the emperor of the East, in three bloody battles, and after ravaging Thrace, Macedónia, and Greece, pursued his desolating march westward into Gaul, but was defeated by the Romans and their Gothic allies in the bloody battle of Chálons.' (A. D. 451.) The next year the Huns poured like a torrent upon Italy, and spread their ravages over all Lombardy. This visitation was the origin of the Venetian republic,' which was founded by the fugitives who fled at the terror of the name of At' tila.

58. The death of the Hunnic chief soon after this inroad, the civil wars among his followers, and the final extinction of the empire of the Huns, might have afforded the Romans an opportunity of escaping from the ruin which impended over them, if they had not been lost to all feelings of national honor. But they had admitted numerous bands of barbarians in their midst as confederates and allies; and these, courted by one faction, and opposed by another, became, ere long, the actual rulers of the country. The provinces were pillaged, the throne was shaken, and often overturned by seditions; and two years after the death of At' tila, Rome itself was XXXIV. THE taken and pillaged by a horde of Van' dals from Africa, VAN' DALS. conducted by the famous Gen' seric, who had been invited across the Mediterranean to avenge the insults which a Roman princessa had received from her own husband. (A. D. 455.)

1. Chalons (shah-long) is a city of France, on the river Marne, a branch of the Seine, ninetyfive miles east from Paris, and twenty-seven miles south-east from Rheims. It is situated in the middle of extensive meadows, which were formerly known as the Catalaunian fields, (Gibbon, iii. 340.) In the battle of Chalons the nations from the Caspian sea to the Atlantic fought together; and the number of the barbarians slain has been variously estimated at from one hundred and sixty-two thousand to three hundred thousand. (Map No. XIII.)

2. The origin of Venice dates from the invasion of Italy by the Huns, A. D. 452. The city is built on a cluster of numerous small islands in a shallow but extensive lagoon, in the northwestern part of the Adriat' ic, north of the Po and the Adige, about four miles from the main land. It is divided into two principal portions by a wide canal, crossed by the principal bridge in the city, the celebrated Rialto. Venice is traversed by narrow lanes instead of streets, seldom more than five or six feet in width but the grand thoroughfares are the canals; and gundolas, or canal boats, are the universal substitute for carriages.

Venice gradually became a wealthy and powerful independent commercial city, maintaining its freedom against Charlemagne and his successors, and yielding a merely nominal allegiance to the Greek emperors of Constantinople. Towards the middle of the fifteenth century the republic was mistress of several populous provinces in Lombardy,―of Crete and Cyprus-of the greater part of southern Greece, and most of the isles of the Egean sea; and it continued to engross the principal trade in Eastern products, till the discovery of a route to India by the Cape of Good-Hope turned this traffic into a new channel. From this period Venice rapidly declined. Stripped of independence and wealth, she now enjoys only a precarious existence, and is slowly sinking into the waves from which she arose. (Map No. VIII.)

a. Eudox'ia, the widow of Valentin' ian III., had been compelled to marry Max' imus, the rourderer, and successor in the empire, of her late husband, and it was she who invited the Van' dal chief to avenge her wrongs.

59. After the withdrawal of the Van' dals, which occurred the year of the death of Valentin' ian III., Av' itus, a Gaul, was installed

XXXV. AV' ITUS.

MAJO' RIAN.

Emperor by the influence of the gentle and humane Theod'oric, king of the Vis' igoths; but he was soon deposed by Ric' imer, the Gothic commander of the barbarian allies of the Romans. (A. D. 456.) The wise and beneficent Majórian was then advanced to the throne by Ric' imer; but his virtues were not appreciated by his subjects; and a sedition of the troops compelled him to lay down the sceptre after a reign of four years. (A. D. 461.)

60. Ric'imer then advanced one of his own creatures, Sevérus, to

XXXVI. SEVÉRUS.

the nominal sovereignty; but he retained all the powers of state in his own hands. Annually the Van' dals from Africa, having now the control of the Mediterranean, sent out from Carthage, their seat of empire, piratical vessels or fleets, which spread desolation and terror over the Italian coasts, and entered at will nearly every port in the Roman dominions. At length application for assistance was made to Leo, then sovereign of the Eastern empire, and a large armament was sent from Constantinople to Carthage. But the aged Gen' seric eluded the immediate danger by a truce with his enemies, and, in the obscurity of night, destroyed by fire almost the entire fleet of the unsuspecting Romans.

