give no quarter, or to devote all prisoners taken to servitude. Every petty state was filled with unfortunate captives reduced to the humblest conditions."*

Innumerable examples of the ferocity of the ancient Greeks are found in various writers.†

In Magna Græcia, for example, although there existed a code of well-defined legislation, yet by what sort of people was that country occupied? Take the Sybarites, whose name has descended to posterity with infamy; the Tarentines,-look at their treatment of the Roman messengers. Among the people the most unblushing and disgusting profligacy was common, with all the immorality and all the vices that can disgrace human nature.

In referring to the records of that part of Greece situated between the Ionian Sea and the Propontis, we find mutual jealousies and rivalries, constant feuds, dissensions, and wars, carried on to an unexampled and destructive extent, and continuing for centuries together with scarcely any intermission. To this general corruption of manners may be added levity of character, a total disregard of decency, laxity of social relations, and grossness of

* Thirlwall, i. p. 180.

† Mitford, i. p. 181. The Sauromatæ did not allow their women to marry until they mounted on horseback, fought in battle, and had slain three enemies. See Hippocrates de Aër. et Loc., s. 78.

Gillies' Greece.

political institutions. Such were the causes of the downfall of the several Greek states,-not, as some historians assert, from their over-civilisation.

If any further instances of the state of society, and of morals, and of the deficiency in the elements of that civilisation which we have defined, be required, reference may be made to Xenophon. Mem.i.; Laertius, ii. sect. 98. 102.; Anto. et Max. Serm. 37.; Athen., lib. x. p. 422.; Grotius de Jure Belli.

62

CHAPTER III.

ANCIENT ROME.

Our Ignorance of the early History of the Roman Commonwealth. Senators, Equites, and Mass of the People. Decline of Virtue, Patriotism, and Discipline under the Empire. Government of conquered Provinces harsh and oppressive. Prevalence of absolute Power. - Consolidation of the Roman Conquests destructive of the early moral and poetical Interest of her History.-Influence of the upper and middle Classes destroyed by the Admission of the Rabble to vote in Elections. The excessively luxurious Habits of the Romans, and their Desire for the Possession of vast Numbers of Slaves, gradually rooted out the middle Classes. -Shocking Depravity and Licentiousness prevalent among all Classes during the Decadence of the Empire. Easy Conquest by Barbarians of the degenerate Romans. — The Emperor Constantine's Adoption of Christianity. - Christianity the surest means of civilising Nations. Consequence of the Degeneracy and Immorality of the Romans.

THE state of society in the commencement of the Roman Commonwealth can only be learnt from traditions known in the closing days of that republic. Even Cato and Livy appear to have been at a loss for information on the early history of their country. If they felt ignorant on the subject, what can we know, after a lapse of nineteen centuries?

With the exception of Cato's "Origines," the Romans had no historian in their own language who was readable.* Niebuhr, the historian of the early days of Rome, tells us, that Livy first taught the Romans what history they had: his wish to encircle, by the graces of his bewitching style, the great actions and victories of their ancestors with the noblest ornaments of civic and republican virtue, was heightened by his desire of beholding in the deeds of former times the remains of the brazen age coming down to his own days. He was gifted with a highly brilliant talent for seizing the characteristic features of humanity, and for narration with the imaginative power of a poet, without the faculty of versifying, or the desire to do it. Even those primitive ages, when the heathen deities were fabled to walk among mankind, he would not absolutely reject; all that was related, provided it was not inconsistent with man's earthly condition, he would readily admit.

The people in the early days of Rome were divided into three classes: the senators, who were householders on a small scale; the equites, who each possessed a horse; and the mass of the people. These formed some sort of resemblance to an upper, middle, and lower class this state of society was found in that age, before the extensive conquests of the Romans had given them the wealth of the world, and the command of its labour. Without attempting to * Cicero de Legg., 1, 2, 3., where even Cato is not excepted.

enter into any detailed account of these early days, it may be observed, that the republic continued so long as the three classes were in existence, and some semblance of probity and virtue was to be found in the community. When, however, the victorious legions proclaimed an emperor, and the power of the senate was destroyed, by degrees, all Roman patriotism and discipline gradually diminished, and sank into disuse, until the fall of that mighty empire. As Milton observes, "Liberty, sought out of season, in a corrupt and degenerate age, brought Rome to a farther slavery."

The Roman Commonwealth grew into power by its internal policy, its strict discipline, and the energy of its population. The martial courage of the people, assisted by military organisation, gave them a thirst for conquest. From their superiority in the art of war, they were as certain of victory over the barbarous tribes in their neighbourhood as the first conquerors of the New World over America. The wealth of vanquished nations enriched Rome, and the subjugated populations became the slaves of her citizens. In the first instance, the Italian states became the victims of Roman power, and subsequently nearly all Europe, and part of Asia, fell under the same domination.

All historians agree that the domination of Rome over her conquered provinces was harsh, her judgments and punishments cruel, and her exactions extensive and oppressive. When Corinth and Carthage