Notwithstanding this dismal situation, we hear of no plague invading the camp of the Romans at that time. The wars, however, continued with great violence; and, in the time of Valentinian, Valens and Gratian, became worse than ever. The dreadful state of the empire in the time of Gratian is thus described by St. Jerom: “The whole country, from Constantinople to the Julian Alps, has been swimming these twenty years in Roman blood. Scythia, Thrace, Macedon, Dardania, Dacia, Thessaly, Achaia, both Epiruses, Dalmatia, both Pannonias, are filled with Goths, Sarmatians, Quadians, Alans, Huns, Vandals, Marcomans, &c. whose avarice nothing has escaped, whose cruelty has been felt by persons of all ranks, ages and conditions.” “What evils, (says Gregory Nazianzen) have we not seen or heard of! Whole countries have been destroyed with fire and sword; many thousand persons of all ranks and ages have been inhumanly massacred; the rivers are still dyed with blood, and the ground covered with heaps of dead bodies.” In the midst of so great calamities, the pestilence, as an evil of inferior nature, might in many cases pass unnoticed by the historians of the times; nevertheless, even during that distracted period, we find some accounts of it. In 384 we are told of a famine and plague at Antioch; and, in 407, of one in Palestine, said to be occasioned by multitudes of grasshoppers, which even obscured the sun, and turned day into night. After having done incredible mischief, they were thrown by the wind partly into the Red Sea, and partly into the Mediterranean; whence being again cast ashore by the waves, they putrefied, and occasioned a pestilence. Two years after, when Rome had been first besieged by Alaric the Goth, the city was reduced to such straits, that human flesh was publicly sold, and some mothers are said to have devoured their children. This terrible famine was occasioned by the uncultivated state of the country, which had lain waste for several years, by reason of the wars, and the ports of Africa being blocked up by Heraclianus lest an usurper should become emperor; and thus this loyal admiral, for fear that the people should have a bad governor, determined rather that there should be no people to be governed. Notwithstanding this terrible famine, however, we hear of no pestilential disorder taking place; not even after the taking of the city by Alaric, when bloodshed and massacre were added to the other calamities.