XXXI. CHAP. auxiliaries; and, without meeting a fingle enemy in the field, advanced as far as the edge of the morafs which protected the impregnable refidence of the emperor of the Weft. Instead of attempting the hopeless fiege of Ravenna, the prudent leader of the Goths proceeded to Rimini, ftretched his ravages along the fea-coaft of the Hadriatic, and meditated the conquest of the ancient mistress of the world. An Italian hermit, whose zeal and fanctity were refpected by the Barbarians themselves, encountered the victorious monarch, and boldly denounced the indignation of heaven against the oppreffors of the earth but the faint himfelf was confounded by the folemn affeveration of Alaric, that he felt a fecret and præternatural impulfe, which directed, and even compelled, his march to the gates of Rome. He felt, that his genius and his fortune were equal to the most arduous enterprises; and the enthusiasm which he communicated to the Goths, infenfibly removed the popular, and almoft fuperftitious, reverence of the nations for the majesty of the Roman name. His troops, animated by the hopes of fpoil, followed the courfe of the Flaminian way, occupied the unguarded paffes of the Apennine, defcended into the rich plains of Umbria; and, as they lay encamped on the banks of the Clitumnus, might 4 Addison (fee his Works, vol. ii. p. 54. edit. Baskerville) has given a very picturesque description of the road through the Apennine. The Goths were not at leisure to obferve the beauties of the profpect; but they were pleased to find that the Saxa Intercifa, a narrow paffage which Vespasian had cut through the rock (Cluver. Italia Antiq. tom. i. p. 618.) was totally neglected. wantonly XXXI. wantonly flaughter and devour the milk-white CHAP. oxen, which had been fo long referved for the ufe of Roman triumphs. A lofty fituation, and a feasonable tempeft of thunder and lightning, preserved the little city of Narni; but the king of the Goths, defpifing the ignoble prey, ftill advanced with unabated vigour; and after he had paffed through the ftately arches, adorned with the spoils of Barbaric victories, he pitched his camp under the walls of Rome ‘. During a period of fix hundred and nineteen years, the feat of empire had never been violated by the prefence of a foreign enemy. The unsuccessful expedition of Hannibal', served only to difplay the character of the fenate and people; of a fenate degraded, rather than ennobled, by the comparison of an affembly of kings; and of a people to whom the ambaffador of Pyrrhus afcribed the inexhauftible refources of the Hydra. Each of the fenators, in the time of 5. Hinc albi Clitumni greges, et maxima Taurus Victima; fæpe tuo perfufi flumine facro Romanos ad templa Deum duxere Triumphos. Befides Virgil, most of the Latin poets, Propertius, Lucan, Silius Italicus, Claudian, &c. whose paffages may be found in Cluverius and Addifon, have celebrated the triumphal victims of the Clitum nus. • Some ideas of the march of Alaric are borrowed from the journey of Honorius over the fame ground. (See Claudian in vi Conf.. Hon. 494-522.) The measured distance between Ravenna and Rome, was 254 Roman miles. Itinerar. Weffeling. p. 126. 7 The march and retreat of Hannibal are described by Livy, 1. xxvi. c. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.; and the reader is made a spectator of the interesting scene. 8 Thefe comparisons were used by Cyneas, the counfellor of Pyrrhus, after his return from his embaffy, in which he had diligently ftudied Hannibal at the gates of Rome. CHAP. of the Punic war, had accomplished his term of perior ftation; and the decree, which invested with temporary command all those who had been confuls, or cenfors, or dictators, gave the republic the immediate affiftance of many brave and experienced generals. In the beginning of the war, the Roman people confifted of two hundred and fifty thousand citizens of an age to bear arms. Fifty thousand had already died in the defence of their country; and the twenty-three legions which were employed in the different camps of Italy, Greece, Sardinia, Sicily, and Spain, required about one hundred thousand men. But there still remained an equal number in Rome, and the adjacent territory, who were animated by the fame intrepid courage; and every citizen was trained from his earliest youth, in the discipline and exercises of a foldier. Hannibal was aftonished by the conftancy of the fenate, who, with ftudied the difcipline and manners of Rome. See Plutarch in Pyrrho, tom. ii. p. 459. 