390

THE DECLINE AND FAIX

CHAP. LXXI.

Prospect of the ruins of Rome in the fifteenthcentury.—Four causes of decay and destruc-tion.—Example of the Coliseum. — Renova-tion of the city.—Conclusion of the whole work.

lxxl. IN the last days of pope Eugenius the fourth,

!-— two of his servants, the learned Poggius* and a

View and friend, ascended the Capitoline hill ; reposedof Poggius themselves among the ruins of columns and tern-capitoifne pies; and viewed from that commanding spotI'd. 1430 ^ ie w ^ e ai, d various prospect of desolation.*The place and the object gave ample scope formoralising on the vicissitudes of fortune, whichspares neither man nor the proudest of his works,which buries empires and cities in a commongrave; and it was agreed, that in proportion toher former greatness, the fall of Rome was themore awful and deplorable. “ Her primaeval“ state, such as she might appear in a remote“ age, when Evander entertained the stranger of“ Troy, c has been delineated by the fancy of

1 I have already (not. 50, 51, on cliap. 65) mentioned the age, cha-racter, and writings of Poggius; and particularly noticed the date ofthis elegant moral lecture on the varieties of fortune.

b Consedimus in ipsis Tarpeiae arcis minis, pone in gens porta: cu.jusdam, ut puto, templi, marmoreum limen, plurimasque passim con-fractas columnas, unde magna ex parte prospectus urbis patet (p. 5).

c Aineid viii, 97-369. This ancient picture, so artfully introduced,and so exquisitely finished, must have been highly interesting to aninhabitant of Rome ; and our early studies allow ns to sympathise inthe feelings of a Roman