“The greatness of Rome”—such is the language of the

historian—“was founded on the rare, and almost incredible,

alliance of virtue and of fortune. The long period of her infancy

was employed in a laborious struggle against the tribes of Italy,

the neighbors and enemies of the rising city. In the strength and

ardor of youth, she sustained the storms of war; carried her

victorious arms beyond the seas and the mountains; and brought

home triumphal laurels from every country of the globe. At

length, verging towards old age, and sometimes conquering by the

terror only of her name, she sought the blessings of ease and

tranquillity. The venerable city, which had trampled on the necks

of the fiercest nations, and established a system of laws, the

perpetual guardians of justice and freedom, was content, like a

wise and wealthy parent, to devolve on the Caesars, her favorite

sons, the care of governing her ample patrimony. 35 A secure and

profound peace, such as had been once enjoyed in the reign of

Numa, succeeded to the tumults of a republic; while Rome was

still adored as the queen of the earth; and the subject nations

still reverenced the name of the people, and the majesty of the

senate. But this native splendor,” continues Ammianus, “is

degraded, and sullied, by the conduct of some nobles, who,

unmindful of their own dignity, and of that of their country,

assume an unbounded license of vice and folly. They contend with

each other in the empty vanity of titles and surnames; and

curiously select, or invent, the most lofty and sonorous

appellations, Reburrus, or Fabunius, Pagonius, or Tarasius, 36

which may impress the ears of the vulgar with astonishment and

respect. From a vain ambition of perpetuating their memory, they

affect to multiply their likeness, in statues of bronze and

marble; nor are they satisfied, unless those statues are covered

with plates of gold; an honorable distinction, first granted to

Acilius the consul, after he had subdued, by his arms and

counsels, the power of King Antiochus. The ostentation of

displaying, of magnifying, perhaps, the rent-roll of the estates

which they possess in all the provinces, from the rising to the

setting sun, provokes the just resentment of every man, who

recollects, that their poor and invincible ancestors were not

distinguished from the meanest of the soldiers, by the delicacy

of their food, or the splendor of their apparel. But the modern

nobles measure their rank and consequence according to the

loftiness of their chariots, 37 and the weighty magnificence of

their dress. Their long robes of silk and purple float in the

wind; and as they are agitated, by art or accident, they

occasionally discover the under garments, the rich tunics,

embroidered with the figures of various animals. 38 Followed by a

train of fifty servants, and tearing up the pavement, they move

along the streets with the same impetuous speed as if they

travelled with post-horses; and the example of the senators is

boldly imitated by the matrons and ladies, whose covered

carriages are continually driving round the immense space of the

city and suburbs. Whenever these persons of high distinction

condescend to visit the public baths, they assume, on their

entrance, a tone of loud and insolent command, and appropriate to

their own use the conveniences which were designed for the Roman

people. If, in these places of mixed and general resort, they

meet any of the infamous ministers of their pleasures, they

express their affection by a tender embrace; while they proudly

decline the salutations of their fellow-citizens, who are not

permitted to aspire above the honor of kissing their hands, or

their knees. As soon as they have indulged themselves in the

refreshment of the bath, they resume their rings, and the other

ensigns of their dignity, select from their private wardrobe of

the finest linen, such as might suffice for a dozen persons, the

garments the most agreeable to their fancy, and maintain till

their departure the same haughty demeanor; which perhaps might

have been excused in the great Marcellus, after the conquest of

Syracuse. Sometimes, indeed, these heroes undertake more arduous

achievements; they visit their estates in Italy, and procure

themselves, by the toil of servile hands, the amusements of the

chase. 39 If at any time, but more especially on a hot day, they

have courage to sail, in their painted galleys, from the Lucrine

Lake 40 to their elegant villas on the seacoast of Puteoli and

Cayeta, 41 they compare their own expeditions to the marches of

Caesar and Alexander. Yet should a fly presume to settle on the

silken folds of their gilded umbrellas; should a sunbeam

penetrate through some unguarded and imperceptible chink, they

deplore their intolerable hardships, and lament, in affected

language, that they were not born in the land of the Cimmerians,

42 the regions of eternal darkness. In these journeys into the

country, 43 the whole body of the household marches with their

master. In the same manner as the cavalry and infantry, the heavy

and the light armed troops, the advanced guard and the rear, are

marshalled by the skill of their military leaders; so the

domestic officers, who bear a rod, as an ensign of authority,

distribute and arrange the numerous train of slaves and

attendants. The baggage and wardrobe move in the front; and are

immediately followed by a multitude of cooks, and inferior

ministers, employed in the service of the kitchens, and of the

table. The main body is composed of a promiscuous crowd of

slaves, increased by the accidental concourse of idle or

dependent plebeians. The rear is closed by the favorite band of

eunuchs, distributed from age to youth, according to the order of

seniority. Their numbers and their deformity excite the horror of

the indignant spectators, who are ready to execrate the memory of

Semiramis, for the cruel art which she invented, of frustrating

the purposes of nature, and of blasting in the bud the hopes of

future generations. In the exercise of domestic jurisdiction, the

nobles of Rome express an exquisite sensibility for any personal

injury, and a contemptuous indifference for the rest of the human

species. When they have called for warm water, if a slave has

been tardy in his obedience, he is instantly chastised with three

hundred lashes: but should the same slave commit a wilful murder,

the master will mildly observe, that he is a worthless fellow;

but that, if he repeats the offence, he shall not escape

punishment. Hospitality was formerly the virtue of the Romans;

and every stranger, who could plead either merit or misfortune,

was relieved, or rewarded by their generosity. At present, if a

foreigner, perhaps of no contemptible rank, is introduced to one

of the proud and wealthy senators, he is welcomed indeed in the

first audience, with such warm professions, and such kind

inquiries, that he retires, enchanted with the affability of his

illustrious friend, and full of regret that he had so long

delayed his journey to Rome, the active seat of manners, as well

as of empire. Secure of a favorable reception, he repeats his

visit the ensuing day, and is mortified by the discovery, that

his person, his name, and his country, are already forgotten. If

he still has resolution to persevere, he is gradually numbered in

the train of dependants, and obtains the permission to pay his

assiduous and unprofitable court to a haughty patron, incapable

of gratitude or friendship; who scarcely deigns to remark his

presence, his departure, or his return. Whenever the rich prepare

a solemn and popular entertainment; 44 whenever they celebrate,

with profuse and pernicious luxury, their private banquets; the

choice of the guests is the subject of anxious deliberation. The

modest, the sober, and the learned, are seldom preferred; and the

nomenclators, who are commonly swayed by interested motives, have

the address to insert, in the list of invitations, the obscure

names of the most worthless of mankind. But the frequent and

familiar companions of the great, are those parasites, who

practise the most useful of all arts, the art of flattery; who

eagerly applaud each word, and every action, of their immortal

patron; gaze with rapture on his marble columns and variegated

pavements; and strenuously praise the pomp and elegance which he

is taught to consider as a part of his personal merit. At the

Roman tables, the birds, the squirrels, 45 or the fish, which

appear of an uncommon size, are contemplated with curious

attention; a pair of scales is accurately applied, to ascertain

their real weight; and, while the more rational guests are

disgusted by the vain and tedious repetition, notaries are

summoned to attest, by an authentic record, the truth of such a

marvelous event. Another method of introduction into the houses

and society of the great, is derived from the profession of

gaming, or, as it is more politely styled, of play. The

confederates are united by a strict and indissoluble bond of

friendship, or rather of conspiracy; a superior degree of skill

in the Tesserarian art (which may be interpreted the game of dice

and tables) 46 is a sure road to wealth and reputation. A master

of that sublime science, who in a supper, or assembly, is placed

below a magistrate, displays in his countenance the surprise and

indignation which Cato might be supposed to feel, when he was

refused the praetorship by the votes of a capricious people. The

acquisition of knowledge seldom engages the curiosity of nobles,

who abhor the fatigue, and disdain the advantages, of study; and

the only books which they peruse are the Satires of Juvenal, and

the verbose and fabulous histories of Marius Maximus. 47 The

libraries, which they have inherited from their fathers, are

secluded, like dreary sepulchres, from the light of day. 48 But

the costly instruments of the theatre, flutes, and enormous

lyres, and hydraulic organs, are constructed for their use; and

the harmony of vocal and instrumental music is incessantly

repeated in the palaces of Rome. In those palaces, sound is

preferred to sense, and the care of the body to that of the

mind.”

It is allowed as a salutary maxim, that the light and frivolous

suspicion of a contagious malady, is of sufficient weight to

excuse the visits of the most intimate friends; and even the

servants, who are despatched to make the decent inquiries, are

not suffered to return home, till they have undergone the

ceremony of a previous ablution. Yet this selfish and unmanly

delicacy occasionally yields to the more imperious passion of

avarice. The prospect of gain will urge a rich and gouty senator

as far as Spoleto; every sentiment of arrogance and dignity is

subdued by the hopes of an inheritance, or even of a legacy; and

a wealthy childless citizen is the most powerful of the Romans.

