<h2><SPAN name="chap31.3"></SPAN> Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of Territories By Barbarians.—Part III. </h2>
<p>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. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.50" name="linknoteref-31.50" id="linknoteref-31.50">50</SPAN>
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. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.51"
name="linknoteref-31.51" id="linknoteref-31.51">51</SPAN> 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. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.52" name="linknoteref-31.52" id="linknoteref-31.52">52</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.50" id="linknote-31.50">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
50 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.50">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.51" id="linknote-31.51">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
51 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.51">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.52" id="linknote-31.52">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
52 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.52">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ See the third Satire
(60-125) of Juvenal, who indignantly complains,</p>
<p>Quamvis quota portio faecis Achaei!<br/>
Jampridem Syrus in Tiberem defluxit Orontes;<br/>
Et linguam et mores, &c.<br/></p>
<p class="foot">
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.]</p>
<p>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. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.53" name="linknoteref-31.53" id="linknoteref-31.53">53</SPAN> 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, <SPAN href="#linknote-31.54" name="linknoteref-31.54" id="linknoteref-31.54">54</SPAN> 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. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.55" name="linknoteref-31.55" id="linknoteref-31.55">55</SPAN> 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. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.56" name="linknoteref-31.56" id="linknoteref-31.56">56</SPAN> This rigid sobriety was insensibly relaxed;
and, although the generous design of Aurelian <SPAN href="#linknote-31.57"
name="linknoteref-31.57" id="linknoteref-31.57">57</SPAN> 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.</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.53" id="linknote-31.53">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
53 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.53">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.54" id="linknote-31.54">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
54 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.54">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.55" id="linknote-31.55">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
55 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.55">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ See Novell. ad calcem
Cod. Theod. D. Valent. l. i. tit. xv. This law was published at Rome, June
29th, A.D. 452.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.56" id="linknote-31.56">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
56 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.56">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.57" id="linknote-31.57">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
57 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.57">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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]</p>
<p>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. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.58" name="linknoteref-31.58" id="linknoteref-31.58">58</SPAN> 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. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.59" name="linknoteref-31.59" id="linknoteref-31.59">59</SPAN> 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.
<SPAN href="#linknote-31.60" name="linknoteref-31.60" id="linknoteref-31.60">60</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.58" id="linknote-31.58">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
58 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.58">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Olympiodor. apud Phot.
p. 197.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.59" id="linknote-31.59">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
59 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.59">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.60" id="linknote-31.60">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
60 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.60">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.]</p>
<p>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. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.61" name="linknoteref-31.61" id="linknoteref-31.61">61</SPAN> 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, <SPAN href="#linknote-31.62" name="linknoteref-31.62" id="linknoteref-31.62">62</SPAN> had been almost totally silent since the fall
of the republic; <SPAN href="#linknote-31.63" name="linknoteref-31.63" id="linknoteref-31.63">63</SPAN> and their place was unworthily occupied by
licentious farce, effeminate music, and splendid pageantry. The
pantomimes, <SPAN href="#linknote-31.64" name="linknoteref-31.64" id="linknoteref-31.64">64</SPAN> 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. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.65" name="linknoteref-31.65" id="linknoteref-31.65">65</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.61" id="linknote-31.61">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
61 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.61">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.62" id="linknote-31.62">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
62 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.62">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Sometimes indeed they
composed original pieces.</p>
<p>Vestigia Graeca<br/>
Ausi deserere et celeb rare domestica facta.<br/></p>
<p class="foot">
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.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.63" id="linknote-31.63">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
63 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.63">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.)]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.64" id="linknote-31.64">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
64 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.64">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.65" id="linknote-31.65">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
65 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.65">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.]</p>
<p>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. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.66"
name="linknoteref-31.66" id="linknoteref-31.66">66</SPAN> 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. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.67" name="linknoteref-31.67" id="linknoteref-31.67">67</SPAN> 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. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.68"
name="linknoteref-31.68" id="linknoteref-31.68">68</SPAN> 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. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.69"
name="linknoteref-31.69" id="linknoteref-31.69">69</SPAN> III. Juvenal <SPAN href="#linknote-31.70" name="linknoteref-31.70" id="linknoteref-31.70">70</SPAN>
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. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.71" name="linknoteref-31.71" id="linknoteref-31.71">71</SPAN> 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, <SPAN href="#linknote-31.72" name="linknoteref-31.72" id="linknoteref-31.72">72</SPAN>
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. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.73" name="linknoteref-31.73" id="linknoteref-31.73">73</SPAN> <SPAN href="#linknote-31.7311"
name="linknoteref-31.7311" id="linknoteref-31.7311">7311</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.66" id="linknote-31.66">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
66 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.66">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.67" id="linknote-31.67">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
67 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.67">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Olympiodor. ap. Phot.
p. 197. See Fabricius, Bibl. Graec. tom. ix. p. 400.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.68" id="linknote-31.68">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
68 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.68">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.69" id="linknote-31.69">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
69 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.69">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.</p>
<p>Tabulata tibi jam tertia fumant;<br/>
Tu nescis; nam si gradibus trepidatur ab imis<br/>
Ultimus ardebit, quem tegula sola tuetur<br/>
A pluvia. —-Juvenal. Satir. iii. 199]<br/></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.70" id="linknote-31.70">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
70 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.70">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.71" id="linknote-31.71">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
71 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.71">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.72" id="linknote-31.72">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
72 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.72">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.73" id="linknote-31.73">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
73 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.73">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.7311" id="linknote-31.7311">
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<p class="foot">
7311 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.7311">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.]</p>
<p>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. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.74" name="linknoteref-31.74" id="linknoteref-31.74">74</SPAN>
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. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.75"
name="linknoteref-31.75" id="linknoteref-31.75">75</SPAN> 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! <SPAN href="#linknote-31.76" name="linknoteref-31.76" id="linknoteref-31.76">76</SPAN>
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. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.77" name="linknoteref-31.77" id="linknoteref-31.77">77</SPAN> 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. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.78"
name="linknoteref-31.78" id="linknoteref-31.78">78</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.74" id="linknote-31.74">
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<p class="foot">
74 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.74">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.75" id="linknote-31.75">
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<p class="foot">
75 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.75">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ The mother of Laeta was
named Pissumena. Her father, family, and country, are unknown. Ducange,
Fam. Byzantium, p. 59.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.76" id="linknote-31.76">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
76 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.76">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.77" id="linknote-31.77">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
77 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.77">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.</p>
<p>Quid agant laqueis, quae carmine dicant,<br/>
Quaque trahant superis sedibus arte Jovem,<br/>
Scire nefas homini.<br/></p>
<p class="foot">
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.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.78" id="linknote-31.78">
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<p class="foot">
78 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.78">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.]</p>
<p>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. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.79"
name="linknoteref-31.79" id="linknoteref-31.79">79</SPAN> 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, <SPAN href="#linknote-31.80"
name="linknoteref-31.80" id="linknoteref-31.80">80</SPAN> 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. <SPAN href="#linknote-31.81" name="linknoteref-31.81" id="linknoteref-31.81">81</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.79" id="linknote-31.79">
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<p class="foot">
79 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.79">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.80" id="linknote-31.80">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
80 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.80">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-31.81" id="linknote-31.81">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
81 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-31.81">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ 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.]</p>
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