The whole edict (Novell. Majorian. tit. vi. p. 35) is curious.
"Antiquarum aedium dissipatur speciosa constructio; et ut [earum] aliquid reparetur, magna diruuntur. Hinc jam occasio nascitur, ut etiam unusquisque privatum aedificium construens, per gratiam judicum . . . praesumere de publicis locis necessaria, et transferre non dubitet," etc.
With equal zeal, but with less power, Petrarch, in the fourteenth century, repeated the same complaints (Vie de Petrarque, tom. i. p. 326, 327). If I prosecute this History, I shall not be unmindful of the decline and fall of the city of Rome — an interesting object, to which my plan was originally confined.