XXXI.

eighty-two". The two claffes of domus and of CHAP. infula, 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 flaves, 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 fame average, which, under fimilar circumftances, has been found applicable to Paris", and indifferently allow about twenty-five perfons for each house, of every degree, we may fairly estimate the inhabitants of Rome at twelve hundred thousand: a number which cannot be thought exceffive for the capital of a mighty empire, though it exceeds the populoufnefs of the greatest cities of modern Europe ".

72

Such was the state of Rome under the reign of Honorius; at the time when the Gothic army formed the fiege, or rather the blockade, of the city 73. By a skilful difpofition of his numerous

forces,

This fum total is compofed of 1780 domus, or great houses, of 46,602 infulæ, or plebeian habitations (fee Nardini, Roma Antica, 1. iii. p. 88.); and these numbers are ascertained by the agreement of the texts of the different Notitia. Nardini, l. viii. p. 498. 500.

71 See that accurate writer M: de Meffance, Recherches fur la Population, p. 175-187. From probable, or certain grounds, he affigns to Paris 23,565 houses, 71,114 families, and 576,630 inhabit

ants.

72 This computation is not very different from that which M. Brotier, the laft editor of Tacitus (tom. ii. p. 380.), has affumed from fimilar principles; though he feems to aim at a degree of precision, which it is neither poffible nor important to obtain.

73 For the events of the first fiege of Rome, which are often confounded with thofe of the fecond and third, fee Zofimus, 1. v.

VOL.V.

Firft fiege
by the

of Rome

Goths,

A.D. 408.

CHAP. forces, who impatiently watched the moment of XXXI. an affault, Alaric encompaffed the walls, com

Famine.

manded 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 furest and most plentiful fupply of provisions. The firft emotions of the nobles, and of the people, were those of furprise and indignation, that a vile Barbarian fhould dare to infult the capital of the world but their arrogance was foon humbled by misfortune; and their unmanly rage, instead of being directed against an enemy in arms, was meanly exercised on a defencelefs and innocent victim. Perhaps in the perfon of Serena, the Romans might have respected the niece of Theodofius, the aunt, nay even the adoptive mother, of the reigning emperor: but they abhorred the widow of Stilicho; and they liftened with credulous paffion to the tale of calumny, which accufed her of maintaining a fecret and criminal correfpondence with the Gothic invader. Actuated, or overawed, by the fame popular frenzy, the fenate, without requiring any evidence of her guilt, pronounced the fentence of her death. Serena was ignominiously ftrangled; and the infatuated multitude were astonished to find, that this cruel act of injuftice did not immediately produce the retreat of the Barbarians, and the deliverance of the city. That unfortunate city

p. 350-354. Sozomen, 1. ix. c. 6. Olympiodorus, ap. Phot. p. 180. Philoftorgius, 1. xii, c. 3. and Godefroy, Differtat. p. 467 475.

gradually

XXXI.

gradually experienced the diftrefs of fcarcity, and CHAP. 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 ftill continued to rife in a rapid and extravagant proportion. The poorer citizens, who were unable to purchase the neceffaries of life, folicited the precarious charity of the rich; and for a while the public mifery was alleviated by the humanity of Læta, the widow of the emperor Gratian, who had fixed her refidence at Rome, and confecrated, to the ufe of the indigent, the princely revenue, which she annually received from the grateful fucceffors of her husband 74. But these private and temporary donatives were infufficient to appeafe the hunger of a numerous people; and the progrefs of famine invaded the marble palaces of the fenators themfelves. The perfons of both fexes, who had been educated in the enjoyment of ease and luxury, discovered how little is requifite to fupply the demands of nature; and lavished their unavailing treasures of gold and filver, to obtain the coarse and scanty fuftenance which they would formerly have rejected with difdain. The food the most repugnant to fenfe or imagination, the aliments the most unwholesome and pernicious to the constitution, were eagerly devoured, and fiercely difputed, by the rage of hunger. A dark fufpicion was entertained, that fome desperate

74 The mother of Læta was named Piffumena. Her father, family, and country are unknown. Ducange, Fam. Byzantin. p. 59. wretches

U

2

Plague.

CHAP. wretches fed on the bodies of their fellow-crea XXXI. tures, whom they had fecretly murdered; and even mothers (fuch was the horrid conflict of the two most powerful inftincts implanted by nature in the human breast), even mothers are faid to have tafted the flesh of their slaughtered infants 75 ! Many thousands of the inhabitants of Rome expired in their houses, or in the streets, for want of fuftenance; and as the public fepulchres without the walls were in the power of the enemy, the ftench, which arose from fo many putrid and unburied carcaffes, infected the air; and the miseries of famine were fucceeded and aggravated by the contagion of a peftilential difeafe. The affurances of speedy and effectual relief, which were repeatedly transmitted from the court of Ravenna, fupported, for fome time, the fainting refolution of the Romans, till at length the defpair of any human aid tempted them to accept the Superfti offers of a præternatural deliverance. Pompeianus, præfect of the city, had been perfuaded, by the art or fanaticism of fome Tuscan diviners, that, by the mysterious force of fpells and facrifices, they could extract the lightning from the clouds, and point those celestial fires against the

tion.

121.

75 Ad nefandos cibos erupit efurientium rabies, et fua invicem membra laniarunt, dum mater non parcit lactenti infantiæ; et recipit utero, quem paullò ante effuderat. Jerom ad Principiam, tom. i. p. The fame horrid circumftance is likewife told of the sieges of Jerufalem and Paris. For the latter, compare the tenth book of the Henriade, and the Journal de Henri IV. tom. i. P. 47-83. ; and obferve that a plain narrative of facts is much more pathetic, than the moft laboured defcriptions of epic poetry.

camp

XXXI.

camp of the Barbarians 76. The important fecret CHAP. was communicated to Innocent, the bishop of Rome; and the fucceffor of St. Peter is accused, perhaps without foundation, of preferring the fafety of the republic to the rigid severity of the Christian worship. But when the question was agitated in the fenate; when it was propofed, as an effential condition, that thofe facrifices fhould be performed in the Capitol, by the authority, and in the prefence of, the magiftrates; the majority of that refpectable affembly, apprehenfive either of the Divine, or of the Imperial, displeafure, refused to join in an act, which appeared almost equivalent to the public restoration of Paganism ".

76 Zofimus (1. v. p. 355, 356.) speaks of these ceremonies, like a Greek unacquainted with the national fuperftition of Rome and Tufcany. I fufpect, that they confifted of two parts, the fecret, and the public; the former were probably an imitation of the arts and spells, by which Numa had drawn down Jupiter and his thunder on Mount Aventine,

Quid agant laqueis, quæ carmina dicant

Quâque trahant fuperis fedibus arte Jovem

Scire nefas homini.

The ancilia, or shields of Mars, the pignora Imperii, which were carried in folemn proceffion on the calends of March, derived their origin from this mysterious event (Ovid. Faft. iii. 259-398.). It was probably designed to revive this ancient festival, which had been fuppreffed by Theodofius. In that cafe, we recover a chronological date (March the 1ft, A. D. 409.) which has not hitherto been ob. ferved.

77 Sozomen (1. ix. c. 6.) infinuates, that the experiment was actually, though unfuccefsfully made; but he does not mention the name of Innocent: and Tillemont (Mem. Ecclef. tom. x. p. 64 5.). is determined not to believe, that a pope could be guilty of such impiqus condefcenfion.