treaty; and the proposals, which he
more clearly expressed during the course of the negotiations, could only
inspire a doubt of his sincerity, as they might seem inadequate to
the state of his fortune. The Barbarian still aspired to the rank
of master-general of the armies of the West; he stipulated an annual
subsidy of corn and money; and he chose the provinces of Dalmatia,
Noricum, and Venetia, for the seat of his new kingdom, which would have
commanded the important communication between Italy and the Danube. If
these modest terms should be rejected, Alaric showed a disposition to
relinquish his pecuniary demands, and even to content himself with
the possession of Noricum; an exhausted and impoverished country,
perpetually exposed to the inroads of the Barbarians of Germany. But the
hopes of peace were disappointed by the weak obstinacy, or interested
views, of the minister Olympius. Without listening to the salutary
remonstrances of the senate, he dismissed their ambassadors under the
conduct of a military escort, too numerous for a retinue of honor, and
too feeble for any army of defence. Six thousand Dalmatians, the flower
of the Imperial legions, were ordered to march from Ravenna to Rome,
through an open country which was occupied by the formidable myriads of
the Barbarians. These brave legionaries, encompassed and betrayed, fell
a sacrifice to ministerial folly; their general, Valens, with a hundred
soldiers, escaped from the field of battle; and one of the ambassadors,
who could no longer claim the protection of the law of nations, was
obliged to purchase his freedom with a ransom of thirty thousand
pieces of gold. Yet Alaric, instead of resenting this act of impotent
hostility, immediately renewed his proposals of peace; and the second
embassy of the Roman senate, which derived weight and dignity from the
presence of Innocent, bishop of the city, was guarded from the dangers
of the road by a detachment of Gothic soldiers.

Olympius might have continued to insult the just resentment of a people
who loudly accused him as the author of the public calamities; but his
power was undermined by the secret intrigues of the palace. The favorite
eunuchs transferred the government of Honorius, and the empire, to
Jovius, the Praetorian praefect; an unworthy servant, who did not atone,
by the merit of personal attachment, for the errors and misfortunes
of his administration. The exile, or escape, of the guilty Olympius,
re