claimed the double honour of producing Marius and Cicero, the former of whom deserved, after Romulus and Camillus, to be styled the Third Founder of Rome; and the latter, after saving his country from the designs of Catiline, enabled her to contend with Athens for the palm of eloquence.

barbarians." During the most flourishing æra of the Athenian commonweath, the number of citizens gradually decreased from about thirty to twenty-one thousand. If, on the contrary, we study the growth of the Roman Republic, we may discover, that, notwithstanding the incessant demands of wars and colonies, the citizens, who, in the first census of Servius Tul- The provinces of the empire (as they The Provinces. lius, amounted to no more than eighty-three thousand, have been described in the preceding chapwere multiplied, before the commencement of the so- ter) were destitute of any public force, or constitutional cial war, to the number of four hundred and sixty-freedom. In Etruria, in Greece, and in Gaul,' it was three thousand men, able to bear arms in the service the first care of the Senate to dissolve those dangerous of their country. When the allies of Rome claimed confederacies, which taught mankind, that, as the Roan equal share of honours and privileges, the Senate man arms prevailed by division, they might be resisted indeed preferred the chance of arms to an ignominious by union. Those princes, whom the ostentation of gratconcession. The Samnites and the Lucanians paid itude or generosity permitted for a while to hold a prethe severe penalty of their rashness; but the rest of carious sceptre, were dismissed from their thrones, as the Italian States, as they successively returned to soon as they had performed their appointed task of their duty, were admitted into the bosom of the repub- fashioning to the yoke the vanquished nations. The lic, and soon contributed to the ruin of public free-free states and cities which had embraced the cause dom. Under a democratical government, the citizens of Rome were rewarded with a nominal alliance, and exercise the powers of sovereignty; and those powers insensibly sunk into real servitude. The public auwill be first abused, and afterwards lost, if they are thority was every where exercised by the ministers of committed to an unwieldy multitude. But when the the Senate and of the emperors, and that authority popular assemblies had been suppressed by the ad- was absolute, and without control. But the same salministration of the emperors, the conquerors were dis-utary maxims of government, which had secured the tinguished from the vanquished nations, only as the first and most honourable order of subjects; and their increase, however rapid, was no longer exposed to the same dangers. Yet the wisest princes, who adopted the maxims of Augustus, guarded with the strictest care the dignity of the Roman name, and diffused the freedom of the city with a prudent liberality.b

Italy.

peace and obedience of Italy, were extended to the most distant conquests. A nation of Romans was gradually formed in the provinces, by the double expedient of introducing colonies, and of admitting the most faithful and deserving of the provincials to the freedom of Rome. "Wheresoever the Roman conquers, Colonies and muhe inhabits," is a very just observation nicipal towns. Till the privileges of Romans had been of Seneca, confirmed by history and experience. progressively extended to all the inhabi- The natives of Italy, allured by pleasure or by intertants of the empire, an important distinction was pre-est, hastened to enjoy the advantages of victory; and served between Italy and the provinces. The former was esteemed the centre of public unity, and the firm basis of the constitution. Italy claimed the birth, or at least the residence, of the emperors and the Senate. The estates of the Italians were exempt from taxes, their persons from the arbitrary jurisdiction of governors. Their municipal corporations, formed after the perfect model of the capital, were intrusted, under the immediate eye of the supreme power, with the execution of the laws. From the foot of the Alps to the extremity of Calabria, all the natives of Italy were born citizens of Rome. Their partial distinctions were obliterated, and they insensibly coalesced into one great nation, united by language, manners, and civil institutions, and equal to the weight of a powerful empire. The republic gloried in her generous policy, and was frequently rewarded by the merit and services of her adopted sons. Had she always confined the distinction of Romans to the ancient families within the walls of the city, that immortal name would have been deprived of some of its noblest ornaments. Virgil was a native of Mantua; Horace was inclined to doubt whether he should call himself an Apulian or a Lucanian: it was in Padua that an historian was found worthy to record the majestic series of Roman victories. The patriot family of the Catos emerged from Tusculum; and the little town of Arpinum

u Tacit. Annal. xi. 24. The Orbis Romanus of the learned Spanheim is a complete history of the progressive admission of Latium, Italy, and the provinces, to the freedom of Rome.

x Herodotus, v. 97. It should seem, however, that he followed a large and popular estimation.

y Athenæus, Deipnosophist. 1. vi. p. 272. Edit. Casaubon. Meursius de Fortunâ, c. 4.

z See a very accurate collection of the numbers of each Lustrum in M. de. Beaufort, Republique Romaine, 1. iv. c. 4.

a Appian. de Bell. Civil. 1. i. Velleius Paterculus, 1. ii. c. 15-17. b Mecenas had advised him to declare, by one edict, all his subjects citizens. But we may justly suspect that the historian Dion was the author of a counsel, so much adapted to the practice of his own age, and so little to that of Augustus.

