OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 277 of four hundred years, appeared on this important occasion to be inspired by the courage, rather than by the wisdom, of their predecessors. They loudly declared, in regular speeches, or in tumultuary acclamations, that it was unworthy of the majesty of Rome to purchase a precarious and disgraceful truce from a Barbarian king ; and that, in the judgment of a magnanimous people, the chance of ruin was always preferable to the cei-tainty of dishonour. The minister, whose pacific intentions were seconded only by the voices of a few servile and venal followers, attempted to allay the general ferment, by an apology for his own conduct, and even for the demands of the Gothic prince. " The payment of a subsidy, which had excited the indignation of the Romans, ought not (such was the language of Stilicho) to be considered in the odious light either of a tribute or of a ransom, extorted by the menaces of a Barbarian enemy. Alaric had faithfully asserted the just pretensions of the republic to the provinces which were usurped by the Greeks of Constanti- nople ; he modestly required the fair and stipulated recompense of his services ; and, if he had desisted from the prosecution of his enterprise, he had obeyed, in his retreat, the peremptory though private letters of the emperor himself. These contra- dictory orders (he would not dissemble the errors of his own family) had been procured by the intercession of Serena. The tender piety of his wife had been too deeply affected by the discord of the royal brothers, the sons of her adopted father ; and the sentiments of nature had too easily prevailed over the stern dictates of the public Avelfare." These ostensible reasons, which faintly disguise the obscure intrigues of the palace of Ravenna, were supported by the authority of Stilicho ; and ob- tained, after a warm debate, the reluctant approbation of the senate. The tumult of virtue and freedom subsided ; and the sum of four thousand pounds of gold was granted, under the name of a subsidy, to secure the peace of Italy, and to conciliate the friendship of the king of the Goths. Lampadius alone, one of the most illustrious members of the assembly, still persisted in his dissent ; exclaimed with a loud voice, " This is not a treaty of peace, but of servitude " ; '^^'^ and escaped the danger of such bold opposition b}' immediately retiring to the sanctuary of a Christian church. But the reign of Stilicho drew towards its end, and the proud intrigues of " ' the palace. A.D. 408, 105 Zosimus, ]. V. p. 338, 339 [c. 29]. He repeats the words of Lampadius, as May they were spoke in Latin, " Non est ista pax, sad pactio servitutis," and then translates them into Greek for the benefit of his readers.
