292

THE DECLINE AND FALL

CHAP-

LXIX.

and instead of adopting the valour, they tram-pled on the misfortunes of their adversaries.The captives, in their shirts, with a rope roundtheir necks, solicited their pardon: the fortifica-tions, and even the buildings of the rival cities,were demolished, and the inhabitants were scat-tered in the adjacent villages. It was thus thatthe seats of the cardinal bishops, Porto, Ostia ,Albanum, Tusculum, Prseneste, and Tibur orTivoli, were successively overthrown by the fe-rocious hostility of the Romans/ Of these, 1Porto and Ostia , the two keys of theTyber, arestill vacant and desolate: the marshy and un-wholesome banks are peopled with herds ofbuffalos, and the river is lost to every purpose ofnavigation and trade. The hills, which afford ashady retirement from the autumnal heats, haveagain smiled with the blessings of peace: Fre-scati has arisen near the ruins of Tusculum:Tibur or Tivoli has resumed the honour of acity,' and the meaner towns of Albano and Pa-lestrina are decorated with the villas of the car-dinals and princes of Rome . In the work of de-

' Nc a feritate Romanorum sicut fiierant Ostienses, Portuenses,Ttisculancnses, Albanenses, Labicenses, et nuper Tiburtini, destrue-rcntur (Matthew Paris , p. 757). These events are marked in the An-nals and Index (the eighteenth volume) ofMuratori.

' For the state or ruin of these suburban cities, the banks of theTyber,&c. see the lively picture of the P. Labat (Voyage eu Espagneet <n Italie ), who had not long resided in the neighbourhood ofHome; and the more accurate description of which P. Eschinard(Roma, 1750, in octavo) has added to the topographical map of Cin-golani.

1 Labat (tom. iii, p. 233) mentions a recent decree of the Roman go-vernment, which has severely mortified the pride and poverty ofTivoli: in civitate Tiburtina non vivitur civiliter.