tern empire. He carried his conquering arms into Italy, spreading a
pathway of devastation and misery wherever he went. In modern times, it
is impossible to estimate the suffering which an invasion brought upon
the women of that fated country. The old and those deficient in personal
attractions were robbed and, as likely as not, murdered; the young and
the beautiful were outraged and enslaved. All this wretchedness and
more, the barbarians visited upon Rome; but Alaric's first exploit was
ended at Pollentia by the brave generalship of Stilicho, though the
goodwill of the barbarian was purchased by tribute. As soon as this
danger was, for the time, averted, a new and not less fearful invasion
spread over the Empire. Horde after horde of Vandals, Alani,
Burgundians, and Alemannians crossed the frontiers in search of plunder
and adventure. They, too, were held in check by the able minister; but
gratitude for public service rendered is never so potential as is envy
of the high position of the one giving it, and the sole defender of the
Empire fell a victim to political machinations at the precise moment
when the peril of Rome was greatest.

With Alaric pounding on the gates of the capital, the Romans, with the
consent of Honorius, murdered the only man in the world who had proved
himself the barbarian's match. Nor did they stop with the death of
Stilicho; as Gibbon says: "Perhaps in the person of Serena, the Romans
might have respected the niece of Theodosius, the aunt, nay, even the
adoptive mother of the reigning emperor; but they abhorred the widow of
Stilicho; and they listened with credulous passion to the tale of
calumny which accused her of maintaining a secret and criminal
correspondence with the Gothic invader. Actuated, or overawed, by the
same popular frenzy, the senate, without requiring any evidence of her
guilt, pronounced the sentence of her death. Serena was ignominiously
strangled; and the infatuated multitude were astonished to find that
this cruel act of injustice did not immediately produce the retreat of
the barbarians, and the deliverance of the city." One offence alleged
against Serena was that she had taken a necklace from the statue of
Vesta--it was then the fashion to clothe and adorn the statues, whether
in the interest of modesty or ostentation we cannot say.

The description which the great student of ancient history just now
quoted gives of the siege which Rome at that time endured is entirely