Barbarians.—Part III.
In populous cities, which are the seat of commerce and
manufactures, the middle ranks of inhabitants, who derive their
subsistence from the dexterity or labor of their hands, are
commonly the most prolific, the most useful, and, in that sense,
the most respectable part of the community. But the plebeians of
Rome, who disdained such sedentary and servile arts, had been
oppressed from the earliest times by the weight of debt and
usury; and the husbandman, during the term of his military
service, was obliged to abandon the cultivation of his farm. 50
The lands of Italy which had been originally divided among the
families of free and indigent proprietors, were insensibly
purchased or usurped by the avarice of the nobles; and in the age
which preceded the fall of the republic, it was computed that
only two thousand citizens were possessed of an independent
substance. 51 Yet as long as the people bestowed, by their
suffrages, the honors of the state, the command of the legions,
and the administration of wealthy provinces, their conscious
pride alleviated in some measure, the hardships of poverty; and
their wants were seasonably supplied by the ambitious liberality
of the candidates, who aspired to secure a venal majority in the
thirty-five tribes, or the hundred and ninety-three centuries, of
Rome. But when the prodigal commons had not only imprudently
alienated the use, but the inheritance of power, they sunk, under
the reign of the Caesars, into a vile and wretched populace,
which must, in a few generations, have been totally extinguished,
if it had not been continually recruited by the manumission of
slaves, and the influx of strangers. As early as the time of
Hadrian, it was the just complaint of the ingenuous natives, that
the capital had attracted the vices of the universe, and the
manners of the most opposite nations. The intemperance of the
Gauls, the cunning and levity of the Greeks, the savage obstinacy
of the Egyptians and Jews, the servile temper of the Asiatics,
and the dissolute, effeminate prostitution of the Syrians, were
mingled in the various multitude, which, under the proud and
false denomination of Romans, presumed to despise their
fellow-subjects, and even their sovereigns, who dwelt beyond the
precincts of the Eternal City. 52
50 (return) [ The histories of Livy (see particularly vi. 36) are
full of the extortions of the rich, and the sufferings of the
poor debtors. The melancholy story of a brave old soldier
(Dionys. Hal. l. vi. c. 26, p. 347, edit. Hudson, and Livy, ii.
23) must have been frequently repeated in those primitive times,
which have been so undeservedly praised.]
51 (return) [ Non esse in civitate duo millia hominum qui rem
habereni. Cicero. Offic. ii. 21, and Comment. Paul. Manut. in
edit. Graev. This vague computation was made A. U. C. 649, in a
speech of the tribune Philippus, and it was his object, as well
as that of the Gracchi, (see Plutarch,) to deplore, and perhaps
to exaggerate, the misery of the common people.]
52 (return) [ See the third Satire (60-125) of Juvenal, who
indignantly complains,
Quamvis quota portio faecis Achaei! Jampridem Syrus in Tiberem
defluxit Orontes; Et linguam et mores, &c.
Seneca, when he proposes to comfort his mother (Consolat. ad
Helv. c. 6) by the reflection, that a great part of mankind were
in a state of exile, reminds her how few of the inhabitants of
Rome were born in the city.]
