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many, and the Alans, a people of Sarmatia or Po land; and having paffed the Rhine, they fpread themfelves through the Roman provinces of Gaul. They facked the towns, they plundered the country, they put to death many Chriftians, and carried defolation and flaughter wherever they went. These were foon followed by another fwarm from Germany, compofed of Burgundions, Franks, Saxons, and others: fo that the whole country of Gaul or France was overspread with barbarians. St. Jerom, who lived at that time, thus describes these irruptions: "A multitude of barbarous nations have poffeffed themselves of all Gaul. The Quadi, the Vandals, the Sarmatians, the Alans, the Gepidi, the Heruli, the Saxons, the Burgundions, the Alemanni, and the Pannonians, have laid waste the whole country between the Alps and the Pyrenees, between the ocean and the Rhine." Epift. xi. ad. Ager. He goes on with fpecifying the deplorable devastations and maffacres committed by this fhoal of favages. The author of a poem on providence, who bore a share in these calamities, fays that, "if the ocean itself had broke through its bounds and overflowed all Gaul, it could not have done more mifchief." It appears then that the people of the western part of the empire were compelled to fwallow a full draught of wormwood, and would have been glad to purchase two pounds of wheat for a Roman penny, or at an exceffive price.

Alaric, after his retreat, as we have feen into Dalmatia, agreed to affift the emperor Honorius with his troops against the enemies of Rome: but when the work was done, he could not obtain from the emperor the reward he thought due for his fervices. Upon this difappointment he in 408 invaded Italy at the head of his army. It was upon this occafion, as the hiftorians Socrates and Sozomen relate, that a holy

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ed to fee the facking of Rome by the fame Alaric,
ich happened within a few years after.
n the year 406 Radagaifus, another Gothic
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of Goths and other barbarous people inhabitthe north fide of the Rhine and Danube, (fome four hundred thousand men) and advanced into y under pretence of revenging the flaughter of ir countrymen made at Pollentia and Verona. Italy and Rome itself were thrown into the utft confternation. The heathens, who were still merous in the city, though their idols had been En away by the emperor's order in 399, raised an oar, faying, that Radagaifus would certainly vail, on account of his devotion to the gods, Rome had loft their protection by neglecting ir worship. St. Auftin, who was then at Carge, was informed of these things, and mentions pagans in the city of Rome making their comnt in the following manner: "We offer no more ifices to the gods, while Radagaifus facrifices to m every day. What can we then expect, but to into the hands of this barbarous, but religious ce?" De civ. Dei. lib. 5. c. 23. To thefe comnts they added blafphemies against the name of ift. That great army advanced as far as Florence,

re Stilico, at the head of the Roman legions, afd by a body of Huns and Alans, fell fuddenly n it and entirely routed it. Radagaifus himself foon after taken by the Romans and put to death, his whole army perished. Thus almighty God ld not fuffer, as St. Auftin remarks, that a pagan ce fhould be the executor of his juftice, left the atrous people of Rome fhould afcribe his fuccefs he false gods he adored.

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many, and the Alans, a people of Sarmatia or Po land; and having paffed the Rhine, they fpread themfelves through the Roman provinces of Gaul. They facked the towns, they plundered the country, they put to death many Chriftians, and carried defolation and flaughter wherever they went. These were foon followed by another fwarm from Germany, compofed of Burgundions, Franks, Saxons, and others: fo that the whole country of Gaul or France was overfpread with barbarians. St. Jerom, who lived at that time, thus describes thefe irruptions: "A multitude of barbarous nations have poffeffed themselves of all Gaul. The Quadi, the Vandals, the Sarmatians, the Alans, the Gepidi, the Heruli, the Saxons, the Burgundions, the Alemanni, and the Pannonians, have laid waste the whole country between the Alps and the Pyrenees, between the ocean and the Rhine." Epift. xi. ad. Ager. He goes on with spe➡ cifying the deplorable devaftations and maffacres committed by this fhoal of favages. The author of a poem on providence, who bore a share in these calamities, fays that, "if the ocean itself had broke through its bounds and overflowed all Gaul, it could not have done more mifchief." It appears then that the people of the western part of the empire were compelled to fwallow a full draught of wormwood, and would have been glad to purchase two pounds of wheat for a Roman penny, or at an exceffive price.

