of Alaric. His march, perhaps from Thessalonica, through the warlike and
hostile country of Pannonia, as far as the foot of the Julian Alps; his
passage of those mountains, which were strongly guarded by troops and
intrenchments; the siege of Aquileia, and the conquest of the provinces
of Istria and Venetia, appear to have employed a considerable time.
Unless his operations were extremely cautious and slow, the length of
the interval would suggest a probable suspicion, that the Gothic king
retreated towards the banks of the Danube; and reenforced his army with
fresh swarms of Barbarians, before he again attempted to penetrate into
the heart of Italy. Since the public and important events escape the
diligence of the historian, he may amuse himself with contemplating,
for a moment, the influence of the arms of Alaric on the fortunes of two
obscure individuals, a presbyter of Aquileia and a husbandman of Verona.
The learned Rufinus, who was summoned by his enemies to appear before
a Roman synod, wisely preferred the dangers of a besieged city; and the
Barbarians, who furiously shook the walls of Aquileia, might save him
from the cruel sentence of another heretic, who, at the request of the
same bishops, was severely whipped, and condemned to perpetual exile on
a desert island. The _old man_, who had passed his simple and innocent
life in the neighborhood of Verona, was a stranger to the quarrels both
of kings and of bishops; _his_ pleasures, his desires, his knowledge,
were confined within the little circle of his paternal farm; and a staff
supported his aged steps, on the same ground where he had sported in
his infancy. Yet even this humble and rustic felicity (which Claudian
describes with so much truth and feeling) was still exposed to the
undistinguishing rage of war. His trees, his old _contemporary_ trees,
must blaze in the conflagration of the whole country; a detachment of
Gothic cavalry might sweep away his cottage and his family; and the
power of Alaric could destroy this happiness, which he was not able
either to taste or to bestow. "Fame," says the poet, "encircling with
terror her gloomy wings, proclaimed the march of the Barbarian army, and
filled Italy with consternation:" the apprehensions of each individual
were increased in just proportion to the measure of his fortune: and the
most timid, who had already embarked their valuable effects, meditated
their escape to the Island of Sicily, or the African coast. T