chap, xxxvi] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 59 honour which was still accepted by the emperors of the East ; but the curule chair was successively filled by eleven of the most illustrious senators ; 142 and the list is adorned by the re- spectable name of Basilius, whose virtues claimed the friend- ship and grateful applause of Sidonius, his client. 143 The laws of the emperors were strictly enforced, and the civil administra- tion of Italy was still exercised by the Praetorian praefect and his subordinate officers. Odoacer devolved on the Roman magistrates the odious and oppressive task of collecting the public revenue ; but he reserved for himself the merit of seasonable and popular indulgence. 144 Like the rest of the Barbarians, he had been instructed in the Arian heresy ; but he revered the monastic and episcopal characters ; and the silence of the Catholics attests the toleration which they enjoyed. The peace of the city required the interposition of his praefect Basilius in the choice of a Roman pontiff; the decree which restrained the clergy from alienating the lands was ultimately designed for the benefit of the people, whose devotion would have been taxed to repair the dilapidations of the church. 145 Italy was protected by the arms of its conqueror ; and its frontiers were respected by the Barbarians of Gaul and Germany, who had so long insulted the feeble race of Theodosius. Odoacer passed the Hadriatic, to chas- tise the assassins of the emperor Nepos, and to acquire the mari- time province of Dalmatia. He passed the Alps, to rescue the u.d. 48ii remains of Noricum from Fava, or Feletheus, king of the Rugians, who held his residence beyond the Danube. The u.d. 487] king was vanquished in battle, and led away prisoner; a numerous colony of captives and subjects was transplanted 143 The consular Fasti may be found in Pagi or Muratori. The consuls named by Odoacer, or perhaps by the Roman senate, appear to have been acknowledged in the Eastern empire. 143 Sidonius Apollinaris (1. i. epist. 9, p. 22, edit. Sirmond) has compared the two leading senators of his time (ad. 468), Gennadius Avienus and Cascina Basilius. To the former he assigns the specious, to the latter the solid, virtues of public and private life. A Basilius junior, possibly his son, was consul in the year 480. 144 Epiphanius interceded for the people of Pavia ; and the king first granted an indulgence of five years, and afterwards relieved them from the oppression of Pelagius, the Praetorian prefect (Ennodius, in Vit. St. Epiphan. in Sirmond. Oper. torn. i. p. 1670, 1672 [p. 97, ed. Vogel]). 145 See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. a.d. 483, No. 10-15. Sixteen years afterwards, the irregular proceedings of Basilius were condemned by pope Symmachus in a Roman synod.
