Their leader, Alaric, was wise enough to see that the
Goths could not take a city so strongly walled as
Constantinople. He turned his people aside from the
attack of that place, and marched them to the plunder
of the rich provinces that lay to the South. There
they came into lands that had long been famous in the
history of the world. Their way first led them through
Macedonia, whence the great Alexander had set out to
conquer the East. At the pass of Thermopylae, more
than eight hundred years before, a handful of heroic
Greeks had held a vast army at bay for three whole
days; but now their feebler descendants dared not
attempt to stay the march of Alaric. The city of

31



32 THE STOSF OF THE MIDDLE AGES

Athens, beautiful with marble buildings and statuary,
fell into the hands of the Goths without a blow. It
was forced to pay a heavy ransom, and then was left
"like the bleeding and empty skin of a slaughtered
victim. ' '

From Athens Alaric led his forces by the isthmus of
Corinth into the southern peninsula of Greece. City
after city yielded to the conqueror without resistance.
Everywhere villages were burned, cattle were driven
off, precious vases, statues, gold and silver ornaments



were divided among the barbarians, and multitudes of
the inhabitants were slain or reduced to slavery.
In all the armies of the Roman Empire, at this time,

there was but one general who was a match for Alaric

in daring and skill. He, too, was descended

eh'«"k>°Ai.ric. from the sturdy barbarians of the North.
