In came the Germans to settle the frontier, to till the fields, to enlist first in the auxiliaries and then in the legions, to fill the great offices of state.

The army is barbarized, and a modern writer, Mr Moss, has quoted most effectively the complaint of the Egyptian mother clamouring to get back her son who (as she says) has gone off with the barbarians--he means that he has enlisted in the Roman legions.

The legions are barbarized and they barbarize the Emperor.

For them he is no longer the majestic embodiment of law, he is their leader, their Fuehrer, and they raise him on their shields.

And side by side with the barbarization of the army goes the barbarization of civil manners too.