Antonina; Or, The Fall of Rome

in the breasts of experienced readers. They will doubtless imagine that it is portentous of long rhapsodies on thos

t oasis that may present itself, whether it be formed by a new division of the story, or suddenly indicated by the appearance of a dialogue. Animated, therefore, by apprehensions such as these, we hasten to assure them that in no instance will the localities of our story trench upon the limits of the well-worn Forum, or mount the arches of the exhausted Coloss

sion of their respective movements. That portion of the extinct city which we design to revive has left few traces of its existence in the modern town. Its sites are tra

analogy between the ancient and modern city ends. The houses that those walls were once scarcely wide enough to enclose hav

llings belonging to the lower orders of the people-surrounded the mighty city. Of these innumerable abodes hardly a trace remains. The modern traveller, as he l

the city, and form with their tributaries the principal portion of modern Rome. On one side they are bounded by the Pincian Hill, on the other by the Tiber. Of these streets, tho

rhood, conduct to the modern Church of St. Peter. At the period of our story this part of the city was of much greater consequence, both in size and appear

Campus Martius, over the Pons Elius, and on to the Basilica of St. Peter, the reader may be often invited to accompany u

ity with the manners and customs of the Romans of the fifth century on which the influence of this story mainly depends, and which we despair of being able to instil by a philosophical disquisition on the features

eceive several baskets of provisions, distributed with ostentatious charity by the owner of the mansion. The incessant clamour and agitation of the

by which they are respectively entered. With the inferior buildings, the market-places and the gardens attached to them, they are sufficiently extensive to form the boundary of one side of the immediate view. The appearance of monotony which might at other times be remarked in the vastness and regularity of their white fronts, is at this moment agreeably broken by seve

From its position, parts of this noble building are already in shade. Not a human being is visible on any part of its mi

erstices, viewed from a distance, appear glimpses of gay dresses, groups of figures in repose, stands loaded with fruit and flowers, and innumerable white marble statues of fauns an

y were built, the hand of reform has as yet not ventured to doom them to ruin or adapt them to Christian purposes. None venture to tread their once-crowded colonnades. No priest appears to give the oracles from their doors; no sacrifices reek upon their naked altars. Under their roofs, visited only by the light that steals through their narrow entrances, stand unnoticed, u

the moving picture, which we shall next attempt to present to t

satisfaction of native Romans, the clamorous indignation of irritable Jews-all sounded together in one incessant chorus of discordant noises. Nor were the senses of sight and smell more agreeably assailed than the faculty of hearing, by this anomalous congregation. Immodest youth and irreverent age; woman savage, man cowardly; the swarthy Ethiopian beslabbered with stinking oil; the stolid Briton begrimed with dirt-these, and a hundred other varying combinations, to be imagined rather than expressed, met the attention in every direction. To describe the odours exhaled by the heat from this seething mixture of many pollutions, would be to force the reader to close the book; we prefer to return to the distribution which was the cause of this degrading tumult, and which consisted of small baskets of roasted meat pac

waiters at our feast, and they mock us to ou

!-but who is to approach them

have the noses of dogs a

advanced to rebuke the mob, receiving, as the reward of his temerity, a shower of missiles and a volley of

ing scoundrel that jeers at others! A filthy flatterer that dirts the very ground he walks on! By the blood of t

master, the very scrapings of whose skin are worth more than thy whole carcase! It is easier to make a drink

iner!' shouted one section of the grateful

es of parasites!'

Rome!' roared a third par

to pick!' screamed an urchin f

t to a shout of triumph as the unfortunate freedman, scared by a new volley of mis

