II.

57

they might be refifted by union. Those princes, c H A P. whom the oftentation of gratitude or generofity permitted for a while to hold a precarious fceptre, were difmiffed from their thrones, as foon as they had performed their appointed task of fashioning to the yoke the vanquished nations. The free ftates and cities which had embraced the cause of Rome were rewarded with a nominal alliance, and infenfibly funk into real fervitude. The public authority was every where exercised by the minifters of the fenate and of the emperors, and that authority was abfolute, and without controul. But the fame falutary maxims of government, which had fecured the peace and obedience of Italy, were extended to the most distant conquefts. A nation of Romans was gradually formed in the provinces, by the double expedient of introducing colonies, and of admitting the most faithful and deferving of the provincials to the freedom of Rome.

and mu

nicipal

"Wherefoever the Roman conquers, he in- Colonies "habits," is a very juft obfervation of Seneca3, confirmed by history and experience. The na- towns. tives of Italy, allured by pleasure or by intereft, haftened to enjoy the advantages of victory; and we may remark, that about forty years after the reduction of Afia, eighty thousand Romans were maffacred in one day, by the cruel orders of Mithridates. Thefe voluntary exiles were en

30 Seneca in Confolat. ad Helviam, c.6.

31 Memnon apud Photium, c. 33. Valer. Maxim. ix. 2. Plutarch and Dion Caffius fwell the maffacre to 150,000 citizens; but I fhould esteem the fmaller number to be more than fufficient.

gaged,

II.

CHA P. gaged, for the moft 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 foldiers; and the veterans, whether they received the reward of their fervice in land or in money, ufually fettled 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 diftricts, and the moft conve nient fituations, were referved for the establishment of colonies; fome 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 foon endeared to the natives by the ties of friendship and alliance, they effectually diffused a reverence for the Roman name, and a defire, which was feldom disappointed, of sharing, in due time, its honours and advantages ". The municipal cities infenfibly equalled the rank and splendour of the colonies; and in the reign of Hadrian, it was difputed which was the preferable condition, of thofe focieties which had iffued from, or those which had been received into the bofom of Rome 3. The right of Latium,

32

as

3* Twenty-five colonies were settled in Spain (see Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 3, 4. iv. 35.); and nine in Britain, of which London, Colchester, Lincoln, Chester, Gloucester, and Bath, still remain confiderable cities (see Richard of Cirencester, p.36. and Whitaker's History of Manchefter, l. i. c. 3.)

33 Aul. Gell. Noctes Atticæ, xvi. 13. The Emperor Hadrian expreffed his furprise, that the cities of Utica, Gades, and Itatica,

II.

59

as it was called, conferred on the cities to which CHA P. it had been granted, a more partial favour. The magiftrates only, at the expiration of their office, affumed the quality of Roman citizens; but as thofe offices were annual, in a few years they circulated round the principal families 34. Thofe of the provincials who were permitted to bear arms in the legions 35; thofe who exercised any civil employment; all, in a word, who performed any public fervice, or displayed any perfonal talents, were rewarded with a prefent, whofe value was continually diminished by the increafing liberality of the emperors. Yet, even in the age of the Antonines, when the freedom of the city had been bestowed on the greater number of their fubjects, it was ftill accompanied with very folid advantages. The bulk of the people acquired, with that title, the benefit of the Roman laws, particularly in the interesting articles of marriage, teftaments, and inheritances; and the road of fortune was open to those whose pretenfions were feconded by favour or merit. The grandfons of the Gauls, who had befieged Julius Cæfar in Alefia, commanded legions, governed provinces, and were admitted into the fenate of Rome. Their ambition, inftead of disturbing the tranquillity of the state, was intimately connected with its fafety and greatnefs. which already enjoyed the rights of Municipia, should folicit the title of colonies. Their example, however, became fashionable, and the empire was filled with honorary colonies. See Spanhiem, de Ufu Numifmatum, Differtat. xiii.

3+ Spanheim, Orbis Roman. c. 8. p. 62.

35 Ariftid. in Romæ Encomio, tom. i. p. 218. Edit. Jebb.

36 Tacit. Annal. xi. 23, 24.

Hift. iv. 74.

So

CHAP.

II.

and the

vinces.

So fenfible were the Romans of the influence of language over national manners, that it was Divifion of their most serious care to extend, with the prothe Latin grefs of their arms, the use of the Latin tongue37. Greek pro- The ancient dialects of Italy, the Sabine, the Etrufcan, and the Venetian, funk into oblivion; but in the provinces the eaft was lefs docile than the weft to the voice of its victorious preceptors. This obvious difference marked the two portions of the empire with a diftinction of colours, which, though it was in fome degree concealed during the meridian fplendor of profperity, became gradually more vifible, as the fhades of night defcended upon the Roman world. The western countries were civilized by the fame hands which fubdued them. As foon as the barbarians were reconciled to obedience, their minds were opened to any new impreffions of knowledge and politeness. The language of Virgil and Cicero, though with fome inevitable mixture of corruption, was fo univerfally adopted in Africa, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and Pannonia 38, that the faint traces of the Punic or Celtic idioms were preferved only in the mountains, or among the peasants". Education and study infenfibly

37 See Plin. Hift. Natur. iii. 5. Auguftin. de Civitate Dei, xix. Lipfius de pronunciatione Linguæ Latinæ, c. 3.

7.

39 Apuleius and Auguftin 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 Infcriptions.

39 The Celtic was preserved in the mountains of Wales, Cornwall, and Armorica. We may obferve that Apuleius reproaches an African

II.

infenfibly infpired the natives of thofe countries CHA P. with the fentiments of Romans; and Italy gave fashions, as well as laws, to her Latin provincials. They folicited with more ardour, and obtained with more facility, the freedom and honours of the ftate; fupported the national dig. nity in letters and in arms; and, at length, in the perfon of Trajan, produced an emperor whom the Scipios would not have difowned for their countryman. The fituation of the Greeks was very different from that of the barbarians. The former had been long fince civilifed and corrupted. They had too much tafte to relinquifh their language, and too much vanity to adopt any foreign inftitutions. Still preferving the prejudices, after they had loft the virtues, of their ancestors, they affected to despise the unpolished manners of the Roman conquerors, whilst they were compelled to respect their fuperior wisdom and power". Nor was the influence of the Grecian language and fentiments confined to the narrow limits of that once celebrated country. Their empire, by the progress of colonies and conqueft, had been diffused from the Hadriatic to the Euphrates and the Nile. Afia was covered with Greek cities, and the

African youth, who lived among the populace, with the use of the Punic; whilft he had almost forgot Greek, and neither could nor would speak Latin (Apolog. p. 596.). The greater part of St. Auftin's congregations were ftrangers to the Punic.

40 Spain alone produced Columella, the Senecas, Lucan, Martial, and Quinctilian.

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

long