with
the possession of Noricum; an exhausted and impoverished country,
perpetually exposed to the inroads of the Barbarians of Germany. [82]
But the hopes of peace were disappointed by the weak obstinacy, or
interested views, of the minister Olympius. Without listening to the
salutary remonstrances of the senate, he dismissed their ambassadors
under the conduct of a military escort, too numerous for a retinue of
honor, and too feeble for any army of defence. Six thousand Dalmatians,
the flower of the Imperial legions, were ordered to march from Ravenna
to Rome, through an open country which was occupied by the formidable
myriads of the Barbarians. These brave legionaries, encompassed and
betrayed, fell a sacrifice to ministerial folly; their general, Valens,
with a hundred soldiers, escaped from the field of battle; and one of
the ambassadors, who could no longer claim the protection of the law
of nations, was obliged to purchase his freedom with a ransom of thirty
thousand pieces of gold. Yet Alaric, instead of resenting this act of
impotent hostility, immediately renewed his proposals of peace; and the
second embassy of the Roman senate, which derived weight and dignity
from the presence of Innocent, bishop of the city, was guarded from the
dangers of the road by a detachment of Gothic soldiers. [83]

[Footnote 82: Zosimus, l. v. p. 367 368, 369.]

[Footnote 83: Zosimus, l. v. p. 360, 361, 362. The bishop, by remaining
at Ravenna, escaped the impending calamities of the city. Orosius, l.
vii. c. 39, p. 573.]

Olympius [84] might have continued to insult the just resentment of a
people who loudly accused him as the author of the public calamities;
but his power was undermined by the secret intrigues of the palace. The
favorite eunuchs transferred the government of Honorius, and the empire,
to Jovius, the Praetorian praefect; an unworthy servant, who did
not atone, by the merit of personal attachment, for the errors and
misfortunes of his administration. The exile, or escape, of the guilty
Olympius, reserved him for more vicissitudes of fortune: he experienced
the adventures of an obscure and wandering life; he again rose to power;
he fell a second time into disgrace; his ears were cut off; he expired
under the lash; and his ignominious death afforded a grateful spectacle
to the friends of Stilicho. After the removal of Olympius, whose
character was deeply tainted with religious fanaticism, the Pagans and
heretics w