hould go against
him, he might reach Theodosius and remain with him. For Arcadius had
already died long before, and his son Theodosius, still a very young
child,[18] held the power of the East. [408-450 A.D.] But while Honorius
was thus anxiously awaiting the outcome of these events and tossed amid
the billows of uncertain fortune, it so chanced that some wonderful
pieces of good fortune befell him. For God is accustomed to succour
those who are neither clever nor able to devise anything of themselves,
and to lend them assistance, if they be not wicked, when they are in the
last extremity of despair; such a thing, indeed, befell this emperor.
For it was suddenly reported from Libya that the commanders of Attalus
had been destroyed, and that a host of ships was at hand from Byzantium
with a very great number of soldiers who had come to assist him, though
he had not expected them, and that Alaric, having quarrelled with
Attalus, had stripped him of the emperor's garb and was now keeping him
under guard in the position of a private citizen. [411 A.D.] And
afterwards Alaric died of disease, and the army of the Visigoths under
the leadership of Adaulphus proceeded into Gaul, and Constantinus,
defeated in battle, died with his sons. However the Romans never
succeeded in recovering Britain, but it remained from that time on under
tyrants. And the Goths, after making the crossing of the Ister, at first
occupied Pannonia, but afterwards, since the emperor gave them the
right, they inhabited the country of Thrace. And after spending no great
time there they conquered the West. But this will be told in the
narrative concerning the Goths.

III

Now the Vandals dwelling about the Maeotic Lake, since they were pressed
by hunger, moved to the country of the Germans, who are now called
Franks, and the river Rhine, associating with themselves the Alani, a
Gothic people. Then from there, under the leadership of Godigisclus,
they moved and settled in Spain, which is the first land of the Roman
empire on the side of the ocean. At that time Honorius made an agreement
with Godigisclus that they should settle there on condition that it
should not be to the detriment of the country. But there was a law among
the Romans, that if any persons should fail to keep their property in
their own possession, and if, meanwhile, a time amounting to thirty
years should pass, that these persons should thenceforth not be entitled
to proceed against those