the sword of those
formidable strangers. The stern Ricimer, who trampled on the ruins of
Italy, had exercised the power, without assuming the title, of a king;
and the patient Romans were insensibly prepared to acknowledge the
royalty of Odoacer and his Barbaric successors. The king of Italy was
not unworthy of the high station to which his valor and fortune
had exalted him: his savage manners were polished by the habits of
conversation; and he respected, though a conqueror and a Barbarian,
the institutions, and even the prejudices, of his subjects. After an
interval of seven years, Odoacer restored the consulship of the West.
For himself, he modestly, or proudly, declined an honor which was
still accepted by the emperors of the East; but the curule chair was
successively filled by eleven of the most illustrious senators; [133]
and the list is adorned by the respectable name of Basilius, whose
virtues claimed the friendship and grateful applause of Sidonius, his
client. [134] 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. [135] 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. [136] 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 lon