<h2><SPAN name="chap36.5"></SPAN> Chapter XXXVI: Total Extinction Of The Western Empire.—Part V. </h2>
<p>Whilst the vacant throne of Italy was abandoned to lawless Barbarians, <SPAN href="#linknote-36.112" name="linknoteref-36.112" id="linknoteref-36.112">112</SPAN>
the election of a new colleague was seriously agitated in the council of
Leo. The empress Verina, studious to promote the greatness of her own
family, had married one of her nieces to Julius Nepos, who succeeded his
uncle Marcellinus in the sovereignty of Dalmatia, a more solid possession
than the title which he was persuaded to accept, of Emperor of the West.
But the measures of the Byzantine court were so languid and irresolute,
that many months elapsed after the death of Anthemius, and even of
Olybrius, before their destined successor could show himself, with a
respectable force, to his Italian subjects. During that interval,
Glycerius, an obscure soldier, was invested with the purple by his patron
Gundobald; but the Burgundian prince was unable, or unwilling, to support
his nomination by a civil war: the pursuits of domestic ambition recalled
him beyond the Alps, <SPAN href="#linknote-36.113" name="linknoteref-36.113" id="linknoteref-36.113">113</SPAN> and his client was permitted to exchange
the Roman sceptre for the bishopric of Salona. After extinguishing such a
competitor, the emperor Nepos was acknowledged by the senate, by the
Italians, and by the provincials of Gaul; his moral virtues, and military
talents, were loudly celebrated; and those who derived any private benefit
from his government, announced, in prophetic strains, the restoration of
the public felicity. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.114" name="linknoteref-36.114" id="linknoteref-36.114">114</SPAN> Their hopes (if such hopes had been
entertained) were confounded within the term of a single year, and the
treaty of peace, which ceded Auvergue to the Visigoths, is the only event
of his short and inglorious reign. The most faithful subjects of Gaul were
sacrificed, by the Italian emperor, to the hope of domestic security; <SPAN href="#linknote-36.115" name="linknoteref-36.115" id="linknoteref-36.115">115</SPAN>
but his repose was soon invaded by a furious sedition of the Barbarian
confederates, who, under the command of Orestes, their general, were in
full march from Rome to Ravenna. Nepos trembled at their approach; and,
instead of placing a just confidence in the strength of Ravenna, he
hastily escaped to his ships, and retired to his Dalmatian principality,
on the opposite coast of the Adriatic. By this shameful abdication, he
protracted his life about five years, in a very ambiguous state, between
an emperor and an exile, till he was assassinated at Salona by the
ungrateful Glycerius, who was translated, perhaps as the reward of his
crime, to the archbishopric of Milan. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.116"
name="linknoteref-36.116" id="linknoteref-36.116">116</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.112" id="linknote-36.112">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
112 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.112">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ The last revolutions
of the Western empire are faintly marked in Theophanes, (p. 102,)
Jornandes, (c. 45, p. 679,) the Chronicle of Marcellinus, and the
Fragments of an anonymous writer, published by Valesius at the end of
Ammianus, (p. 716, 717.) If Photius had not been so wretchedly concise, we
should derive much information from the contemporary histories of Malchus
and Candidus. See his Extracts, p. 172-179.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.113" id="linknote-36.113">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
113 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.113">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ See Greg. Turon. l.
ii. c. 28, in tom. ii. p. 175. Dubos, Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 613. By
the murder or death of his two brothers, Gundobald acquired the sole
possession of the kingdom of Burgundy, whose ruin was hastened by their
discord.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.114" id="linknote-36.114">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
114 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.114">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Julius Nepos armis
pariter summus Augustus ac moribus. Sidonius, l. v. ep. 16, p. 146. Nepos
had given to Ecdicius the title of Patrician, which Anthemius had
promised, decessoris Anthemii fidem absolvit. See l. viii. ep. 7, p. 224.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.115" id="linknote-36.115">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
115 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.115">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Epiphanius was sent
ambassador from Nepos to the Visigoths, for the purpose of ascertaining
the fines Imperii Italici, (Ennodius in Sirmond, tom. i. p. 1665-1669.)
