Chapter XXXVI: Total Extinction Of The Western Empire.—Part V

Whilst the vacant throne of Italy was abandoned to lawless
Barbarians, 112 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, 113 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. 114 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; 115 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. 116

112 (return) [ 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.]

113 (return) [ 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.]

114 (return) [ 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.]

115 (return) [ 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.]

116 (return) [ 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.]

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; 117 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, 118 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. 119 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.

117 (return) [ 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.]

118 (return) [ 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]

119 (return) [ 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.]

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. 1191 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. 120 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.” 121
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. 122 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, 123 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.

1191 (return) [ 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.]

120 (return) [ 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.]

121 (return) [ 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.]

122 (return) [ 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.]

123 (return) [ 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.]

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. 124

124 (return) [ 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.]

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. 125 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. 126 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. 127 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. 128 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. 129 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. 130 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. 131 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. 132

125 (return) [ 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.]

126 (return) [ 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.]

127 (return) [ 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.]

128 (return) [ 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.)]

129 (return) [ 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:—

Caesar Tiberius quum petens Neapolim, In Misenensem villam
venissit suam; Quae monte summo posita Luculli manu Prospectat
Siculum et prospicit Tuscum mare.]

130 (return) [ 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.]

131 (return) [ 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.]

132 (return) [ 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.]

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; 133 and the list is adorned by the
respectable name of Basilius, whose virtues claimed the
friendship and grateful applause of Sidonius, his client. 134 The
laws of the emperors were strictly enforced, and the civil
administration of Italy was still exercised by the Prætorian
præfect 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. 135 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 præfect 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. 136 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. 137

133 (return) [ 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.]

134 (return) [ 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.]

135 (return) [ 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 præfect, (Ennodius in Vit St. Epiphan., in Sirmond,
Oper. tom. i. p. 1670-1672.)]

136 (return) [ 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.]

137 (return) [ 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]

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.
138 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, 139 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. 140
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. 141 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. 1411 One third of those ample
estates, to which the ruin of Italy is originally imputed, 142
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. 143 The distress of Italy 1431 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.

138 (return) [ Tacit. Annal. iii. 53. The Recherches sur
l’Administration des Terres chez les Romains (p. 351-361) clearly
state the progress of internal decay.]

139 (return) [ 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]

140 (return) [ See the xxxixth epistle of St. Ambrose, as it is
quoted by Muratori, sopra le Antichita Italiane, tom. i. Dissert.
xxi. p. 354.]

141 (return) [ Aemilia, Tuscia, ceteraeque provinciae in quibus
hominum propenullus exsistit. Gelasius, Epist. ad Andromachum,
ap. Baronium, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 496, No. 36.]

1411 (return) [ 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.]

142 (return) [ Verumque confitentibus, latifundia perdidere
Italiam. Plin. Hist. Natur. xviii. 7.]

143 (return) [ 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]

1431 (return) [ Compare, on the desolation and change of property
in Italy, Manno des Ost-Gothischen Reiches, Part ii. p. 73, et
seq.—M.]