d till the middle of the eight century, Ravenna was
considered as the seat of government, and the capital of Italy. [63]

[Footnote 60: This account of Ravenna is drawn from Strabo, (l. v. p.
327,) Pliny, (iii. 20,) Stephen of Byzantium, (sub voce, p. 651, edit.
Berkel,) Claudian, (in vi. Cons. Honor. 494, &c.,) Sidonius Apollinaris,
(l. i. epist. 5, 8,) Jornandes, (de Reb. Get. c. 29,) Procopius (de
Bell, (lothic, l. i. c. i. p. 309, edit. Louvre,) and Cluverius, (Ital.
Antiq tom i. p. 301-307.) Yet I still want a local antiquarian and a
good topographical map.]

[Footnote 61: Martial (Epigram iii. 56, 57) plays on the trick of the
knave, who had sold him wine instead of water; but he seriously declares
that a cistern at Ravenna is more valuable than a vineyard. Sidonius
complains that the town is destitute of fountains and aqueducts;
and ranks the want of fresh water among the local evils, such as the
croaking of frogs, the stinging of gnats, &c.]

[Footnote 62: The fable of Theodore and Honoria, which Dryden has so
admirably transplanted from Boccaccio, (Giornata iii. novell. viii.,)
was acted in the wood of Chiassi, a corrupt word from Classis, the naval
station which, with the intermediate road, or suburb the Via Caesaris,
constituted the triple city of Ravenna.]

[Footnote 63: From the year 404, the dates of the Theodosian Code become
sedentary at Constantinople and Ravenna. See Godefroy's Chronology of
the Laws, tom. i. p. cxlviii., &c.]

The fears of Honorius were not without foundation, nor were his
precautions without effect. While Italy rejoiced in her deliverance from
the Goths, a furious tempest was excited among the nations of Germany,
who yielded to the irresistible impulse that appears to have been
gradually communicated from the eastern extremity of the continent of
Asia. The Chinese annals, as they have been interpreted by the earned
industry of the present age, may be usefully applied to reveal the
secret and remote causes of the fall of the Roman empire. The extensive
territory to the north of the great wall was possessed, after the flight
of the Huns, by the victorious Sienpi, who were sometimes broken into
independent tribes, and sometimes reunited under a supreme chief;
till at length, styling themselves Topa, or masters of the earth, they
acquired a more solid consistence, and a more formidable power. The Topa
soon compelled the pastoral nations of the eastern desert to acknowledge
the super