of "fHE Roman: empire.

animate his troops:" he displayed, at least inthe pursuit, the spirit of an hero; but he forgotthe maxims of the ancient Romans, who ab-horred the triumphs of civil war. The con-queror ascended the capitol; deposited hiscrown and sceptre on the altar; and boastedwith some truth, that he had cut off an earwhich neither pope nor emperor had been ableto amputate . 11 His base and implacable revengedenied the honours of burial; and the bodies ofthe Colonna, which lie threatened to expose withthose of the vilest malefactors, were secretly in-terred by the holy virgins of their name and fa-mily. 5 ' The people sympathised in their grief,repented of their own fury, and detested the in-decent joy of Rienzi, who visited the spot whertethese illustrious victims had fallen, ft was on

“ Rienzi, in tl\e above mentioned letter, ascribes to Si. Martin thetribune, Boniface VIII , the enemy of Colonna, himself, and the Ro-man people, the glory of the day, which Villani likewise (1. 12, c 104)describes as a regular battle. Tbe disorderly skirmish, the flight ofthe Romans, and tile cowardice of Rienzi, are painted in the simpleand minute narrative of Foi tifioeea, or tbe anonymous citizen (1. ii,c. St-37.

* In describing the fail of tile Colonna, I speak only of the familyof Stephen the elder, who is often confounded by the P. do Cer^eanwith his son. That family was extinguished, blit the house has beenperpetuated in the collateral branches, of which I have not a very ac-curate knowledge. Circunispice (says Petrarch ) familias turn statuniColumniensium domos: solito pauciores habcat columnas. Quid adrem? modo fundamentum stabile, solidumquepermaneat

> The convent of St. Silvester was founded endowed, and protected,by the Colonna cardinals, for the daughters of the family who embraceda monastic life, and who, in the year 1318, were twelve in number.The others were allowed to marry with their kinsmen in the fourth de-gree, and the dispensation was justified by the small number and closealliances of the noble families of Rome (Meinoirts sur Petrarque, tom.i, p. 110, tom. ii, p. 401).

3-1 7

CHAP.

EXX.