am inclined to depart from the
topography of that learned Roman.]

[Footnote 109: Nuper Anthemii et Ricimeris civili furore subversa est.
Gelasius in Epist. ad Andromach. apud Baron. A.D. 496, No. 42, Sigonius
(tom. i. l. xiv. de Occidentali Imperio, p. 542, 543,) and Muratori
(Annali d'Italia, tom. iv. p. 308, 309,) with the aid of a less
imperfect Ms. of the Historia Miscella., have illustrated this dark and
bloody transaction.]

[Footnote 110: Such had been the saeva ac deformis urbe tota facies,
when Rome was assaulted and stormed by the troops of Vespasian, (see
Tacit. Hist. iii. 82, 83;) and every cause of mischief had since
acquired much additional energy. The revolution of ages may bring round
the same calamities; but ages may revolve without producing a Tacitus to
describe them.]

[Footnote 111: See Ducange, Familiae Byzantin. p. 74, 75. Areobindus,
who appears to have married the niece of the emperor Justinian, was the
eighth descendant of the elder Theodosius.]

Chapter XXXVI: Total Extinction Of The Western Empire.--Part V.

Whilst the vacant throne of Italy was abandoned to lawless Barbarians,
[112] the election of a new colleague was seriously agitated in the
council of Leo. The empress Verina, studious to promote the greatness
of her own family, had married one of her nieces to Julius Nepos, who
succeeded his uncle Marcellinus in the sovereignty of Dalmatia, a more
solid possession than the title which he was persuaded to accept, of
Emperor of the West. But the measures of the Byzantine court were so
languid and irresolute, that many months elapsed after the death of
Anthemius, and even of Olybrius, before their destined successor could
show himself, with a respectable force, to his Italian subjects. During
that interval, Glycerius, an obscure soldier, was invested with the
purple by his patron Gundobald; but the Burgundian prince was unable,
or unwilling, to support his nomination by a civil war: the pursuits of
domestic ambition recalled him beyond the Alps, [113] and his client
was permitted to exchange the Roman sceptre for the bishopric of
Salona. After extinguishing such a competitor, the emperor Nepos was
acknowledged by the senate, by the Italians, and by the provincials of
Gaul; his moral virtues, and military talents, were loudly celebrated;
and those who derived any private benefit from his government,
announced, in prophetic strains, the restoration of the public felicity.
[114] The