o were fed by the hand of their master, perished or
disappeared, as soon as his liberality was suppressed; the decline of
the arts reduced the industrious mechanic to idleness and want; and the
senators, who might support with patience the ruin of their country,
bewailed their private loss of wealth and luxury. [1411] One third of
those ample estates, to which the ruin of Italy is originally imputed,
[142] was extorted for the use of the conquerors. Injuries were
aggravated by insults; the sense of actual sufferings was imbittered by
the fear of more dreadful evils; and as new lands were allotted to
the new swarms of Barbarians, each senator was apprehensive lest the
arbitrary surveyors should approach his favorite villa, or his most
profitable farm. The least unfortunate were those who submitted without
a murmur to the power which it was impossible to resist. Since they
desired to live, they owed some gratitude to the tyrant who had spared
their lives; and since he was the absolute master of their fortunes, the
portion which he left must be accepted as his pure and voluntary gift.
[143] The distress of Italy [1431] was mitigated by the prudence
and humanity of Odoacer, who had bound himself, as the price of
his elevation, to satisfy the demands of a licentious and turbulent
multitude. The kings of the Barbarians were frequently resisted,
deposed, or murdered, by their native subjects, and the various bands
of Italian mercenaries, who associated under the standard of an elective
general, claimed a larger privilege of freedom and rapine. A monarchy
destitute of national union, and hereditary right, hastened to its
dissolution. After a reign of fourteen years, Odoacer was oppressed by
the superior genius of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths; a hero alike
excellent in the arts of war and of government, who restored an age
of peace and prosperity, and whose name still excites and deserves the
attention of mankind.

[Footnote 138: Tacit. Annal. iii. 53. The Recherches sur
l'Administration des Terres chez les Romains (p. 351-361) clearly state
the progress of internal decay.]

[Footnote 139: A famine, which afflicted Italy at the time of the
irruption of Odoacer, king of the Heruli, is eloquently described, in
prose and verse, by a French poet, (Les Mois, tom. ii. p. 174, 205,
edit. in 12 mo.) I am ignorant from whence he derives his information;
but I am well assured that he relates some facts incompatible with the
truth o