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 314 THE DECLINE AND FALL with the possession of Noricum : an exhausted and impoverished country, perpetually exposed to the inroads of the Barbarians of Germany .^^ But the hopes of peace were disappointed by the weak olistinacy, or interested views, of the minister Olympius. 'ithut listening to the salutarj' remonstrances of the senate, he dismissed their ambassadors under the conduct of a military escort, too numerous for a retinue of honour and too feeble for an army of defence. Six thousand Dalmatians, the flower of the Imperial legions, were ordered to march from Ravenna to Rome, through an open country, which was occu- pied by the formidable myriads of the Barbarians. These brave legionaries, encompassed and betrayed, fell a sacrifice to ministerial folh' ; their general, Valens, with an hundred soldiers, escaped from the field of battle ; and one of the ambassadors, who could no longer claim the protection of the law of nations, was obliged to purchase his freedom with a ransom of thirty thousand pieces of gold. Yet Alaric, instead of resenting this act of impotent hostility, immediately renewed his proposals of peace ; and the second embassy of the Roman senate, which derived weight and dignity from the presence of Innocent, bishop of the city, was guarded from the dangers of the road by a detachment of Gothic soldiers. ^^ Change and Olympius *''^ might havc continued to insult the just resent- muSifltera" ° mcnt of a people who loudly accused him as the author of the public calamities ; but his power was undermined by the secret intrigues of the palace. The favourite eunuchs transfeiTed the government of Honorius and the empire to Jovius, the Praetorian praefect : an unworthy servant, who did not atone by the merit of personal attachment for the errors and misfortunes of his administration. The exile or escape of the guilty Olympius reserved him for more vicissitudes of fortune : he experienced the adventures of an obscure and wandering life ; he again rose to power ; he fell a second time into disgrace ; his ears were cut off ; he expired under the lash ; and his ignominious death afforded a grateful spectacle to the fi-iends of Stilicho. After the removal of Olympius, whose character was deeply tainted with religious fanaticism, the Pagans and heretics were delivered !«Zosimus, 1. V. p. 367, 368, 369 [c. 48. See below, note 90]. »'■' Zosimus, 1. V. p. 360, 361, 392 [45]. The bishop, by remaining at Ravenna, escaped the impending calamities of the city. Orosius, 1. vii. 0. 39, p. 573. S6 For the adventures of Olympius and his successors iii the ministry, see Zosimus, 1. V. p. 363, 365, 366 [45 sgf.] and Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 180, jSj [fr. 8, 13].