elin, 1596,) through the straits, of Thermopylae.]

[Footnote 8: In obedience to Jerom and Claudian, (in Rufin. l. ii. 191,)
I have mixed some darker colors in the mild representation of Zosimus,
who wished to soften the calamities of Athens.

Nec fera Cecropias traxissent vincula matres.

Synesius (Epist. clvi. p. 272, edit. Petav.) observes, that Athens,
whose sufferings he imputes to the proconsul's avarice, was at that time
less famous for her schools of philosophy than for her trade of honey.]

[Footnote 9:--

Vallata mari Scironia rupes,
Et duo continuo connectens aequora muro
Isthmos.
--Claudian de Bel. Getico, 188.

The Scironian rocks are described by Pausanias, (l. i. c. 44, p. 107,
edit. Kuhn,) and our modern travellers, Wheeler (p. 436) and Chandler,
(p. 298.) Hadrian made the road passable for two carriages.]

[Footnote 10: Claudian (in Rufin. l. ii. 186, and de Bello Getico,
611, &c.) vaguely, though forcibly, delineates the scene of rapine and
destruction.]

[Footnote 11: These generous lines of Homer (Odyss. l. v. 306) were
transcribed by one of the captive youths of Corinth: and the tears of
Mummius may prove that the rude conqueror, though he was ignorant of the
value of an original picture, possessed the purest source of good taste,
a benevolent heart, (Plutarch, Symposiac. l. ix. tom. ii. p. 737, edit.
Wechel.)]

[Footnote 12: Homer perpetually describes the exemplary patience of
those female captives, who gave their charms, and even their hearts,
to the murderers of their fathers, brothers, &c. Such a passion (of
Eriphile for Achilles) is touched with admirable delicacy by Racine.]

[Footnote 13: Plutarch (in Pyrrho, tom. ii. p. 474, edit. Brian) gives
the genuine answer in the Laconic dialect. Pyrrhus attacked Sparta with
25,000 foot, 2000 horse, and 24 elephants, and the defence of that open
town is a fine comment on the laws of Lycurgus, even in the last stage
of decay.]

[Footnote 14: Such, perhaps, as Homer (Iliad, xx. 164) had so nobly
painted him.]

[Footnote 15: Eunapius (in Vit. Philosoph. p. 90-93) intimates that a
troop of monks betrayed Greece, and followed the Gothic camp. * Note:
The expression is curious: Vit. Max. t. i. p. 53, edit. Boissonade.--M.]

The last hope of a people who could no longer depend on their arms,
their gods, or their sovereign, was placed in the powerful assistance
of the general of the West; and Stilicho, who had not bee