Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/268

 248 THE DECLINE AND FALL sometimes disappointed the efforts of their courage.-^ The birtli of Alaric, the glory of his past exploits, and the confidence in his futm'e designs, insensibly united the body of the nation under his victorious standard ; and with the unanimous consent of the Barbarian chieftains, the master-general of Illyricum was elev'^ated, according to ancient custom, on a shield, and solemnly and king of proclaimed king of the Visigoths.^'^ Armed with this double gotiis'^' power, seated on the verge of the two empires, he alternately sold his deceitful pi'omises to the courts of Arcadius and Honorius ; -^ till he declared and executed his resolution of invading the dominions of the West. The provinces of Europe which belonged to the Eastern emperor were already exhausted ; those of Asia were inaccessible ; and the strength of Constanti- nople had resisted his attack. But he was tempted by the fame, the beauty, the wealth of Italy, which he had twice visited ; and he secretly aspired to plant the Gothic standard on the walls of Rome, and to enrich his arniy with the accumulated spoils of three hundred triumphs.-^ He invades The Scarcity of facts -^ and the uncertainty of dates -' oppose i^isa 22 qui foedera rumpit Ditatur : qui servat, eget : vastator Achiva: Gentis, et Epirum nuper populatus inultani Praesidet Illyrico ; jam, quos obsedit, amicos Ingieditur niuros ; illis responsa daturus Quorum conjugibus potitur natosque peremit. Claudian in Eutrop. 1. ii. 212. Alaric applauds his own policy (de Bell. Getic. 533-543) in the use which he had made of this Illyrian jurisdiction. [The precise title is uncertain ; but Master-General is probable. From de B. G., 534, duuin, Mr. Hodgkin suggests Du.x Dacias ripensis et Moesiae primas.] ■•" Jornandes, c. 29, p. 651. The Gothic historian adds, with unusual spirit, Cum suis deliberans suasit sue labore qucerere regna, quam alienis per otium subjacere. [It is much more probable that he was proclaimed king {tliiudans) in 395 A.D., after the death of Theodosius ; see Hodgkin, i. 653. Isidore gives the date 382, which Clinton accepts.] ■■^ Discors odiisque anceps civibus orbis Non sua vis tutata diu, dum foedera fallax Ludit, et alternse perjuria venditat aulae. Claudian de Bell. Get. , 565. 25Alpibus Italioe ruptis penetrabis ad Urbem. This authentic prediction was announced by Alaric, or at least by Claudian (de Bell. Getico, 547), seven years before the event. But, as it was not accomplished within the term which has been rashly fixed, the interpreters escaped through an ambiguous meaning. [For Claudian's acrostich in this passage, see Appendix 16.] 26 Our best materials are 970 verses of Claudian, in the pos_m on the Getic war, and the beginning of that which celebrates the sixth consulship of Honorius. Zosimus is totally silent ; and we are reduced to such scraps, or rather crumbs, as we can pick from Orosius and the Chronicles. 27 Notwithstanding the gross errors of Jornandes, who confounds the Italian wars of Alaric (c. 29), his date of the consulship of Stilicho and Aurelian (a.d. 400) is firm and respectable. It is certain from Claudian (Tillemont, Hist, des Emp. torn. V. p. 804) that the battle of Pollentia was fought A.d. 403; but we cannot easily fill the interval. [The right date is 402 ; see Appendix 17. j