The art of obtaining the signature of a favorable testament, and

sometimes of hastening the moment of its execution, is perfectly

understood; and it has happened, that in the same house, though

in different apartments, a husband and a wife, with the laudable

design of overreaching each other, have summoned their respective

lawyers, to declare, at the same time, their mutual, but

contradictory, intentions. The distress which follows and

chastises extravagant luxury, often reduces the great to the use

of the most humiliating expedients. When they desire to borrow,

they employ the base and supplicating style of the slave in the

comedy; but when they are called upon to pay, they assume the

royal and tragic declamation of the grandsons of Hercules. If the

demand is repeated, they readily procure some trusty sycophant,

instructed to maintain a charge of poison, or magic, against the

insolent creditor; who is seldom released from prison, till he

has signed a discharge of the whole debt. These vices, which

degrade the moral character of the Romans, are mixed with a

puerile superstition, that disgraces their understanding. They

listen with confidence to the predictions of haruspices, who

pretend to read, in the entrails of victims, the signs of future

greatness and prosperity; and there are many who do not presume

either to bathe, or to dine, or to appear in public, till they

have diligently consulted, according to the rules of astrology,

the situation of Mercury, and the aspect of the moon. 49 It is

singular enough, that this vain credulity may often be discovered

among the profane sceptics, who impiously doubt, or deny, the

existence of a celestial power.”

35 (return) [ Claudian, who seems to have read the history of

Ammianus, speaks of this great revolution in a much less courtly

style:—

Postquam jura ferox in se communia Caesar Transtulit; et lapsi

mores; desuetaque priscis Artibus, in gremium pacis servile

recessi. —De Be. Gildonico, p. 49.]

36 (return) [ The minute diligence of antiquarians has not been

able to verify these extraordinary names. I am of opinion that

they were invented by the historian himself, who was afraid of

any personal satire or application. It is certain, however, that

the simple denominations of the Romans were gradually lengthened

to the number of four, five, or even seven, pompous surnames; as,

for instance, Marcus Maecius Maemmius Furius Balburius

Caecilianus Placidus. See Noris Cenotaph Piran Dissert. iv. p.

438.]

37 (return) [ The or coaches of the romans, were often of solid

silver, curiously carved and engraved; and the trappings of the

mules, or horses, were embossed with gold. This magnificence

continued from the reign of Nero to that of Honorius; and the

Appian way was covered with the splendid equipages of the nobles,

who came out to meet St. Melania, when she returned to Rome, six

years before the Gothic siege, (Seneca, epist. lxxxvii. Plin.

Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 49. Paulin. Nolan. apud Baron. Annal.

Eccles. A.D. 397, No. 5.) Yet pomp is well exchange for

convenience; and a plain modern coach, that is hung upon springs,

is much preferable to the silver or gold carts of antiquity,

which rolled on the axle-tree, and were exposed, for the most

part, to the inclemency of the weather.]

38 (return) [ In a homily of Asterius, bishop of Amasia, M. de

Valois has discovered (ad Ammian. xiv. 6) that this was a new

fashion; that bears, wolves lions, and tigers, woods,

hunting-matches, &c., were represented in embroidery: and that

the more pious coxcombs substituted the figure or legend of some

favorite saint.]

39 (return) [ See Pliny’s Epistles, i. 6. Three large wild boars

were allured and taken in the toils without interrupting the

studies of the philosophic sportsman.]

40 (return) [ The change from the inauspicious word Avernus,

which stands in the text, is immaterial. The two lakes, Avernus

and Lucrinus, communicated with each other, and were fashioned by

the stupendous moles of Agrippa into the Julian port, which

opened, through a narrow entrance, into the Gulf of Puteoli.

Virgil, who resided on the spot, has described (Georgic ii. 161)

this work at the moment of its execution: and his commentators,

especially Catrou, have derived much light from Strabo,

Suetonius, and Dion. Earthquakes and volcanoes have changed the

face of the country, and turned the Lucrine Lake, since the year

1538, into the Monte Nuovo. See Camillo Pellegrino Discorsi della

Campania Felice, p. 239, 244, &c. Antonii Sanfelicii Campania, p.

13, 88—Note: Compare Lyell’s Geology, ii. 72.—M.]

41 (return) [ The regna Cumana et Puteolana; loca caetiroqui

valde expe tenda, interpellantium autem multitudine paene

fugienda. Cicero ad Attic. xvi. 17.]

42 (return) [ The proverbial expression of Cimmerian darkness was

originally borrowed from the description of Homer, (in the

eleventh book of the Odyssey,) which he applies to a remote and

fabulous country on the shores of the ocean. See Erasmi Adagia,

in his works, tom. ii. p. 593, the Leyden edition.]

43 (return) [ We may learn from Seneca (epist. cxxiii.) three

curious circumstances relative to the journeys of the Romans. 1.

They were preceded by a troop of Numidian light horse, who

announced, by a cloud of dust, the approach of a great man. 2.

Their baggage mules transported not only the precious vases, but

even the fragile vessels of crystal and murra, which last is

almost proved, by the learned French translator of Seneca, (tom.

iii. p. 402-422,) to mean the porcelain of China and Japan. 3.

The beautiful faces of the young slaves were covered with a

medicated crust, or ointment, which secured them against the

effects of the sun and frost.]

44 (return) [ Distributio solemnium sportularum. The sportuloe,

or sportelloe, were small baskets, supposed to contain a quantity

of hot provisions of the value of 100 quadrantes, or twelvepence

halfpenny, which were ranged in order in the hall, and

ostentatiously distributed to the hungry or servile crowd who

waited at the door. This indelicate custom is very frequently

mentioned in the epigrams of Martial, and the satires of Juvenal.

See likewise Suetonius, in Claud. c. 21, in Neron. c. 16, in

Domitian, c. 4, 7. These baskets of provisions were afterwards

converted into large pieces of gold and silver coin, or plate,

which were mutually given and accepted even by persons of the

highest rank, (see Symmach. epist. iv. 55, ix. 124, and Miscell.

p. 256,) on solemn occasions, of consulships, marriages, &c.]

45 (return) [ The want of an English name obliges me to refer to

the common genus of squirrels, the Latin glis, the French loir; a

little animal, who inhabits the woods, and remains torpid in cold

weather, (see Plin. Hist. Natur. viii. 82. Buffon, Hist.

Naturelle, tom. viii. 153. Pennant’s Synopsis of Quadrupeds, p.

289.) The art of rearing and fattening great numbers of glires

was practised in Roman villas as a profitable article of rural

economy, (Varro, de Re Rustica, iii. 15.) The excessive demand of

them for luxurious tables was increased by the foolish

prohibitions of the censors; and it is reported that they are

still esteemed in modern Rome, and are frequently sent as

presents by the Colonna princes, (see Brotier, the last editor of

Pliny tom. ii. p. 453. epud Barbou, 1779.)—Note: Is it not the

dormouse?—M.]

46 (return) [ This game, which might be translated by the more

familiar names of trictrac, or backgammon, was a favorite

amusement of the gravest Romans; and old Mucius Scaevola, the

lawyer, had the reputation of a very skilful player. It was

called ludus duodecim scriptorum, from the twelve scripta, or

lines, which equally divided the alvevolus or table. On these,

the two armies, the white and the black, each consisting of

fifteen men, or catculi, were regularly placed, and alternately

moved according to the laws of the game, and the chances of the

tesseroe, or dice. Dr. Hyde, who diligently traces the history

and varieties of the nerdiludium (a name of Persic etymology)

from Ireland to Japan, pours forth, on this trifling subject, a

copious torrent of classic and Oriental learning. See Syntagma

Dissertat. tom. ii. p. 217-405.]

47 (return) [ Marius Maximus, homo omnium verbosissimus, qui, et

mythistoricis se voluminibus implicavit. Vopiscus in Hist.

August. p. 242. He wrote the lives of the emperors, from Trajan

to Alexander Severus. See Gerard Vossius de Historicis Latin. l.

ii. c. 3, in his works, vol. iv. p. 47.]

48 (return) [ This satire is probably exaggerated. The Saturnalia

of Macrobius, and the epistles of Jerom, afford satisfactory

proofs, that Christian theology and classic literature were

studiously cultivated by several Romans, of both sexes, and of

the highest rank.]

49 (return) [ Macrobius, the friend of these Roman nobles,

considered the siara as the cause, or at least the signs, of

future events, (de Somn. Scipion l. i. c 19. p. 68.)]

Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of Territories By

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,

praefect 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.]

Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of Territories By

Barbarians.—Part IV.

At the distance of fourteen centuries, we may be satisfied with

relating the military exploits of the conquerors of Rome, without

presuming to investigate the motives of their political conduct.

