THE DECLINE AND FALL

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chap. This melancholy picture was drawn above,,t***,» nine hundred years after the fall of the Westernempire, and even of the Gothic kingdom of Italy.Gradual A long period of distress and anarchy, iu whichRome. of empire, and arts, and riches, had migrated fromthe banks of the Tyber, was incapable of restor-ing or adorning the city; and as all that is hu-man must retrograde if it do not advance, everysuccessive age must have hastened the ruin ofthe works of antiquity. To measure the pro-gress of decay, and to ascertain, at each era, thestate of each edifice, would be an endless anduseless labour; and I shall content myself withtwo observations, which will introduce a shortinquiry into the general causes and effects. 1.Two hundred years before the eloquent com-plaint of Poggius, an anonymous writer com-posed a description of Rome / His ignorancemay repeat the same objects under strange andfabulous names. Yet this barbarous topogra-pher had eyes and ears, he could observe thevisible remains, he could listen to the traditionof the people, and he distinctly enumeratesseven theatres, eleven baths, twelve arches, andeighteen palaces, of which many had disappear-ed before the time of Poggius. It is apparent,

f Liber de Mirabilibus Romse, ex Registro Nicolai Cardinalis deArragoni& in Bibiiotheci St. Isidori Armario IV. No. G9. This trea-tise, with some short but pertinent notes, has been published by Mont-faucon (Diarium Italicum, p. 283 301), who thus delivers his own cri-tical opinion : Scriptor xiii m cireitir saeculi, ut ibidem notaturj anti-quariae rei impcritus et, ut ab illo aevo, migis et anilibus fabelhs refer*tus, sed, quia monumenta qua? iis temporibus Romse supererant promodulo recenset, non parum inde lucis mutuabitur qui Romanis anti-quitatibus indagandis cpcram navabit (p. 283).