in
keeping with our subject. "That unfortunate city gradually experienced
the distress of scarcity, and at length the horrid calamities of famine.
The daily allowance of three pounds of bread was reduced to one-half, to
one-third, to nothing.... The poorer citizens, who were unable to
purchase the necessaries of life, solicited the precarious charity of
the rich; and for a while the public misery was alleviated by the
humanity of Lasta, the widow of the emperor Gratian, who had fixed her
residence at Rome, and consecrated to the use of the indigent the
princely revenue which she annually received from the grateful
successors of her husband. But these private and temporary donatives
were insufficient to appease the hunger of a numerous people; and the
progress of famine invaded the marble palaces of the senators
themselves. The persons of both sexes, who had been educated in the
enjoyment of ease and luxury, discovered how little is requisite to
supply the demands of nature; and lavished their unavailing treasures of
gold and silver, to obtain the coarse and scanty sustenance which they
would formerly have rejected with disdain."

The outbreak of a pestilence soon added to the horrors of famine. Rome
again suffered the loss of thousands of her citizens through disease. If
the extent of this calamity was less than during the Great Plague, a
century and a half before, mourning was nevertheless almost universal.
Gibbon says, "many thousands of the inhabitants of Rome expired in their
houses or in the streets, for want of sustenance." But the almost
unending funeral procession of the former period was now lacking, as the
public sepulchres without the walls were within the circle of the
invading horde.

[Illustration 4: _FAMINE AND PESTILENCE After the painting by A.
Hirschl.

The outbreak of a pestilence soon added to the horrors of
famine. Rome again suffered the loss of thousands of her
citizens through disease. If the extent of this calamity was
less than during the Great Plague, a century and a half before,
mourning was nevertheless almost universal. Gibbon says, "many
thousands of the inhabitants of Rome expired in their houses or
in the streets, for want of sustenance." But the almost
unending funeral procession of the former period was now
lacking, as the public sepulchres without the walls were within
the circle of the invading horde._]

There was no relief. When ambassadors pleaded with