that enormous fabric of the Roman
empire, which had diffused slavery and oppression, together with peace
and civility, over so considerable a part of the globe, was
approaching towards it final dissolution. Italy and the centre of the
empire, removed, during so many ages, from all concern in the wars,
had entirely lost the military spirit, and were peopled by an
enervated race, equally disposed to submit to a foreign yoke, or to
the tyranny of their own rulers. The emperors found themselves
obliged to recruit their legions from the frontier provinces, where
the genius of war, though languishing, was not totally extinct; and
these mercenary forces, careless of laws, and civil institutions,
established a military government, no less dangerous to the sovereign
than to the people. The further progress of the same disorders
introduced the bordering barbarians into the service of the Romans;
and those fierce nations, having now added discipline to their native
bravery, could no longer be restrained by the impotent policy of the
emperors, who were accustomed to employ one in the destruction of the
others. Sensible of their own force, and allured by the prospect of
so rich a prize, the northern barbarians, in the reign of Arcadius and
Honorius, assailed at once all the frontiers of the Roman empire; and
having first satiated their avidity by plunder, began to think of
fixing a settlement in the wasted provinces. The more distant
barbarians, who occupied the deserted habitations of the former,
advanced in their acquisitions, and pressed with their incumbent
weight the Roman state, already unequal to the load which it
sustained. Instead of arming the people in their own defence, the
emperors recalled all the distant legions, in whom alone they could
repose confidence; and collected the whole military force for the
defence of the capital and centre of the empire. The necessity of
self-preservation had superseded the ambition of power; and the
ancient point of honour never to contract the limits of the empire
could no longer be attended to in this desperate extremity.

Britain by its situation was removed from the fury of these barbarous
incursions; and being also a remote province, not much valued by the
Romans, the legions which defended it were carried over to the
protection of Italy and Gaul. But that province, though secured by
the sea against the inroads of the greater tribes of barbarians, found
enemies on its fron