206 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xxxix [Como] Comum, which had once been animated by the mild genius of Pliny, a transparent bason above sixty miles in length still reflected the rural seats which encompassed the margin of the Larian lake ; and the gradual ascent of the hills was covered by a triple plantation of olives, of vines, and of chesnut trees. 83 Agriculture revived under the shadow of peace, and the number of husbandmen was multiplied by the redemption of captives. 84 The iron mines of Dalmatia, a gold mine in Bruttium, were carefully explored, and the Pomptine marshes, as well as those of Spoleto, were drained and cultivated by private undertakers, whose distant reward must depend on the continuance of the public prosperity. 85 Whenever the seasons were less propitious, the doubtful precautions of forming magazines of corn, fixing the price, and prohibiting the exportation, attested at least the benevolence of the state ; but such was the extraordinary plenty which an industrious people produced from a grateful soil that a gallon of wine was sometimes sold in Italy for less than three farthings, and a quarter of wheat at about five shill- ings and sixpence. 86 A country possessed of so many valuable objects of exchange soon attracted the merchants of the world, whose beneficial traffic was encouraged and protected by the liberal spirit of Theodoric. The free intercourse of the pro- vinces by land and water was restored and extended ; the city gates were never shut either by day or by night ; and the common saying, that a purse of gold might be safely left in 83 The villas, climate, and landscape of Baiffi (Var. ix. 6. See Cluver. Italia Antiq. 1. iv. o. 2, p. 1119, &c), Istria (Var. xii. 22, 26), and Comum (Var. xi. 14, compare with Pliny's two villas, ix. 7), are agreeably painted in the epistles of Cas- siodorius. 84 In Liguria, numerosa agricolarum progenies (Ennodius, p. 1678, 1679, 1680 [p. 101, ed. Vogel]). St. Epiphanius of Pavia redeemed by prayer or ransom 6000 captives from the Burgundians of Lyons and Savoy. Such deeds are the best of miracles. 85 The political economy of Theodoric (see Anonym. Vales, p. 721 and Cassio- dorius, in Chron.) may be distinctly traced under the following heads : iron mine (Var. iii. 23) ; gold mine (ix. 3) ; Pomptine marshes (ii. 32, 33) ; Spoleto (ii. 21) ; corn (i. 34 ; x. 27, 28 ; xi. 11, 12) ; trade (vi. 7, vii. 9, 23) ; fair of Leucothoe or St. Cyprian in Lucania (viii. 33) ; plenty (xii. 4) ; the cursus, or public post (i. 29 ; ii. 31 ; iv. 47 ; v. 5 ; vi. 6 ; vii. 33) ; the Flaminian way (xii. 18). [An inscription re- cords the draining of the marshes, which had flowed over the Appian way between Tripontium and Terracina. A copy of this inscription stands in the Piazza of Ter- racina. Cp. C. I. L. x. 6850, p. 690, and see Appendix 9.] ,6 LX modii tritici in solidum ipsius tempore fuerunt, et vinum xxx amphoras in solidum (Fragment Vales.). Corn was distributed from the granaries at xv or xxv modi for a piece of gold, and the price was still moderate.
