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his head was exposed on the battlements of the castle. By a reverse of fortune, Otho, after separating his troops, was besieged three days, without food, in his palace; and a disgraceful escape saved him from the justice or fury of the Romans. The senator Ptolemy was the leader of the people, and the widow of Crescentius enjoyed the pleasure or the fame of revenging her husband, by a poison which she administered to her Imperial lover. It was the design of Otho the Third to abandon the ruder countries of the North, to erect his throne in Italy, and to revive the institutions of the Roman monarchy. But his successors only once in their lives appeared on the banks of the Tyber, to receive their crown in the Vatican. ^140 Their absence was contemptible, their presence odious and formidable. They descended from the Alps, at the head of their barbarians, who were strangers and enemies to the country; and their transient visit was a scene of tumult and bloodshed. ^141 A faint remembrance of their ancestors still tormented the Romans; and they beheld with pious indignation the succession of Saxons, Franks, Swabians, and Bohemians, who usurped the purple and prerogatives of the Caesars.

[Footnote 135: For the history of the emperors in Rome and Italy, see Sigonius, de Regno Italiae, Opp. tom. ii., with the Notes of Saxius, and the Annals of Muratori, who might refer more distinctly to the authors of his great collection.]

[Footnote 136: See the Dissertations of Le Blanc at the end of his treatise des Monnoyes de France, in which he produces some Roman coins of the French emperors.]

[Footnote 137: Romanorum aliquando servi, scilicet Burgundiones, Romanis imperent? .... Romanae urbis dignitas ad tantam est stultitiam ducta, ut meretricum etiam imperio pareat? (Liutprand, l. iii. c. 12, p. 450.) Sigonius (l. vi. p. 400) positively affirms the renovation of the consulship; but in the old writers Albericus is more frequently styled princeps Romanorum.]

[Footnote 138: Ditmar, p. 354, apud Schmidt, tom. iii. p. 439.]

[Footnote 139: This bloody feast is described in Leonine verse in the Pantheon of Godfrey of Viterbo, (Script. Ital. tom. vii. p. 436, 437,) who flourished towards the end of the xiith century, (Fabricius Bibliot. Latin. Med. et Infimi Aevi, tom. iii. p. 69, edit. Mansi;) but his evidence, which imposed on Sigonius, is reasonably suspected by Muratori (Annali, tom. viii. p. 177.)]

[Footnote *: The Marquis Maffei's gallery contained a medal with Imp. Caes August. P. P. Crescentius. Hence Hobhouse infers that he affected the empire. Hobhouse, Illustrations of Childe Harold, p. 252. - M.]

[Footnote 140: The coronation of the emperor, and some original ceremonies of the xth century are preserved in the Panegyric on Berengarius, (Script. Ital. tom. ii. pars i. p. 405 - 414,) illustrated by the Notes of Hadrian Valesius and Leibnitz. Sigonius has related the whole process of the Roman expedition, in good Latin, but with some errors of time and fact, (l. vii. p. 441 - 446.)]

[Footnote 141: In a quarrel at the coronation of Conrad II. Muratori takes leave to observe - doveano ben essere allora, indisciplinati, Barbari, e bestials Tedeschi. Annal. tom. viii. p. 368.]

Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks.

Part VI.

There is nothing perhaps more adverse to nature and reason than to hold in obedience remote countries and foreign nations, in opposition to their inclination and interest. A torrent of Barbarians may pass over the earth, but an extensive empire must be supported by a refined system of policy and oppression; in the centre, an absolute power, prompt in action and rich in resources; a swift and easy communication with the extreme parts; fortifications to check the first effort of rebellion; a regular administration to protect and punish; and a well-disciplined army to inspire fear, without provoking discontent and despair. Far different was the situation of the German Caesars, who were ambitious to enslave the kingdom of Italy. Their patrimonial estates were stretched