on the arm with his sword. The weight of the blow threw the standard and its bearer prostrate. This was regarded by the rest as a signal of submission, which all the African legions hastened to imitate; they flung down their ensigns, and, with one accord, renewed their allegiance to their rightful sovereign. Gil'do attempted to fly, but he was arrested by the citizens of Tab'raca (Tabarca), and thrown into a dungeon, where he committed suicide, to avoid the punishment of treason. Mas'cezel was subsequently murdered by Stil'icho, who feared the hereditary enmity of the house of Nábal.

The Goths were now become more formidable than they had ever been. Instead of being guided by several independent chiefs, they were united into a compact body under the renowned Al'aric; and the withholding of the subsidy paid them by Theodósius, afforded a plausible pretext for war (A. D. 396). Disdaining to ravage the exhausted lands of Thrace, Al'aric led his soldiers into Greece, passed the straits of Thermop'yle without opposition, devastated Bœotia, At'tica, and the Peloponnésus, while Athens, Corinth, Ar'gos, and Spar'ta, yielded to the barbarous invaders without opposition. Stil'icho hastened to repel the Goths from Greece. His masterly movements drove Al'aric into a corner of Elis, whence his extrication appeared impossible; but the Goth, perceiving that the watchfulness of his enemies was relaxed, gained the gulf of Corinth by a rapid march, passed over the narrow strait between the headlands of Rhíum and Antir'rhium (Dardanelles of Lepanto), and was master of Epírus before Stil'icho could renew his pursuit. The Romans were preparing to pass into northern Greece, when they received information that Al'aric had not only made his peace with the Byzantine court, but had been appointed master-general of Illyricum by the feeble Arcádius.

Stil'icho returned to Italy, and was soon compelled to defend that peninsula against Al'aric, who forced a passage over the Julian Alps, and advanced toward Milan. Honórius fled from his capital, but was so hotly chased, that he was forced to seek refuge in As'ta (Asti), which the Goths immediately blockaded. Stil'icho hastened to the relief of his sovereign, and gained a complete victory over Al'aric at Pollentia (Polenza); but the Gothic sovereign, having rallied his shattered forces, crossed the Appenines, and made a sudden rush toward Rome (A. D. 403). The capital was saved by the diligence of Stil'icho; but Al'aric's departure from Italy was purchased by a large pension.