Yet the name of that city was still pronounced with respect: the
frequent and capricious tumults of its inhabitants were indulged
with impunity; and the successors of Constantine, instead of
crushing the last remains of the democracy by the strong arm of
military power, embraced the mild policy of Augustus, and studied
to relieve the poverty, and to amuse the idleness, of an
innumerable people. 53 I. For the convenience of the lazy
plebeians, the monthly distributions of corn were converted into
a daily allowance of bread; a great number of ovens were
constructed and maintained at the public expense; and at the
appointed hour, each citizen, who was furnished with a ticket,
ascended the flight of steps, which had been assigned to his
peculiar quarter or division, and received, either as a gift, or
at a very low price, a loaf of bread of the weight of three
pounds, for the use of his family. II. The forest of Lucania,
whose acorns fattened large droves of wild hogs, 54 afforded, as
a species of tribute, a plentiful supply of cheap and wholesome
meat. During five months of the year, a regular allowance of
bacon was distributed to the poorer citizens; and the annual
consumption of the capital, at a time when it was much declined
from its former lustre, was ascertained, by an edict from
Valentinian the Third, at three millions six hundred and
twenty-eight thousand pounds. 55 III. In the manners of
antiquity, the use of oil was indispensable for the lamp, as well
as for the bath; and the annual tax, which was imposed on Africa
for the benefit of Rome, amounted to the weight of three millions
of pounds, to the measure, perhaps, of three hundred thousand
English gallons. IV. The anxiety of Augustus to provide the
metropolis with sufficient plenty of corn, was not extended
beyond that necessary article of human subsistence; and when the
popular clamor accused the dearness and scarcity of wine, a
proclamation was issued, by the grave reformer, to remind his
subjects that no man could reasonably complain of thirst, since
the aqueducts of Agrippa had introduced into the city so many
copious streams of pure and salubrious water. 56 This rigid
sobriety was insensibly relaxed; and, although the generous
design of Aurelian 57 does not appear to have been executed in
its full extent, the use of wine was allowed on very easy and
liberal terms. The administration of the public cellars was
delegated to a magistrate of honorable rank; and a considerable
part of the vintage of Campania was reserved for the fortunate
inhabitants of Rome.
53 (return) [ Almost all that is said of the bread, bacon, oil,
wine, &c., may be found in the fourteenth book of the Theodosian
Code; which expressly treats of the police of the great cities.
See particularly the titles iii. iv. xv. xvi. xvii. xxiv. The
collateral testimonies are produced in Godefroy’s Commentary, and
it is needless to transcribe them. According to a law of
Theodosius, which appreciates in money the military allowance, a
piece of gold (eleven shillings) was equivalent to eighty pounds
of bacon, or to eighty pounds of oil, or to twelve modii (or
pecks) of salt, (Cod. Theod. l. viii. tit. iv. leg. 17.) This
equation, compared with another of seventy pounds of bacon for an
amphora, (Cod. Theod. l. xiv. tit. iv. leg. 4,) fixes the price
of wine at about sixteenpence the gallon.]
54 (return) [ The anonymous author of the Description of the
World (p. 14. in tom. iii. Geograph. Minor. Hudson) observes of
Lucania, in his barbarous Latin, Regio optima, et ipsa omnibus
habundans, et lardum multum foras. Proptor quod est in montibus,
cujus aescam animalium rariam, &c.]
55 (return) [ See Novell. ad calcem Cod. Theod. D. Valent. l. i.
tit. xv. This law was published at Rome, June 29th, A.D. 452.]
56 (return) [ Sueton. in August. c. 42. The utmost debauch of the
emperor himself, in his favorite wine of Rhaetia, never exceeded
a sextarius, (an English pint.) Id. c. 77. Torrentius ad loc. and
Arbuthnot’s Tables, p. 86.]
57 (return) [ His design was to plant vineyards along the
sea-coast of Hetruria, (Vopiscus, in Hist. August. p. 225;) the
dreary, unwholesome, uncultivated Maremme of modern Tuscany]
The stupendous aqueducts, so justly celebrated by the praises of
Augustus himself, replenished the Thermoe, or baths, which had
been constructed in every part of the city, with Imperial
magnificence. The baths of Antoninus Caracalla, which were open,
at stated hours, for the indiscriminate service of the senators
and the people, contained above sixteen hundred seats of marble;
and more than three thousand were reckoned in the baths of
Diocletian. 58 The walls of the lofty apartments were covered
with curious mosaics, that imitated the art of the pencil in the
elegance of design, and the variety of colors. The Egyptian
granite was beautifully encrusted with the precious green marble
of Numidia; the perpetual stream of hot water was poured into the
capacious basins, through so many wide mouths of bright and massy
silver; and the meanest Roman could purchase, with a small copper
coin, the daily enjoyment of a scene of pomp and luxury, which
might excite the envy of the kings of Asia. 59 From these stately
palaces issued a swarm of dirty and ragged plebeians, without
shoes and without a mantle; who loitered away whole days in the
street of Forum, to hear news and to hold disputes; who
dissipated in extravagant gaming, the miserable pittance of their
wives and children; and spent the hours of the night in the
obscure taverns, and brothels, in the indulgence of gross and
vulgar sensuality. 60
58 (return) [ Olympiodor. apud Phot. p. 197.]
