 CHAPTER 31. INVASION OF ITALY. OCCUPATION OF TERRITORIES BY BARBERIANS. Part 2. The marbles of the Aeneasian palace were used as a proverbial expression of opulence and splendour, but the nobles and senators of Rome aspired, in due gradation, to imitate that illustrious family. The accurate description of the city, which was composed in their fear-dosian age, enumerates 1,780 houses, the residents of wealthy and honourable citizens. Many of these stately mansions might almost excuse the exaggeration of the poet, that Rome contained a multitude of palaces, and that each palace was equal to a city, since it included within its own precincts, everything which could be subservient, either to use or luxury, markets, hippodromes, temples, fountains, portigos, shady groves, and artificial aviaries. The historian Olympiodorus, who represents the state of Rome when it was besieged by the Goths, continues to observe that several of the richest senators received from their estates an annual income of 4,000 pounds of gold. Above 160,000 pounds sterling, without computing the stated provision of corn and wine, which, had they been sold, might have equaled in value one-third of the money. Compared to this in moderate wealth, an ordinary revenue of 1,000 or 1,500 pounds of gold might be considered as no more than adequate to the dignity of a senatorial rank, which required many expenses of a public and ostentatious kind. Several examples are recorded, in the age of Honorius, of vain and popular nobles, who celebrated the year of their pre-etorship by a festival, which lasted seven days, and cost above 100,000 pounds sterling. The estates of the Roman senators, which so far exceeded the proportion of modern wealth, were not confined to the limits of Italy. Their possessions extended far beyond the Ionian and Aegean seas, to the most distant provinces. The city of Nicopolis, which Augustus had founded as an eternal monument of the Actaean victory, was the property of the devout pooler. And it is observed by Seneca that the rivers, which had divided hostile nations, now flowed through the lands of private citizens. According to their temper and circumstances, the estates of the Romans were either cultivated by the labour of their slaves, or granted, for a certain unstipulated rent, to the industrious farmer. The economical writers of antiquity strenuously recommended the former method, wherever it may be practicable. But, if the object should be removed, by its distance or magnitude, from the immediate eye of the master, they prefer the active care of an old hereditary tenant, attached to the soil, and interested in the produce, to the mercenary administration of a negligent, perhaps an unfaithful steward. The opulent nobles of an immense capital, who were never excited by the pursuit of military glory, and seldom engaged in the occupations of civil government, naturally resigned their leisure to the business and amusements of private life. At Rome commerce was always held in contempt, but the Senators, from the first age of the Republic, increased their patrimony and multiplied their clients by the lucrative practice of usury. And the obsolete laws were eluded, or violated, by the mutual inclinations and interests of both parties. A considerable mass of treasure must always have existed at Rome, either in the current coin of the empire, or in the form of gold and silver plate. And there were many sideboards in the time of Pliny, which contained more solid silver, than had been transported by Scipio from vanquished Carthage. The greater part of the nobles, who dissipated their fortunes in profuse luxury, found themselves poor in the midst of wealth, and idle in a constant round of dissipation. Their desires were continually gratified by the labour of a thousand hands, of the numerous train of their domestic slaves, who were actuated by the fear of punishment, and of the various professions of artifices and merchants, who were more powerfully impelled by the hopes of gain. The ancients were destitute of many of the conveniences of life, which had been invented or improved by the progress of industry. And the plenty of glass and linen has diffused more real comforts among the modern nations of Europe, than the Senators of Rome could derive from all the refinements of pompous or sensual luxury. Their luxury and their manners have been the subject of my newton labourer's disposition, but as such inquiries would divert me too long from the design of the present work, I shall produce an authentic state of Rome and its inhabitants, which is more peculiarly applicable to the period of the Gothic invasion. Amianus Marcellanus, who prudently chose the capital of the empire as the residence the best adapted to the historian of his own times, has mixed with the narrative of public events a lively representation of the scenes with which he was familiarly conversant. The judicious reader will not always approve of the asperity of censure, the choice of circumstances, or the style of expression. He will perhaps detect the latent prejudices and personal resentments, which soured the temper of Amianus himself. But who will surely observe, with philosophic curiosity, the interesting and original picture of the manners of Rome, the greatness of Rome, such as 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 neighbours and enemies of the rising city. In the strength and ardour 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, purging towards old age, and sometimes conquering by the terror only of her name, she sought the blessings of ease and tranquility. 