Note 093
Leonis Tactica, c. 18, p. 805. The emperor
Leo died A.D. 911: an historical poem, which ends in 916,
and appears to have been composed in 910, by a native of
Venetia, discriminates in these verses the manners of Italy
and France:
—Quid inertia bello
Pectora (Ubertus ait) duris praetenditis armis,
O Itali? Potius vobis sacra pocula cordi;
Saepius et stomachum nitidis laxare saginis
Elatasque domos rutilo fulcire metallo.
Non eadem Gallos similis vel cura remordet:
Vicinas quibus est studium devincere terras,
Depressumque larem spoliis hinc inde coactis
Sustentare —
(Anonym. Carmen Panegyricum de Laudibus Berengarii Augusti,
l. n. in Muratori Script. Rerum Italic. tom. ii. pars i. p.
393.)
The History Of The Decline And
Fall Of The Roman Empire
—Fall In The East
—Chapter 53