an. Hobhouse (_Hist. Illust_., pp. 169-171) is
at pains to point out that the discovery of 1780 confirmed the
authenticity of an inscription to Lucius, son of Barbatus Scipio, which
had been brought to light in 1615, and rejected by the Roman antiquaries
as a forgery. He prints two of the inscriptions (_Handbook for Rome_,
pp. 278, 350, 351, ed. 1899).]

[458] [The sepulchres were rifled, says Hobhouse (_ibid_., p. 173),
"either to procure the necessary relics for churches dedicated to
Christian saints or martyrs, or" (a likelier hypothesis) "with the
expectation of finding the ornaments ... buried with the dead. The
sarcophagi were sometimes transported from their site and emptied for
the reception of purer ashes." He instances those of Innocent II. and
Clement XII., "which were certainly constructed for heathen tenants."]

[459] {390} [The reference is to the historical inundations of the
Tiber, of which a hundred and thirty-two have been recorded from the
foundation of the city down to December, 1870, when the river rose to
fifty-six feet--thirty feet above its normal level.]

[460] [The Goths besieged and sacked Rome under Alaric, A.D. 410, and
Totila, 546. Other barbarian invaders--Genseric, a Vandal, 455; Ricimer,
a Sueve, 472; Vitiges, a Dalmatian, 537; Arnulph, a Lombard, 756--may
come under the head of "Goth." "The Christian," "from motives of
fanaticism"--Theodosius, for instance, in 426; and Stilicho, who burned
the Sibylline books--despoiled, mutilated, and pulled down temples.
Subsequently, popes, too numerous to mention, laid violent hands on the
temples for purposes of repair, construction, and ornamentation of
Christian churches. More than once ancient structures were converted
into cannon-balls. There were, too, Christian invaders and sackers of
Rome: Robert Guiscard (Hofmann calls him Wiscardus), in 1004; Frederic
Barbarossa, in 1167; the Connetable de Bourbon, in 1527, may be
instanced. "Time and War" speak for themselves. For "Flood," _vide
supra_. As for "Fire," during the years 1082-84 the Emperor Henry IV.
burnt "a great part of the Leonine city;" and Guiscard "burnt the town
from the Flaminian gate to the Antonine column, and laid waste the
Esquiline to the Lateran; thence he set fire to the region from that
church to the Coliseum and the Capitol." Of earthquakes Byron says
nothing; but there were earthquakes, e.g. in 422 and 1349. Another foe,
a destroying angel who "wasteth at noonday," moder