ch monarchy by Pharamond, the conquests,
the laws, and even the existence, of that hero, have been justly
arraigned by the impartial severity of modern criticism.

The ruin of the opulent provinces of Gaul may be dated from the
establishment of these Barbarians, whose alliance was dangerous and
oppressive, and who were capriciously impelled, by interest or passion,
to violate the public peace. A heavy and partial ransom was imposed on
the surviving provincials, who had escaped the calamities of war; the
fairest and most fertile lands were assigned to the rapacious strangers,
for the use of their families, their slaves, and their cattle; and the
trembling natives relinquished with a sigh the inheritance of their
fathers. Yet these domestic misfortunes, which are seldom the lot of a
vanquished people, had been felt and inflicted by the Romans themselves,
not only in the insolence of foreign conquest, but in the madness of
civil discord. The Triumvirs proscribed eighteen of the most flourishing
colonies of Italy; and distributed their lands and houses to the
veterans who revenged the death of Caesar, and oppressed the liberty
of their country. Two poets of unequal fame have deplored, in similar
circumstances, the loss of their patrimony; but the legionaries of
Augustus appear to have surpassed, in violence and injustice, the
Barbarians who invaded Gaul under the reign of Honorius. It was not
without the utmost difficulty that Virgil escaped from the sword of the
Centurion, who had usurped his farm in the neighborhood of Mantua; but
Paulinus of Bourdeaux received a sum of money from his Gothic purchaser,
which he accepted with pleasure and surprise; and though it was much
inferior to the real value of his estate, this act of rapine was
disguised by some colors of moderation and equity. The odious name of
conquerors was softened into the mild and friendly appellation of the
guests of the Romans; and the Barbarians of Gaul, more especially the
Goths, repeatedly declared, that they were bound to the people by the
ties of hospitality, and to the emperor by the duty of allegiance and
military service. The title of Honorius and his successors, their laws,
and their civil magistrates, were still respected in the provinces of
Gaul, of which they had resigned the possession to the Barbarian allies;
and the kings, who exercised a supreme and independent authority over
their native subjects, ambitiously solicited the more honorable ran