The senators were obliged to have one-third of their own landed property in Italy. See Plin. 1 vi. ep. 19. The qualification was reduced by Marcus to one-fourth. Since the reign of Trajan, Italy had sunk neurer to the level of the provinces.

we may remark, that about forty years after the reduction of Asia, eighty thousand Romans were massacred in one day, by the cruel orders of Mithridates. These voluntary exiles were engaged, for the most part, in the occupations of commerce, agriculture, and the farm of the revenue. But after the legions were rendered permanent by the emperors, the provinces were peopled by a race of soldiers; and the veterans, whether they received the reward of their services in land or in money, usually settled, with their families, in the country where they had honourably spent their youth. Throughout the empire, but more particularly in the western parts, the most fertile districts and the most convenient situations, were reserved for the establishment of colonies; some of which were of a civil, and others of a military, nature. In their manners and internal policy, the colonies formed a perfect representation of their great parent; and they were soon endeared to the natives by the ties of friendship and alliance, they effectually diffused a reverence for the Roman name, and a desire, which was seldom disappointed, of sharing, in due time, its honours and advantages. The municipal cities insensibly equalled the rank and splendour of the colonies; and in the reign of Hadrian, it was disputed which was the preferable condition, of those societies which had issued from, or those which had been re

under the Cæsars.

d The first part of the Verona Illustrata of the Marquis Maffei gives the clearest and most comprehensive view of the state of Italy e See Pausanias, 1. vii. The Romans condescended to restore the names of those assemblies, when they could no longer be dangerous. f They are frequently mentioned by Cæsar. The Abbé Dubos attempts, with very little success, to prove that the assemblies of Gaul were continued under the emperors. Histoire de l'Etablissement de la Monarchie Françoise, 1. i c. 4.

g Seneca in Consolat. ad Helviam, c. 6.

h Memnon apud Photium, c. 33. Valer. Maxim. ix. 2. Plutarch and Dion Cassius swell the massacre to 150,000 citizens; but I should esteem the smaller number to be more than sufficient.

iTwenty-five colonies were settled in Spain, (see Plin. Hist. Natür. iii. 3. 4. iv. 35.) and nine in Britain, of which London, Colchester, Lincoln, Chester, Gloucester, and Bath, still remain considerable cities (Soe Richard of Cirencester, p. 36. and Whitaker's history of Manchestor, I. i. c. 3.)

ceived into, the bosom of Rome. The right of La-person of Trajan, produced an emperor whom the tium, as it was called, conferred on the cities to which Scipios would not have disowned for their countryit had been granted, a more partial favour. The man. The situation of the Greeks was very different magistrates only, at the expiration of their office, as- from that of the barbarians. The former had been sumed the quality of Roman citizens; but as those long since civilized and corrupted. They had too offices were annual, in a few years they circulated round much taste to relinquish their language, and too much the principal families. Those of the provincials who vanity to adopt any foreign institutions. Still prewere permitted to bear arms in the legions; those serving the prejudices, after they had lost the virtues, who exercised any civil employment; all, in a word, of their ancestors, they affected to despise the unpolwho performed any public service, or displayed any ished manners of the Roman conquerors, whilst they personal talents, were rewarded with a present, whose were compelled to respect their superior wisdom and value was continually diminished by the increasing power. Nor was the influence of the Grecian lanliberality of the emperors. Yet even, in the age of guage and sentiments confined to the narrow limits of the Antonines, when the freedom of the city had been that once celebrated country. Their empire, by the bestowed on the greater number of their subjects, it progress of colonies and conquest, had been diffused was still accompanied with very solid advantages. from the Hadriatic to the Euphrates and the Nile. The bulk of the people acquired, with that title, the Asia was covered with Greek cities, and the long benefit of the Roman laws, particularly in the inter-reign of the Macedonian kings had introduced a silent esting articles of marriage, testaments, and inheri- revolution into Syria and Egypt. In their pompous tances; and the road of fortune was open to those whose pretensions were seconded by favour or merit. The grandsons of the Gauls, who had besieged Julius Cæsar in Alesia, commanded legions, governed provinces, and were admitted into the Senate of Rome. Their ambition, instead of disturbing the tranquillity of the State, was intimately connected with its safety and greatness.

