unusual rains; and the inundation, surpassing all former measure of time and place, destroyed all the buildings that were situate below the hills of Rome. According to the variety of ground, the same mischief was produced by different means; and the edifices were either swept away by the sudden impulse, or dissolved and undermined by the long continuance of the flood.* Under the reign of Augustus, the same calamity was renewed; the lawless river overturned the palaces and temples on its banks;t and, after the labours of the emperor in cleansing and widening the bed that was encumbered with ruins, the vigilance of his successors was exercised by similar dangers and designs. The project of diverting into new channels the Tiber itself, or some of the dependent streams, was long opposed by * A. U. C. 507, repentina subversio ipsius Romæ prævenit triumphum Romanorum diversæ ignium aquarumque clades pene absumsere urbem. Nam Tiberis insolitis auctus imbribus et ultra opinionem, vel diuturnitate vel magnitudine redundans, omnia Romæ ædificia in plano posita delevit. Diversæ qualitates locorum ad unam convenere perniciem quoniam et quæ segnior inundatio tenuit madefacta dissolvit, et quæ cursus torrentis invenit impulsa dejecit. (Orosius, Hist. 1. 4, c. 11, p. 244, edit. Havercamp.) Yet we may observe, that it is the plan and study of the Christian apologist to magnify the calamities of the Pagan world. [It must also be borne in mind that the event of which Orosius has given such a minute description happened six hundred and fifty years before his time. On the other hand, Horace had been an eye-witness of the desolation, for which his authority is quoted in the next note; but the "pater et rubente Dextera sacras jaculatus arces," implies the destructive effects of lightning on the same occasion. We must, however, repeat here our protest against the strictly literal interpretation so often given to the words of an ancient poet. The "ire dejectum" of Horace seems to mean that the overthrow of the temple of Vesta and the "royal monuments," was rather threatened than accomplished; and no more an actual fact, than was the repetition of a flood like Deucalion's.-ED.] Vidimus flavum Tiberim, retortis (Horat. Carm. 1, 2.) If the palace of Numa, and temple of Vesta, were thrown down in Horace's time, what was consumed of those buildings by Nero's fire could hardly deserve the epithets of vetustissima or incorrupta. Ad coercendas inundationes alveum Tiberis laxavit, ac repurgavit, VOL. VII. 2 a superstition and local interests;* nor did the use compensate the toil and cost of the tardy and imperfect execution. The servitude of rivers is the noblest and most important victory which man has obtained over the licentiousness of nature;† and if such were the ravages of the Tiber under a firm and active government, what could oppose, or who can enumerate, the injuries of the city, after the fall of the Western empire? A remedy was at length produced by the evil itself; the accumulation of rubbish, and the earth that has been washed down from the hills, is supposed to have elevated the plain of Rome, fourteen or fifteen feet perhaps, above the ancient level; and the modern city is less accessible to the attacks of the river.§ completum olim ruderibus, et ædificiorum prolapsionibus coarctatum. (Suetonius in Augusto, c. 30.) *Tacitus (Annal. 1. 79) reports the petitions of the different towns of Italy to the senate against the measure; and we may applaud the progress of reason. On a similar occasion, local interests would undoubtedly be consulted; but an English House of Commons would reject with contempt the arguments of superstition, "that nature had assigned to the rivers their proper course," &c. See the Epoques de la Nature of the eloquent and philosophic Buffon. His picture of Guyana in South America is that of a new and savage land, in which the waters are abandoned to themselves, without being regulated by human industry (p. 212. 561, quarto edition.) [The dominion of man over every department of nature, the use which spirit makes of matter, is extended more and more every day. Neither Gibbon nor Buffon could anticipate the mighty bridges by which wide rivers and arms of the sea are now crossed, or the tunnels by which mountains are perforated. The means by which these are accomplished, did not enter into the wildest dreams of those days.-ED.] In his Travels in Italy, Mr. Addison (his works, vol. ii. p. 98, Baskerville's edition) has observed this curious and unquestionable fact. [The inundations of rivers, especially in the districts where they approach towards their havens, are certainly less frequent and damaging than they were of old. This is much more intelligibly accounted for by the subsidence of the sea, than by the elevation of the land. Parts of Rome may have been raised by rubbish and alluvial soil; but how a coating of earth to the thickness of fourteen or fifteen feet can have been spread over the whole plain, is by no means evident. It is much easier to conceive how the waters of the Tiber may have been drawn off into a gradually falling basin. The present level of Rome is between fifty and sixty feet above the sea. (Malte-Brun and Balbi, p. 583). When rivers overflow their banks now, it is more generally from the sudden descent of inland torrents, than from the "retortis littore undis."-ED.] § Yet in modern times, the Tiber has sometimes damaged the city II. The crowd of writers of every nation, who impute the destruction of the Roman monuments to the Goths and the Christians, have neglected to inquire how far they were animated by a hostile principle, and how far they possessed the means and the leisure to satiate their enmity. In the preceding volumes of this history, I have described the triumph of barbarism and religion; and I can only resume, in a few words, their real or imaginary connection with the ruin of ancient Rome. Our fancy may create, or adopt, a pleasing romance, that the Goths and Vandals sallied from Scandinavia, ardent to avenge the flight of Odin,* to break the chains, and to chastise the oppressors, of mankind; that they wished to burn the records of classic literature, and to found their national architecture on the broken members of the Tuscan and Corinthian orders. But in simple truth the Northern conquerors were neither sufficiently savage, nor sufficiently refined, to entertain such aspiring ideas of destruction and revenge. The shepherds of Scythia and Germany had been educated in the armies of the empire, whose discipline they acquired, and whose weakness they invaded; with the familiar use of the Latin tongue, they had learned to reverence the name and titles of Rome, and though incapable of emulating, they were more inclined to admire, than to abolish, the arts and studies of a brighter period. In the transient possession of a rich and unresisting capital, the soldiers of Alaric and Genseric were stimulated by the passions of a victorious army; amidst the wanton indulgence of lust or cruelty, portable wealth was the object of their search; nor could they derive either pride or pleasure from the unprofitable reflec and in the years 1530, 1557, 1598, the annals of Muratori record three mischievous and memorable inundations (tom. xiv. p. 268. 429; tom. xv. p. 99, &c.) * I take this opportunity of declaring, that in the course of twelve years I have forgotten, or renounced, the flight of Odin from Azoph to Sweden, which I never very seriously believed (vol. i. p. 305). The Goths are apparently Germans; but all beyond Cæsar and Tacitus is darkness or fable in the antiquities of Germany. [Gibbon has here very candidly acknowledged his error; and this is a virtual recantation of many more that have been corrected in various notes. But instead of reversing the pedigree, he ought to have said the Germans are Goths. Not only is all darkness and fable before Cæsar and Tacitus, but on this question even they are by no means infallible guides.—ED.] tion, that they had battered to the ground the works of the consuls and Cæsars. Their moments were indeed precious; the Goths evacuated Rome on the sixth,* the Vandals on the fifteenth, day;† and, though it be far more difficult to build than to destroy, their hasty assault would have made a slight impression on the solid piles of antiquity. We may remember, that both Alaric and Genseric affected to spare the buildings of the city; that they subsisted in strength and beauty under the auspicious government of Theodoric; and that the momentary resentment of Totila § was disarmed by his own temper and the advice of his friends and enemies. From these innocent Barbarians, the reproach may be transferred to the Catholics of Rome. The statues, altars, and houses, of the demons were an abomination in their eyes; and in the absolute command of the city, they might labour with zeal and perseverance to erase the ido latry of their ancestors. The demolition of the temples in the East affords to them an example of conduct, and to us an argument of belief; and it is probable, that a portion of guilt or merit may be imputed with justice to the Roman proselytes. Yet their abhorrence was confined to the monuments of heathen superstition; and the civil structures that were dedicated to the business or pleasure of society, might be preserved without injury or scandal. The change of religion was accomplished, not by a popular tumult, but by the decrees of the emperors, of the senate, and of time. Of the Christian hierarchy, the bishops of Rome were commonly the most prudent and least fanatic; nor can any positive charge be opposed to the meritorious act of saving and converting the majestic structure of the Pantheon.** * History of the Decline, &c. vol. iii. p. 449. T vol. iv. p. 47. vol. iv. p. 266-268. vol. iii. p. 283-287. ** Eodem tempore petiit a Phocate principe templum quod appellatur Pantheon, in quo fecit ecclesiam Sanctæ Mariæ semper virginis, et omnium martyrum; in quâ ecclesiæ princeps multa bona obtulit. (Anastasius vel potius Liber Pontificalis in Bonifacio IV. in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. p. 1, p. 135.) According to the anonymous writer in Montfaucon, the Pantheon had been vowed by Agrippa to Cybele and Neptune, and was dedicated by Boniface IV. III. The value of any object that supplies the wants or pleasures of mankind is compounded of its substance and its form, of the materials and the manufacture. Its price must depend on the number of persons by whom it may be acquired and used; on the extent of the market; and consequently on the ease or difficulty of remote exportation, according to the nature of the commodity, its local situation, and the temporary circumstances of the world. The Barbarian conquerors of Rome usurped in a moment the toil and treasure of successive ages; but, except the luxuries of immediate consumption, they must view without desire all that could not be removed from the city, in the Gothic wagons, or the fleet of the Vandals.* Gold and silver were the first objects of their avarice; as in every country, and in the smallest compass, they represent the most ample command of the industry and possessions of mankind. A vase or a statue of those precious metals might tempt the vanity of some Barbarian chief; but the grosser multitude, regardless of the form, was tenacious only of the substance; and the melted ingots might be readily divided and stamped into the current coin of the empire. The less active, or less fortunate, robbers were reduced to the baser plunder of brass, lead, iron, and copper; whatever had escaped the Goths and Vandals was pillaged by the Greek tyrants; and the emperor Constans, in his rapacious visit, stripped the bronze tiles from the roof of the Pantheon. The edifices of Rome might be considered as a vast and various mine; the first labour of extracting the materials was already per on the calends of November, to the Virgin, quæ est mater omnium sanctorum (p. 297, 298). [The edict of Majorian (ch. 36, vol. iv. p. 63) is an unquestionable evidence against the actual destroyers of Roman edifices.-ED.] * Flaminius Vacca (apud Montfaucon, p. 155, 156. His Memoir is likewise printed p. 21, at the end of the Roma Antica of Nardini); and several Romans, doctrinâ graves, were persuaded that the Goths buried their treasures at Rome, and bequeathed the secret marks filiis nepotibusque. He relates some anecdotes to prove that, in his own time, these places were visited and rifled by the Transalpine pilgrims, the heirs of the Gothic conquerors. Omnia quæ erant in ære ad ornatum civitatis deposuit: sed et ecclesiam B. Mariæ ad martyres quæ de tegulis æreis cooperta discooperuit. (Anast. in Vitalian. p. 141.) The base and sacrilegious Greek had not even the poor pretence of plundering a heathen temple; the Pantheon was already a Catholic church. [See vol. v. p. 292.—ED.] |