rgins of Rome were exposed to
injuries more dreadful, in the apprehension of chastity, than death
itself....

The want of youth, or beauty, or chastity protected the greatest part of
the Roman women from the danger of a rape. But avarice is an insatiate
and universal passion, since the enjoyment of almost every object that
can afford pleasure to the different tastes and tempers of mankind may
be procured by the possession of wealth. In the pillage of Rome, a just
preference was given to gold and jewels, which contain the greatest
value in the smallest compass and weight; but after these portable
riches had been removed by the more diligent robbers, the palaces of
Rome were rudely stripped of their splendid and costly furniture. The
sideboards of massy plate, and the variegated wardrobes of silk and
purple, were irregularly piled in the wagons that always followed the
march of a Gothic army. The most exquisite works of art were roughly
handled or wantonly destroyed; many a statue was melted for the sake of
the precious materials; and many a vase, in the division of the spoil,
was shivered into fragments by the stroke of a battle-axe. The
acquisition of riches served only to stimulate the avarice of the
rapacious Barbarians, who proceeded by threats, by blows, and by
tortures, to force from their prisoners the confession of hidden
treasure. Visible splendor and expense were alleged as the proof of a
plentiful fortune; the appearance of poverty was imputed to a
parsimonious disposition; and the obstinacy of some misers, who endured
the most cruel torments before they would discover the secret object of
their affection, was fatal to many unhappy wretches, who expired under
the lash for refusing to reveal their imaginary treasures. The edifices
of Rome, though the damage has been much exaggerated, received some
injury from the violence of the Goths. At their entrance through the
Salarian gate, they fired the adjacent houses to guide their march and
to distract the attention of the citizens; the flames, which encountered
no obstacle in the disorder of the night, consumed many private and
public buildings; and the ruins of the palace of Sallust remained, in
the age of Justinian, a stately monument of the Gothic conflagration.
Yet a contemporary historian has observed that fire could scarcely
consume the enormous beams of solid brass, and that the strength of man
was insufficient to subvert the foundations of ancient structures