His pathetic discourse concealed the disgraceful secret which soon excited
the just and bitter complaints of the bishop of Clermont.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.116" id="linknote-36.116">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
116 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.116">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Malchus, apud Phot.
p. 172. Ennod. Epigram. lxxxii. in Sirmond. Oper. tom. i. p. 1879. Some
doubt may, however, be raised on the identity of the emperor and the
archbishop.]</p>
<p>The nations who had asserted their independence after the death of Attila,
were established, by the right of possession or conquest, in the boundless
countries to the north of the Danube; or in the Roman provinces between
the river and the Alps. But the bravest of their youth enlisted in the
army of confederates, who formed the defence and the terror of Italy; <SPAN href="#linknote-36.117" name="linknoteref-36.117" id="linknoteref-36.117">117</SPAN>
and in this promiscuous multitude, the names of the Heruli, the Scyrri,
the Alani, the Turcilingi, and the Rugians, appear to have predominated.
The example of these warriors was imitated by Orestes, <SPAN href="#linknote-36.118" name="linknoteref-36.118" id="linknoteref-36.118">118</SPAN>
the son of Tatullus, and the father of the last Roman emperor of the West.
Orestes, who has been already mentioned in this History, had never
deserted his country. His birth and fortunes rendered him one of the most
illustrious subjects of Pannonia. When that province was ceded to the
Huns, he entered into the service of Attila, his lawful sovereign,
obtained the office of his secretary, and was repeatedly sent ambassador
to Constantinople, to represent the person, and signify the commands, of
the imperious monarch. The death of that conqueror restored him to his
freedom; and Orestes might honorably refuse either to follow the sons of
Attila into the Scythian desert, or to obey the Ostrogoths, who had
usurped the dominion of Pannonia. He preferred the service of the Italian
princes, the successors of Valentinian; and as he possessed the
qualifications of courage, industry, and experience, he advanced with
rapid steps in the military profession, till he was elevated, by the favor
of Nepos himself, to the dignities of patrician, and master-general of the
troops. These troops had been long accustomed to reverence the character
and authority of Orestes, who affected their manners, conversed with them
in their own language, and was intimately connected with their national
chieftains, by long habits of familiarity and friendship. At his
solicitation they rose in arms against the obscure Greek, who presumed to
claim their obedience; and when Orestes, from some secret motive, declined
the purple, they consented, with the same facility, to acknowledge his son
Augustulus as the emperor of the West. By the abdication of Nepos, Orestes
had now attained the summit of his ambitious hopes; but he soon
discovered, before the end of the first year, that the lessons of perjury
and ingratitude, which a rebel must inculcate, will be resorted to against
himself; and that the precarious sovereign of Italy was only permitted to
choose, whether he would be the slave, or the victim, of his Barbarian
mercenaries. The dangerous alliance of these strangers had oppressed and
insulted the last remains of Roman freedom and dignity. At each
revolution, their pay and privileges were augmented; but their insolence
increased in a still more extravagant degree; they envied the fortune of
their brethren in Gaul, Spain, and Africa, whose victorious arms had
acquired an independent and perpetual inheritance; and they insisted on
their peremptory demand, that a third part of the lands of Italy should be
immediately divided among them. Orestes, with a spirit, which, in another
situation, might be entitled to our esteem, chose rather to encounter the
rage of an armed multitude, than to subscribe the ruin of an innocent
people. He rejected the audacious demand; and his refusal was favorable to
the ambition of Odoacer; a bold Barbarian, who assured his
fellow-soldiers, that, if they dared to associate under his command, they
might soon extort the justice which had been denied to their dutiful
petitions. From all the camps and garrisons of Italy, the confederates,
actuated by the same resentment and the same hopes, impatiently flocked to
the standard of this popular leader; and the unfortunate patrician,
overwhelmed by the torrent, hastily retreated to the strong city of Pavia,
the episcopal seat of the holy Epiphanites. Pavia was immediately
besieged, the fortifications were stormed, the town was pillaged; and
although the bishop might labor, with much zeal and some success, to save
the property of the church, and the chastity of female captives, the
tumult could only be appeased by the execution of Orestes. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.119" name="linknoteref-36.119" id="linknoteref-36.119">119</SPAN>
His brother Paul was slain in an action near Ravenna; and the helpless
Augustulus, who could no longer command the respect, was reduced to
implore the clemency, of Odoacer.</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.117" id="linknote-36.117">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
117 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.117">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Our knowledge of
