OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

3 I l

coins of the first senators; the Conti preserve chap.the honour, without the estate, of the counts of LXIX -Sigma; and the Annibaldi must have been veryignorant, or very modest, if they had not de-scended from the Carthaginian hero/

But among, perhaps above, the peers and Tjje c°-princes of the city, I distinguish the rival housesof Colonna and Ursini, w hose private story is anessential part of the annals of modern Rome. I.

The name and arms of Colonna' have been thetheme of much doubtful etymology; nor havethe orators and antiquarians overlooked eitherTrajan’s pillar, or the columns of Hercules, orthe pillar of Christ’s flagellation, or the luminouscolumn that guided the Israelites in the desert.

Their first historical appearance in the yeareleven hundred and four, attests the power andantiquity, while it explains the simple meaning,

" The cardinal ot St. George, in his poetical, or rather metrical his-tory of the election and coronation of Boniface VIII (Muratori, Script.

Ital. tom. iii, p. i, p.641, &c.), describes the state and families of Romeat the coronation of Boniface VIII (a. d. 1295).

Interea titnlis redimiti sanguine etarmisIllustresque viri Romani a stirpe trahentesNomen in emeritos tantae virtntis honoresIntulerant se medios festumque colebantAurata fulgentes toga sociante catervl.

Ex ipsis devota domus praestantis ab l/rsoEcclcsice, vultumque gerens demissius attumFesta Columna jocis, necnon Sabellia mitis;

Stephanides senior, Ctmites , Anibalica proles,

Preefectusque urbis magnum sine viribus nomen.

(1. ii, c. 5, 100, p. 647, 648.)

The ancient statutes af Rome (1. iii, c. 59, p. 174, 175) distinguisheleven families of barons, who are obliged to swear in concilio com-inuni, before the senator, that they would not harbour or protect anymalefactors, outlaws, See .—a feeble security.

* It is pity that the Colonna themselves have not favoured the worldwith a complete and critical history of their illustrious house. I ad-here to Muratori (Dissert, xlii, tom. iii, p. 647, 648).