courts those princes united the elegance of Athens with the luxury of the East, and the example of the court was imitated, at a humble distance, by the higher ranks of their subjects. Such was the general division of the Roman empire into the Latin and Greek languages. To these we may add a third distinction for the body of the natives in Syria, and especially in Egypt. The use of their ancient dialects, by secluding them from the commerce of mankind, checked the improvements of those barbarians. The slothful efferninacy of the former exposed them to the contempt, the sullen ferociousness of the latter excited the aversion, of the conquerors." Those nations had submitted to the Roman power, but they seldom desired or deserved the freedom of the city and it was remarked, that more than two hundred and thirty years elapsed after the ruin of the Ptolemies, before an Egyptian was admitted into the senate of Rome.

Division of the So sensible were the Romans of the Latin and the influence of language over national manGreek provinces. ners, that it was their most serious care to extend, with the progress of their arms, the use of the Latin tongue. The ancient dialects of Italy, the Sabine, the Etruscan, and the Venetian, sunk into oblivion; but in the provinces, the east was less docile than the west to the voice of its victorious preceptors. This obvious difference marked the two portions of the empire with a distinction of colours, which, though it was in some degree concealed during It is a just though trite observation, General use of the meridian splendour of prosperity, became gradu- that victorious Rome was herself sub- both languages. ally more visible, as the shades of night descended dued by the arts of Greece. Those immortal writers upon the Roman world. The western countries were who still command the admiration of modern Europe, civilized by the same hands which subdued them. soon became the favourite object of study and imitaAs soon as the barbarians were reconciled to obe- tion in Italy and the western provinces. But the eledience, their minds were opened to any new impres- gant amusements of the Romans were not suffered to sions of knowledge and politeness. The language of interfere with their sound maxims of policy. Whilst Virgil and Cicero, though with some inevitable mix- they acknowledged the charms of the Greek, they ture of corruption, was so universally adopted in asserted the dignity of the Latin, tongue, and the exAfrica, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and Pannonia, that the clusive use of the latter was inflexibly maintained in faint traces of the Punic or Celtic idioms were pre- the administration of civil as well as military govserved only in the mountains, or among the pea- ernment. The two languages exercised at the same sants. Education and study insensibly inspired the time their separate jurisdiction throughout the empire: natives of those countries with the sentiments of Ro- the former, as the natural idiom of science; the latmans; and Italy gave fashions, as well as laws, to ter, as the legal dialect of public transactions. Those her Latin provincials. They solicited with more ar- who united letters with business were equally converdour, and obtained with more facility, the freedom sant with both; and it was almost impossible, in any and honours of the state; supported the national dig-province, to find a Roman subject, of a liberal educanity in letters and in arms; and, at length, in the

Aul. Gell. Noctes Atticæ, xvi. 13. The emperor Hadrian expressed his surprise, that the cities of Utica, Gudes, and Itatica, which already enjoyed the rights of Municipia, should solicit the title of colonies. Their example, however, became fashionable, and the empire was filled with honorary colonies. See Spanheim, de Usu Numisma

tum, Dissertat. xiii.

1 Spanheim, Orbis Roman. c. 8. p. 62.

m Aristid. in Romæ Encomio, tom. i. p. 218. Edit. Jobb. n Tacit. Annal. xi. 23, 24. Hist. iv. 74. name remains in that of Auxois the name of the country. The victory [Alesia was near to Semur en Auxois in Burgundy. A trace of this of Cæsar in Alesia may serve, says D'Anville, as the date of the sub

jugation of Gaul to the Roman power.-G]

See Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 5. Angustin, de Civitate Dei. xix. 7. Lipsius de pronnnciatione Linguæ Latina, c. 3.

P Apuleius and Augustin will answer for Africa; Strabo for Spain and Gaul; Tacitus, in the life of Agricola, for Britain; and Velleius Paterculus, for Pannonia. To them we may add the language of the inscriptions.

The Celtic was preserved in the mountains of Wales, Cornwall, and Armorica. We may observe that Apuleius reproaches an African youth, who lived among the populace, with the use of the Punic; whilst he had almost forgot Greek, and neither could nor would speak Latin. (Apolog. p. 596.) The greater part of St. Austin's congregations were strangers to the Punic.