In the midst of his apparent prosperity, Alaric was conscious,

perhaps, of some secret weakness, some internal defect; or

perhaps the moderation which he displayed, was intended only to

deceive and disarm the easy credulity of the ministers of

Honorius. The king of the Goths repeatedly declared, that it was

his desire to be considered as the friend of peace, and of the

Romans. Three senators, at his earnest request, were sent

ambassadors to the court of Ravenna, to solicit the exchange of

hostages, and the conclusion of the treaty; and the proposals,

which he more clearly expressed during the course of the

negotiations, could only inspire a doubt of his sincerity, as

they might seem inadequate to the state of his fortune. The

Barbarian still aspired to the rank of master-general of the

armies of the West; he stipulated an annual subsidy of corn and

money; and he chose the provinces of Dalmatia, Noricum, and

Venetia, for the seat of his new kingdom, which would have

commanded the important communication between Italy and the

Danube. If these modest terms should be rejected, Alaric showed a

disposition to relinquish his pecuniary demands, and even to

content himself with the possession of Noricum; an exhausted and

impoverished country, perpetually exposed to the inroads of the

Barbarians of Germany. 82 But the hopes of peace were

disappointed by the weak obstinacy, or interested views, of the

minister Olympius. Without listening to the salutary

remonstrances of the senate, he dismissed their ambassadors under

the conduct of a military escort, too numerous for a retinue of

honor, and too feeble for any army of defence. Six thousand

Dalmatians, the flower of the Imperial legions, were ordered to

march from Ravenna to Rome, through an open country which was

occupied by the formidable myriads of the Barbarians. These brave

legionaries, encompassed and betrayed, fell a sacrifice to

ministerial folly; their general, Valens, with a hundred

soldiers, escaped from the field of battle; and one of the

ambassadors, who could no longer claim the protection of the law

of nations, was obliged to purchase his freedom with a ransom of

thirty thousand pieces of gold. Yet Alaric, instead of resenting

this act of impotent hostility, immediately renewed his proposals

of peace; and the second embassy of the Roman senate, which

derived weight and dignity from the presence of Innocent, bishop

of the city, was guarded from the dangers of the road by a

detachment of Gothic soldiers. 83

82 (return) [ Zosimus, l. v. p. 367 368, 369.]

83 (return) [ Zosimus, l. v. p. 360, 361, 362. The bishop, by

remaining at Ravenna, escaped the impending calamities of the

city. Orosius, l. vii. c. 39, p. 573.]

Olympius 84 might have continued to insult the just resentment of

a people who loudly accused him as the author of the public

calamities; but his power was undermined by the secret intrigues

of the palace. The favorite eunuchs transferred the government of

Honorius, and the empire, to Jovius, the Prætorian praefect; an

unworthy servant, who did not atone, by the merit of personal

attachment, for the errors and misfortunes of his administration.

The exile, or escape, of the guilty Olympius, reserved him for

more vicissitudes of fortune: he experienced the adventures of an

obscure and wandering life; he again rose to power; he fell a

second time into disgrace; his ears were cut off; he expired

under the lash; and his ignominious death afforded a grateful

spectacle to the friends of Stilicho. After the removal of

Olympius, whose character was deeply tainted with religious

fanaticism, the Pagans and heretics were delivered from the

impolitic proscription, which excluded them from the dignities of

the state. The brave Gennerid, 85 a soldier of Barbarian origin,

who still adhered to the worship of his ancestors, had been

obliged to lay aside the military belt: and though he was

repeatedly assured by the emperor himself, that laws were not

made for persons of his rank or merit, he refused to accept any

partial dispensation, and persevered in honorable disgrace, till

he had extorted a general act of justice from the distress of the

Roman government. The conduct of Gennerid in the important

station to which he was promoted or restored, of master-general

of Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, and Rhaetia, seemed to revive the

discipline and spirit of the republic. From a life of idleness

and want, his troops were soon habituated to severe exercise and

plentiful subsistence; and his private generosity often supplied

the rewards, which were denied by the avarice, or poverty, of the

court of Ravenna. The valor of Gennerid, formidable to the

adjacent Barbarians, was the firmest bulwark of the Illyrian

frontier; and his vigilant care assisted the empire with a

reenforcement of ten thousand Huns, who arrived on the confines

of Italy, attended by such a convoy of provisions, and such a

numerous train of sheep and oxen, as might have been sufficient,

not only for the march of an army, but for the settlement of a

colony. But the court and councils of Honorius still remained a

scene of weakness and distraction, of corruption and anarchy.

Instigated by the praefect Jovius, the guards rose in furious

mutiny, and demanded the heads of two generals, and of the two

principal eunuchs. The generals, under a perfidious promise of

safety, were sent on shipboard, and privately executed; while the

favor of the eunuchs procured them a mild and secure exile at

Milan and Constantinople. Eusebius the eunuch, and the Barbarian

Allobich, succeeded to the command of the bed-chamber and of the

guards; and the mutual jealousy of these subordinate ministers

was the cause of their mutual destruction. By the insolent order

of the count of the domestics, the great chamberlain was

shamefully beaten to death with sticks, before the eyes of the

astonished emperor; and the subsequent assassination of Allobich,

in the midst of a public procession, is the only circumstance of

his life, in which Honorius discovered the faintest symptom of

courage or resentment. Yet before they fell, Eusebius and

Allobich had contributed their part to the ruin of the empire, by

opposing the conclusion of a treaty which Jovius, from a selfish,

and perhaps a criminal, motive, had negotiated with Alaric, in a

personal interview under the walls of Rimini. During the absence

of Jovius, the emperor was persuaded to assume a lofty tone of

inflexible dignity, such as neither his situation, nor his

character, could enable him to support; and a letter, signed with

the name of Honorius, was immediately despatched to the Prætorian

praefect, granting him a free permission to dispose of the public

money, but sternly refusing to prostitute the military honors of

Rome to the proud demands of a Barbarian. This letter was

imprudently communicated to Alaric himself; and the Goth, who in

the whole transaction had behaved with temper and decency,

expressed, in the most outrageous language, his lively sense of

the insult so wantonly offered to his person and to his nation.

The conference of Rimini was hastily interrupted; and the

praefect Jovius, on his return to Ravenna, was compelled to

adopt, and even to encourage, the fashionable opinions of the

court. By his advice and example, the principal officers of the

state and army were obliged to swear, that, without listening, in

any circumstances, to any conditions of peace, they would still

persevere in perpetual and implacable war against the enemy of

the republic. This rash engagement opposed an insuperable bar to

all future negotiation. The ministers of Honorius were heard to

declare, that, if they had only invoked the name of the Deity,

they would consult the public safety, and trust their souls to

the mercy of Heaven: but they had sworn by the sacred head of the

emperor himself; they had touched, in solemn ceremony, that

august seat of majesty and wisdom; and the violation of their

oath would expose them to the temporal penalties of sacrilege and

rebellion. 86

84 (return) [ For the adventures of Olympius, and his successors

in the ministry, see Zosimus, l. v. p. 363, 365, 366, and

Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 180, 181. ]

85 (return) [ Zosimus (l. v. p. 364) relates this circumstance

with visible complacency, and celebrates the character of

Gennerid as the last glory of expiring Paganism. Very different

were the sentiments of the council of Carthage, who deputed four

bishops to the court of Ravenna to complain of the law, which had

been just enacted, that all conversions to Christianity should be

free and voluntary. See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 409, No.

12, A.D. 410, No. 47, 48.]

86 (return) [ Zosimus, l. v. p. 367, 368, 369. This custom of

swearing by the head, or life, or safety, or genius, of the

sovereign, was of the highest antiquity, both in Egypt (Genesis,

xlii. 15) and Scythia. It was soon transferred, by flattery, to

the Caesars; and Tertullian complains, that it was the only oath

which the Romans of his time affected to reverence. See an

elegant Dissertation of the Abbe Mossieu on the Oaths of the

Ancients, in the Mem de l’Academie des Inscriptions, tom. i. p.

208, 209.]

While the emperor and his court enjoyed, with sullen pride, the

security of the marches and fortifications of Ravenna, they

abandoned Rome, almost without defence, to the resentment of

Alaric. Yet such was the moderation which he still preserved, or

affected, that, as he moved with his army along the Flaminian

way, he successively despatched the bishops of the towns of Italy

to reiterate his offers of peace, and to conjure the emperor,

that he would save the city and its inhabitants from hostile

fire, and the sword of the Barbarians. 87 These impending

calamities were, however, averted, not indeed by the wisdom of

Honorius, but by the prudence or humanity of the Gothic king; who

employed a milder, though not less effectual, method of conquest.

Instead of assaulting the capital, he successfully directed his

efforts against the Port of Ostia, one of the boldest and most

stupendous works of Roman magnificence. 88 The accidents to which

the precarious subsistence of the city was continually exposed in

a winter navigation, and an open road, had suggested to the

genius of the first Caesar the useful design, which was executed

under the reign of Claudius. The artificial moles, which formed

the narrow entrance, advanced far into the sea, and firmly

repelled the fury of the waves, while the largest vessels

securely rode at anchor within three deep and capacious basins,

which received the northern branch of the Tyber, about two miles

from the ancient colony of Ostia. 89 The Roman Port insensibly

swelled to the size of an episcopal city, 90 where the corn of

Africa was deposited in spacious granaries for the use of the

capital. As soon as Alaric was in possession of that important

place, he summoned the city to surrender at discretion; and his

demands were enforced by the positive declaration, that a

refusal, or even a delay, should be instantly followed by the

destruction of the magazines, on which the life of the Roman

people depended. The clamors of that people, and the terror of

famine, subdued the pride of the senate; they listened, without

reluctance, to the proposal of placing a new emperor on the

throne of the unworthy Honorius; and the suffrage of the Gothic

conqueror bestowed the purple on Attalus, praefect of the city.

The grateful monarch immediately acknowledged his protector as

master-general of the armies of the West; Adolphus, with the rank

of count of the domestics, obtained the custody of the person of

Attalus; and the two hostile nations seemed to be united in the

closest bands of friendship and alliance. 91

87 (return) [ Zosimus, l. v. p. 368, 369. I have softened the

expressions of Alaric, who expatiates, in too florid a manner, on

the history of Rome]

88 (return) [ See Sueton. in Claud. c. 20. Dion Cassius, l. lx.

p. 949, edit Reimar, and the lively description of Juvenal,

Satir. xii. 75, &c. In the sixteenth century, when the remains of

this Augustan port were still visible, the antiquarians sketched

the plan, (see D’Anville, Mem. de l’Academie des Inscriptions,

tom. xxx. p. 198,) and declared, with enthusiasm, that all the

monarchs of Europe would be unable to execute so great a work,

(Bergier, Hist. des grands Chemins des Romains, tom. ii. p.

