Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/279

OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE 259 madness of the people soon subsided ; they respected the memory of Telemachus, who had deserved the honours of martyrdom ; and they submitted, without a murmur, to the laws of Honorius, which abolished for ever the human sacrifices of the amphitheatre. The citizens who adhered to the manners of their ancestors, might perhaps insinuate that the last remains of a martial spirit were preserved in this school of fortitude, which accustomed the Romans to the sight of blood and to the con- tempt of death : a vain and cruel prejudice, so nobly confuted by the valour of ancient Greece and of modern Europe. "^^ The recent danger to which the person of the emperor had g°°^"* been exposed in the defenceless palace of Milan urged him to residence at 1 • 1 1 /• .> T 1 1 I Kavenna. seek a retreat m some niaccessible fortress or Italy, where he ad. 404 might securely remain while the open country was covered by a deluge of Barbarians. On the coast of the Hadriatic, about ten or twelve miles from the most southern of the seven mouths of the Po, the Thessalians had founded the ancient colony of Ravenna,*^- which they afterwards resigned to the natives of Umbria. Augustus, who had observed the opportunity of the place, prepared, at the distance of three miles from the old town, a capacious harbour for the reception of two hundred and fifly ships of war. This naval establishment, which included the arsenals and magazines, the barracks of the troops, and the houses of the artificers, derived its oi'igin and name from the permanent station of the Roman fleet ; the intermediate space was soon filled with buildings and inhabitants, and the three extensive and populous quarters of Ravenna gradually con- tributed to form one of the most important cities of Italy. The principal canal of Augustus poui'ed a copious stream of the waters of the Po through the midst of the city to the entrance of the harbour ; the same waters were introduced into the profound ditches that encompassed the walls ; they were dis- tributed by a thousand subordinate canals into every part of the city, which they divided into a variety of small islands ; the ^ Crudele gladiatorum spectaculum et inhumanum nonnuUis viderisolet.et haud scio an ita sit, ut nunc fit. Cic. Tusculan. ii. 17. He faintly censures the abuse and warmly defends the use of these sports ; ocuHs nulla poterat esse fortior contra dolorem et mortem disciplina. Seneca (epist. vii. ) shews the feelings of a man. 6- This account of Ravenna is drawn from Strabo (1. v. p. 327 [c. i. § 7]), Pliny (iii. 20), Stephen of Byzantium (sub voce ^Vd^^wa^ p. 651, edit. Berkel), Claudian (in vi. Cons. Honor. 494, &c.), Sidonius Apollinaris (1. i. epist. v. 8), Jornandes (de Reb. Get. c. 29), Procopius (de Bell. Gothic. 1. i. c. i, p. 309, edit. Louvre), and Cluverius (Ital. Antiq. torn. i. p. 301-307). Yet I still want a local anti- quarian, and a good topographical map. [C. Ricci, Ravenna e i suoi dintorni.]