'barbarian' element. The treasures of Roman art were placed under
the care of government officers; baths, palaces, churches, aqueducts,
were repaired or founded; to build seems to have been Dietrich's
great delight; and we have left us, on a coin, some image of his own
palace at Verona, a strange building with domes and minarets,
something like a Turkish mosque; standing, seemingly, on the arcades
of some older Roman building. Dietrich the Goth may, indeed, be
called the founder of 'Byzantine' architecture throughout the Western
world.

Meanwhile, agriculture prospered once more; the Pontine Marshes were
drained; the imperial ports restored, and new cities sprang up. 'The
new ones,' says Machiavelli, 'were Venice, Siena, Ferrara, Aquileia;
and those which became extended were Florence, Genoa, Pisa, Milan,
Naples, and Bologna.' Of these the great sea-ports, especially
Venice, were founded not by Goths, but by Roman and Greek fugitives:
but it was the security and liberality of Dietrich's reign which made
their existence possible; and Venice really owes far more to the
barbarian hero, than to the fabled patronage of St. Mark.

'From this devastation and new population,' continues Machiavelli,
'arose new languages, which, partaking of the native idiom of the new
people, and of the old Roman, formed a new manner of discourse.
Besides, not only were the names of provinces changed, but also of
lakes, rivers, seas, and men; for France, Spain, and Italy are full
of fresh names, wholly different from the ancient.'

This reign of Dietrich was, in fact, the birth-hour of modern Italy;
and, as Machiavelli says, 'brought the country to such a state of
greatness, that her previous sufferings were unrecognizable.' We