356.)]

89 (return) [ The Ostia Tyberina, (see Cluver. Italia Antiq. l.

iii. p. 870-879,) in the plural number, the two mouths of the

Tyber, were separated by the Holy Island, an equilateral

triangle, whose sides were each of them computed at about two

miles. The colony of Ostia was founded immediately beyond the

left, or southern, and the Port immediately beyond the right, or

northern, branch of hte river; and the distance between their

remains measures something more than two miles on Cingolani’s

map. In the time of Strabo, the sand and mud deposited by the

Tyber had choked the harbor of Ostia; the progress of the same

cause has added much to the size of the Holy Islands, and

gradually left both Ostia and the Port at a considerable distance

from the shore. The dry channels (fiumi morti) and the large

estuaries (stagno di Ponente, di Levante) mark the changes of the

river, and the efforts of the sea. Consult, for the present state

of this dreary and desolate tract, the excellent map of the

ecclesiastical state by the mathematicians of Benedict XIV.; an

actual survey of the Agro Romano, in six sheets, by Cingolani,

which contains 113,819 rubbia, (about 570,000 acres;) and the

large topographical map of Ameti, in eight sheets.]

90 (return) [ As early as the third, (Lardner’s Credibility of

the Gospel, part ii. vol. iii. p. 89-92,) or at least the fourth,

century, (Carol. a Sancta Paulo, Notit. Eccles. p. 47,) the Port

of Rome was an episcopal city, which was demolished, as it should

seem in the ninth century, by Pope Gregory IV., during the

incursions of the Arabs. It is now reduced to an inn, a church,

and the house, or palace, of the bishop; who ranks as one of six

cardinal-bishops of the Roman church. See Eschinard, Deserizione

di Roman et dell’ Agro Romano, p. 328. * Note: Compare Sir W.

Gell. Rome and its Vicinity vol. ii p. 134.—M.]

91 (return) [ For the elevation of Attalus, consult Zosimus, l.

vi. p. 377-380, Sozomen, l. ix. c. 8, 9, Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p.

180, 181, Philostorg. l. xii. c. 3, and Godefroy’s Dissertat. p.

470.]

The gates of the city were thrown open, and the new emperor of

the Romans, encompassed on every side by the Gothic arms, was

conducted, in tumultuous procession, to the palace of Augustus

and Trajan. After he had distributed the civil and military

dignities among his favorites and followers, Attalus convened an

assembly of the senate; before whom, in a formal and florid

speech, he asserted his resolution of restoring the majesty of

the republic, and of uniting to the empire the provinces of Egypt

and the East, which had once acknowledged the sovereignty of

Rome. Such extravagant promises inspired every reasonable citizen

with a just contempt for the character of an unwarlike usurper,

whose elevation was the deepest and most ignominious wound which

the republic had yet sustained from the insolence of the

Barbarians. But the populace, with their usual levity, applauded

the change of masters. The public discontent was favorable to the

rival of Honorius; and the sectaries, oppressed by his

persecuting edicts, expected some degree of countenance, or at

least of toleration, from a prince, who, in his native country of

Ionia, had been educated in the Pagan superstition, and who had

since received the sacrament of baptism from the hands of an

Arian bishop. 92 The first days of the reign of Attalus were fair

and prosperous. An officer of confidence was sent with an

inconsiderable body of troops to secure the obedience of Africa;

the greatest part of Italy submitted to the terror of the Gothic

powers; and though the city of Bologna made a vigorous and

effectual resistance, the people of Milan, dissatisfied perhaps

with the absence of Honorius, accepted, with loud acclamations,

the choice of the Roman senate. At the head of a formidable army,

Alaric conducted his royal captive almost to the gates of

Ravenna; and a solemn embassy of the principal ministers, of

Jovius, the Prætorian praefect, of Valens, master of the cavalry

and infantry, of the quaestor Potamius, and of Julian, the first

of the notaries, was introduced, with martial pomp, into the

Gothic camp. In the name of their sovereign, they consented to

acknowledge the lawful election of his competitor, and to divide

the provinces of Italy and the West between the two emperors.

Their proposals were rejected with disdain; and the refusal was

aggravated by the insulting clemency of Attalus, who condescended

to promise, that, if Honorius would instantly resign the purple,

he should be permitted to pass the remainder of his life in the

peaceful exile of some remote island. 93 So desperate indeed did

the situation of the son of Theodosius appear, to those who were

the best acquainted with his strength and resources, that Jovius

and Valens, his minister and his general, betrayed their trust,

infamously deserted the sinking cause of their benefactor, and

devoted their treacherous allegiance to the service of his more

fortunate rival. Astonished by such examples of domestic treason,

Honorius trembled at the approach of every servant, at the

arrival of every messenger. He dreaded the secret enemies, who

might lurk in his capital, his palace, his bed-chamber; and some

ships lay ready in the harbor of Ravenna, to transport the

abdicated monarch to the dominions of his infant nephew, the

emperor of the East.

92 (return) [ We may admit the evidence of Sozomen for the Arian

baptism, and that of Philostorgius for the Pagan education, of

Attalus. The visible joy of Zosimus, and the discontent which he

imputes to the Anician family, are very unfavorable to the

Christianity of the new emperor.]

93 (return) [ He carried his insolence so far, as to declare that

he should mutilate Honorius before he sent him into exile. But

this assertion of Zosimus is destroyed by the more impartial

testimony of Olympiodorus; who attributes the ungenerous proposal

(which was absolutely rejected by Attalus) to the baseness, and

perhaps the treachery, of Jovius.]

But there is a Providence (such at least was the opinion of the

historian Procopius) 94 that watches over innocence and folly;

and the pretensions of Honorius to its peculiar care cannot

reasonably be disputed. At the moment when his despair, incapable

of any wise or manly resolution, meditated a shameful flight, a

seasonable reenforcement of four thousand veterans unexpectedly

landed in the port of Ravenna. To these valiant strangers, whose

fidelity had not been corrupted by the factions of the court, he

committed the walls and gates of the city; and the slumbers of

the emperor were no longer disturbed by the apprehension of

imminent and internal danger. The favorable intelligence which

was received from Africa suddenly changed the opinions of men,

and the state of public affairs. The troops and officers, whom

Attalus had sent into that province, were defeated and slain; and

the active zeal of Heraclian maintained his own allegiance, and

that of his people. The faithful count of Africa transmitted a

large sum of money, which fixed the attachment of the Imperial

guards; and his vigilance, in preventing the exportation of corn

and oil, introduced famine, tumult, and discontent, into the

walls of Rome. The failure of the African expedition was the

source of mutual complaint and recrimination in the party of

Attalus; and the mind of his protector was insensibly alienated

from the interest of a prince, who wanted spirit to command, or

docility to obey. The most imprudent measures were adopted,

without the knowledge, or against the advice, of Alaric; and the

obstinate refusal of the senate, to allow, in the embarkation,

the mixture even of five hundred Goths, betrayed a suspicious and

distrustful temper, which, in their situation, was neither

generous nor prudent. The resentment of the Gothic king was

exasperated by the malicious arts of Jovius, who had been raised

to the rank of patrician, and who afterwards excused his double

perfidy, by declaring, without a blush, that he had only seemed

to abandon the service of Honorius, more effectually to ruin the

cause of the usurper. In a large plain near Rimini, and in the

presence of an innumerable multitude of Romans and Barbarians,

the wretched Attalus was publicly despoiled of the diadem and

purple; and those ensigns of royalty were sent by Alaric, as the

pledge of peace and friendship, to the son of Theodosius. 95 The

officers who returned to their duty, were reinstated in their

employments, and even the merit of a tardy repentance was

graciously allowed; but the degraded emperor of the Romans,

desirous of life, and insensible of disgrace, implored the

permission of following the Gothic camp, in the train of a

haughty and capricious Barbarian. 96

94 (return) [ Procop. de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 2.]

95 (return) [ See the cause and circumstances of the fall of

Attalus in Zosimus, l. vi. p. 380-383. Sozomen, l. ix. c. 8.

Philostorg. l. xii. c. 3. The two acts of indemnity in the

Theodosian Code, l. ix. tit. xxxviii. leg. 11, 12, which were

published the 12th of February, and the 8th of August, A.D. 410,

evidently relate to this usurper.]

96 (return) [ In hoc, Alaricus, imperatore, facto, infecto,

refecto, ac defecto... Mimum risit, et ludum spectavit imperii.

Orosius, l. vii. c. 42, p. 582.]

