It was a bitter disappointment to Basil, who had imagined
for himself a brilliant career under the auspices of the new Roman
Emperor, and who now saw himself merely a conquered Italian, set
under the authority of Byzantine governors. He had no temptation to
remain in the North, for Cassiodorus was no longer here, having
withdrawn a twelvemonth ago to his own country by the Ionian Sea,
and there entered the monastery founded by himself; at Ravenna ruled
the logothete Alexandros, soon to win a surname from his cleverness
in coin-clipping. So Basil journeyed to Rome, where his kinsfolk met
him with news of deaths and miseries. The city was but raising her
head after the long agony of the Gothic siege. He entered his silent
home on the Caelian, and began a life of dispirited idleness.
Vast was the change produced in the Roman's daily existence by the
destruction of the aqueducts. The Thermae being henceforth
unsupplied with water, those magnificent resorts of every class of
citizen lost their attraction, and soon ceased to be frequented; for
all the Roman's exercises and amusements were associated with the
practice of luxurious bathing, and without that refreshment the
gymnasium, the tennis-court, the lounge, no longer charmed as
before.
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