the Po; hastily pillaged the cities of Aquileia, Altinum, Concordia, and Cremona, which yielded to his arms; increased his forces by the accession of thirty thousand auxiliaries; and, without meeting a single enemy in the field, advanced as far as the edge of the morass which protected the impregnable residence of the emperor of the West. Instead of attempting the hopeless siege of Ravenna, the prudent leader of the Goths proceeded to Rimini, stretched his ravages along the seacoast of the Hadriatic, and meditated the conquest of the ancient mistress of the world. An Italian hermit, whose zeal and sanctity were respected by the Barbarians themselves, encountered the victorious monarch, and boldly denounced the indignation of heaven against the oppressors of the earth: but the saint himself was confounded by the solemn asseveration of Alaric, that he felt a secret and præternatural impulse, 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, insensibly removed the popular, and almost superstitious, reverence of the nations for the majesty of the Roman name. His troops, animated by the hopes of spoil, followed the course of the Flaminian way, occupied the unguarded passes of the Apennine (4), descended into the rich plains of Umbria; and, as they lay encamped on the banks of the Clitumnus, might wantonly slaughter and devour the milk-white oxen, which had been so long reserved for the use of Roman triumphs (5). A lofty situation, and a seasonable tempest of thunder and lightning, preserved the little city of Narni; but the king of the Goths, despising the ignoble prey, still advanced with unabated vigour; and after he had passed through the stately arches, adorned with the spoils of Barbaric victories, he pitched his camp under the walls of Rome (6). the gates of Rome. During a period of six hundred and nineteen years, the seat of Hannibal at empire had never been violated by the presence of a foreign enemy. The unsuccessful expedition of Hannibal (7), served only to display the character of the senate and people; of a senate degraded, rather (4) Addison (see 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 observe the beauties of the prospect; but they were pleased to find that the Saxa Intercisa, a narrow passage which Vespasian had cut through the rock (Cluver. Italia Antiq. tom. i. p. 618.) was totally neglected. *(5) Hinc albi, Clitumne, greges, et maxima taurus. Georg. ii. 146. Besides Virgil, most of the Latin poets, Propertius, Lucan, Silius Italicus, Claudian, &c. whose passages may be found in Cluverius and Addison, have celebrated the triumphal victims of the Clitumnus. (6) Some ideas of the march of Alaric are borrowed from the journey of Honorius over the same ground (see Claudian in VI. Cons. Hon. 494-522.). The measured distance between Ravenna and Rome was 254 Roman miles. Itinerar. Wesseling. p. 126. (7) The march and retreat of Hannibal are described by Livy, l. xxvi. c. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.; and the reader is made a spectator of the interesting scene. Genealogy of than ennobled, by the comparison of an assembly of kings; and of a people, to whom the ambassador of Pyrrhus ascribed the inexhaustible resources of the Hydra (8). Each of the senators, in the time of the Punic war, had accomplished his term of military service, either in a subordinate or a superior station; and the decree, which invested with temporary command all those who had been consuls, or censors, or dictators, gave the republic the immediate assistance of many brave and experienced generals. In the beginning of the war, the Roman people consisted of two hundred and fifty thousand citizens of an age to bear arms (9).. 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 same intrepid courage; and every citizen was trained, from his earliest youth, in the discipline and exercises of a soldier. Hannibal was astonished by the constancy of the senate, who, without raising the siege of Capua, or recalling their scattered forces, expected his approach. He encamped on the banks of the Anio, at the distance of three miles from the city and he was soon informed, that the ground on which he had pitched his tent, was sold for an adequate price at a public auction;* and that a body of troops was dismissed by an opposite 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 destroyed the last of his enemies; and his speedy retreat confessed the invincible courage of the Romans. : From the time of the Punic war, the uninterrupted succession of the senators. senators had preserved the name and image of the republic; and (8) These comparisons were used by Cyneas, the counsellor of Pyrrhus, after his return from his embassy, in which he had diligently studied the discipline and manners of Rome. See Plutarch in Pyrrho, tom. ii. p. 459. (9) In the three census 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. Hist. 1. xxvii. 36. xxix. 37.), 270,213, 137,108, 214,000. The fall of the second, and the rise of the third, appears so enormous, that several critics, notwithstanding the unanimity of the MSS, have suspected some corruption of the text of Livy. (See Drakenborch ad xxvii. 36. and Beaufort, République Romaine, tom. i. p. 325.). They did not consider that the second census was taken only at Rome, and that the numbers were diminished, not only by the death, but likewise by the absence, of many soldiers. In the third census, Livy expressly affirms, that the legions were mustered by the care of particular commissaries. From the numbers on the list, we must always deduct one-twelfth above threescore, and incapable of bearing arms. See Population de la France, p. 72. (10) Livy considers these two incidents as the effects only of chance and courage. I suspect that they were both managed by the admirable policy of the senate. * Compare the remarkable transaction in Jeremiah, xxxii. 