walls, and under them a kind of frieze of figures in painting: fome have an ornament under the figures, which feems to fupply the place of an architrave. There have been no relievos in ftucco hitherto difcovered. The paintings feems to be in fresco, and are in general in the fame ftile as thofe which are ufually seen on the Etrufcan vases: though fome of them are much fuperior perhaps to any thing as yet feen of the Etrufcan art in painting. The paintings, though in general flight, are well conceived, and that the artist was capa

occafion of making fome confider able difcoveries in the hiftory of a nation, in itself very great, though, to the regret of all the learned world, at prefent almost entirely unknown. This great fcene of antiquities is almoft entirely unknown, even in Rome. Mr. Jenkins, now refident at Rome, is the firft and only Englishman who ever visited it.

Remarks on the Roman Comitia.

have no authentic monu

died and more finished, though in fuch a fubterranean fituation, almost void of light, where the delicacy of a finished work would have been in a great measure thrown away, thefe artifts, as the Romans did in their beft ages (when employed in fuch fepulchral works) have in general contented themfelves with flightly expreffing their thoughts. But among the immenfe number of those fubterranean apartments which are yet unopened, it is to all appearance very probable that many and many paintings and infcriptions may be discovered, fufficient to form a very entertaining, and perhaps a very useful work: a work which would doubtless intereft all the learned and curious world, not only as it may bring to light (if fuccefs attends this undertaking) many works of art, in times of fuch early and remote antiquity, but as perhaps it may alfo be the

of Rome: there is even great reafon to believe, that most of the ftories told us of them are fabulous *; and indeed the most interesting and inftructive part of the annals of nations in general, which is that of their establishment, is the most imperfect. Experience daily teaches us to what caufes are owing the revolutions of kingdoms and empires; but as we fee no inftances of the original formation of states, we can only proceed on conjectures in treating this fubject.

The cuftoms we find actually eftablished, however, fufficiently atteft that there muft have been an origin of these customs. Thofe traditions alfo relating to fuch origin, which appear the most rational and of the beft authority, ought to pafs for the most certain. Thefe are the maxims I have adopted in tracing the manner in which the most powerful and free

people

tribes was fubdivided into ten Curiæ, and each Curiæ into Decuriæ, at the head of which were placed chiefs, refpectively denominated Curiones and Decuriones.

Besides this, there were felected from each tribe a body of an hundred cavaliers or knights, called Centurians; by which it is evident, that these divifions, not being effential to the good order of a city, were at first only military. But it feems as if the prefaging inftinct of their future greatnefs, induced the inhabitants of the little town of Rome to adopt at first a system of police proper for the metropolis of

the world.

From this primitive divifion, however, there refulted a very fpeedy inconvenience: this was, that the tribe of Albans, and that of the Sabines, always remaining the fame, while that of the ftrangers was perpetually increafing by the concourfe of foreigners, the latter foon furpaffed the number of the two former. The remedy which Servius applied to correct this dangerous abufe, was to change the divifion, and to fubftitute in the room of diftinction or race, which he abolished, another taken from the parts of the town occupied by each tribe. Inftead of three tribes, he conftituted four; each of which occupied one of the hills of Rome, and bore its name.

Thus by removing this inequality for the prefent, he prevented it alfo for the future; and in order that fuch divifion fhould not only be local but perfonal, he prohibited the inhabitants of one quarter of the city from removing to the other, and thereby prevented the mixture of their families.

He doubled alfo the three ancient centuries of cavalry, and made an addition of twelve others, but always under their old denomination; a fimple and judicious method, by which he completely diftinguifhed the body of knights from that of the people, without exciting the murmurs of the latter.

Again, to thefe four city tribes, Servius added fifteen others, called ruftic tribes; because they were formed of the inhabitants of the country, divided into as many cantons. In the fequel were made an equal number of new divifions, and the Roman people found themselves divided into thirty-five tribes; the number which their divifions remained fixed, till the final diffolution of the republic.

It

From the diftin&tion between the tribes of city and country, refulted an effect worthy of obfervation; because we have no other example of it, and becaufe Rome was at once indebted to it for the prefervation of its manners, and the increase of its empire. might be conceived the city tribes would foon arrogate to themselves the power and honours of the state, and treat the ruftics with tempt. The effect, nevertheless, was directly contrary. The tafte of the ancient Romans for a country life is well known. They de

con

rived this tafte from the wife inftitutor, who joined to liberty the labours of the peasant and the foldier, and configned, as it were, to the city, the cultivation of the arts, trade, intrigue, fortune, and flavery.

