into Europe, were
emigrants from Asia. The native races who inhabited eastern Europe were
unequal to repel the savage invasions of these formidable marauders, who
inundated Europe with their fierce and unsettled bands. If we may credit
the account given of these tribes by the Roman writers of the period,
their manners were savage, their habits of life simple, but of a roving
and predatory character. By the Roman historians they are invariably
styled--the Barbarians. They cultivated not commerce, they built not
cities, they dwelt not in luxurious towns. Their abode was the vast
forest or plain, their occupation hunting and war, their food the produce
of the chase or the plunder of war, their dress the skins of beasts and
articles of the rudest manufacture. Yet in their spirit was energy, in
their hearts a love of conquest and aggrandisement. After having for
ages in vain withstood the conquering arms of Julius Caesar and other
Roman commanders, they in turn became the assailants. After the reign of
Augustus Caesar the military spirit of the Romans decayed their energy
declined, their ambition was lost. The chief people surrendered
themselves to all the enervating effects of pleasure and luxury. No
valorous chief led the army in the field, no Cato or Tully thundered
alarm in the Capitol, to summon the inhabitants to glory or even
defence:--they were rather found revelling in riot and debauchery at
home. No Pompey governed in Spain; no Sallust was Praetor in Numidia.
The race of the wise and mighty had departed. The infection had reached
the common people, who were equally given up to indolence, license, riot,
debauchery, and sloth. In this state was Rome and the Romans, when the
barbarians rose in the north under Alaric, King or Chief of the Goths,
descended the Alps with the rapidity and force of the avalanche,
overthrew the empire, and possessed Rome. Then was presented a scene the
most unexampled the world ever beheld. The chief or warrior who a few
months before held his counsels in a hut or wigwam on the banks of the
Danube or Rhine, was seated on the throne of the Caesars--the herdsman of
the forest inhabited the palaces of Rome. The savage hid himself in the
fine linen of the Roman citizen--the barbarian covered himself with
patrician gold. The effeminate luxury of the Empire had yielded all to
the insatiate energy and ambition of the North.

But even the nomadic tribes of central Europe found the m