ЛЯМА И МОЯ ЗНТ НА CHAP. Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, the Lower Hungary, and Sclavonia, was known to the ancients under the names of Noricum and Pannoenia. In their original state of independence, their fierce inhabitants were intimately connected. Under the Roman government they were frequently united, and they still remain the patrimony of a single family. They now contain the residence of a German prince, who stiles himself Emperor of the Romans, and form the centre, as well as strength, of the Austrian power. It may not be improper to observe, that if we except Bohemia, Moravia, the northern skirts of Austria, and a part of Hungary between the Teyss and the Danube, all the other dominions of the house of Austria were comprised within the limits of the Roman empire. Dalmatiary Dalmatia, to which the name of Illyricum more bob properly belonged, was a long, but narrow tract, 9bbetween the Save and the Adriatic. The best f part of the sea-coast, which still retains its ancient appellation, is a province of the Venetian state, and the seat of the little republic of Ragusa. The inland parts have assumed the Sclavonian names of Croatia and Bosnia; the former obeys an Austrian governor, the latter a Turkish pasha; but the whole country is still infested by tribes of barbarians, whose savage independence irregularly marks the doubtful limit of the Christian and Mahometan power * After * A Venetian traveller, the Abbate Fortis, has lately given us some GrabCcount of those very obscure countries. But the geo graphy and antiquities of the western Illyricum can be expected only from the munificence of the emperor, its sovereign. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 37 9011 stomie) sufinnsƆ „sirya,sntr£ TA 3 After the Danube had received the waters of CHA P. the Teyss and the Save, it acquired, at least, among the Greeks, the name of Ister*. It for- Masia and I M Dacia. merly divided Masia and Dacia, the latter of which, as we have already seen, was a conquest of Trajan, and the only province beyond the river. If we enquire into the present state of those countries, we shall find that, on the left hand of the Danube, Temeswar, and Transylvania have been annexed, after many revolutions, to the crown of Hungary; whilst the principalities of Moldavia and Walachia acknowledge the supremacy of the Ottomon Porte. On the right hand of the Danube, Mæsia, which, during the middle ages, was broken into the barbarian kingdoms of Servia and Bulgaria, is again united in Turkish slavery. Thrace, The appellation of Roumelia, is still which his Macedonia, bestowed by the Turks on the extensive countries and Greece. of Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece, preserves the memory of their ancient state under the Roman empire. In the time of the Antonines, the martial regions of Thrace, from the mountains of Hæmus and Rhodope, to the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, had assumed the form of a province. Notwithstanding the change of masters and of religion, the new city of Rome, founded by Constantine on the banks of the Bosphorus, has ever since remained the capital of a great monarchy. The kingdom of Macedonia, which, under Ꭰ 3 * The Save rises near the confines of Istria, and was con sidered by the more early Greeks as the principal stream of the Danube. I.i CHAP. under the reign of Alexander, gave laws to Asia, derived more solid advantages from the policy of the two Philips; and with its dependencies of Epirus and Thessaly, extended from the Ægean to the Ionian sea. When we reflect on the fame of Thebes of Sparta and Athens, we and Argos, can scarcely persuade ourselves, that so many immortal republics of ancient Greece were lost in a single province of the Roman empire, which, from the superior influence of the Achæan league, was usually denominated the province of Achaia, Asia Such was the state of Europe under the Roman emperors. The provinces of Asia, without excepting the transient conquests of Trajan, are all comprehended within the limits of the Turkish power. But, instead of following the arbitrary divisions of despotism and ignorance, it will be safer for us, as well as more agreeable, to observe the indelible characters of nature. The name of Asia Minor is attributed with some propriety to the peninsula, which, confined betwixt the Euxine and the Mediterranean, advances from the Euphrates towards Europe. The most extensive and flourishing district, westward of mount Taurus and the river Halys, was dignified by the Romans with the exclusive title of Asia. The jurisdiction of that province extended over the ancient monarchies of Troy, Lydia, and Phrygią, the maritime countries of the Pamphylians, Lycians, and Carians, and the Grecian colonies of Ionia, which eqalled in arts, though not in arms, the glory of their parent. The kingdoms of Bithynia and Pontus possessed the northern side of I.I of the peninsula from Constantinople to Trebi- CHAP. zond. On the opposite side, the province of Cilicia was terminated by the mountains of Syria: the inland country, separated from the Roman Asia by the river Halys, and from Armenia by the Euphrates, had once formed the independent kingdom of Cappadocia. In this place we may observe, that the northern shores of the Euxine, beyond Trebizond in Asia, and beyond the Danube in Europe, acknowledged the sovereignty of the emperors, and received at their hands, either tributary princes or Roman garrisons. Budzak, Crim Tartary, Circassia, and Mingrelia, are the modern appellations of those savage countries * adtw bobroreng.moo Under the successors of Alexander, Syria was Syria, the seat of the Seleucida, who reigned over Up- and Palesper Asia, till the successful revolt of the Par- tine. thians confined their dominions between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean. When Syria became subject to the Romans, it formed the eastern frontier of their empire; nor did that province, in its utmost latitude, know any other bounds than the mountains of Cappadocia to the north; and towards the south, the confines of Egypt, and the Red Sea. Phoenicia and Palestine were sometimes annexed to, and sometimes separated from, the jurisdiction of Syria. The former of these was a narrow and rocky coast; the latter was a territory scarcely superior to „eurs ai son dgnol 4: talapo i „Ty Wales, D 1 Phoenicia, sheheshen he was governor of Cappadocia. *See the Periplus of Arrian. He examined the coasts of the Euxine, CHAP.Wales, either infertility or extent. Yet PhoeInicia and Palestine will for ever live in the me II. mory, of mankindy since America, as well as Europe) has received letters from the one, and religion from the other *. A sandy desert alike destitute of wood and water skirts along the doubtful confine of Syria, from the Euphrates to the Red Sea, The wandering life of the Arabs, was inseparably connected with their independence; and wherever, on some spots less barren than the rest, they ventured to form any settled habitation, they soon became subjects to the Roman empire +. Egypt. The geographers of antiquity have frequently 2 hesitated to what portion of the globe they should -cascribe Egypt. By its situation that celebrated kingdom is included within the immense peninsula of Africa; but it is accessible only on the Y side of Asia, whose revolutions, in almost every -period of history, Egypt has humbly obeyed. A Roman præfect was seated on the splendid throne of *The progress of religion is well known, The use of letters was introduced among the savages of Europe about fifteen hun1 dred years before Christ; and the Europeans carried them to 5 America about fifteen centuries after the Christian æra. But in a period of three thousand years, the Phoenician alphabet received considerable alterations, as it passed through the hands s of the Greeks and Romans. + Dion Cassius, lib. lxviii. cinstrust to 90077 for p. 1131. Ptolemy and Strabo, with the modern geographers, fix the or even the Suez as the boundary of Asia and Africa. Dionysins, Mela, Pliny, Sallust, Hirtius, and Solinus, have preferred 79 that purpose the western branch of the Nile, or c Catabathmus, or descent, which last would assign to Asia, Synot only Egypt, but part of Libya. |