Spain alone produced Columella, the Senecas, Lucan, Martial, and Quintilian.

VOL. I.-D

tion, who was at once a stranger to the Greek and to the Latin language.

Slaves.

It was by such institutions that the nations of the empire insensibly melted away into the Roman name and people. But there still remained, in the centre of every province and of every family, an unhappy condition of men, who endured the weight, without sharing the benefits, of soslaves were exposed to the wanton rigour of despociety. In the free states of antiquity, the domestic tism. The perfect settlement of the Roman empire

There is not, I believe, from Dionysius to Libanas, a single Greek critic who mentions Virgil or Horace. They seem ignorant that the Romans had any good writers.

t The curious reader may see in Dupin (Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique, tom. xix. p. 1. c. 8.) how much the use of the Syriac and Egyptian lan guages was still preserved.

u See Juvenal, Sat. iii. and xv. Ammian. Marcelin. xxii. 16. * Dion Cassius, 1. lxxvii. p. 1275. The first instance happened under the reign of Septimius Severus.

y See Valerius Maximus, 1. ii. c. 2. n. 2. The Emperor Claudius disfranchised an eminent Grecian for not understanding Latin. He was probably in some public office. Suetonius in Claud. c. 16.

Their treatment.

was preceded by ages of violence and cruel treatment, seemed almost justified by the great rapine. The slaves consisted, for the law of self preservation. But when the principal most part, of barbarian captives, taken in thousands nations of Europe, Asia, and Africa, were united unby the chance of war, purchased at a vile price, ac-der the laws of one sovereign, the source of foreign customed to a life of independence, and impatient to supplies flowed with much less abundance, and the break and to revenge their fetters. Against such in- Romans were reduced to the milder but more tedious ternal enemies, whose desperate insurrections had method of propagation. In their numerous families, more than once reduced the republic to the brink of de- and particularly in their country estates, they encourstruction, the most severe regulations, and the most aged the marriage of their slaves. The sentiments of z In the camp of Lucullus, an ox sold for a drachma, and a slave for nature, the habits of education, and the possession of four drachmæ, or about three shillings. Plutarch in Lucull. p. 580. a dependent species of property, contributed to alle[It was for this reason that wars were so sanguinary and combats viate the hardships of servitude. The existence of a so deadly. The immortal Robertson, in an excellent discourse upon slave became an object of greater value, and though the state of the world at the time of the establishment of Christianity, has traced a picture of the fatal effects of slavery, in which we see his happiness still depended on the temper and cirthe depth of his views and the solidity of his judgment. I will suc cumstances of the master, the humanity of the latter, cessively contrast some passages from it with the reflections of Gibbon. We cannot see without interest, truths which Gibbon appears to instead of being restrained by fear, was encouraged have forgotten, or voluntarily neglected, thus developed by one of the by the sense of his own interest. The progress of best of modern historians. Is is necessary to repeat them here in order to establish the facts and their consequences with accuracy. I shall have manners was accelerated by the virtue or policy of occasion more than once, to employ for this purpose, the discourse of the emperors; and by the edicts of Hadrian and the Robertson." Prisoners of war," says he, "were probably at first sub- Antonines, the protection of the laws was extended to jected to constant servitude. In proportion as necessity or luxury rendered a greater number of slaves necessary, they supplied the de- the most abject part of mankind. The jurisdiction of ficiency by new wars, always condemning the conquered to this un- life and death over the slaves, a power long exercised happy situation. From hence arose that spirit of ferocity and despair and often abused, was taken out of private hands, and which characterized the combats of the ancients. Chains and slavery were the lot of the conquered; thus they engaged in battle and de- reserved to the magistrates alone. The subterraneous fended their cities with a fury and an obstinacy which the dread of prisons were abolished; and, upon a just complaint such a fate alone could inspire. When the evils of slavery disappear of intolerable treatment, the injured slave obtained ed, Christianity extended her beneficent influence to mitigate the mode of warfare; and this barbarous art, softened by the spirit of either his deliverance, or a less cruel master. philanthropy which religion inspired, lost its devastating power. Se cure, whatever might happen, of his personal liberty, the conquered reaisted with less violence, and the triumph of the conqueror was less cruel. Thus humanity was introduced into the camp where before she was a stranger: and if the victories of our times are less stained with cruelty and blood, it is to the benevolent principles of the Christian religion, rather than to any other cause, that we must attribute it."-G.] b Diodorus Siculus in Eclog. Hist. 1. xxxiv. and xxxvi. Florus, iii. See a remarkable instance of severity in Cicero in Verrem. v. 3. [Let us look at this example-we shall see if the word severity is here in its place

19, 20.

