Alaric for the great
multitude of the people against whom he was contending, his sole reply
was: "The thicker the hay, the easier it is mowed." When he stipulated
the ransom by which alone the city could be saved, and the ministers of
the senate humbly inquired what he purposed to leave to them, he
haughtily replied: "Your lives." The promise of five thousand pounds of
gold, thirty thousand pounds of silver, four thousand robes of silk,
three thousand pieces of fine scarlet cloth, and three thousand pounds
of pepper suspended for a time the vengeance which centuries of
oppression by Rome had accumulated in barbarian hearts.

The Roman courtiers, however, had neither the wisdom nor the honesty to
keep faith with the enemy whom they could not resist and on whose good
graces depended their safety. The patience of Alaric became exhausted.
He threw off all restraint, determining to take the fate and also the
resources of the Empire into his own hands. The year 410 saw the city,
which had for a millennium been the proud mistress of the world,
captured and at the mercy of the barbaric nations which for so many
centuries had furnished her wealth and slaves.

The conqueror declared that he waged war with the Romans and not with
the Apostles. Consequently, while he encouraged his soldiers to seize
the opportunity to enrich themselves and enjoy the fruits of victory, he
gave commands that the sanctity of the churches should be observed. The
ecclesiastical writers recount instances of seemingly remarkable
protection vouchsafed to the holy virgins, who were at the mercy of a
licentious soldiery. But there is every evidence that the customary fate
of the conquered in those savage times was abundantly meted out. It is
on record that many Christian women, in order to save themselves from
what they dreaded still more, sought death in the waters of the Tiber.
Others were more fortunate in being able to find protection in flight.
"The most illustrious of these fugitives," says Gibbon, "was the noble
and pious Proba, the widow of the prefect, Petronius. After the death of
her husband, the most powerful subject of Rome, she had remained at the
head of the Anician family, and successively supplied, from her private
fortune, the expense of the consulships of her three sons. When the city
was besieged and taken by the Goths, Proba supported, with Christian
resignation, the loss of immense riches; embarked in a small vessel,
from which she be