'Alpibus Italiae ruptis penetrabis ad urbem.'


Yes, he would take The City, and avenge the treachery of Valens, and
all the wrongs which Teutons had endured from the Romans for now four
centuries. And he did it.

But not the first time. He swept over the Alps. Honorius fled to
Asta, and Alaric besieged him there. The faithful Stilicho came to
the rescue; and Alaric was driven to extremities. His warriors
counselled him to retreat. No, he would take Rome, or die. But at
Pollentia, Stilicho surprised him, while he and his Goths were
celebrating Easter Sunday, and a fearful battle followed. The Romans
stormed his camp, recovered the spoils of Greece, and took his wife,
decked in the jewels in which she meant to enter Rome. One longs to
know what became of her.

At least, so say the Romans: the Goths tell a very different story;
and one suspects that Pollentia may be one more of those splendid
paper victories, in which the Teutons were utterly exterminated, only
to rise out of the ground, seemingly stronger and more numerous than
ever. At least, instead of turning his head to the Alps, he went on
toward Rome. Stilicho dared not fight him again, and bought him off.
He turned northward toward Gaul, and at Verona Stilicho got him at an
advantage, and fought him once more, and if we are to believe Rosino
and Claudian, beat him again. 'Taceo de Alarico, saepe victo, saepe
concluso, semperque dimisso.' 'It is ill work trapping an eagle,'
says some one. When you have caught him, the safest thing very often
is to let him go again.