Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/80

 44 Readings in European History to restrain him. 1 He even led away prisoner from Rome Placidia, the sister of Honorius, and daughter of Emperor Theodosius by his second wife. [Later he married Placidia and strengthened the Gothic cause by this royal alliance. He then moved on to Gaul, where he engaged in a struggle with the other barbarians.] The deep impression which the influx of barbarians and the sack of Rome made upon one of the most dis- tinguished scholars of the time is apparent from several passages in the writings of St. Jerome (d. A.D. 420). Nations innumerable and most savage have invaded all Gaul. The vhole region between the Alps and the Pyre- nees, the ocean and the Rhine, has been devastated by the Quadi, the Vandals, the Sarmati, the Alani, the Gepidae, the hostile Heruli, the Saxons, the Burgundians, the Ale- manni and the Pannonians. O wretched Empire ! Mayence, formerly so noble a city, has been taken and ruined, and in the church many thousands of men have been massacred. Worms has been destroyed after a long siege. Rheims, that powerful city, Amiens, Arras, Speyer, Strasburg, 2 all have seen their citizens led away captive into Germany. Aquitaine and the provinces of Lyons and Narbonne, all save a few towns, have been depopulated; and these the sword threatens without, while hunger ravages within. I cannot speak with- out tears of Toulouse, which the merits of the holy Bishop Exuperius have prevailed so far to save from destruction. Spain, even, is in daily terror lest it perish, remembering the invasion of the Cimbri ; and whatsoever the other provinces have suffered once, they continue to surfer in their fear. 1 This alleged second sack of Rome is probably a gross exaggeration, as will appear below. Jordanes is our sole authority for the strange burial of Alaric, and there is no particular reason to suppose that he is any nearer the truth in this matter than in the many instances where he can be shown to be in contradiction with more trustworthy writers. 2 The names of modern cities here used are not in all cases exact equivalents for the regions mentioned by Jerome.