f Romulus.--M.]

[Footnote 45: Pipino regi Francorum, omnis senatus, atque universa
populi generalitas a Deo servatae Romanae urbis. Codex Carolin. epist.
36, in Script. Ital. tom. iii. pars ii. p. 160. The names of senatus and
senator were never totally extinct, (Dissert. Chorograph. p. 216,
217;) but in the middle ages they signified little more than nobiles,
optimates, &c., (Ducange, Gloss. Latin.)]

[Footnote 46: See Muratori, Antiquit. Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. ii.
Dissertat xxvii. p. 548. On one of these coins we read Hadrianus Papa
(A.D. 772;) on the reverse, Vict. Ddnn. with the word Conob, which
the Pere Joubert (Science des Medailles, tom. ii. p. 42) explains by
Constantinopoli Officina B (secunda.)]

In the quarrels of ancient Greece, the holy people of Elis enjoyed a
perpetual peace, under the protection of Jupiter, and in the exercise
of the Olympic games. [47] Happy would it have been for the Romans, if
a similar privilege had guarded the patrimony of St. Peter from the
calamities of war; if the Christians, who visited the holy threshold,
would have sheathed their swords in the presence of the apostle and his
successor. But this mystic circle could have been traced only by the
wand of a legislator and a sage: this pacific system was incompatible
with the zeal and ambition of the popes the Romans were not addicted,
like the inhabitants of Elis, to the innocent and placid labors of
agriculture; and the Barbarians of Italy, though softened by the
climate, were far below the Grecian states in the institutions of
public and private life. A memorable example of repentance and piety was
exhibited by Liutprand, king of the Lombards. In arms, at the gate of
the Vatican, the conqueror listened to the voice of Gregory the Second,
[48] withdrew his troops, resigned his conquests, respectfully visited
the church of St. Peter, and after performing his devotions, offered
his sword and dagger, his cuirass and mantle, his silver cross, and his
crown of gold, on the tomb of the apostle. But this religious fervor was
the illusion, perhaps the artifice, of the moment; the sense of interest
is strong and lasting; the love of arms and rapine was congenial to the
Lombards; and both the prince and people were irresistibly tempted
by the disorders of Italy, the nakedness of Rome, and the unwarlike
profession of her new chief. On the first edicts of the emperor, they
declared themselves the champions of the holy images: Liutprand