VI.

change, which undermined the foundations of CHA P. the empire, we have endeavoured to explain with fome degree of order and perfpicuity. The perfonal characters of the Emperors, their victories, laws, follies, and fortunes, can interest us no farther than as they are connected with the general hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the monarchy. Our conftant attention to that great object will not fuffer us to overlook a moft important edict of Antoninus Caracalla, which communicated to all the free inhabitants of the empire the name and privileges of Roman citizens. His unbounded liberality flowed not, however, from the fentiments of a generous mind; it was the fordid refult of avarice, and will naturally be illuftrated by fome obfervations on the finances of that ftate, from the victorious ages of the commonwealth to the reign of Alexander Severus.

ment

The fiege of Veii in Tufcany, the firft con- Establishfiderable enterprize of the Romans, was protracted to the tenth year, much lefs by the ftrength of the place than by the unfkilfulness of the befiegers. The unaccustomed hardships of fo many winter campaigns, at the diftance of near twenty miles from home, required more than common encouragements; and the fenate

81

According to the more accurate Dionyfius, the city itself was only an hundred ftadia, or twelve miles and a half from Rome; though fome out-pofts might be advanced farther on the fide of Etruria. Nardini, in a profeffed treatise, has combated the popular opinion and the authority of two popes, and has removed Veii from Civita Caftellana, to a little spot called Isola, in the midway between Rome and the lake Bracciano.

wifely

CHAP. wifely prevented the clamours of the people, by VI. the inftitution of a regular pay for the foldiers,

which was levied by a general tribute, affeffed according to an equitable proportion on the property of the citizens 2. During more than two hundred years after the conqueft of Veii, the victories of the republic added lefs to the wealth than to the power of Rome. The states of Italy paid their tribute in military service only, and the vast force both by fea and land, which was exerted in the Punic wars, was maintained at the expence of the Romans themfelves. That high-fpirited people (fuch is often the generous enthufiafm of freedom) cheerfully fubmitted to the moft exceffive but voluntary burdens, in the just confidence that they should fpeedily enjoy the rich harveft of their labours. Their expectations were not difappointed. In the courfe of a few years, the riches of Syracufe, of Carthage, of Macedonia, and of Afia, were brought in triumph to Rome. The treation of the fures of Perfeus alone amounted to near two millions fterling, and the Roman people, the fovereign of fo many nations, was for ever delivered from the weight of taxes 83. The increafing revenue of the provinces was found fufficient to defray the ordinary establishment of war and government, and the fuperfluous mafs of gold and filver was depofited in the temple of

and aboli

tribute on

Roman ci

tizens.

82 See the 4th and 5th books of Livy. In the Roman Cenfus, property, power, and taxation, were commenfurate with each other.

83 Plin. Hift. Natur. 1. xxxiii. c. 3. Cicero de Offic. ii. 22. Plutarch. in P. Æmil. p. 275.

Saturn

257

Saturn, and referved for any unforeseen emer- Ċ HA P. gency of the state $4.

VI.

vinces ;

History has never perhaps fuffered a greater Tributes or more irreparable injury, than in the lofs of of the prothe curious register bequeathed by Auguftus to the fenate, in which that experienced prince fo accurately balanced the revenues and expences of the Roman empire". Deprived of this clear and comprehenfive estimate, we are reduced to collect a few imperfect.hints from fuch of the ancients as have accidentally turned afide from the fplendid to the more useful parts of hiftory. We are informed that, by the conquefts of Pompey, the tributes of Afia were raised from fifty to of Afia, one hundred and thirty-five millions of drachms; or about four millions and a half sterling. Under the laft and moft indolent of the Ptolemies, the revenue of Egypt is faid to have of Egypt, amounted to twelve thousand five hundred talents; a fum equivalent to more than two mil lions and a half of our money, but which was afterwards confiderably improved by the more exact œconomy of the Romans, and the increase of the trade of Ethiopia and India". Gaul was enriched by rapine, as Egypt was by of Gaul, commerce, and the tributes of those two great provinces have been compared as nearly equal

34 See a fine defcription of this accummulated wealth of ages, in Lucan's Pharf. 1. iii. v. 155, &c.

85 Tacit. in Annal. i. 11. It seems to have exifted in the time of Appian.

86 Plutarch. in Pompeio, p. 642.

VOL. I.

S

87 Strabo, 1. xvii. p. 798.

to

CHAP. to each other in values. The ten thousand Eu

VI.

boic or Phoenician talents, about four millions of Africa, fterling, which vanquished Carthage was condemned to pay within the term of fifty years, were a flight acknowledgment of the fuperiority of Rome, and cannot bear the leaft proportion with the taxes afterwards raised both on the lands and on the perfons of the inhabitants, when the fertile coaft of Africa was reduced into a province91.

of Spain,

Spain, by a very fingular fatality, was the Peru and Mexico of the old world. The difcovery of the rich western continent by the Phoenicians, and the oppreffion of the fimple natives, who were compelled to labour in their own mines for the benefit of ftrangers, form an exact type of the more recent hiftory of Spanish America". The Phoenicians were acquainted only with the fea-coaft of Spain; avarice as well as ambition, carried the arms of Rome and Carthage into the heart of the country, and almost every part of the foil was found pregnant with copper, filver, and gold. Mention is made of a mine near Carthagena which yielded every day twenty-five thousand drachms of filver, or about three hun

88 Velleius Paterculus, 1. ii. c. 39. He feems to give the preference to the revenue of Gaul.

89 The Euboic, the phoenician, and the Alexandrian talents were double in weight to the Attic. See Hooper of Ancient weights and measures, p. iv. c. 5. It is very probable, that the same talent was carried from Tyre to Carthage.

90 Polyb. 1. xv. C. 2.

92 Diodorus Siculus, 1. v.

"Appian in Punicis, p. 84.

Cadiz was built by the Phœnicians,

a little more than a thousand years before Chrift. See Vell. Paterc.

i. 2.

dred

VI.

dred thousand pounds a year". Twenty thou- CHAP. fand pound weight of gold was annually received from the provinces of Auftria, Gallicia, and Lufitania 94.

We want both leifure and materials to purfue of the isle of Gyarus, this curious inquiry through the many potent ftates that were annihilated in the Roman em pire. Some notion, however, may be formed of the revenue of the provinces where confiderable wealth had been depofited by nature, or collected by man, if we obferve the fevere attention that was directed to the abodes of folitude and fterility. Auguftus once received a petition from the inhabitants of Gyarus, humbly praying that they might be relieved from one third of their exceffive impofitions. Their whole tax amounted indeed to no more than one hundred and fifty drachms, or about five pounds: but Gyarus was a little ifland, or rather a rock, of the Ægean fea, deftitute of fresh water and every neceffary of life, and inhabited only by a few wretched fishermen 95.

venue.

From the faint glimmerings of fuch doubtful Amount and fcattered lights we fhould be inclined to of the re believe, ift, That (with every fair allowance for the difference of times and circumftances) the

93 Strabo, l. iii. p. 148.

94 Plin. Hift. Natur. 1. xxxiii. c. 3.

He mentions likewife a filver mine in Dalmatia, that yielded every day fifty pounds to the ftate.

95 Strabo, 1. x. p. 485. Tacit. Annal. iii. 69. and iv. 30. See in Tournefort (Voyages au Levant, Lettre viii.) a very lively picture of the actual misery of Gyarus.