ribes; and their hasty flight, which they soon converted into a bold
attack, would more naturally be directed towards the rich and level
plains, through which the Vistula gently flows into the Baltic Sea. The
North must again have been alarmed, and agitated, by the invasion of the
Huns; [6411] and the nations who retreated before them must have pressed
with incumbent weight on the confines of Germany. [65] The inhabitants
of those regions, which the ancients have assigned to the Suevi, the
Vandals, and the Burgundians, might embrace the resolution of abandoning
to the fugitives of Sarmatia their woods and morasses; or at least of
discharging their superfluous numbers on the provinces of the Roman
empire. [66] About four years after the victorious Toulun had assumed
the title of Khan of the Geougen, another Barbarian, the haughty
Rhodogast, or Radagaisus, [67] marched from the northern extremities of
Germany almost to the gates of Rome, and left the remains of his army
to achieve the destruction of the West. The Vandals, the Suevi, and the
Burgundians, formed the strength of this mighty host; but the Alani, who
had found a hospitable reception in their new seats, added their active
cavalry to the heavy infantry of the Germans; and the Gothic adventurers
crowded so eagerly to the standard of Radagaisus, that by some
historians, he has been styled the King of the Goths. Twelve thousand
warriors, distinguished above the vulgar by their noble birth, or their
valiant deeds, glittered in the van; [68] and the whole multitude, which
was not less than two hundred thousand fighting men, might be increased,
by the accession of women, of children, and of slaves, to the amount of
four hundred thousand persons. This formidable emigration issued from
the same coast of the Baltic, which had poured forth the myriads of
the Cimbri and Teutones, to assault Rome and Italy in the vigor of the
republic. After the departure of those Barbarians, their native country,
which was marked by the vestiges of their greatness, long ramparts,
and gigantic moles, [69] remained, during some ages, a vast and
dreary solitude; till the human species was renewed by the powers of
generation, and the vacancy was filled by the influx of new inhabitants.
The nations who now usurp an extent of land which they are unable to
cultivate, would soon be assisted by the industrious poverty of their
neighbors, if the government of Europe did not protect the claims of
domin