by
an enormous ransom. Honorius refused to confirm the treaty, and the next
year Alaric once more appeared before the city. He took possession of
Ostia, the port of Rome, reduced the Senate to surrender, and proclaimed
Attalus emperor. Honorius still refusing to yield to his demands, Alaric
resolved to punish Rome for the vices of its emperor. The sack of that
city now followed, one of the most fearful tragedies in history.

No foreign enemy had appeared before the gates of Rome since the
invasion of Hannibal, until Alaric made his successful inroad into
Italy. The city still retained all that magnificence with which it had
been invested by the emperors. The Colosseum, the baths, the aqueducts,
the palaces of the Senators, the public gardens, and the ancient
temples, still remained; but its people were lost in luxury and vice.
Learning was no longer respected among them, the gamester or the cook
being more esteemed than philosophers or poets; and the luxurious
Senators passed their lives in frivolous and degrading amusements. The
indolent people were maintained by a daily distribution of bread, baked
in the public ovens; and oil, wine, and bacon were also provided for
them during a part of the year. The public baths were open to the
people, and for a small copper coin they might enter those scenes of
luxury where the walls were incrusted with precious marble, and
perpetual streams of hot water flowed from silver tubes. From the bath
they passed to the Circus, where, although the combats of gladiators had
been suppressed by Christian princes, a succession of amusements was
still provided. In this manner the luxurious nobles and people of Rome
passed their tranquil, inglorious lives.

The wealth of the capital was such as might well attract the barbarous
invader. The palaces of the Senators were filled with gold and silver
ornaments, and the churches had been enriched by the contributions of
pious worshipers. Many of the nobles possessed estates which produced
several hundred thousand dollars a year, and the wealth of the world was
gathered within the walls of its capital.

We have no means of estimating accurately the population of Rome. Its
walls embraced a circuit of twenty-one miles, and it is probable that
nearly a million of people were contained within the walls and the
suburbs.

Such was the condition of Rome when it was about to fall before the arms
of the barbarians. August 24th, A.D. 410, Alaric approached