Adest Alaricus, trepidam Romam obsidet, turbat, irrumpit. Orosius, 1. vii. c. 39, p. 573. He despatches this great event in seven words; but he employs whole pages in celebrating the devotion of the Goths. I have extracted from an improbable story of Procopius the circumstances which had an air of probability. Procop. de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 2 [tom. i. p. 315, ed. Bonn]. He supposes that the city was surprised while the senators slept in the afternoon; but Jerom, with more authority and more reason, affirms that it was in the night,
nocte Moab capta est; nocte cecidit murus ejus, tom. i. p. 121, ad Principiam [Epist. cxxvii. c. 12, tom. i. p. 953, ed. Vallars ]