reign, and, by exacting from his riper years the same dutiful obedience which she had justly claimed from his inexperienced youth, Mamaa exposed to public ridicule both her son's character and her own. * The fatigues of the Persian war irritated the military discontent; the unsuccessful event degraded the reputation of the emperor as a general, and even as a soldier. Every cause prepared, and every circumstance hastened, a revolution, which distracted the Roman empire with a long series of intestine calamities. The dissolute tyranny of Commodus, the civil wars occasioned by his death, and the new maxims of policy introduced by the house of Severus, had all contributed to increase the dangerous power of the army, and to obliterate

Paterculus, 2, 11, and the Fasti. *The life of Alexander, in the Augustan History, is the mere idea of a perfect prince, an awkward imitation of the Cyropædia. The account of his reign, as given by Herodian, is rational and moderate, consistent with the general history of the age, and, in some of the most invidious particulars, confirmed by the decisive fragments of Dion. Yet, from a very paltry prejudice, the greater number of our modern writers abuse Herodian, and copy the Augustan History. See Messrs. de Tillemont and Wotton. From the opposite prejudice, the Emperor Julian (in Cæsarib. p. 315) dwells with a visible satisfaction on the effeminate weakness of the Syrian, and the ridiculous avarice of his mother. The result of this Persian war is variously represented by historians. Herodian alone speaks of it as unsuccessful. Lampridius, Eutropius, Victor, and others, say that it was very glorious for Alexander; that Artaxerxes was defeated in an important battle and driven back from the frontiers of the empire. It is certain that the emperor, on his return to Rome, had the honour of a triumph (Lamprid. Hist. Aug. c. 56, pp. 133, 134), and that, haranguing the people, he said: "Quirites, vicimus Persas; milites divites reduximus; vobis congiarium pollicemur; cras ludos circenses persicos dabimus.' (Romans, we have conquered the Persians. Our soldiers are come home enriched by spoil. You, too, shall receive a distribution of money. To-morrow Persian games shall be given in the circus.) "Alexander," says Eckhel, was too modest, too prudent, to allow honours to be paid him, as the reward of victories which he had not gained. If he had been unfortunate, he might have remained silent and concealed his losses; but he would not have accepted an unmerited homage." (Eckhel, Doct. Num. Vet. tom. vii. p. 176.) On medals he appears as the triumphant conqueror. One, among others, represents him as crowned by Victory, between two rivers, the Euphrates and the Tiber, with the inscription "P. M. TR. P. xii. Cos. xiii. P. P." In the Mus. Reg. Gall. it stands thus: "Imperator paludatus, d. hastam s. parazonium, stat inter duos fluvios humi jacentes, et ab accedente retro Victoria coronatur. Æ. max. mod." Gibbon will be found entering more minutely into this

66

the faint image of laws and liberty that was still impressed on the minds of the Romans. This internal change, which undermined the foundations of the empire, we have endeavoured to explain with some degree of order and perspicuity. The personal characters of the emperors, their victories, laws, follies, and fortunes, can interest us no farther than as they are connected with the general history of the decline and fall of the monarchy. Our constant attention to that great object will not suffer us to overlook a most important edict of Antoninus Caracalla, which communicated to all the free inhabitants of the empire the name and privileges of Roman citizens. His unbounded liberality flowed not, however, from the sentiments of a generous mind; it was the sordid result of avarice, and will naturally be illustrated by some observations on the finances of that state, from the victorious ages of the commonwealth to the reign of Alexander Severus.*

The siege of Veii in Tuscany, the first considerable enterprise of the Romans, was protracted to the tenth year, much less by the strength of the place than by the unskilfulness of the besiegers. The unaccustomed hardships of so many winter campaigns, at the distance of near twenty miles from home, required more than common encouragements; and the senate wisely prevented the clamours of the people by the institution of a regular pay for the soldiers, which was levied by a general tribute, assessed according to an equitable proportion on the property of the citizens.§ During more than two hundred years after the conquest of Veii,

question, when he treats of the Persian monarchy; but I have thought it right to introduce here what appears to controvert his opinion.— GUIZOT. * Some may think that this digression on Roman finance might have been more fitly introduced in the third chapter, or in the history of Caracalla, than here, in the reign of Alexander Severus, where it has no connection with what either precedes or follows.-WENCK.

