they invited to cross the Danube, they, in two years after their first entrance into the empire, defeated and slew the emperor Valens at the battle of Adrianople, in which above two-thirds of the Roman army were destroyed, and they afterwards desolated the provinces as far as the confines of Italy.

After this fatal battle, the Goths never quitted the Roman empire. They were, indeed, for a time, reduced into a state of apparent subjection by Theodosius the Great. But the period of tranquillity was of short duration, and ended with his life.

I conceive, therefore, that the first trumpet sounded at the time of the Gothic eruption in the reign of Valens, A. D. 376. Its sounding was followed by hail and fire mingled with blood. Hail, in the prophetical style, is a symbol denoting war, and the ravages of hostile armies. The fire and blood accompanying the hail of this trumpet, denote the dreadful and destructive nature of the wars which should ensue, The effects of the descent of this hail upon the trees and the grass are agreeable to the analogy of the symbol, and denote the ruin which was brought by the Gothic irruption on the inhabitants of the empire.

1

The second period of the Gothic invasions.commenced in the year 395, on the death of the great Theodosius. "He died in the month of January; "and before the end of the winter of the same year "the Gothic nation was in arms."+" The bar"riers of the Danube were thrown open; the savage "warriors of Scythia issued from their forests; and "the uncommon severity of the winter allowed the * Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. xxvi. + Ibid. chap. xxx.

poet to remark, that they rolled their ponderous waggons over the broad and icy bank of the in"dignant river." *

In the year 396, Alaric, the leader, and subsequently the king of the Visigoths, marched into and ravaged Greece. The fertile fields of Phocis and Bæotia were covered by a deluge of "barba"rians, who massacred the males of an age to "bear arms, and drove away the beautiful females, "with the spoil and cattle of the flaming villages." "The whole territory of Attica, from the pro

montory of Sunium to the town of Megara, was "blasted with the baneful presence of the bar"barians; and, if we may use the comparison of a "contemporary philosopher, Athens itself resembled "the bleeding and empty skin of a slaughtered "victim."-" Corinth, Argos, Sparta, yielded with"out resistance to the arms of the Goths; and the "most fortunate of the inhabitants were saved by "death from beholding the slavery of their families, "and the conflagration of their cities."+

Italy was invaded by Alaric in the year 400, and in the year 406 by a mixed army of Vandals, Suevi, and Burgundians, under the command of Radagaisus; and though both these armies of invaders were defeated by Stilicho, the master-general of the west, Italy and the capital of the empire had but a short respite. In 408, Alaric entered Italy a - second time, and besieged Rome, which was reduced to the last extremity by the ravages of famine and plague. The imperial city was at this time spared by the barbarian conqueror for the payment * Gibbon, chap. xxx.

+ Ibid.

of a large ransom. It was besieged a second time in the following year, and in the year 410, the Goths, a third time, appeared before the gates of Rome, which they took and sacked. After enriching his army with the plunder of the capital of the empire, Alaric marched into the southern provinces of Italy, which remained in possession of the Goths till the year 414, when a treaty was concluded with Adolphus, the successor of Alaric, in consequence of which he evacuated Italy, and marched into Gaul.*

In the year 406, the province of Gaul was invaded by the remains of the great army of Radagaisus. After defeating the Franks, who opposed their progress, "the victorious confederates pur" sued their march; and on the last day of the year, "in a season of the year when the waters of the "Rhine were most probably frozen, they entered "without opposition the defenceless provinces of "Gaul. This memorable passage of the Suevi, the "Vandals, the Alani, and the Burgundians, who never "afterwards retreated, may be considered as the fall "of the Roman empire in the countries beyond "the Alps; and the barriers which had so long se"parated the savage and the civilized nations of the "earth, were from that fatal moment levelled "with the ground."-" The banks of the Rhine "were crowned, like those of the Tiber, with elegant houses and well-cultivated farms. This

scene of peace and plenty was suddenly changed "into a desert; and the prospect of the smoking " ruins could alone distinguish the solitude of nature " from the desolation of man."

* Gibbon, chap. xxxi. + Ibid. chap. xxx.

Ibid.

Having spread the dreadful ravages of war throughout the greatest part of the provinces of Gaul, the same horde of barbarians entered Spain in the year 409. "The irruption of these nations

τε

was followed by the most dreadful calamities." -"The progress of famine reduced the miserable "inhabitants to feed on the flesh of their fellowcreatures; and even the wild beasts, which mul"tiplied without controul in the desert, were exasperated, by the taste of blood, and the impatience " of hunger, boldly to attack and devour their human prey. Pestilence soon appeared, the inseparable "companion of famine: a large proportion of the "people was swept away; and the groans of the

σε

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.'

In the year 429, the Vandals under the command of Genseric, passed from Spain into Africa, and established themselves in that province: and the Roman empire in that quarter was entirely subverted by them about eleven years afterwards, when they obtained possession of the city of Carthage.

The second period of the Gothic irruptions, which began in A. D. 395, seems to me to have been the fulfilment of the second trumpet, on the sounding of which " a great mountain, burning with fire, was " cast into the sea."

A mountain, in the prophetical style, signifies a kingdom. It is well known that the irruption of

* Gibbon, chap. xxxi.

the northern nations into the Roman empire was of this peculiar nature, that not bodies of armed men only, but whole nations of invaders, transported themselves, with their women and children, their goods and effects, into the territories of the empire. Such an invasion, by various tribes of fierce and impetuous barbarians, who carried fire and sword wherever they marched, seems to be fitly symbolized by a vast mountain, burning with fire, being cast into the sea.

The third period of the irruptions of the northern nations into the Roman empire, appears to have commenced in the year 441, when the Huns under Attila, invaded the eastern empire. "The whole "breadth of Europe, as it extends above five hun"dred miles from the Euxine to the Adriatic, was " at once invaded, and occupied, and desolated, by "the myriads of barbarians whom Attila led into the "field."-"The armies of the eastern empire were

vanquished in three successive engagements; and "the progress of Attila may be traced by the fields "of battle. The two former, on the banks of the "Utus, and under the walls of Marcianopolis, were "fought in the extensive plains between the Danube "and Mount Hæmus. As the Romans were pressed

by a victorious enemy, they gradually and unskil

fully retired toward the Chersonesus of Thrace; "and that narrow peninsula, the last extremity of "the land, was marked by their third and irreparable "defeat. By the destruction of this army, Attila "acquired the indisputable possession of the field. "From the Hellespont to Thermopylæ, and the "suburbs of Constantinople, he ravaged without