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 264 THE DECLINE AND FALL such was the feeble and exhausted state of the empire that it was impossible to restore the fortifications of the Danube, or to prevent, by a vigorous effort, the invasion of the Germans.'^ The hopes of the vigilant minister of Honorius were confined to the defence of Italy. He once more abandoned the provinces, re- called the troops, pressed the new levies, which were rigorously exacted and pusillanimously eluded, employed the most effica- cious means to arrest, or allure, the deserters, and offered the gift of freedom, and of two pieces of gold, to all the slaves who would enlist.'^ By these efforts he painfully collected, from the sub- jects of a great empire, an army of thirty or forty thousand men, which, in the days of Scipio or Camillus, would have been in- stantly furnished by the free citizens of the territory of Rome."^ The thirty legions of Stilicho were reinforced by a large body of Barbarian auxiliaries ; the faithful Alani were personally attached to his service ; and the troops of Huns and of Goths, who [uidin] marched under the banners of their native princes, Huldin and Sarus, were animated by interest and resentment to oppose the ambition of Radagaisus. The king of the confederate Germans passed, without resistance, the Alps, the Po, and the Apennine, leaving on one hand the inaccessible palace of Honorius, securely buried among the marslies of Ravenna, and, on the other, the camp of Stilicho, who had fixed his headquarters at Ticinum, or Pavia, but who seems to have avoided a decisive battle, till he had assembled his distant forces. Many cities of Italy were Besieges pillaged, or destroyed, and the siege of Florence ~'^ by Radagai- sus is one of the earliest events in the history of that celebrated '■'* Zosimus (1. V. p. 331 [c. 26]) transports the war and the victory of Stilicho beyond the Danube. A strange error, which is awkwardly and imperfectly cured hv reading-Api/of for'to'Tpor (Tillemont, Hist, des Emp. torn. v. p. 807). In good policy, we must use the service of Zosimus, without esteeming or trusting him. [But see Appendi.x 18.] ''•'Codex Theodos. 1. vii. tit. xiii. leg. 16. The date of this law (a.D. 406, 18th May) satisfies me, as it had done Godefroy (torn. ii. p. 387), of the true year of the invasion of Radagaisus. Tillemont, Pagi, and Muratori prefer the preceding year; but they are bound, by certain obligations of civility .".nd respect, to St. Paulinus of Nola. [a.D. 405 is the true date, given by our best authority, Prosper.] ^s Soon after Rome had been taken by the Gauls, the senate, on a sudden emer- gency, armed ten legions, 3000 horse, and 42,000 foot ; a force which the city could not have sent forth under Augustus (Livy, vii. 25). This declaration may puzzle an antiquary, but it is clearly explained by Jvlontesquieu. ™ Machiavel has explained, at least as a philosopher, the origin of Florence, which insensibly descended, for the benefit of trade, from the rock of F^sulas to the banks of the Arno (Istoria Fiorentina, torn. i. 1. ii. p. 36, Londra, 1747). The Triumvirs sent a colony to Florence, which, under Tiberius (Tacit. Annal. i. 79), deserved the reputation and name of a flourishing city. See Cluver. Ital. Antiq. torn. i. p. 507, &c. Florence