Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/309

X. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 285 over the misfortunes of the nation, celebrated its sue- CHAP, cessful valour, and adorned the triumph with many Asiatic trophies, that more properly belonged to the people of Scythia. On the faith of ancient songs, the uncertain but the only memorials of "fei^barians, they deduced the first origin of the Goths from the vast island, or peninsula, of Scandinavia^. That extreme country of the north was not unknown to the conquer- ors of Italy ; the ties of ancient consanguinity had been strengthened by recent offices of friendship; and a Scandinavian king had cheerfully abdicated his savage greatness, that he might pass the remainder of his days in the peaceful and pohshed court of Ravenna ^ Many vestiges, which cannot be ascribed to the arts of po- pular vanity, attest the ancient residence of the Goths in the countries beyond the Baltic. From the time of the geographer Ptolemy, the southern part of Sweden seems to have continued in the possession of the less enterprising remnant of the nation ; and a large terri- tory is even at present divided into east and west Gothland. During the middle ages, (from the ninth to the twelfth century,) whilst Christianity was advanc- ing with a slow progress into the north, the Goths and the Swedes composed two distinct and sometimes hos- tile members of the same monarchy ^. The latter of these two names has prevailed, without extinguishing the former. The Swedes, who might well be satisfied with their own fame in arms, have, in every age, claimed the kindred glory of the Goths. In a moment of discontent against the court of Rome, Charles the twelfth insinuated, that his victorious troops were not degenerated from their brave ancestors, who had al- ready subdued the mistress of the world ^ e On the authority of Ablavius, Jornandes quotes some old Gothic chro- nicles in verse. De Reb. Geticis, c. 4. ^ Jornandes, c. 3. s See in the Prolegomena of Grotius some large extracts from Adam of Bremen, and Saxo-Grammaticus. The former wrote in the year 1077, the latter flourished about the year 1200. ^ Voltaire, Histoire de Charles XII. 1. iii. When the Austrians desired the aid of the court of Rome against Gustavus Adolphus,they always repre-