The degradation of Attalus removed the only real obstacle to the

conclusion of the peace; and Alaric advanced within three miles

of Ravenna, to press the irresolution of the Imperial ministers,

whose insolence soon returned with the return of fortune. His

indignation was kindled by the report, that a rival chieftain,

that Sarus, the personal enemy of Adolphus, and the hereditary

foe of the house of Balti, had been received into the palace. At

the head of three hundred followers, that fearless Barbarian

immediately sallied from the gates of Ravenna; surprised, and cut

in pieces, a considerable body of Goths; reentered the city in

triumph; and was permitted to insult his adversary, by the voice

of a herald, who publicly declared that the guilt of Alaric had

forever excluded him from the friendship and alliance of the

emperor. 97 The crime and folly of the court of Ravenna was

expiated, a third time, by the calamities of Rome. The king of

the Goths, who no longer dissembled his appetite for plunder and

revenge, appeared in arms under the walls of the capital; and the

trembling senate, without any hopes of relief, prepared, by a

desperate resistance, to defray the ruin of their country. But

they were unable to guard against the secret conspiracy of their

slaves and domestics; who, either from birth or interest, were

attached to the cause of the enemy. At the hour of midnight, the

Salarian gate was silently opened, and the inhabitants were

awakened by the tremendous sound of the Gothic trumpet. Eleven

hundred and sixty-three years after the foundation of Rome, the

Imperial city, which had subdued and civilized so considerable a

part of mankind, was delivered to the licentious fury of the

tribes of Germany and Scythia. 98

97 (return) [ Zosimus, l. vi. p. 384. Sozomen, l. ix. c. 9.

Philostorgius, l. xii. c. 3. In this place the text of Zosimus is

mutilated, and we have lost the remainder of his sixth and last

book, which ended with the sack of Rome. Credulous and partial as

he is, we must take our leave of that historian with some

regret.]

98 (return) [ Adest Alaricus, trepidam Romam obsidet, turbat,

irrumpit. Orosius, l. 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. 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.]

The proclamation of Alaric, when he forced his entrance into a

vanquished city, discovered, however, some regard for the laws of

humanity and religion. He encouraged his troops boldly to seize

the rewards of valor, and to enrich themselves with the spoils of

a wealthy and effeminate people: but he exhorted them, at the

same time, to spare the lives of the unresisting citizens, and to

respect the churches of the apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, as

holy and inviolable sanctuaries. Amidst the horrors of a

nocturnal tumult, several of the Christian Goths displayed the

fervor of a recent conversion; and some instances of their

uncommon piety and moderation are related, and perhaps adorned,

by the zeal of ecclesiastical writers. 99 While the Barbarians

roamed through the city in quest of prey, the humble dwelling of

an aged virgin, who had devoted her life to the service of the

altar, was forced open by one of the powerful Goths. He

immediately demanded, though in civil language, all the gold and

silver in her possession; and was astonished at the readiness

with which she conducted him to a splendid hoard of massy plate,

of the richest materials, and the most curious workmanship. The

Barbarian viewed with wonder and delight this valuable

acquisition, till he was interrupted by a serious admonition,

addressed to him in the following words: “These,” said she, “are

the consecrated vessels belonging to St. Peter: if you presume to

touch them, the sacrilegious deed will remain on your conscience.

For my part, I dare not keep what I am unable to defend.” The

Gothic captain, struck with reverential awe, despatched a

messenger to inform the king of the treasure which he had

discovered; and received a peremptory order from Alaric, that all

the consecrated plate and ornaments should be transported,

without damage or delay, to the church of the apostle. From the

extremity, perhaps, of the Quirinal hill, to the distant quarter

of the Vatican, a numerous detachment of Goths, marching in order

of battle through the principal streets, protected, with

glittering arms, the long train of their devout companions, who

bore aloft, on their heads, the sacred vessels of gold and

silver; and the martial shouts of the Barbarians were mingled

with the sound of religious psalmody. From all the adjacent

houses, a crowd of Christians hastened to join this edifying

procession; and a multitude of fugitives, without distinction of

age, or rank, or even of sect, had the good fortune to escape to

the secure and hospitable sanctuary of the Vatican. The learned

work, concerning the City of God, was professedly composed by St.

Augustin, to justify the ways of Providence in the destruction of

the Roman greatness. He celebrates, with peculiar satisfaction,

this memorable triumph of Christ; and insults his adversaries, by

challenging them to produce some similar example of a town taken

by storm, in which the fabulous gods of antiquity had been able

to protect either themselves or their deluded votaries. 100

99 (return) [ Orosius (l. vii. c. 39, p. 573-576) applauds the

piety of the Christian Goths, without seeming to perceive that

the greatest part of them were Arian heretics. Jornandes (c. 30,

p. 653) and Isidore of Seville, (Chron. p. 417, edit. Grot.,) who

were both attached to the Gothic cause, have repeated and

embellished these edifying tales. According to Isidore, Alaric

himself was heard to say, that he waged war with the Romans, and

not with the apostles. Such was the style of the seventh century;

two hundred years before, the fame and merit had been ascribed,

not to the apostles, but to Christ.]

100 (return) [ See Augustin, de Civitat. Dei, l. i. c. 1-6. He

particularly appeals to the examples of Troy, Syracuse, and

Tarentum.]

In the sack of Rome, some rare and extraordinary examples of

Barbarian virtue have been deservedly applauded. But the holy

precincts of the Vatican, and the apostolic churches, could

receive a very small proportion of the Roman people; many

thousand warriors, more especially of the Huns, who served under

the standard of Alaric, were strangers to the name, or at least

to the faith, of Christ; and we may suspect, without any breach

of charity or candor, that in the hour of savage license, when

every passion was inflamed, and every restraint was removed, the

precepts of the Gospel seldom influenced the behavior of the

Gothic Christians. The writers, the best disposed to exaggerate

their clemency, have freely confessed, that a cruel slaughter was

made of the Romans; 101 and that the streets of the city were

filled with dead bodies, which remained without burial during the

general consternation. The despair of the citizens was sometimes

converted into fury: and whenever the Barbarians were provoked by

opposition, they extended the promiscuous massacre to the feeble,

the innocent, and the helpless. The private revenge of forty

thousand slaves was exercised without pity or remorse; and the

ignominious lashes, which they had formerly received, were washed

away in the blood of the guilty, or obnoxious, families. The

matrons and virgins of Rome were exposed to injuries more

dreadful, in the apprehension of chastity, than death itself; and

the ecclesiastical historian has selected an example of female

virtue, for the admiration of future ages. 102 A Roman lady, of

singular beauty and orthodox faith, had excited the impatient

desires of a young Goth, who, according to the sagacious remark

of Sozomen, was attached to the Arian heresy. Exasperated by her

obstinate resistance, he drew his sword, and, with the anger of a

lover, slightly wounded her neck. The bleeding heroine still

continued to brave his resentment, and to repel his love, till

the ravisher desisted from his unavailing efforts, respectfully

conducted her to the sanctuary of the Vatican, and gave six

pieces of gold to the guards of the church, on condition that

they should restore her inviolate to the arms of her husband.

Such instances of courage and generosity were not extremely

common. The brutal soldiers satisfied their sensual appetites,

without consulting either the inclination or the duties of their

female captives: and a nice question of casuistry was seriously

agitated, Whether those tender victims, who had inflexibly

refused their consent to the violation which they sustained, had

lost, by their misfortune, the glorious crown of virginity. 103

Their were other losses indeed of a more substantial kind, and

more general concern. It cannot be presumed, that all the

Barbarians were at all times capable of perpetrating such amorous

outrages; and the want of youth, or beauty, or chastity,

protected the greatest part of the Roman women from the danger of

a rape. But avarice is an insatiate and universal passion; since

the enjoyment of almost every object that can afford pleasure to

the different tastes and tempers of mankind may be procured by

the possession of wealth. In the pillage of Rome, a just

preference was given to gold and jewels, which contain the

greatest value in the smallest compass and weight: but, after

these portable riches had been removed by the more diligent

robbers, the palaces of Rome were rudely stripped of their

splendid and costly furniture. The sideboards of massy plate, and

the variegated wardrobes of silk and purple, were irregularly

piled in the wagons, that always followed the march of a Gothic

army. The most exquisite works of art were roughly handled, or

wantonly destroyed; many a statue was melted for the sake of the

precious materials; and many a vase, in the division of the

spoil, was shivered into fragments by the stroke of a battle-axe.

The acquisition of riches served only to stimulate the avarice of

the rapacious Barbarians, who proceeded, by threats, by blows,

and by tortures, to force from their prisoners the confession of

hidden treasure. 104 Visible splendor and expense were alleged as

the proof of a plentiful fortune; the appearance of poverty was

imputed to a parsimonious disposition; and the obstinacy of some

misers, who endured the most cruel torments before they would

discover the secret object of their affection, was fatal to many

unhappy wretches, who expired under the lash, for refusing to

reveal their imaginary treasures. The edifices of Rome, though

the damage has been much exaggerated, received some injury from

the violence of the Goths. At their entrance through the Salarian

gate, they fired the adjacent houses to guide their march, and to

distract the attention of the citizens; the flames, which

encountered no obstacle in the disorder of the night, consumed

many private and public buildings; and the ruins of the palace of

Sallust 105 remained, in the age of Justinian, a stately monument

of the Gothic conflagration. 106 Yet a contemporary historian has

observed, that fire could scarcely consume the enormous beams of

solid brass, and that the strength of man was insufficient to

subvert the foundations of ancient structures. Some truth may

possibly be concealed in his devout assertion, that the wrath of

Heaven supplied the imperfections of hostile rage; and that the

proud Forum of Rome, decorated with the statues of so many gods

and heroes, was levelled in the dust by the stroke of lightning.

107

101 (return) [ Jerom (tom. i. p. 121, ad Principiam) has applied

to the sack of Rome all the strong expressions of Virgil:—

Quis cladem illius noctis, quis funera fando, Explicet, &c.

