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THE HISTORY

OF

THE DECLINE AND FALL

OF THE

ROMAN EMPIRE.

CHAPTER I.

Introduction.-The Extent and Military Force of the Empire in the Age of the Antonines.

In the second century of the Christian era, the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind. The frontiers of that extensive monarchy were guarded by ancient renown and disciplined valor. The gentle but powerful influence of laws and manners had gradually cemented the union of the provinces. Their peaceful inhabitants enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth and luxury. The image of a free constitution was preserved with decent reverence: the Roman senate appeared to possess the sovereign authority, and devolved on the emperors all the executive powers of government. During a happy period of more than fourscore years, the public administration was conducted by the virtue and abilities of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines. It is the design of this, and of the two succeeding chapters, to describe the pros. perous condition of their empire; and afterwards, from the death of Marcus Antoninus, to deduce the most important

circumstances of its decline and fall: a revolution which will ever be remembered, and is still felt by the nations of the earth.

The principal conquests of the Romans were achieved under the republic; and the emperors, for the most part, were Moderation satisfied with preserving those dominions which of Augustus. had been acquired by the policy of the senate, the active emulation of the consuls, and the martial enthusiasm of the people. The seven first centuries were filled with a rapid succession of triumphs; but it was reserved for Augustus to relinquish the ambitious design of subduing the whole earth, and to introduce a spirit of moderation into the public councils. Inclined to peace by his temper and situation, it was easy for him to discover that Rome, in her present exalted situation, had much less to hope than to fear from the chance of arms; and that, in the prosecution of remote wars, the undertaking became every day more difficult, the event more doubtful, and the possession more precarious and less beneficial. The experience of Augustus added weight to these salutary reflections, and effectually convinced him that, by the prudent vigor of his counsels, it would be easy to secure every concession which the safety or the dignity of Rome might require from the most formidable barbarians. Instead of exposing his person and his legions to the arrows of the Parthians, he obtained, by an honorable treaty, the restitution of the standards and prisoners which had been taken in the defeat of Crassus.'

His generals, in the early part of his reign, attempted the reduction of Æthiopia and Arabia Felix. They marched near a thousand miles to the south of the tropic; but the heat of the climate soon repelled the invaders, and protected the unwarlike natives of those sequestered regions. The

1 Dion Cassius (1. liv. [c. 8] p. 736), with the annotations of Reimar, who has collected all that Roman vanity has left upon the subject. The marble of Ancyra, on which Augustus recorded his own exploits, asserts that he compelled the Parthians to restore the ensigns of Crassus.

2 Strabo (1. xvi. p. 780), Pliny the elder (Hist. Natur. 1. vi. [c. 28, 29] 32, 35), and Dion Cassius (1. liii. [c. 29] p. 723, and 1. liv. [c. 6] p. 734), have left us very

northern countries of Europe scarcely deserved the expense and labor of conquest. The forests and morasses of Germany were filled with a hardy race of barbarians, who despised life when it was separated from freedom; and though, on the first attack, they seemed to yield to the weight of the Roman power, they soon, by a signal act of despair, regained their independence, and reminded Augustus of the vicissitude of fortune. On the death of that emperor, his testament was publicly read in the senate. He bequeathed, as a valuable legacy to his successors, the advice of confining the empire within those limits which nature seemed to have placed as its permanent bulwarks and boundaries: on the west the Atlantic Ocean; the Rhine and Danube on the north; the

curious details concerning these wars. The Romans made themselves masters of Mariaba, or Merab, a city of Arabia Felix, well known to the Orientals (see Abulfeda and the Nubian geography, p. 52). They were arrived within three days' journey of the spice country, the rich object of their invasion.a

3 By the slaughter of Varus and his three legions. See the first book of the Annals of Tacitus [c. 55 seq.]. Sueton. in August. c. 23, and Velleius Paterculus, l. ii. c. 117, etc. Augustus did not receive the melancholy news with all the temper and firmness that might have been expected from his character.

a There are some inaccuracies in this statement. According to Strabo, the Romans under Ælius Gallus advanced as far as Marsyaba or Marsyabæ, within two (not three) days' journey of the spice country; to this place they laid siege, but, being unable to take it in consequence of the want of water, they commenced their retreat. Gibbon not only assumes that this place is the same as Mariaba, which Pliny mentions among the conquests of Ælius Gallus, but also, following D'Anville, identifies Mariaba with Mâreb, the celebrated capital of the Sabeans of Yemen, upon the borders of the remote southern province. But in the first place, Strabo mentions Mariaba, the capital of the Sabeans, as distinct from Marsyaba. (See Strabo, p. 768, 778.) Secondly, Mariaba or Mâreb is a common name of the chief towns of Arabia, as it signifies "metropolis," and consequently the mere identity of name, on which alone D'Anville appears to have relied, is of no value in this case, unless supported by other evidence. Thirdly, Gosselin, Dean Vincent, and Mr. Foster have adduced strong reasons for believing that Ælius Gallus did not penetrate as far south as Mâreb, upon the borders of Hadramaut, and consequently the latter town cannot be the same as the Mariaba of Pliny. Pliny's Mariaba and Strabo's Marsyaba may perhaps be the same place, notwithstanding the discrepancy in the statement of these authors; though Mr. Foster supposes them to be two different places. Mariaba he identifies with Mâreb, the chief town of the Beni Khâled, in the province of Bahrein, and at the eastern foot of the great Nedjd chain; Marsyaba he regards as the same as Sabbia, the chief town in the province of Sabiê, on the northern confines of Yemen. When Strabo sars that Ælius Gallus arrived within two days' journey of the spice country, he pro ably meant the emporium of the spice-trade. See Foster's Arabia, vol. ii. p. 27 seq.-S.

