OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
387
of Augustus , he had assured Philip by a private chap.
message, of his innocence and loyalty, solemnly__
protesting, that on his arrival in Italy , he wouldresign the imperial ornaments, and return to theconditionof anobedientsubject. His professionsmight be sincere; but in the situation wherefortune had placed him, it was scarcely possiblethat he could either forgive or be forgiven.'
The emperoi Decius had employed a few He march-months in the works of peace and the adini-the Goths ,nistration of justice, when he was summoned to A " 2j °'the banks of the Danube by the invasion of theGoths . This is the first considerable occasionin which history mentions that great people,who afterwards broke the Roman power, sack-ed the capitol, and reigned in Gaul, Spain , andItaly . So memorable Avas the part Avhich theyacted in the subversion of the Western empire,that the name of Goths is frequently, but impro-perly, used as a general appellation of rude andwarlike barbarism.
In the beginning of the sixth century, and 0li s inof
alter the conquest of Italy, the Goths , in pos-from scan,session of present greatness, very naturally in- dina ' ,ld 'dulged themselves in the prospect of past andof future glory. They wished to preserve thememory of their ancestors, and to transmit toposterity their own achievements. The princi-pal minister of the court of Ravenna, the learn-ed Cassiodorus , gratified the inclination of theconquerors in a Gothic history, which consisted
c Zosimus, 1. i, p. 20. Zonaras , 1. xii, p. 624. Edit. Louvre.
c c 2