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 favourite sons, the care of governing her ample patrimony, a secure and profound peace, such as had once been enjoyed in the reign of Numer, succeeded to the termites of a republic. While Rome was still adored as the Queen of the Earth, and the subject nations still referenced to the name of the people, and the majesty of the senate. But this native's blender, continues Amianus, is degraded and sullied by the conduct of some nobles, who, unmindful of their own dignity and that of their country, assume an unbounded licence 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 sonorious appellations, reburrus, or fabunius, pagonius, or teraceus, which may impress the ears of the vulgar with astonishment and respect. From a vain ambition of perpetuating their memory, they effect to multiply their likeness in statues of bronze and marble. Nor are they satisfied, unless those statues are covered with plates of gold. An honourable distinction first granted to Achilius, the consul, after he had subdued, by his arms and councils, 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 their meanest of their soldiers, by the delicacy of their food, or the splendour of their apparel. But the modern nobles measure their rank and consequence, according to the loftiness of their chariots, 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 undergarments, the rich tunics, embroidered with the figures of various animals. Followed by a train of fifty servants, and tearing up the pavement, they move along the street 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 tender embrace, while they proudly decline the salutations of their fellow-citizens, who are not permitted to aspire above the honour 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 to the other instance 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 demeanour, 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. If, at any time, but more especially on a hot day, they have courage to sail in their painted galleys, from the Lucrine Lake to their elegant villas on the sea-coast of Poitioly and Catia. 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, the regions of eternal darkness. In these journeys into the country, 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 advance guard and the rear, are martyred 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 favourite 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 excrete the memory of Cimmerimus, 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 that same slave commit a willful 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 favourable reception, he repeats his visit to 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 dependence, and obtains the permission to pay his assiduous and unprofitable court to a haughty patron, incapable of gratitude or friendship. Who scarcely dines to remark his presence, his departure, or his return. Whenever the rich prepare a solemn and popular entertainment, 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 nomenclaters, 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 practice the most useful of all arts, the art of flattery, who eagly applaud each word and every action of their immortal patron. Gaze with rapture on his marble columns and ferrigated 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, 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 marvellous event. Another method of introduction into the house and society of the great is derived from the profession of gambling, 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, 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 to the pre-attorship by the votes of a capricious people. The acquisition of knowledge seldom engages the curiosity of nobles, who are bore the fatigue and disdain the advantages of study, and the only books which they peruse are the satires of juvenile, and the verbose and fabulous histories of Marius Maximus. The libraries, which they have inherited from their fathers, are secluded like dreary sepulchres from the light of day. But the costly instruments of the theatre, flutes, and enormous liars, 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 dispatched to make the decent inquiries, are not suffered to return home, till they have undergone the ceremony of previous evolution. Yet this selfish and unmanly delicacy occasionally yields to the more imperious passion of Averis. The prospect of gain will urge a rich and gouty senator as far as Belletto. Every sentiment of arrogance and dignity is subdued by the hopes of 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 favourable testament, and sometimes of hastening the moment of his 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 expedience. 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 trusted 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 purial superstition that disgraces their understanding. They listen with confidence to the predictions of herespecies, 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. It is singular enough that this vain credulity may often be discovered among the profane skeptics, whom piously doubt or deny the existence of a celestial power. End of chapter 31 part 2 Chapter 31 part 3 of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire volume 3 This is a LibriVox recording, all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Lizzie Driver Chapter 31 Invasion of Italy Occupation of Territories by Barbarians Part 3 In popular cities, which are the seats of commerce and manufacturers, the middle rank of inhabitants, who derive their sustenance from the dexterity or labour 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 husbandmen, during the term of his military service, was obliged to abandon the cultivation of his farm. 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. Yet, as long as the people bestowed, by their suffrages, the honours 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 once was seasonably supplied by the ambitious liberality of the candidates, who aspired to secure a venal majority in the thirty-five tribes or the hundred ninety-three centuries of Rome. But when the prodigal commons had not only imprudently alienated not only 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 disillute 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. Yet the name of that city was still pronounced with respect. The frequent and capricious termots of his inhabitants were indulged with impunity, and the successes 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. One, for the convenience of the lazy plebeians, the monthly distribution 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. Two, the forest of Lucenia, whose acorns fattened large droves of wild hogs, 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 luster, was ascertained by an edict from Valentini and the Third, at three million six hundred and twenty-eight thousand pounds. Three, 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. Four, the anxiety of Augustus to provide the metropolis with sufficient plenty of corn was not extended beyond that necessary article of human substance, and when the popular clamour accused of 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 a gripper had introduced into the city so many copious streams of pure and salubrious water. This rigid sobriety was insensibly relaxed, and although the generous design of Orillian 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 honourable rank, and a considerable part of the vintage of Campania was reserved for the fortunate inhabitants of Rome. The stupendous aqueducts, so justly celebrated by the praises of Augustus himself, replenished the therm, or baths, which had been constructed in every part of the city with imperial magnificence. The baths of Antonea's caracala, 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 bath of deocletion. The walls of the lofty apartments were covered with curious mosaics, that imitated the art of the pencil and the elegance of design and the variety of colours. 