Euphrates on the east; and towards the south the sandy deserts of Arabia and Africa.*

Imitated by his successors.

Happily for the repose of mankind, the moderate system recommended by the wisdom of Augustus was adopted by the fears and vices of his immediate successors. Engaged in the pursuit of pleasure, or in the exercise of tyranny, the first Cæsars seldom showed themselves to the armies or to the provinces; nor were they disposed to suffer that those triumphs which their indolence neglected should be usurped by the conduct and valor of their lieutenants. The military fame of a subject was considered as an insolent invasion of the imperial prerogative; and it became the duty, as well as interest, of every Roman general to guard the frontiers intrusted to his care, without aspiring to conquests which might have proved no less fatal to himself than to the vanquished barbarians."

Conquest of Britain was the first ex

The only accession which the Roman empire received during the first century of the Christian era was the province of Britain. In this single instance the successors of Cæsar and Augustus were persuaded to follow the ception to it. example of the foriner, rather than the precept of the latter. The proximity of its situation to the coast of Gaul seemed to invite their arms; the pleasing, though doubtful, intelligence of a pearl-fishery attracted their avarice; and as Britain was viewed in the light of a distinct and insulated world, the conquest scarcely formed any exception to the general system of continental measures. After a war

4 Tacit. Annal. [1. i. 11]. Dion Cassius, 1. lvi. [c. 33] p. 832; and the speech of Augustus himself, in Julian's Cæsars. It receives great light from the learned notes of his French translator, M. Spanheim.

5 Germanicus, Suetonius Paulinus, and Agricola were checked and recalled in the course of their victories. Corbulo was put to death. Military merit, as it is admirably expressed by Tacitus, was, in the strictest sense of the word, imperatoria virtus.

• Cæsar himself conceals that ignoble motive; but it is mentioned by Suetonius, c. 47. The British pearls proved, however, of little value, on account of their dark and livid color. Tacitus observes, with reason (in Agricola, c. 12), that it was an inherent defect. “Ego facilius crediderim, naturam margaritis deesse quam nobis avaritiam."

8

of about forty years, undertaken by the most stupid,' maintained by the most dissolute, and terminated by the most timid of all the emperors, the far greater part of the island submitted to the Roman yoke. The various tribes of Britons possessed valor without conduct, and the love of freedom without the spirit of union. They took up arms with savage fierceness; they laid them down, or turned them against each other, with wild inconstancy; and while they fought singly, they were successively subdued. Neither the fortitude of Caractacus, nor the despair of Boadicea, nor the fanaticism of the Druids, could avert the slavery of their country, or resist the steady progress of the imperial generals, who maintained the national glory, when the throne was disgraced by the weakest or the most vicious of mankind. At the At the very time when Domitian, confined to his palace, felt the terrors which he inspired, his legions, under the command of the virtuous Agricola, defeated the collected force of the Caledonians at the foot of the Grampian hills; and his fleets, venturing to explore an unknown and dangerous navigation, displayed the Roman arms round every part of the island. The conquest of Britain was considered as already achieved; and it was the design of Agricola to complete and insure his success by the easy reduction of Ireland, for which, in his opinion, one legion and a few auxiliaries were sufficient. The western isle might be improved into a valuable possession, and the Britons would wear their chains with the less reluctance, if the prospect and example of freedom was on every side removed from before their eyes.

But the superior merit of Agricola soon occasioned his removal from the government of Britain; and forever disap

Claudius, Nero, and Domitian. A hope is expressed by Pomponius Mela, 1. üi. c. 6 (he wrote under Claudius), that, by the success of the Roman arms, the island and its savage inhabitants would soon be better known. It is amusing enough to peruse such passages in the midst of London.

See the admirable abridgment given by Tacitus, in the Life of Agricola, and copiously, though perhaps not completely, illustrated by our own antiquarians, Camden and Horsley.

• The Irish writers, jealous of their national honor, are extremely provoked on this occasion, both with Tacitus and with Agricola.

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