290

THE DECLINE AND FALL

chap. Lombardy and Germany; they courted the alii-LX1X ' ance of the Romans; and Frederic the secondoffered in the capitol the great standard, the Ca-roccio of Milan.” After the extinction of thehouse of Swabia, they were banished beyond theAlps; and their last coronations betrayed theimpotence and poverty of the Teutonic Caesars. ptheRomans Under the reign of Adrian, when the empireagainst the extended from the Euphrates to the ocean, from

neighbour* 1

ing cities, mount Atlas to the Grampian hills, a fancifulhistorian q amused the Romans with the pictureof their infant wars. “ There was a time,’’ saysFlorus, “ when Tibur and Praeneste, our suiii-“ mer retreats, were the objects of hostile vows“ in the capitol, when we dreaded the shades of

* From the chronicles of Ricobaldo and Francis Pipin, Muratori(dissert, xxvi, tom. ii, p. 492) has transcribed this curious fact, withthe doggrel verses that accompanied the gift.

Ave decus orbis ave! victus tibi destinor, ave!

Cnrrus ab Augusto Frederico Caesare justo.

Vse Mediolanum 1 jam sentis spernere vauumImperii vires, proprias tibi lollere vires.

Ergo triumphorum urbs potes memor esse priorumQuos tibi mittebant leges qui bella gerebant.

Ne si dee tacere (I now use the Italian dissertations, tom. i, p. 444)che nell’ anno 1727, una copia desso Caroccio in marmo dianzi ignotosi sccprinel Campidoglio, presso alle carcere di quel lttogo, dove SistoV. l’avea falto linchiudere. Stava esso posto sopra quatto colonne dimarmo fmo lolla sequente inscriziouc 6rc. to the same purpose as theold inscription.

' The decline of the imperial arms and authority in Italy is relatedwith impartial learning in the Annals of Muratori (tom x, xi, xii);and the leader may compare his nariative with the Ilistoire des Alle-mands (tom. iii, iv), by Schmidt, who has deserved the esteem of hiscountrymen.

« Tibur nunc subinbanum, et aBstivac Praeneste delicias, nuncupatisin capitolio vntis petebantur. The whole passage of Floras (I. i,c. II) may be read with pleasme, and has deserved the praise of aman of genius ((Euvres de Montesquieu, tom. iii, p. 6S4, G35, quartoedition.