59 (return) [ Seneca (epistol. lxxxvi.) compares the baths of
Scipio Africanus, at his villa of Liternum, with the magnificence
(which was continually increasing) of the public baths of Rome,
long before the stately Thermae of Antoninus and Diocletian were
erected. The quadrans paid for admission was the quarter of the
as, about one eighth of an English penny.]
60 (return) [ Ammianus, (l. xiv. c. 6, and l. xxviii. c. 4,)
after describing the luxury and pride of the nobles of Rome,
exposes, with equal indignation, the vices and follies of the
common people.]
But the most lively and splendid amusement of the idle multitude,
depended on the frequent exhibition of public games and
spectacles. The piety of Christian princes had suppressed the
inhuman combats of gladiators; but the Roman people still
considered the Circus as their home, their temple, and the seat
of the republic. The impatient crowd rushed at the dawn of day to
secure their places, and there were many who passed a sleepless
and anxious night in the adjacent porticos. From the morning to
the evening, careless of the sun, or of the rain, the spectators,
who sometimes amounted to the number of four hundred thousand,
remained in eager attention; their eyes fixed on the horses and
charioteers, their minds agitated with hope and fear, for the
success of the colors which they espoused: and the happiness of
Rome appeared to hang on the event of a race. 61 The same
immoderate ardor inspired their clamors and their applause, as
often as they were entertained with the hunting of wild beasts,
and the various modes of theatrical representation. These
representations in modern capitals may deserve to be considered
as a pure and elegant school of taste, and perhaps of virtue. But
the Tragic and Comic Muse of the Romans, who seldom aspired
beyond the imitation of Attic genius, 62 had been almost totally
silent since the fall of the republic; 63 and their place was
unworthily occupied by licentious farce, effeminate music, and
splendid pageantry. The pantomimes, 64 who maintained their
reputation from the age of Augustus to the sixth century,
expressed, without the use of words, the various fables of the
gods and heroes of antiquity; and the perfection of their art,
which sometimes disarmed the gravity of the philosopher, always
excited the applause and wonder of the people. The vast and
magnificent theatres of Rome were filled by three thousand female
dancers, and by three thousand singers, with the masters of the
respective choruses. Such was the popular favor which they
enjoyed, that, in a time of scarcity, when all strangers were
banished from the city, the merit of contributing to the public
pleasures exempted them from a law, which was strictly executed
against the professors of the liberal arts. 65
61 (return) [ Juvenal. Satir. xi. 191, &c. The expressions of the
historian Ammianus are not less strong and animated than those of
the satirist and both the one and the other painted from the
life. The numbers which the great Circus was capable of receiving
are taken from the original Notitioe of the city. The differences
between them prove that they did not transcribe each other; but
the same may appear incredible, though the country on these
occasions flocked to the city.]
62 (return) [ Sometimes indeed they composed original pieces.
Vestigia Graeca Ausi deserere et celeb rare domestica facta.
Horat. Epistol. ad Pisones, 285, and the learned, though
perplexed note of Dacier, who might have allowed the name of
tragedies to the Brutus and the Decius of Pacuvius, or to the
Cato of Maternus. The Octavia, ascribed to one of the Senecas,
still remains a very unfavorable specimen of Roman tragedy.]
63 (return) [ In the time of Quintilian and Pliny, a tragic poet
was reduced to the imperfect method of hiring a great room, and
reading his play to the company, whom he invited for that
purpose. (See Dialog. de Oratoribus, c. 9, 11, and Plin. Epistol.
vii. 17.)]
64 (return) [ See the dialogue of Lucian, entitled the
Saltatione, tom. ii. p. 265-317, edit. Reitz. The pantomimes
obtained the honorable name; and it was required, that they
should be conversant with almost every art and science. Burette
(in the Mémoires de l’Academie des Inscriptions, tom. i. p. 127,
&c.) has given a short history of the art of pantomimes.]
