Note 204-7 — Chapter VII

How frequently this circumstance turned to the advantage of the Germans during the migration of nations! Compare Salvian, De Gubern, Dei, VII. Very remarkable answer given by a Roman taken prisoner by Attila, why it must be more agreeable to live among the Huns than in the over-civilized Roman Empire: Prisci legatio, in Niebuhr, Corp. histor. Byzant., I, 191 ff. And thus the conquest of Constantinople by the crusaders, took place amid the jubilation of the populace and of the country people: Nicetus, Chron. Hist. Urbs capta, § 11, 340. This law of nature becomes most apparent when one compares the preponderating power of Rome against Carthage, with its weakness against the Cimbri and Mithradates. May not Hannibal have been to his own country a phenomenon like that which Cæsar was afterwards to Rome? A healthy and united Carthage he certainly could have held against Italy.