9 In the three cenfus which were made of the Roman people, about the time of the second Punic war, the numbers stand as follows (see Livy, Epitom. 1. xx. Hift. l. xxvii. 36. xxix. 37.), 270, 213, 137, 108, 214,000. The fall of the second, and the rise of the third, appears fo enormous, that feveral critics, notwithstanding the unanimity of the MSS. have fufpected fome corruption of the text of Livy. (See Drakenborch ad xxvii. 36. and Beaufort, Republique Romaine, tom. i. p. 325.) They did not confider that the second cenfus was taken only at Rome, and that the numbers were diminished, not only by the death, but likewise by the absence, of many foldiers. In the third cenfus, Livy expressly affirms, that the legions were mustered by the care of particular commiffaries. From the numbers on the lift, we must always deduct one twelfth above threefcore, and incapable of bearing arms. See Population de la France, p. 72. XXXI. out raifing the fiege of Capua, or recalling their CHAP. fcattered forces, expected his approach. He encamped on the banks of the Anio, at the distance of three miles from the city: and he was foon informed, that the ground on which he had pitched his tent was fold for an adequate price at a public auction; and that a body of troops was difmiffed by an oppofite road, to reinforce the legions of Spain 10. He led his Africans to the gates of Rome, where he found three armies in order of battle, prepared to receive him; but Hannibal dreaded the event of a combat, from which he could not hope to escape, unless he deftroyed the last of his enemies; and his fpeedy retreat confeffed the invincible courage of the Romans. gy of the fenators. From the time of the Punic war, the uninter- Genealorupted fucceffion of fenators had preferved the name and image of the republic; and the degenerate fubjects of Honorius ambitiously derived their descent from the heroes who had repulfed the arms of Hannibal, and fubdued the nations. of the earth. The temporal honours, which the devout Paula" inherited and defpifed, are carefully recapitulated by Jerom, the guide of her 10 Livy confiders thefe two incidents as the effects only of chance and courage. I fufpect that they were both managed by the admirable policy of the fenate. 11 See Jerom. tom. i. p. 169, 170. ad Euftochium; he bestows on Paula the fplendid titles of Gracchorum ftirps, foboles Scipionum, Pauli hæres, cujus vocabulum trahit, Martiæ Papyriæ Matris Afri cani vera et germana propago. This particular defcription fuppofes a more solid title than the furname of Julius, which Toxotius fhared with a thousand families of the Western provinces. See the index of Tacitus, of Gruter's Infcriptions, &c. VOL. V. S confcience, CHAP. concience, and the hiftorian of her life. XXXI. The genealogy of her father, Rogatus, which afcended as high as Agamemnon, might feem to betray a Grecian origin; but her mother, Blæfilla, numbered the Scipios, Emilius Paulus, and the Gracchi, in the lift of her ancestors; and Toxotius, the hufband of Paula, deduced his royal lineage from Æneas, the father of the Julian line. The vanity of the rich, who defired to be noble, was gratified by thefe lofty pretenfions. Encouraged by the applause of their parasites, they eafily impofed on the credulity of the vulgar; and were countenanced, in fome measure, by the custom of adopting the name of their patron, which had always prevailed among the freedmen and clients of illuftrious families. Moft of those families, however, attacked by fo many causes of external violence or internal decay, were gradually extirpated and it would be more reasonable to feek for a lineal defcent of twenty generations, among the mountains of the Alps, or in the peaceful folitude of Apulia, than on the theatre of Rome, the feat of fortune, of danger, and of perpetual revolutions. Under each fucceffive reign, and from every province of the empire, a crowd of hardy adventurers, rifing to eminence by their talents or their vices, ufurped the wealth, the honours, and the palaces of Rome; and oppreffed, or protected, the poor and humble remains of confular families; who were ignorant, perhaps, of the glory of their ancestors 2. 12 Tacitus (Annal. iii. 55.) affirms, that between the battle of Actium and the reign of Vespasian, the fenate was gradually filled with sew families from the Municipia and colonies of Italy. |