Exasperated by such an injury, which might have awakened the tamest and most servile spirit, they cast a look of indignation and hope towards the camp of Alaric, and unanimously swore to pursue, with just and implacable war, the perfidious nation who had so basely violated the laws of hospitality.
By the imprudent conduct of the ministers of Honorius, the republic lost the assistance, and deserved the enmity, of thirty thousand of her bravest soldiers; and the weight of that formidable army, which alone might have determined the event of the war, was transferred from the scale of the Romans into that of the Goths.
[Footnote 1: The series of events, from the death of Stilicho to the arrival of Alaric before Rome, can only be found in Zosimus, l.v.

p.
347-350.] [Footnote 2: The expression of Zosimus is strong and lively, sufficient to excite the contempt of the enemy.] [Footnote 3: Eos qui catholicae sectae sunt inimici, intra palatium militare pro hibemus.

Nullus nobis sit aliqua ratione conjunctus, qui a nobis fidest religione discordat.Cod.Theodos.l.xvi.

tit.v.leg.

42, and Godefroy's Commentary, tom.vi.p.164.This law was applied in the utmost latitude, and rigorously executed.