+ Unacquainted with the destructive missiles projected by fire or gunpowder, ancient besiegers reduced towns by blockade and famine, or employed stratagem, where force could not prevail.-WENCK.

According to the more accurate Dionysius, the city itself was only a hundred stadia, or twelve miles and a half, from Rome, though some outposts might be advanced farther on the side of Etruria. Nardini, in a professed treatise, has combated the popular opinion and the authority of two popes, and has removed Veii from Civita Castellana to a little spot called Isola, in the midway between Rome and the lake Bracciano. § See the fourth and fifth books of Livy. In the Roman

the victories of the repnblic added less to the wealth than to the power of Rome. The states of Italy paid their tribute in military service only, and the vast force, both by sea and land, which was exerted in the Punic wars, was maintained at the expense of the Romans themselves. That high-spirited people (such is often the generous enthusiasm of freedom) cheerfully submitted to the most excessive but voluntary burdens, in the just confidence that they should speedily enjoy the rich harvest of their labours. Their expectations were not disappointed. In the course of a few years, the riches of Syracuse, of Carthage, of Macedonia, and of Asia, were brought in triumph to Rome. The treasures of Perseus alone amounted to near 2,000,0007. sterling, and the Roman people, the sovereign of so many nations, was for ever delivered from the weight of taxes.* The increasing revenue of the provinces was found sufficient to defray the ordinary establishment of war and government, and the superfiuous mass of gold and silver was deposited in the temple of Saturn, and reserved for any unforeseen emergency of the state.†

History has never perhaps suffered a greater or more irreparable injury, than in the loss of the curious register bequeathed by Augustus to the senate, in which that experienced prince so accurately balanced the revenues and expenses of the Roman empire. Deprived of this clear and comprehensive estimate, we are reduced to collect a few imperfect hints from such of the ancients as have accidentally turned aside from the splendid to the more useful parts of history. We are informed that, by the conquests of Pompey, the tributes of Asia were raised from fifty to one hundred and thirty-five millions of drachms, or about 4,500,000l. sterling.§ Under the last and most indolent

census, property, power, and taxation, were commensurate with each other. Plin. Hist. Natur. 1. 33, c. 3. Cicero de Offic. 2, 22. Plutarch, in P. Æmil. p. 275. See a fine description of this accumu lated wealth of ages in Lucan's Phars. 1. 3, v. 155, &c. Tacit, in Annal. 1, 11. It seems to have existed in the time of Appian. [For the Rationarium Imperii, see, besides Tacitus, Suetonius (in Aug. c. ult.) and Dion Cassius (p. 832). Other emperors kept and published similar registers. See Dr. Wolle's academical treatise, De Rationario Imperii Romani, Leipzig, 1773. The last book of Appian contained also some statistics of the Roman empire, now lost.-WENCK.]

§ Plutarch. in Pompeio, p. 642. [This calculation is not correct.

of the Ptolemies, the revenue of Egypt is said to have amounted to twelve thousand five hundred talents; a sum equivalent to more than 2,500,000l. of our money, but which was afterward considerably improved by the more exact economy of the Romans, and the increase of the trade of Ethiopia and India.* Gaul was enriched by rapine, as Egypt was by commerce; and the tributes of those two great provinces have been compared as nearly equal to each other in value. The ten thousand Euboic or Phoeni

