people requires to be noticed, as laying the foundation for a great step in the improvement of the human species. Poverty rendered slavery less frequent, and destroyed many of the channels by which the slave trade had flourished. The condition of the slaves also underwent several modifications, as the barrier between the slave and the citizen was broken down. At this favourable conjuncture Christianity stepped in, to prevent injustice from ever recovering the ground which humanity had gained.

Under oppressive governments, the person sometimes becomes more insecure than property. This appears to have been the case under the Roman, as it has since been under the Turkish government; and the population, in such cases, decreases much more rapidly than property is destroyed. The inhabitants of Greece under the Roman empire, found themselves possessed of buildings, gardens, vineyards, olive plantations, and all the agricultural produce which the capital of former ages had been able to produce, to an extent capable of maintaining a numerous population. The want of commerce, neglected roads, the rarity of the precious metals in circulation, and the difficulties thrown in the way of petty traffic, by injudicious legislation, rendered the surplus produce of each separate district of little value. The inhabitants enjoyed the mere necessaries of life, and some of the luxuries of their climate in great abundance, but when they looked at the productions of art, and foreign commerce, they felt themselves to be poor. Such a state of society

inevitably introduces a system of wasting what is superfluous, and of neglecting the means of future production. In this condition of indifference and ease, the population of Greece remained, until the weakness of the Roman government, and the disorders of the army, opened a way for the northern nations into the heart of the empire.

SECTION XII.

INFLUENCE OF RELIGION AND PHILO-
SOPHY ON SOCIETY.

THE earliest records of the Greeks, represent them as living completely free from the despotic authority of a priestly class. The natural consequence of this freedom from an irrefragable decision on matters of religious opinion, was an indefinite latitude in the dogmas of the national faith: and the priesthood, as it existed, became a very incorrect interpreter of public opinion in religious questions. The belief in the gods of Olympus, had been shaken as early as in the age of Pericles, and had undergone many modifications, after the Macedonian conquests. From the time the Romans became masters of Greece, the majority of the educated were votaries of the different philosophical sects, every one of which viewed the established religion as a mere popular delusion. But the Roman government, and the municipal authorities, continued to support the various religions of the different provinces in their legal rights, though the priesthood generally enjoyed this support, rather in their

character of constituted corporations, than because they were regarded as spiritual guides. The amount of their revenues, and the extent of their civic rights and privileges, alone engaged the attention of the magistrate.

The wealth and number of the religious establishments in Greece, and the large funds possessed by corporations, which were appropriated to private festivals, contributed, in no small degree, to encourage idleness among the people, and perpetuate a taste for extravagance. The great festivals of the Olympic, Pythic, and Isthmian games, in so far as they served to unite the whole Greek nation in a common place of assembly for national objects, were, indeed, productive of some advantage. They contributed to maintain a general standard of public opinion throughout the Hellenic race, and they kept up a feeling of nationality. But the dissipation occasioned by the multitude of local religious feasts, and the extravagant public amusements celebrated at the expense of the funds belonging to the temples, produced the most injurious effects on society.

The privilege, called the right of asylum, which was enjoyed by some ancient temples, tended to encourage the open violation of every principle of justice. This privilege conferred the power of protecting all criminals who sought shelter in the sanctuary. The fear of punishment, and the strength of moral obligations, were both destroyed by this impunity openly granted to the most heinous crimes. This abuse had extended to such a degree under the Roman government, that Tiberius found it necessary

to mitigate the evil; but many shrines were allowed to retain the right of asylum to a much later period.*

Though ancient superstitions were still practised, old religious feelings were extinct. The oracles, which had once formed the most remarkable of the sacred institutions of the Greeks, had fallen into decay. It is, however, incorrect to suppose, that the Pythoness ceased to deliver her responses from the time of our Saviour's birth, for she was consulted by the emperors long after. Many oracles continued to be in considerable repute, even after the introduction of Christianity, in Greece. Pausanias mentions the oracle of Mallos in Cilicia, as the most veracious in his time. Claros and Didymi were famous, and much consulted in the time of Lucian; and even new oracles were commenced as a profitable speculation. The oracles continued to give their responses to fervent votaries, long after they had fallen into general neglect. Julian endeavoured to revive their influence, and he consulted those of Delphi, Delos, and Dodona, concerning the result of his Persian expedition. He vainly attempted to restore Delphi and Daphne near Antioch, to their ancient splendour. Even so late as the reign of Theodosius the Great, those of Delphi, Didymi, and Jupiter Ammon were in existence, but from that

TACITUS, Ann. iii. 60. Crebrescebat enim Græcas per urbes licentia atque impunitas asyla statuendi. Ibid. iv. 14.

+ PLUTARCH, de orac. defect. vii. 709. ed. Tauch.

§ LUCIAN'S Alexander and Peregrinus.

THEODORETUs, Hist. Eccles. iii. 16.

+ Attica. xxxiv. 2.

CEDRENUS, Hist. Comp. p. 304. AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS, xxii. 12.

G

period, they became utterly silent.* The reverence which had formerly been paid to them, was transferred to astrologers, who were consulted by all ranks and on all occasions. Tiberius, Otho, Hadrian, and Severus, are all mentioned as votaries of this mode of searching into the secrets of futurity. † Yet hidden divination, to which astrology belonged, had been prohibited by the laws of the twelve tables, and was condemned both by express law and by the spirit of the Roman state religion. By the Greeks even, it was regarded as an illicit and disgraceful practice.‡

During the first century of the Christian era, the worship of Serapis made great progress in every part of the Roman empire. The fact deserves notice, as it indicates the annihilation of all reverence for the old system of paganism, and marks a desire, in the public mind, to search after those truths which the Christian dispensation soon after revealed. The religion of Serapis inculcated the existence of another world, and was held in profound reverence by a numerous body of votaries.

The speculations of the philosophers had first shaken the respect of the Greeks for the religion of their ancestors. The religion of the people was, however, so utterly worthless as a moral guide, that the worst effect of the destruction of its

* See various authorities cited by VAN LIMBURG. BROUWER, Histoire de la civilization morale et religieuse des Grecs, vol. 6. p. 32. SYMMACHUS, Epist. iv. 35.

+ TACITUS, Ann. vii. 20. Hist. i. 22. SPARTIANUS, Hadrian, 2. Severus, p. 65, ed. Paris, 1620.

Ars mathematica damnabilis est et interdicta omnino, Cod. Just. 9. 8. 2. BONAMY, Du rapport de la magie avec la théologie Paienne. Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions, vii. 25.