not the fubverfion and difmemberment of the Roman empire, the confequent diminution of mankind, and the memorable relapfe of the civilized world into ignorance and barbarism, events, in themselves, of the first magnitude and importance. I fhould, however, have been content to have referred the reader to Mr. Gibbon's Hiftory, were not the facts, illuftrative of the third feal, scattered over many hundred pages of that work.

It is proper to premife, that the evils refulting from the devastation of armies and the dearth of provifions, cannot all at once afcend to any very confiderable height, but must be gradual in their progress; and it may be remarked, that, as the ravages of famine often spread in fecrecy and filence, as the complaints of the poor are frequently stifled by the arts of policy and the arm of power, and as occurrences of this kind are totally deftitute of that variety and fplendour, which characterize the operations of war and the revolutions of government, they are commonly paffed over by the historian unexplained and unrecorded.

As early as the year 331, and when Conftantine filled the throne of the Roman world, the Goths passed the 'Danube, and spread terror and devastation through the province of Mæsia, To oppose the inroad of this destroying hoft, the aged emperor took the field in 'perfon; but on this occafion either his conduct or his fortune betrayed the glory which he had acquired in fo many foreign and domeftic wars.' About the middle of the fourth century, the Barbarians of the land and fea, the Scots, the Picts, and the Saxons, 'fpread themselves, with rapid and irrefiftible fury, 'from the wall of Antoninus to the fhores of Kent.' And the Illyrian provinces, in the year 357, and in the reign of Conftantius, the fon of Conftantine, were expofed, almost without defence, to the light cavalry of the 6 Barba

♦ Barbarians; and particularly to the inroads of the Quadi, a fierce and powerful nation.' But there were other provinces, in the reign of the fon of Conftantine, ftill more oppressed by the depredations of the Barbarians. In the blind fury of civil difcord, Conftantius had • abandoned to the Barbarians of Germany the countries of Gaul, which still acknowledged the authority of 'his rival. A numerous fwarm of Franks and Ale'manni were invited to cross the Rhine by prefents and promises, by the hopes of fpoil, and by a perpetual 'grant of all the territories which they should be able ⚫ to fubdue. • But the emperor, who for a temporary Ofervice had thus imprudently provoked the rapacious * fpirit of the Barbarians, foon discovered and lamented 'the difficulty of difmiffing these formidable allies, ' after they had tafted the richness of the Roman foil, • Regardless of the nice diftinction of loyalty and rebellion, these undisciplined robbers treated as their natu*ral enemies all the fubjects of the empire, who poffeffed any property which they were defirous of acquiring, Forty-five flourishing cities, Tongres, Cologne, Treves, Worms, Spires, Strafburgh, &c. befides a far greater ⚫ number of towns and villages, were pillaged, and for the most part reduced to ashes.-Fixing their indepen'dent habitations on the banks of rivers, the Rhine, the Mofelle, and the Meufe, they fecured themselves against the danger of a furprize, by a rude and hafty fortification of large trees.-The Alemanni were estab. lifhed in the modern countries of Alface and Lorraine; the Franks occupied the ifland of the Batavians, together with an extenfive diftri&t of Brabant.-From the fources, to the mouth, of the Rhine, the conquefts of the Germans extended above forty miles to the Weft of that river and the fcene of their devaf'tations was three times more extenfive than that of. ' their

4

'their conquests. At a ftill greater diftance the open 'towns of Gaul were deferted, and the inhabitants of 'the fortified cities, who trufted to their ftrength and 'vigilance, were obliged to content themselves with 'fuch fupplies of corn, as they could raise on the vacant land within the inclofure of their walls. The dimi' nifhed legions, deftitute of pay and provisions, of arms and difcipline, trembled at the approach, and even at 'the name, of the Barbarians.' In the year 362, it may be added, fo confiderable a scarcity of corn was felt in Antioch and the cities of Syria, as to generate public discontent.

