EFFECTS OF THE FIRST TRUMPET.

In 395 Alaric and his Goths, &c., invaded Macedonia, sparing neither cities nor men. From thence he went into Thessaly, and having seized upon the Straits of Thermopylae, he marched into Achaia, destroying all the cities, except Thebes and Athens. From thence he invaded Peloponnesus, and laid waste Corinth, Argos, and Sparta. From thence he marched into Epirus, which he ravaged in like manner. The next year he returned to Achaia, plundering and setting their towns on fire for full four years together.

Passing through Dalmatia and Pannonia, he spread his desolations far and wide. Jerom, who lived in these days, thus laments the miseries of the suffering empire:

“My soul,” says he, “is astonished at the recollection of the ruins of our times. For more than these twenty years, what quantities of Roman blood have been daily shed between Constantinople and the Alps! Scythia, Thrace, Macedonia, Dardania, Dacia, Thessalonia, Achaia, Epirus, Dalmatia, every part of Pannonia: —all these have been laid waste by the Goths, Sarmatians, Quadi, Alans, Hunns, Vandals, and Marcomanni. What numbers of matrons, what number of virgins have been made the sport of these beasts. The bishops, the priests, the clergy of all degrees, have been taken and slain. —Churches are demolished! Horses are stabled at the Altars of Christ. The remains of the martyrs are dug up. In all places are lamentations and groanings. Everywhere is the image of death! The Roman World is fallen! What courage is there now, do you think, among the Corinthians, the Athenians, the Lacedemonians, the Arcadians, over whom these Barbarians now triumph?”— Jerom Epist. Ad Heliodor. Tom. I. fol. 18.

In 401 Alaric prevailed so much in Italy, that almost all men were obliged to leave their habitations. In 410, Alaric took Rome, plundered and set it on fire and destroyed the idols of the city, in which they were assisted by a thunderstorm, which broke in pieces the images which were worshipped there.— Orosius lib. 2, c. 19, p. 164, and lib. 7, c. 39, p. 222.