It was at this time that the remarkable “Letter to Silvio Savelli” was received in Rome; it was a small book printed in Germany. Its author is unknown, but it is supposed to have been written by a Colonna. Savelli had been robbed of his property by Alexander, and was an exile living at the Court of Maximilian. Gregorovius remarks: “This is an authentic document revealing the condition of Rome under the Borgia; no other writing so well exhibits the iniquity of these people, their corrupt politics, in great as well as small affairs, and the terror that ruled the city, which was filled with their spies and cut-throats.” The universal execration in which they were held is also well revealed in the epigrams of the day, one of the most famous of which is the following:-- “Vendit Alex. claves, altaria, christum, Emerat ille prius, vendere jure potest. De vitio in vitium, de flamma crescit in ignem, Roma sub Hispano deperit Imperio. Sextus Tarquinius, Sextus Nero, Sextus et Iste. Semper sub Sextis perdita Roma fuit.” Alexander VI. read and enjoyed the letter to Silvio Savelli, as he was used to these satires, but Burchard remarks that Caesar regarded them more seriously, and cites the case of the rhetorician Jeronimo Mancini of Naples, who, having spoken ill of the Duke, was seized, and suffered the loss of the end of his tongue and a hand, which were exposed at a window in the Curia S. Crucis for two days. Some have ascribed the authorship of the famous letter to Mancini. January 28, 1502, a Venetian, who, it was said, had sent something he had written against the Pope to Venice, was seized, and when his ambassador went to intercede for him that night, he was informed that the unfortunate wretch had already been executed. Costabili, the Ferrarese ambassador, when he spoke to the Pope about the Duke’s vindictiveness, was told by his Holiness, “The Duke is good, but he cannot bear insults; and,” he added, “once when I told him he should profit by my example and let them write all the satires they wished, he became angry, and exclaimed he would teach these scribblers good manners.”