65 (return) [ Ammianus, l. xiv. c. 6. He complains, with decent
indignation that the streets of Rome were filled with crowds of
females, who might have given children to the state, but whose
only occupation was to curl and dress their hair, and jactari
volubilibus gyris, dum experimunt innumera simulacra, quae
finxere fabulae theatrales.]
It is said, that the foolish curiosity of Elagabalus attempted to
discover, from the quantity of spiders’ webs, the number of the
inhabitants of Rome. A more rational method of inquiry might not
have been undeserving of the attention of the wisest princes, who
could easily have resolved a question so important for the Roman
government, and so interesting to succeeding ages. The births and
deaths of the citizens were duly registered; and if any writer of
antiquity had condescended to mention the annual amount, or the
common average, we might now produce some satisfactory
calculation, which would destroy the extravagant assertions of
critics, and perhaps confirm the modest and probable conjectures
of philosophers. 66 The most diligent researches have collected
only the following circumstances; which, slight and imperfect as
they are, may tend, in some degree, to illustrate the question of
the populousness of ancient Rome. I. When the capital of the
empire was besieged by the Goths, the circuit of the walls was
accurately measured, by Ammonius, the mathematician, who found it
equal to twenty-one miles. 67 It should not be forgotten that the
form of the city was almost that of a circle; the geometrical
figure which is known to contain the largest space within any
given circumference. II. The architect Vitruvius, who flourished
in the Augustan age, and whose evidence, on this occasion, has
peculiar weight and authority, observes, that the innumerable
habitations of the Roman people would have spread themselves far
beyond the narrow limits of the city; and that the want of
ground, which was probably contracted on every side by gardens
and villas, suggested the common, though inconvenient, practice
of raising the houses to a considerable height in the air. 68 But
the loftiness of these buildings, which often consisted of hasty
work and insufficient materials, was the cause of frequent and
fatal accidents; and it was repeatedly enacted by Augustus, as
well as by Nero, that the height of private edifices within the
walls of Rome, should not exceed the measure of seventy feet from
the ground. 69 III. Juvenal 70 laments, as it should seem from
his own experience, the hardships of the poorer citizens, to whom
he addresses the salutary advice of emigrating, without delay,
from the smoke of Rome, since they might purchase, in the little
towns of Italy, a cheerful commodious dwelling, at the same price
which they annually paid for a dark and miserable lodging.
House-rent was therefore immoderately dear: the rich acquired, at
an enormous expense, the ground, which they covered with palaces
and gardens; but the body of the Roman people was crowded into a
narrow space; and the different floors, and apartments, of the
same house, were divided, as it is still the custom of Paris, and
other cities, among several families of plebeians. IV. The total
number of houses in the fourteen regions of the city, is
accurately stated in the description of Rome, composed under the
reign of Theodosius, and they amount to forty-eight thousand
three hundred and eighty-two. 71 The two classes of domus and of
insulæ, into which they are divided, include all the habitations
of the capital, of every rank and condition from the marble
palace of the Anicii, with a numerous establishment of freedmen
and slaves, to the lofty and narrow lodging-house, where the poet
Codrus and his wife were permitted to hire a wretched garret
immediately under the tiles. If we adopt the same average, which,
under similar circumstances, has been found applicable to Paris,
72 and indifferently allow about twenty-five persons for each
house, of every degree, we may fairly estimate the inhabitants of
Rome at twelve hundred thousand: a number which cannot be thought
excessive for the capital of a mighty empire, though it exceeds
the populousness of the greatest cities of modern Europe. 73 7311
66 (return) [ Lipsius (tom. iii. p. 423, de Magnitud. Romana, l.
iii. c. 3) and Isaac Vossius (Observant. Var. p. 26-34) have
indulged strange dreams, of four, or eight, or fourteen, millions
in Rome. Mr. Hume, (Essays, vol. i. p. 450-457,) with admirable
good sense and scepticism betrays some secret disposition to
extenuate the populousness of ancient times.]
67 (return) [ Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 197. See Fabricius, Bibl.
