ownward upon Greece, in
search of an easier road to fortune than the toilsome one of industry.

Many centuries had passed since the Persians invaded Greece, and the men
of Marathon and Thermopylae were no more. Men had been posted to defend
the world-famous pass, but, instead of fighting to the death, like
Leonidas and his Spartans of old, they retired without a blow, and left
Greece to the mercy of the Goth.

Instantly a deluge of barbarians spread right and left, and the whole
country was ravaged. Thebes alone resisted. Athens admitted Alaric
within its gates, and saved itself by giving the barbarian chief a bath
and a banquet. The other famous cities had lost their walls, and
Corinth, Argos, and Sparta yielded without defence to the Goths. The
wealth of the cities and the produce of the country were ravaged without
stint, villages and towns were committed to the flames, thousands of the
inhabitants were borne off to slavery, and for years afterwards the
track of the Goths could be traced in ruin throughout the land.

By a fortunate chance Rome possessed at that epoch a great general, the
famous Stilicho, whose military genius has rarely been surpassed. He had
before him a mighty task, the forcing back of the high tide of barbarian
overflow, but he did it well while he lived. His death brought ruin on
Rome. Stilicho hastened to Greece and quickly drove the Goths from the
Peloponnesus. But jealousy between Constantinople and Rome tied his
hands, he was recalled to Italy, and the weak emperor of the East
rewarded the Gothic general for his destructive raid by making him
master-general of Illyricum.

Alaric, fired by ambition, used his new power in forcing the cities of
his dominion to supply the Goths with the weapons of war. Then, Greece
and the country to the north having been devastated, he turned his arms
against Italy, and about 400 A.D. appeared at the foot of the Julian
Alps, the first invader who had threatened Italy since the days of
Hannibal, six hundred years before.

There were at that time two rulers of the Roman empire,--Arcadius,
emperor of the East, and Honorius, emperor of the West. The latter, a
coward himself, had a brave man to command his armies,--Stilicho, who
had driven the Goths from Greece. But Italy, though it had a general,
was destitute of an army. To meet the invading foe, Stilicho was forced
to empty the forts on the Rhine, and even to send to England for the
legion that guarded the Ca