260 THE DECLINE AND FALL communication was maintained only by the use of boats and bridges ; and the houses of Ravenna, whose appearance may be compared to that of Venice, were raised on the foundation of wooden piles. The adjacent country, to the distance of many miles, was a deep and impassable morass ; and the artificial causeway, which connected Ravenna with the continent, niiirht be easily guarded or destroyed on the approach of an hostile army. These morasses were interspersed, however, with vine- yards ; and, though the soil was exhausted by four or five crops, the town enjoyed a more plentiful supply of wine than of fresh water.^ The air, instead of receiving the sickly and almost pestilential exhalations of low and marshy grounds, was dis- tinguished, like the neighbourhood of Alexandria, as uncom- monly pure and salubrious ; and this singular advantage was ascribed to the regular tides of the Hadriatic, which swept the canals, interrupted the unwholesome stagnation of the waters, and Hoated every day the vessels of the adjacent country into the heart of Ravenna. The gradual retreat of the sea has left the modern city at the distance of four miles from the Hadriatic ; and as early as the fith or sixth century of the Christian a?ra the port of Augustus was converted into pleasant orchards, and a lonely grove of pines covered the ground where the Roman fleet once rode at anchor.^ Even this alteration contributed to increase the natural strength of the place ; and the shallowness of the water was a sufficient barrier against the large ships of the enemy. This advantageous situation was fortified by art and labour ; and in the twentieth year of his age the emperor of the West, anxious only for his personal safety, retired to the perpetual confinement of the walls and morasses of Ravenna. The example of Honorius was imitated by his feeble successors, the Gothic kings, and afterwards the Exarchs, who occupied the throne and palace of the emperors ; and, till the middle of the eighth century, Ravenna was considered as the seat of government and the capital of Italy.^ 63 Martial (epigram iii. 56, 57) plays on the trick of the knave who had sold him wine instead of water ; but he seriously declares that a cistern at Ravenna is more valuable than a vineyard. Sidonius complains that the town is destitute of fountains and aqueducts, and ranks the want of fresh water among the local evils, such as the croaking of frogs, the stinging of gnats, &c. •>* The fable of Theodore and Honoria, which Drvden has so admirably trans- planted from Boccaccio (Giornata, iii. novell. viii.), was acted in the wood of Chiassi, a corrupt word from Classis, the naval station, which, with the intermediate road or suburb, the I'ia Caesaris, constituted the triple city of Ravenna. 65 From the year 404, the dates of the Theodosian Code become sedentary at Constantinople and Ravenna. See Godefroy's Chronology of the Laws, torn. i. p. cxlviii., &c.