61. Amid the frequent revolutionary changes that were occurring in the sovereignty of the Western empire,a Roman freedom and dig nity were lost in the influence of the confederate barbarians, who formed both the defence and the terror of Italy. As the power of the Romans themselves declined, their barbarian allies augmented their demands and increased their insolence, until they finally insisted, with arms in their hands, that a third part of the lands of Italy should be divided among them. Under their leader Odoácer, a chief of the barbarian tribe of the Her' uli,' they overcame the little re

1. Of all the barbarians who threw themselves on the ruins of the Roman empire, it is most difficult to trace the origin of the Her' uli. Their names, the only remains of their language, are Gothic; and it is believed that they came originally from Scandinavia. They were a fierce people, who disdained the use of armor: their bravery was like madness: in war they showed no pity for age, nor respect for sex or condition. Among themselves there was the same "erocity: the sick and the aged were put to death at their own request, during a solemn festival; and the widow hung herself upon the tree which shadowed her husband's tomb. The Her' uli, though brave and formidable, were few in number, claiming to be mostly of royal blood; and they seem not so much a nation, as a confederacy of princes and nobles, bound by an oath to live and die together with their arms in their hands. (Gibbon, iii. 8; and Note, 495-6.)

a. The remaining sovereigns of the Western empire, down to the time of its subversion were Anthémius, Olyb' rius, Glycérus, Népos, and Augus' tulus.

sistance that was offered them; and the conqueror, abolishing the im. perial titles of Cæsar and Augustus, proclaimed him- XXXVII. SUBself king of Italy. (A. D. 476.) The Western em- VERSION OF pire of the Romans was subverted: Roman glory had THE WESTpassed away: Roman liberty existed only in the rememorance of the past: the rude warriors of Germany and Scythia pos. sessed the city of Romulus; and a barbarian occupied the palace of the Cæsars.

ERN EMPIRE.

CHAPTER II.

HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGES:

EXTENDING FROM THE OVERTHROW OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE OF THE ROMANS A. D. 476, TO THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA, A. D. 1492 = 1016 YEARS.

SECTION I.

GENERAL HISTORY, FROM THE OVERTHROW OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE OF THE ROMANS, TO THE BEGINNING OF THE TENTH CENTURY: 424 YEARS.

ANALYSIS. 1. INTRODUCTORY. The period embraced in the Middle Ages.-2. Unin structive character of its early history. At what period its useful history begins.-3. Extent of the barbarian irruptions. The Eastern Roman empire. Remainder of the Roman world.4. The possessions of the conquerors toward the close of the sixth century. The changes wrought by them. Plan of the present chapter.

5. THE MONARCHY OF THE HER' ULI. Its overthrow.-6. MONARCHY OF THE OS' TROGOTHS. Theod' oric. Treatment of his Roman and barbarian subjects.-7. General prosperity of his reign. Extent of his empire. The Os' trogoth and Vis' igoth nations again divided.-8. The successors of Theod' oric. The emperor of the East.-9. THE ERA OF JUSTIN' IAN. State of the kingdom. Persian war.-10. Justin' ian's armies. Absence of military spirit among the people.-11. African war. First expedition of Belisárius, and overthrow of the kingdom of the Van' dals. Fate of Gel' imer. His Van' dal subjects.-12. Sicily subdued. Belisarius advances into Italy. Besieged in Rome.-13. The Gothic king Vit' iges surrenders. Final reduction of Italy by Nar' ses.-14. Second war with Persia. Barbarian invasion repelled by Belisárius. Mournful fate of Belisarius. Death and character of Justin' ian.-15. His reign, why memorable. Its brightest ornament. Remark of Gibbon. History of the "Pandects and Code."-16. Subsequent history of the Eastern empire. Invasion of Italy by the Lombards.-17. THE LOMBARD MONARCHY. Its extent and character.-18. Period of general repose throughout Western Europe. Events in the East.-19. The darkness that rests upon European history at this period. Remark of Sismondi. The dawning light from Arabia.

