ἀνθρώποισι πᾶσι μέτεστι γινώσκειν ἑωυτοὺς καὶ σωφρονεῖν.
The fall of Stilicho was the signal for the Roman troops to massacre with brutal perfidy the families of the barbarian auxiliaries who were serving in Italy. The foreign soldiers, 30,000 of them, straightway marched to Noricum, joined the standard of Alaric, and urged him to descend on Italy. Continue reading “The sack of Rome by Alaric’s Goths”
Valens was succeeded on the throne by Theodosius, a wise and virtuous prince, who set himself to repair, by caution and courage combined, the disaster that had shaken the Roman power in the Danube lands. Continue reading “How the Eastern Romans escaped the Gothic danger (4th-5th cen. A.D.)”
After Alaric had been elected king of the Visigoths, he lost no time in striking. He held an assembly, and in it a resolution was taken to march forth and ravage the other provinces of the Illyrian peninsula. Continue reading “Alaric the ambitious; Stilicho the tactician; Honorius and Arcadius the incapable”
Theodosius fully appreciated the dangers of the Gothic problem, and he pursued unremittingly a policy of conciliation and friendship. Continue reading “Theodosius’ policy towards the Goths and its consequences on the Empire’s fate”
Our earliest notice of the Germans is found in the “Commentaries” by Julius Caesar, who twice invaded their country. About a century and a half later the Roman historian, Tacitus, wrote a little book called “Germany”, which gives an account of the people as they were before coming under the influence of Rome and Christianity. Continue reading “The Germans to 476 A.D. – Battle of Adrianople – The Visigothic kingdom”
