gies in active pursuits, and prevent them from pining away in poverty and idleness. The want of colonies of emigration, at this conjuncture, kept all the evil elements of the population fermenting within the state. The want of some distant spot, connected with the past history of their race, but freed from the existing social restrictions which weighed heavily on the minds of the ambitious and the proud, compelled the Romans to make their way in society as they were able, and it affords some explanation of the composition of the imperial armies, into which all the unquiet elements of society removed.

Foreign colonies were but ill replaced, by the practice adopted by the Roman citizens of seeking their fortunes in Spain, Gaul, and Britain; though that species of emigration long tended to preserve an impulse towards improvement, in the western portion of the Roman empire. The policy of the emperors was directed to render society stationary; and it escaped the observaton of profound statesmen, like Augustus and Tiberius, that the most efficient means of securing it from decline, consisted in the formation of a regular demand on the population, by permitting emigration. Foreign colonization was, however, adverse to all the prejudices of a Roman. The policy and religion of the state were equally opposed to the residence of any citizen beyond the bounds of the empire; and the constant diminution of the inhabitants of Italy, which had accompanied the extended conquests of the republic, seemed to indicate, that the great duty of the masters of Italy was to encourage an increase

of the people, which they could hardly suppose could be promoted by emigration.

The decline in the population of Italy, proceeded from evils inherent in the political system of the Roman government, and which exercised their influence in the Grecian provinces of the empire, but which can only be traced, with historical accuracy, in their details, close to the centre of the executive power. The system of administration in the republic had always tended to aggrandize the aristocracy, who talked much of glory, but thought constantly of wealth. When the conquests of Rome were extended over all the richest countries of the ancient world, the leading families accumulated incredible riches, - riches, indeed, far exceeding the wealth of modern sovereigns. Villas and parks were formed over all Italy on a scale of the most sumptuous grandeur, and land became more valuable as hunting grounds, than as productive farms. The same habits were introduced into the provinces. In the neighbourhood of Rome, agriculture was ruined by the public distributions of grain received as tribute from the provinces, and by the bounty granted to importing merchants to secure a maximum price of bread.† The same system again prevailed in the provinces; and public distributions at Alexandria and Antioch must have proved equally injurious. Another cause of the decline in the population of the empire, was the great increase of the slaves, which took place on the rapid

* Latifundia perdidere Italiam, jam vero et provincias. PLINY, Hist. Nat. xvii. 7. 3. TACITUS, Ann. iii. 54.

+ SUETONIUS, Aug. 42.

conquests of the Romans, and the diffusion of the immense treasures which they expended. There is a considerable waste of productive industry among a slave population; and free labourers cease to exist, rather than perpetuate their race, when degraded to the same level in society as the slaves. When the insecurity of property and person under the Roman government, and the corrupt state of society, are added to these various causes of decay, the decline and depopulation of the empire does not require farther explanation.

Yet society would not, probably, have declined as it did, under the weight of the Roman power, had the active, intelligent, and virtuous members of the middle classes possessed the means of escaping from a social position, so calculated to excite feelings of despair. But it is in vain to offer conjectures on the subject; for the vice in the Roman constitution, which rendered all their military and state colonies merely sources of aggrandizement to the aristocracy, may have proceeded from some inherent defect in the social notions of the people; and, consequently, might have entailed ruin on any Roman society, established beyond the authority of the senate or the emperors. The social organization of nations affects their vitality, as much as their political constitution affects their power and fortunes.

The exclusively Roman feeling, which was adverse to all foreign colonization, was first attacked when Christianity spread itself beyond the limits of the empire. The fact, that Christianity was not identical with citizenship, or, at least, with subjection to Rome, was a powerful cause of creating that adverse

feeling towards the Christians, which branded them as enemies of the human race; for, in the mouth of a Roman, the human race was a phrase for the empire of Rome, and the Christians were really persecuted by emperors like Trajan and Marcus Aurelius, because they were regarded as having little attachment to the Roman government, and because their humanity was stronger than their citizenship.

SECTION XIV. -EFFECTS PRODUCED IN GREECE BY THE INROADS OF THE GOTHS.

AFTER the reign of Caracalla, the whole attention of the Roman government was absorbed in the necessity of defending the empire against the invasions of the northern nations. Two centuries of communication with the Roman world, had extended the effects of incipient civilization throughout all the north of Europe. Trade had created new wants, and given a new impulse to society. This state of improvement always causes a rapid increase of population, and awakens a spirit of enterprise, which makes the apparent increase even greater than the real. The history of every people which has attained any eminence in the annals of mankind, has been marked by a similar period of activity. The Greeks, the Romans, and the Arabs, poured out a succession of armies, which must have astonished the nations which they attacked, quite as much as the apparently inexhaustible armies of the Goths, amazed the degenerate Romans.

Yet few events, in the whole

course of history, seem more extraordinary than the success of the uncivilized Goths, against the well disciplined legions of imperial Rome, and their successful inroads into the thickly-peopled provinces of the Roman empire. The causes of the success of the Goths are evidently to be sought within the empire; the oppression of the provincials, the disorder in the finances, and the relaxation in the discipline of the troops, contributed more to their victories than their own strength or military skill. If any national feeling, or common political interest, had connected the people, the army, and the sovereign, the Roman empire would have easily repulsed the attacks of all its enemies; nay, had the government not arrested the natural progress of its subjects, by vicious legislation and corrupt administration, the barbarous inhabitants of Germany, Poland, and Russia, could no more have resisted the force of Roman civilization, than those of Spain, Gaul, and Britain. But this task required to be supported by the energy of national feeling; it was far beyond the strength of the imperial, or any other central government. The ablest of the despots, who styled themselves the world's masters, durst not, though nourished in camps, attempt a career of foreign conquest; and these imperial soldiers were satisfied with the inglorious task, of preserving the limits of the empire without diminution. Even Severus, after he had consolidated a systematic despotism, based on military power, did not aspire at extending the empire. This avowed inability of the Roman armies to make any farther progress, invited the barbarians to attack the provinces. If a band of