eriously agitated, Whether those tender
victims, who had inflexibly refused their consent to the violation which
they sustained, had lost, by their misfortune, the glorious crown of
virginity. [103] Their were other losses indeed of a more substantial
kind, and more general concern. It cannot be presumed, that all the
Barbarians were at all times capable of perpetrating such amorous
outrages; and the want of youth, or beauty, or chastity, protected the
greatest part of the Roman women from the danger of a rape. But avarice
is an insatiate and universal passion; since the enjoyment of almost
every object that can afford pleasure to the different tastes and
tempers of mankind may be procured by the possession of wealth. In the
pillage of Rome, a just preference was given to gold and jewels, which
contain the greatest value in the smallest compass and weight: but,
after these portable riches had been removed by the more diligent
robbers, the palaces of Rome were rudely stripped of their splendid
and costly furniture. The sideboards of massy plate, and the variegated
wardrobes of silk and purple, were irregularly piled in the wagons, that
always followed the march of a Gothic army. The most exquisite works
of art were roughly handled, or wantonly destroyed; many a statue was
melted for the sake of the precious materials; and many a vase, in the
division of the spoil, was shivered into fragments by the stroke of a
battle-axe.

The acquisition of riches served only to stimulate the avarice of
the rapacious Barbarians, who proceeded, by threats, by blows, and
by tortures, to force from their prisoners the confession of hidden
treasure. [104] Visible splendor and expense were alleged as the proof
of a plentiful fortune; the appearance of poverty was imputed to a
parsimonious disposition; and the obstinacy of some misers, who endured
the most cruel torments before they would discover the secret object of
their affection, was fatal to many unhappy wretches, who expired under
the lash, for refusing to reveal their imaginary treasures. The edifices
of Rome, though the damage has been much exaggerated, received some
injury from the violence of the Goths. At their entrance through the
Salarian gate, they fired the adjacent houses to guide their march, and
to distract the attention of the citizens; the flames, which encountered
no obstacle in the disorder of the night, consumed many private and
public buildings; and the ruins of the p