resolution, meditated a shameful flight, a seasonable reinforcement of
four thousand veterans unexpectedly landed in the port of Ravenna. To
these valiant strangers, whose fidelity had not been corrupted by the
factions of the court, he committed the walls and gates of the city; and
the slumbers of the Emperor were no longer disturbed by the apprehension
of imminent and internal danger. The favorable intelligence which was
received from Africa suddenly changed the opinions of men and the state
of public affairs. The troops and officers whom Attalus had sent into
that province were defeated and slain; and the active zeal of Heraclian
maintained his own allegiance and that of his people. The faithful Count
of Africa transmitted a large sum of money, which fixed the attachment
of the Imperial guards; and his vigilance in preventing the exportation
of corn and oil introduced famine, tumult, and discontent into the walls
of Rome.

The failure of the African expedition was the source of mutual complaint
and recrimination in the party of Attalus; and the mind of his protector
was insensibly alienated from the interest of a prince who wanted spirit
to command, or docility to obey. The most imprudent measures were
adopted, without the knowledge, or against the advice, of Alaric; and
the obstinate refusal of the senate to allow, in the embarkation, the
mixture even of five hundred Goths, betrayed a suspicious and
distrustful temper, which, in their situation, was neither generous nor
prudent. The resentment of the Gothic King was exasperated by the
malicious arts of Jovius, who had been raised to the rank of patrician,
and who afterward excused his double perfidy, by declaring, without a
blush, that he had only _seemed_ to abandon the service of Honorius,
more effectually to ruin the cause of the usurper. In a large plain near
Rimini, and in the presence of an innumerable multitude of Romans and
Barbarians, the wretched Attalus was publicly despoiled of the diadem