OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

“ the Arician groves, when we could triumph“ without a blush over the nameless villages of“ the Sabines and Latins, and even Corioli could“ afford a title not unworthy of a victorious ge-“ neral,” The pride of his contemporaries wasgratified by the contrast of the past with the pre-sent: they would have been humbled by theprospect of futurity; by the prediction, that al-ter a thousand years, Rome , despoiled of em-pire, and contracted to her primaeval limits,would renew the same hostilities, on the sameground which was then decorated with her villasand gardens. The adjacent territory on eitherside of theTyber was always claimed, and some-times possessed, as the patrimony of St. Peter;but the barons assumed a lawless independence,and the cities too faithfully copied the revolt anddiscord of the metropolis. In the twelfth andthirteenth centuries, the Romans incessantly la-boured to reduce or destroy the contumaciousvassals of the church and senate; and if theirheadstrong and selfish ambition was moderatedby the pope, he often encouraged their zeal bythe alliance of his spiritual arms. Their warfarewas that of the first consuls and dictators, whowere taken from the plough. They assembledin arms at the foot of the capilol; sallied fromthe gates, plundered or burnt the harvests oftheir neighbours, engaged in tumultuary conflict,and returned home after an expedition of fifteenor twenty days. Their sieges were tedious andunskilful: in the use of victory, they indulgedthe meaner passions of jealousy and revenge;

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CHAP.

LXJX.