A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

.
560 Roman Life Under the Late Empire
Vergil,
jEneid, ii.
369-
The empire
is falling.
Invasion of
the Huns
(here called
wolves)
Vergil,
jEneid, vi.
625-7.
Mourning and fear abound on every side
And death appears in countless shapes and forms.
The Roman world is
falling; yet we hold up our heads
instead of bowing them. . . . The East, it is true, seemed
to be safe from all such evils; and if men were panic-stricken
here, it was only because of bad news from other parts.
But lo! in the year just gone by the wolves (no longer of
Arabia but of the whole North) were let loose upon us
from the remotest fastnesses of Caucasus and in a short
time overran these great provinces. What a number of
monasteries they captured !
to run red with blood !
How many rivers they caused
They laid siege to Antioch and invested
other cities on the Halys, the Cydnus, the Orontes,
and the Euphrates. They carried off troops of captives.
Arabia, Phoenicia, Palestine, and Egypt, in their terror
fancied themselves enslaved.
Had I a hundred tongues, a hundred lips,
A throat of iron and a chest of brass,
I could not tell men's countless sufferings.
And indeed it is not my purpose to write a history; I
only wish to shed a few tears over your sorrows and mine.
III.
Advice to a Young Monk
His mother's
care.
of many years standing; and that when you were a child
St. Jerome,
Letter cxxv she reared and taught you herself. Afterward when you
(to Rusticus;
had spent some time in the flourishing schools of Gaul,
411 A.D.).
she sent you to Rome, sparing no expense and consoling
I am told that your mother is a religious woman, a widow
herself for your absence with the thought of the future
that lay before you. She hoped to see the exuberance and
glitter of your Gallic eloquence toned down by Roman
sobriety, for she saw that you required the rein more
than the spur. . . .