Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/493

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 471 consisted in the plenty of salt, which they extracted from the sea ; and the exchange of that commodity, so essential to human life, was substituted in the neighbouring markets to the currency of gold and silver. A people, whose habitations might be doubtfully assigned to the earth or water, soon be- came alike familiar with the two elements ; and the demands of avarice succeeded to those of necessity. The islanders, who, from Grado to Chiozza, were intimately connected with each other, penetrated into the heart of Italy by the secui-e, though laborious, navigation of the rivers and inland canals. Their vessels, which Avere continually increasing in size and number, visited all the harbours of the Gulf ; and the marriage, which Venice annually celebrates with the Hadriatic, was contracted in her early infancy. The epistle of Cassiodorius, the Praetorian praefect, is addressed to the maritime tribunes ; and he exhorts them, in a mild tone of authority, to animate the zeal of their countrymen for the public service, which required their assist- ance to transport the magazines of wine and oil from the pro- vince of Istria to the royal city of Ravenna. The ambiguous office of these magistrates is explained by the tradition that, in the twelve principal islands, twelve tribunes, or judges, were created by an annual and popular election. The existence of the Venetian republic under the Gothic kingdom of Italy is attested by the same authentic record, which annihilates their lofty claim of original and perpetual independence.^^ The Italians, who had long since renounced the exercise of arms, were sur- Attiia gives 1 n r > 11 1 n r ■ ^ T 1 Peace to the prised, atter lorty years peace, by the approach ot a lormidable Romans Bai'barian, whom they abhorred, as the enemy of their religion as well as of their republic. Amidst the general consternation, Aetius alone was incapable of fear ; but it was impossible that he should achieve, alone and unassisted, any military exploits worthy of his former renown. The Barbarians who had de- fended Gaul refused to march to the relief of Italy ; and the succours promised by the Eastern emperor were distant and doubtful. Since Aetius, at the head of his domestic troops, still maintained the field, and harassed or retarded the march of Attiia, he never shewed himself more truly great than at the time when his conduct was blamed by an ignorant and 59 See, in the second volume of Amelot de la Houssaie, Histoire du Gouverne- ment de V^nise, a translation of the famous Squittinio. This book, which has been exalted far above its merits, is stained in every line with the disingenuous malevolence of party ; but the principal evidence, genuine and apocryphal, is brought together, and the reader will easily choose the fair medium.