inter Barbaros pauperem libertatem, quam
inter Romanos tributariam solicitudinem, sustinere.]

The important present of the heads of Jovinus and Sebastian had approved
the friendship of Adolphus, and restored Gaul to the obedience of his
brother Honorius. Peace was incompatible with the situation and temper
of the king of the Goths. He readily accepted the proposal of turning
his victorious arms against the Barbarians of Spain; the troops of
Constantius intercepted his communication with the seaports of Gaul,
and gently pressed his march towards the Pyrenees: [159] he passed
the mountains, and surprised, in the name of the emperor, the city of
Barcelona. The fondness of Adolphus for his Roman bride, was not abated
by time or possession: and the birth of a son, surnamed, from his
illustrious grandsire, Theodosius, appeared to fix him forever in the
interest of the republic. The loss of that infant, whose remains were
deposited in a silver coffin in one of the churches near Barcelona,
afflicted his parents; but the grief of the Gothic king was suspended
by the labors of the field; and the course of his victories was soon
interrupted by domestic treason.

He had imprudently received into his service one of the followers of
Sarus; a Barbarian of a daring spirit, but of a diminutive stature;
whose secret desire of revenging the death of his beloved patron was
continually irritated by the sarcasms of his insolent master. Adolphus
was assassinated in the palace of Barcelona; the laws of the succession
were violated by a tumultuous faction; [160] and a stranger to the royal
race, Singeric, the brother of Sarus himself, was seated on the Gothic
throne. The first act of his reign was the inhuman murder of the six
children of Adolphus, the issue of a former marriage, whom he tore,
without pity, from the feeble arms of a venerable bishop. [161] The
unfortunate Placidia, instead of the respectful compassion, which she
might have excited in the most savage breasts, was treated with cruel
and wanton insult. The daughter of the emperor Theodosius, confounded
among a crowd of vulgar captives, was compelled to march on foot above
twelve miles, before the horse of a Barbarian, the assassin of a husband
whom Placidia loved and lamented. [162]

[Footnote 159: This mixture of force and persuasion may be fairly
inferred from comparing Orosius and Jornandes, the Roman and the Gothic
historian.]

[Footnote 160: According to the system of Jo