the sister of one of the princes or
chiefs of the Angles, who landed in 527, and the following years,
between the Humber and the Thames, and gradually founded the kingdoms of
East Anglia and Mercia. The English writers are ignorant of her name and
existence: but Procopius may have suggested to Mr. Rowe the character
and situation of Rodogune in the tragedy of the Royal Convert.]

[Footnote 164: In the copious history of Gregory of Tours, we cannot
find any traces of hostile or friendly intercourse between France and
England except in the marriage of the daughter of Caribert, king of
Paris, quam regis cujusdam in Cantia filius matrimonio copulavit, (l.
ix. c. 28, in tom. ii. p. 348.) The bishop of Tours ended his history
and his life almost immediately before the conversion of Kent.]

I have now accomplished the laborious narrative of the decline and fall
of the Roman empire, from the fortunate age of Trajan and the Antonines,
to its total extinction in the West, about five centuries after the
Christian era. At that unhappy period, the Saxons fiercely struggled
with the natives for the possession of Britain: Gaul and Spain were
divided between the powerful monarchies of the Franks and Visigoths, and
the dependent kingdoms of the Suevi and Burgundians: Africa was exposed
to the cruel persecution of the Vandals, and the savage insults of the
Moors: Rome and Italy, as far as the banks of the Danube, were afflicted
by an army of Barbarian mercenaries, whose lawless tyranny was succeeded
by the reign of Theodoric the Ostrogoth. All the subjects of the empire,
who, by the use of the Latin language, more particularly deserved
the name and privileges of Romans, were oppressed by the disgrace and
calamities of foreign conquest; and the victorious nations of Germany
established a new system of manners and government in the western
countries of Europe. The majesty of Rome was faintly represented by
the princes of Constantinople, the feeble and imaginary successors of
Augustus. Yet they continued to reign over the East, from the Danube to
the Nile and Tigris; the Gothic and Vandal kingdoms of Italy and Africa
were subverted by the arms of Justinian; and the history of the Greek
emperors may still afford a long series of instructive lessons, and
interesting revolutions.

Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis.--Part VI.

General Observations On The Fall Of The Roman Empire In The West.

The Greeks, after their country had been