d by the respectable name of Basilius, whose virtues
claimed the friendship and grateful applause of Sidonius, his client.
The laws of the emperors were strictly enforced, and the civil
administration of Italy was still exercised by the Praetorian praefect and
his subordinate officers. Odoacer devolved on the Roman magistrates
the odious and oppressive task of collecting the public revenue; but
he reserved for himself the merit of seasonable and popular indulgence.
Like the rest of the Barbarians, he had been instructed in the Arian
heresy; but he revered the monastic and episcopal characters; and the
silence of the Catholics attest the toleration which they enjoyed. The
peace of the city required the interposition of his praefect Basilius in
the choice of a Roman pontiff: the decree which restrained the clergy
from alienating their lands was ultimately designed for the benefit
of the people, whose devotions would have been taxed to repair the
dilapidations of the church. Italy was protected by the arms of its
conqueror; and its frontiers were respected by the Barbarians of Gaul
and Germany, who had so long insulted the feeble race of Theodosius.
Odoacer passed the Adriatic, to chastise the assassins of the emperor
Nepos, and to acquire the maritime province of Dalmatia. He passed the
Alps, to rescue the remains of Noricum from Fava, or Feletheus, king
of the Rugians, who held his residence beyond the Danube. The king
was vanquished in battle, and led away prisoner; a numerous colony of
captives and subjects was transplanted into Italy; and Rome, after
a long period of defeat and disgrace, might claim the triumph of her
Barbarian master.

Notwithstanding the prudence and success of Odoacer, his kingdom
exhibited the sad prospect of misery and desolation. Since the age of
Tiberius, the decay of agriculture had been felt in Italy; and it was a
just subject of complaint, that the life of the Roman people depended on
the accidents of the winds and waves. In the division and the decline of
the empire, the tributary harvests of Egypt and Africa were withdrawn;
the numbers of the inhabitants continually diminished with the means of
subsistence; and the country was exhausted by the irretrievable losses
of war, famine, and pestilence. St. Ambrose has deplored the ruin of
a populous district, which had been once adorned with the flourishing
cities of Bologna, Modena, Regium, and Placentia. Pope Gelasius was a
subject of Odoacer;