220 A. D. 472. 



few years it was taken pofleflion of by Odoacer, who finally extinguish- 

 ed the weftern Roman empire, which had for fo many ages given laws 

 to a great portion of mankind, Odoacer, in contemptuous mercy, per- 

 niitted Romulus, who was the lafl nominally-Roman emperor of Rome, 

 to retire to a delightful and magnificent villa in Campania, and even 

 allowed him an annual penfion of fix thoufand pieces of gold. Italy 

 (for the other provinces were all by this time alienated from it) now 

 became fubjed to a fovereign who fcorned to affume the name of Ro- 

 man or emperor, or to permit an ufelefs and expenfive phantom to con- 

 vey his commands to his fubjeds, as the mafl;ers of the nominal empe- 

 rors for fome time had done. 



4^2 — By the defeat and death of Odoacer the fovereignty of Italy 

 was transferred to Theodoric, the chief or king of the Oftro-Goths. 

 Under the peaceable reign of this benevolent conqueror Italy again be- 

 gan to flourifli. A fleet of a thoufand armed boats was eftabliflied to 

 protect the coafl;s from the piratical invafions of the African Vandals 

 and the eaftern Romans. Large tradls of marfliy land, which had be- 

 come ufelefs by negled:, were reclaimed and cultivated ; the exertions 

 of protefted induftry reftored the country to its natural fertility ; and 

 Rome no longer depended for fubfiftence upon Carthage or Alexandria. 

 As a proof of the abundance of the harveflis, we are told that wheat was 

 fold at the rate of five fliillings andfixpence of fiierling money a quarter, 

 and wine at lefs than three farthings a gallon. \^Frag?>i. Valefian.^ By the 

 munificent attention of Theodoric, an ample fund in money and mate- 

 rials, under the care of a profefled archited and proper guardians, was 

 affigned for the prefervation of the public buildings and other monu- 

 ments of antient art*, and new buildings for ufe or embellifhment were 

 ereded. The Italians (or Romans, as they chofe to call themfelves) re- 

 covered from the defolation of the preceding ages. They ■ acquired 

 wealth, and they were not afraid to enjoy it. Italy, which in its mofl: 

 favage ftate before the age of Homer had furniflied fome commodities 

 which attracted the vifits of the indufl:rious Phoenicians, was again re- 

 forted to by foreign merchants ; and feveral fairs were appointed for 

 exchanging its redundant produce with the merchandize of other coun- 

 tries. About this time (a'. 500) many rich Jews, attra(fl:ed by the flatter- 

 ing profpect of commerce in a country apparently rifing into profperity, 

 and where religious perfecution was prohibited by the wifdom and the 

 power of the fovereign, eflabliflied themfelves in the principal cities of 

 Italy ; and it is very probable 'that the mofl: of the trade of it pafl"ed 

 through their hands. But it was a trade more refembling the firft ef- 

 forts of an infant colony, or of a nation jufl emerging from barbarifm, 

 than what might have been expected from a great country, which by 



* Apd yet the dcftruftion of the monuments of antient art is generally, but moft ignorantly, im- 

 puted to the Goths. 4 



