Note 050
Joseph Maria Suares, a learned bishop, and the author of a history of Praeneste, has composed a separate dissertation on the seven or eight probable causes of these holes, which has been since reprinted in the Roman Thesaurus of Sallengre. Montfaucon (Diarium, p. 233) pronounces the rapine of the Barbarians to be the

unam germanamque causam foraminum.

Extra note by the Rev. H. H. Milman 1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)

The improbability of this theory is shown by Bunsen, vol. i. p. 239

The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire —Fall In The East —Chapter 71