242 THE DECLINE AND FALL Rufinus had devolved the government of Greece, confirmed the public suspicion that he had betrayed the ancient seat of freedom and learning to the Gothic invader. The proconsul Antiochus was the unworthy son of a respectable father ; and Gerontius, who commanded the provincial troops, was much better qualified to execute the oppressive orders of a tyrant than to defend, with courage and ability, a country most remarkably fortified by the [End of hand of nature. Alaric had traversed, without resistance, the A^D 3951 plains of Macedonia and Thessaly, as far as the foot of Mount Oeta, a steep and woody range of hills, almost impervious to his cavalry. They stretched from East to West, to the edge of the seashore ; and left, between the precipice and the Malian Gulf, an interval of three hundred feet, which, in some places, was contracted to a road capable of admitting only a single carriage.^ In this narrow pass of Themiopylae, where Leonidas and the three hundred Spartans had gloriously devoted their lives, the Goths might have been stopped, or destroyed, by a skilful general ; and perhaps the view of that sacred spot might have kindled some sparks of military ardour in the breasts of the degenerate Greeks. The troops which had been posted to defend the streights of Thermoj^ylae retired, as they were directed, without attempting to disturb the secure and rapid passage of Alaric ; " and the fertile fields of Phocis and Boeotia wei*e instantly covered by a deluge of barbarians, who massacred the males of an age to bear arms, and drove away the beautiful females, with the spoil and cattle, of the flaming villages. The travellers wiio visited Greece several years afterwards could easily discover the deep and bloody traces of the march of the Goths ; and Thebes was less indebted for her preservation to the strength of her seven gates than to the eager haste of Alaric, who advanced to occupy the city of Athens and the important harbour of the Piraeus. The same impatience urged him to prevent the delay and danger of a siege, by the offer of a capitulation : and, as soon as the Athenians heard the voice of the Gothic herald, they were easily persuaded to deliver the greatest part of their wealth, as the ransom of the city of Minerva and its inhabitants. The treaty was ratified by solemn oaths, and observed with mutual fidelity. The Gothic prince, with a small ^ Compare Herodotus (1. vii. c. 176) and Livy (xxxvi. 15). The narrow entrance of Greece was probably enlarged by each successive ravisher. [The sea has re- treated far from the pass. ] 7 He passed, says Eunapius (in Vit. Philosoph. p. 93, edit. Commelin, 1596), through the streights, 5ia rHiy irv^Civ (of Thermopylas) n-aprjAeef, ajo-n-cp iio O-Todiou Koi ijrrroKpoToi; ireSiov Tpix<^v. [On Alaric in Grcecc, cp. />pp. 15.3
