Chap, II.

I5VZANT1NE AND ROMANESQUE. Ill

divisions, whose span is nearly 70 ft., but nt tbe back of each springer a buttress, preciseiy
i)f the nature of a Hying buttress, is contrived to coiuiteract the thrusts of tlie vaulting.
276. In recording the annihilation of the arts on the invasion of Odoacer, at the end of
the fifth and during the course of the sixth century, historians have imputed it to the
Gothic nations, qualifying by this name the barbarous style wliich then degraded the pro-
fiuctions of the arts. Correct they are as to the epoch of their ruin, which coincided truly
enough with the empire of the Goths ; but to this nation they are unjust in attributing the
introduction of a barbarous style.
277. History informs us, that as soon as the princes of the Goths and Ostrogoths had fixed
themselves in Italy, they displayed the greatest anxiety to make the arts again flourish, and
but for a number of adverse circumstances they would have succeeded. Indeed, the people
whom the Romans designated as barbarous, were inhabitants of the countries to the north
and east of Italv, who actually acquired that dominion and power which the others lost.
Instructed at first by their defeats, they ultimately acquired the arts of those who originally
conquered them. Thus the Gauls, the Germans, the Pannonians, and Illyrians, had, from
tiieir submission to the Roman people, acquired quite as great a love for the arts as the
Romans themselves. For instance, at Nismes, the birthplace of Antoninus Pius, the arts
were in a state of high cultivation; in short, there were schools as good out of as in Italy
itself.
278. Odoacer, son of Edicon, the chief of a Gothic tribe, after obtaining possession of
Rome in 476, preserved Italy from invasion for six years; and there is little doubt that one
of his objects was the jjreservation of the arts. He was, however, stabbed by the hand, or
at least the command, of his rival and successor, Theodoric, in 4955. Theodoric, the son
of Theodemir, had been educated at Constantinople, and though personally he neglected
the cultivation of science and art, he was very far from insensible to the advantages they
conferred on a country. From the Alps to the extremity of Calabria, the right of conquest
nad placed Theodoric on the throne. As resjiects what he did for the arts, no better rect)rd
of his fame could exist than the volume of public Epistles comi)()sed by Cassiodorus, in the
royal name.
"
The reputation of Theodoric," says Gibbon,
"
may re])ose with confidence on
the visible peace and prosperity of a reign of thirty-three years
;
the luianimous esteem of his
own times, and the memory of his wisdom and courage, his justice and humanity, which was
deeply imjjressed on the minds of the Goths and Italians." The residence of Theodoric was
at Ravenna chiefly, occasionally at Verona
;
but in the seventh year of his reign he visited the
capital of the Old World, where, during a residence of six months, he proved that one at
least of the Gothic kings was anxious to preserve the monuments of the nations he had
subdued. Royal edicts were framed to prevent the abuses, neglect, or depredations of the
citizens upon works of art ; and an architect, the annual sum of two hundred pounds of
gold, twenty-five thousand tiles, and the receijit of customs from the Luciine ))ort, were
assigned for the ordinary repairs of the public buildings. Similar care was bestowed on
the works of sculpture. Besides the capitals, Pavia, Spoleto, Naples, and the rest of the
Italian cities, acquired under his reign the useful or s))lendid decorations of churches,
atjueducts, baths, porticoes, and palaces. His architects were Aloysius for Rome, and
Daniel for Ravenna, his instructions to whom manifest his care for the art ; and under him
Cassiodorus, for fifty-seven years minister of the Ostrogoth kings, was for a long ))eriod
the tutelary genius of the arts. The death of Theodoric occiu-red in 526 ; his mausoleum
is still in existence at Ravenna, being now called Sta. Maria della Rotunda. That city
contains also the church of St. ApoUinaris, which shows that at this period very little, if
any, change had been made in the arrangement of large churches on the plan of the basilica.
The front of the convent of the Franciscan friars in the same town, which is reputed to be
tiie entrance to the palace, bears considerable resemblance to the Porta Aurea of Dioclesian,
at Spalatro. Tliese buildings are all m a heavy debased Roman style, and we are quite at
a loss to understand the passage quoted by Tiraboschi, from Cassiodorus, who therein gives
a particular description of the very great lightness and elegance of columns; thus

" Quid
dicamus columnarum junceam proceritatcm ? Moles illas sublimissimas fabiicarum quasi
((uibusdam eiectis lla^tilibus contir.eri et substanti;; qurtlitate concavis canalibus excavatas
ut magis ipsas festimes fuisse transfusas ; alias cerLs judices factum, quod metallis durissimis
videas expolitmn." (Lib. vii. Var. 15.) We know no examples of the period that bear
out these assertions of Cassiodorus; on the contrary, what is known of this period indicates
a totally different style.
279. if the successors of Theodoric had succeeded to his talents as well as his throne,
and if thev had betn assisted by ministers like Cassiodorus, the arts and letters of Italy
might ha\e recovered; l)ut. after the retirement of that minii-ter, from the succession ot
Viiiges. towards 5SR, the arts were completely extinct. In 54.3-7, Rome was taken and
plundered by Totila ; and afterwards, in 553, this ill-fdted city was again united to the
Eastern empire by the talents of Belisarius and N:irses.
'-'80.
From the year 568 up to the conquest of Italy by Charlemagne, in 774, the country
was overrun by the Lombards, a people who quickly attained a high degree of civilizativ'ii,