than for slaves, they fixed at a moderate price the redemption of their
indigent prisoners; and the ransom was often paid by the benevolence of
their friends, or the charity of strangers. [109] The captives, who were
regularly sold, either in open market, or by private contract, would
have legally regained their native freedom, which it was impossible for
a citizen to lose, or to alienate. [110] But as it was soon discovered
that the vindication of their liberty would endanger their lives; and
that the Goths, unless they were tempted to sell, might be provoked
to murder, their useless prisoners; the civil jurisprudence had been
already qualified by a wise regulation, that they should be obliged to
serve the moderate term of five years, till they had discharged by their
labor the price of their redemption. [111] The nations who invaded the
Roman empire, had driven before them, into Italy, whole troops of hungry
and affrighted provincials, less apprehensive of servitude than of
famine. The calamities of Rome and Italy dispersed the inhabitants to
the most lonely, the most secure, the most distant places of refuge.
While the Gothic cavalry spread terror and desolation along the
sea-coast of Campania and Tuscany, the little island of Igilium,
separated by a narrow channel from the Argentarian promontory, repulsed,
or eluded, their hostile attempts; and at so small a distance from Rome,
great numbers of citizens were securely concealed in the thick woods
of that sequestered spot. [112] The ample patrimonies, which many
senatorian families possessed in Africa, invited them, if they had time,
and prudence, to escape from the ruin of their country, to embrace
the shelter of that hospitable province. The most illustrious of these
fugitives was the noble and pious Proba, [113] the widow of the praefect
Petronius. After the death of her husband, the most powerful subject
of Rome, she had remained at the head of the Anician family, and
successively supplied, from her private fortune, the expense of the
consulships of her three sons. When the city was besieged and taken
by the Goths, Proba supported, with Christian resignation, the loss of
immense riches; embarked in a small vessel, from whence she beheld, at
sea, the flames of her burning palace, and fled with her daughter Laeta,
and her granddaughter, the celebrated virgin, Demetrias, to the coast of
Africa. The benevolent profusion with which the matron distributed
the fruits, or