Procopius (l. i. c. 2) positively affirms that great numbers were

slain by the Goths. Augustin (de Civ. Dei, l. i. c. 12, 13)

offers Christian comfort for the death of those whose bodies

(multa corpora) had remained (in tanta strage) unburied.

Baronius, from the different writings of the Fathers, has thrown

some light on the sack of Rome. Annal. Eccles. A.D. 410, No.

16-34.]

102 (return) [ Sozomen. l. ix. c. 10. Augustin (de Civitat. Dei,

l. i. c. 17) intimates, that some virgins or matrons actually

killed themselves to escape violation; and though he admires

their spirit, he is obliged, by his theology, to condemn their

rash presumption. Perhaps the good bishop of Hippo was too easy

in the belief, as well as too rigid in the censure, of this act

of female heroism. The twenty maidens (if they ever existed) who

threw themselves into the Elbe, when Magdeburgh was taken by

storm, have been multiplied to the number of twelve hundred. See

Harte’s History of Gustavus Adolphus, vol. i. p. 308.]

103 (return) [ See Augustin de Civitat. Dei, l. i. c. 16, 18. He

treats the subject with remarkable accuracy: and after admitting

that there cannot be any crime where there is no consent, he

adds, Sed quia non solum quod ad dolorem, verum etiam quod ad

libidinem, pertinet, in corpore alieno pepetrari potest; quicquid

tale factum fuerit, etsi retentam constantissimo animo pudicitiam

non excutit, pudorem tamen incutit, ne credatur factum cum mentis

etiam voluntate, quod fieri fortasse sine carnis aliqua voluptate

non potuit. In c. 18 he makes some curious distinctions between

moral and physical virginity.]

104 (return) [ Marcella, a Roman lady, equally respectable for

her rank, her age, and her piety, was thrown on the ground, and

cruelly beaten and whipped, caesam fustibus flagellisque, &c.

Jerom, tom. i. p. 121, ad Principiam. See Augustin, de Civ. Dei,

l. c. 10. The modern Sacco di Roma, p. 208, gives an idea of the

various methods of torturing prisoners for gold.]

105 (return) [ The historian Sallust, who usefully practiced the

vices which he has so eloquently censured, employed the plunder

of Numidia to adorn his palace and gardens on the Quirinal hill.

The spot where the house stood is now marked by the church of St.

Susanna, separated only by a street from the baths of Diocletian,

and not far distant from the Salarian gate. See Nardini, Roma

Antica, p. 192, 193, and the great I’lan of Modern Rome, by

Nolli.]

106 (return) [ The expressions of Procopius are distinct and

moderate, (de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 2.) The Chronicle of

Marcellinus speaks too strongly partem urbis Romae cremavit; and

the words of Philostorgius (l. xii. c. 3) convey a false and

exaggerated idea. Bargaeus has composed a particular dissertation

(see tom. iv. Antiquit. Rom. Graev.) to prove that the edifices

of Rome were not subverted by the Goths and Vandals.]

107 (return) [ Orosius, l. ii. c. 19, p. 143. He speaks as if he

disapproved all statues; vel Deum vel hominem mentiuntur. They

consisted of the kings of Alba and Rome from Aeneas, the Romans,

illustrious either in arms or arts, and the deified Caesars. The

expression which he uses of Forum is somewhat ambiguous, since

there existed five principal Fora; but as they were all

contiguous and adjacent, in the plain which is surrounded by the

Capitoline, the Quirinal, the Esquiline, and the Palatine hills,

they might fairly be considered as one. See the Roma Antiqua of

Donatus, p. 162-201, and the Roma Antica of Nardini, p. 212-273.

The former is more useful for the ancient descriptions, the

latter for the actual topography.]

Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of Territories By

Barbarians.—Part V.

Whatever might be the numbers of equestrian or plebeian rank, who

perished in the massacre of Rome, it is confidently affirmed that

only one senator lost his life by the sword of the enemy. 108 But

it was not easy to compute the multitudes, who, from an honorable

station and a prosperous fortune, were suddenly reduced to the

miserable condition of captives and exiles. As the Barbarians had

more occasion for money than for slaves, they fixed at a moderate

price the redemption of their indigent prisoners; and the ransom

was often paid by the benevolence of their friends, or the

charity of strangers. 109 The captives, who were regularly sold,

either in open market, or by private contract, would have legally

regained their native freedom, which it was impossible for a

citizen to lose, or to alienate. 110 But as it was soon

discovered that the vindication of their liberty would endanger

their lives; and that the Goths, unless they were tempted to

sell, might be provoked to murder, their useless prisoners; the

civil jurisprudence had been already qualified by a wise

regulation, that they should be obliged to serve the moderate

term of five years, till they had discharged by their labor the

price of their redemption. 111 The nations who invaded the Roman

empire, had driven before them, into Italy, whole troops of

hungry and affrighted provincials, less apprehensive of servitude

than of famine. The calamities of Rome and Italy dispersed the

inhabitants to the most lonely, the most secure, the most distant

places of refuge. While the Gothic cavalry spread terror and

desolation along the sea-coast of Campania and Tuscany, the

little island of Igilium, separated by a narrow channel from the

Argentarian promontory, repulsed, or eluded, their hostile

attempts; and at so small a distance from Rome, great numbers of

citizens were securely concealed in the thick woods of that

sequestered spot. 112 The ample patrimonies, which many

senatorian families possessed in Africa, invited them, if they

had time, and prudence, to escape from the ruin of their country,

to embrace the shelter of that hospitable province. The most

illustrious of these fugitives was the noble and pious Proba, 113

the widow of the praefect Petronius. After the death of her

husband, the most powerful subject of Rome, she had remained at

the head of the Anician family, and successively supplied, from

her private fortune, the expense of the consulships of her three

sons. When the city was besieged and taken by the Goths, Proba

supported, with Christian resignation, the loss of immense

riches; embarked in a small vessel, from whence she beheld, at

sea, the flames of her burning palace, and fled with her daughter

Laeta, and her granddaughter, the celebrated virgin, Demetrias,

to the coast of Africa. The benevolent profusion with which the

matron distributed the fruits, or the price, of her estates,

contributed to alleviate the misfortunes of exile and captivity.

But even the family of Proba herself was not exempt from the

rapacious oppression of Count Heraclian, who basely sold, in

matrimonial prostitution, the noblest maidens of Rome to the lust

or avarice of the Syrian merchants. The Italian fugitives were

dispersed through the provinces, along the coast of Egypt and

Asia, as far as Constantinople and Jerusalem; and the village of

Bethlem, the solitary residence of St. Jerom and his female

converts, was crowded with illustrious beggars of either sex, and

every age, who excited the public compassion by the remembrance

of their past fortune. 114 This awful catastrophe of Rome filled

the astonished empire with grief and terror. So interesting a

contrast of greatness and ruin, disposed the fond credulity of

the people to deplore, and even to exaggerate, the afflictions of

the queen of cities. The clergy, who applied to recent events the

lofty metaphors of oriental prophecy, were sometimes tempted to

confound the destruction of the capital and the dissolution of

the globe.

108 (return) [ Orosius (l. ii. c. 19, p. 142) compares the

cruelty of the Gauls and the clemency of the Goths. Ibi vix

quemquam inventum senatorem, qui vel absens evaserit; hic vix

quemquam requiri, qui forte ut latens perierit. But there is an

air of rhetoric, and perhaps of falsehood, in this antithesis;

and Socrates (l. vii. c. 10) affirms, perhaps by an opposite

exaggeration, that many senators were put to death with various

and exquisite tortures.]

109 (return) [ Multi... Christiani incaptivitatem ducti sunt.

Augustin, de Civ Dei, l. i. c. 14; and the Christians experienced

no peculiar hardships.]

110 (return) [ See Heineccius, Antiquitat. Juris Roman. tom. i.

p. 96.]

111 (return) [ Appendix Cod. Theodos. xvi. in Sirmond. Opera,

tom. i. p. 735. This edict was published on the 11th of December,

A.D. 408, and is more reasonable than properly belonged to the

ministers of Honorius.]

112 (return) [ Eminus Igilii sylvosa cacumina miror; Quem

fraudare nefas laudis honore suae.

Haec proprios nuper tutata est insula saltus;

Sive loci ingenio, seu Domini genio. Gurgite cum modico

victricibus obstitit armis, Tanquam longinquo dissociata mari.

Haec multos lacera suscepit ab urbe fugates,

Hic fessis posito certa timore salus. Plurima terreno populaverat

aequora bello,

Contra naturam classe timendus eques: Unum, mira fides, vario

discrimine portum!

Tam prope Romanis, tam procul esse Getis.

—-Rutilius, in Itinerar. l. i. 325

The island is now called Giglio. See Cluver. Ital. Antiq. l. ii.

]

113 (return) [ As the adventures of Proba and her family are

connected with the life of St. Augustin, they are diligently

illustrated by Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 620-635.

Some time after their arrival in Africa, Demetrias took the veil,

and made a vow of virginity; an event which was considered as of

the highest importance to Rome and to the world. All the Saints

wrote congratulatory letters to her; that of Jerom is still

extant, (tom. i. p. 62-73, ad Demetriad. de servand Virginitat.,)

and contains a mixture of absurd reasoning, spirited declamation,

and curious facts, some of which relate to the siege and sack of

Rome.]

114 (return) [ See the pathetic complaint of Jerom, (tom. v. p.

400,) in his preface to the second book of his Commentaries on

the Prophet Ezekiel.]

