s.--Part I.

Invasion Of Italy By Alaric.--Manners Of The Roman Senate
And People.--Rome Is Thrice Besieged, And At Length
Pillaged, By The Goths.--Death Of Alaric.--The Goths
Evacuate Italy.--Fall Of Constantine.--Gaul And Spain Are
Occupied By The Barbarians. --Independence Of Britain.

The incapacity of a weak and distracted government may often assume the
appearance, and produce the effects, of a treasonable correspondence
with the public enemy. If Alaric himself had been introduced into the
council of Ravenna, he would probably have advised the same measures
which were actually pursued by the ministers of Honorius. [1] The king
of the Goths would have conspired, perhaps with some reluctance, to
destroy the formidable adversary, by whose arms, in Italy, as well as in
Greece, he had been twice overthrown. Their active and interested hatred
laboriously accomplished the disgrace and ruin of the great Stilicho.
The valor of Sarus, his fame in arms, and his personal, or hereditary,
influence over the confederate Barbarians, could recommend him only to
the friends of their country, who despised, or detested, the worthless
characters of Turpilio, Varanes, and Vigilantius. By the pressing
instances of the new favorites, these generals, unworthy as they had
shown themselves of the names of soldiers, [2] were promoted to the
command of the cavalry, of the infantry, and of the domestic troops. The
Gothic prince would have subscribed with pleasure the edict which
the fanaticism of Olympius dictated to the simple and devout emperor.
Honorius excluded all persons, who were adverse to the Catholic church,
from holding any office in the state; obstinately rejected the service
of all those who dissented from his religion; and rashly disqualified
many of his bravest and most skilful officers, who adhered to the
Pagan worship, or who had imbibed the opinions of Arianism. [3] These
measures, so advantageous to an enemy, Alaric would have approved, and
might perhaps have suggested; but it may seem doubtful, whether the
Barbarian would have promoted his interest at the expense of the inhuman
and absurd cruelty which was perpetrated by the direction, or at least
with the connivance of the Imperial ministers. The foreign auxiliaries,
who had been attached to the person of Stilicho, lamented his death;
but the desire of revenge was checked by a natural apprehension for the
safety of their wives and children; who we