Thirty thousand Vifigoths, the subjects of Hermanric, who reigned from the Euxine to the Baltic, and over the greatest part of Germany and Scythia, paffed the Danube in the year 366; and the provinces of Thrace 'groaned under the weight of the Barbarians.' Whilft the maritime provinces of Gaul and Britain, about the year 371, were haraffed by the Saxons; the Quadi, and a body of Sarmatian cavalry, invaded Pannonia, in the year 374, and in the feafon of harveft; and ⚫ unmercifully destroyed every object of plunder which ⚫ they could not easily transport24.'

But every part of the reign of Conftantine and his immediate fucceffors may poffibly be regarded by some perfons, as too early for the commencement of the third feal; and indeed I know not, that there is any neceffity for concluding, that the events foretold in the fecond feal should be immediately followed by thofe prefigured in the third. Prophecies, fo concifely expreffed as the feals are, cannot poffibly defcribe all the confiderable events of a long period, but only the principal characteristic events. Perhaps, then, the reign of Valens,

Deck and Fall of the Rom. Emp. vol. III. p. 123, 195, 213; vol. IV. p. 147, 286-329.

and

and the year 376, may form the true epoch, when the events of the third feal began to be accomplished. In this memorable year the Gothic nation, conftituting nearly a million of perfons, being driven from their ancient feats by an irrefiftible torrent of other Barbarians, the Huns and the Alani, were permitted by the emperor Valens to cross the Danube: but fatal were the confequences which attended that permiffion, for this immenfe body of Goths, exafperated by the ill treatment of the Roman officers, did, in this very year, rear the ftandard of revolt in the provinces of the empire, and defeat an army of Romans.

But on this important æra 1 fhall quote the words of Mr. Gibbon. In the difaftrous period of the fall of the Roman empire, which may justly be dated from the reign of Valens, the happiness and fecurity of each individual were perfonally attacked; and the arts and ⚫ labours of ages were rudely defaced by the Barbarians of Scythia and Germany. The invafion of the Huns precipitated on the provinces of the Weft the Gothic nation, which advanced, in less than forty years, from ⚫ the Danube to the Atlantic, and opened a way, by the fuccefs of their arms, to the inroads of fo many hoftile tribes, more favage than themselves.'

It was in the year 376, that the Roman legions, under the command of Lupicinus, one of the governors of Thrace, were completely defeated by the Goths.

As

they had been deprived, by the minifters of the emperor, of the common benefits of nature, and the fair ⚫ intercourse of social life, they retaliated the injuftice on 'the subjects of the empire; and the crimes of Lupicinus ' were expiated by the ruin of the peaceful husbandmen of Thrace, the conflagration of their villages, and the maffacre, or captivity, of their innocent families.' The hardy workmen, who laboured in the gold mines

' of

' of Thrace, for the emolument, and under the lash, of 'an unfeeling mafter,' having joined the Goths, conducted them, through the fecret paths, to the most se'queftered places, which had been chofen to fecure the inhabitants, the cattle, and the magazines of corn.

'The imprudence of Valens and his minifters had introduced into the heart of the empire a nation of enemies; 'but the Vifigoths might even yet have been reconciled, by the manly confeffion of past errors, and the fincere performance of former engagements. These healing ' and temperate measures seemed to concur with the timorous difpofition of the fovereign of the Eaft; but, on 'this occafion alone, Valens was brave; and his unfea'fonable bravery was fatal to himself and to his fubje&ts.' Only two years after the admiffion of the Goths into the Roman empire happened the battle of Hadrianople, ' which equalled, in the actual lofs, and far surpassed, in 'the fatal confequences, the misfortune which Rome had formerly fuftained in the fields of Canna.-Above two-thirds of the Roman army 25 were deftroyed;' and the emperor Valens, who commanded it in perfon, himself perished near the field of battle. The tide of the Gothic inundation rolled from the walls of Hadria'nople to the suburbs of Conftantinople;-and the Barbarians, who had no longer any refiftance to apprehend from the scattered and vanquished troops of the East, 'fpread themselves over the face of a fertile and culti'vated country, as far as the confines of Italy, and the Hadriatic fea. Their mifchievous difpofition was fhewn ' in the destruction of every object, which they wanted ftrength to remove, or tafte to enjoy; and they often 'confumed, with improvident rage, the harvests, or the 'granaries, which foon afterwards became neceffary for