re ornaments than it then possessed, the mole of
Hadrian, now the castle of S. Angelo, was despoiled of its stone
columns, as well as of many other things which are now seen in ruins.

Now, although the Christian religion did not act thus from any hatred
for talent, but only because of its contempt for the heathen gods,
yet the utter ruin of these honourable professions, which entirely
lost their form, was none the less entirely due to this burning zeal.
That nothing might be wanting to these grave disasters there followed
the rage of Totila against Rome, who destroyed the walls, ruined all
the most magnificent and noble buildings with fire and sword, burned
it from one end to another, and having stripped it of every living
creature left it a prey to the flames, so that for the space of
eighteen days not a living soul could be found there. He utterly
destroyed the marvellous statues, paintings, mosaics and stuccos, so
that he left Rome not only stripped of every trace of her former
majesty, but destitute of shape and life. The ground floors of the
palaces and other building had been adorned with paintings, stuccos
and statues, and these were buried under the debris, so that many
good things have come to light in our own day. Those who came after,
judging everything to be ruined, planted vines over them so that
these ruined chambers remained entirely underground, and the moderns
have called them grottos and the paintings found there grotesques.
The Ostrogoths being exterminated by Narses, the ruins of Rome were
inhabited in a wretched fashion when after an interval of a hundred
years there came the Emperor Constans of Constantinople, who was
received in a friendly manner by the Romans. However he wasted,
plundered and carried away everything that had been left in the
wretched city of Rome, abandoned rather by chance than by the
deliberate purpose of those who had laid it waste. It is true that
he was not able to enjoy this booty, for being driven to Sicily by a
storm at sea, he was killed by his followers, a fate he richly
deserved, and thus lost his spoils, his kingdom and his life. But as
if the troubles of Rome had not been sufficient, for the things which
had been taken away could never return, there came an army of
Saracens to ravage that island, who carried away the property of the
Sicilians and the spoils of Rome to Alexandria, to the infinite shame
and loss of Italy and of all Christendom. Thus what the popes had