29, p.651.The Gothic historian adds, with unusual spirit, Cum suis deliberans suasit suo labore quaerere regna, quam alienis per otium subjacere.
Discors odiisque anceps civilibus orbis, Non sua vis tutata diu, dum foedera fallax Ludit, et alternae perjuria venditat aulae.
-- -Claudian de Bell.Get.

565] [Footnote 25: Alpibus Italiae ruptis penetrabis ad Urbem.
This authentic prediction was announced by Alaric, or at least by Claudian, (de Bell.

Getico, 547,) seven years before the event.

But as it was not accomplished within the term which has been rashly fixed the interpreters escaped through an ambiguous meaning.] The scarcity of facts, [26] and the uncertainty of dates, [27] oppose our attempts to describe the circumstances of the first invasion of Italy by the arms of Alaric.

His march, perhaps from Thessalonica, through the warlike and hostile country of Pannonia, as far as the foot of the Julian Alps; his passage of those mountains, which were strongly guarded by troops and intrenchments; the siege of Aquileia, and the conquest of the provinces of Istria and Venetia, appear to have employed a considerable time.