zealous converts of another race, and finally, in the fifteenth century, placed by the Turks upon the dome of St. Sophia in Constantinople.

As the Middle Ages draw to a close, the remote nations of Eastern Asia will gradually come within our circle of vision; and, as the Modern Age dawns, we shall catch a glimpse of new continents and strange races of men beyond the Atlantic.

(FROM THE FALL OF ROME, A.D. 476, TO THE ELEVENTH CENTURY.)

CHAPTER I.

MIGRATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS OF THE TEUTONIC

TRIBES.

Kingdom of the Ostrogoths (A.D. 493-554). As soon as Odoacer, the leader of the Herulian mutiny, had dethroned Augustulus, the last of the Western Roman Emperors, he seized upon, and divided among his followers, the estates of the wealthy Italian nobles. His feeble government lasted seventeen years, when it was brought to a close by the invasion of the Ostrogoths Eastern Goths), under Theodoric, the greatest of their chiefs. The Ostrogoths came from the region of the Lower Danube. They were, at this time, nominal allies of the Eastern Emperor, nd had been assigned the duty of guarding the Danubian frontier. But they were very troublesome and costly friends, the Emperor eing obliged to purchase their good-will with constant gifts of nd and money. At last Theodoric asked of the Emperor perission to lead an expedition to the conquest of Italy. "If I Il"—thus he urged his suit-"you will be relieved of a troubleme friend; if, with the divine permission, I succeed, I shall vern in your name, and to your glory, the Roman senate, and

the part of the republic delivered from slavery by my victorious

arms."

The Emperor granted the permission sought; and the entire Ostrogothic nation-warriors, womeu, and children-set out for Italy. It was a migration rather than a military expedition. Italy was not simply to be plundered, as when Alaric led the Visigoths over the Alps, but to be occupied as a permanent possession; so the trains of the migrating nation were lengthened by their flocks and herds, and by clumsy wagons loaded with such property as make up the riches of a roving people.

From their seats on the Danube to the northern plains of Italy was a long and broken march of seven hundred miles. The snow and cold of a winter of unusual severity, and hostile bands of Burgundians and Sarmatians, impeded and harassed their march. But the genius and daring of Theodoric, who animated his followers with his own intrepid spirit, and encouraged them with prospects of the rich booty that awaited them, surmounted every obstacle; and in the spring, A.D. 490, the inhabitants of Italy were again startled by the apparition of a Gothic host issuing from the defiles of the Alps.

Odoacer and his followers made an heroic defence of their dominions. But after a struggle of three years, during which time Italy suffered all the evils incident to barbarian warfare, the contest was ended by the surrender of Ravenna, in which city Odoacer had entrenched himself. The conqueror of Rome was treacherously murdered by Theodoric, who now assumed the sovereignty of all Italy, and, in fulfilment of the promises he had made his followers, distributed among them one third of the land of the peninsula.

The reign of Theodoric lasted thirty-three years, — years of such quiet and prosperity as Italy had not known since the happy era of the first two Antonines. The king made good his famous declaration that his reign should be such that "the only regret of people should be that the Goths had not come at an earlier

During this auspicious time the Goths increased in