that character by the assurance of a just and legal government,
^61 in a discourse which he was not afraid to pronounce in
public, and to inscribe on a tablet of brass. Rome, 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. ^62 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. ^63 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. ^64 The Gothic
kings, so injuriously accused of the ruin of antiquity, were
anxious to preserve the monuments of the nation whom they had
subdued. ^65 The royal edicts were framed to prevent the abuses,