0) pretends, without any color of
truth, or reason, that Alaric fled on the report that the armies of the
Eastern empire were in full march to attack him.]

[Footnote 120: Ausonius de Claris Urbibus, p. 233, edit. Toll. The
luxury of Capua had formerly surpassed that of Sybaris itself. See
Athenaeus Deipnosophist. l. xii. p. 528, edit. Casaubon.]

[Footnote 121: Forty-eight years before the foundation of Rome, (about
800 before the Christian aera,) the Tuscans built Capua and Nola, at the
distance of twenty-three miles from each other; but the latter of the
two cities never emerged from a state of mediocrity.]

[Footnote 122: Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 1-46) has compiled,
with his usual diligence, all that relates to the life and writings of
Paulinus, whose retreat is celebrated by his own pen, and by the praises
of St. Ambrose, St. Jerom, St. Augustin, Sulpicius Severus, &c., his
Christian friends and contemporaries.]

[Footnote 123: See the affectionate letters of Ausonius (epist.
xix.--xxv. p. 650-698, edit. Toll.) to his colleague, his friend, and
his disciple, Paulinus. The religion of Ausonius is still a problem,
(see Mem. de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xv. p. 123-138.) I
believe that it was such in his own time, and, consequently, that in his
heart he was a Pagan.]

[Footnote 124: The humble Paulinus once presumed to say, that he
believed St. Faelix did love him; at least, as a master loves his little
dog.]

[Footnote 125: See Jornandes, de Reb. Get. c. 30, p. 653. Philostorgius,
l. xii. c. 3. Augustin. de Civ. Dei, l.i.c. 10. Baronius, Annal. Eccles.
A.D. 410, No. 45, 46.]

[Footnote 126: The platanus, or plane-tree, was a favorite of the
ancients, by whom it was propagated, for the sake of shade, from the
East to Gaul. Plin. Hist. Natur. xii. 3, 4, 5. He mentions several of
an enormous size; one in the Imperial villa, at Velitrae, which Caligula
called his nest, as the branches were capable of holding a large table,
the proper attendants, and the emperor himself, whom Pliny quaintly
styles pars umbroe; an expression which might, with equal reason, be
applied to Alaric]

[Footnote 127: The prostrate South to the destroyer yields

Her boasted titles, and her golden fields;
With grim delight the brood of winter view
A brighter day, and skies of azure hue;
Scent the new fragrance of the opening rose,
And quaff the pendent vintage as it grows.

See Gray's Poems,