6. to 44, where the prophet purchases his uncle's estate at the approach of the Babylonian captivity, in his undoubting confi dence in the future restoration of the people. In the one case it is the triumph of religious faith, in the other of national pride.-M. the degenerate subjects of Honorius ambitiously derived their descent from the heroes who had repulsed the arms of Hannibal, and subdued the nations of the earth. The temporal honours which the devout Paula (11) inherited and despised, are carefully recapitulated by Jerom, the guide of her conscience, and the historian of her life. The genealogy of her father, Rogatus, which ascended as high as Agamemnon, might seem to betray a Grecian origin; but her mother, Blæsilla, numbered the Scipios, Æmilius Paulus, and the Gracchi, in the list of her ancestors; and Toxotius, the husband of Paula, deduced his royal lineage from Æneas, the father of the Julian line. The vanity of the rich, who desired to be noble, was gratified by these lofty pretensions. Encouraged by the applause of their parasites, they easily imposed on the credulity of the vulgar; and were countenanced, in some measure, by the custom of adopting the name of their patron, which had always prevailed among the freedmen and clients of illustrious families. Most of those families, however, attacked by so many causes of external violence or internal decay, were gradually extirpated: and it would be more reasonable to seek for a lineal descent of twenty generations, among the mountains of the Alps, or in the peaceful solitude of Apulia, than on the theatre of Rome, the seat of fortune, of danger, and of perpetual revolutions. Under each successive reign, and from every province of the empire, a crowd of hardy adventurers, rising to eminence by their talents or their vices, usurped the wealth, the honours, and the palaces of Rome; and oppressed, or protected, the poor and humble remains of consular families; who were ignorant, perhaps, of the glory of their ancestors (12). In the time of Jerom and Claudian, the senators unanimously The Anician yielded the pre-eminence to the Anician line; and a slight view of family. their history will serve to appreciate the rank and antiquity of the noble families, which contended only for the second place (13). During the five first ages of the city, the name of the Anicians was unknown; they appear to have derived their origin from Præneste; and the ambition of those new citizens was long satisfied with the (11) See Jerom, tom. i. p. 169, 170. ad Eustochium; he bestows on Paula the splendid titles of Gracchorum stirps, soboles Scipionum, Pauli hæres, cujus vocabulum trahit, Martiæ Papyriæ Matris Africani vera et germana propago. This particular description supposes a more solid title than the surname of Julius, which Toxotius shared with a thousand families of the western provinces. See the Index of Tacitus, of Gruter's Inscriptions, &c. (12) Tacitus (Annal. iii. 55.) affirms, that between the battle of Actium and the reign of Vespasian, the senate was gradually filled with new families from the Municipia and colonies of Italy. *(13) Nec quisquam Procerum tentet, licet ære vetusto Claud. in Prob. et Olybrii Coss. 18. Such a compliment paid to the obscure name of the Auchenii has amazed the critics; but they all agree, that whatever may be the true reading, the sense of Claudian can be applied only to the Anician family. Plebeian honours of tribunes of the people (14). One hundred and sixty-eight years before the Christian æra, the family was ennobled by the prætorship of Anicius, who gloriously terminated the Illyrian war by the conquest of the nation, and the captivity of their king (15). From the triumph of that general, three consulships, in distant periods, mark the succession of the Anician name (16). From the reign of Diocletian to the final extinction of the Western empire, that name shone with a lustre which was not eclipsed, in the public estimation, by the majesty of the Imperial purple (17). The several branches, to whom it was communicated, united, by marriage or inheritance, the wealth and titles of the Annian, the Petronian, and the Olybrian houses; and in each generation the number of consulships was multiplied by an hereditary claim (18). The Anician family excelled in faith and in riches: they were the first of the Roman senate who embraced Christianity; and it is probable that Anicius Julian, who was afterwards consul and præfect of the city, atoned for his attachment to the party of Maxentius, by ⚫ the readiness with which he accepted the religion of Constantine (19). Their ample patrimony was increased by the industry of Probus, the chief of the Anician family; who shared with Gratian the honours of the consulship, and exercised, four times, the high office of Prætorian præfect (20). His immense estates were scattered over the wide extent of the Roman world; and though the public might suspect, or disapprove, the methods, by which they had been acquired, the generosity and magnificence of that fortu (14) The earliest date in the annals of Pighius, is that of M. Anicius Gallus, Trib. Pl. A. U. C. 506. Another Tribune, Q. Anicius, A. U. C. 508. is distinguished by the epithet of Prænestinus. Livy (xlv. 43.) places the Anicii below the great families of Rome. (15) Livy, xliv. 30, 31. xlv. 3. 