Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/286

264 THE DECLINE AND FALL spirit was fled ; and their new independence was disgraced by the tumultuous conflict of licentiousness and oppression. The want of laws could only be supplied by the influence of religion, and their foreign and domestic counsels were moderated by the authority of the bishop. His alms, his sermons, his correspond- ence with the kings and prelates of the West, his recent ser- vices, their gratitude and oath, accustomed the Romans to consider him as the first magistrate or prince of the city. The Christian humility of the popes v/as not offended by the name of Domhms, or Lord ; and their face and inscription are still apparent on the most ancient coins.^*' Their temporal dominion is now confirmed by the reverence of a thousand years ; and their noblest title is the free choice of a people whom they had redeemed from slavery. Rome at- In the Quarrels of ancient Greece, the holy people of Elis tacked bv the ^ ^ J sr r Lombards, enjoved a perpetual peace, under the protection of Jupiter, and A D 730-752 •' *' i^ i i " r Jr ' in the exercise of the Olympic games."*" Happy would it have been for the Romans, if a similar privilege had guarded the patrimony of St. Peter from the calamities of war ; if the Christians who visited the holy threshold would have sheathed their swords in the presence of the apostle and his successor. But this mystic circle could have been traced only by the wand of a legislator and a sage ; this pacific system was incompatible with the zeal and ambition of the popes ; the Romans were not addicted, like the inhabitants of Elis, to the innocent and placid labours of agriculture ; and the barbarians of Italy, though softened by the climate, were far below the Grecian states in the institutions of public and private life. A memor- able example of repentance and piety was exhibited by Liutprand, king of the Lombards. In arms, at the gate of the Vatican, [A.D. 730] the conqueror listened to the voice of Gregory the Second, "'^ withdrew his troops, resigned his conquests, respectfully visited in Script. Ital. torn. iii. pars ii. p. i6o. The names of senatus and senator were never totally extinct (Dissert. Chorograph. p. 216, 217) ; but in the middle ages they signified little more than nobiles optimates, &-c. (Ducange, Gloss. Latin.). ■i'>See Muratori, Antiquit. Italise Medii /Evi, tom. ii. Dissertat. xxvii. p. 548. On one of these coins we read Hadrianus Papa (A.D. 772) ; on the reverse, Vict. DDNN. with the word CONOB, which the Pere Joubert (Science des M^dailles, tom. ii. p. 42) explains by COA'^stantinopoli Officina B {secunda). [OB = 72. Cp. above, vol. 2, p. 195, n. 189.] ■J^See West's Dissertation on the Olympic Games (Pindar, vol. ii. p. 32-36, edition in i2mo), and the judicious reflections of Polybius (tom. i. 1. iv. p. 466, edit. Gronov. [c. 73]). ^The speech of Gregory to the Lombard is finely composed by Sigonius (de Regno Italia;, 1. iii. Opera, torn. ii. p. 173), who imitates the licence and the spirit of Sallust or Livy. [Liutprand had formed a league with the exarch Eutychius against the Pope.]