Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/261

OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE 241 walls of Constantinople. 3 The interruption, or at least the diminution, of the subsidy which the Goths had received from the prudent liberality of Theodosius was the specious pretence of their revolt ; the affront was embittered by their contempt for the unwarlike sons of Theodosius ; and their resentment was inflamed by the weakness or treachery of the minister of Arcadius. The frequent visits of Rufinus to the camp of the Barbarians, whose arms and apparel he affected to imitate, were considered as a sufficient evidence of his guilty correspondence : and the public enemy, from a motive either of gratitude or of policy, was attentive, amidst the general devastation, to spare the private estates of the unpopular praefect. The Goths, instead of being impelled by the blind and headstrong passions of their chiefs, were now directed by the bold and artful genius of Alaric. [Bom be- That renowned leader was descended from the noble race of the and^37oi°' Balti ; ■* which yielded only to the royal dignity of the Amali : he had solicited the command of the Roman armies ; and the Imperial court provoked him to demonstrate the folly of their [Probably refusal and the importance of their loss. Whatever hopes might a.d%^]°* be entertained of the conquest of Constantinople, the judicious general soon abandoned an impracticable enterprise. In the midst of a divided court and a discontented people, the Emperor Arcadius was terrified by the aspect of the Gothic arms ; but the want of wisdom and valour was supplied by the strength of the city ; and the fortifications, both of the sea and land, might securely brave the impotent and random darts of the Barbarians. Alaric disdained to trample any longer on the prostrate and ruined countries of Thrace and Dacia, and he resolved to seek a plentiful harvest of fame and riches in a province which had hitherto escaped the ravages of war.^ The character of the civil and militai-y officers, on whomAiadc -' marches In- to Greece. 3Jerom, torn. i. p. 26 [ep. 60]. He endeavours to comfort his friend Helio- dorus, bishop of Altinum, for the loss of his nephew Nepotian, by a curious recapitulation of all the public and private misfortunes of the times. See Tillemont, M^m. Eccl^s. torn. xii. p. 200, &c. •1 Daltlia or bold: origo mirifica, says Jornandes (c. 29). [The meaning of the passage of Jordanes may be, as Kopke thinks, that owing to his bravery Alaric was described z;?/^;' j2^(75, as a true Baltha (opflwi'i/fios).] This illustrious race long continued to flourish in France, in the Gothic province of Septimania or Languedoc ; under the corrupted appellation oi Baux : and a branch of that family afterwards settled in the kingdom of Naples (Grotius in Prolegom. ad Hist. Gothic, p. 53). The lords of Baux, near Aries, and of seventy-nine subordinate places, were in- dependent of the counts of Provence (Longuerue, Description de la France, tom. i- P- 357). s Zosimus (1. v. p. 293-295 [c. 5]) is our best guide for the conquest of Greece ; but the hints and allusion of Claudian are so many rays of historic light. VOL. III. 16