Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/315

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 295 have been the subject of minute and laborious disquisition ; but, as such inquiries would divert me too long from the design of the present work^ I shall produce an authentic state of Rome and its inhabitants^ which is more peculiarly applicable to the period of the Gothic invasion. Amminnus Marcellinus, who prudently chose the capital of the empire as the residence the best adapted to the historian of his own times, has mixed with the nan-ative of public events a lively representation of the scenes with which he was familiarly conversant. The judicious reader will not always approve the asperity of censure, the choice of circumstances, or the style of expression ; he will perhaps detect the latent prejudices and personal resentments which soured the temper of Ammianus himself; but he will surely observe, with philosophic curiosity, the interesting and original picture of the manners of Rome.^^ "The greatness of Rome " (such is the language of the historian) character of " was founded on the rare and almost incredible alliance of virtue nowes, by and of fortune. The long period of her infancy was employed in Marceiunu« a laborious struggle against the tribes of Italy, the neighbours and enemies of the rising city. In the strength and ardour of youth, she sustained the storms of war ; carried her victorious arms beyond the seas and the mountains; and brought home triumphal laurels from every country of the globe. At length, verging towards old age, and sometimes conquering by the terror only of her name, she sought the blessings of ease and tranquillity. The VENERABLE CITY, which had trampled on the necks of the fiercest nations, and established a system of laws, the perpetual guardians of justice and freedom, was content, like a wise and wealthy parent, to devolve on the Caesars, her favourite sons, the care of governing her ample patrimony. ^^ A secure and pi'ofound peace, such as had been once enjoyed in the reign of Numa, succeeded windows nor a shirt to his back. Under the lower empire, the use of hnen and glass became somewhat mo.c '-ommon. [Glass was used in the age of Augustus.] 35 It is incumbent on me to explain the liberties which I have taken with the text of Ammianus. i. I have melted down into one piece the sixth chapter of the fourteenth, and the fourth of the twenty-eighth, book. 2. I have given order and connexion to the confused mass of materials. 3. I have softened some extravagant hyperboles and pared away some superfluities of the original. 4. I have developed some observations which were insinuated rather than expressed. With these allowances, my version will be found, not literal indeed, but faithful and exact. ^' Claudian, who seems to have read the history of Ammianus, speaks of this great revolution in a much less courtly style : Postquam jura ferox in se communia Caesar Transtulit ; et lapsi mores ; desuetaque priscis Artibus in gremium. pacis servile recessi. De Bell. Gildonico, v. 49.