XXV. CHAP. exile in the isle of Lipari, where he was supplied with the decent necessaries of life. The remainder of the reign of Honorius was undisturbed by rebellion; and it may be observed, that, in the space of five years, seven usurpers had yielded to the fortune of a prince who was himself incapable either of counsel or of action. Invasion of Spain by Vandals, Alani, &c. A. D. 409, Oct. 13. The situation of Spain, separated, on all sides, the Suevi, from the enemies of Rome, by the sea, by the mountains, and by intermediate provinces, had secured the long tranquillity of that remote and sequestered country; and we may observe, as a sure symptom of domestic happiness, that in a period of four hundred years, Spain furnished very few materials to the history of the Roman empire. The footsteps of the Barbarians, who, in the reign of Gallienus, had penetrated beyond the Pyrenees, were soon obliterated by the return of peace; and in the fourth century of the Christian æra, the cities of Emerita, or Merida, of Corduba, Seville, Bracara, and Tarragona, were numbered with the most illustrious of the Roman world. The various plenty of the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms, was improved and manufactured by the skill of an industrious people; and the peculiar advantages of naval stores contributed to support an extensive and profitable trade*. The arts and sciences flourished under the protection of the emperors; and if the character of the Spaniards was enfeebled by peace and servitude, the hostile approach of the Germans, who had spread terror and desolation from the Rhine to the Pyrenees, seemed to rekindle some sparks of military ardour. * Without recurring to the more ancient writers, I shall quote three respectable testimonies which belong to the fourth and seventh centuries; the Expositio totius Mundi (p. 16, in the third volume of Hudson's Minor Geographers), Ausonius (de Claris Urbibus, p. 242, edit. Toll.), and Isidore of Seville (Præfat. ad Chron. ap. Grotium, Hist. Goth. 707). Many particulars relative to the fertility and trade of Spain may be found in Nonnius, Hispania Illustrata, and in Huet, Hist. du Commerce des Anciens, c. 40, p. 228–234. XXV. As long as the defence of the mountains was in- CHAP. trusted to the hardy and faithful militia of the country, they successfully repelled the frequent attempts of the Barbarians. But no sooner had the national troops been compelled to resign their post to the Honorian bands, in the service of Constantine, than the gates of Spain were treacherously betrayed to the public enemy, about ten months before the sack of Rome by the Goths*. The consciousness of guilt, and the thirst of rapine, prompted the mercenary guards of the Pyrenees to desert their station; to invite the arms of the Suevi, the Vandals, and the Alani; and to swell the torrent which was poured with irresistible violence from the frontiers of Gaul to the sea of Africa. The misfortunes of Spain may be described in the language of its most eloquent historian, who has concisely expressed the passionate, and perhaps exaggerated, declamations of contemporary writers. "The irruption of these nations was fol“lowed by the most dreadful calamities: as the Bar"barians exercised their indiscriminate cruelty on "the fortunes of the Romans and the Spaniards; "and ravaged with equal fury the cities and the 66 66 open country. The progress of famine reduced "the miserable inhabitants to feed on the flesh of "their fellow-creatures; and even the wild beasts, "who multiplied, without control, in the desert, "were exasperated, by the taste of blood, and the impatience of hunger, boldly to attack and devour "their human prey. Pestilence soon appeared, the inseparable companion of famine; a large proportion "of the people was swept away; and the groans of "the dying excited only the envy of their surviving "friends. At length the Barbarians, satiated with 66 The date is accurately fixed in the Fasti, and the Chronicle of Idatius. Orosius (1. vii. c. 40, p. 578), imputes the loss of Spain to the treachery of the Honorians; while Sozomen (1. ix. c. 12) accuses only their negligence. CHAP. Adolphus, king of the Goths, marches carnage and rapine, and afflicted by the contagious "evils which they themselves had introduced, fixed "their permanent seats in the depopulated country. "The ancient Gallicia, whose limits included the "kingdom of Old Castille, was divided between the "Suevi and the Vandals; the Alani were scattered "over the provinces of Carthagena and Lusitania, "from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean; " and the fruitful territory of Boetica was allotted to "the Silingi, another branch of the Vandalic nation. "After regulating this partition, the conquerors con"tracted with their new subjects some reciprocal engagements of protection and obedience: the lands were again cultivated; and the towns and villages "were again occupied by a captive people. 