from the Theodosian Code, (see Godefroy ad l. ii. tit.
xxxiii. tom. i. p. 230-289,) that they were permitted to take six
percent., or one half of the legal interest; and, what is more singular,
this permission was granted to the young senators.]

[Footnote 32: Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 50. He states the silver at
only 4380 pounds, which is increased by Livy (xxx. 45) to 100,023: the
former seems too little for an opulent city, the latter too much for any
private sideboard.]

[Footnote 33: The learned Arbuthnot (Tables of Ancient Coins, &c. p.
153) has observed with humor, and I believe with truth, that Augustus
had neither glass to his windows, nor a shirt to his back. Under the
lower empire, the use of linen and glass became somewhat more common. *
Note: The discovery of glass in such common use at Pompeii, spoils the
argument of Arbuthnot. See Sir W. Gell. Pompeiana, 2d ser. p. 98.--M.]

[Footnote 34: It is incumbent on me to explain the liberties which I
have taken with the text of Ammianus. 1. I have melted down into
one piece the sixth chapter of the fourteenth and the fourth of the
twenty-eighth book. 2. I have given order and connection to the confused
mass of materials. 3. I have softened some extravagant hyperbeles, and
pared away some superfluities of the original. 4. I have developed some
observations which were insinuated rather than expressed. With these
allowances, my version will be found, not literal indeed, but faithful
and exact.]

"The greatness of Rome"--such is the language of the historian--"was
founded on the rare, and almost incredible, alliance of virtue and of
fortune. The long period of her infancy was employed in a laborious
struggle against the tribes of Italy, the neighbors and enemies of
the rising city. In the strength and ardor of youth, she sustained
the storms of war; carried her victorious arms beyond the seas and the
mountains; and brought home triumphal laurels from every country of the
globe. At length, verging towards old age, and sometimes conquering
by the terror only of her name, she sought the blessings of ease and
tranquillity. The venerable city, which had trampled on the necks of
the fiercest nations, and established a system of laws, the perpetual
guardians of justice and freedom, was content, like a wise and wealthy
parent, to devolve on the Caesars, her favorite sons, the care of
governing her ample patrimony. [35] A secure and profound peace, such as
had been once