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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. For the third time Al'aric proceeded to revenge the insults of the emperor on the unfortunate city of Rome.
The national hatred between the Greeks and the Romans was excited by the rival ministers, and thus at a moment when union alone would delay ruin, the subjects of Arca'dius and Hono'rius were induced to regard each other not only as foreigners, but as enemies. 9.
But before Stil'icho could return, the empire had been brought to the very brink of ruin; Hono'rius, affrighted by the approach of the Goths, fled from Milan to As'ta, and was there closely besieged. When the town was on the point of capitulating, the emperor was saved by the opportune arrival of Stil'icho, before whom Alaric retired.
Hono'rius, a youth in his eleventh year, received the nominal sovereignty of Italy, Africa, Gaul, Spain, and Britain, with the provinces of No'ricum, Panno'nia, and Dalma'tia.
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.
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.
Stil'icho, a general of superior abilities, and a statesman of profound wisdom, acted as the guardian of Hono'rius. He was descended from the perfidious race of the Vandals, and unfortunately possessed, in an eminent degree, the cunning, treachery, and cruelty that characterised his nation.
The late invasion so alarmed the timid Hono'rius, that he resolved to fix his residence in some remote and strong fortress; and for this purpose he selected Raven'na, an ancient city, but which had not previously obtained notoriety. 16.
The feeble Hono'rius would have fled with his effeminate court into some remote corner of Gaul, had not the indignant remonstrances of Stil'icho induced him to remain, until he could assemble forces sufficient to protect the empire.
The memory of their father's virtues protected the feeble youth of Arca'dius and Hono'rius, the sons of Theodo'sius; by the unanimous consent of mankind, they were saluted emperors of the East and West, and between them was made the final and permanent division of the Roman empire.
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