26. 43. He fairly appreciates the merit of Anicius, and justly observes, that his fame was clouded by the superior lustre of the Macedonian, which preceded the Illyrian, triumph. (16) The dates of the three consulships are, A. U: C. 593. 818. 967. the two last under the reigns of Nero and Caracalla. The second of these consuls distinguished himself only by his infamous flattery (Tacit. Annal. xv. 74.); but even the evidence of crimes, if they bear the stamp of greatness and antiquity, is admitted, without reluctance, to prove the genealogy of a noble house. (17) In the sixth century, the nobility of the Anician name is mentioned (Cassiodor. Variar. 1. x. Ep. 10. 12.) with singular respect by the minister of a Gothic king of Italy. (18) Fixus in omnes Cognatos procedit honos; quemcumque requiras (Claudian in Prob. et Olyb. Consulat. 12, &c.). The Annii, whose name seems to haye merged in the Anician, mark the Fasti with many consulships, from the time of Vespasian to the fourth century. (19) The title of first Christian senator may be justified by the authority of Prudentius (in Symmach. i. 553.) and the dislike of the Pagans to the Anician family. See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 183. v. p. 44. Baron. Annal. A. D. 312. No. 78. A. D. 322. No. 2. (20) Probus .... claritudine generis et potentia et opum magnitudine, cognitus Orbi Romano, per quem universum pœne patrimonia sparsa possedit, juste an secus non judicioli est nostri. Ammian. Marcellin. xxvii. 11. His children and widow erected for him a magnificent tomb in the Vatican, which was demolished in the time of Pope Nicholas V. to make room for the new church of St. Peter. Baronius, who laments the ruin of this Christian monument, has diligently preserved the inscriptions and basso-relievos. See Annal. Eccles. A. D. 395. No. 5-17. nate statesman deserved the gratitude of his clients, and the admiration of strangers (21). Such was the respect entertained for his memory, that the two sons of Probus, in their earliest youth, and at the request of the senate, were associated in the consular dignity: a memorable distinction, without example, in the annals of Rome (22). Roman nobles. "The marbles of the Anician palace," were used as a proverbial Wealth of the expression of opulence and splendour (23); but the nobles and senators of Rome aspired, in due gradation, to imitate that illustrious family. The accurate description of the city, which was composed in the Theodosian age, enumerates one thousand seven hundred and eighty houses, the residence of wealthy and honourable citizens (24). Many of these stately mansions might almost excuse the exaggeration of the poet; that Rome contained a multitude of palaces, and that each palace was equal to a eity: since it included within its own precincts, every thing which could be subservient either to use or luxury; markets, hippodromes, temples, fountains, baths, porticos, shady groves, and artificial aviaries (25). The historian Olympiodorus, who represents the state of Rome when it was besieged by the Goths (26), continues to observe, that several of the richest senators received from their estates an annual income of four thousand pounds of gold, above one hundred and sixty thousand pounds sterling; without computing the stated provision of corn and wine, which, had they been sold, might have equalled in value one-third of the money. Compared to this immoderate wealth, an ordinary revenue of a thousand or fifteen hundred pounds of gold might be considered as no more than adequate to the dignity of the senatorian rank, which required many expenses of a public and ostentatious kind. Several examples are recorded, in the age of Honorius, of vain and popular nobles, who celebrated the year of their prætorship, by a festival, which lasted seven days, and cost above one hundred thousand pounds sterling (27). The estates of (21) Two Persian satraps travelled to Milan and Rome, to hear St. Ambrose, and to see Probus. (Paulin. in Vit. Ambros.). Glaudian (in Cons. Probin. et Olybr. 30-60. ) seems at a loss how to express the glory of Probus. (22) See the poem which Claudian addressed to the two noble youths. (23) Secundinus, the Manichæan, ap. Baron. Annal. Eccles. A. D. 390, No. 34. (24) See Nardini, Roma Antica, p. 89. 498. 500. (25) Quid loquar inclusas inter laquearia sylvas; Claud. Rutil. Numatian, Itinerar. ver. 111. The poet lived at the time of the Gothic invasion. A moderate palace would have covered Cincinnatus's farm of four acres (Val. Max. iv, 4.). In laxitatem ruris excurrunt, says Seneca, Epist. 114. See a judicious note of Mr. Hume, Essays, vol. i. p. 562. last 8vo. edition.. (26) This curious account of Rome, in the reign of Honorius, is found in a fragment of the historian Olympiodorus, ap. Photium, p. 197. (27) The sons of Alypius, of Symmachus, and of Maximus, spent, during their respective prætorships, twelve, or twenty, or forty, centenaries (or, hundred weight of gold). See Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p.197. This popular estimation allows some latitude; but it is difficult to explain a law in the Theodosian Code . vi. leg. 5.), which fixes the expense of the first prætor at 25,000, of the second at 20,000, and of the third at 15,000 folles. The name of follis (see Mém. de l'Académie des Inscriptions, tom. xxviii. P. 727.) was equally applied to a purse of 125 pieces of silver, and to a small copper coin of the |