Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/272

 252 THE DECLINE AND FALL pencled on the rivers of Italy, the Adige, the Mincius, the OgUo, and the Adduu ; which, in the winter or spring, by the fall of rains, or by the melting of the snows, are commonly swelled into broad and impetuous torrents. 2'' But the season happened to be remarkably dry ; and the Goths could traverse, without impediment, the wide and stony beds, whose centre was faintly marked by the course of a shallow stream. The bridge and passage of the Addua were secured by a strong detachment of the Gothic army ; and, as Alaric approached the walls, or rather the suburbs, of Milan, he enjoyed the proud satisfaction of seeing the emperor of the Romans fly before him. Honorius, accompanied by a feeble train of states- men and eunuchs, hastily retreated towards the Alps, with a design of securing his person in the city of Aries, which had often been the royal residence of his predecessors. But Honorius ^^ had scarcely passed the Po, before he was over- taken by the speed of the Gothic cavalry ; ^^ since the urgency of the danger compelled him to seek a temporary shelter within [Tanaro] the fortification of Asta, a town of Liguria or Piemont, situate on the banks of the Tanarus. ^^ The siege of an obscure place, which contained so rich a prize and seemed incapable of a long resistance, was instantly formed and indefatigably pressed by the king of the Goths ; and the bold declaration, which the emperor might afterwards make, that his breast had never been susceptible of fear, did not probably obtain much credit, even in his ov/n court.^^ In the last and almost hopeless extremity, after the Barbarians had already proposed the indignity of a capitulation, the Imperial captive was suddenly relieved by the fame, the approach, and at length the presence of the hero 3" Every traveller must recollect the face of Lombardy (see Fontenelle, torn. v. p. 279), which is often tormented by the capricious and irregular abundance of waters. The Austrians, before Genoa, were incamped in the dry bed of the Polcevera.  Ne sareblje  (says Muratori) " mai passato per niente a que' buoni Alemanni, che quel picciolo torrente potesse, per cosi dire, in un instante cangiarsi in un terribil gigante " (Annal. d'ltalia, torn. xvi. p. 443. Milan, 1753, 8vo edit.). Yet the flight is marked by the pursuit ; and my idea of the Gothic war is justified by the Italian critics, Sigonius (tom. L P. ii. p. 369, de Imp. Occident, 1. x.) and Muratori (Annali d'ltalia, tom. iv. p. 45). ^9 One of the roads m.iy be traced in the Itineraries (p. 98, 288, 294, with Wesseling's notes). Asta lay some miles on the right hand. •'"Asta, or Asti, a Roman colony, is now the capital of a pleasant country, which, in the sixteenth century, devolved to the dukes of Savoy (Leandro .lberti, Descrizzione d'ltalia, p. 382). [The town meant by Claudian is Milan, see App. 17.! year at Rome, five hundred miles from the scene of danger (vi. Cons. Hon. 449).
 * Claudian does not clearly answer our question, Where was Honorius himself?
 * i Nee me timor impulit ullus. He might hold this proud language the next