II. CHA P. a member. The consequences of this maxim would have prostituted the privileges of the Roman city to a mean and promiscuous multitude. Some seasonable exceptions were therefore proyided; and the honourable distinction was confined to such slaves only, as, for just causes, and with the approbation of the magistrate, should receive a solemn and legal manumission. Even these chosen freedmen obtained no more than the private rights of citizens, and were rigorously excluded from civil or military honours. Whatever might be the merit or fortune of their sons, they likewise were esteemed unworthy of a seat in the senate; nor were the traces of a servile origin allowed to be completely obliterated till the third or fourth generation*. Without destroying the distinction of ranks, a distant prospect of freedom and honours was presented, even to those whom pride and prejudice almost disdained to number among the human species. Numbers. It was once proposed to discriminate the slaves by a peculiar habit; but it was justly apprehended that there might by some danger in acquainting them with their own numbers †. Without interpreting, in their utmost strictness, the liberal appellations of legions and myriads ; we may, * Spanheim, Orbis Roman. 1. i. c. 16. p. 124, &c. ✦ Seneca de Clementia, l. i. c. 24. The orginal is much stronger, “Quantum periculum immineret si servi nostri numerarė nos cœpissent." See Pliny (Hist. Natur. 1. xxxiii.) and Athenæus (Dei pnosophist. 1. vi. p. 272.) The latter boldly asserts, that he knew very many (raw) Romans who possessed, not for use, but ostentation, ten and even twenty thousand slaves. II. may venture to pronounce, that the proportion CHA P. of slaves, who were valued as property, was more considerable than that of servants, who can be computed only as an expence * The youths of a promising genius were instructed in the arts and sciences, and their price was ascertained by the degree of their skill and talents +. Almost every profession, either liberal or mechanical, might be found in the household of an opulent senator. The ministers of pomp and sensuality were multiplied beyond the conception of modern luxury §. It was more for the interest of the merchant or manufacturer to purchase, than to hire his workmen; and in the country, slaves were employed as the cheapest and most laborious instruments of agriculture. To confirm the general observation, and to display the multitude of slaves, we might allege a variety of particular instances. It was discovered, on a very melancholy occasion, that four hundred slaves were maintained in a single palace of Rome ||. The same number of four hundred belonged to an estate which an African widow, of a very private F 2 W con *In Paris there are not more than 43,700 domestics of every sort, and not a twelfth part of the inhabitants. Messange Recherches sur la Population, p. 186. A learned slave sold for many hundred pounds sterling: Atticus always bred and taught them himself. Cornel. Nepos in Vit. c. 13. Many of the Roman physicians were slaves. See Dr. Middleton's Dissertation and Defence. § Their ranks and offices are very copiously enumerated by Pignorius de Servis. Tacit. Annal. xiv. 43. They were all executed for not preventing their master's murder. II. Populousness of toe Roman empire. CH A P. condition, resigned to her son, whilst she reserved for herself a much larger share of her property *. A freedman, under the reign of Augustus, though his fortune had suffered great losses in the civil wars, left behind him three thousand six hundred yoke oke of oxen, two hundred and fifty thousand head of smaller cattle, and, what was almost included in the description of cattle, four thousand one hundred and sixteen slaves huge blond The number of subjects who acknowledged the laws of Rome, of citizens, of provincials, and of slaves, cannot now be fixed with such a de, th gree of accuracy as the importance of the object would deserve. We are informed, that when the emperor Claudius exercised the office of censor, 'he took an account of six millions nine hundred and forty-five thousand Roman citizens, who, with the proportion of women and children, must have amounted to about twenty millions of souls. The multitude of subjects of an inferior rank, was uncertain and fluctuating. But, after weighing with attention every circumstance which could influence the balance, it seems probable, that there existed, in the time of Claudius, about twice as many provincials as there were citizens, of either sex, and of every age; and that the slaves were at least equal in number to the free inhabitants of the Roman world. The total amount of this imperfect calculation would rise to about one hundred and twenty millions of persons: a degree of population * Apuleius in Apolog. p. 548. Edit. Delphin. + Plin. Hist. Natur. 1. xxxiii. 47. II. lation which possibly exceeds that of modern CHA P. Europe, and forms the most numerou ssociety that has ever been united, under the same system of governmentsorg berbed samtal s Domestic peace and union were the natural Obedience consequences of the moderate and comprehensive and union. policy embraced by the Romans. If we turn our eyes towards the monarchies of Asia, we we shall behold despotism in the centre, and weakness in the extremities; the collection of the revenue, or the administration of justice, enforced by the presence of an army; hostile barbarians established in the heart of the country, hereditary satraps usurping the dominion of the provinces, and subjects inclined to rebellion, though incapable of sfreedom. But the obedience of the Roman world was uniform, voluntary, and permament. The vanquished nations, blended into one great people, resigned the hope, nay even the wish, of resuming their independence, and scarcely considered their own existence as distinct from the existence of Rome. The established authority of the emperors pervaded without an effort the wide extent of their dominions, and was exercised with the same facility on the banks of the Thames, or of the Nile, as on those of F 3 *Compute twenty millions in France, twenty-two in Germany, four in Hungary, ten in Italy with its islands, eight in Great Britain and Ireland, eight in Spain and Portugal, ten or twelve in the European Russia, six in Poland, six in Greece and Turkey, four in Sweden, three in Denmark and Norway, four in the Low Countries. The whole would amount to one hundred and five, or one hundred and seven millions. See Voltaire, de Histoire Generale. II. CHA P. of the Tyber. The legions were destined to serve against the public enemy, and the civil magistrate seldom required the aid of a military force*. In this state of general security, the leisure as well as opulence both of the prince and people, were devoted to improve and to adorn the Roman empire. Roman mo numents. Many of them erect ed at pri vate ex pence. Among the innumerable monuments of architecture constructed by the Romans, how many have escaped the notice of history, how few have resisted the ravages of time and barbarism! And yet even the majestic ruins that are still scattered over Italy and the provinces, would be sufficient to prove, that those countries were once the seat of a polite and powerful empire. Their greatness alone, or their beauty, might deserve our attention: but they are rendered more interesting, by two important circumstances, which connect the agreeable history of the arts, with the more useful history of human manners. Many of those works were erected at private expence, and almost all were intended for public benefit. It is natural to suppose that the greatest number, as well as the most considerable of the Roman edifices, were raised by the emperors, who possessed so unbounded a command, both of men and money. Augustus was accustomed to boast that he had found his capital of brick, and that he had left it of marblet. The strict œconomy *Joseph. de Bell. Judaico, 1. ii. c. 16. The oration of Agrippa, or rather of the historian, is a fine picture of the Roman empire. Sueton. in August. c. 28. Augustus built in Rome the temple and forum of Mars the Avenger; the temple of Jupiter Tonans in the |