nions on his death to his sons GRATIAN and VALENTINIAN II., A. D. 375. Both were overpowered by rebels'; the latter by the Frank Arbogastes, A.D. 392. VALENS, weak and cruel, greatly favoured the Arians. He allowed the Visigoths', whom the advance of the Huns had driven upon his frontier, to cross the Danube, and settle in Moesia. Owing to his mismanagement, they revolted; and he was defeated and killed at the deadly battle of Adrianople, A. D. 378. THEODOSIUS, who was named by Gratian to succeed VALENS, repelled the barbarians, sometimes by his arms, often by his skilful policy. The death of Valentinian II., which he avenged, left him master of the whole empire. He was baptized, A. D. 380, and was the first orthodox emperor. He put down the Pagans and the Arians, and established Christianity as the religion of the state. He was, however, once excluded from the communion of the church by Ambrose, archbishop of Milan, on account of the barbarous severity with which he had punished the people of Thessalonica for the foul murder of his officers; east, A. D. 351; but he showed himself unfit to reign, and was put to death three years afterwards. 9 Gratian fell in a war against Maximus, who had led an army of Britons into Gaul, A. D. 383. Maximus was acknowledged emperor of Britain, Gaul, and Spain, by Theodosius; but, when he drove Valentinian II. out of Italy, being attacked by Theodosius, he lost his life, A. D. 388. 1 The Visigoths and Ostrogoths, i. e. the West and East Goths, were branches of the Goths, a race which from Scandinavia had migrated to the banks of the Vistula, and thence to the Ukraine. The Vandal races, which at first occupied the country between the Elbe and the Vistula, were of kindred blood. The Ostrogoths, under Hermanric, had made the Visigoths tributaries; but their empire was now broken up by the Huns, A. D. 376. The Huns were a Scythian or Tartar race from the borders of China. and he showed the sincerity of his repentance by an act of public penance. A. D. 395. Honorius and Arcadius. Final Division of the Empire. 406. Battle of Florence; Radagaise beheaded. 408. Murder of Stilicho. 410. Alaric sacks Rome. On the death of this great emperor, A. D. 395, the empire was divided for the last time between HONORIUS and ARCADIUS, his degenerate sons. Honorius, who reigned over the west, was successfully defended by the famous Stilicho against Alaric, the newly elected king of the Visigoths, and also against Radagaise, who had rushed into Italy at the head of a host of Vandals and other nations, whom the progress of the Huns had forced to emigrate. Radagaise was overpowered at Florence, A. D. 406,-a victory which saved Italy, but could not deter the barbarians from settling in Gaul and Spain. The base murder of Stilicho increased the confusion of the empire'; and at length Rome itself was sacked by Alaric and the Visigoths, A. D. 410. But, on the death of their king soon afterwards, the Visigoths agreed to go and oppose the Vandal invaders of Spain, and Aquitaine was ceded to them. A. D. 423. Honorius dies. (425. Valentinian III.) 451. Battle of Châlons. 453. Death of Attila. 454. Etius murdered. 455. Maximus. Genseric sacks Rome. 472. Ricimer sacks Rome, and dies. VALENTINIAN III., while yet a youth, succeeded his uncle Honorius, who died A. D. 423. During his minority, About this time Britain was also lost. Africa was lost, Genseric and the Vandals in Spain having been invited to invade it by Count Boniface, an officer who had been recalled by the intrigues of Ætius3, his rival'. The Huns under Attila, "the scourge of God," who alone of all conquerors ruled over the nations of Germany and Scythia, next burst upon the empire. Attila was repulsed at Châlons by Etius, who had the aid of the Visigoths and Franks, A. D. 451; but the year after, he invaded Italy and made dreadful ravages, on which the timid Valentinian was glad to purchase peace. Attila died shortly afterwards, and the power of the Huns fell to pieces. VALENTINIAN basely murdered Ætius, and was himself killed, A. D. 455, by Maximus, a senator of noble birth, whom he had wronged. MAXIMUS forced Eudoxia, the emperor's widow, to marry him; but she revenged herself by calling on Genseric and the African Vandals to invade Italy. He lost his life in a tumult, and Rome was pillaged by the Vandals, A. D. 455. The real power of the state now fell into the hands of Ricimer, who, being a barbarian and disqualified for the purple, governed in the name of emperors whom he created and deposed. In the course of one of these outbreaks, he plundered Rome, A. D. 472, soon after which he died from intemperance. A few more feeble emperors rapidly succeeded, the last of whom, ROMULUS AUGUSTUS, or AUGUSTULUS, was deposed by his barbarian troops. Thus the western empire came to an end, A. D. 476. A. D. 493. The Ostrogoths conquer Italy. 534. Belisarius conquers the Vandals. 3 More correctly, Aëtius. 4 Ætius afterwards attacked Boniface, who had been pardoned for what he had done: the latter fell at the moment that victory was about to declare for him, A.D. 432. A.D. 552. Narses defeats Totila the Ostrogoth. 5 569. The Lombards conquer the north of Italy. 1453. Fall of the Eastern Empire. After the death of the children of ARCADIUS, the eastern empire greatly declined until the days of JUSTINIAN, whose generals, Belisarius, and the eunuch Narses, recovered Africa and Italy from the Vandals and Ostrogoths", about the middle of the sixth century. Italy was soon lost again"; and the provinces in Asia and Africa fell a prey to the Saracens of Arabia, the followers of the false prophet Mahomet who began his career A. D. 622. After the fall of the Saracens, the empire somewhat revived. But it was overthrown at length by the Turks, when their sultan Mahomet II. took Constantinople, and the last emperor CONSTANTINE PALEOLOGUS nobly died, A. D. 1453. 5 Also called the Greek Empire. 6 Odoacer, the chief who had deposed Augustulus, and who called himself king of the Heruli, was overcome by the Ostrogoths, who under Theodoric conquered Italy, A. D. 493. 7 The Lombards, a Vandal race, under Alboin, conquered the north of Italy. 8 His flight from Mecca to Medina, where he was first received as a prophet, is called the Hegira. 132 PART III. HISTORY OF ENGLAND. THE BRITONS AND ROMANS. B. C. 55 [and 54] Cæsar invades Britain. A. D. 43. Claudius undertakes the conquest of Britain. 61. Paulīnus conquers Mona. Revolt of Boadicea. 62. Death of Boadicea. 78 to 85. Agricola reduces South Britain. 121. Wall of Adrian; 146. Wall of Antonine; 208. Wall of Severus. 412. The Romans abandon Britain. 449. The Saxons enter England. THE Britons, the original inhabitants of England, were partly Cimbric, partly Belgic'. They were governed by a number of chiefs, and were very much under the influence of their priests or Druids. The rites of their religion were bloody, and their manners barbarous'. 1 The Belga, who were settled in the southern and eastern parts of the island, were agricultural, and far more civilized than the rest of the natives, who lived on the milk and flesh of their flocks, or even on what they could get by hunting. These last were clad in the skins of beasts, and their half-naked bodies were tattooed with woad. * Among the Druids were a class of poets called Bards. The oak |