The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c49.324

c49.324

II. The second period of this history may be considered as the age of the barbarians. The Goths, the Vandals, the Huns, and the Lombards, were the instruments of the destruction of the Western Empire. The Roman world was invaded by these fierce nations, who, in the course of their migrations, were often compelled to seek new settlements, and to contend for the possession of the fertile provinces of the empire. The history of these invasions is the history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire. The barbarians, who were at first repelled by the valour of the Roman legions, were afterwards admitted into the service of the emperors, and were employed to defend the frontiers against their own countrymen. This policy, which was at first successful, proved in the end fatal to the empire. The barbarians, who had been trained in the discipline of the Roman armies, soon learned to despise the weakness of their masters, and to turn their arms against the state which they had been hired to protect.