e it was finally subdued by the Turks. The history of the Greek
empire properly belongs to the mediaeval ages. It is our object to trace
the final fall of the Western empire.

(M1166) Under Honorius, the Visigoths, ruled by Alaric, appear in history
as a great and warlike people. Stilicho, the general of Honorius,
encountered them unsuccessfully in two campaigns, in Macedonia and
Thessaly, and the degenerate cities of Greece purchased their preservation
at an enormous ransom. In the year 402, Alaric crossed the Alps, and
Honorius fled to the marshes of Ravenna, where, protected by the shallow
sea, the Western emperors a long time resided. Stilicho gained, however, a
great victory over the Goths at Pollentia, near Turin, and arrested the
march of Alaric upon Rome. The defeated Goth rose, however, superior to
this defeat, celebrated by the poet Claudian, as the greatest victory
which Rome had ever achieved. He escaped with the main body of his
cavalry, broke through the passes of the Apennines, spread devastation on
the fruitful fields of Tuscany, resolved to risk another battle for the
great prize he aimed to secure, even imperial Rome. But Stilicho purchased
the retreat of the Goths by a present of forty thousand pounds of gold.
The departure of Alaric from Italy, which he had ravaged, was regarded by
the Roman people as a complete and final deliverance, and they abandoned
themselves to absurd rejoicings and gladiatoral shows.

(M1167) But scarcely was Italy delivered from the Goths before an
irruption of Vandals, Suevi, and Burgundians, under the command of
Rodogast, or Rhadagast, two hundred thousand in number, issued from the
coast of the Baltic, crossed the Vistula, the Alps, and the Apennines,
ravaged the northern cities of Italy, and laid siege to Florence. The
victor of Pollentia appeared for the rescue with the last army which the
empire could raise, surrounded the enemy with strong intrenchments, and
forced them to retire. Stilicho again delivered Italy, but one hundred
thousand barbarians remained in arms between the Alps and the Apennines,
who crossed into Gaul, then the most cultivated of the Western provinces,
and completely devastated its fields, and villas, and cities. Mentz was
destroyed; Worms fell, after an obstinate siege; Strasburg, Spires,
Rheims, Tournay, Arras, and Amiens, all fell under the German yoke, and
Gaul was finally separated from the empire. The Vandals, Sueves, and
Alans, passed into Sp