Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/322

Alberic. A.D. 932 300 THE DECLINE AND FALL parity, their ambition was diverted by more alluring objects ; and in the decay and division of the empire they were oppressed Kevoitof bv the defence of their hereditary provinces. Amidst the ruins of Italy, the famous Marozia invited one of the usurpers to assume the character of her third husband ; and Hugh, king of Burgundy, was introduced by her faction into the mole of Hadrian or castle of St. Angelo, which commands the principal bridge and entrance of Rome. Her son by the first marriage, Alberic, was compelled to attend at the nuptial banquet ; but his reluctant and ungrateful service was chastised with a blow by his new father. The blow was productive of a revolution. " Romans," exclaimed the youth, "once you were the masters of the world, and these Burgundians the most abject of your slaves. They now reign, these voracious and brutal savages, and my injury is the commencement of your sei*vitude." ^^^ The alarum-bell rung to arms in every quarter of the city ; the Burgundians retreated with haste and shame ; Marozia was imprisoned by her victorious son ; and his brother, pope John XI., was reduced to the exercise of his spiritual functions. With the title of prince, Alberic possessed above twenty years the government of Rome, and he is said to have gratified the popular prejudice by restoring the office, or at least the title, of consuls and tribunes. His son and heir Octavian assumed, with the pontificate, the name of John XII. ; like his pre- decessor, he was provoked by the Lombard princes to seek a deliverer for the church and republic ; and the services of Otho were rewarded with the Imperial dignity. But the Saxon was imperious, the Romans were impatient, the festival of the coro- nation was disturbed by the secret conflict of prerogative and freedom, and Otho commanded his sword-bearer not to stir from his person, lest he should be assaulted and murdered at the foot of the altar. i^ Before he repassed the Alps, the emperor chastised the revolt of the people and the ingratitude of John XII. The pope was degraded in a synod; the pra^fect was mounted on an ass, whipped through the city, and cast into a dungeon ; thirteen of the most guilty were hanged, others wert mutilated or banished ; and this severe process was justi- 1'"' Romanoruni aliquando seivi, scilicet Burgundiones, Romaiiis imperent? . . . Romance urbis dignitas ad tantam est stultitiani ducta, ut meretricum etiam imperio pareat? (Liutprand [Antap.]. 1. iii. c 12 [c. 45], p. 450). Sigonius (1. vi. p. 400) positively affirms the renovation of the consulship ; but in the old writers .Xlbericus is more frequently styled princeps Romanorum. "*i Ditmar, p. 354, apud Schmidt, torn. iii. p. 439.