The Goths, from the earliest times to the end of the Gothic dominion in Spain . ed, at the age of only thirty-five years. With bitter lamentation the Goths bewailed thedeath of their young hero. They knew that he hadleft behind him no successor who could carry out hismighty plans, and that the dominion of Italy could 8 gS ALARIC THE BALTHING. never be theirs. But, while they looked forward toforsaking the country, they resolved to make surethat the sepulchre of their beloved king should notbe violated by the hands of their enemies. Theycarried his dead body to the banks of the little riverBuse
The Goths, from the earliest times to the end of the Gothic dominion in Spain . ed, at the age of only thirty-five years. With bitter lamentation the Goths bewailed thedeath of their young hero. They knew that he hadleft behind him no successor who could carry out hismighty plans, and that the dominion of Italy could 8 gS ALARIC THE BALTHING. never be theirs. But, while they looked forward toforsaking the country, they resolved to make surethat the sepulchre of their beloved king should notbe violated by the hands of their enemies. Theycarried his dead body to the banks of the little riverBusento, which flows by the town of Cosenza. Theycompelled their multitude of prisoners to dig out anew channel for the river, and in its deserted bedthey made a grave for their king, burying with hima vast treasure of gold and silver, costly garments,and weapons of war. Then the river was turnedback into its former channel, and the captives whohad done the work were put to death, so that noRoman should ever know the spot where rested theremains of Alaric, king of the XL KING ATAWULF AND HIS ROMAN QUEEN. We must here for a moment interrupt our narrativeto glance at certain events that had been taking placein the eastern empire while Alaric was fightingin Greece and Italy. The colony of Ostrogoths,whom Theodosius had planted in Asia Minor had,in the year 399, rebelled under a leader named Tri-bigild ; the imperial general Gaina, himself a Goth,who was sent to subdue the rebels, ended by joiningthem, and becoming their chief. He crossed with hisfollowers into Thrace, and excited great alarm atConstantinople, but was finally defeated, in thebeginning of 401, by the king of the Huns, whosent the head of Gaina to the emperor as a sign ofhis friendly intentions. But all this has little bearingon the general history of the Goths, and after thisbrief digression we may continue the story of Alaricsfollowers, whom we left lamenting the loss of theirbeloved king, beside the river
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectgoths, bookyear1887