these mercenaries, who subverted the Western empire, is derived from
Procopius, (de Bell. Gothico, l. i. c. i. p. 308.) The popular opinion,
and the recent historians, represent Odoacer in the false light of a
stranger, and a king, who invaded Italy with an army of foreigners, his
native subjects.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.118" id="linknote-36.118">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
118 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.118">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Orestes, qui eo
tempore quando Attila ad Italiam venit, se illi unxit, ejus notarius
factus fuerat. Anonym. Vales. p. 716. He is mistaken in the date; but we
may credit his assertion, that the secretary of Attila was the father of
Augustulus]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.119" id="linknote-36.119">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
119 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.119">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ See Ennodius, (in
Vit. Epiphan. Sirmond, tom. i. p. 1669, 1670.) He adds weight to the
narrative of Procopius, though we may doubt whether the devil actually
contrived the siege of Pavia, to distress the bishop and his flock.]</p>
<p>That successful Barbarian was the son of Edecon; who, in some remarkable
transactions, particularly described in a preceding chapter, had been the
colleague of Orestes himself. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.1191"
name="linknoteref-36.1191" id="linknoteref-36.1191">1191</SPAN> The honor of an
ambassador should be exempt from suspicion; and Edecon had listened to a
conspiracy against the life of his sovereign. But this apparent guilt was
expiated by his merit or repentance; his rank was eminent and conspicuous;
he enjoyed the favor of Attila; and the troops under his command, who
guarded, in their turn, the royal village, consisted of a tribe of Scyrri,
his immediate and hereditary subjects. In the revolt of the nations, they
still adhered to the Huns; and more than twelve years afterwards, the name
of Edecon is honorably mentioned, in their unequal contests with the
Ostrogoths; which was terminated, after two bloody battles, by the defeat
and dispersion of the Scyrri. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.120"
name="linknoteref-36.120" id="linknoteref-36.120">120</SPAN> Their gallant
leader, who did not survive this national calamity, left two sons, Onulf
and Odoacer, to struggle with adversity, and to maintain as they might, by
rapine or service, the faithful followers of their exile. Onulf directed
his steps towards Constantinople, where he sullied, by the assassination
of a generous benefactor, the fame which he had acquired in arms. His
brother Odoacer led a wandering life among the Barbarians of Noricum, with
a mind and a fortune suited to the most desperate adventures; and when he
had fixed his choice, he piously visited the cell of Severinus, the
popular saint of the country, to solicit his approbation and blessing. The
lowness of the door would not admit the lofty stature of Odoacer: he was
obliged to stoop; but in that humble attitude the saint could discern the
symptoms of his future greatness; and addressing him in a prophetic tone,
“Pursue” (said he) “your design; proceed to Italy; you will soon cast away
this coarse garment of skins; and your wealth will be adequate to the
liberality of your mind.” <SPAN href="#linknote-36.121"
name="linknoteref-36.121" id="linknoteref-36.121">121</SPAN> The Barbarian,
whose daring spirit accepted and ratified the prediction, was admitted
into the service of the Western empire, and soon obtained an honorable
rank in the guards. His manners were gradually polished, his military
skill was improved, and the confederates of Italy would not have elected
him for their general, unless the exploits of Odoacer had established a
high opinion of his courage and capacity. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.122"
name="linknoteref-36.122" id="linknoteref-36.122">122</SPAN> Their military
acclamations saluted him with the title of king; but he abstained, during
his whole reign, from the use of the purple and diadem, <SPAN href="#linknote-36.123" name="linknoteref-36.123" id="linknoteref-36.123">123</SPAN>
lest he should offend those princes, whose subjects, by their accidental
mixture, had formed the victorious army, which time and policy might
insensibly unite into a great nation.</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.1191" id="linknote-36.1191">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
1191 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.1191">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Manso observes that
the evidence which identifies Edecon, the father of Odoacer, with the
colleague of Orestes, is not conclusive. Geschichte des Ost-Gothischen
Reiches, p. 32. But St. Martin inclines to agree with Gibbon, note, vi.
75.—M.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.120" id="linknote-36.120">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
120 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.120">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Jornandes, c. 53, 54,
p. 692-695. M. de Buat (Hist. des Peuples de l’Europe, tom. viii. p.
221-228) has clearly explained the origin and adventures of Odoacer. I am
almost inclined to believe that he was the same who pillaged Angers, and
commanded a fleet of Saxon pirates on the ocean. Greg. Turon. l. ii. c.