Oppressed and degraded, on the one hand, to a point of misery scarcely conceivable to the public of the present day, the poorer classes in Rome were, on the other, invested with such a degree of moral license, and permitted such an extent of political privilege, as flattered their vanity into blinding their sense o

mbled before the palace, presented a certain appearance of respectability. Here and there-chequering the dusky monotony of masses of dirty tunics-might be discerned the refreshing vision of a clean robe, or the grateful indication of a handsome person. Little groups, removed as far as possible from the ne

roceeded from a tall, thin, sinister-looking man, who was harang

an end. My patron's estate requires incessant supplies of these wretches. I do my best to satisfy the demand, and the only result

ut what alteration would you

the spot all slaves whom they thought

law would exterminate them in a few months. Can you not break their spirit with l

hey are tolerably submissive. It is with the wretches that I have been obliged to purchase from prisoners of war and the people of revolted towns that I am so dissatisfied. Punishments have no effect on them, they are incessantly indolent, sulky, desperate. It was but the other day that ten of them poisoned themselves while at work in the fiel

iberty to com

s of an ancient slaughter-house. I propose to dig in this place several subterranean caverns, each of which shall be capable of holding twenty men. Here my mutinous slaves shall sleep after their day's labour. The entrance

nsensible to hardships are the brutal herd) will sleep a

attendant reptiles! Their liquid perfumes will be the stagnant oozings from their chamber roof! Their music will be the croaking of frogs and the humming of gnats; and as for their adornments, why, they will be

hey wi

will work the longer above ground to shorten the term of their repose beneath. They will wak

leave Ro

of trustworthy assistants as will enable me to

of bailiffs, I b

t attracted his attention. Curiosity formed as conspicuous an ingredient in this man's character as cruelty. He stole behind the base of a neighbouring pillar; and, as the frequent repetition of the word

advance upon Rome does not speak of hope rather than of dread? Have we a chance of rising from the degradation forced on us

pompous man, to whom the preceding remarks had been addressed, 'but I cannot desire the r

t interest have I in upholding her honour-if ho

e too severe. You are too

o desired possession of my estate to swell their own territorial grandeur. In process of time I married and had a child. I believed that I was picked out from my race as a fortunate man-when one night I was attacked by robbers: slaves made desperate by the cruelty of their wealthy masters. They ravaged my cornfields, they deprived me of my flocks. When I demanded redress, I was told to sell my lands to those who could defend them-to those rich nobles whose tyranny had organised the band of wretches who had spoiled me of my possessions, and to whose fraud-gotten treasures the government were well pleased to grant that protection which they had denied to my honest hoards. In my pride I determined that I would still be independent. I planted new crops. With the little remnant of my money I hired fresh servants and bought more flocks. I had just recovered from my first disaster when I became the victim of a second. I was again attacked. This time we had arms, and we attempted to defend ourselves. My wife was slain before my eyes; my house was burnt to the ground; I myself only escaped, mutilated with wounds; my child soon afterwards pined and died. I had no wife, no offspring, no house, no money. My fields still stretched round me, but I had none to cultivate them.

hout civilised Europe, like him-could he have imagined how, in after years, the 'middle class', despised in his day, was to rise to privilege and power; to hold in its just hands the balance of the prosperity of nations; to crush oppression and regulate rule

might have had recourse, it is difficult to say; for the complaints of the ill-fated landholder and the cogitations of the authoritative bailiff w

inary independence, was not to be lost; and accordingly they let loose such a torrent of clamorous gratitude on their entertainer's appearance, that a stranger in Rome would have thought the city in revolt. They leapt, they ran, they danced round the prancing horses, they flung their empty baskets into the air, and patted approvingly their 'fair round bellies'. From every side, as the carriage

had scarcely died away in the distance, as they followed the departing carriage, when the voices of two men, pitched to a low, co

to receive absolution, and he journeys in his chariot of state, as if he

ed, then, a fre

died on the spot, and her brother, who is also in his service, threatened immediate vengeance. To prevent disagreeable consequences to his body, Pomponius has sent

ho are too careless even to make a show of repentance for

ution is the sorcery that binds these libertines of Rome to our will. We know what converted Consta

d may increase our revenues, but still

t, if you can, that we may shape them to our wishes as we will. Any deceptions will

g to look after his intended victim. To his surprise he saw that the man had left the auditors to whom he had before addressed himself, and was engaged in earnest conversation in another part of the portico, with an indiv

ed his delight in penetrating the theological secrets of the priests. He turned once more, but to his astonishment the objects of his curiosity had disappeared. He stepped to the outside of the portico and looked for them in every direction, but they we

ection, towards the Basilica of St. Peter, he would have found himself once more in the neighbourhood of the landholder and his remarkable friend, and wou