374.

the Danube, European Turkey, the Crimea, Cir- a. d. cassia, the whole of Asia Minor, Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, Egypt, Algiers, Tunis, Tripolis, Fez and Morocco, and all the numerous islands of the Mediterranean. This large kingdom was attacked, 200 A.D., by the Franks on the Rhine, by the Alemanni at the sources of the Danube, by the Goths from Hungary and on the Black Sea, and by the Persians in Asia; and, worst of all, by continual dissensions and factions in the city. To obviate this evil, two emperors had for a long time divided the sovereignty, till, in the year 395 A.D., this great kingdom was formally divided into two parts, the Eastern and Western Empire. The capital of the one was Constantinople, of the other, Rome. This separation was more especially necessary in consequence of the great migration of hordes which was then taking place. The Huns, driven by the Chinese out of the south-eastern part of Asia, came, in the year 374 A.D., over the Don to Europe, joined the Alares on the Don, and attacked the Goths, whose territory extended from the borders of the Black Sea, along the Danube, as far as the sea to the eastward. This people was divided into two nations, the East and West Goths. The West Goths, driven forward by the East Goths, crossed over the Danube, and entered the territories of the Eastern Empire; and, not satisfied with this, they marched forward into Italy, and thrice plundered Rome, between the years 403 and 409 A.D,

A. D. In consequence of this, the Roman Emperor was 450. obliged to recall all his troops from England, the Rhine, and the Danube. Scarcely were these troops withdrawn, when every nation on the frontiers advanced. The Franks and Burgundians from Germany crossed the Rhine to France, the Vandals and Suevi rushed upon Spain, and other hordes penetrated into Italy. At this time the Goths left Italy, overran France and Spain, and founded the great Gothic kingdom in the west, from the Atlantic Sea as far as the Loire, 416 A.D. The Franks established themselves northwards, from the Loire as far as the Rhine; while, to the southward, the Burgundians occupied the country along the Seine and Rhone as far as the Rhine. The Vandals passed over to Africa and conquered Carthage, which had been rebuilt by the Romans 429 A.D. The Anglo-Saxons out of Holstein were, in the year 450 A.D., called over by the Britons as allies against the invasion of the Picts and Scots, who attacked the Britons from the north of Scotland. Soon, however, the Britons were obliged by the Anglo-Saxons to escape to France, where they established themselves securely in the northern Peninsula, since called Bretagne. The Venedi and the Sclavonians immigrated into the northern part of Germany, as far as the Elbe and Saale, which, in consequence of these wanderings, had been vacated. In a short time, Attila, king of the Huns, attacked this newly founded monarchy, and conquered a large terri

tory; which, however, immediately after his death, A. D. was recovered, 453 A.D. From that time, Italy 493. was invaded by one German nation after another, and, in the year 476 A.D., Romulus Augustus, the last of the Roman emperors, was deposed. The Eastern Empire was dissolved into a number of petty states; but the Germans had possession of Rome 493 A.D., or at least the East Goths, a German nation, under the famous king Theodoric.

CHAP. XXXV.

GOTHS-VANDALS.

SILK MANUFACTURE

INTRODUCED.

538.

ALTHOUGH the East Goths had embraced the A. D. gospel, they were regarded as heretics by the Italians. Accordingly, an ambitious general of the Emperor Justinian, named Belisarius, after conquering the Vandals in Africa, and reducing them to submission, determined to cross over to Italy. This he accomplished in the year 536 A.D., and met with no resistance till he came to Rome. There, however, he was attacked by an army full twenty times as numerous as his own. Still, he defended himself a whole year; and at the end of that time he was relieved, and the Goths were obliged to withdraw from Rome, 538 A.D., leaving

555.

A. D. their affairs in a very critical position. Belisarius had even the subtlety to gain the upper part of Italy; but the Emperor, mistrusting him, summoned him away, and the Goths again conquered almost the whole of Italy. Justinian, it is true, then sent his general back, but without either troops or money; and Belisarius, highly indignant, was obliged to evacuate Italy, 540 A.D. Belisarius was succeeded by Narses, who was supplied with money and troops; and though the Goths bravely defended themselves, they were compelled to yield to superior forces, and Italy, in a state of ruin and devastation, became a province of the Eastern Empire, 554 A.D. Yet, in the year 568 A.D., another horde of barbarians, called Lombards, came out of Germany, and, conquering the north of Italy, they confined the Greeks to a small territory. In the year 555 A.D., silk-weavers first came to Europe: before this time it was generally supposed that silk grew upon trees in India and China; very little silk was worn, and that extravagantly dear. Persian caravans had hitherto supplied the Empire with the costly web; but now they ceased their importations, because Justinian was at war with Persia. Two monks, however, showed the Emperor the nature of silk, procured some eggs from India, allowed them to hatch, and succeeded in obtaining silk. Justinian now founded several manufactories in his Empire, but kept the breeding of silkworms a secret. In the year 1130 A.D., a king of Sicily,

1130.

in the course of a war with the Empire, took a. D. several thousand of the silk-manufacturers and transported them as prisoners to Italy. From Italy the manufacture reached Spain, and, since the year 1600, France, and from France, in the year 1700, it was introduced into Germany.

* CHAP. XXXVI.

ACCOUNTS BY COTEMPORARIES OF THE INVA-
SIONS OF THE VANDALS, GOTHS, HUNS.

395

571.

As the student reads of the hordes of wild hunters A. D. and herdsmen who, issuing from that officina gentium, the forests and marshes of Scandinavia and Germany, overran the Roman Empire, it is useful to derive some distinct conceptions of this "Scourge of God," or that "Destroyer of Nations,"―for such were the titles of those who were let loose like hell-hounds on the Roman provinces, as if in vengeance for the evils of which the tyranny, corruption, and refined vices of the Empire, were heaping on the human race.

66

"If," says Robertson, " 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 elapsed from the death of