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 massive 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. From these stately palaces issued a swarm of dirty and ragged plebians, without shoes and without a mantle, who loitered away whole days in the street or 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 their obscure taverns and brothels, in the indulgence of gross and vulgar sensuality. 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 portagos. 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 colours which they espoused, and the happiness of Rome appeared to hang on the event of a race. The same immoderate ardour inspired their clamours 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 a virtue. But the tragic and comic muse of the Romans, who seldom aspired beyond the imitation of Attic genius, had been almost totally silent since the fall of the Republic, and their place was unworthily occupied by licentious farce, effeminate music, and splendid pagan tree. The pantomimers, 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 their respective choruses. Such was the popular favour 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. It is said that the foolish curiosity of Elagabulus attempted to discover, from the quantity of spider's web, 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 rite 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 the philosophers. The most diligent researchers have collected only the following circumstances, which, slight and imperfect as they are, may tend, in some degree, to illustrate the question of the populistness of ancient Rome. One, when the capital of the empire was besieged by the Goths, the circuit of the walls was accurately measured by Amonius, the mathematician, who found it equal to twenty-one miles. It should not be forgotten that the form of the city was almost that of a circle, the geometric figure which is known to contain the largest space with any giving circumference. Two, the architect Vitruvius, who flourished in the Augustian age, and whose evidence on this occasion has peculiar weight and authority. Observes that the innumerable habitants 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. 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. Three, juvenile immense, as it should be seen from his own experience, the hardships of the poorer citizens, to whom he addresses the sultry 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 dark and miserable lodging. House rent was therefore a moderately 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 differing 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. Four, 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, the two classes of Domus and of Insul, into which they are divided, include all the habitations of the capital, of every rank and condition from the marble palace of the Anise, with the numerous establishment of freedmen and slaves, to the lofty and narrow lodging-house, where the poet Cordris and his wife were permitted to hire a wretched garret immediately under the files. If we adopt the same average, which, under similar circumstances, has been found applicable to Paris, 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 populistness of the greatest cities of modern Europe. 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. By a skillful 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 tiber, 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 Stilico, and they listened with credulous passion to the tale of Calomy, which accused her of maintaining a secret and criminal correspondence with the Gothic invader, actuated or overrored 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, solicitated 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 successes of her husband. But these private and temporary donatives were insufficient to appease the hunger of innumerous 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 unveiling treasures of gold and silver to obtain the coarse and scanty sustenance which they would formerly have rejected with disdain. The food the most repungent to sense or imagination, the ailments 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 the nature in the human breast, even mothers are said to have tasted the flesh of their slaughtered infants. 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 Ravana, 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 preternatural deliverance. Pompanius, prefect of the city, had been persuaded by the art or fanaticism of some tusk and 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. The important secret was communicated to Innocent, the Bishop of Rome, and the successor of Saint 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 to the Senate, when it was proposed as an essential condition that those sacrifices should be performed in the capital 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. The last resort 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 as trumpets and prepared to give battle to an innumerable people, exercised in arms, and animated by despair. The thicker the hay, the easier it is moved, was the concise reply of the barbarian. And this rustic metaphor was accompanied by a loud and insulting laugh, expressive of his contempt of the menace 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, watch, 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 way to pepper. But the public treasury was exhausted. The annual rents of the great estates in Italy and the provinces had been extinguished during the famine for the vilest sustenance. The hordes of secret wealth were still concealed by the obstancy of Avaris, and some remains of consecrated spoils afforded the only resource that could divert the appending 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 sustenance 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 honourable reinforcement of Goths and