18, in tom. ii. p. 170. 8 Note: According to St. Martin there is no
foundation for this conjecture, vii 5—M.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.121" id="linknote-36.121">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
121 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.121">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Vade ad Italiam, vade
vilissimis nunc pellibus coopertis: sed multis cito plurima largiturus.
Anonym. Vales. p. 717. He quotes the life of St. Severinus, which is
extant, and contains much unknown and valuable history; it was composed by
his disciple Eugippius (A.D. 511) thirty years after his death. See
Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xvi. p. 168-181.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.122" id="linknote-36.122">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
122 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.122">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Theophanes, who calls
him a Goth, affirms, that he was educated, aursed in Italy, (p. 102;) and
as this strong expression will not bear a literal interpretation, it must
be explained by long service in the Imperial guards.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.123" id="linknote-36.123">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
123 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.123">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Nomen regis Odoacer
assumpsit, cum tamen neque purpura nee regalibus uteretur insignibus.
Cassiodor. in Chron. A.D. 476. He seems to have assumed the abstract title
of a king, without applying it to any particular nation or country. 8
Note: Manso observes that Odoacer never called himself king of Italy,
assume the purple, and no coins are extant with his name. Gescnichte Osi
Goth. Reiches, p. 36—M.]</p>
<p>Royalty was familiar to the Barbarians, and the submissive people of Italy
was prepared to obey, without a murmur, the authority which he should
condescend to exercise as the vicegerent of the emperor of the West. But
Odoacer had resolved to abolish that useless and expensive office; and
such is the weight of antique prejudice, that it required some boldness
and penetration to discover the extreme facility of the enterprise. The
unfortunate Augustulus was made the instrument of his own disgrace: he
signified his resignation to the senate; and that assembly, in their last
act of obedience to a Roman prince, still affected the spirit of freedom,
and the forms of the constitution. An epistle was addressed, by their
unanimous decree, to the emperor Zeno, the son-in-law and successor of
Leo; who had lately been restored, after a short rebellion, to the
Byzantine throne. They solemnly “disclaim the necessity, or even the wish,
of continuing any longer the Imperial succession in Italy; since, in their
opinion, the majesty of a sole monarch is sufficient to pervade and
protect, at the same time, both the East and the West. In their own name,
and in the name of the people, they consent that the seat of universal
empire shall be transferred from Rome to Constantinople; and they basely
renounce the right of choosing their master, the only vestige that yet
remained of the authority which had given laws to the world. The republic
(they repeat that name without a blush) might safely confide in the civil
and military virtues of Odoacer; and they humbly request, that the emperor
would invest him with the title of Patrician, and the administration of
the diocese of Italy.” The deputies of the senate were received at
Constantinople with some marks of displeasure and indignation: and when
they were admitted to the audience of Zeno, he sternly reproached them
with their treatment of the two emperors, Anthemius and Nepos, whom the
East had successively granted to the prayers of Italy. “The first”
(continued he) “you have murdered; the second you have expelled; but the
second is still alive, and whilst he lives he is your lawful sovereign.”
But the prudent Zeno soon deserted the hopeless cause of his abdicated
colleague. His vanity was gratified by the title of sole emperor, and by
the statues erected to his honor in the several quarters of Rome; he
entertained a friendly, though ambiguous, correspondence with the
patrician Odoacer; and he gratefully accepted the Imperial ensigns, the
sacred ornaments of the throne and palace, which the Barbarian was not
unwilling to remove from the sight of the people. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.124"
name="linknoteref-36.124" id="linknoteref-36.124">124</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.124" id="linknote-36.124">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
124 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.124">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Malchus, whose loss
excites our regret, has preserved (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 93) this
extraordinary embassy from the senate to Zeno. The anonymous fragment, (p.