20. THE SARACEN EMPIRE. History of the Arabians.-21. Ancient religion of the Arabs. Religious toleration in Arabia. [Judaism. The Magian idolatry.]-22. Mahomet begins to preach a new religion.-23. The declared medium of divine communication with him. Declared origin of the Koran.-24. The materials of the Koran. Chief points of Moslem faith. Punishment of the wicked. The Moslem paradise. Effects of the predestinarian doctrine of Mahomet. Practical part of the new religion. Miracles attributed to Mahomet. [Mecca.]-25. Beginning of Mahomet's preaching. The Hegira.-26. Mahomet at Medina. [Medina.] Progress of the new religion through out all Arabia. [Mussulman.]-27. The apostasy that followed Mahomet's death. Restoration of religious unity.-28. Saracen conquests in Persia and Syria. [Saracens. Bozrah.]-29. Conquest of all Syria. [Emes' sa. Baalbec. Yermouk. Aleppo.]-30. Conquest of Persia, and expiration of the dynasty of the Sassan' idæ. [Cadėsiah. Review of Persian History.]―31. Conquest of Egypt. Destruction of the Alexandrian library.—32. Death of Omar. Caliphate of Othman.-33. Military events of the reign of Othman. [Rhodes. Tripoli.] Othman's successors. Conquest of Carthage, and all northern Africa.-34. Introduction of the Saracens into Spain.-35. Defeat of Roderic, and final conquest of Spain. [Guadaléte. Guadalquiver. Merida.]—36 SarLeer encroachments in Gaul. Inroad of Abdelrahman. [The Pyrenees.]—37. Over

throw of the Saracen hosts by Charles Martel. Importance of this victory. [Tours. Poictiers.] -33. The Eastern Saracens at this period. [Hindostan.] Termination of the civil power of the central caliphate.-39. The power that next prominently occupies the field of history.

40. MOMARCHY OF THE FRANKS: its origin. [Tournay. Cambray. Terouane. Cologne.] Clovis. Extent of his monarchy. [Soissons. Paris.]-41. Religious character of Clovis. His barbarities.-42. The descen lants of Clovis, Royal murders. Regents. Charles Martel. Pepin, the first monarch of the Carlovingian dynasty. [Papal authority.]-43. The reign, and the character, of Pepin. His division of the kingdom.-44. First acts of the reign of Charlemagne. [The Loire.] The Saxons. Motives that led Charlemagne to declare war against them. [The Elbe.]-45. His first irruption into their territory. [Weser.] History of Witikind. Saxon rebellion. Changes produced by these Saxon wars.-46. Causes of the war with the Lombards. Overthrow of the Lombard kingdom. [Geneva. Pavia.]-47. Charlemagne's expedition into Spain. [Catalónia. Pampelùna. Saragos' sa. Roncesvalles.]-48. Additional conquests. Charlemagne crowned emperor at Rome.--49. Importance of this event. General character of the reign of Charlemagne. [Aix-la-Chapelle.] His private life. His cruelties. Concluding estimate.-50. Causes that led to the division of the empire of Charlemagne.-51. Invasion of the Northmen.-52. Ravages of the Hungarians. The Saracens on the Mediterranean coasts. Changes, and increasing confusion, in European society. The island of Britain.

53. ENGLISH HISTORY. Saxon conquests. Saxon Heptarchy.-54. Introduction and spread of Christianity.-55. Union of the Saxon kingdoms. Reign of Egbert, and ravages of the Northmen.-56. The successors of Egbert. Accession of Alfred. State of the kingdom.-57. Alfred withdraws from public life-lives as a peasant-visits the Danish camp.-58. Defeats the Danes, and overthrows the Danish power. Defence of the kingdom.-59. Limited sovereignty of Alfred. Danish invasion under Hastings. The Danes withdraw. Alfred's power at the time of his death.-60. Institutions, character, and laws, of Alfred.

1. The "Middle Ages," to which it is impossible to fix accurate limits, may be considered as embracing that dark and I. INTROgloomy period of about a thousand years, extending from DUCTORY. the fall of the Western empire of the Romans nearly to the close of the fifteenth century, at which point we detect the dawn of mod ern civilization, and enter upon the clearly-marked outlines of modern history.a

2. The history of Europe during several centuries after the overthrow of the Western Roman empire offers little real instruction to repay the labor of wading through the intricate and bloody annals of a barbarous age. The fall of the Roman empire had carried away with it ancient civilization; and during many generations, the elements of society which had been disruptured by the surges of barbarian power, continued to be widely agitated, like the waves of the ocean, long after the fury of the storm has passed. It is only when the victors and the vanquished, inhabitants of the same country, had become fused into one people, and a new order of things, new bonds of society, and new institutions began to be developed, that the useful history of the Middle Ages begins.

3. We must bear in mind that it was not Italy alone that was

a. "The ten centuries, from the fifth to the fifteenth, seem, in a general point of view, to constitute the period of the Middle Ages.”—Hallam.