XXV. evacuated the city at the end of six days, but Rome CHAP. remained above nine months in the possession of the Imperialists; and every hour was stained by some atrocious act of cruelty, lust, and rapine. The authority of Alaric preserved some order and moderation among the ferocious multitude, which acknowledged him for their leader and king: but the constable of Bourbon had gloriously fallen in the attack of the walls; and the death of the general removed every restraint of discipline, from an army which consisted of three independent nations, the Italians, the Spaniards, and the Germans. In the beginning of the sixteenth century, the manners of Italy exhibited a remarkable scene of the depravity of mankind. They united the sanguinary crimes that prevail in an unsettled state of society, with the polished vices that spring from the abuse of art and luxury; and the loose adventurers, who had violated every prejudice of patriotism and superstition to assault the palace of the Roman pontiff, must deserve to be considered as the most profligate of the Italians. At the same æra, the Spaniards were the terror both of the Old and New World: but their high-spirited valour was disgraced by gloomy pride, rapacious avarice, and unrelenting cruelty. Indefatigable in the pursuit of fame and riches, they had improved, by repeated practice, the most exquisite and effectual methods of torturing their prisoners. evacuates The retreat of the victorious Goths, who evacuated Alaric Rome on the sixth day, might be the result of pru- Rome, and dence; but it was not surely the effect of fear. At ravages vol. ii. p. 283; or consult the Annali d'Italia of the learned Muratori, tom. xiv. p. 230-244, octavo edition. If he is desirous of examining the originals, he may have recourse to the eighteenth book of the great, but unfinished, history of Guiccardini. But the account which most truly deserves the name of authentic and original is a little book, intitled Il Sacco di Roma, composed, within less than a month after an assault of the city, by the brother of the historian Guicciardini, who appears to have been an able magistrate, and a dispassionate writer. Italy, XXV. CHAP. the head of an army, encumbered with rich and weighty spoils, their intrepid leader advanced along the Appian way into the southern provinces of Italy, destroying whatever dared to oppose his passage, and contenting himself with the plunder of the unresistPossession ing country. Above four years elapsed from the the Goths, successful invasion of Italy by the arms of Alaric, to A.D,408, the voluntary retreat of the Goths under the conduct of Italy by -412. of his successor Adolphus; and, during the whole time, they reigned without control over a country, which, in the opinion of the ancients, had united all the various excellencies of nature and art. The prosperity, indeed, which Italy had attained in the auspicious age of the Antonines, had gradually declined with the decline of the empire. The fruits of a long peace perished under the rude grasp of the Barbarians; and they themselves were incapable of tasting the more elegant refinements of luxury, which had been prepared for the use of the soft and polished Italians. Each soldier, however, claimed an ample portion of the substantial plenty, the corn and cattle, oil and wine, that was daily collected, and consumed, in the Gothic camp; and the principal warriors insulted the villas, and gardens, once inhabited by Lucullus and Cicero, along the beauteous coast of Campania. Their trembling captives, the sons and daughters of Roman senators, presented, in goblets of gold and gems, large draughts of Falernian wine, to the haughty victors; who stretched their huge limbs under the shade of plane-trees, artificially disposed to exclude the scorching rays, and to admit the genial warmth, of the sun. These delights were enhanced by the memory of past hardships: the comparison of their native soil, the bleak and barren hills of Scythia, and the frozen banks of the Elbe, and Danube, added new charms to the felicity of the Italian climate. XXV. Alaric, Whether fame, or conquest, or riches, were the CHAP. object of Alaric, he pursued that object with an indefatigable ardour, which could neither be quelled Death of by adversity, nor satiated by success. No sooner A. D. 410. had he reached the extreme land of Italy, than he was attracted by the neighbouring prospect of a fertile and peaceful island. Yet even the possession of Sicily he considered only as an intermediate step to the important expedition, which he already meditated against the continent of Africa. The straits of Rhegium and Messina* are twelve miles in length, and, in the narrowest passage, about one mile and a half broad; and the fabulous monsters of the deep, the rocks of Scylla, and the whirlpool of Charybdis, could terrify none but the most timid and unskilful mariners. Yet as soon as the first