Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/344

 324 THE DECLINE AND FALL filled with dead bodies, which remained without burial during the general consternation. The despair of the citizens was sometimes converted into fury ; and, whenever the Barbarians were provoked by opposition, they extended the promiscuous massacre to the feeble, the iiniocent, and the helpless. The private revenge of forty thousand slaves was exercised without pity or remorse ; and the ignominious lashes, which they had formerly received, were washed away in the blood of the guilty, or obnoxious, families. The matrons and virgins of Rome were exposed to injuries more dreadful in the apprehension of chastity than death itself; and the ecclesiastical historian has selected an example of female virtue, for the admiration of future ages.^*^** A Roman lady of singular beauty and orthodox foith had excited the impatient desires of a young Goth, who, according to the sagacious remark of Sozomen, was attached to the Arian heresy. Exasperated by her obstinate resistance, he drew his sword, and, with the anger of a lover, slightly wounded her neck. The bleeding heroine still continued to brave his resentment and to repel his love, till the ravisher desisted from his unavailing efforts, respectfully conducted her to the sanctuary of the Vatican, and gave six pieces of gold to the guards of the church, on condition that they should restore her inviolate to the arms of her husband. Such instances of courage and generosity were not extremely common. The brutal soldiers satisfied their sensual appetites, without consulting either the inclination or the duties of their female captives ; and a nice question of casuistry was seriously agitated, Whether those tender victims who had inflexibly refused their consent to the violation which they sustained had lost, by their misfortune, the glorious crown of virginity.i*^" There wei*e other losses indeed of a more sub- 106 Sozomen, 1. ix. c. lo. Augustin (de Civitat. Dei, 1. i. c. 17) intimates that some virgins or matrons actually killed themselves to escape violation ; and, though he admires their spirit, he is obliged by his theology to condemn their rash presump- tion. Perhaps the good bishop of Hippo was too easy in the belief, as well as too rigid in the censure, of this act of female heroism. The twenty maidens (if they ever existed) who threw themselves into the Elbe, when Magdeburg was taken by storm, have been multiplied to the number of twelve hundred. See Harte's History of Gustavus Adolphus, vol. i. p. 308. 107 See August, de Civitat. Dei, 1. i. c. 16, 18. He treats the subject with re- markable accuracy ; and. after admitting that there cannot be any crime where there is no consent, he adds, Sed quia non solum quod ad dolorem, verum etiam quod ad libidinem, pertinet in corpore alieno perpetr.ari potest ; quicquid tale factum fuerit, etsi, retentam constantissimo animo pudicitiam n^-in excutit, pudorem tamen incutit, ne credatur factum cum mentis etiam voluntate, quod fieri fortasse sine carnis aliqua voluptate non potuit. In c. 18 he makes some curious distinc- tions between moral and physical virginity.