Hope, the best comfort of our imper- Enfranchisement. fect condition, was not denied to the Roman slave; and if he had any opportunity of rendering himself either useful or agreeable, he might very naturally expect that the diligence and fidelity of a few years would be rewarded with the inestimable gift of freedom. The benevolence of the master was so frequently prompted by the meaner suggestions of vanity and avarice, that the laws found it more necessary to restrain than to encourage a pro

During the time when L. Domitius was prætor in Sicily, a slave slew a wild boar of extraordinary size. The prætor, astonished at the dexfuse and undistinguishing liberality, which might deterity and intrepidity of the man, desired to see him. The poor unfortunate, exceedingly gratified with this distinction, presented himself generate into a very dangerous abuse. It was a before the prætor, doubtless expecting reward and praise; but Do- maxim of ancient jurisprudence, that a slave had not mitius learning that he had used only a spear to overcome and slay the animal, commanded that he should be immediately executed, under any country of his own; he acquired with his libthe barbarous pretext that the law forbade slaves to use this weapon erty an admission into the political society of which as well as all others. Perhaps the cruelty of Domitius is still less astonishing than the indifference with which the Roman orator relates his patron was a member. The consequences of this incident. He is so little affected that he remarks,-Durum hoc this maxim would have prostituted the privileges fortasse videatur, neque ego in ullam partem disputo. "This perhaps of the Roman city to a may appear hard, as for myself I give no opinion on either side." (Cic. mean and promiscuous in Verr.) and is this the orator who says in the same speech, Facinus multitude. Some seasonable exceptions were thereest vincire civem Romanum; scelus verberare; prope parricidium ne- fore provided; and the honourable distinction was care; quid dicam in crucem tollere? "It is an offense to bind a Roman citizen; it is a crime to scourge him; almost parricide to slay confined to such slaves only as, for just causes, and him: what shall I say then of his execution upon the cross?" In gen with the approbation of the magistrate, should receive eral, this passage from Gibbon on slavery is full, not only of a blamable indifference, but of an exaggerated impartiality, which almost a solemn and legal manumission. Even these chosen amounts to dishonesty. He endeavours to extenuate the horrors of freedmen obtained no more than the private rights of the slave's situation, and of the treatment he endures; he seems to citizens and were rigorously excluded from civil or consider their cruel treatment as being justified by necessity. He then sets forth with a minute exactness the slightest alleviation of a con military honours. Whatever might be the merit or dition so deplorable. He attributes the progressive amelioration of fortune of their sons, they likewise were esteemed unslavery to the virtue or to the policy of the sovereigns, and entirely worthy of a seat in the Senate; nor were the traces passes over in silence, the most efficacious cause, Christianity; which, after having rendered the slaves less unhappy, has contributed at last of a servile origin allowed to be completely obliterato release them wholly from their sufferings and their chains. It would ted till the third or fourth generation. Without debe easy here to give the most frightful and heart-rending accounts of the manner in which the ancient Romans treated their slaves. Entire volumes are occupied with the details. I forbear to relate them. Some nature can develop themselves, and habits of education become mild reflections of Robertson, from the discourse I have already cited, will and powerful? We must not attribute to causes inefficacious, or show that Gibbon, having placed the commencement of the ameliora-even without energy, effects, which, in order to be explained, must be tion of the slave's destiny a little after the establishment of Christian traced to more powerful principles; and, since small causes may have ity in the world, could not have avoided acknowledging the influence had an evident influence, we must not forget that they are themselves of this benign cause if he had not chosen to say nothing about it.—the effect of a first cause, higher and more enlarged, which, giving to "Scarcely," says Robertson, "had absolute sovereignty introduced the mind and character a more disinterested and humane direction, itself into the Roman empire when domestic tyranny was brought to disposes men by their conduct and by a change of their habits to its height. From this impure soil grew and flourished all the vices second and bring forward the happy results it would produce.-G.] which the exercise of power nourishes among the great, and the prac- d[The Romans permitted a sort of marriage contubernium among tice of oppression causes to spring up among the wretched. It is not their slaves, as well in the first ages of the republic as in latter times. the respect inspired by any particular precept of the Gospel, it is the Notwithstanding their luxury soon rendered a greater number of slaves general spirit of the Christian religion which, more powerful than all necessary, (Strab. book xiv. p. 668.) the increase of slave population written laws, has banished slavery from the earth. The sentiments was not sufficient, and they had recourse to the slave marts which which Christianity dictated were mild and benevolent; its precepts they had established for themselves in those provinces of the East subgave to human nature such a dignity, such a glory, that they wrested ject to the Romans. They knew besides, that slavery is a state unfait from the disgraceful servitude into which it was plunged." It is vourable to increase of population.-(See the Essays of Hume, and then in vain that Gibbon pretends uniformly to attribute the gentle the Essay upon the principle of propagation, by Malthus, vol. 1. p. treatment the Romans began to adopt towards their slaves, from the 334.)-G.] time of the emperors, to their desire to preserve the necessary number. e See in Gruter, and the other collectors, a great number of inscripThis cause had operated thus far in a contrary manner; for what reations addressed by slaves to their wives, children, fellow-servants, masson had it, all at once, an opposite influence? "Their masters," says ters, &c. They are all, most probably, of the imperial age. he, "favoured marriage among their slaves"-and, "the sentiments f See the Augustan History, and a dissertation of M. de Burigny, in of nature and habits of education contributed to alleviate the hardships the 35th volume of the Academy of Inscriptions, upon the Roman slaves. of servitude." The children of slaves were the property of the master, See another dissertation of M. de Burigny, in the 37th volume, on who could dispose of them as of his other possessions. Is it in such a the Roman freedmen. situation, and in such a state of dependence that the sentiments of