There exists in human nature a strong propensity to depreciate

the advantages, and to magnify the evils, of the present times.

Yet, when the first emotions had subsided, and a fair estimate

was made of the real damage, the more learned and judicious

contemporaries were forced to confess, that infant Rome had

formerly received more essential injury from the Gauls, than she

had now sustained from the Goths in her declining age. 115 The

experience of eleven centuries has enabled posterity to produce a

much more singular parallel; and to affirm with confidence, that

the ravages of the Barbarians, whom Alaric had led from the banks

of the Danube, were less destructive than the hostilities

exercised by the troops of Charles the Fifth, a Catholic prince,

who styled himself Emperor of the Romans. 116 The Goths evacuated

the city at the end of six days, but Rome remained above nine

months in the possession of the Imperialists; and every hour was

stained by some atrocious act of cruelty, lust, and rapine. The

authority of Alaric preserved some order and moderation among the

ferocious multitude which acknowledged him for their leader and

king; but the constable of Bourbon had gloriously fallen in the

attack of the walls; and the death of the general removed every

restraint of discipline from an army which consisted of three

independent nations, the Italians, the Spaniards, and the

Germans. In the beginning of the sixteenth century, the manners

of Italy exhibited a remarkable scene of the depravity of

mankind. They united the sanguinary crimes that prevail in an

unsettled state of society, with the polished vices which spring

from the abuse of art and luxury; and the loose adventurers, who

had violated every prejudice of patriotism and superstition to

assault the palace of the Roman pontiff, must deserve to be

considered as the most profligate of the Italians. At the same

era, the Spaniards were the terror both of the Old and New World:

but their high-spirited valor was disgraced by gloomy pride,

rapacious avarice, and unrelenting cruelty. Indefatigable in the

pursuit of fame and riches, they had improved, by repeated

practice, the most exquisite and effectual methods of torturing

their prisoners: many of the Castilians, who pillaged Rome, were

familiars of the holy inquisition; and some volunteers, perhaps,

were lately returned from the conquest of Mexico. The Germans

were less corrupt than the Italians, less cruel than the

Spaniards; and the rustic, or even savage, aspect of those

Tramontane warriors, often disguised a simple and merciful

disposition. But they had imbibed, in the first fervor of the

reformation, the spirit, as well as the principles, of Luther. It

was their favorite amusement to insult, or destroy, the

consecrated objects of Catholic superstition; they indulged,

without pity or remorse, a devout hatred against the clergy of

every denomination and degree, who form so considerable a part of

the inhabitants of modern Rome; and their fanatic zeal might

aspire to subvert the throne of Anti-christ, to purify, with

blood and fire, the abominations of the spiritual Babylon. 117

115 (return) [ Orosius, though with some theological partiality,

states this comparison, l. ii. c. 19, p. 142, l. vii. c. 39, p.

575. But, in the history of the taking of Rome by the Gauls,

every thing is uncertain, and perhaps fabulous. See Beaufort sur

l’Incertitude, &c., de l’Histoire Romaine, p. 356; and Melot, in

the Mem. de l’Academie des Inscript. tom. xv. p. 1-21.]

116 (return) [ The reader who wishes to inform himself of the

circumstances of his famous event, may peruse an admirable

narrative in Dr. Robertson’s History of Charles V. vol. ii. p.

283; or consult the Annali d’Italia of the learned Muratori, tom.

xiv. p. 230-244, octavo edition. If he is desirous of examining

the originals, he may have recourse to the eighteenth book of the

great, but unfinished, history of Guicciardini. But the account

which most truly deserves the name of authentic and original, is

a little book, entitled, Il Sacco di Roma, composed, within less

than a month after the assault of the city, by the brother of the

historian Guicciardini, who appears to have been an able

magistrate and a dispassionate writer.]

117 (return) [ The furious spirit of Luther, the effect of temper

and enthusiasm, has been forcibly attacked, (Bossuet, Hist. des

Variations des Eglises Protestantes, livre i. p. 20-36,) and

feebly defended, (Seckendorf. Comment. de Lutheranismo,

especially l. i. No. 78, p. 120, and l. iii. No. 122, p. 556.)]

The retreat of the victorious Goths, who evacuated Rome on the

sixth day, 118 might be the result of prudence; but it was not

surely the effect of fear. 119 At the head of an army encumbered

with rich and weighty spoils, their intrepid leader advanced

along the Appian way into the southern provinces of Italy,

destroying whatever dared to oppose his passage, and contenting

himself with the plunder of the unresisting country. The fate of

Capua, the proud and luxurious metropolis of Campania, and which

was respected, even in its decay, as the eighth city of the

empire, 120 is buried in oblivion; whilst the adjacent town of

Nola 121 has been illustrated, on this occasion, by the sanctity

of Paulinus, 122 who was successively a consul, a monk, and a

bishop. At the age of forty, he renounced the enjoyment of wealth

and honor, of society and literature, to embrace a life of

solitude and penance; and the loud applause of the clergy

encouraged him to despise the reproaches of his worldly friends,

who ascribed this desperate act to some disorder of the mind or

body. 123 An early and passionate attachment determined him to

fix his humble dwelling in one of the suburbs of Nola, near the

miraculous tomb of St. Faelix, which the public devotion had

already surrounded with five large and populous churches. The

remains of his fortune, and of his understanding, were dedicated

to the service of the glorious martyr; whose praise, on the day

of his festival, Paulinus never failed to celebrate by a solemn

hymn; and in whose name he erected a sixth church, of superior

elegance and beauty, which was decorated with many curious

pictures, from the history of the Old and New Testament. Such

assiduous zeal secured the favor of the saint, 124 or at least of

the people; and, after fifteen years’ retirement, the Roman

consul was compelled to accept the bishopric of Nola, a few

months before the city was invested by the Goths. During the

siege, some religious persons were satisfied that they had seen,

either in dreams or visions, the divine form of their tutelar

patron; yet it soon appeared by the event, that Faelix wanted

power, or inclination, to preserve the flock of which he had

formerly been the shepherd. Nola was not saved from the general

devastation; 125 and the captive bishop was protected only by the

general opinion of his innocence and poverty. Above four years

elapsed from the successful invasion of Italy by the arms of

Alaric, to the voluntary retreat of the Goths under the conduct

of his successor Adolphus; and, during the whole time, they

reigned without control over a country, which, in the opinion of

the ancients, had united all the various excellences of nature

and art. The prosperity, indeed, which Italy had attained in the

auspicious age of the Antonines, had gradually declined with the

decline of the empire.

The fruits of a long peace perished under the rude grasp of the

Barbarians; and they themselves were incapable of tasting the

more elegant refinements of luxury, which had been prepared for

the use of the soft and polished Italians. Each soldier, however,

claimed an ample portion of the substantial plenty, the corn and

cattle, oil and wine, that was daily collected and consumed in

the Gothic camp; and the principal warriors insulted the villas

and gardens, once inhabited by Lucullus and Cicero, along the

beauteous coast of Campania. Their trembling captives, the sons

and daughters of Roman senators, presented, in goblets of gold

and gems, large draughts of Falernian wine to the haughty

victors; who stretched their huge limbs under the shade of

plane-trees, 126 artificially disposed to exclude the scorching

rays, and to admit the genial warmth, of the sun. These delights

were enhanced by the memory of past hardships: the comparison of

their native soil, the bleak and barren hills of Scythia, and the

frozen banks of the Elbe and Danube, added new charms to the

felicity of the Italian climate. 127

118 (return) [ Marcellinus, in Chron. Orosius, (l. vii. c. 39, p.

575,) asserts, that he left Rome on the third day; but this

difference is easily reconciled by the successive motions of

great bodies of troops.]

119 (return) [ Socrates (l. vii. c. 10) pretends, without any

color of truth, or reason, that Alaric fled on the report that

the armies of the Eastern empire were in full march to attack

him.]

120 (return) [ Ausonius de Claris Urbibus, p. 233, edit. Toll.

The luxury of Capua had formerly surpassed that of Sybaris

itself. See Athenaeus Deipnosophist. l. xii. p. 528, edit.

Casaubon.]

121 (return) [ Forty-eight years before the foundation of Rome,

(about 800 before the Christian era,) the Tuscans built Capua and

Nola, at the distance of twenty-three miles from each other; but

the latter of the two cities never emerged from a state of

mediocrity.]

122 (return) [ Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 1-46) has

compiled, with his usual diligence, all that relates to the life

and writings of Paulinus, whose retreat is celebrated by his own

pen, and by the praises of St. Ambrose, St. Jerom, St. Augustin,

Sulpicius Severus, &c., his Christian friends and

contemporaries.]

123 (return) [ See the affectionate letters of Ausonius (epist.

xix.—xxv. p. 650-698, edit. Toll.) to his colleague, his friend,

and his disciple, Paulinus. The religion of Ausonius is still a

problem, (see Mem. de l’Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xv. p.

123-138.) I believe that it was such in his own time, and,

consequently, that in his heart he was a Pagan.]

124 (return) [ The humble Paulinus once presumed to say, that he

believed St. Faelix did love him; at least, as a master loves his

little dog.]

125 (return) [ See Jornandes, de Reb. Get. c. 30, p. 653.

Philostorgius, l. xii. c. 3. Augustin. de Civ. Dei, l.i.c. 10.

Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 410, No. 45, 46.]

