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A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

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CHAPTER XLV<br />

ROMAN LIFE UNDER THE LATE EMPIRE<br />

MAINLY FOURTH AND FIFTH<br />

CENTURIES A.D.<br />

<strong>The</strong> experiences<br />

<strong>of</strong><br />

two Christian<br />

women.<br />

St. Jerome,<br />

Letter cxxvii<br />

(written 412<br />

A.D.).<br />

<strong>The</strong> first<br />

siege mentioned<br />

was<br />

by Alaric in<br />

408; the second<br />

siege,<br />

ending in the<br />

capture <strong>of</strong><br />

Rome, was<br />

in 410; Ancient<br />

World,<br />

529 f.<br />

Principia was<br />

a young lady<br />

in the house<br />

and under<br />

the protection<br />

<strong>of</strong> Marcella,<br />

an old<br />

lady. <strong>The</strong><br />

latter soon<br />

died from<br />

the effects <strong>of</strong><br />

ker injuries.<br />

I. Principia and Marcella in the Sack <strong>of</strong> Rome<br />

BY THE Goths<br />

Rome had been besieged and its citizens had been forced<br />

to buy their lives with gold. <strong>The</strong>n, thus despoiled, they<br />

had been besieged again so as to lose not their substance<br />

only but their lives.<br />

My voice sticks in my throat; and<br />

as I dictate, sobs choke my utterance. <strong>The</strong> City which<br />

had taken the whole world was itself<br />

taken; nay more,<br />

famine was beforehand with the sword and but few citizens<br />

were left to be made captives.<br />

In their frenzy the starving<br />

people had recourse to hideous food; and tore each other<br />

limb from limb that they might have flesh to eat. Even<br />

the mother did not spare the babe at her breast. . . .<br />

Meantime as was natural in a scene <strong>of</strong> such confusion,<br />

one <strong>of</strong> the blood-stained victors found his way into Marcella's<br />

house. Now be it mine to say what I have heard,<br />

to relate what holy men have seen; for there were some<br />

such present, and they say you (Principia) too were with<br />

her in the hour <strong>of</strong> danger.<br />

is<br />

When the soldiers entered, she<br />

said to have received them without any look <strong>of</strong> alarm;<br />

and when they asked her for gold, she pointed to her coarse<br />

dress to show them she had no buried treasure. <strong>The</strong>y<br />

would not believe in her self-chosen poverty, however,<br />

S.S8

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