for the throne. He was put to death, with many of his friends.

With Stilicho Rome fell. Scarcely two months after his death, Alaric
again appeared before Rome. He sought to starve the city into
submission. Famine and pestilence raged within its walls. Finally
peace was purchased by a large ransom, and Alaric withdrew, but soon
returned. The city was betrayed, and after a lapse of eight centuries
became the second time a prey to the barbarians (24 August, 410).

The city was plundered for five days, and then Alaric withdrew to
ravage the surrounding country. But the days of this great leader were
almost spent. Before the end of the year he died, and shortly after
his army marched into France, where they established a kingdom
reaching from the Loire and the Rhone to the Straits of Gibraltar.

The GERMANS, under their king, CLODION, prompted by the example of the
Burgundians and Visigoths, began, about 425, a series of attempts to
enlarge their boundaries. They succeeded in establishing themselves
firmly in all the country from the Rhine to the Somme, and under the
name of FRANKS founded the present French nation in France (447).

Clodion left two sons, who quarrelled over the succession. The elder
appealed to the Huns for support, the younger to Rome.

The Huns at this time were ruled by ATTILA, "the Scourge of God." The
portrait of this monster is thus painted. His features bore the mark
of his Eastern origin. He had a large head, a swarthy complexion,
small deep-seated eyes, a flat nose, a few hairs in the place of a
beard, broad shoulders, and a short square body, of nervous strength
though disproportioned form. This man wielded at will, it is said, an