treasores 336 THE DECLINE AND FALL offered to Placidia, consisted of the rare and magnificent spoils of her country. Fifty beautiful youths, in silken robes, carried a basin in each hand ; and one of these basins was filled with pieces of gold, the other with precious stones of an inestimable value. Attains, so long the sport of fortune and of the Goths, was appointed to lead the chorus of the Hymenaeal song, and the degraded emperor might aspire to the praise of a skilful musician. The Barbarians enjoyed the insolence of their triumph ; and the provincials rejoiced in this alliance, which tempered by the mild influence of love and reason the fierce spirit of their Gothic lord.^^- The Gothic The hundred basins of sold and eems, presented to Placidia at her nuptial feast, formed an inconsiderable portion of the Gothic treasures ; of which some extra ordinai-y specimens may be selected from the history of the successors of Adolphus. Many curious and costly ornaments of pure gold, enriched with jewels, were found in their palace of Narbonne when it was pillaged in the sixth century by the Franks : sixty cups or chalices ; fifteen pateus, or plates, for the use of the communion ; twenty boxes, or cases, to hold the books of the gospel ; this consecrated wealth ^^^ was distributed by the son of Clovis among the churches of his dominions, and his pious liberality seems to upbraid some former sacrilege of the Goths. They possessed, with more security of conscience, the famous missorium, or great dish for the service of the table, of massy gold of the weight of five hundred pounds, and of far superior value from the precious stones, the exquisite workmanship, and the tradition that it had been presented by Aetius the patrician to Torismond king of the Goths. One of the successors of Torismond purchased the aid of the French monarch by the promise of this magnificent gift. When he was seated on the throne of Spain, he delivered it Avith reluct- settlement for the benefit of his wife during the first year of their marriage, and his hberality could not exceed the tenth part of his property. The Lombards were somewhat more indulgent ; they allowed the mor^ingcap immediately after the wedding-night ; and this famous gift, the reward of virginity, might equal the fourth part of the husband's substance. Some cautious maidens, indeed, were wise enough to stipulate beforehand a present, which they were too sure of not deserving. See Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, 1. xix. c. 25. Muratori, delle Antichita Italiane. tom. i. Dissertazione xx. p. 243. i'*'^ We owe the curious detail of this nuptial feast to the historian Olympiodorus, ap. Photium, p. 185, 188 [fr. 24]. i-*3 See in the great collection of the historians of France by Dom. Bouquet, tom. ii., Greg. Turonens, 1. iii. c. 10, p. 191 ; Gesta Rcgum Franc, c. 23, p. 557. The anonymous writer, with an ignorance worthy of his times, supposes that these instruments of Christian worship had belonged to the temple of Solomon. If he has any meaning, it must be that they were found in the sack of Rome. [Procopius, B. G. i. 12, states that they were taken from Jerusalem by the Romans.]