717,) and the extract from Candidus, (apud Phot. p. 176,) are likewise of
some use.]</p>
<p>In the space of twenty years since the death of Valentinian, nine emperors
had successively disappeared; and the son of Orestes, a youth recommended
only by his beauty, would be the least entitled to the notice of
posterity, if his reign, which was marked by the extinction of the Roman
empire in the West, did not leave a memorable era in the history of
mankind. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.125" name="linknoteref-36.125" id="linknoteref-36.125">125</SPAN> The patrician Orestes had married the
daughter of Count Romulus, of Petovio in Noricum: the name of Augustus,
notwithstanding the jealousy of power, was known at Aquileia as a familiar
surname; and the appellations of the two great founders, of the city and
of the monarchy, were thus strangely united in the last of their
successors. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.126" name="linknoteref-36.126" id="linknoteref-36.126">126</SPAN> The son of Orestes assumed and disgraced
the names of Romulus Augustus; but the first was corrupted into Momyllus,
by the Greeks, and the second has been changed by the Latins into the
contemptible diminutive Augustulus. The life of this inoffensive youth was
spared by the generous clemency of Odoacer; who dismissed him, with his
whole family, from the Imperial palace, fixed his annual allowance at six
thousand pieces of gold, and assigned the castle of Lucullus, in Campania,
for the place of his exile or retirement. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.127"
name="linknoteref-36.127" id="linknoteref-36.127">127</SPAN> As soon as the
Romans breathed from the toils of the Punic war, they were attracted by
the beauties and the pleasures of Campania; and the country-house of the
elder Scipio at Liternum exhibited a lasting model of their rustic
simplicity. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.128" name="linknoteref-36.128" id="linknoteref-36.128">128</SPAN> The delicious shores of the Bay of Naples
were crowded with villas; and Sylla applauded the masterly skill of his
rival, who had seated himself on the lofty promontory of Misenum, that
commands, on every side, the sea and land, as far as the boundaries of the
horizon. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.129" name="linknoteref-36.129" id="linknoteref-36.129">129</SPAN> The villa of Marius was purchased, within a
few years, by Lucullus, and the price had increased from two thousand five
hundred, to more than fourscore thousand, pounds sterling. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.130" name="linknoteref-36.130" id="linknoteref-36.130">130</SPAN>
It was adorned by the new proprietor with Grecian arts and Asiatic
treasures; and the houses and gardens of Lucullus obtained a distinguished
rank in the list of Imperial palaces. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.131"
name="linknoteref-36.131" id="linknoteref-36.131">131</SPAN> When the Vandals
became formidable to the sea-coast, the Lucullan villa, on the promontory
of Misenum, gradually assumed the strength and appellation of a strong
castle, the obscure retreat of the last emperor of the West. About twenty
years after that great revolution, it was converted into a church and
monastery, to receive the bones of St. Severinus. They securely reposed,
amidst the the broken trophies of Cimbric and Armenian victories,till the
beginning of the tenth century; when the fortifications, which might
afford a dangerous shelter to the Saracens, were demolished by the people
of Naples. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.132" name="linknoteref-36.132" id="linknoteref-36.132">132</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.125" id="linknote-36.125">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
125 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.125">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ The precise year in
which the Western empire was extinguished, is not positively ascertained.
The vulgar era of A.D. 476 appears to have the sanction of authentic
chronicles. But the two dates assigned by Jornandes (c. 46, p. 680) would
delay that great event to the year 479; and though M. de Buat has
overlooked his evidence, he produces (tom. viii. p. 261-288) many
collateral circumstances in support of the same opinion.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.126" id="linknote-36.126">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
126 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.126">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ See his medals in
Ducange, (Fam. Byzantin. p. 81,) Priscus, (Excerpt. Legat. p. 56,) Maffei,
(Osservazioni Letterarie, tom. ii p. 314.) We may allege a famous and
similar case. The meanest subjects of the Roman empire assumed the
illustrious name of Patricius, which, by the conversion of Ireland has
been communicated to a whole nation.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.127" id="linknote-36.127">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
127 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.127">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Ingrediens autem
Ravennam deposuit Augustulum de regno, cujus infantiam misertus concessit
ei sanguinem; et quia pulcher erat, tamen donavit ei reditum sex millia
solidos, et misit eum intra Campaniam cum parentibus suis libere vivere.
Anonym. Vales. p. 716. Jornandes says, (c 46, p. 680,) in Lucullano
Campaniae castello exilii poena damnavit.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.128" id="linknote-36.128">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
128 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.128">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ See the eloquent
Declamation of Seneca, (Epist. lxxxvi.) The philosopher might have
recollected, that all luxury is relative; and that the elder Scipio, whose
manners were polished by study and conversation, was himself accused of
that vice by his ruder contemporaries, (Livy, xxix. 19.)]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.129" id="linknote-36.129">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
129 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.129">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Sylla, in the
language of a soldier, praised his peritia castrametandi, (Plin. Hist.