h Spanheim, Orbis Roman. 1. i. c. 16. p. 124, &c.

stroying the distinction of ranks, a distant prospect modern Europe, and forms the most numerous socieof freedom and honours was presented, even to those ty that has ever been united under the same system whom pride and prejudice almost disdained to number of government. among the human species.

ments.

Domestic peace and union were the Obedienco and It was once proposed to discriminate natural consequences of the moderate and union. Numbers. the slaves by a peculiar habit; but it comprehensive policy embraced by the Romans. If was justly apprehended that there might be some we turn our eyes towards the monarchies of Asia, we danger in acquainting them with their own num- shall behold despotism in the centre, and weakness in bers.i Without interpreting, in their utmost strict- the extremities; the collection of the revenue, or the ness, the liberal appellations of legions and myr- administration of justice, enforced by the presence of an iads, we may venture to pronounce, that the propor- army; hostile barbarians established in the heart of tion of slaves, who were valued as property, was more the country; hereditary satraps usurping the dominion considerable than that of servants, who can be com- of the provinces; and subjects inclined to rebellion, puted only as an expense. The youths of a prom-though incapable of freedom. But the obedience of ising genius were instructed in the arts and sciences, the Roman world was uniform, voluntary, and permaand their price was ascertained by the degree of their nent. The vanquished nations, blended into one great skill and talents. Almost every profession, either people, resigned the hope, nay even the wish, of reliberal or mechanical, might be found in the house- suming their independence, and scarcely considered hold of an opulent senator. The ministers of pomp their own existence as distinct from the existence of and sensuality were multiplied beyond the conception Rome. The established authority of the emperors of modern luxury." It was more for the interest of pervaded without an effort the wide extent of their the merchant or manufacturer to purchase than to hire dominions, and was exercised with the same facility his workmen; and in the country, slaves were em- on the banks of the Thames, or of the Nile, as on ployed as the cheapest and most laborious instruments those of the Tyber. The legions were destined to of agriculture. To confirm the general observation, serve against the public enemy, and the civil magisand to display the multitude of slaves, we might trate seldom required the aid of a military force.' In allege a variety of particular instances. It was dis- this state of general security, the leisure as well as covered, on a very melancholy occasion, that four opulence both of the prince and people, were devoted hundred slaves were maintained in a single palace of to improve and to adorn the Roman empire. Rome. The same number of four hundred belonged Among the innumerable monuments. Roman monuto an estate which an African widow, of a very pri- of architecture constructed by the Rovate condition, resigned to her son, whilst she reserv-mans, how many have escaped the notice of history! ed for herself a much larger share of her property. A how few have resisted the ravages of time and barfreedman under the reign of Augustus, though his for- barism! And yet even the majestic ruins that are tune had suffered great losses in the civil wars, left be- still scattered over Italy and the provinces, would be hind him three thousand six hundred yoke of oxen, two sufficient to prove, that those countries were once the hundred and fifty thousand head of smaller cattle, and, seat of a polite and powerful empire. Their greatwhat was almost included in the description of cattle, ness alone, or their beauty, might deserve our attenfour thousand one hundred and sixteen slaves. tion; but they are rendered more interesting, by two The number of subjects who acknowl- important circumstances, which connect the agreeable Populousness of the Roman em edged the laws of Rome, of citizens, of history of the arts with the more useful history of provincials, and of slaves, cannot now human manners. Many of those works were erected be fixed with such a degree of accuracy as the impor- at private expense, and almost all were intended for tance of the object would deserve. We are informed, public benefit. that when the emperor Claudius exercised the office It is natural to suppose that the great- Many of them of censor, he took an account of six millions nine est number, as well as the most con- erected at prihundred and forty-five thousand Roman citizens, who, siderable, of the Roman edifices, were with the proportion of women and children, must have raised by the emperors, who possessed so unbounded amounted to about twenty millions of souls. The a command both of men and money. Augustus was multitude of subjects of an inferior rank, was uncer-accustomed to boast, that he had found his capitol of tain and fluctuating. But, after weighing with attention every circumstance which could influence the balance, it seems probable, that there existed, in the time of Claudius, about twice as many provincials as there were citizens, of either sex, and of every age; and that the slaves were at least equal in number to the free inhabitants of the Roman world." The total amount of this imperfect calculation would rise to about one hundred and twenty millions of persons: a degree of population which possibly exceeds that of

