XXXI. 107 tives. Whatever might be the numbers, of equeftrian, CHAP. or plebeian rank, who perifhed in the maffacre of Rome, it is confidently affirmed, that only one Captives and fugi. fenator loft his life by the fword of the enemy 1o7. But it was not eafy to compute the multitudes, who, from an honourable ftation, and a profperous fortune, were fuddenly reduced to the miferable condition of captives and exiles. As the Barbarians had more occafion for money than for flaves, they fixed, at a moderate price, the redemption of their indigent prifoners; and the ranfom was often paid by the benevolence of their friends, or the charity of strangers The captives, who were regularly fold, either in open market, or by private contract, would have legally regained their native freedom, which it was impoffible for a citizen to lofe, or to alienate 19. But as it was foon discovered, that the vindication of their liberty would endanger their lives; and that the Goths, unless they were tempted to fell, might be provoked to murder, their ufelefs prifoners; the civil jurifprudence had been already qualified by a wife regulation, that they fhould be 108 107 Orofius (1. ii. c. 19. p. 142.) compares the cruelty of the Gauls and the clemency of the Goths. Ibi vix quemquam inventum fenatorem, qui vel abfens evaferit; hic vix quemquam requiri, qui forte ut latens perierit. But there is an air of rhetoric, and perhaps of falsehood, in this antithesis; and Socrates (1. vii. c. 10.) affirms, perhaps by an oppofite exaggeration, that many fenators were put to death with various and exquifite tortures. 108 Multi... Chriftiani in captivitatem ducti funt. Augustin, de Civ. Dei, l. i. c. 14; and the Christians experienced no peculiar hardships. 109 See Heineccius, Antiquitat. Juris Roman. tom. i. p. 96. CHAP. obliged to ferve the moderate term of five years, XXXI. till they had discharged by their labour the price 110 of their redemption "1o. The nations who in- 110 Appendix Cod. Theodof. xvi. in Sirmond. Opera, tom. i. p. 735. This edict was published the 11th of December, A. D. 408. and is more reasonable than properly belonged to the minifters of Honorius. 111 Eminus Igilii fylvofa cacumina miror ; Quem fraudare nefas laudis honore fuæ Rutilius, in Itinerar. 1. i. 325. The island is now called Giglio. See Cluver. Ital. Antiq. 1. ii. P. 502. fenatorian XXXI. fenatorian families poffeffed in Africa, invited CHAP. them, if they had time, and prudence, to escape from the ruin of their country; to embrace the fhelter of that hospitable province. The moft illuftrious of thefe fugitives was the noble and pious Proba 112 the widow of the præfe&t Petronius. After the death of her husband, the moft powerful fubject of Rome, she had remained at the head of the Anician family, and fucceffively fupplied, from her private fortune, the expence of the confulfhips of her three fons. When the city was befieged and taken by the Goths, Proba fupported, with Chriftian refignation, the loss of immenfe riches; embarked in a small veffel, from whence the beheld, at fea, the flames of her burning palace, and fled with her daughter Læta, and her grand-daughter, the celebrated virgin, Demetrias, to the coaft of Africa. The benevolent profufion with which the matron diftributed the fruits, or the price, of her eftates, contributed to alleviate the misfortunes of exile and captivity. But even the family of Proba herself was not exempt from the rapacious oppreffion of Count Heraclian, who bafely fold, in matrimonial pro 112 As the adventures of Proba and her family are connected with the life of St. Auguftin, they are diligently illuftrated by Tillemont, Mem. Ecclef. tom. xiii. p. 620-635. Some time after their arrival in Africa, Demetrias took the veil, and made a vow of virginity; an event which was confidered as of the higheft importance to Rome and to the world. All the Saints wrote congratulatory letters to her; that of Jerom is still extant (tom. i. p. 62-73. ad Demetriad. de fervandâ. Virginitat,), and contains a mixture of abfurd reasoning, spirited declamation, and curious facts, fome of which relate to the fiege and fack of Rome. VOL. V. Y ftitution, CHAP. ftitution, the nobleft maidens of Rome, to the luft XXXI. or avarice of the Syrian merchants. The Italian Sack of Rome by the troops V. 113 fugitives were difperfed through the provinces, along the coast of Egypt and Afia, as far as Conftantinople and Jerufalem; and the village of Bethlem, the folitary refidence of St. Jerom and his female converts, was crowded with illuftrious beggars of either fex, and every age, who excited the public compaffion by the remembrance of their paft fortune "3. This awful catastrophe of Rome filled the aftonished empire with grief and terror. So interefting a contraft of greatness and ruin, difpofed the fond credulity of the people to deplore, and even to exaggerate, the afflictions of the queen of cities. The clergy, who applied to recent events the lofty metaphors of Oriental prophecy, were fometimes tempted to confound the deftruction of the capital, and the diffolution of the globe. There exifts in human nature a ftrong propenfity to depreciate the advantages, and to magnify the of Charles evils, of the prefent times. Yet, when the first emotions had fubfided, and a fair eftimate was made of the real damage, the more learned and judicious contemporaries were forced to confefs, that infant Rome had formerly received more effential injury from the Gauls, than fhe had now fuftained from the Goths in her declining age "4. 214 The 113 See the pathetic complaint of Jerom (tom. v. p. 400.), in his preface to the fecond book of his Commentaries on the prophet Ezekiel. 114 Orofius, though with fome theological partiality, ftates this comparison, 1. ii. c. 19. p. 142. 1. vii. c, 39. p. 575. But, in the hiftory 115 XXXI. ༽ སྤང་ཏུ་༧ The experience of eleven centuries has enabled CHAP. pofterity to produce a much more fingular parallel; and to affirm with confidence, that the ravages of the Barbarians, whom Alaric had led from the banks of the Danube, were lefs deftructive, than the hoftilities exercised by the troops of Charles the Fifth, a Catholic prince, who ftyled himself Emperor of the Romans "5. The Goths evacuated the city at the end of fix days, but Rome remained above nine months in the poffeffion of the Imperialifts; and every hour was ftained by fome atrocious act of cruelty, luft, and rapine. The authority of Alaric preferved fome order and moderation among the ferocious multitude, which acknowledged him for their leader and king: but the conftable of Bourbon had gloriously fallen in the attack of the walls; and the death of the general removed every reftraint of difcipline, from an army which confifted of three independent nations, the Italians, the Spaniards, and the Germans. In the begin hiftory of the taking of Rome by the Gauls, every thing is uncertain, and perhaps fabulous. See Beaufort fur l'Incertitude, &c. de l'Hiftoire Romaine, p. 356; and Melot, in the Mem. de l'Academie des Infcript. tom. xv. p. 1-21. 115 The reader who wishes to inform himfelf of the circumstances of this famous event, may perufe an admirable narrative in Dr. Robertfon's History of Charles V. vol. ii. p. 283.; or confult the Annali d'Italia of the learned Muratori, tom. xiv. p. 230-244. octavo edition. If he is defirous of examining the originals, he may have recourfe to the eighteenth book of the great, but unfinished, hißory of Guicciardini. But the account which most truly deferves the name of authentic and original, is a little book, intitled, Il Sacco di Roma, compofed, within lefs than a month after the affault of the city, by the brother of the hiftorian Guicciardini, who appears to have been an able magiftrate, and a difpaffionate writer. |