1.

consequen

dominion.

THIS state, however, was far from being happy SECT. or favourable to the improvement of the human mind. The vanquished nations were disarmed by their conquerors, and overawed by soldiers keptees of their in pay to restrain them. They were given up as a prey to rapacious governors, who plundered them with impunity; and were drained of their wealth by exorbitant taxes, levied with so little attention to the situation of the provinces, that the impositions were often increased in proportion to their inability to support them. They were deprived of their most enterprizing citizens, who resorted to a distant capital in quest of preferment, or of riches; and were accustomed in all their actions to look up to a superior, and tamely to receive his commands. Under so many depressing circumstances, it was hardly possible that they could retain vigour or generosity of mind. The martial and independent spirit, which had distinguished their ancestors, became, in a great measure, extinct among all the people subjected to the Roman yoke: they lost not only the habit, but even the capacity of deciding for themselves, or of acting from the impulse of their own minds ; and the dominion of the Romans, like that of all great Empires, degraded and debased the human species [A].

A SOCIETY in such a state could not subsist long. The irrup There were defects in the Roman government, barbarous tion of the even in its most perfect form, which threatened its nations.

[A] NOTE I.

1.

SECT. dissolution. Time ripened these original seeds of corruption, and gave birth to many new disorders. A constitution, unsound, and worn out, must have fallen into pieces of itself, without any external shock. The violent irruption of the Goths, Vandals, Huns, and other barbarians, hastened this event, and precipitated the downfall of the Empire. New nations seemed to arise, and to rush from unknown regions, in order to take vengeance on the Romans for the calamities which they had inflicted on mankind. These fierce tribes either inhabited the various provinces in Germany which had never been subdued by the Romans, or were scattered over those vast countries in the north of Europe, and north-west of Asia, which are now occupied by the Danes, the Swedes, the Poles, the subjects of the Russian Empire, and the Tartars. Their condition, and transactions, previous to their invasion of the Empire, are but little known. Almost all our information with respect to these is derived from the Romans; and as they did not penetrate far into countries which were at that time uncultivated and uninviting, the accounts of their original state given by the Roman historians, are extremely imperfect. The rude inhabitants themselves, destitute of science, as well as of records, and without leisure, or curiosity to inquire into remote events, retained, perhaps, some indistinct memory of recent occurrences, but beyond these, all was buried in oblivion, or involved in darkness and in fable [B].

[B] NOTE II.

1.

countries

they issued,

THE prodigious swarms which poured in upon SECT. the Empire from the beginning of the fourth century to the final extinction of the Roman power, State of the have given rise to an opinion that the countries from which whence they issued were crowded with inhabitants; and various theories have been formed to account for such an extraordinary degree of population as hath produced these countries the appellation of The Storehouse of Nations. But if we consider, that the countries possessed by the people who invaded the Empire were of vast extent; that a great part of these was covered with woods and marshes; that some of the most considerable of the barbarous nations subsisted entirely by hunting or pasturage, in both which states of society large tracts of land are required for maintaining a few inhabitants; and that all of them were strangers to the arts and industry, without which population cannot increase to any great degree, we must conclude, that these countries could not be so populous in ancient times as they are in the present, when they still continue to be less peopled than any other part of Europe or of Asia.

ing enter.

BUT the same circumstance that prevented the The people barbarous nations from becoming populous, con- fit for dar tributed to inspire, or to strengthen, the martial prises. spirit by which they were distinguished. Inured by the rigour of their climate, or the poverty of their soil, to hardships which rendered their bodies firm, and their minds vigorous; accustomed to a course of life which was a continual preparation for action; and disdaining every occupation but

1.

SECT. that of war or of hunting; they undertook and prosecuted their military enterprises with an ardour and impetuosity, of which men softened by the refinements of more polished times can scarcely form any idea [C].

The motives of

excursions.

1

THEIR first inroads into the Empire proceeded their first rather from the love of plunder, than from the desire of new settlements. Roused to arms by some enterprising or popular leader, they sallied out of their forests; broke in upon the frontier provinces with irresistible violence; put all who opposed them to the sword; carried off the most valuable effects of the inhabitants; dragged along multitudes of captives in chains; wasted all before them with fire or sword; and returned in triumph to their wilds. and fastnesses. Their success, together with the accounts which they gave of the unknown conveniencies and luxuries that abounded in countries better cultivated, or blessed with a milder climate than their own, excited new adventurers and exposed the frontier to new devastations.

Their rea

tling in the

which they

WHEN nothing was left to plunder in the adjasons for set-cent provinces, ravaged by frequent excursions, countries they marched farther from home, and finding it conquered. difficult, or dangerous to return, they began to settle in the countries which they had subdued. The sudden and short excursions in quest of booty, which had alarmed and disquieted the Empire, ceased; a more dreadful calamity impended. Great bodies of armed men, with their wives and

[C] NOTE III.

1.

children, and slaves and flocks, issued forth, like SECT. regular colonies, in quest of new settlements. People who had no cities, and seldom any fixed habitation, were so little attached to their native soil, that they migrated without reluctance from one place to another. New adventurers followed them. The lands which they deserted were occupied by more remote tribes of barbarians. These, in their turn, pushed forward into more The extent fertile countries, and, like a torrent continually of their increasing, rolled on, and swept every thing before them. In less than two centuries from their first irruption, barbarians of various names and lineage plundered and took possession of Thrace, Pannonia, Gaul, Spain, Africa, and at last of Italy, and Rome itself. The vast fabric of the Roman power, which it had been the work of ages to perfect, was in that short period overturned from the foundation.

which occa.

downfall of

Empire.

MANY concurring causes prepared the way for The cir this great revolution, and insured success to the cumstances nations which invaded the Empire. The Roman sioned the commonwealth had conquered the world by the the Roman wisdom of its civil maxims, and the rigour of its military discipline. But, under the Emperors, the former were forgotten or despised, and the latter was gradually relaxed. The armies of the Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries bore scarcely any resemblance to those invincible legions which had been victorious wherever they marched. Instead of freemen, who voluntarily took arms from the