promontory of Misenum, gradually
assumed the strength and appellation of a strong castle, the obscure
retreat of the last emperor of the West. About twenty years after that
great revolution, it was converted into a church and monastery, to
receive the bones of St. Severinus. They securely reposed, amidst the
the broken trophies of Cimbric and Armenian victories,till the beginning
of the tenth century; when the fortifications, which might afford a
dangerous shelter to the Saracens, were demolished by the people of
Naples. [132]

[Footnote 125: The precise year in which the Western empire was
extinguished, is not positively ascertained. The vulgar era of A.D. 476
appears to have the sanction of authentic chronicles. But the two dates
assigned by Jornandes (c. 46, p. 680) would delay that great event to
the year 479; and though M. de Buat has overlooked his evidence, he
produces (tom. viii. p. 261-288) many collateral circumstances in
support of the same opinion.]

[Footnote 126: See his medals in Ducange, (Fam. Byzantin. p. 81,)
Priscus, (Excerpt. Legat. p. 56,) Maffei, (Osservazioni Letterarie,
tom. ii p. 314.) We may allege a famous and similar case. The meanest
subjects of the Roman empire assumed the illustrious name of Patricius,
which, by the conversion of Ireland has been communicated to a whole
nation.]

[Footnote 127: Ingrediens autem Ravennam deposuit Augustulum de regno,
cujus infantiam misertus concessit ei sanguinem; et quia pulcher
erat, tamen donavit ei reditum sex millia solidos, et misit eum intra
Campaniam cum parentibus suis libere vivere. Anonym. Vales. p. 716.
Jornandes says, (c 46, p. 680,) in Lucullano Campaniae castello exilii
poena damnavit.]

[Footnote 128: See the eloquent Declamation of Seneca, (Epist. lxxxvi.)
The philosopher might have recollected, that all luxury is relative;
and that the elder Scipio, whose manners were polished by study
and conversation, was himself accused of that vice by his ruder
contemporaries, (Livy, xxix. 19.)]

[Footnote 129: Sylla, in the language of a soldier, praised his peritia
castrametandi, (Plin. Hist. Natur. xviii. 7.) Phaedrus, who makes its
shady walks (loeta viridia) the scene of an insipid fable, (ii. 5,) has
thus described the situation:--

Caesar Tiberius quum petens Neapolim,
In Misenensem villam venissit suam;
Quae monte summo posita Luculli manu
Prospectat Siculum et prospicit Tuscum mare.]

[Footnote 130: From seven m