alace of Sallust [105] remained,
in the age of Justinian, a stately monument of the Gothic conflagration.
[106] Yet a contemporary historian has observed, that fire could
scarcely consume the enormous beams of solid brass, and that the
strength of man was insufficient to subvert the foundations of
ancient structures. Some truth may possibly be concealed in his devout
assertion, that the wrath of Heaven supplied the imperfections of
hostile rage; and that the proud Forum of Rome, decorated with the
statues of so many gods and heroes, was levelled in the dust by the
stroke of lightning. [107]

[Footnote 101: Jerom (tom. i. p. 121, ad Principiam) has applied to the
sack of Rome all the strong expressions of Virgil:--

Quis cladem illius noctis, quis funera fando,
Explicet, &c.

Procopius (l. i. c. 2) positively affirms that great numbers were slain
by the Goths. Augustin (de Civ. Dei, l. i. c. 12, 13) offers Christian
comfort for the death of those whose bodies (multa corpora) had remained
(in tanta strage) unburied. Baronius, from the different writings of the
Fathers, has thrown some light on the sack of Rome. Annal. Eccles. A.D.
410, No. 16-34.]

[Footnote 102: Sozomen. l. ix. c. 10. Augustin (de Civitat. Dei, l.
i. c. 17) intimates, that some virgins or matrons actually killed
themselves to escape violation; and though he admires their spirit, he
is obliged, by his theology, to condemn their rash presumption. Perhaps
the good bishop of Hippo was too easy in the belief, as well as too
rigid in the censure, of this act of female heroism. The twenty
maidens (if they ever existed) who threw themselves into the Elbe, when
Magdeburgh was taken by storm, have been multiplied to the number of
twelve hundred. See Harte's History of Gustavus Adolphus, vol. i. p.
308.]

[Footnote 103: See Augustin de Civitat. Dei, l. i. c. 16, 18. He treats
the subject with remarkable accuracy: and after admitting that there
cannot be any crime where there is no consent, he adds, Sed quia non
solum quod ad dolorem, verum etiam quod ad libidinem, pertinet, in
corpore alieno pepetrari potest; quicquid tale factum fuerit, etsi
retentam constantissimo animo pudicitiam non excutit, pudorem tamen
incutit, ne credatur factum cum mentis etiam voluntate, quod fieri
fortasse sine carnis aliqua voluptate non potuit. In c. 18 he makes some
curious distinctions between moral and physical virginity.]

[Footnote 104: Marcella, a Roman lady, eq