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luxury, its rulers at Rome. Under such circumstances as these a fall must have come sooner or later; and so we find that even under the excellent government of the Antonines the decay of the imperial system had fully commenced. On their removal, and on the accession of such princes as Commodus, Caracalla and Elagabalus, the decay was much more rapid, till at length commerce, the true index of the real state of a nation, failed to recover its former position, even with the willing and active support of Alexander Severus. Nor was it possible that the corruption of Rome throughout its whole administration could be long kept a secret. On her distant and outlying provinces she had jealous enemies, burning to avenge past injuries and insults, and eagerly awaiting the opportunity of finding or making an entrance through her armour.

Already in the reign of Caracalla, the Goths had begun to move southwards from their earliest known haunts in south Prussia and Poland, but their advance was for a time checked by that emperor. This was their first attempt at marching in the direction of Rome. A little later, in the reign of Philippus, they seized a great part of the Roman province of Dacia (Hungary), and from this time their attacks,