९ II. Pontiff was constantly exercised by the emperors c'ha p. themselves. They knew and valued the advantages of religion, as it is connected with civil go vernment. They encouraged the public festivals which humanize the manners of the people. They managed the arts of divination, as a convenient instrument of policy; and they respected as the firmest bond of society, the useful persuasion, that, either in this or in a future life, the crime of perjury is most assurédly punished by the avenging gods. But whilst they acknowledged the general advantages of religion, they were convinced, that the various modes of worship contributed alike to the same, salutary purposes and that, in every country, the form of superstition, which had received the sanction of time and experience, was the best adapted to the climate, and to its inhabitants. Avarice and In the protaste very frequently despoiled the vanquished nations of the elegant statues of their gods, and the rich ornaments of their temples*; but, in the exercise of the religion which they derived from their ancestors, they uniformly experienced the indulgence, and even protection, of the Roman conquerors. TS. The province of Gaul seems, and indeed only seems, an exception to this universal toleration. Under the specious pretext of abolishing human sacrifices, the emperors TibeFani Romi sa perth Hoc et nog E 2 omotes 2 to coffta silf bra gerojmica silt to a rius Polybius, 1. vi. c, 53, 54. Juvenal, Sat. xxxi. laments that in his time this apprehension had lost much of its effect. + See the fate of Syracuse, Tarentum, Ambracia, Corinth, &c. the conduct of Verres, in Cicero (Actio ii. Orat. 4.), and the usual practice of governors, in the viiith Satire of Juvenal. vinces. rome Soniq not bounizac CHA P. rius and Claudius suppressed the dangerous power II. of the Druids*: but the priests themselves, their gods and their altars, subsisted in peaceful obscurity till the final destruction of Paganism†. At Rome. Rome, the capital of a great monarchy, was incessantly filled with subjects and strangers from every part of the world 1, who all introduced and enjoyed the favourite superstitions of their native country§. Every city in the empire was justified in maintaining the purity of its ancient ceremonies; and, the Roman senate using the common privilege, sometimes interposed to check this inundation of foreign rites. The Egyptian superstition, of all the most contemptible and abject, was frequently prohibited; the temples of Serapis and Isis demolished, and their worshippers banished from Rome and Italy. But the zeal of fanaticism prevailed over the cold and feeble efforts of policy. The exiles returned, the proselytes multiplied, the temples were restored with increasing splendor, and Isis and *Sueton. in Claud.-Plin. Hist. Nat. xxx. 1. § Dionysius Halicarn. Antiquitat. Roman. 1. ii. Serapis In the year of Rome 701, the temple of Isis and Serapis was demolished by the order of the Senate (Dion Cassius, 1. xl. p. 252.), and even by the hands of the consul (Valerius Maximus 1. 3.). After the death of Cæsar, it was restored at the public expence (Dion. I. xlvii. p. 501.) When Augustus was in Egypt, he revered the majesty of Serapis (Dion, 1. li. p. 647.) ; but in the Pomarium of Rome, and a mile round it, he prohibited the worship of the Egyptian gods (Dion, 1. liii. p. 679. 1. liv. p. 735.) They remained, however, very fashionable under his reign (Ovid. de Art. Amand. 1. i.) and that of his successor, till the justice of Tiberius was provoked to some acts of severity. (See Taçit, Annal, ii. 85. Joseph. Antiquit, 1. xviii. c. 3.) IMA IZUJU 12T " II. Serapis at length assumed their place among the CHA P. Roman deities*. Nor was this indulgence a departure from the old maxims of government. In the purest ages of the commonwealth, Cybele and Æsculapius had been invited by solemn embassies; and it was customary to tempt the protectors of besieged cities, by the promise of more distinguished honours than they possessed in their native country. Rome gradually became the common temple of her subjects; and the freedom of the city was bestowed on all the gods of mankind §. II. The narrow policy of preserving, without Freedom any foreign mixture, the pure blood of the anci- of Rome, ent citizens, had checked the fortune, and hastened the ruin of Athens and Sparta. The aspiring genius of Rome sacrificed vanity to ambition, and deemed it more prudent, as well as honourable, to adopt virtue and merit for her own wheresoever they were found, among slaves or strangers, enemies or barbarians. During the most flourishing æra of the Athenian commonwealth, the number of citizens gradually decreased from about thirty to twenty-one thousand. E3 * Tertullian in Apologetic. c. 6. p. 74. Edit. Havercamp. I am inclined to attribute their establishment to the devotion of the Flavian Family. † See Livy, 1. xi. and xxix, Macrob. Saturnalia, l. iii. c. 9. He gives us a form of evo cation. § Minutius Fæilx in Octavio, p. 54. Arnobius, l. vi. p. 145. Tacit. Annal. xi. 24. The Orbis Romanus of the learned Spanheim is a complete history of the progressive admission of Latinam, Italy, and the provinces, to the freedom pf Rome. Herodotus, v. 97. It should seem, however, that he followed a large and popular estimation. Lux 23 CHA P. sand * If; on the contrary, we study the growth II. ness; of the Romaine publicwbemay discover, that, notwithstandings theincessant demands of wars and colonies, the citizens, who, in the first cen sus of Servius Tullius, amounted to no more than eighty-three thousand,[[were multiplied before the commencement of the social war, to the number of four hundred sand sixty-three thou sand men, able to bear arms in the service of their country + When the allies of Rome claimed an equal share of honours and privileges, the senate indeed preferred the chance of arms to an ignominious concession. The Samnites and the Lucanians paid the severe penalty of their rashness but the rest of of the Italian states, as they iccessively returned to their duty, were admitted into the bosom of the republic, and soon contributed to the ruin of public freedom. Under a democratical government, the citizens exercise the powers of sovereignty; and those powers will be first abused, and afterwards lost, if they are committed to an unwieldy multitude. But when the popular assemblies had been suppress by the administration of the emperors, the conquerors, we were distinguished 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. la toibo ono yd triob of mul hodizbs had b to i onlYet *Athenays, Deipnosophist. 1. vi. p. 272. Edit. Casaubon. Meursius de Fortuna Attica, c. 4. + See a a very accurate collection of the numbers of each Lustrum in M. de Beaufort, Republique Romaine, l. iv. c. 4.9 ben + Applan, de Bell. Civil. 1. i. Velleius Paterculus, l. ii. c. 15, 16, 17.5mory and in laval adt on ro CHAP. Yet the wisest princes, who adopted the maxims II. Till the privileges of Romans had been proe Italy. gressively extended sto all the inhabitants of the empire, an important distinction was preserved between Italy and the provinces of 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 the governors. Their municipal corporations, formed after the perfect model of the capital, were intrusted, the under 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 Komfort after 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 Mæcenas 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. l. vi. ep. 19. The qualification was reduced by Marcus to one-fourth. Since the reign of Trajan, Italy had sunk nearer to the level of the provinces. |