Graec. tom. ix. p. 400.]
68 (return) [ In ea autem majestate urbis, et civium infinita
frequentia, innumerabiles habitationes opus fuit explicare. Ergo
cum recipero non posset area plana tantam multitudinem in urbe,
ad auxilium altitudinis aedificiorum res ipsa coegit devenire.
Vitruv. ii. 8. This passage, which I owe to Vossius, is clear,
strong, and comprehensive.]
69 (return) [ The successive testimonies of Pliny, Aristides,
Claudian, Rutilius, &c., prove the insufficiency of these
restrictive edicts. See Lipsius, de Magnitud. Romana, l. iii. c.
4.
Tabulata tibi jam tertia fumant; Tu nescis; nam si gradibus
trepidatur ab imis Ultimus ardebit, quem tegula sola tuetur A
pluvia. —-Juvenal. Satir. iii. 199]
70 (return) [ Read the whole third satire, but particularly 166,
223, &c. The description of a crowded insula, or lodging-house,
in Petronius, (c. 95, 97,) perfectly tallies with the complaints
of Juvenal; and we learn from legal authority, that, in the time
of Augustus, (Heineccius, Hist. Juris. Roman. c. iv. p. 181,) the
ordinary rent of the several coenacula, or apartments of an
insula, annually produced forty thousand sesterces, between three
and four hundred pounds sterling, (Pandect. l. xix. tit. ii. No.
30,) a sum which proves at once the large extent, and high value,
of those common buildings.]
71 (return) [ This sum total is composed of 1780 domus, or great
houses of 46,602 insulæ, or plebeian habitations, (see Nardini,
Roma Antica, l. iii. p. 88;) and these numbers are ascertained by
the agreement of the texts of the different Notitioe. Nardini, l.
viii. p. 498, 500.]
72 (return) [ See that accurate writer M. de Messance, Recherches
sur la Population, p. 175-187. From probable, or certain grounds,
he assigns to Paris 23,565 houses, 71,114 families, and 576,630
inhabitants.]
73 (return) [ This computation is not very different from that
which M. Brotier, the last editor of Tacitus, (tom. ii. p. 380,)
has assumed from similar principles; though he seems to aim at a
degree of precision which it is neither possible nor important to
obtain.]
7311 (return) [ M. Dureau de la Malle (Economic Politique des
Romaines, t. i. p. 369) quotes a passage from the xvth chapter of
Gibbon, in which he estimates the population of Rome at not less
than a million, and adds (omitting any reference to this
passage,) that he (Gibbon) could not have seriously studied the
question. M. Dureau de la Malle proceeds to argue that Rome, as
contained within the walls of Servius Tullius, occupying an area
only one fifth of that of Paris, could not have contained 300,000
inhabitants; within those of Aurelian not more than 560,000,
inclusive of soldiers and strangers. The suburbs, he endeavors to
show, both up to the time of Aurelian, and after his reign, were
neither so extensive, nor so populous, as generally supposed. M.
Dureau de la Malle has but imperfectly quoted the important
passage of Dionysius, that which proves that when he wrote (in
the time of Augustus) the walls of Servius no longer marked the
boundary of the city. In many places they were so built upon,
that it was impossible to trace them. There was no certain limit,
where the city ended and ceased to be the city; it stretched out
to so boundless an extent into the country. Ant. Rom. iv. 13.
