Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/325

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 303 their power and pretensions, were founded on the numbers and spirit of these rising communities. i^i Each city filled the measure of her diocese or district ; the jurisdiction of the counts and bishops, of the marquises and counts, was banished from the land ; and the proudest nobles were persuaded or compelled to desert their solitary castles, and to embrace the more honourable character of freemen and magistrates. The legislative authority was inherent in the general assembly ; but the executive powers were entrusted to three consuls, annu- ally chosen from the three orders of ca plains, vahassors,^'-''- and commons, into which the republic was divided. Under the protection of equal law, the labours of agriculture and com- merce were gradually revived ; but the martial spirit of the Lombards was nourished by the presence of danger ; and, as often as the bell was rung or the standard ^^-^ erected, the gates of the city poured forth a numerous and intrepid band, whose zeal in their own cause was soon guided by the use and dis- cipline of arms. At the foot of these popular ramparts, the pride of the Qesars was overthrown ; and the invisible genius of liberty prevailed over the two Frederics, the greatest princes of the middle age : the first, superior perhaps in military prowess ; the second, who undoubtedly excelled in the softer accomplishments of peace and learning. Ambitious of restoring the splendour of the purple, Frederic Frederic the the First invaded the republics of Lombardy, with the arts of a ii52-ii9o' statesman, the valour of a soldier, and the cruelty of a tyrant. The recent discovery of the Pandects had renewed a science most favourable to despotism ; and his venal advocates pro- claimed the emperor the absolute master of the lives and properties of his subjects. His royal prerogatives, in a less odious sense, were acknowledged in the diet of Roncaglia ; and the revenue of Italy was fixed at thirty thousand pounds of silver,!^* which were multiplied to an indefinite demand by the 1"! Olho bishop of Frisingen has left an important passage on the Italian cities (1. ii. c. 13, in Script. Ital. torn. vi. p. 707-710) ; and the rise, progress, and government of these repubhcs are perfectly illustrated by Muratori (Antiquitat. Ital. Medii JE, torn. iv. dissert, xlv.-l. ii. p. 1-675. Annal. tom. viii. ix. .. ). 1*2 p'or these titles, see Selden (Titles of Honour, vol. iii. part i. p. 488), Ducange (Gloss. Latin, tom. ii. p. 140, tom. vi. p. 776), and St. Marc (Abr6g6 Chronologique, tom. ii. p. 719). ^^*The Lombards invented and used the carocium, a standard planted on a car or waggon, drawn by a team of o.xen (Ducange, tom. ii. p. 194, 195 ; Muratori, Anticjuitat. tom. ii. Diss, xxxvi. p. 489-493). ^^Gunther Ligurinus, 1. viii. 584, et seq. apud Schmidt, tom. iii. p. 399.