IV

PREFACE.

to the power of a Gothic conqueror, was com-pleted about the beginning of the sixth century.

II. The second period of the Decline and Fallof Rome, maybe supposed to commence with thereign of J ustinian, who by his laws, as well asby his victories, restored a transient splendourto the Eastern Empire. It will comprehend theinvasion of Italy by the Lombards ; the con-quest of the Asiatic and African provinces bythe Arabs , who embraced the religion of Ma-homet ; the revolt of the Roman people againstthe feeble princes of Constantinople ; and theelevation of Charlemagne , who, in the year eighthundred, established the second, or German em-pire of the West.

III. The last and longest of these periods in-cludes about six centuries and a half; from therevival of the Western Empire , till the taking ofConstantinople by the Turks, and the extinctionof a degenerate race of princes, who continuedto assume the titles of Caesar and Augustus , af-ter their dominions were contracted to the limitsof a single city; in which the language, as wellas manners, of the ancient Romans, had beenlong since forgotten. The writer who shouldundertake to relate the events of this period,would find himself obliged to enter into the ge-neral history of the crusades, as far as they con-tributed to the ruin of the Greek empire; and hewould scarcely be able to restrain his curiosityfrom making some inquiry into the state of thecity of Rome during the darkness and confusionof the middle ages.

As I have ventured, perhaps too hastily, to