Soon after Alaric had retreated to Illyricum, a new calamity burst upon Italy. Radagaise, who is said to have likewise been a Goth, but had no kindred with the Ostrogoths, came down with Sueves, Vandals, and other tribes, who were not yet Christians, and therefore much more cruel than the Goths. They swept down from the Alps through unhappy Lombardy, and laid siege to Florence, where Stilicho again went forth against them, and forced them back with unaccountable skill into the Apennines. How these hordes could so tamely have allowed themselves to be driven back, is more than we are able to understand. Most of them died of want; Many surrendered, and were sold in great masses. Thus Italy was saved for the time. The eastern empire, although at peace with Persia, did not take the least share in the dangers and distresses of the West. It had been necessary to send for troops even from the borders of the Rhine, and from Britain; and thus the latter cast itself off from the Roman empire. The troops on the Rhine were greatly weakened, and could not withstand the attacks of the Alemanni, Burgundians, Sueves, Vandals, and Alans, who in 407 forced the passage across the Rhine, and overran Gaul. This most unhappy country was suffering frightfully beneath a weight of taxation which was made still heavier by the system of solidary pledge, the commonalties being bound to make good the whole amount of what was laid upon them. The decurions, who were mostly chosen from the richest men, were directly answerable for the money, and if they could not pay it, torture was even used to force them: in their turn, they might exact it from the rate payers. People, therefore, had rather be sold for slaves than accept such a dignity; and this gave rise to a series of laws for compelling the acceptance of the decurionship, most of the enactments of which are to define what pleas for exemption are not to be taken. This burthen, of which no remission was granted, had as early as in the third century stirred up the peasants’ wars, of which we meet with the first traces in the reign of Gallienus: from thenceforth they never leave off again. The rising of the _Bagaudæ_ (thus these peasants are called) has much puzzled the French antiquaries: there were entire districts which took up arms in self-defence against the extortions of the government. We know little or nothing of what the Gauls had now to suffer from the barbarians. A warlike spirit, however, was sooner roused among them than in Italy: Auvergne truly became a land of warriors, and defended itself against the inroads of the enemy. When Gaul had been thoroughly ravaged, the invading hordes turned themselves towards Spain. The Sueves, Alans, and Vandals, altogether withdrew from Gaul; but the Burgundians remained behind in Burgundy, Franche Comté, Savoy, and afterwards also in Dauphiné: at that time, they had the country of the Æqui and the Sequani, and the west of Switzerland. The Sueves and Vandals in Spain