None of M. de la Malle’s arguments appear to me to prove, against
this statement, that these irregular suburbs did not extend so
far in many parts, as to make it impossible to calculate
accurately the inhabited area of the city. Though no doubt the
city, as reconstructed by Nero, was much less closely built and
with many more open spaces for palaces, temples, and other public
edifices, yet many passages seem to prove that the laws
respecting the height of houses were not rigidly enforced. A
great part of the lower especially of the slave population, were
very densely crowded, and lived, even more than in our modern
towns, in cellars and subterranean dwellings under the public
edifices. Nor do M. de la Malle’s arguments, by which he would
explain the insulae insulae (of which the Notitiae Urbis give us
the number) as rows of shops, with a chamber or two within the
domus, or houses of the wealthy, satisfy me as to their soundness
of their scholarship. Some passages which he adduces directly
contradict his theory; none, as appears to me, distinctly prove
it. I must adhere to the old interpretation of the word, as
chiefly dwellings for the middling or lower classes, or clusters
of tenements, often perhaps, under the same roof. On this point,
Zumpt, in the Dissertation before quoted, entirely disagrees with
M. de la Malle. Zumpt has likewise detected the mistake of M. de
la Malle as to the “canon” of corn, mentioned in the life of
Septimius Severus by Spartianus. On this canon the French writer
calculates the inhabitants of Rome at that time. But the “canon”
was not the whole supply of Rome, but that quantity which the
state required for the public granaries to supply the gratuitous
distributions to the people, and the public officers and slaves;
no doubt likewise to keep down the general price. M. Zumpt
reckons the population of Rome at 2,000,000. After careful
consideration, I should conceive the number in the text,
1,200,000, to be nearest the truth—M. 1845.]
Such was the state of Rome under the reign of Honorius; at the
time when the Gothic army formed the siege, or rather the
blockade, of the city. 74 By a skilful disposition of his
numerous forces, who impatiently watched the moment of an
assault, Alaric encompassed the walls, commanded the twelve
principal gates, intercepted all communication with the adjacent
country, and vigilantly guarded the navigation of the Tyber, from
which the Romans derived the surest and most plentiful supply of
provisions. The first emotions of the nobles, and of the people,
were those of surprise and indignation, that a vile Barbarian
should dare to insult the capital of the world: but their
arrogance was soon humbled by misfortune; and their unmanly rage,
instead of being directed against an enemy in arms, was meanly
exercised on a defenceless and innocent victim. Perhaps in the
person of Serena, the Romans might have respected the niece of
Theodosius, the aunt, nay, even the adoptive mother, of the
reigning emperor: but they abhorred the widow of Stilicho; and
they listened with credulous passion to the tale of calumny,
which accused her of maintaining a secret and criminal
correspondence with the Gothic invader. Actuated, or overawed, by
the same popular frenzy, the senate, without requiring any
evidence of his guilt, pronounced the sentence of her death.
Serena was ignominiously strangled; and the infatuated multitude
were astonished to find, that this cruel act of injustice did not
immediately produce the retreat of the Barbarians, and the
deliverance of the city. That unfortunate city gradually
experienced the distress of scarcity, and at length the horrid
calamities of famine. The daily allowance of three pounds of
bread was reduced to one half, to one third, to nothing; and the
price of corn still continued to rise in a rapid and extravagant
proportion. The poorer citizens, who were unable to purchase the
necessaries of life, solicited the precarious charity of the
rich; and for a while the public misery was alleviated by the
humanity of Laeta, the widow of the emperor Gratian, who had
fixed her residence at Rome, and consecrated to the use of the
indigent the princely revenue which she annually received from
the grateful successors of her husband. 75 But these private and
temporary donatives were insufficient to appease the hunger of a
numerous people; and the progress of famine invaded the marble
palaces of the senators themselves. The persons of both sexes,
who had been educated in the enjoyment of ease and luxury,
discovered how little is requisite to supply the demands of
nature; and lavished their unavailing treasures of gold and
silver, to obtain the coarse and scanty sustenance which they
would formerly have rejected with disdain. The food the most
repugnant to sense or imagination, the aliments the most
unwholesome and pernicious to the constitution, were eagerly
devoured, and fiercely disputed, by the rage of hunger. A dark
suspicion was entertained, that some desperate wretches fed on
the bodies of their fellow-creatures, whom they had secretly
murdered; and even mothers, (such was the horrid conflict of the
two most powerful instincts implanted by nature in the human
breast,) even mothers are said to have tasted the flesh of their
slaughtered infants! 76 Many thousands of the inhabitants of Rome
expired in their houses, or in the streets, for want of
