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.
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