Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/281

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIKE 261 The fears of Honorius were not without foundation, nor were The revo- his precautions without effect. While Italy rejoiced in her scytSfa" deliverance from the Goths, a furious tempest was excited among the nations of Germany, who yielded to the irresistible impulse that appears to have been gradually communicated from the eastern extremity of the continent of Asia. The Chinese annals, as they have been interpreted by the learned industry of the present age, may be usefully applied to reveal the secret and remote causes of the fall of the Roman empire. The extensive territory to the north of the great wall was possessed, after the flight of the Huns, by the victorious Sien-pi, who were sometimes broken into independent tribes, and re-united under a supreme chief; till at length, styling them- selves Topa, or masters of the earth, they acquired a more solid consistence and a more formidable power. The Topa soon compelled the pastoral nations of the eastern desert to acknowledge the superiority of their arms ; they invaded China in a period of weakness and intestine discord ; and these fortunate Tartars, adopting the laws and manners of the van- quished people, founded an Imperial dynasty, which reigned near one hundred and sixty years over the northern provinces of the monarch}^. Some generations before they ascended the [c ad. 300?] throne of China one of the Topa princes had enlisted in his cavalry a slave of the name of Moko, renowned for his valour ; [Mnkkum] but who was tempted by the fear of punishment to desert his standard and to range the desert at the head of an hundred followers. This gang of robbers and outlaws swelled into a camp, a tribe, a nun":"ov.s people, distinguished by the appel- lation of Geougeit ; and their hereditar}' chieftains, the posterity [Jeujen] of Moko, the slave, assumed their rank among the Scythian monarchs. The youth of Toulun, the greatest of his descend- ^|^? °^ ants, was exercised by those misfortunes which are the school of heroes. He bravely struggled with adversity, broke the [a^^- 3M] imperious yoke of the Topa, and became the legislator of his nation and the conqueror of Tartary. His troops were dis- tributed into regular bands of an hundred and of a thousand men ; cowards were stoned to death ; the most splendid honours Avere proposed as the reward of valour : and Toulun, who had knowledge enough to despise the learning of China, adopted only such arts and institutions as were favourable to the mili- tary spirit of his government. His tents, which he removed in the winter season to a more southern latitude, were pitched during the summer on the fruitful banks of the Selinga. His