Natur. xviii. 7.) Phaedrus, who makes its shady walks (loeta viridia) the
scene of an insipid fable, (ii. 5,) has thus described the situation:—</p>
<p>Caesar Tiberius quum petens Neapolim,<br/>
In Misenensem villam venissit suam;<br/>
Quae monte summo posita Luculli manu<br/>
Prospectat Siculum et prospicit Tuscum mare.]<br/></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.130" id="linknote-36.130">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
130 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.130">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ From seven myriads
and a half to two hundred and fifty myriads of drachmae. Yet even in the
possession of Marius, it was a luxurious retirement. The Romans derided
his indolence; they soon bewailed his activity. See Plutarch, in Mario,
tom. ii. p. 524.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.131" id="linknote-36.131">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
131 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.131">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Lucullus had other
villa of equal, though various, magnificence, at Baiae, Naples, Tusculum,
&c., He boasted that he changed his climate with the storks and
cranes. Plutarch, in Lucull. tom. iii. p. 193.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.132" id="linknote-36.132">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
132 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.132">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Severinus died in
Noricum, A.D. 482. Six years afterwards, his body, which scattered
miracles as it passed, was transported by his disciples into Italy. The
devotion of a Neapolitan lady invited the saint to the Lucullan villa, in
the place of Augustulus, who was probably no more. See Baronius (Annal.
Eccles. A.D. 496, No. 50, 51) and Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. xvi. p.
178-181,) from the original life by Eugippius. The narrative of the last
migration of Severinus to Naples is likewise an authentic piece.]</p>
<p>Odoacer was the first Barbarian who reigned in Italy, over a people who
had once asserted their just superiority above the rest of mankind. The
disgrace of the Romans still excites our respectful compassion, and we
fondly sympathize with the imaginary grief and indignation of their
degenerate posterity. But the calamities of Italy had gradually subdued
the proud consciousness of freedom and glory. In the age of Roman virtue
the provinces were subject to the arms, and the citizens to the laws, of
the republic; till those laws were subverted by civil discord, and both
the city and the province became the servile property of a tyrant. The
forms of the constitution, which alleviated or disguised their abject
slavery, were abolished by time and violence; the Italians alternately
lamented the presence or the absence of the sovereign, whom they detested
or despised; and the succession of five centuries inflicted the various
evils of military license, capricious despotism, and elaborate oppression.
During the same period, the Barbarians had emerged from obscurity and
contempt, and the warriors of Germany and Scythia were introduced into the
provinces, as the servants, the allies, and at length the masters, of the
Romans, whom they insulted or protected. The hatred of the people was
suppressed by fear; they respected the spirit and splendor of the martial
chiefs who were invested with the honors of the empire; and the fate of
Rome had long depended on the sword of those formidable strangers. The
stern Ricimer, who trampled on the ruins of Italy, had exercised the
power, without assuming the title, of a king; and the patient Romans were
insensibly prepared to acknowledge the royalty of Odoacer and his Barbaric
successors. The king of Italy was not unworthy of the high station to
which his valor and fortune had exalted him: his savage manners were
polished by the habits of conversation; and he respected, though a
conqueror and a Barbarian, the institutions, and even the prejudices, of
his subjects. After an interval of seven years, Odoacer restored the
consulship of the West. For himself, he modestly, or proudly, declined an
honor which was still accepted by the emperors of the East; but the curule
chair was successively filled by eleven of the most illustrious senators;
<SPAN href="#linknote-36.133" name="linknoteref-36.133" id="linknoteref-36.133">133</SPAN>
and the list is adorned by the respectable name of Basilius, whose virtues
claimed the friendship and grateful applause of Sidonius, his client. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.134" name="linknoteref-36.134" id="linknoteref-36.134">134</SPAN>
The laws of the emperors were strictly enforced, and the civil
administration of Italy was still exercised by the Prætorian praefect and
his subordinate officers. Odoacer devolved on the Roman magistrates the
odious and oppressive task of collecting the public revenue; but he
reserved for himself the merit of seasonable and popular indulgence. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.135" name="linknoteref-36.135" id="linknoteref-36.135">135</SPAN>
Like the rest of the Barbarians, he had been instructed in the Arian
heresy; but he revered the monastic and episcopal characters; and the
silence of the Catholics attest the toleration which they enjoyed. The
peace of the city required the interposition of his praefect Basilius in
the choice of a Roman pontiff: the decree which restrained the clergy from
alienating their lands was ultimately designed for the benefit of the
