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 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 451 battering engines^ and the inhabitants had endured the last extremities of famine, when count Litoi'ius, approaching in silence, and directing each horseman to carry behind him two sacks of flour, cut his way through the entrenchments of the besiegers. The siege was immediately raised ; and the more decisive victory, which is ascribed to the personal conduct of Aetius himself, was marked with the blood of eight thousand Goths. But in the absence of the patrician, who was hastily summoned to Italy by some public or private interest, count Litorius succeeded to the command ; and his presumption soon discovered that far different talents are required to lead a wing of cavalry, or to direct the operations of an important war. At the head of an army of Huns, he rashly advanced to the gates of Toulouse, full of careless contempt for an enemy whom his [Toioea misfortunes had rendered pi'udent and his situation made desperate. The predictions of the augurs had inspired Litorius with the profane confidence that he should enter the Gothic capital in triumph ; and the trust which he reposed in his Pagan allies encouraged him to reject the fair conditions of peace, which were repeatedly proposed by the bishops in the name of Theodoric. The king of the Goths exhibited in his disti*ess the edifying contrast of Christian piety and moderation ; nor did lie lay aside his sackcloth and ashes till he was prepared to arm for the combat. His soldiers, animated with martial and religious enthusiasm, assaulted the camp of Litorius. The conflict was obstinate ; the slaughter was mutual. The Roman general, after a total defeat, which could be imputed only to his unskil- ful rashness, was actually led through the streets of Toulouse, not in his own, but in a hostile triumph ; and the misery which he experienced, in a long and ignominious captivity, excited the compassion of the Barbarians themselves.^'^ Such a loss, in a countiy whose spirit and finances were long since exhausted, could not easily be repaired ; and the Goths, assuming, in their turn, the sentiments of ambition and revenge, would have planted their victorious standards on the banks of the Rhone, if the presence of Aetius had not restored strength and disci- within the limits of that province : a cohort was stationed at Grenoble [Gratiano- polis] in Dauphin^ ; and Ebredunum, or Iverdun, sheltered a fleet of small vessels, which commanded the lake of Neufchatel. See Valesius, Notit. Galliarum, p. 503. D'Anville, Notice de I'Ancienne Gaule, p. 284, 579. 12 Salvian has attempted to explain the moral government of the Deity ; a task which may be readily performed by supposing that the calamities of the wicked s.re Judgments, and those of the righteous, triah.