soldiers: he was murdered by Andragathias, general to Maximus, governor of Gaul.

7. Theodosius, sirnamed the Great, was adorned with all the virtues of a Christian emperor, and though an excellent general, never engaged in any unnecessary war. He was a prince of singular goodness and humanity;-courteous to all. His character was worthy of the best ages of the Roman state. He successfully repelled the encroachments of the barbarians, and secured the prosperity of his people by salutary laws. He died after a reign of eighteen years, assigning to his sons, Arcadius and Honorius, the separate sovereignties of East and West, A. D. 395. In this reign the worship of heathen deities, which had hitherto been silently permitted, was abolished by the severest restrictions, The temples were destroyed, the images thrown down, and every opportunity of festal celebration carefully prevented. After the legal establishment of Christianity, the sovereignty became more safe, as well as more sacred; and the murders and violent deaths of the emperors ceased with the abolition of idolatry. Constantine weakened the sinews of the empire by transferring the seat of it to Byzantium, and drawing off to the east those veteran legions, which defended the boundaries, by encamping on the banks of the Danube and the Rhine. The western provinces being deprived of their security, were exposed to the incursions of the northern nations. The emperors, by associating too many colleagues with them in the government, caused the empire to be divided into factions; endless divisions and intestine wars were the natural consequence.

8. Arcadius and Honorius. In their reigns the barbarian nations established themselves on the frontier provinces, both of the east and west. The Huns overspread Armenia, Cappadocia, and Syria. The Goths, under Alaric, ravaged to the borders of Italy, and laid waste Achaia to the Peloponnesus. Stilicho, an able general, made a noble stand against these invaders, but the weakness of Arcadius, and the machinations of his rivals, frustrated all his plans.

9. Alaric, now styled king of the Visigoths, and already master of Greece, prepared to add Italy to his new dominions. After he had passed the Alps, he was met and de

feated by Stilicho, who then commanded the armies of Honorius. In this interval a torrent of the Goths, breaking down upon Germany, forced the nations whom they subdued (the Suevi, Alani, and Vandals) to precipitate themselves upon Italy. They joined their arms to those of Alaric, and thus reinforced, determined to overwhelmi Rome: the promise of 4000 pounds weight of gold induced him to change his promise;-but this promise hav ing been repeatedly broken, he revenged himself by the sack and plunder of the city, A. D. 410. He was sparing of the lives of the vanquished, and evinced a singular dibe rality of spirit, by his anxiety to preserve from destruction every antient edifice. Alaric died at the era of his highest glory, while he was preparing for the conquest of Sicily and Africa. Honorius instead of profiting by this event to recover his lost provinces, made a treaty with his successor Atualphus, and ceded to him a portion of Spain.

At a time like this, when the power of the state was humbled, the wealth and authority of individuals was enormous. There were senators who received the annual stipend of £160,000. The public distributions of bread, bacon, oil, and wine, were supported at the expence of several millions, and the lazy population might retire from the eleemosynary gratification of their appetites to the enjoyments of the theatre, the circus, and the bath.

10. In the east, the mean and dissolute Arcadius died in the year 408, leaving that empire to his infant son, Theodosius the Second, whose sister Pulcheria swayed the sceptre with much prudence and ability. Honorius died in the year 423. The laws of Arcadius and Honorius were, with some few exceptions, remarkable for their wisdom and equity.

11. The Vandals under Genseric subdued the Roman province in Africa. The Huns, in the east, extended their conquests from the borders of China to the Baltic Sea, Under Attila they laid waste Moesia and Thrace; and Theodosius, after a vain attempt to murder the Barbarian general, ingloriously submitted to pay him annual tribute. Attila, with an army of 500,000 men threatened the total destruction of the empire. He was opposed by Etius, general of Valentinian III. then emperor of the west, who was shut up in Rome by the arms of the barbarian, and

compelled to purchase a peace. After Valentinian, there was a succession of princes, or rather of names, for the events of their reigns do not deserve a detail. The empire of the west came to a final period in the reign of Romulus, the son of Orestes, who had the sirname of Augustulus bestowed on him.

12. Odoacer, prince of the Heruli, subdued Italy, and spared the life of Augustulus, on condition that he resigned the throne, A. D. 476. There is a period of 1224 years from the building of Rome to the extinction of the western empire. Its ruin was the inevitable consequence of its greatness. The extension of its dominion relaxed the vigour of its frame; the victorious legions were infected by the vices of the nations which they had subdued ;-their commanders were corrupted by foreign luxuries ;——patriotic ardour was supplanted by selfish interest;-the martial spirit was debased purposely by the emperors who dreaded its effects on themselves;-and the whole mass, thus enervated, fell an easy prey to a torrent of barbarians.