people, whose devotions would have been taxed to repair the dilapidations
of the church. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.136" name="linknoteref-36.136" id="linknoteref-36.136">136</SPAN> Italy was protected by the arms of its
conqueror; and its frontiers were respected by the Barbarians of Gaul and
Germany, who had so long insulted the feeble race of Theodosius. Odoacer
passed the Adriatic, to chastise the assassins of the emperor Nepos, and
to acquire the maritime province of Dalmatia. He passed the Alps, to
rescue the remains of Noricum from Fava, or Feletheus, king of the
Rugians, who held his residence beyond the Danube. The king was vanquished
in battle, and led away prisoner; a numerous colony of captives and
subjects was transplanted into Italy; and Rome, after a long period of
defeat and disgrace, might claim the triumph of her Barbarian master. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.137" name="linknoteref-36.137" id="linknoteref-36.137">137</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.133" id="linknote-36.133">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
133 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.133">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ The consular Fasti
may be found in Pagi or Muratori. The consuls named by Odoacer, or perhaps
by the Roman senate, appear to have been acknowledged in the Eastern
empire.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.134" id="linknote-36.134">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
134 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.134">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Sidonius Apollinaris
(l. i. epist. 9, p. 22, edit. Sirmond) has compared the two leading
senators of his time, (A.D. 468,) Gennadius Avienus and Caecina Basilius.
To the former he assigns the specious, to the latter the solid, virtues of
public and private life. A Basilius junior, possibly his son, was consul
in the year 480.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.135" id="linknote-36.135">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
135 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.135">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Epiphanius interceded
for the people of Pavia; and the king first granted an indulgence of five
years, and afterwards relieved them from the oppression of Pelagius, the
Prætorian praefect, (Ennodius in Vit St. Epiphan., in Sirmond, Oper. tom.
i. p. 1670-1672.)]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.136" id="linknote-36.136">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
136 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.136">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ See Baronius, Annal.
Eccles. A.D. 483, No. 10-15. Sixteen years afterwards the irregular
proceedings of Basilius were condemned by Pope Symmachus in a Roman
synod.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.137" id="linknote-36.137">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
137 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.137">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ The wars of Odoacer
are concisely mentioned by Paul the Deacon, (de Gest. Langobard. l. i. c.
19, p. 757, edit. Grot.,) and in the two Chronicles of Cassiodorus and
Cuspinian. The life of St. Severinus by Eugippius, which the count de Buat
(Hist. des Peuples, &c., tom. viii. c. 1, 4, 8, 9) has diligently
studied, illustrates the ruin of Noricum and the Bavarian antiquities]</p>
<p>Notwithstanding the prudence and success of Odoacer, his kingdom exhibited
the sad prospect of misery and desolation. Since the age of Tiberius, the
decay of agriculture had been felt in Italy; and it was a just subject of
complaint, that the life of the Roman people depended on the accidents of
the winds and waves. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.138" name="linknoteref-36.138" id="linknoteref-36.138">138</SPAN> In the division and the decline of the
empire, the tributary harvests of Egypt and Africa were withdrawn; the
numbers of the inhabitants continually diminished with the means of
subsistence; and the country was exhausted by the irretrievable losses of
war, famine, <SPAN href="#linknote-36.139" name="linknoteref-36.139" id="linknoteref-36.139">139</SPAN> and pestilence. St. Ambrose has deplored
the ruin of a populous district, which had been once adorned with the
flourishing cities of Bologna, Modena, Regium, and Placentia. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.140" name="linknoteref-36.140" id="linknoteref-36.140">140</SPAN>
Pope Gelasius was a subject of Odoacer; and he affirms, with strong
exaggeration, that in Aemilia, Tuscany, and the adjacent provinces, the
human species was almost extirpated. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.141"
name="linknoteref-36.141" id="linknoteref-36.141">141</SPAN> The plebeians of
Rome, who were fed by the hand of their master, perished or disappeared,
as soon as his liberality was suppressed; the decline of the arts reduced
the industrious mechanic to idleness and want; and the senators, who might
support with patience the ruin of their country, bewailed their private
loss of wealth and luxury. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.1411"
name="linknoteref-36.1411" id="linknoteref-36.1411">1411</SPAN> One third of
those ample estates, to which the ruin of Italy is originally imputed, <SPAN href="#linknote-36.142" name="linknoteref-36.142" id="linknoteref-36.142">142</SPAN>
was extorted for the use of the conquerors. Injuries were aggravated by