sustenance; and as the public sepulchres without the walls were
in the power of the enemy the stench, which arose from so many
putrid and unburied carcasses, infected the air; and the miseries
of famine were succeeded and aggravated by the contagion of a
pestilential disease. The assurances of speedy and effectual
relief, which were repeatedly transmitted from the court of
Ravenna, supported for some time, the fainting resolution of the
Romans, till at length the despair of any human aid tempted them
to accept the offers of a praeternatural deliverance. Pompeianus,
præfect of the city, had been persuaded, by the art or
fanaticism of some Tuscan diviners, that, by the mysterious force
of spells and sacrifices, they could extract the lightning from
the clouds, and point those celestial fires against the camp of
the Barbarians. 77 The important secret was communicated to
Innocent, the bishop of Rome; and the successor of St. Peter is
accused, perhaps without foundation, of preferring the safety of
the republic to the rigid severity of the Christian worship. But
when the question was agitated in the senate; when it was
proposed, as an essential condition, that those sacrifices should
be performed in the Capitol, by the authority, and in the
presence, of the magistrates, the majority of that respectable
assembly, apprehensive either of the Divine or of the Imperial
displeasure, refused to join in an act, which appeared almost
equivalent to the public restoration of Paganism. 78
74 (return) [ For the events of the first siege of Rome, which
are often confounded with those of the second and third, see
Zosimus, l. v. p. 350-354, Sozomen, l. ix. c. 6, Olympiodorus,
ap. Phot. p. 180, Philostorgius, l. xii. c. 3, and Godefroy,
Dissertat. p. 467-475.]
75 (return) [ The mother of Laeta was named Pissumena. Her
father, family, and country, are unknown. Ducange, Fam.
Byzantium, p. 59.]
76 (return) [ Ad nefandos cibos erupit esurientium rabies, et sua
invicem membra laniarunt, dum mater non parcit lactenti
infantiae; et recipit utero, quem paullo ante effuderat. Jerom.
ad Principiam, tom. i. p. 121. The same horrid circumstance is
likewise told of the sieges of Jerusalem and Paris. For the
latter, compare the tenth book of the Henriade, and the Journal
de Henri IV. tom. i. p. 47-83; and observe that a plain narrative
of facts is much more pathetic, than the most labored
descriptions of epic poetry]
77 (return) [ Zosimus (l. v. p. 355, 356) speaks of these
ceremonies like a Greek unacquainted with the national
superstition of Rome and Tuscany. I suspect, that they consisted
of two parts, the secret and the public; the former were probably
an imitation of the arts and spells, by which Numa had drawn down
Jupiter and his thunder on Mount Aventine.
Quid agant laqueis, quae carmine dicant, Quaque trahant superis
sedibus arte Jovem, Scire nefas homini.
The ancilia, or shields of Mars, the pignora Imperii, which were
carried in solemn procession on the calends of March, derived
their origin from this mysterious event, (Ovid. Fast. iii.
259-398.) It was probably designed to revive this ancient
festival, which had been suppressed by Theodosius. In that case,
we recover a chronological date (March the 1st, A.D. 409) which
has not hitherto been observed. * Note: On this curious question
of the knowledge of conducting lightning, processed by the
ancients, consult Eusebe Salverte, des Sciences Occultes, l.
xxiv. Paris, 1829.—M.]
78 (return) [ Sozomen (l. ix. c. 6) insinuates that the
experiment was actually, though unsuccessfully, made; but he does
not mention the name of Innocent: and Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles.
tom. x. p. 645) is determined not to believe, that a pope could
be guilty of such impious condescension.]
The last resource of the Romans was in the clemency, or at least
in the moderation, of the king of the Goths. The senate, who in
this emergency assumed the supreme powers of government,
appointed two ambassadors to negotiate with the enemy. This
important trust was delegated to Basilius, a senator, of Spanish
extraction, and already conspicuous in the administration of
provinces; and to John, the first tribune of the notaries, who
was peculiarly qualified, by his dexterity in business, as well
as by his former intimacy with the Gothic prince. When they were
introduced into his presence, they declared, perhaps in a more
lofty style than became their abject condition, that the Romans
were resolved to maintain their dignity, either in peace or war;
and that, if Alaric refused them a fair and honorable
capitulation, he might sound his trumpets, and prepare to give
battle to an innumerable people, exercised in arms, and animated
by despair. “The thicker the hay, the easier it is mowed,” was
the concise reply of the Barbarian; and this rustic metaphor was
accompanied by a loud and insulting laugh, expressive of his
contempt for the menaces of an unwarlike populace, enervated by
luxury before they were emaciated by famine. He then condescended
to fix the ransom, which he would accept as the price of his
retreat from the walls of Rome: all the gold and silver in the
city, whether it were the property of the state, or of
individuals; all the rich and precious movables; and all the
slaves that could prove their title to the name of Barbarians.
