a civil
tranquillity to Mantua; but it is not till three centuries after
Christ that the persecutions of the Christians cease. Then the temples
of the gods are thrown down, and churches are built; and the city goes
forward to share the destinies of the Christianized empire, and be
spoiled by the barbarians. In 407 the Goths take it, and the Vandals
in their turn sack and waste it, and scatter its people, who return
again after the storm, and rebuild their city. Attila, marching to
destroy it, is met at Governo (as you see in Raphael's fresco in
the Vatican) by Pope Leo I., who conjures him to spare the city, and
threatens him with Divine vengeance if he refuse; above the pontiff's
head two wrathful angels, bearing drawn swords, menace the Hun with
death if he advance; and, thus miraculously admonished, he turns aside
from Mantua and spares it. The citizens successfully resist an attack
of Alboin; but the Longobards afterwards, unrestrained by the visions
of Attila, beat the Mantuans and take the city. From the Lombards the
Greeks, sent thither by the Exarch of Ravenna, captured Mantua
about the end of the sixth century; and then, the Lombards turning
immediately to besiege it again, the Greeks defend their prize long
and valiantly, but in the end are overpowered. They are allowed to
retire with their men and arms to Ravenna, and the Lombards dismantle
the city.

Concerning our poor Mantua under Lombard rule there is but little
known, except that she went to war with the Cremonese; and it may be
fairly supposed that she was, like her neighbors, completely involved
in foreign and domestic discords of every kind. That war with the
Cremonese was about the possession of the river Ollio; and the
Mantuans came off victors in it, slaying immense numbers of the enemy,
and taking some thousands of them prisoners, whom their countrymen
ransomed on condition of building one of the gates of Mantua with
materials from the Cremonese territory, and mortar mixed with water
from the disputed Ollio. The reader easily conceives how bitter a pill
this must have been for the high-toned Cremonese gentlemen of that
day.

When Charlemagne made himself master of Italy, the Mantuan lands and
Mantuan men were divided up among the brave soldiers who had helped to
enslave the country. These warriors of Charlemagne became counts; and
the _contadini_, or inhabitants of each _contado_ (county), became
absolutely dependent on their will and pleasure.