CHA P. celebrated writer of our own times has traced of 53 the military government of the Roman empire. The were they not at length of the fame nature "as thofe formerly pronounced to the people "by the confuls and the tribunes? And al"though the armies had no regular place or "forms of affembly; though their debates "were short, their action fudden, and their "refolves feldom the refult of cool reflection, "did they not difpofe, with abfolute fway, of "the public fortune? What was the emperor, "except the minister of a violent government, "elected for the private benefit of the foldiers? "When the army had elected Philip, who was "Prætorian præfect to the third Gordian, the 53 Can the epithet of Aristocracy be applied, with any propriety, to the government of Algiers? Every military government floats between the extremes of abfolute monarchy and wild democracy. 54 The military republic of the Mamalukes in Egypt, would have afforded M. de Montefquieu (see Confiderations fur la Grandeur et la Decadence des Romains, c. 16.) a juster and more noble parallel. "latter 66 VII. "latter demanded, that he might remain fole C H A P. emperor; he was unable to obtain it. He "requested, that the power might be equally "divided between them; the army would not "liften to his speech. He consented to be de"graded to the rank of Cæfar; the favour was "refufed him. He defired, at leaft, he might "be appointed Prætorian præfect; his prayer "was rejected. Finally, he pleaded for his life. "The army, in thefe feveral judgments, exer"cifed the fupreme magiftracy." According to the hiftorian, whofe doubtful narrative the Prefident De Montefquieu has adopted, Philip, who, during the whole tranfaction, had preferved a fullen filence, was inclined to spare the innocent life of his benefactor; till, recollecting that his innocence might excite a dangerous compaffion in the Roman world, he commanded, without regard to his fuppliant cries, that he should be feized, stript, and led away to inftant death. After a moment's paufe, the inhuman fentence was executed 55. On his return from the East to Rome, Philip, Reign of defirous of obliterating the memory of his crimes, Philip. and of captivating the affections of the people, folemnized the fecular games with infinite pomp 55 The Auguftan Hiftory (p. 163, 164.) cannot, in this inftance, be reconciled with itself or with probability. How could Philip condemn his predeceffor, and yet confecrate his memory? How could he order his public execution, and yet, in his letters to the fenate, exculpate himself from the guilt of his death? Philip, though an ambitious ufurper, was by no means a mad tyrant. Some chronological difficulties have likewise been discovered by the nice eyes of Tillemont and Muratori, in this supposed association of Philip to the empire. CHAP. and magnificence. VII. Secular games. A.D. 248. April 21. The Since their inftitution or revival by Auguftus ", they had been celebrated by Claudius, by Domitian, and by Severus, and were now renewed the fifth time, on the accomplishment of the full period of a thousand years from the foundation of Rome. Every circumftance of the fecular games was fkilfully adapted to infpire the fuperftitious mind with deep and folemn reverence, long interval between them 57 exceeded the term of human life; and as none of the spectators had already feen them, none could flatter themselves with the expectation of beholding them a fecond time. The myftic facrifices were performed, during three nights, on the banks of the Tyber; and the Campus Martius refounded with mufic and dances, and was illuminated with innumerable lamps and torches. Slaves and ftrangers were excluded from any participation in thefe national ceremonies. A chorus of twenty-feven youths, and as many virgins, of noble families, and whose parents were both alive, implored the propitious gods in favour of the prefent, and for the hope 56 The account of the laft fuppofed celebration, though in an enlightened period of hiftory, was fo very doubtful and obfcure, that the alternative seems not doubtful. When the popish jubilees, the copy of the fecular games, were invented by Boniface VIII. the crafty pope pretended that he only revived an ancient inftitution. See M. le Chais Lettres fur les Jubilès. 57 Either of a hundred, or a hundred and ten years. Varro and Livy adopted the former opinion, but the infallible authority of the Sibyl confecrated the latter (Cenforinus de Die Natal. c. 17.). The Emperor's Claudius and Philip, however, did not treat the oracle with implicit refpect. of VII. of the rifing generation; requefting, in religious CHA P. hymns, that, according to the faith of their ancient oracles, they would ftill maintain the virtue, the felicity, and the empire of the Roman people 58. The magnificence of Philip's fhows and entertainments dazzled the eyes of the multitude. The devout were employed in the rites of fuperftition, whilft the reflecting few revolved in their anxious minds the past history and the future fate of the empire. Since Romulus, with a finall band of thepherds Decline of and outlaws fortified himfelf on the hills near the Roman the Tyber, ten centuries had already elapfed". empire. During the four firft ages, the Romans, in the laborious fchool of poverty, had acquired the virtues of war and government: By the vigorous exertion of thofe virtues, and by the affiftance of fortune, they had obtained, in the course of the three fucceeding centuries, an abfolute empire over many countries of Europe, Afia, and Africa. The last three hundred years had been confumed in apparent profperity and internal decline. The nation of foldiers, magiftrates, and legiflators, who compofed the thirtyfive tribes of the Roman people, was diffolved into the common mafs of mankind, and confounded with the millions of fervile provincials, 58 The idea of the fecular games is best understood from the poem of Horace, and the description of Zofimus, l. ii. p. 167, &c. 59 The received calculation of Varro affigns to the foundation of Rome an æra that corresponds with the 754th year before Christ. But fo little is the chronology of Rome to be depended on, in the more early ages, that Sir Ifaac Newton has brought the fame event as low as the year 627. who CHAP. who had received the name, without adopting VII. the fpirit of Romans. A mercenary army, levied among the fubjects and barbarians of the frontier, was the only order of men who preferved and abused their independence. By their tumultuary election, a Syrian, a Goth, or an Arab, was exalted to the throne of Rome, and invested with defpotic power over the conquefts and over the country of the Scipios. The The limits of the Roman empire ftill extended from the Western Ocean to the Tigris, and from Mount Atlas to the Rhine and the Danube. To the undifcerning eye of the vulgar, Philip appeared a monarch no lefs powerful than Hadrian or Auguftus had formerly been. form was ftill the same, but the animating health and vigour were fled. The industry of the people was difcouraged and exhaufted by a long feries of oppreffion. The difcipline of the legions, which alone, after the extinction of every other virtue, had propped the greatness of the ftate, was corrupted by the ambition, or relaxed by the weakness, of the emperors. ftrength of the frontiers, which had always confifted in arms rather than in fortifications, was infenfibly undermined; and the faireft provinces were left expofed to the rapacioufnefs or ambition of the barbarians, who foon difcovered the decline of the Roman empire. The |