THAT part of the first trumpet which says that “all green grass was burnt up,” seems to refer to a remarkably total devastation of the vegetation, which followed in the train of the Visigoths, in the eastern tripartite division, and also that of the other two bodies of northern barbarians who were at the same time attacking the empire in its middle and its western divisions. But it did not satisfy Alaric to overrun Greece. In A. D. 403 he was proclaimed “king of the Visigoths and all the tribes of kindred name.” With this appendage of power he contended for the empire of Rome about twenty-five miles from Turin, and was defeated. While we leave him arranging his plans for another attack upon the Romans, we will consider the operations of the other two bodies of barbarians before referred to, who were fleeing before the aggressive Huns, to the west and south of Europe. One of these divisions under Radagaisus crossed the Alps with a force of 200,000, attacked Florence, and was defeated. The other, composed of Burgundians, Vandals, Alans and Suevi, “burst over the Rhine,” overcame the Franks in their onward march (devastating, says Gibbon, seventeen provinces of Gaul), and continued their course into what is now called Spain—making a prey of the largest part of the western tripartite division of the Roman empire. Gibbon says, in speaking of this invasion: “The pastures of Gaul, in which flocks and herds grazed, and the banks of the Rhine which were covered with elegant houses and well-cultivated farms, . . . were suddenly changed into a desert, distinguished from the solitude of nature only by smoking ruins.” This was A. D. 407. This vast army divided the country which they subdued among their respective tribes, leaving the Franks in possession of what is now northern France. The Vandals settled in a part of what is now Spain. (Their kingdom, says Jornandes, the Gothic historian, was afterward transferred to Africa in about A. D. 428.) The Alans and Suevi settled in what is now Portugal, and the north-western part of what is now Spain. The Alans only maintained their independence for a short time. The Romans almost annihilated them A. D. 418, and the remnant of the nation incorporated themselves with the Vandals. (See Sheppard’s Fall of Rome, p. 537.) The Burgundians took what is now Switzerland and a parcel of what is now France and Germany. We see then that up to A. D. 407, seven powerful clans of barbarians, who were once subject to the Roman power, had established themselves as independent nationalities (kingdoms), and were engaged in attacking the empire on every hand. Gibbon says that this last invasion was what “sealed the fate of Roman civilization.” The forces of Alaric continued to ravage Italy. The footprints of their ruin were visible for more than a century afterward. In A. D. 410, Alaric141died. In A. D. 412, the Visigoths left Italy, and in A. D. 414, under the brother of Alaric, the Visigoths re-established themselves in what is now southern France and a part of Spain. The expression “all green grass was burnt up,” very plainly illustrates the sweeping and withering effect which followed the invaders in the three parts of the empire. We thus see that by the year A. D. 407, seven of the ten toes of the image, or seven of the ten horns of the terrible beast, had been made apparent; namely, The Huns, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Vandals, Suevi and Burgundians. These dominant tribes retained their identities until the fall of Rome was completed. And some of them after a lapse of 1400 years are a standing proof of the prophecy which says: “They shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.” From A. D. 407 to A. D. 428 these seven independent powers (kingdoms) seemed determined to weaken and subjugate the already declining power of Rome; but the transferring of the Vandal kingdom to Africa, A. D. 428, brought in a new feature in the plans which the warlike clans adopted in order to fulfill the prophecy concerning the second trumpet of Rev. 8:8.