13. Theodoric, prince of the Ostrogoths, afterwards deservedly named the Great, attempted the recovery of Italy, Zeno, emperor of the east having promised him the sovereignty as the reward of his success. The standard of Theodoric was attended by the whole nation of Ostrogoths. After repeated conquests, he compelled Odoacer, to surrender all Italy. The Romans, who had but tasted of happiness under Odoacer, were peculiarly fortunate in having Theodoric for their ruler. He possessed every talent and virtue of a sovereign; his equity and clemency rendered him a blessing to his subjects;-he made alliance with the Franks, Visigoths, Burgundians, and Vandals ;and he left a peaceable sceptre to his grandson Athalaric. The mother of this infant ruled with wisdom and moderation.

On the decline of the Roman empire, an almost total ignorance of the useful arts had taken possession of the western world. A barbarous, illiterate people, who in hostile troops then poured themselves into the western provinces, gave the first blow to learning. Academies were ruined, libraries burnt, and the learned compelled to shut up their schools, and relinquish their studies. Nor were the Christian priests less concerned in the destruction

of letters. When paganism prevailed, they received continual injuries from the great philosophers; and even now found them very troublesome enemies. They not only armed themselves against those teachers, but endeavoured to forbid their writings, of whatever surf, as dangerous and pernicious. Both hastened the destruction of letters: -yet this age produced some learned men. Among the Christians, Sulpicius Severus, Cyril of Alexandria, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, Isidore, Sidonius Apollinaris, &c. were of the first class. The most celebrated among the pagans were Zosimus and Olympiodorus.

14. Justinian, the ruler of the eastern empire, was a prince of mean ability, vain, capricious, and tyrannical. The Roman name, however, arose, for a time, from its abasement by the merit of his generals, the most renowned of whom was Belisarius, the support of his throne. He was one of the greatest and most successful generals that ever lived--he subdued the Vandals and restored Africa to the Roman empire, after it had been separated for more than one hundred years;―he refused the kingdom of the Goths; and his arms and policy composed the disputes of the performers in the circus and amphitheatre. These were the factions of the green and light-blue, (colours worn by the performers) which had assumed a serious appearance, and threatened to hurl Justinian from the throne. Belisarius wrested Italy from its Gothic sovereign, and once more restored it for a short space to the dominiou of its antient masters. The heroic Totila, the leader of the Goths, be sieged and took the city of Rome, but forbore to destroy it at the request of Belisarius. This great man was com pelled to evacuate Italy, and on his return to Constantinople, the emperor ordered his eyes to be put out, and he lay at the foot of a bridge, soliciting alms in these words, Date obolum Belisario.

He was superseded in the command of the armies by the eunuch Narses, who defeated Totila in a decisive engagement, in which the Gothic prince was slain. He invited the Lombards to avenge his injuries, who over-run and conquered the country, A. D. 508.

The eastern empire was particularly flourishing in the reign of Justinian. The emperors themselves accelerated the ruin of the empire by their luxury and indoleuce. The

Bulgarians claimed part of the empire, as did the Saraceus, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Cilicia, and the neighbouring regions; and afterwards over-running the rest of the Roman world, they laid siege to Constantinople itself. These were followers of Mohammed; who, actuated by fanatic rage, believed the whole world was destined for them, and therefore attacked the neighbouring nations with irresistible fury. When the empire could scarcely defend itself against these Saracens, Constantinople was taken by Baldwin, earl of Flanders. There appeared also another emperor at Trebisond, that city and the regions round it being torn from the rest of the Roman empire, which was at last totally destroyed by the Turks. They first, in the reign of Heraclius, passing through the Caspian Straits, wandered. far and wide over the east, embraced the Mohammedan religion and were divided into several principalities. But the rest being broken and extinct, the posterity of Othoman, or Othman, alone took the lead, and ever since the Turkish sovereigns have assumed the name of Othomans. These Othoman princes, commonly called Turks, having subdued the greatest part of the provinces possessed by the Saracens, swallowed up the rest of the Roman empire, and Constantinople was taken by them in the year 1453, which has ever since been the imperial seat of the Turkish emperors.

Thus terminated the fourth or Roman empire; which exceeded all its predecessors in power and duration. All the modern states and kingdoms, (a few only excepted) may be accounted but fragments torn from the body of this immense empire.

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Select Books on Roman History.

Hooke's Roman History, 11 vols. 8vo. Ferguson's Roman Republic, 4 vols. 8vo. Vertot's Revolutions of Rome, 3 vols. 8vo. Rollin's Roman History, 10 vols. 8vo. Crevier's Continuation, 10 vols. 8vo. Goldsmith's Roman History, 2 vols. 8vo. or Mavor's Rome, 3 vols. 18mo. is well adapted for those who have not leisure to enter into deep researches. Adam's Roman Antiquities, 8vo. Lempriere's Classical Dictionary, 8vo.