4.  The presence of a victorious leader, with one hundred thousand men, in the very centre of Italy, ought to have taught the imperial court at Raven’na prudence and moderation; but such was their incredible folly that they not only violated their engagements with Al’aric, but added personal insult to injury.  Rome was once more besieged, and as Al’aric had seized the provisions at Os’tia, on which the citizens depended for subsistence, the Romans were forced to surrender at discretion. 5.  At the instigation of the Gothic king, At’talus, the prefect of the city, was invested with the imperial purple, and measures were taken to compel Hono’rius to resign in his favour.  But At’talus proved utterly unworthy of a throne, and after a brief reign was publicly degraded; the rest of his life was passed in obscurity under the protection of the Goths. 6.  A favourable opportunity of effecting a peace was now offered, but it was again insolently rejected by the wretched Hono’rius, and a herald publicly proclaimed that in consequence of the guilt of Al’aric, he was for ever excluded from the friendship and alliance of the emperor.

7.  For the third time Al’aric proceeded to revenge the insults of the emperor on the unfortunate city of Rome.  The trembling senate made some preparations for defence but they were rendered ineffectual by the treachery of a slave, who betrayed one of the gates to the Gothic legions.  That city which had been for ages the mistress of the world, became the prey of ruthless barbarians, who spared, indeed, the churches and sanctuaries, but placed no other bound to their savage passions.  For six successive days the Goths revelled in the sack of the city; at the end of that period they followed Al’aric to new conquests and new devastations. 8.  The entire south of Italy rapidly followed the fate of the capital, and Al’aric determined to add Sicily to the list of his triumphs.  Before, however, his army could pass the Strait, he was seized with an incurable disease, and his premature death protracted for a season the existence of the Western empire.[2] 9.  Al’aric was succeeded by his brother Adol’phus, who immediately commenced negociations for a treaty; the peace was cemented by a marriage between the Gothic king and Placid’ia, the sister of the emperor.  The army of the invaders evacuated Italy, and Adol’phus, leading his soldiers into Spain, founded the kingdom of the Visigoths. 10.  Adolphus did not long survive his triumphs; Placid’ia returned to her brother’s court, and was persuaded to bestow her hand on Constan’tius, the general who had suppressed the rebellion of Constan’tine.  Britain, Spain, and part of Gaul had been now irrecoverably lost; Constan’tius, whose abilities might have checked the progress of ruin, died, after the birth of his second child; Placid’ia retired to the court of Constantinople, and at length Hono’rius, after a disgraceful reign of twenty-eight years, terminated his wretched life.