division of the Goths had embarked, a sudden tempest arose, which sunk, or scattered, many of the transports; their courage was daunted by the terrors of a new element; and the whole design was defeated by the premature death of Alaric, which fixed, after a short illness, the fatal term of his conquests. The ferocious character of the Barbarians was displayed, in the funeral of a hero, whose valour, and fortune, they celebrated with mournful applause. By the labour of a captive multitude, they forcibly diverted the course of the Busentinus, a small river that washes the walls of Consentia. The royal sepulchre, adorned with the splendid spoils, and trophies, of Rome, was constructed in the vacant bed; the waters were then restored to their natural channel; and the secret spot, where the remains of Alaric had been deposited, was for ever concealed by the inhuman massacre of *For the perfect description of the Straits of Messina, Scylla, Charybdis, &c. see Cluverius (Ital. Antiq. 1. iv. p. 1293, and Sicilia Antiq. 1. i. p. 60-76), who had diligently studied the ancients, and surveyed with a curious eye the actual face of the country. CHAP. the prisoners, who had been employed to execute XXV. the work*. Adolphus, king of the cludes a The personal animosities, and hereditary feuds, of Goths, con- the Barbarians, were suspended by the strong nepeace with cessity of their affairs; and the brave Adolphus, the empire, the brother-in-law of the deceased monarch, was into Gaul. unanimously elected to succeed to his throne. The A. D. 412. character and political system of the new king of the and marches Goths may be best understood from his own conversation with an illustrious citizen of Narbonne ; who afterwards, in a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, related it to St. Jerom, in the presence of the historian Orosius. "In the full confidence of valour "and victory, I once aspired (said Adolphus) to "change the face of the universe; to obliterate the name of Rome; to erect on its ruins the dominion "of the Goths; and to acquire, like Augustus, the "immortal fame of the founder of a new empire. "By repeated experiments, I was gradually con"vinced, that laws are essentially necessary to main"tain and regulate a well-constituted state; and "that the fierce untractable humour of the Goths "was incapable of bearing the salutary yoke of laws, "and civil government. From that moment I pro'posed to myself a different object of glory and "ambition; and it is now my sincere wish, that the "gratitude of future ages should acknowledge the "merit of a stranger, who employed the sword of "the Goths, not to subvert, but to restore and "maintain, the prosperity of the Roman empire." With these pacific views, the successor of Alaric suspended the operations of war; and seriously negotiated with the Imperial court a treaty of friendship and alliance. It was the interest of the ministers Jornandes, de Reb. Get. c. 30. p. 654. XXV. of Honorius, who were now released from the obliga- CHAP. tion of their extravagant oath, to deliver Italy from the intolerable weight of the Gothic powers; and they readily accepted their service against the tyrants and Barbarians who infested the provinces beyond the Alps. Adolphus, assuming the character of a Roman general, directed his march from the extremity of Campania to the southern provinces of Gaul. His troops, either by force or agreement, immediately occupied the cities of Narbonne, Thoulouse, and Bourdeaux; and though they were repulsed by Count Boniface from the walls of Marseilles, they soon extended their quarters from the Mediterranean to the ocean. The oppressed provincials might exclaim, that the miserable remnant, which the enemy had spared, was cruelly ravished by their pretended allies; yet some specious colours were not wanting to palliate, or justify, the violence of the Goths. The cities of Gaul, which they attacked, might perhaps be considered as in a state of rebellion against the government of Honorius: the articles of the treaty, or the secret instructions of the court, might sometimes be alleged in favour of the seeming usurpations of Adolphus; and the guilt of any irregular, unsuccessful act of hostility, might always be imputed, with an appearance of truth, tỏ the ungovernable spirit of a Barbarian host, impatient of peace or discipline. The luxury of Italy had been less effectual to soften the temper, than to relax the courage, of the Goths; and they had imbibed the vices, without imitating the arts and institutions, of civilised society*. The professions of Adolphus were probably sin- His mar riage with Placidia, *The retreat of the Goths from Italy, and their first transactions in Gaul, are A. D. 414. dark and doubtful. I have derived much assistance from Mascou (Hist. of the ancient Germans, 1. viii. c. 29. 35, 36, 37), who has illustrated, and connected, the broken chronicles and fragments of the times. |