220 THE DECLINE AND FALL educated in the arts and manners, of this fortunate isle, de- parted long since to enrich the barbarians with our treasures, and now returns with her savage allies, to contaminate the beauties of her venerable parent. Already I behold the swarms of angry barbarians ; our opulent cities, the places flourishing in a long peace, are shaken with fear, desolated by slaughter, consumed by rapine, and polluted by intemperance and lust. I see the massacre or captivity of our citizens, the rapes of our virgins and matrons. ^^^ In this extremity (he interrogates a friend) how must the Sicilians act ? By the unanimous election of a king of valour and experience, Sicily and Calabria might yet be presei-ved ; ^*^ for in the levity of the Apulians, ever eager for new revolutions, I can repose neither confidence nor hope.^^*^ Should Calabria be lost, the lofly towers, the numerous youth, and the naval strength, of Messina ^^^ might guard the passage against a foreign invader. If the savage Germans coalesce with the pirates of Messina ; if they destroy with fire the fruitful region, so often wasted by the fires of mount .Etnaj^^^ what resource will be left for the interior parts of the island, these noble cities which should never be violated by the hostile footsteps of a barbarian ? ^'^"' Catana has again been overwhelmed by an earthquake ; the ancient virtue of Syracuse expires in poverty and solitude ; ^^^ but Palermo is still crowned with a diadem, and her triple walls inclose the active multitudes of Christians and Saracens. If the two nations, under one king, 1^ Constantia, primis a cunabulis in deliciarum tuarum affluentia diutius edu- cata, tuisque institutis [instituta], doctrinis et moribus informata, tandem opibus tuis Barbaros delatura [ditatura] discessit ; et nunc cum ingentibus copiis [. . .] revertitur, ut pulcherrima [pulcherrimce] nutricis ornamenta [. . .] barbarica foeditate contaminet . . . Intueri mihi jam videor turbulentas barbarorum acies . . . civitates opulentas et loca diuturna pace florcntia, nietu concuterc, casde vastaie, rapinis atterere, et fcedare luxuria : [occurrunt] hinc cives aut [resistendo] gladiis intercepti, aut [. . .] servitute depress! [illinc], virgines [. . .] constupratae, matronJE, &c. [p. 253-4]. 1-19 Certe si regem [sibi] non dubi» virtutis elegerint, nee a Saracenis Christiani [/e^^. a Christianis .Saraceni] dissentiant, poterit rex creatus rebus licet quasi desperatis et [fere] perditis subvenire, et incursus hostium, si prudenter egerit, propulsare. 1- In Apulis, qui, semper novitate gaudentes, novarum rerum studiis aguntur, nihil arbitror spei aut fiduciag reponendum. 1 Si civium tuorum virtutem et audaciam attendas, . . . murorum etiam ambi- tum densis tuiribus circumseptum. i-'^Cum crudelitate piratica Theutonum confligat atrocitas, et inter ambustos lapides, et ^thnae flagrantis incendia, Sec. i""-' Eam partem, quam nobilissimarum civitatum fulgor illustrat, quag et toti regno singulari meruit privilegio praseminere, nefarium esset . . . vel barbarorum ingressu pollui. I wish to transcribe his florid, but curious, description of the palace, city, and luxuriant plain of Palermo. i-A Vires non suppetunt, et conatus tupg tam inopia civium, quam paucitas bella- torum elidunt.
