against the Sicilians, they then also fought among themselves, until Darius, king of the Persians, because of the wars of his forefathers, came to the help of the Lacedæmonians against the Athenians. Was it a great wonder, that all the power of the Persians, and of the Lacedæmonians could more easily lay waste the city of Athens, than make that people yield to their wills?

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2. Soon after that, in the same year, Darius, king of the Persians died; and his two sons Artaxerxes and Cyrus fought about the kingdom, till one of them drew most of the people against the other, and they carried on the quarrel with battles, until Cyrus, the younger of them, was slain.-In those days,' there was a city in Africa, which was near the sea, until a sea-flood came and laid it waste, and drowned the people.

BOOK II: CHAPTER VIII.

1. Three1 hundred and fifty-five years after the building of Rome, [B. C. 398] the Romans beset the city Veii, ten years. The siege did more harm to them, than to those who were within both in hunger and in cold; moreover, they themselves were often pillaged, as well as their land at home. They would then have soon perished before their enemies, if they had not broken into the city by a device, which was most shameful, though it was afterwards thought most worthy of them; that was to dig under the earth, from their camp until they came up within the city, and stole upon them by night, in the first sleep, and altogether laid the city waste. This useful device, though it was not honourable, was found out by their Dictator, Camillus.

2

2. Soon afterwards there was the war of the Romans, and of the Gauls, who were from the city Sena, which at first arose, because the Gauls had besieged the city, Tuscia. The Romans then sent ambassadors to the Gauls, and asked them to make peace with them. After they had thus spoken, on the same day, the Gauls attacked the city. When they saw the Roman ambassadors fighting against them with the town's-people, they were so

8 Abridged from Oros. 1. II: c. 18, Haver. p. 138, 139.

9 Oros. is more precise,-Tunc etiam Atalante civitas, Locris adhærens, terræ contigua, repentino maris inpetu abscissa, atque in insulam desolata est. Haver. p. 139, 14.

1 Oros. 1. II: c. 19, Haver. p. 143-143.

2 Galli Senones, urbem Clusini, quæ nunc Tuscia dicitur, obsederunt. Oros. 1. II: c. 19, Haver. p. 140, 12. 13.

angry at it, that they left the city; and, with all their forces, marched against the Romans. Fabius the consul, came against them in battle, and he was soon after chased into the city of Rome, and the Gauls followed him, till they were all within it. Just as if one were mowing a meadow, they were slaying without any regard, and pillaging the city. The remembrance of the slaying of the consul, Fabius, is still kept up in the name of the river.

3. "I ween," said Orosius, "that not any man can tell the harm, which was done to the Romans, at that time, even if they had not burnt the city, as they then did. The few, that were left there, gave a thousand pounds of gold for their lives; and they did that chiefly, because they thought that they should afterwards be their subjects. Some fled into that fastness, which they called Capitolium. They beset these, till some of them died of hunger, others fell into their hands, and they afterwards sold them to other people for money."

4. "How," said Orosius, " does it now seem to you, who slander the times of Christianity? After the Gauls went out of the city, then what joyful times the Romans had! when the wretches, who were left there, crept out of the holes in which they lurked, and so wailed, as if they had come from the other world, when they looked around upon the burnt and wasted city; so that they then had a peculiar dread, where they formerly had the greatest joy. Besides this evil, they had neither food within, nor friend without."

5. "These were the times, after which the Romans now sigh, and say that the Goths have made worse times, than they had before, although they plundered them only for three days; and the Gauls were formerly plundering within the city, and burning it, for six months; and still, they thought that they had not done them harm enough, unless they also took away their name, that they should be no more a people. Moreover, the Goths, for the honour of Christianity, and through the fear of God, plundered there a less time, and neither burnt the city, nor had the wish to take from them their name, nor would they harm any of those, who had fled to the house of God, though they were heathens;

3 Oros. has Fabius, but Haver. says, "Nullus Fabius hoc tempore consul fuit"; sed eo anno, quo Roma capta est, tres Fabii Tribuni militum consulari potestate fuerunt. Haver. p. 141, note 9.

but had much rather that they would settle among

them in peace.

In former times, scarcely any could flee away, or hide themselves from the Gauls. When the Goths plundered them, for a little while, one could only hear of few being slain. There was seen God's anger, when their brazen beams and their statues could not be destroyed by the fire of the Gauls; but, at the same time, fire from heaven consumed them."

6. "Now," said Orosius, " as I have a long story to tell, I think I cannot end it in this book, I shall therefore begin another."

BOOK III: CHAPTER I.

