Dchine of Western Embir: 
250 
succumbed to outward pressure after so many centuries of con- 
quest and victorious repulse or utter destruction of Gallic and 
German assailants from the north? Why did the Romans prove 
at last inferior in force to the barbarians? The first answer is, 
that the barbaric world had grown stronger than of old. The 
confederations of Germans which we meet with in the third 
century of the Roman Empire show that the barbarians had 
learned the secret of strength in union, "They had also improved 
in intelligence and military skill. They were, moreover, im- 
pelled in aggressive force against the Roman frontiers by the 
irresistible pressure wrought on themselves by the new-comers 
from Asia—the Huns. The second answer is, that not only 
had Rome failed to increase or to maintain her power, but that 
power had positively and largely declined. Rome had ceased 
to conquer, and this was only because she had reached the limit 
of her resources. When Hadrian gave up the Parthian con- 
quests of Trajan, and when Aurelian abandoned Dacia-—when 
the boundaries of the empire were thus deliberately narrowed 
by able and energetic rulers—it is certain that Rome was be- 
coming weak and exhausted, and that these rulers knew it, and 
wisely acted on their knowledge. It was no moral degeneracy, 
caused by luxury and success, that could account for this. The 
Roman armies were not affected by the doings of a brutal and 
effeminate aristocracy: the discipline was what it had ever been: 
the generals were as capable as most of those who commanded 
under the republic, The successes of /ulian against the Ale- 
man'ni, of Theodo'sius against the Gofhs, of Stl’icho against 
Al’aric, and of Aetius against the Huns of Attila, prove that 
the armies of Rome could still fight and win. It was from 
physical causes, not moral, that Rome fell. 
13. The empire perished for want of men. The Roman 
armies had become mainly composed of barbarian Immigrations 
troops, and thus the citadel of Rome’s strength was of barbarian 
dccupied by defenders whose very presence was a *ribes. 
proof that power had passed into other hands. The dominion 
of Rome was thus absorbed rather than conquered ; the former 
population of the empire was replaced by a new set of men. 
For lack of people to till the lands within the. frontier of Rome, 
whole tribes of barbarians had been peacefully admitted, and 
Vandals, Goths, and Franks had settled within the borders in 
a continual stream of barbaric immigration. The older races of 
the Roman Empire had for some centuries ceased to increase