large proportion of the people was
swept away; and the groans of the dying excited only the envy of their
surviving friends. At length the Barbarians, satiated with carnage and
rapine, and afflicted by the contagious evils which they themselves had
introduced, fixed their permanent seats in the depopulated country. The
ancient Gallicia, whose limits included the kingdom of Old Castille, was
divided between the Suevi and the Vandals; the Alani were scattered over
the provinces of Carthagena and Lusitania, from the Mediterranean to the
Atlantic Ocean; and the fruitful territory of Boetica was allotted to
the Silingi, another branch of the Vandalic nation. After regulating
this partition, the conquerors contracted with their new subjects some
reciprocal engagements of protection and obedience: the lands were again
cultivated; and the towns and villages were again occupied by a captive
people. The greatest part of the Spaniards was even disposed to prefer
this new condition of poverty and barbarism, to the severe oppressions
of the Roman government; yet there were many who still asserted their
native freedom; and who refused, more especially in the mountains of
Gallicia, to submit to the Barbarian yoke." [158]

[Footnote 155: Without recurring to the more ancient writers, I shall
quote three respectable testimonies which belong to the fourth and
seventh centuries; the Expositio totius Mundi, (p. 16, in the third
volume of Hudson's Minor Geographers,) Ausonius, (de Claris Urbibus,
p. 242, edit. Toll.,) and Isidore of Seville, (Praefat. ad. Chron. ap.
Grotium, Hist. Goth. 707.) Many particulars relative to the fertility
and trade of Spain may be found in Nonnius, Hispania Illustrata; and in
Huet, Hist. du Commerce des Anciens, c. 40. p. 228-234.]

[Footnote 156: The date is accurately fixed in the Fasti, and the
Chronicle of Idatius. Orosius (l. vii. c. 40, p. 578) imputes the loss
of Spain to the treachery of the Honorians; while Sozomen (l. ix. c. 12)
accuses only their negligence.]

[Footnote 157: Idatius wishes to apply the prophecies of Daniel to
these national calamities; and is therefore obliged to accommodate the
circumstances of the event to the terms of the prediction.]

[Footnote 158: Mariana de Rebus Hispanicis, l. v. c. 1, tom. i. p. 148.
Comit. 1733. He had read, in Orosius, (l. vii. c. 41, p. 579,) that the
Barbarians had turned their swords into ploughshares; and that many of
the Provincials had preferred