1. Three hundred and fifty-seven years after the building of Rome [Orosius, B. C. 389: Alfred, B. C. 396], in the days, in which the Gauls had laid Rome waste, the chief and most shameful peace was made between the Persians and the Lacedæmonians, in the country of Greece. After the Lacedæmonians had often overcome the Persians, then the Persians proposed, that they should have peace with them, for three years, and with all who wished, and whoever would not, that they would wage war against them. The Lacedæmonians gladly agreed to that peace, for they had little fear from such an agreement. Hence it may be clearly understood, how great a wish they had for the war, as their bards sang in their lays, and in their false stories. "Does not such a war seem pleasant to thee," said Orosius," and the times more so, that one's enemy may so easily be restrained by words?" After the Lacedæmonians had overcome the city of the Athenians -their own people,-they raised themselves up, and began to wage war on every side, both against their own countrymen and against the Persians, and against Asia the Less, and against the city of Athens, which they had formerly laid waste for, the few that had fled out of it, had entered into the city again, and had drawn over the Thebans, a people of Greece, to help them. The Lacedæmonians were so lifted up, that they themselves, and all the neighbouring nations thought, that they could have power over them all. But the Athenians, with the help of the Thebans, withstood them, and beat them in battle.

2. After that, the Lacedæmonians chose, for their leader, Der

4 Alfred omits the preface of Orosius to this third book. Chapter I, paragraphs 1—4, are abridged from Oros. 1. III: c. 1, Haver. p. 146-152.

cyllidas, [B. C. 397] and sent him into Persia with forces to fight against them. The Persians then came against him with their two officers: one was called Pharnabazus, the other Tissaphernes. As soon as the leader of the Lacedæmonians knew, that he must fight against two armies, it seemed to him more reasonable to make peace with one, that he might, the more easily, overcome the other. He did so, and sent his messenger to the one, and told him to say, that he wished more earnestly for peace, than for war. The officer then, in good faith, received the messenger with peace; and the Lacedæmonians, the while, routed the other officer.

3. Afterwards the king of the Persians took his power from the officer, who had before made peace with the Lacedæmonians, and gave it to a man, banished from Athens, a city of Greece, who was named Conon, and sent him with a fleet from the Persians against the Lacedæmonians. The Lacedæmonians sent to the Egyptians, and asked help from them; and they gave them one hundred large boats with three rows of oars. The Lacedæmonians had, for their leader, a wise, though a lame man, who was called Agesilaus; and they had a by-word" that they would rather have a lame king, than a lame kingdom." They afterwards engaged on the sea, and there fought so very fiercely, that they were nearly all killed, and neither could gain the victory. There the power and the glory of the Lacedæmonians were laid low. "I ween,” said Orosius, "that not any two leaders fought more equally."

4. After that, Conon again led an army upon the Lacedæmonians; and in all things he utterly laid waste the land outside the city; so that they, who formerly yearned for power over other nations abroad, then thought it well if they could keep themselves from slavery at home. One of the Lacedæmonian leaders was called Lysander: he attacked Conon with ships, when he went from the Lacedæmonians, and there was much slaughter of the people on both sides. So many of the Lacedæmonians were slain there, that, afterwards, they neither kept their name, nor their power. But their fall was the rise of the Athenians, so that they were able to revenge the old wrongs which, in former days, they often bore. They and the Thebans gathered themselves together, and attacked the Lacedæmonians in battle, and routed them, and drove them into their city, and afterwards besieged them. Then the citizens sent to Agesilaus, who was with their army in Asia, and begged that

he would quickly come home and help them. He did so, and came suddenly upon the Athenians and routed them. The Athenians were then in great dread, lest the Lacedæmonians, because of the little advantage which they had gained, should reign over them, as they did formerly. They, therefore, sent into Persia after Conon and prayed that he would help them. He granted their prayer, and came to them with a great fleet and destroyed almost all the Lacedæmonians, and made them feel that they were both poor and weak. After that, Conon came to Athens, his old birth-place; and he was welcomed there with great joy by the citizens. He there caused a lasting remembrance of himself, by forcing both the Persians and the Lacedæmonians to repair the city, which they had formerly sacked, and also by bringing the Lacedæmonians, who before had long been their enemies, to be thenceforth under the city of Athens. It was after these wars, that the Persians offered peace to all the people of Greece. It was not because they wished to do them any good; but because, being at war with the Egyptians, they thought to bring that war the more easily to an end.

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5. But the Lacedæmonians, in the mean time, had a greater wish for war, than the power, and rather made war on the Thebans, than sought their help; and stole up on them with small bands, until they overcame the city of the Arcadians. After that, the Thebans marched against them with an army, and the Lacedæmonians brought another against them. When they had fought for a long time, then the general of the Lacedæmonians called to the Arcadians, and besought them to stop the fight, that they might bury the dead, which were slain. It is a custom with the Greeks, that by this saying it is shewn which side has the victory.

6. Thus I wished to tell, said Orosius, how the war of the Greeks was first raised from the city of the Lacedæmonians,—and, in the language of history, to describe it,-first against the city of the Athenians, and then against the Thebans,-the Boeotians,-and the Macedonians: these were all people of Greece: then against

5 Abridged from Oros. 1. III: c. 3, Haver. p. 152–155.

6 Orosius is more explicit:-In eo prælio Archidamus, dux Lacedæmoniorum, vulneratus, quum jam cædi suos ut victos videret, occisorum corpora per præconem ad sepulturam poscit: quod signum victoriæ traditæ inter Græcos haberi solet. Thebani autem ha confessione contenti, dato parcendi signo finem dedere certamini. Haver. p. 153, 3-8.