Huns, whom Adolphus, the brother of his wife, had conducted at his pressing invitation from the banks of the Danube to those of the Tiber 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. An Italy pronounced, with terror and respect, the formidable name of Alaric. End of Chapter 31 Part 3 Chapter 31 Part 4 of the Decayne and Fall of the Roman Empire Volume 3 This is a LibriVox recording, all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information on how to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Lizzie Driver Chapter 31 Invasion of Italy Occupation of Territories by Barbarians Part 4 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 barbarians 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 state 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 only impoverished country perpetually exposed to the inroads of the barbarians of Germany. But the hopes of peace were disappointed by the weak obstancy or interested views of the minister Olympius. Without listening to the salutary demonstrations of the senate he dismissed their ambassadors under the conduct of a military escort too numerous for a retinue of honour 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 legionnaires, encompassed and betrayed fell a sacrifice to the 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 detachment of gothic soldiers. Olympius 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 favourite eunuchs transferred the government of Honorius and the empire to Jovius, the pre-atorium prefect an unworthy servant who did not atone by the merit of his 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 rose again 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 great spectacle to the friends of Stilico after the removal of Olympius whose character was deeply tainted with religious fanaticism the pagans and heretics were delivered from the impolitic prescription which excluded them from the dignities of the state the brave generid 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 preserved his honourable disgrace till he had exhorted a general act of justice from the distress of the Roman government the conduct of generid in the important station to which he was promoted or restored of master general of Dalmatia, Panonia, Noricom and Racia 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 sustenance and his private generosity often supplied the rewards which were denied by the avarice or poverty of the court of Ravana the valor of generid, formidable to the adjacent barbarians was the thermest bulwark of the Ilarian frontier and his vigilant care assisted the empire with a reinforcement of ten thousand tons 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 honorees still remained a scene of weakness and distraction of corruption and anarchy instigated by the prefect Jovius the guards rose in furious mutiny and demanded the heads of two generals and of the two principal eunuchs the generals under a profidious promise of safety were sent on shipboard and privately executed while the favour of the eunuchs procured them a mild and secure exile at Milan and Constantinople Eusebius the eunuch and the barbarian alabish succeeded to the command of the bedchamber and of the guards and the mutual jealousy of the 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 alabish in the midst of a public procession is the only circumstance of his life in which honorees discovered the faintest symptom of courage or resentment yet before they fell Eusebius and alabish 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 wars of Ramony 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 honoreeus was immediately dispatched to the pre-itorium prefect granting him a free permission to dispose of the public money but sternly refusing to prostitute to the military honours 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 Ramony was hastily interrupted and the pre-effect Jovius on his return to Ravana 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 preserve 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 honoreeus 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 while the emperor and his court enjoyed with solemn pride the security of the marches and fortifications of Ravana 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 Flominian way he successively dispatched 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 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 dupendous works of Roman magnificence the accidents to which the precarious substance 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 purely rode at anchor within three deep and capacious basins which received the northern branch of the Tiber about two miles from the ancient colony of Ostia the Roman port insensibly swelled to the size of an impiscable city 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 clamours 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 and atlas prefect of the city the great harmonica immediately acknowledged his protector as master general of the armies of the west Adolphus with the rank of the count of the domestics obtained the custody of the person of Atalus and the two hostile nations seemed to be united in the closest bands of friendship and alliance the gates of the city were thrown open and to the new emperor of the Romans encompassed on every side by the Gothic arms in tumultuous procession to the palace of Augustus and Trajan after he had distributed the civil and military dignities among his favourites and followers Atalus convened an assembly of the senate before whom in a format and florid speech he asserted his resolution of restoring the majesty of the republic and of uniting 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 the 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 favourable 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 Aryan bishop the first days of the reign of Atalus 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 Allerit conducted his royal captive almost to the gates of Ravenna and a solemn embassy of the principal ministers of Jovius the pre-Ottorian prefect of Valens master of the cavalry and infantry of the quest of Botamius 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 Atalus 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 so desperate indeed 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 deserting the sinking cause of their benefactor and devoted their treacherous allegiance to the service of a 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 bedchamber