Page images
PDF
EPUB

III

CHAP her adopted sons. Had she always confined the distinction of Romans to the ancient families within the walls of the city, that immortal name would have been deprived of some of its noblest ornaments. Virgil was a native of Mantua; Horace was inclined to doubt whether he should call himself an Apulian or a Lucanian: it was in Padua that an historian was found worthy to record the majestic series of Roman victories. The patriot family of the Catos emerged from Tusculum; and the little town of Arpinum claimed the double honour of producing Marius and Cicero, the former of whom deserved, after Ro-. mulus and Camillus, to be styled the Third Founder of Rome, and the latter, after saving. his country from the designs of Catiline, enabled her to contend with Athens for the palm of elo-. quence *.

The provinces.

The provinces of the empire (as they have been described in the preceding chapter) were destitute of any public force, or constitutional freedom. In Etrutia, in Greece †, and in Gaul ‡, it was the first care of the senate to dissolve those dangerous confederacies, which taught mankind, that as the Roman arts prevailed by division

they

*The first part of the Verona Illustrata of the Marquis Maffei, gives the clearest and most comprehensive view of the state of Italy under the Cæsars.

↑ See Pausanias, 1. vii. The Romans condescended to restore the names of those assemblies, when they could no longer be dangerous

They are frequently mentioned by Caesar. The Abbe Dubos attempts, with very little success, to prove that the assemblies of Gaul were continued under the emperors. Histoire de l'Etablissement de la Monarchie Francoise, 1. i. c. 4.

[ocr errors]

II.

they might be resisted by union. Those princes, & H A P. whom the ostentation of gratitude or generosity permitted for a while to hold a precarious scep tre, were dismissed from their thrones, as soon as they had performed their appointed task of fashioning to the yoke the vanquished nations. The free states and cities which had embraced the cause of Rome, were rewarded with a nominal alliance, and insensibly sunk into real servitude. The public authority was every where exercised by the ministers of the senate and of the emperors, and that authority was absolute, and without controul. But the same salutary maxims of government, which had secured the peace and obedience of Italy, were extended to the most distant conquests. A nation of Romans was gradually formed in the provinces, by the double expedient of introducing colonies, and of admitting the most faithful and deserving of the provincials to the freedom of Rome.

"Wheresoever the Roman conquers, he in"habits," is a very just observation of Seneca confirmed by history and experience. The natives of Italy, allured by pleasure or by interest,, hastened to enjoy the advantages of victory; and we may remark, that about forty years after the reduction of Asia, eighty thousand Romans were massacred in one day, by the cruel orders of Mithridates. These voluntary exiles were engaged,

* Seneca in Consolat. ad Helviam, c. 6.

t Memnon apud Photium, c. 33. Valer. Maxim. ix. 2. Plutarch and Dion Cassius swell the massacre to 130,000 citizens; but I should esteem the smaller number to be more than suffi cient.

Colonies and muni cipal tow,

[ocr errors]

CHAPɔ gaged, for the most part in the occupations of commerce, vagriculture, and the farm of the re venue. But after the legions were rendered permanent by the emperors, the provinces were peopled by a racetof soldiers and the veterans, whether they received the reward of their service in lands or in money, usually settled with their families in the country, where they had honour ably spent their youth. Throughout the empire, but more particularly in the western parts, the most fertile districts, and the most convenient situations, were reserved for the establishment of colonies; some of which were of a civil, and others of a military nature. In their manners and internal policy, the colonies formed a per fect representation of their great parent: and they were soon endeared to the natives by the ties of friendship and alliance, they effectually diffused a reverence for the Roman name, and a desire, which was seldom disappointed, of sharing, in due time, its honours and advantages. The municipal cities insensibly equalled the rank and splendor of the colonies; and in the reign of Hadrian, it was disputed which was the preferable condition, of those societies which had issued from, or those which had been received into the bosom of Rome t. The right of Latium, 02

[ocr errors]

as

*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 considerable cities. (See Richard of Cirencester, p. 36. and Whitaker's History of Manchester, 1. 1. c. 3.)

+ Aul. Gell. Noctes Atticæ, xvi. 13. The emperor Hadrian expressed his surprise, that the cities of Utica, Gades, and Itatica,

which

[ocr errors]

as it was called, conferred on the cities to which & HAAP. it had been granted, a more partial favours.The magistrates only, at the extirpation of their office, assumed the quality of Roman citizens; but as those offices were annual, in a few years they cir culated round the principal families. Those of the provincials who were permitted to bear arms in the legions; those who exercised any civil employment; all, in a word, who performed any public service, or displayed any personal ta lents, were rewarded with a present, whose value was continually diminished by the increasing 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 subjects, it was still accompanied with very solid advantages. The bulk of the people, acquired, with that title, the benefit of the Roman laws, particularly in the interesting articles of marriage, testaments, and inheritances; and the road of fortune was open to those whose preMomose tensions were seconded by favour or merit. The grandsons of the Gauls, who had besieged Julius Cæsar in Alesia, commanded legions, governed provinces, and were admitted into the senate of Rome. Their ambition, instead of disEn turbing the tranquillity of the state, was intimately connected with its safety and gr

30.

[ocr errors]

greatness od srit

So

which already enjoyed the rights of Municipia, should sclicit the title of colonies. Their example, however, became fashionable, and the empire was filled with honorary colonies. See Span heim, de Usu Numismatum, Dissertat, xiii.

Spanheim, Orbis Roman. c. 8. p. 62. odebranos nam ↑ Aristid. in Romæ Encomio, tom. i. p. 218. Edit: Jebbd W bus Tacit. Annal. xi. 28, 24. Hist. iv. 74,29book Jl9D JA † i 18159211[ue art h92291Qys

[ocr errors]

CHAP.

II.

Division of

the Latin and Greek provinces.

LATIN I WA

So sensible were the Romans of the influence 5000 520d to

of language over national manners, that it was their most serious care to extend, with the proallations gress of their arms, the use of the Latin tongue *. The ancient dialects of Italy, the Sabine, the Etruscan, and the Venetian, sunk into oblivion; but in the provinces, the east was less docile than the west, to the voice of its victorious preceptors. This obvious difference marked the two portions of the empire with a distinction of colours, which, though it was in some degree concealed during the meridian splendor of prosperity, became gradually more visible, as the shades of night descended upon the Roman world. The western countries were civilized by the same hands which subdued them. As soon as the barbarians were reconciled to obedience, their minds were opened to any new impressions of knowledge and politeness. The language of Virgil and Cicero, though with some inevitable mixture of corruption, was so universally adopted in Africa, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and Pannoniat, that the faint traces of the Punic or Celtic idioms were preserved only in the mountains, or among the peasants. Education and study insensibly

*See Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 5. Augustin. de Civitate Dei, xix. 7. Lipsius de pronunciatione Linguæ Latinæ, c. 3.

Apuleius and Augustin 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 Inscriptions.

The Celtic was preserved in the mountains of Wales, Cornwall and Armorica. We may observe that Apuleius reproaches XNX 1599% quiT

an

« PreviousContinue »