insults; the sense of actual sufferings was imbittered by the fear of more
dreadful evils; and as new lands were allotted to the new swarms of
Barbarians, each senator was apprehensive lest the arbitrary surveyors
should approach his favorite villa, or his most profitable farm. The least
unfortunate were those who submitted without a murmur to the power which
it was impossible to resist. Since they desired to live, they owed some
gratitude to the tyrant who had spared their lives; and since he was the
absolute master of their fortunes, the portion which he left must be
accepted as his pure and voluntary gift. <SPAN href="#linknote-36.143"
name="linknoteref-36.143" id="linknoteref-36.143">143</SPAN> The distress of
Italy <SPAN href="#linknote-36.1431" name="linknoteref-36.1431" id="linknoteref-36.1431">1431</SPAN> was mitigated by the prudence and
humanity of Odoacer, who had bound himself, as the price of his elevation,
to satisfy the demands of a licentious and turbulent multitude. The kings
of the Barbarians were frequently resisted, deposed, or murdered, by their
native subjects, and the various bands of Italian mercenaries, who
associated under the standard of an elective general, claimed a larger
privilege of freedom and rapine. A monarchy destitute of national union,
and hereditary right, hastened to its dissolution. After a reign of
fourteen years, Odoacer was oppressed by the superior genius of Theodoric,
king of the Ostrogoths; a hero alike excellent in the arts of war and of
government, who restored an age of peace and prosperity, and whose name
still excites and deserves the attention of mankind.</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.138" id="linknote-36.138">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
138 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.138">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Tacit. Annal. iii.
53. The Recherches sur l’Administration des Terres chez les Romains (p.
351-361) clearly state the progress of internal decay.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.139" id="linknote-36.139">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
139 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.139">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ A famine, which
afflicted Italy at the time of the irruption of Odoacer, king of the
Heruli, is eloquently described, in prose and verse, by a French poet,
(Les Mois, tom. ii. p. 174, 205, edit. in 12 mo.) I am ignorant from
whence he derives his information; but I am well assured that he relates
some facts incompatible with the truth of history]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.140" id="linknote-36.140">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
140 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.140">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ See the xxxixth
epistle of St. Ambrose, as it is quoted by Muratori, sopra le Antichita
Italiane, tom. i. Dissert. xxi. p. 354.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.141" id="linknote-36.141">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
141 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.141">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Aemilia, Tuscia,
ceteraeque provinciae in quibus hominum propenullus exsistit. Gelasius,
Epist. ad Andromachum, ap. Baronium, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 496, No. 36.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.1411" id="linknote-36.1411">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
1411 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.1411">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Denina supposes
that the Barbarians were compelled by necessity to turn their attention to
agriculture. Italy, either imperfectly cultivated, or not at all, by the
indolent or ruined proprietors, not only could not furnish the imposts, on
which the pay of the soldiery depended, but not even a certain supply of
the necessaries of life. The neighboring countries were now occupied by
warlike nations; the supplies of corn from Africa were cut off; foreign
commerce nearly destroyed; they could not look for supplies beyond the
limits of Italy, throughout which the agriculture had been long in a state
of progressive but rapid depression. (Denina, Rev. d’Italia t. v. c. i.)—M.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.142" id="linknote-36.142">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
142 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.142">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Verumque
confitentibus, latifundia perdidere Italiam. Plin. Hist. Natur. xviii. 7.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.143" id="linknote-36.143">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
143 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.143">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Such are the topics
of consolation, or rather of patience, which Cicero (ad Familiares, lib.
ix. Epist. 17) suggests to his friend Papirius Paetus, under the military
despotism of Caesar. The argument, however, of “vivere pulcherrimum duxi,”
is more forcibly addressed to a Roman philosopher, who possessed the free
alternative of life or death]</p>
<p><SPAN name="linknote-36.1431" id="linknote-36.1431">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
1431 (<SPAN href="#linknoteref-36.1431">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Compare, on the
desolation and change of property in Italy, Manno des Ost-Gothischen
Reiches, Part ii. p. 73, et seq.—M.]</p>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />