Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/310

 290 THE DECLINE AND FALL carefully recapitulated by Jerom, the guide of her conscience and the historian of her life. The genealocjy of her father, Rogatus, which ascended as high as Agamemnon, might seem to betray a Grecian origin ; but her mother, Blaesilla, numbered the Scipios, ^5imilius Paul us and the Gracchi, in the list of her ancestors ; and Toxotius, the husband of Paula, deduced his royal lineage from /Eneas, the father of the Julian line. The vanity of the rich who desired to be noble was gratified by these lofty preten- sions. Encouraged by the applause of their parasites, they easily imposed on the credulity of the vulgar, and were counte- nanced 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, how- ever, attacked by so many causes of external violence or internal decay, were gradually extirpated ; and it would be more reason- able 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 eveiy 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.^^ The Anician In the time of Jerom and Claudian, the senators unanimously yielded the pre eminence to the Anician line ; and a slight view of their history will serve to appreciate the rank and antiquity of the noble families which contended only for the second place.^'* During the first five ages of the city the name of the Anicians was unknown ; they appear to have derived their origin from Praeneste ; and the ambition of those new citizens was long the surname of Julius, which Toxotius shared with a thousand families of the Western provinces. See the Inde. of Tacitus, of Gruter's Inscriptions, &.c. IS 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. 14 Nee quisquam Procerum tentet (licet sere vetusto Floreat et claro cingatur Roma senatu) Se jactare parem ; sed prima sede relict^ Aucheniis, de jure licet certare secundo. 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 readmg, the sense of Claudian can be applied only to the Anician family. family