According to Plutarch, the annual revenue of Roman Asia, before the time of Pompey, amounted to fifty millions of drachms, and was increased by him to eighty-five millions, or about 2,744,7917. sterling. We find also in Plutarch, that Antony exacted from Asia, in one payment, the enormous sum of 00,000 talents, or about 38,750,000l. sterling. Appian's explanation is, that this was the aggregate revenue of ten years, which would make that of a single year only a tenth part of that amount.-WENCK.] * Strabo, 1. 17, p. 798. [According to Arbuthnot on Ancient Coins (p. 192) 12,500 talents amount to 2,421,8757. sterling. This sum is taken by Strabo from one of Cicero's orations; and he added to it the observation, which our author has copied, that it must have been greatly increased by the Romans. Josephus (De Bell. Jud. 1. 2, c. 16, p. 190, edit. Havercamp) makes King Agrippa tell the Jews, that they did not raise so much tribute in a whole year, as the Alexandrians alone paid in a single month. Cassius, when governor of Syria, after Caesar's death, received from Judea (Josephi Ant. Jud. 1. 11, c. 11) 700 talents, or 135,6257. sterling. Twelve times this sum amounts to 1,637,500l. sterling. The revenue from Alexandria must have been very considerable, for it was the emporium of eastern wares, on which high duties were levied. In the palmy days of Egypt, under the first Ptolemys, the royal accounts, to which Appian, who was a native of Alexandria, refers (in Præfat.) as still extant in his time, showed that there had been sometimes in the treasury 74 myriads of talents, or above 143,375,000l. sterling.WENCK.] + Velleius Paterculus, 1, 2, c. 39. He seems to give the preference to the revenue of Gaul. [Cæsar drew from Gaul "quadringenties" (Sueton. in Jul. c. 25. Eutrop. 1. 6, c. 17), which is about 1,927,000 crowns, or 322,9007. sterling. This appearing too small a sum, Lipsius reads it "quatermillies," or ten times the above amount. The author's meaning is very obscure, when he says, that "Gaul was enriched by rapine." Perhaps he referred to the Gallic colonies, sent out in earlier times, some of which enriched themselves; as, for instance, that in Asia. But such remote transactions had no connection with the period here under consideration, nor was Gaul itself benefited by that wealth, for those who acquired it never came back again. The trifling sea-piracies of the Gallic Venetians and others, cannot have brought in much. On the whole, it seems to have been the general lot of Gaul or France, less to plunder than to be plundered, whether of old by the Romans and Germans, or by modern farmers of the

cian talents, about 4,000,000l. sterling, which vanquished Carthage was condemned to pay within the term of fifty years, were a slight acknowledgment of the superiority of Rome,t and cannot bear the least proportion with the taxes afterwards raised both on the lands and on the purses of the inhabitants, when the fertile coast of Africa was reduced into a province.‡

Spain, by a very singular fatality, was the Peru and Mexico of the old world. The discovery of the rich western continent by the Phoenicians, and the oppression of the simple natives, who were compelled to labour in their own mines for the benefit of strangers, forms an exact type of the more recent history of Spanish America.§ The Phœnicians were acquainted only with the sea-coast of Spain; avarice, as well as ambition, carried the arms of Rome and Carthage into the heart of the country, and almost every part of the soil was found pregnant with copper, silver, and gold. Mention is made of a mine near Carthagena, which yielded every day twenty-five thousand drachms of silver, or about 300,000l. a-year. Twenty thousand pounds weight of gold was annually rceeived from the provinces of Asturia, Gallicia, and Lusitania.**

We want both leisure and materials to pursue this

revenue and English ships of war.-WENCK.] [M. Wenck's conjecture, as to the drift of this by no means intelligible passage, is probably correct, for these supposed emigrations from Gaul will be found again mentioned. Gibbon's course of inquiry did not lead him to investigate these fables, or he would have discerned the truth, that the alleged marauding expeditions from Gaul, were in fact operations of Gallic (Galatic or Celtic) tribes, left in more easterly positions, while the great family itself gradually retired westward before the advancing Goths.-ED.]

* The Euboic, the Phoenician, and the Alexandrian talents were double in weight to the Attic. See Hooper on Ancient Weights and Measures, p. 4, c. 5. It is very probable that the same talent was carried from Tyre to Carthage. + Polyb. 1. 15, c. 2. [By the treaty of peace at the close of the second Punic war, the Carthaginians were bound to pay these ten thousand talents in fifty equal annual portions, so that for each year the payment was only two hundred talents.WENCK.] Appian in Punicis, p. 84. § Diodorus Siculus, 1. 5. Cadiz was built by the Phoenicians, a little more than a thousand years before Christ. See Vell. Paterc. 1. 2. Strabo, 1. 3, p. 148. [There were several of these mines. Like examples are given, from other provinces, by Burmann, Vectigalia Pop. Rom., 4to. Leyden, 1734, pp. 77-93.-WENCK.] ** Plin. Hist. Natur. 1. 33, c. 3. He mentions likewise a silver mine in Dalmatia, that yielded every day fifty pounds