So it was in the year 1164 from the founding of the City that the breaking into the City by Alaric took place; and although the memory of the event is fresh, yet if anyone sees the multitude of the Roman people itself and hears its voice, he will think that nothing happened — as they themselves even admit — unless perhaps he is informed by some ruins from the fire that still remain.
1 Anno itaque ab urbe condita MCLXIIII inruptio urbis per Alaricum facta est: cuius rei quamuis recens memoria sit, tamen si quis ipsius populi Romani et multitudinem uideat et uocem audiat, nihil factum, sicut etiam ipsi fatentur, arbitrabitur, nisi aliquantis adhuc existentibus ex incendio ruinis forte doceatur.
In that breaking-in Placidia, daughter of the prince Theodosius and sister of the emperors Arcadius and Honorius, was captured by Athaulf, a kinsman of Alaric, and taken as his wife — as though Rome, by divine judgement, had handed her over as a special pledge and hostage; and so, joined in marriage to a most powerful barbarian king, she was of great benefit to the commonwealth.1
2 in ea inruptione Placidia, Theodosii principis filia, Arcadii et Honorii imperatorum soror, ab Athaulfo, Alarici propinquo, capta atque in uxorem adsumpta, quasi eam diuino iudicio uelut speciale pignus obsidem Roma tradiderit, ita iuncta potentissimo barbari regis coniugio multo reipublicae commodo fuit.
1Galla Placidia was taken by Alaric’s Goths in 410; she married Athaulf only in January 414, at Narbonne.
Meanwhile, two years before the breaking into Rome, the nations roused by Stilicho, as I said — the Alans, the Suebi and the Vandals, and many others with them — trampled the Franks, crossed the Rhine, invaded the Gallic provinces and in a headlong onslaught reached as far as the Pyrenees; checked for a time by that barrier, they poured back through the surrounding provinces.2
3 Interea ante biennium Romanae inruptionis excitatae per Stiliconem gentes Alanorum, ut dixi, Sueborum Vandalorum multaeque cum his aliae Francos proterunt, Rhenum transeunt, Gallias inuadunt directoque impetu Pyrenaeum usque perueniunt: cuius obice ad tempus repulsae, per circumiacentes prouincias refunduntur.
2The crossing of the Rhine is usually dated to 31 December 406, more than three and a half years before the sack of August 410.
While they were running riot through the Gallic provinces, in the British provinces Gratian, a townsman of that island, was made tyrant and was killed. In his place Constantine, from the lowest ranks of the army, was chosen solely for the hope his name inspired, without any merit of valour; and as soon as he had seized the imperial power he crossed into the Gallic provinces. There, often deceived by the barbarians with treaties that could not be relied on, he was rather a detriment to the commonwealth.3
4 His per Gallias bacchantibus apud Britannias Gratianus, municeps eiusdem insulae, tyrannus creatur et occiditur. huius loco Constantinus ex infima militia propter solam spem nominis sine merito uirtutis eligitur: qui continuo, ut inuasit imperium, in Gallias transiit. ibi saepe a barbaris incertis foederibus inlusus, detrimento magis reipublicae fuit.
3Gratian had himself been preceded by another usurper in Britain, Marcus (406–407). The Constantine raised in 407 is known as Constantine III.
He sent governors into the Spanish provinces; and when the provinces had obediently received them, two brothers, young, noble and wealthy, Didymus and Verinianus, undertook — not indeed to assume a tyranny against the tyrant, but — to defend themselves and their country for the lawful emperor against the tyrant and the barbarians. This became clear from the very course of what they did.
5 misit in Hispanias iudices: quos cum prouinciae oboedienter accepissent, duo fratres iuuenes nobiles et locupletes Didymus et Verinianus non assumere aduersus tyrannum quidem tyrannidem sed imperatori iusto aduersus tyrannum et barbaros tueri sese patriamque suam moliti sunt. quod ipso gestae rei ordine patuit.
For no one seizes a tyranny unless it has been hastily brought to ripeness in secret and is then armed in public, its whole aim being to be seen with diadem and purple assumed before it is known of; but these men, over a very long time, gathering only their own slaves from their own estates and feeding them at their household’s expense, without concealing their purpose and without disturbing anyone, made their way to the barriers of the Pyrenees.
6 nam tyrannidem nemo nisi celeriter maturatam secrete inuadit et publice armat, cuius summa est assumpto diademate ac purpura uideri antequam sciri; hi uero plurimo tempore seruulos tantum suos ex propriis praediis colligentes ac uernaculis alentes sumptibus nec dissimulato proposito absque cuiusquam inquietudine ad Pyrenaei claustra tendebant.
Against them Constantine sent into the Spanish provinces his son Constans — oh, the pity of it! — made Caesar from a monk, together with certain barbarians who, once received into alliance and enlisted in the army, were called Honoriaci. This was the first stroke of ruin for the Spanish provinces.
7 aduersus hos Constantinus Constantem filium suum, - pro dolor! - ex monacho Caesarem factum, cum barbaris quibusdam, qui quondam in foedus recepti atque in militiam allecti Honoriaci uocabantur, in Hispanias misit. hinc apud Hispanias prima mali labes.
For after those brothers had been killed, who were striving to guard the Pyrenean Alps with a private force, these barbarians were first given licence to plunder the plains of Palencia, as a kind of reward for victory, and then were entrusted with the guarding of that mountain and its passes, the faithful and useful guard of the country folk having been removed.
8 nam interfectis illis fratribus, qui tutari priuato praesidio Pyrenaei Alpes moliebantur, his barbaris quasi in pretium uictoriae primum praedandi in Palentinis campis licentia data, dehinc supra dicti montis claustrorumque eius cura permissa est remota rusticanorum fideli et utili custodia.
So the Honoriaci, having tasted plunder and been enticed by its abundance, in order that their crime might the more go unpunished and they themselves be allowed more licence for crime, betrayed the guard of the Pyrenees, laid the passes open, let loose all the nations which were roaming through the Gallic provinces into the Spanish provinces, and joined themselves to them;
9 igitur Honoriaci inbuti praeda et inlecti abundantia, quo magis scelus inpunitum foret atque ipsi sceleri plus liceret, prodita Pyrenaei custodia claustrisque patefactis cunctas gentes, quae per Gallias uagabantur, Hispaniarum prouinciis inmittunt isdemque ipsi adiunguntur:
where, after carrying out great and bloody raids for some time, and after heavy devastation of property and people — of which they themselves now repent — they cast lots, divided up the land, and remain in possession of it to this day.
10 ubi actis aliquamdiu magnis cruentisque discursibus, post graues rerum atque hominum uastationes, de quibus ipsos quoque modo paenitet, habita sorte et distributa usque ad nunc possessione consistunt.