Eustace, John Cretwode: A classical tour through Italy An. MDCCCII (Vol. 4): 3. ed., rev. and enl (London: J. Mawman, 1815)

90

CLASSICAL TOUR

Ch. IV.

Taurinorum unam urbem caputgentis ejus, quia
volenles in amicitiam ejus non veniebant vi expug-
narat*, says Livius, speaking of Annibal; and
from these words we learn the little importance
of this city in the eyes of the historian, and in the
next place, the attachment of its inhabitants to
the Romans. This insignificance and fidelity
seem to have been the constituent features of the
destiny of Turin for a long succession of ages,
and have continued to expose it both to the hatred
and to the vengeance of all the invading hordes,
from Attila to Francis I. During' this long era
of anarchy and of revolution, it was alternately
destroyed and rebuilt, deserted and repeopled.
Its importan ce commenced in the thirteenth cen-
tury, when it became the residence of the princes
of Savoy, and assumed the honors of a capital;
since that period, though in the heart of a coun-
try, the constant theatre and oftentimes the object
of war: though often besieged, and not unfre-
quently taken ; yet it continued in a progressive
state of improvement, and had become about the
middle of the last century, one of the most popu-
lous and flourishing cities in Italy. This its pros-

* L. xxi. 30