Stript of his purple, the last Emperor of Rome knelt crying at the
feet of the German giant, and begged not to be murdered like his
father. And the great wild beast's hard heart smote him, and he sent
the poor little lad away, to live in wealth and peace in Lucullus'
villa at Misenum, with plenty of money, and women, and gewgaws, to
dream away his foolish life looking out over the fair bay of Naples--
the last Emperor of Rome.

Then Odoacer set to work, and not altogether ill. He gave his
confederates the third of Italy, in fief under himself as king, and
for fourteen years (not without the help of a few more murders) he
kept some sort of rude order and justice in the wretched land.
Remember him, for, bad man as he is, he does represent a principle.
He initiated, by that gift of the lands to his soldiers, the feudal
system in Italy. I do not mean that he invented it. It seems rather
to be a primaeval German form, as old as the days of Tacitus, who
describes, if you will recollect, the German war-kings as parting the
conquered lands among their 'comites,' thanes, or companions in arms.

So we leave Odoacer king of Italy, for fourteen years, little
dreaming, perhaps, of the day when as he had done unto others so
should it be done to him. But for that tale of just and terrible
retribution you must wait till the next lecture.

And now, to refresh us with a gleam of wholesome humanity after all
these horrors, let us turn to our worthy West Goth cousins for a
while. They have stopt cutting each other's throats, settled
themselves in North Spain and South France, and good bishop Sidonius
gets to like them. They are just and honest men on the whole,
kindly, and respectable in morals, living according to their strange