The ministers of the senate presumed to ask, in a modest and
suppliant tone, “If such, O king, are your demands, what do you
intend to leave us?” “Your Lives!” replied the haughty conqueror:
they trembled, and retired. Yet, before they retired, a short
suspension of arms was granted, which allowed some time for a
more temperate negotiation. The stern features of Alaric were
insensibly relaxed; he abated much of the rigor of his terms; and
at length consented to raise the siege, on the immediate payment
of five thousand pounds of gold, of thirty thousand pounds of
silver, of four thousand robes of silk, of three thousand pieces
of fine scarlet cloth, and of three thousand pounds weight of
pepper. 79 But the public treasury was exhausted; the annual
rents of the great estates in Italy and the provinces, had been
exchanged, during the famine, for the vilest sustenance; the
hoards of secret wealth were still concealed by the obstinacy of
avarice; and some remains of consecrated spoils afforded the only
resource that could avert the impending ruin of the city. As soon
as the Romans had satisfied the rapacious demands of Alaric, they
were restored, in some measure, to the enjoyment of peace and
plenty. Several of the gates were cautiously opened; the
importation of provisions from the river and the adjacent country
was no longer obstructed by the Goths; the citizens resorted in
crowds to the free market, which was held during three days in
the suburbs; and while the merchants who undertook this gainful
trade made a considerable profit, the future subsistence of the
city was secured by the ample magazines which were deposited in
the public and private granaries. A more regular discipline than
could have been expected, was maintained in the camp of Alaric;
and the wise Barbarian justified his regard for the faith of
treaties, by the just severity with which he chastised a party of
licentious Goths, who had insulted some Roman citizens on the
road to Ostia. His army, enriched by the contributions of the
capital, slowly advanced into the fair and fruitful province of
Tuscany, where he proposed to establish his winter quarters; and
the Gothic standard became the refuge of forty thousand Barbarian
slaves, who had broke their chains, and aspired, under the
command of their great deliverer, to revenge the injuries and the
disgrace of their cruel servitude. About the same time, he
received a more honorable reenforcement of Goths and Huns, whom
Adolphus, 80 the brother of his wife, had conducted, at his
pressing invitation, from the banks of the Danube to those of the
Tyber, and who had cut their way, with some difficulty and loss,
through the superior number of the Imperial troops. A victorious
leader, who united the daring spirit of a Barbarian with the art
and discipline of a Roman general, was at the head of a hundred
thousand fighting men; and Italy pronounced, with terror and
respect, the formidable name of Alaric. 81
79 (return) [ Pepper was a favorite ingredient of the most
expensive Roman cookery, and the best sort commonly sold for
fifteen denarii, or ten shillings, the pound. See Pliny, Hist.
Natur. xii. 14. It was brought from India; and the same country,
the coast of Malabar, still affords the greatest plenty: but the
improvement of trade and navigation has multiplied the quantity
and reduced the price. See Histoire Politique et Philosophique,
&c., tom. i. p. 457.]
80 (return) [ This Gothic chieftain is called by Jornandes and
Isidore, Athaulphus; by Zosimus and Orosius, Ataulphus; and by
Olympiodorus, Adaoulphus. I have used the celebrated name of
Adolphus, which seems to be authorized by the practice of the
Swedes, the sons or brothers of the ancient Goths.]
81 (return) [ The treaty between Alaric and the Romans, &c., is
taken from Zosimus, l. v. p. 354, 355, 358, 359, 362, 363. The
additional circumstances are too few and trifling to require any
other quotation.]