Their trembling captives,
the sons and daughters of Roman senators, presented, in goblets of gold
and gems, large draughts of Falernian wine to the haughty victors, who
stretched their huge limbs under the shade of plane trees, artificially
disposed to exclude the scorching rays and to admit the genial warmth of
the sun. These delights were enhanced by the memory of past hardships;
the comparison of their native soil, the bleak and barren hills of
Scythia, and the frozen banks of the Elbe and Danube added new charms to
the felicity of the Italian climate.[18]
Whether fame or conquest or riches were the object of Alaric, he pursued
that object with an indefatigable ardor which could neither be quelled
by adversity nor satiated by success. No sooner had he reached the
extreme land of Italy than he was attracted by the neighboring prospect
of a fertile and peaceful island. Yet even the possession of Sicily he
considered only as an intermediate step to the important expedition
which he already meditated against the continent of Africa.
The whole design was defeated by the premature death of Alaric, which
fixed, after a short illness, the fatal term of his conquests.
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