pire.

sent."

i Seneca de Clementiâ, 1. i. c. 24. The original is much stronger, "Quantum periculum immineret si servi nostri numerare nos cœpis. See Pliny (Hist. Natur. I. xxxiii.) and Athenæus (Deipnosophist. 1. vi. p. 472.) The latter boldly asserts, that he knew very many (μA) Romans who possessed, not for use, but ostentation, ten and even twenty thousand slaves.

In Paris there are not more than 43,700 domestics of every sort, and not a twelfth part of the inhabitants. Messange Recherches sur la Population, p. 186.

A learned slave sold for many hundred pounds sterling: Atticus always bred and taught them himself. Cornel. Nepos in Vit. c. 13. Many of the Roman physicians were slaves. See Dr. Middleton's Dissertation and Defence.

Their ranks and offices are very copiously enumerated by Pigno

rius de Servis.

Tacit. Annal. xiv. 43. They all were executed for not preventing their master's murder.

P Apuleius in Apolog. p. 548. Edit. Delphin.

q Plin. Hist. Natur. 1. xxxiii. 47..

vate expense.

brick, and that he had left it of marble." The strict economy of Vespasian was the source of his magnificence. The works of Trajan bear the stamp of his genius. The public monuments with which Hadrian adorned every province of the empire, were executed not only by his orders, but under his immediate inspection. He was himself an artist; and he loved the arts, as they conduced to the glory of the monarch. They were encouraged by the Antonines, as they contributed to the happiness of the people. But if the emperors were the first, they were not the only, architects of their dominions. Their example was universally imitated by their principal subjects, who were not afraid of declaring to the world that they had spirit to conceive, and wealth to accomplish, the noblest

Compute twenty millions in France, twenty-two in Germany, four in Hungary, ten in Italy with its islands, eight in Great Britain and Ireland, eight in Spain and Portugal, ten or twelve in the European Russia, six in Poland, six in Greece and Turkey, four in Sweden, three The whole in Denmark and Norway, four in the Low Countries. would amount to one hundred and five or one hundred and seven millions. See Voltaire, de Histoire Generale.

t Joseph. de Bell. Judaico, 1. ii. c. 16. The oration of Agrippa, or rather of the historian, ia a fine picture of the Roman empire.

u Sueton. in August. c. 28. Augustus built in Rome the temple and forum of Mars the Avenger; the temple of Jupiter Tonans in the Cap: itol; that of Apollo Palatine, with public libraries; the portico and basilica of Caius and Lucius; the porticos of Livia and Octavia; and the theatre of Marcellus. The example of the sovereign was imitated

r [According to Robertson there were twice as many slaves as free by his ministers and generals; and his friend Agrippa left behind him

Pitizens.-G.]

the immortal monument the Pantheon.