SECT. I. love of glory, or of their country, provincials and barbarians were bribed or forced into fervice. They were too feeble, or too proud to fubmit to the fatigue of military duty. They even complained of the weight of their defenfive armour, as intolerable, and laid it afide. Infantry, from which the armies of ancient Rome derived their vigour and ftability, fell into contempt; the effeminate and undisciplined foldiers of later times could hardly be brought to venture into the field but on horfe back. These wretched troops, however, were the only guardians of the Empire. The jealousy of defpotifm had deprived the people of the use of arms; and fubjects oppreffed and rendered incapable of defending themselves, had neither fpirit nor inclination to refift their invaders, from whom they had little to fear, because their condition could hardly be rendered more unhappy. As the mar tial spirit became extinct, the revenues of the Empire gradually diminished. The taste for the luxuries of the East increased to such a pitch in the Imperial court, that great fums were carried into India, from which money never returns. By the vaft fubfidies paid to the barbarous nations, a ftill greater quantity of fpecies was withdrawn. from circulation. The frontier provinces wafted by frequent incurfions became unable to pay the customary tribute; and the wealth of the world, which had long centered in the capital of the Empire, ceased to flow thither in the same abundance, or was diverted into other channels. The limits of the Empire continued to be as extensive as ever,

while the spirit requifite for its defence declined, SECT. I. and its resources were exhausted. A vaft body, languid, and almost unanimated, became incapa ble of any effort to fave itself, and was easily overpowered. The Emperors, who had the abfolute direction of this difordered fyftem, funk in the foftnefs of eastern luxury, fhut up within the walls of a palace, ignorant of war, unacquainted with af fairs, and governed entirely by women and eunuchs, or by minifters equally effeminate, trembled at the approach of danger, and under circumftances which called for the utmoft vigour in counsel as well as in action, difcovered all the impotent irrefolution of fear, and of folly.

cumftances

tributed to

of the bar

IN every respect, the condition of the barbarous The cirnations was the reverse of that of the Romans. which conAmong them, the martial spirit was in full vigour; the fuccefs their leaders were hardy and enterprizing; the arts barous nawhich had enervated the Romans were unknown tions. among them; and fuch was the nature of their military institutions, that they brought forces into the field without any trouble, and fupported them at little expence. The mercenary and effeminate troops ftationed on the frontier, astonished at their fierceness, either fled at their approach, or were routed in the first onfet. The feeble expedient to which the Emperors had recourfe, of taking large bodies of the barbarians into pay, and of employing them to repel new invaders, inftead of a retarding, haftened the destruction of the Empire. They foon turned their arms against their masters,

and

SECT. I. and with greater advantage than ever: for, by serv

The fpirit

with which

on war.

ing in the Roman armies, they had acquired all the discipline, or skill in war, which the Romans still retained; and, upon adding thefe to their native ferocity, they became altogether irresistible.

BUT though from thefe, and many other caufes, they carried the progrefs and conquefts of the nations which over-ran the Empire, became fo extremely rapid, they were accompanied with horrible devastations, and an incredible deftruction of the human fpecies. Civilized nations which take arms upon cool reflection, from motives of policy or prudence, with a view to guard against some diftant danger, or to prevent fome remote contingency, carry on their hoftilities with fo little rancour, or animofity, that war among them is disarmed of half its terrors. Barbarians are strangers to fuch refinements. They rush into war with impetuofity, and profecute it with violence. Their fole object is to make their enemies feel the weight of their vengeance, nor does their rage fubfide until it be fatiated with inflicting on them every poffible calamity. It is with such a spirit that the favage tribes in America carry on their petty wars. It was with the same spirit that the more powerful and no lefs fierce barbarians in the north of Europe, and of Afia, fell upon the Roman Empire.

The defola

tion which

WHEREVER they marched, their route was marked theybrought with blood. They ravaged or deftroyed all around them. They made no diftinction between what

upon Europe.

was facred, and what was profane. They refpect- SECT. I. ed no age, or fex, or rank. What escaped the fury of the first inundation, perished in those which followed it. The most fertile and populous provinces were converted into deferts, in which were scattered the ruins of villages and cities, that afforded shelter to a few miferable inhabitants whom chance had preserved, or the fword of the enemy, wearied with destroying, had spared. The conquerors who first fettled in the countries which they had wasted, were expelled or exterminated by new invaders, who coming from regions farther removed from the civilized parts of the world, were ftill more fierce and rapacious. This brought new calamities upon mankind, which did not cease until the north, by pouring forth fucceffive swarms, was drained of people, and could no longer furnish instruments of deftruction. Famine and peftilence, which always march in the train of war, when it ravages with fuch inconfiderate cruelty, raged in every part of Europe, and completed its fufferings. If a man were called to fix upon the period in the history of the world, during which the condition of the human race was most calamitous and afflicted, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapfed from the death of Theodofius the Great, to the establishment of the Lombards in Italy. The contemporary authors who beheld that scene of defolation, labour and are at a

2 Theodofius died A. D. 395, the reign of Alboinus in Lombardy began A. D. 571; fo that this period was 176 years.

lofs

SECT. I. lofs for expreffions to defcribe the horror of it. The Scourge of God, The deftroyer of nations, are the dreadful epithets by which they diftinguish the most noted of the barbarous leaders, and they compare the ruin which they had brought on the world, to the havock occafioned by earthquakes, conflagrations, or deluges, the most formidable and fatal calamities which the imagination of man can conceive.

The univer

fal change

occafioned

But no expreffions can convey fo perfect an idea which they of the destructive progress of the barbarians as that which muft ftrike an attentive obferver, when he of Europe. contemplates the total change, which he will difcover in the state of Europe after it began to recover fome degree of tranquillity towards the close of the fixth century. The Saxons were by that time mafters of the fouthern, and more fertile provinces of Britain; the Franks of Gaul; the Huns of Pannonia; the Goths of Spain; the Goths and Lombards of Italy and the adjacent provinces. Scarce any veftige of the Roman policy, jurisprudence, arts, or literature, remained. New forms of government, new laws, new manners, new dreffes, new languages, and new names of men and countries, were every where introduced. To make a great or fudden alteration with respect to any of these, unless where the ancient inhabitants of a country have been almoft totally exterminated, has proved an undertaking beyond the power of the greatest conquerors [D]. The total change which the fettlement of the barbarous nations occafioned [D] NOTE IV.