with more considerable
effect. The examples of Caesar must have been familiar to the most
illiterate of the Roman warriors; and the fortifications of Dyrrachium,
which connected twenty-four castles, by a perpetual ditch and rampart
of fifteen miles, afforded the model of an intrenchment which might
confine, and starve, the most numerous host of Barbarians. [78] The
Roman troops had less degenerated from the industry, than from the
valor, of their ancestors; and if their servile and laborious work
offended the pride of the soldiers, Tuscany could supply many thousand
peasants, who would labor, though, perhaps, they would not fight, for
the salvation of their native country. The imprisoned multitude of
horses and men [79] was gradually destroyed, by famine rather than by
the sword; but the Romans were exposed, during the progress of such
an extensive work, to the frequent attacks of an impatient enemy. The
despair of the hungry Barbarians would precipitate them against the
fortifications of Stilicho; the general might sometimes indulge the
ardor of his brave auxiliaries, who eagerly pressed to assault the camp
of the Germans; and these various incidents might produce the sharp
and bloody conflicts which dignify the narrative of Zosimus, and the
Chronicles of Prosper and Marcellinus. [80] A seasonable supply of men
and provisions had been introduced into the walls of Florence, and the
famished host of Radagaisus was in its turn besieged. The proud monarch
of so many warlike nations, after the loss of his bravest warriors,
was reduced to confide either in the faith of a capitulation, or in the
clemency of Stilicho. [81] But the death of the royal captive, who
was ignominiously beheaded, disgraced the triumph of Rome and of
Christianity; and the short delay of his execution was sufficient to
brand the conqueror with the guilt of cool and deliberate cruelty. [82]
The famished Germans, who escaped the fury of the auxiliaries, were sold
as slaves, at the contemptible price of as many single pieces of gold;
but the difference of food and climate swept away great numbers of those
unhappy strangers; and it was observed, that the inhuman purchasers,
instead of reaping the fruits of their labor were soon obliged to
provide the expense of their interment Stilicho informed the emperor
and the senate of his success; and deserved, a second time, the glorious
title of Deliverer of Italy. [83]

[Footnote 76: Paulinus (in Vit. Ambros c. 5