Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/765

 ROMA. (Procop. lb. c. 22 ; Marcell. Cliron. p. 54.) Totila tLieatcned to destroy the finest works of antiquity, and even issued a decree that Rome should be tui'ned into a pasture. Yet he was not deficient in magna- nimity and clemency, and was diverted from these designs by the remonstrances of Belisarius, who •warned him not to sully his fame by such wanton barbarity. Upon Totila's marching into Lucania, Belisarius, at the head of 1000 horse, cut his way through the Goths who had been left to guard the city. He repaired with rude and hetero- geneous materials the walls which had been de- molished; whilst the gates, which could not be so suddenly restored, were guarded by his bravest sol- diers. Totila returned to Rome by forced marches, but was thrice repulsed in three general assaults. Belisarius, however, being commanded by Justinian to proceed into Lucania, left a garrison of 3000 of liis best troops at Rome under the command of Diogenes. The city was again betrayed by some Isaurians in 549, who opened the gate of St. Paul to Totila and his Goths. Totila, who seems now to have considered himself as in confirmed possession of Italy, no longer exhibited any desire to destroy the edifices of Rome, which he regarded as the capital of his kingdom, and he even exhibited the equestrian games in the Circus. (Procop. B. G. iv. 22.) But in 552 he was defeated and slain by the eunuch Narses in the battle of Tagina. Narses then marched to Rome, and once more sent its keys to Justinian, during whose reign the city had been no fewer than five times taken and recovered. (/&. 26—35; Theoph. Chron. vol. i. p. 354, ed. Bonn.) Home wider the Popes. — Towards the close of the sixth century Rome had touched the lowest ])oint of degradation. The Roman citizens lived in continual fear of the attacks of the Lombards ; the inhabitants of the surrounding country, who no longer dared to devote themselves to the pur- suits of agriculture, took refuge within the walls; and the Campagna of Rome became a desert, exhaling infectious vapours. The indigence and the celibacy of a great part of the inhabitants produced a rapid decrease of population, though their scanty numbers did not protect them from famine. The edifices of Rome fell into decay ; and it is commonly believed that Pope Gregory the Great, who filled the papal chair from 590 to 604, purposely defaced the temples and mutilated the statues, — a charge, however, which rests on doubtful evidence, and which has been strenuously repelled by Gregory's biographer Platina (ap. Bayle, Gregoii-e ler.). Bar- gaeus, in his epistle on the subject (in Graevius, Thesaur.Ant. vol. iv.), says that theCircus Masimus, the baths and theatres, were certainly overthrown designedly, and that this is particularly evident in the baths of Caracalla and Diocletian (p. 1885). He attributes this, as a merit, to Gregory and one or two subsequent popes, and assigns as a reason that the baths were nothing but schools of hcen- tiousness (p. 1889, seq.). It seems more probable, however, that the destruction of the baths arose from the failure of the aqueducts — a circumstance which would have rendered them useless — and from the expense of keeping them up. Bargaeus himself attributes the ruin of the aqueducts to the latter cause (p. 1891); but they must also have suffered vciy severely in the Gothic wars. Hence perhaps the huge foundations of the thermae, having be- come altogether useless, began to be used as stone quarries, a circumstance which would account for EOMA. 745 the appearance of wilful damage. That ruin had made great progress at Rome before the time of Gregory, is manifest from some passages in his own works in which he deplores it. Thus in one of his homilies he says: " Qualis remanserit Roma, con- spicimus. Immensis doloribus multiphciter attrita, desolatione civium, impressione hostium, freqventia ruinarum." And again : " Quid autem ista de hominibus dicimus, cum ruinis crebrescentibus ipsa quoque destrui aedificia videmus?" (T/om. 18 in Ezech. ap. Donatum, de Urhe Roma, i. 28, sub fin.) He would hardly have written thus had he himself been the cause of these ruins. The charge probably acquired strength from Gregory's avowed antipathy to classical literature. Whilst the dominion of Italy was divided between the Lombards and the exarchs of Ravenna, Rome was the head of a duchy of almost the same size as her ancient territory, extending from Viterbo to Terracina, and from Nami to the mouth of the Tiber. The fratricide Constans U. is said to have entertained the idea of restoring the seat of empire to Rome (a. d. 662). {nht. Misc. ap. Muratori, Scrip. R. I. iii. pt. i. p. 137.) But the Lombard power was too strong; and, after a visit of a few days to the ancient capital, he abandoned it for ever, after pillaging the churches and carrying off the bronze roof of the Pantheon. (Schlosser, Gesch. d. bilder-sturmenden Kaiser, p. 80.) In the eighth century the Romans revived the style of the Re- public, but the Popes had become their chief ma- gistrates. During this period Rome was constantly harassed and suffered many sieges by the Lombards under Luitprand, Astolphus, and other kings. In 846 the various measure of its calamities was filled up by an attack of the Saracens — as if the former mistress of the world was destined to be the butt of wandering barbarians from all quarters of the globe. The disciples of Mahomet pillaged the church of St. Peter, as well as that of St. Paul outside the Porta Ostiensis, but did not succeed in entering the city itself. They were repulsed by the vigilance and energy of pope Leo IV., who repaired the an- cient walls, restored fifteen towers which had been overthrown, and enclosed the quarter of the Vatican ; on which in 852 he bestowed his blessing and the title of Citta Leonina, or Leonine city (now the Borgo di S. Pietro). (Anastasius, V. Leon. IV.) In the period between 1081 and 1084 Rome was thrice fruitlessly besieged by the emperor Henry IV., who, however, by means of corruption at last suc- ceeded in gaining possession of it; but the ruins of the Septizonium, defended by the nephew of Pope Gregory VII., resisted all the attacks of Henry's forces. Gregory shut himself up in the castle of S. Angelo, and invoked the assistance of his vassal, Robert Guiscard. Henry lied at the approach of tlie warlike Xorman ; but Rome suffered more at the hands of its friends than it had ever before done from the assaults of its enemies. A tumult was excited by the imperial adherents, and the Saracens in Robert's army, who despised both parties, seized the oppor- tunity for violence and plunder. The city was fired ; a great part of the buildings on the Campus Martius, as well as the spacious district from the Lateran to the Colosseum, was consumed, and the latter portion has never since been restored. (Malaterra, iii. c. 37 ; Donatus, iv. 8.) But Rome has suflercd more injury from her own citizens than from the hands of foreigners ; and its ruin must be chiefly imputed to the civil disseusions