and some ships lay ready in the harbour of Ravenna to transport the abdicated monarch to the dominions of his infant nephew the emperor of the east but there is a providence such at least was the opinion of the historian Procopius 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 in shameful flight a seasonable reinforcement of 4,000 veterans unexpectedly landed in the port of Ravenna to those 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 apprehensions of imminent and internal danger the favourable intelligence which was received from Africa suddenly changed the opinions of men and the state of public affairs the troops and officers whom Attilus had sent into that province were defeated in slain and the active zeal of Heraclean maintained his own allegiance and that of his people the faithful court 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, turmoil 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 Attilus and the mind of his protector was insensibly alienated from the interest of a prince who wanted a spirit to command or dulcity 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 500 goths betrayed a superstition 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 effectively to ruin the cause of the usurper in a large plain near Rammany in the presence of an innumerable multitude of romans and barbarians the wretched Attilus was publicly disboiled 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 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 of life and insensible of disgrace implored the permission of following the gothic camp in the train of a haughty and capricious barbarian the degradation of Attilus removed the only real obstacle to the conclusion of the peace and Alaric advanced within three miles of Ravana to press the resolution 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 Sarius the personal enemy of Adolphus and the hereditary foe of the house of Balty had been received into the palace at the head of three hundred followers that fearless barbarian immediately saluted from the gates of Ravana surprised and cut in pieces a considerable body of the Goths re-entered 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 the crime and folly of the court of Ravana was excavated 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 awaked 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 Sivia the proclamations 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 Valar and to enrich themselves with the spoils of a wealthy and infeminate 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 an octurnal turmoil several of the Christian Goths displayed the fervour of a recent conversion and some instances of their uncommon piety and moderation are related and perhaps adorned by the zeal of ecclesiastical writers 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 hold of a 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 religious 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 dispatched a messenger to inform the king of the treasure which he had discovered and received a prom tary order from Alaric that all consecrated plates and ornaments should be transported without damage or delay to the church of the apostle from the extremity perhaps of the queer in El Hill to the distant quarter of the Vatican a numerous attachment 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 to the martial shouts of the barbarians were mingled with the sounds of religious samadhi 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. Augustine to justify the ways of providence in the destruction of the Roman Great Britain 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 in the sack of Rome some rare and extraordinary examples of barbarian virtue have been deservedly applauded in the city of Rome 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 candour that in the hour of savage license when every passion was implored and every restraint was removed the precepts of the gospel seldom influenced the behaviour 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 and that the streets of the city were filled with dead bodies which remained without burial during the general consternation the dispensers of the Roman people were the people of the city 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 formally 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 and the apprehension of chastity than death itself and the ecclesiastical historian has selected an example of female virtue for the admiration of future ages a Roman lady of singular beauty and orthodox faith had excited the impatient desires of a young goth who, according to the sagacious remarkers of Zosemann was attached to the Aryan 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 unveiling 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 in volatile 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 chaser history 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 there were other losses indeed of a more substantial kind and more general concern it cannot be presumed 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 contained 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 regularly 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 were 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 torches to force from their prisoners the confession of hidden treasures visible splendor and expense were alleged as the proof of a pleasure and a painful fortune the appearance of poverty was imputed to a parsimonious disposition and the obstancy of some misers who endured the most cruel torments before they would discover the secret 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 had been much exaggerated received some injury from the violence of the Goths at their entrance through the Solarian Gate they fired the adjacent houses to guide their march and 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 Salastre remained in the Age of Justinian a stately monument to the Gothic conflagration 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 end of chapter 31 part 4 chapter 31 part 5 of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire volume 3 this is the LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Lizzie Driver chapter 31 invasion of Italy occupation of territories by barbarians part 5 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 but it was not easy to compute the multitudes who, from an honourable station and 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 the captives who were