were ignorant, perhaps, of the glory of their ancestors.
[12]

[Footnote 11: See Jerom, tom. i. p. 169, 170, ad Eustochium; he bestows
on Paula the splendid titles of Gracchorum stirps, soboles Scipionum,
Pauli haeres, cujus vocabulum trahit, Martiae Papyriae Matris Africani
vera et germana propago. This particular description supposes a more
solid title than the surname of Julius, which Toxotius shared with a
thousand families of the western provinces. See the Index of Tacitus, of
Gruter's Inscriptions, &c.]

[Footnote 12: Tacitus (Annal. iii. 55) affirms, that between the battle
of Actium and the reign of Vespasian, the senate was gradually filled
with new families from the Municipia and colonies of Italy.]

In the time of Jerom and Claudian, the senators unanimously yielded the
preeminence to the Anician line; and a slight view of their history will
serve to appreciate the rank and antiquity of the noble families, which
contended only for the second place. [13] During the five first ages
of the city, the name of the Anicians was unknown; they appear to have
derived their origin from Praeneste; and the ambition of those new
citizens was long satisfied with the Plebeian honors of tribunes of
the people. [14] One hundred and sixty-eight years before the Christian
aera, the family was ennobled by the Praetorship of Anicius, who
gloriously terminated the Illyrian war, by the conquest of the nation,
and the captivity of their king. [15] From the triumph of that general,
three consulships, in distant periods, mark the succession of the
Anician name. [16] From the reign of Diocletian to the final extinction
of the Western empire, that name shone with a lustre which was not
eclipsed, in the public estimation, by the majesty of the Imperial
purple. [17] The several branches, to whom it was communicated, united,
by marriage or inheritance, the wealth and titles of the Annian, the
Petronian, and the Olybrian houses; and in each generation the number
of consulships was multiplied by an hereditary claim. [18] The Anician
family excelled in faith and in riches: they were the first of the
Roman senate who embraced Christianity; and it is probable that Anicius
Julian, who was afterwards consul and praefect of the city, atoned for
his attachment to the party of Maxentius, by the readiness with which
he accepted the religion of Constantine. [19] Their ample patrimony was
increased by the industry of Probus, the chief of the Anician