They bought him off with a quaint ransom: 5000 pounds weight of
gold, 30,000 of silver, 4000 robes of silk, 3000 pieces of scarlet
cloth, and 3000 lbs. of pepper, possibly spices of all kinds. Gold,
and finery, and spices--gifts fit for children, such as those Goths
were.

But he got, too, 40,000 Teuton slaves safe out of the evil place, and
embodied them into his army. He had now 100,000 fighting men. Why
did he not set up as king of Italy? Was it that the awe of the
place, the prestige of the Roman name, cowed him? It cowed each of
the Teutonic invaders successively. To make themselves emperors of
Rome was a thing of which they dared not dream. Be that as it may,
all he asked was, to be received as some sort of vassal of the
Emperor. The Master-Generalship of Italy, subsidies for his army, an
independent command in the Tyrolese country, whence he had come, were
his demand.

Overblown with self-conceit, the Romans refused him. They would
listen to no conditions. They were in a thoroughly Chinese temper.
You will find the Byzantine empire in the same temper centuries
after; blinded to present weakness by the traditions of their
forefathers' strength. They had worshipped the beast. Now that only
his image was left, they worshipped that.

Alaric seized Ostia, and cut off their supplies. They tried to
appease him by dethroning Honorius, and setting up some puppet
Attalus. Alaric found him plotting; or said that he had done so; and
degraded him publicly at Rimini before his whole army. Again he
offered peace. The insane Romans proclaimed that his guilt precluded