4.) Yet he is speaking of a woman.] [Footnote 94: Anastasius (p.

40) has preserved this epithet of Sanguinarius which might do honor to a tiger.] The whole nation of the Ostrogoths had been assembled for the attack, and was almost entirely consumed in the siege of Rome.

If any credit be due to an intelligent spectator, one third at least of their enormous host was destroyed, in frequent and bloody combats under the walls of the city.

The bad fame and pernicious qualities of the summer air might already be imputed to the decay of agriculture and population; and the evils of famine and pestilence were aggravated by their own licentiousness, and the unfriendly disposition of the country.

While Vitiges struggled with his fortune, while he hesitated between shame and ruin, his retreat was hastened by domestic alarms.