Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 19, Scripture-SUG

SPA
Spain.
The various plenty of the animal, the vegetable, and
-'-V—^ the mineral kingdoms, was improved and manufaftured
by the Ikill of an induftrious people j and the peculiar
advantages of naval {lores contributed to fupport an ex-
tenfive and profitable trade. The arts and fciences flou-
riflied under the prote&ion of the emperors j and if the
charafter of the Spaniards was enfeebled by peace and
fervitude, the hoftile approach of the Germans, who had
fpread terror and defolation from the Rhine to the Py¬
renees, feemed to rekindle fome fparks of military ar¬
dour. As long as the defence of the mountains was in¬
truded to the hardy and faithful militia of the country,
they fuccefsfully repelled the frequent attempts of the
Barbarians. But no fooner had the national troops been
compelled to refign their poll to the Honorian bands,
in the fervice of Conftantine, than the gates of Spain
were treacheroufly betrayed to the public enemy, about
ten months before the fack of Rome by the Goths. -The
confcioufnefs of guilt, and the third of rapine, prompted
the mercenary guards of the Pyrenees to defert their
ftation; to invite the arms of the Suevi, the Vandals,
and the Alani; and to fvvell the torrent which was
poured with irrefidible violence from the frontiers of
Gaul to the fea of Africa. The misfortunes of Spain
may be defcribed in the language of its mod eloquent
hidorian, who has concifely expreded the paflionate, and
perhaps exaggerated, declamations of contemporary
writers. “ The irruption of thefe nations was followed
by the mod dreadful calamities j as the Barbarians ex-
ercifed their indifcriminate cruelty on the fortunes of the
Romans and the Spaniards j and ravaged with equal fu¬
ry the cities and the open country. The progrefs of
famine reduced the miferable inhabitants to feed on the
flefii of their fellow creaturesj and even the wild beads,
who multiplied, without controul, in the defert, were
exafperated, by the tade of blood, and the impatience of
hunger, boldly to attack and devour their human prey.
Pedilence foon appeared, the infeparable companion of
famine j a large proportion of the people was fwept
away j and the groans of the dying excited only the
envy of their furviving friends. At length the Barba¬
rians fatiated with carnage and rapine, and affli&ed by
the contagious evil which they themfelves had introdu¬
ced, fixed their permanent feats in the depopulated coun¬
try. The ancient Gallicia, whofe limits included the
kingdom of Old Cadile, was divided between the Suevi
and the Vandals, the Alani were fcattered over the
provinces of Carthagena and Lufitania, and from the
Mediterranean to the Atlantic ocean j and the fruitful
territory of Baetica was allotted to the Silingi, another
branch of the Vandalic nation. After regulating this
partition, the conquerors contrafled with their new fub-
jefts fome reciprocal engagements of proteiftion and obe¬
dience : the lands were again cultivated; and the towns
and villages were again occupied by a captive people.
The greated part of the Spaniards was even difpofed to
prefer this new condition of poverty and barbarifm, to
the fevere oppreflions of the Roman government; yet
were many who {till aflerted their native freedom,
.•i.tfj/Cand who refufed, more efpecially in the mountains of
llx v‘ Gallicia, to fubmit to the barbarian yoke
414. The important prefent of the heads of Jovinus and
Sebadian, had approved the frienddiip of Adolphus,
and redored Gaul to the obedience of his brother Ho-
norius, Peace was incompatible with the fituation and
3
[ 493 i
SPA
temper of the king of the Goths. He readily accepted Spaitf.
the propofal of turning his vi&orious arms againd the11
barbarians of Spain; the troops of Condantiusintercept¬
ed his communication with the fea-ports of Gaul, and
gently preffed his march towards the Pyrenees. He
paded the mountains, and furprifed, in the name of the
emperor, the city of Barcelona. The fondnefs of Adol¬
phus for his Roman bride, Placidia, was not abated by time
or pofleffion; and the birth of a fon, furnamed, from his
illudrious graiidfire, Theodofius, appeared to fix him
for ever in the intered of the republic. The lofs of thaC
infant, whofe remains were depofited in a filver coffin
in one of the churches near Barcelona, afflidled his pa¬
rents; but the grief of the Gothic king was fufpended
by the labours of the field: and the courfe of his vi<do-
ries was foon interrupted by domedic treafon. He had
imprudently received into his fervice one of the follow¬
ers of Sarus; a barbarian of a daring fpirit, but of a
diminutive dature; whofe fecret defire of revenging the
death of his beloved patron, was continually irritated
by the farcafms of his infolent mader. Adolphus was An. 4i r
affaffinated in the palace of Barcelona; the laws of the
fucceffion were violated by a tumultuous faftion; and a
dranger to the royal race, Singeric, the brother of Sa¬
rus himfelf, was feated on the Gothic throne. The fird
a£l of his reign was the inhuman murder of the fix chil¬
dren of Adolphus,, the iffue of a former marriage, whom
he tore, without pity, from the feeble arms of a vene¬
rable bidiop. The unfortunate Placidia, indead of the
refpedful compaffion, which die might have excited in
the mod favage breads, was treated with cruel and
wanton infult. The daughter of the emperor Theodo¬
fius, confounded among a crowd of vulgar captives, was
compelled to march on foot above 12 miles, before the
horfe of a barbarian, the ailaffinofa hufband whom Pla¬
cidia loved and lamented.
But Placidia foon obtained the pleafure of revenge , n...
and the view of her ignominious fuderings might roufeby lhe
an indignant people againd the tyrant, who was affaffi- Goths'
nated on the feventh day of his ufurpation. After the
death of Singeric, the free choice of the nation bellowed
the Gothic feeptre on Wallia, whofe warlike and ambi¬
tious temper appeared, in the beginning of his reign, ex¬
tremely hodile to the republic. He marched, in arms,
from Barcelona to the ffiores of the Atlantic ocean|
which the ancients revered and dreaded as the boundary
of the world. But when he reached the fouthern pro¬
montory of Spain, and, from the rock now covered by
the fortrefs of Gibraltar, contemplated the neighbouring
and fertile coad of Africa, Wallia refumed the defigns of
conqued, which had been interrupted by the death of
Alarm. The winds and waves difappointed the en-
terprifes of the Goths; and the minds of a fuperdi-
tious people were deeply affeaed by the repeated difad-
ers of dorms and diipwrecks.. In this difpofition, the
fucceflbr of Adolphus no longer refufed to liden to a.
Roman ambaifador, whofe propofals were enforced by
the real, or fuppofed, approach of a numerous army,
under the condud of the brave Condantius. A folemrl.
treaty was dipulated and obferved: Placidia was ho¬
nourably redored to her brother; 600,000 meafures of
wheat were delivered to the hungry Goths; and Wallia.
engaged to draw his fword in the fervice of the empire.
A bloody war was indantly excited among the barbari¬
ans of Spain y and the contending princes are faid to.
have
47?
, Conquered
An. 415-
—418.