66 66 66 The greatest part of the Spaniards was even disposed to prefer this new condition of poverty and barbarism, "to the severe oppressions of the Roman govern"ment; yet there were many who still asserted their "native freedom, and who refused, more especially "in the mountains of Gallicia, to submit to the "Barbarian yoke." The important present of the heads of Jovinus and Sebastian had approved the friendship of Adolphus, and restored Gaul to the obedience of his A. D. 414. brother Honorius. Peace was incompatible with the into Spain, situation and temper of the king of the Goths. He readily accepted the proposal of turning his victorious arms against the Barbarians of Spain: the troops of Constantius intercepted his communication with the sea-ports of Gaul, and gently pressed his march towards the Pyrenees: he passed the mountains, and surprised, in the name of the emperor, the city of Barcelona. The fondness of Adolphus for his Roman bride was not abated by time or possession; and the birth of a son, surnamed, from his illustrious grandsire, Theodosius, appeared to fix him for ever in the XXV. A. D. 415, August. interest of the republic. The loss of that infant, CHAP. whose remains were deposited in a silver coffin in one of the churches near Barcelona, afflicted his parents; but the grief of the Gothic king was suspended by the labours of the field; and the course of his victories was soon interrupted by domestic treason. He had imprudently received into his service one of the followers of Sarus, a Barbarian of a daring spirit, but of a diminutive stature, whose secret desire of revenging the death of his beloved patron was continually irritated by the sarcasms of his insolent master. Adolphus was assassinated in the His death, palace of Barcelona; the laws of the succession were violated by a tumultuous faction; and a stranger to the royal race, Singeric, the brother of Sarus himself, was seated on the Gothic throne. The first act of his reign was the inhuman murder of the six children of Adolphus, the issue of a former marriage, whom he tore, without pity, from the feeble arms of a venerable bishop. The unfortunate Placidia, instead of the respectful compassion which she might have excited in the most savage breasts, was treated with cruel and wanton insult. The daughter of the emperor Theodosius, confounded among a crowd of vulgar captives, was compelled to march on foot above twelve miles, before the horse of a Barbarian, the assassin of a husband whom Placidia loved and lamented. restore A. D. 415 But Placidia soon obtained the pleasure of re- The Goths venge; and the view of her ignominious sufferings conquer and might rouse an indignant people against the tyrant, Spain. who was assassinated on the seventh day of his usurpa--418. tion. After the death of Singeric, the free choice of the nation bestowed the Gothic sceptre on Wallia, whose warlike and ambitious temper appeared, in the beginning of his reign, extremely hostile to the republic. He marched in arms, from Barcelona to the XXV. 、 CHAP. shores of the Atlantic Ocean, which the ancients revered and dreaded as the boundary of the world. But when he reached the southern promontory of Spain, and, from the rock now covered by the fortress of Gibraltar, contemplated the neighbouring and fertile coast of Africa, Wallia resumed the designs of conquest, which had been interrupted by the death of Alaric. The winds and waves again disappointed the enterprise of the Goths; and the minds of a superstitious people were deeply affected by the repeated disasters of storms and shipwrecks. In this disposition, the successor of Adolphus no longer refused to listen to a Roman ambassador, whose proposals were enforced by the real, or supposed, approach of a numerous army, under the conduct of the brave Constantius. A solemn treaty was stipulated and observed: Placidia was honourably restored to her brother; six hundred thousand measures of wheat were delivered to the hungry Goths; and Wallia engaged to draw his sword in the service of the empire. A bloody war was instantly excited among the Barbarians of Spain; and the contending princes are said to have addressed their letters, their ambassadors, and their hostages, to the throne of the Western emperor, exhorting him to remain a tranquil spectator of their contest; the events of which must be favourable to the Romans, by the mutual slaughter of their common enemies. The Spanish war was obstinately supported, during three campaigns, with desperate valour, and various success; and the martial achievements of Wallia diffused through the empire the superior renown of the Gothic hero. He exterminated the Silingi, who had irretrievably ruined the elegant plenty of the province of Boetica. He slew, in battle, the king of the Alani; and the remains of those Scythian wanderers, who escaped from the field, instead of choosing a new leader, humbly |