regularly sold either in open market or by private conduct would have legally retained their native freedom which it was impossible for a citizen to lose or to alienate but 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 labour the price of their redemption 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 Agilium separated by a narrow channel from the Argentarian promontory repulsed or eluded their hostile attempts and at so smaller distance from Rome great numbers of citizens were securely concealed in the thick woods of that sequestered spot the ample patrimonies which many sanatorium 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 a suitable province the most illustrious of these fugitives was the noble and pious Proba the widow of the prefect Petronius after the death of her husband the most powerful subject of Rome she had remained at the head of the Inesian family and successively supplied from her private fortune the expense of the consul ships 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 on a small vessel from whence she beheld at sea the flames of her burning palace and fled with a daughter-later and her granddaughter the celebrated virgin Demetrius to the coast of Africa the benevolent profusion with which the matron distributed the fruits or the prize of her estates contributed to alleviate the misfortunes of exile and captivity that even the family of Proba herself were not exempt from the rapacious oppression of Count Heraklion who basely sold in matrimonial prostitution the noblest maidens of Rome to the last 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 Bethlehem the solitary residence of Saint Jerome and his female converts surrounded with illustrious beggars of either sex and every age who excited the public compassion by the remembrance of their past fortune this awful catastrophe of Rome filled the astonished empire with grief and terror so interesting a contrast of greatness and ruin disposed the font-crujulty 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 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 formally received more essential injury from the Gauls than she had now sustained from the Goths in her declining age the experience of eleven centuries had enabled prosperity to produce a much more singular parallel and to affirm with confidence that the ravages of the barbarians whom Alleric had led from the banks of the Danube were less destructive than the hostilities exercised a Catholic prince who starled himself emperor of the Romans 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 raping the authority of Alleric preserved some order and moderation among the ferocious multitude which acknowledged him for their leader and king Rome had gloriously fallen in the attack of the Gauls 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 prevailed 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 Pontif must be deserved 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 the high spirited valor was disgraced by gloomy pride 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 familiar of the Holy Inquisition and some volunteers perhaps were lately returned from the Conquest of Mexico the Germans were less corrupt than the Italians and the rustic or even savage aspect of the Tramontan warriors often disguised as 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 favourite amusement to insult or destroy the consecrated objects of Catholic superstition they indulged without piety or remorse a devout hatred against the clergy and their renomination and degree who formed so considerable a part of the inhabitants of modern Rome and their fanatic zeal might aspire to subvert the throne of Antichrist to purify with blood and fire the abominations of the spiritual Babylon the retreat of the victorious Goths who evacuated Rome on the sixth day might be the result of prudence but it was not surely the effect of fear 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 dare to oppose his passage and contending 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 is buried in oblivion whilst the adjacent town of Nola has been illustrated on this occasion by the sanctity of Paulinius who was successively a consul a monk and a bishop at the age of 40 he renounced the enjoyment of wealth and honour of society and literature to embrace a life of solitude and dependence 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 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. Felix 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 Paulinius 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 as Sidious Zeal secured the favour of the saint or at least of the people and after 15 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 tutela patron yet it soon appeared by the event that Felix wanted power or inclination to preserve the flock of which he had formerly been the shepherd Nola was not saved from the general devastation was protected only by the general opinion of his innocence and poverty about 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 Adolfus and during the whole time they reigned without control over a country which in the opinion of the ancients had united all the various excellencies of nature and art the prosperity indeed which Italy had attained in the auspicious age of the Antoninis 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 had 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 gins lodged drafts of Fallenian wine and a few victors who stretched their huge limbs under the shade of plain trees 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 whether fame or conquest or riches were the object of alluric he pursued that object with an indefatigable ardure 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 neighbouring 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 had already meditated against the continent of Africa the Straits of Regium and Messania 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 unskillful mariners yet as soon as the first division of the Goths had embarked the 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 alluric 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 labour of a captive multitude they forcibly diverted the cause of the Bascentinus a small river that washes the walls of Consentia the royal sepulica 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 alluric had been deposited was forever concealed by the inhuman massacre of the prisoners who had been employed to execute the work End of chapter 31 part 5