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open to them, and they might aspire even to the empire. Thus, by the Roman clemency, all nations were but one nation, and Rome was looked upon as their-common country.

How greatly were navigation and commerce facilitated, by this wonderful union of all the nations of the world, under one and the same empire! The Roman society included every thing, and excepting some frontiers now and then molested by their neighbours, all the rest of the world enjoyed a profound peace. Neither Greece, nor Asia Minor, nor Syria, nor Egypt, and in short few of the other provinces, were ever without war, but under the Roman empire; and it is easy to comprehend, that so agreeable an intercourse of nations must serve to maintain concord and obedience in the whole body of the empire.

The legions distributed for the protection of the frontiers, by defending it without, secured it within. It was not the custom of the Romans to have citadels in their strong places, nor to fortify their frontiers; and I scarcely find this precaution taken till the time of Valentinian I. Before that period they placed the strength and security of the empire solely in the troops, which were so disposed as to support one another. Beside, as they had orders always to lie encamped, the towns were no way incommoded by them, and their discipline did not permit the soldiers to straggle over the country. Thus the Roman armies disturbed neither trade nor tillage. They formed in

their camps a sort of city, which differed nothing from others, but that the labours there were continual, discipline more severe, and the command more steady. They were always ready against the smallest commotion; and it was quite sufficient to keep the people in their duty, to shew them in their neighbourhood that invincible soldiery.

But nothing so much maintained the peace of the empire as the order of justice. The ancient republic had established it; the emperors and sages explained it upon the same foundations; all the people, even the most barbarous, regarded it with admiration; and by that it was chiefly, that the Romans were judged worthy to be masters of the world. In fine, if the Roman laws have appeared so sacred, that their majesty still subsists, notwithstanding the ruin of the empire, it is because good sense, which controls human life, reigns throughout the whole, and that there is no where to be found a finer application of the principles of natural equity.

Notwithstanding this greatness of the Roman name, notwithstanding the profound policy, and all the noble institutions of that famous republic, she carried in her bosom the cause of her own ruin, in the perpetual jealousy of the people against the senate, or rather of the Plebeians against the Patricians. Romulus had established this distinction*. It was fit that the kings should have some distinguished persons,

* Dion. Hal. ii.

whom they might attach to their person by particular ties, and by whom they might govern the rest of the people. For this purpose Romulus had selected the Fathers, of whom he formed the body of the Senate: they were so called, on account of their dignity and age; and from them sprang afterward the Patrician families*. Moreover, whatever power Romulus reserved to the people, he had made the Plebeians in many respects dependent on the Patricians; and that subordination, necessary to the royalty, had been preserved not only under the kings, but also in the republic. It was from among the Patricians that the senators were always taken. To the Patricians belonged employments, commands and dignities, even that of the priesthood; and the Fathers, who had been the authors of liberty, did not give up their own prerogatives. But jealousy soon arose between the two orders. For I need not herė mention the Roman Knights, a third order, as it were a middle rank between the Patricians and the common people, who sometimes took one side, and sometimes the other. It was therefore between these two orders that jealousy arose: it revived on various occasions; but the deep-seated cause that kept it alive was the love of liberty.

The fundamental maxim of the republic was, to consider liberty as a thing inseparable from the Roman name. A people bred up in this spirit, or, to say more, a people,

** Dion. Hal. ii.

who believed itself born to command other nations, and whom Virgil, for that reason, so nobly calls, populum regem, or a people king, would receive laws from none but itself.

The authority of the senate was judged necessary to moderate the public councils, which, without that check, would have been too tumultuous. But in the main, it lay in the people to give commands, to enact laws, to decide on peace and war. A people, who enjoyed the most essential rights of royalty, took upon them in some sort the humour of kings. They were very willing to be counselled, but would not be controlled, by the senate. Whoever appeared too imperious, whoever exalted himself above others, in a word, whoever violated, or seemed to violate, the equality required in a free state, became suspected by that captious people. The love of liberty, of glory, and of conquest, rendered such spirits hard to manage; and that boldness, which prompted them to attempt every thing abroad, could not fail of breeding dissension at home.

Thus Rome, so jealous of her liberty, through that love of liberty which was the foundation of her state, saw dissension take place among all the orders of which she was composed. Hence those furious jealousies between the senate and people, between the Patricans and Plebeians; the one still alleging, that extensive liberty destroys itself at last; and the other fearing, on the contrary, lest power, which of

its own nature is always growing, should at length degenerate into tyranny.

Between these two extremes, a people, in other respects so wise, could find no medium. Private interest, which makes persons of any side go farther than they ought, even in what they may have begun for the public good, did not suffer them to abide by moderate counsels. Ambitious and restless spirits excited jealousies, in order to take advantage of them; and those jealousies, sometimes more secret, sometimes more open, according to circumstances, but always alive in the bottom of their hearts, at length occasioned that great revolution which happened in the time of Cæsar, and the others that succeeded it.

VII. The Progress of Revolutions in Rome explained.

IT will be easy for you to discover all the causes of these, if, after having rightly appreciated the tempers of the Romans, and the constitution of their commonwealth, you take care to observe a certain number of principal events, which, though happening at somewhat distant times, have a manifest connexion with each other. Here you have them collected for greater readi

ness.

Romulus, bred up in war, and reputed the son of Mars, built Rome, and peopled it with persons of all sorts gathered toge

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