126 (return) [ The platanus, or plane-tree, was a favorite of the

ancients, by whom it was propagated, for the sake of shade, from

the East to Gaul. Plin. Hist. Natur. xii. 3, 4, 5. He mentions

several of an enormous size; one in the Imperial villa, at

Velitrae, which Caligula called his nest, as the branches were

capable of holding a large table, the proper attendants, and the

emperor himself, whom Pliny quaintly styles pars umbroe; an

expression which might, with equal reason, be applied to Alaric]

127 (return) [ The prostrate South to the destroyer yields

Her boasted titles, and her golden fields; With grim delight the

brood of winter view A brighter day, and skies of azure hue; Scent

the new fragrance of the opening rose, And quaff the pendent

vintage as it grows.

See Gray’s Poems, published by Mr. Mason, p. 197. Instead of

compiling tables of chronology and natural history, why did not

Mr. Gray apply the powers of his genius to finish the philosophic

poem, of which he has left such an exquisite specimen?]

Whether fame, or conquest, or riches, were the object or Alaric,

he pursued that object with an indefatigable ardor, which could

neither be quelled by adversity nor satiated by success. No

sooner had he reached the extreme land of Italy, than he was

attracted by the neighboring prospect of a fertile and peaceful

island. Yet even the possession of Sicily he considered only as

an intermediate step to the important expedition, which he

already meditated against the continent of Africa. The Straits of

Rhegium and Messina 128 are twelve miles in length, and, in the

narrowest passage, about one mile and a half broad; and the

fabulous monsters of the deep, the rocks of Scylla, and the

whirlpool of Charybdis, could terrify none but the most timid and

unskilful mariners. Yet as soon as the first division of the

Goths had embarked, a sudden tempest arose, which sunk, or

scattered, many of the transports; their courage was daunted by

the terrors of a new element; and the whole design was defeated

by the premature death of Alaric, which fixed, after a short

illness, the fatal term of his conquests. The ferocious character

of the Barbarians was displayed in the funeral of a hero whose

valor and fortune they celebrated with mournful applause. By the

labor of a captive multitude, they forcibly diverted the course

of the Busentinus, a small river that washes the walls of

Consentia. The royal sepulchre, adorned with the splendid spoils

and trophies of Rome, was constructed in the vacant bed; the

waters were then restored to their natural channel; and the

secret spot, where the remains of Alaric had been deposited, was

forever concealed by the inhuman massacre of the prisoners, who

had been employed to execute the work. 129

128 (return) [ For the perfect description of the Straits of

Messina, Scylla, Clarybdis, &c., see Cluverius, (Ital. Antiq. l.

iv. p. 1293, and Sicilia Antiq. l. i. p. 60-76), who had

diligently studied the ancients, and surveyed with a curious eye

the actual face of the country.]

129 (return) [ Jornandes, de Reb Get. c. 30, p. 654.]

Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of Territories By

Barbarians.—Part VI.

The personal animosities and hereditary feuds of the Barbarians

were suspended by the strong necessity of their affairs; and the

brave Adolphus, the brother-in-law of the deceased monarch, was

unanimously elected to succeed to his throne. The character and

political system of the new king of the Goths may be best

understood from his own conversation with an illustrious citizen

of Narbonne; who afterwards, in a pilgrimage to the Holy Land,

related it to St. Jerom, in the presence of the historian

Orosius. “In the full confidence of valor and victory, I once

aspired (said Adolphus) to change the face of the universe; to

obliterate the name of Rome; to erect on its ruins the dominion

of the Goths; and to acquire, like Augustus, the immortal fame of

the founder of a new empire. By repeated experiments, I was

gradually convinced, that laws are essentially necessary to

maintain and regulate a well-constituted state; and that the

fierce, untractable humor of the Goths was incapable of bearing

the salutary yoke of laws and civil government. From that moment

I proposed to myself a different object of glory and ambition;

and it is now my sincere wish that the gratitude of future ages

should acknowledge the merit of a stranger, who employed the

sword of the Goths, not to subvert, but to restore and maintain,

the prosperity of the Roman empire.” 130 With these pacific

views, the successor of Alaric suspended the operations of war;

and seriously negotiated with the Imperial court a treaty of

friendship and alliance. It was the interest of the ministers of

Honorius, who were now released from the obligation of their

extravagant oath, to deliver Italy from the intolerable weight of

the Gothic powers; and they readily accepted their service

against the tyrants and Barbarians who infested the provinces

beyond the Alps. 131 Adolphus, assuming the character of a Roman

general, directed his march from the extremity of Campania to the

southern provinces of Gaul. His troops, either by force or

agreement, immediately occupied the cities of Narbonne,

Thoulouse, and Bordeaux; and though they were repulsed by Count

Boniface from the walls of Marseilles, they soon extended their

quarters from the Mediterranean to the Ocean.

The oppressed provincials might exclaim, that the miserable

remnant, which the enemy had spared, was cruelly ravished by

their pretended allies; yet some specious colors were not wanting

to palliate, or justify the violence of the Goths. The cities of

Gaul, which they attacked, might perhaps be considered as in a

state of rebellion against the government of Honorius: the

articles of the treaty, or the secret instructions of the court,

might sometimes be alleged in favor of the seeming usurpations of

Adolphus; and the guilt of any irregular, unsuccessful act of

hostility might always be imputed, with an appearance of truth,

to the ungovernable spirit of a Barbarian host, impatient of

peace or discipline. The luxury of Italy had been less effectual

to soften the temper, than to relax the courage, of the Goths;

and they had imbibed the vices, without imitating the arts and

institutions, of civilized society. 132

130 (return) [ Orosius, l. vii. c. 43, p. 584, 585. He was sent

by St. Augustin in the year 415, from Africa to Palestine, to

visit St. Jerom, and to consult with him on the subject of the

Pelagian controversy.]

131 (return) [ Jornandes supposes, without much probability, that

Adolphus visited and plundered Rome a second time, (more

locustarum erasit) Yet he agrees with Orosius in supposing that a

treaty of peace was concluded between the Gothic prince and

Honorius. See Oros. l. vii. c. 43 p. 584, 585. Jornandes, de Reb.

Geticis, c. 31, p. 654, 655.]

132 (return) [ The retreat of the Goths from Italy, and their

first transactions in Gaul, are dark and doubtful. I have derived

much assistance from Mascou, (Hist. of the Ancient Germans, l.

viii. c. 29, 35, 36, 37,) who has illustrated, and connected, the

broken chronicles and fragments of the times.]

The professions of Adolphus were probably sincere, and his

attachment to the cause of the republic was secured by the

ascendant which a Roman princess had acquired over the heart and

understanding of the Barbarian king. Placidia, 133 the daughter

of the great Theodosius, and of Galla, his second wife, had

received a royal education in the palace of Constantinople; but

the eventful story of her life is connected with the revolutions

which agitated the Western empire under the reign of her brother

Honorius. When Rome was first invested by the arms of Alaric,

Placidia, who was then about twenty years of age, resided in the

city; and her ready consent to the death of her cousin Serena has

a cruel and ungrateful appearance, which, according to the

circumstances of the action, may be aggravated, or excused, by

the consideration of her tender age. 134 The victorious

Barbarians detained, either as a hostage or a captive, 135 the

sister of Honorius; but, while she was exposed to the disgrace of

following round Italy the motions of a Gothic camp, she

experienced, however, a decent and respectful treatment. The

authority of Jornandes, who praises the beauty of Placidia, may

perhaps be counterbalanced by the silence, the expressive

silence, of her flatterers: yet the splendor of her birth, the

bloom of youth, the elegance of manners, and the dexterous

insinuation which she condescended to employ, made a deep

impression on the mind of Adolphus; and the Gothic king aspired

to call himself the brother of the emperor. The ministers of

Honorius rejected with disdain the proposal of an alliance so

injurious to every sentiment of Roman pride; and repeatedly urged

the restitution of Placidia, as an indispensable condition of the

treaty of peace. But the daughter of Theodosius submitted,

without reluctance, to the desires of the conqueror, a young and

valiant prince, who yielded to Alaric in loftiness of stature,

but who excelled in the more attractive qualities of grace and

beauty. The marriage of Adolphus and Placidia 136 was consummated

before the Goths retired from Italy; and the solemn, perhaps the

anniversary day of their nuptials was afterwards celebrated in

the house of Ingenuus, one of the most illustrious citizens of

Narbonne in Gaul. The bride, attired and adorned like a Roman

empress, was placed on a throne of state; and the king of the

Goths, who assumed, on this occasion, the Roman habit, contented

himself with a less honorable seat by her side. The nuptial gift,

which, according to the custom of his nation, 137 was offered to

Placidia, consisted of the rare and magnificent spoils of her

country. Fifty beautiful youths, in silken robes, carried a basin

in each hand; and one of these basins was filled with pieces of

gold, the other with precious stones of an inestimable value.

Attalus, so long the sport of fortune, and of the Goths, was

appointed to lead the chorus of the Hymeneal song; and the

degraded emperor might aspire to the praise of a skilful

musician. The Barbarians enjoyed the insolence of their triumph;

and the provincials rejoiced in this alliance, which tempered, by

the mild influence of love and reason, the fierce spirit of their

Gothic lord. 138

133 (return) [ See an account of Placidia in Ducange Fam. Byzant.

p. 72; and Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 260, 386,

&c. tom. vi. p. 240.]

134 (return) [ Zosim. l. v. p. 350.]