Alaric, after his retreat, as we have seen into Dalmatia, agreed to affift the emperor Honorius with his troops against the enemies of Rome: but when the work was done, he could not obtain from the emperor the reward he thought due for his fervices. Upon this difappointment he in 408 invaded Italy at the head of his army. It was upon this occafion, as the hiftorians Socrates and Sozomen relate, that a

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* By the Pannonians St. Jerom feems to understand the Huns,

holy hermit met him, and exhorted him to fpare Rome, and not bring upon himfelf the guilt of fo much blood and deftruction; to whom Alaric made this answer: "I conftantly feel an impulfe within me, that gives me no reft, but preffes me to go and deftroy that city." He pillaged the country as he went, pitched his camp in the neighbourhood of Rome, and befieged it. This occafioned a famine to rage in that city; the famine gave birth to a plague which carried off numbers of people. In this extremity, the fenate of Rome offered him a large fum of money with fuch other advantageous proposals, that he thought fit to defift from his enterprize, and retired into Tuscany.

During these times inexpreffible were the devaf tations and barbarities committed in different parts of the empire by numerous invaders, the northern wolves, as St. Jerom styles them. Thus fpeaks he: "It fhocks me to relate the miseries of our present times. For twenty years paft and more, from Conftantinople to the Julian Alps, we fee the Roman blood every day fpilt. Scythia, Thracia, Macedonia, Dardania, Dacia, Theffalonica, Achaia, Epirus, Dalmatia, and all the Pannonias, are plundered and laid wafte by the Goths, the Sarmatians, the Quadi, the Alans, the Huns, the Vandals, and the Marcomans. How many matrons, virgins, and perfons of noble birth have been abufed by these beafts! The bishops are carried into captivity, the priefts and others of the clergy murdered. The churches are thrown down, horfes tied to the altars of Chrift, and the afhes of the martyrs are dug up from their tombs. Every where groans and lamentations; every where death appears in various fhapes. The whole Roman empire is tumbling." Epift. 3. ad Heliod.

In 409, the next year after his retiring into Tufcany, Alaric impatient that fome articles of the treaty

made with him were not fulfilled, complained to Honorius, but met with a repulfe. Enraged at this ufage, he affembled his troops and marched towards Rome. The emperor, to oppose him, took into pay ten thoufand Huns, and fent Valens with fix thoufand men to reinforce the garrifon of Rome: but this officer fell into an ambush laid for him, and all his men were either killed or taken. Alaric advanced to Rome, and laid close fiege to it.

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And now the time approached, which the Almighty had fixed, for delivering that city into the hands of Alaric. "The day of deftruction is at hand, and the time makes hafte to come," Deut. xxxii. 35. The pagans were ftill numerous there, and averse to Chriftiany. May we not then interrupt, for a moment, the thread of our narrative, and confider the Almighty as making the fame challenge to thefe gans, which he formerly did to those who obftructed the establishment of the Jews? "Where are your gods, in whom you truft?Let them arife and help you, and protect you in your distress, See yẹ, that I alone am, and there is no other God befides me. If I fhall whet my fword as the lightning, and my hand take hold on judgment, I will return vengeance on my enemies and repay them that hate me. I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my fword fhall devour flesh." Deuteron. xxxii. 37, &c.

While Alaric lay before Rome, Heraclian, governor of Africa for the emperor Honorius, being informed of the fiege, forbade all provifions being fent from Africa to the city of Rome, which used to be chiefly fupplied from thence. This caufed a famine, which raged to a degree that had never been felt before. "Rome," fays St. Jerom, "perished by famine before it perished by the fword. Such was the force of hunger, that they fed upon the most execrable meats; the people tore one another to pieces to devour their flesh, and mothers

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