in this
august ceremony, shot a last ray of declining glory; and a saint, the
spectator of this pompous scene, could only hope, in his pious fancy,
that it was excelled by the celestial splendor of the new Jerusalem.
During a residence of six months, the fame, the person, and the
courteous demeanor of the Gothic king, excited the admiration of the
Romans, and he contemplated, with equal curiosity and surprise, the
monuments that remained of their ancient greatness. He imprinted the
footsteps of a conqueror on the Capitoline hill, and frankly confessed
that each day he viewed with fresh wonder the forum of Trajan and his
lofty column. The theatre of Pompey appeared, even in its decay, as a
huge mountain artificially hollowed, and polished, and adorned by human
industry; and he vaguely computed, that a river of gold must have been
drained to erect the colossal amphitheatre of Titus. From the mouths of
fourteen aqueducts, a pure and copious stream was diffused into every
part of the city; among these the Claudian water, which arose at the
distance of thirty-eight miles in the Sabine mountains, was conveyed
along a gentle though constant declivity of solid arches, till it
descended on the summit of the Aventine hill. The long and spacious
vaults which had been constructed for the purpose of common sewers,
subsisted, after twelve centuries, in their pristine strength; and these
subterraneous channels have been preferred to all the visible wonders of
Rome. The Gothic kings, so injuriously accused of the ruin of antiquity,
were anxious to preserve the monuments of the nation whom they had
subdued. The royal edicts were framed to prevent the abuses, the
neglect, or the depredations of the citizens themselves; and a professed
architect, the annual sum of two hundred pounds of gold, twenty-five
thousand tiles, and the receipt of customs from the Lucrine port, were
assigned for the ordinary repairs of the walls and public edifices. A
similar care was extended to the statues of metal or marble of men or
animals. The spirit of the horses, which have given a modern name to the
Quirinal, was applauded by the Barbarians; the brazen elephants of
the _Via sacra_ were diligently restored; the famous heifer of Myron
deceived the cattle, as they were driven through the forum of peace; and
an officer was created to protect those works of rat, which Theodoric
considered as the noblest ornament of his kingdom.

Chapter XXXIX: Gothic King