Thus the moft illuftrious perfonages of Rome, living in the country, and employing themselves in the bufinefs of agriculture, it was among thefe only the Romans looked for the defenders of their republic. This station, being that of the most worthy patricians, was held in univerfal efteem: the fimple and laborious life of the villager was preferred to the mean and lazy life of the citizen; and a perfon, who having been a labourer in the country, became a refpectable houfe-keeper in town, was yet held in contempt. It is not without reafon, fays Varus, that our magnanimous ancestors eftablished in the country the nursery for those robuft and brave men, who defended them in time of war, and cherished them in peace. Again Pliny fays, in exprefs terms, the country tribes were honoured, because of the perfons of which they were compofed; whereas fuch of their individuals as were to be treated with ignominy, were removed into the tribes of the city. When the Sabine, Appius Claudius, came to fettle in Rome, he was loaded with honours, and regiftered in one of the ruftic tribes which afterwards took the name of his family. Laftly, the freedmen were all entered in the city tribes, never in the rural; nor is there one fingle inftance, during the existence of the republic, of

any one of these freedmen being preferred to the magiftracy, although become a citizen.

This was an excellent maxim, but was carried fo far, that it effected an alteration, and undoubtedly an abufe, in the police of the ftate.

In the firft place, the cenfors, after having, long arrogated the right of arbitrarily removing the citizens from one tribe to another, permitted the greater part to regifter themselves in whatever tribe they pleafed; a permiffion that could furely anfwer no good end, and yet deprived thefe officers of one of their fevereft methods of cenfure. Befides, as the great and powerful thus got themfelves regiftered in the rural tribes; and the freedmen, with the populace only, filled up thofe of the city; the tribes in general had no longer a local diftinction; but were fo ftrangely mixed and jumbled together, that their respective members could be known only by appealing to the registers; fo that the idea attached to the word tribe, was changed from real to perfonal, or rather became altogether chimerical.

It happened alfo, that the tribes of the city, being nearer at hand, had generally the greateft influence in the Comitia, and made a proper ty of the ftate, by felling their votes to those who were base enough to purchase them.

With regard to the Curiæ, ten having been inftituted in each tribe, the whole Roman people, included within the walls, made up thirty Curiæ, each of which had their peculiar temples, their gods, officers, and feafts, called Campitalia,

Campitalia, refembling the Paganalia, afterwards inftituted among the rufiic trfties.

At the new divifion made by Servius, the number thirty not be ing equally divifible among the four tribes, he forbore to meddle with this mode of diftribution; and the Curiæ, thus independent of the tribes, formed another divifion of the inhabitants. No notice, however, was taken of the Curia, either among the ruftic tribes, or the people compofing them; becaufe the tribes becoming a mere civil establishment, and another method having been introduced for raifing the troops, the military diftinctions of Romulus were drop ped as fuperfluous. Thus, though every citizen was registered in fome tribe, yet many of them were not included in any Curiæ.

Servius made ftill a third divifion, which had no relation to the two former, and became in its confequences the most important of all. He divided the whole Roman people into fix claffes, which he diftinguished, neither by perfons nor place, but by property. Of these the higher claffes were filled by the rich, the lower by the poor, and the middle claffes by thofe of middling fortunes. Thefe fix claffes were fubdivided into 193 other bodies, called Centuries; and these were again so distributed, that the first clafs alone comprehended more than half the number of centuries, and the last class only one fingle century. In this method, the clafs that contained the feweft perfons had the greater number of centuries; and the laft clafs was in number only a fubdivifion, although it contained more than half the inhabitants of Rome. VOL. VII.

In order that the people fhould penetrate lefs into the defign of this latter form of diftribution, Servius affected to give it the air of a military one. In the second clafs he incorporated two centuries of armourers, and annexed two

truments of war to the fourth. In each clafs, except the laft, he diftinguished alfo between the young and the old; that is to fay, thofe who were obliged to bear arms, from thofe who were exempted from it on account of their age; a diftinction which gave more frequent rife to the re petition of the census or enumeration of them, than even the shift ing of property. Laftly, he required their affembly to be made on the Campus Martius, where all those who were of age for the fervice were to appear with their

arms.

The reason why he did not purfue the fame diftinction of age in the laft clafs, was, that the popu lace of which it was compofed, were not permitted to have the honour of bearing arms in the fervice of their country. It was neceffary to be housekeepers, in order to attain the privilege of defending themfelves; there is not one private centinel, perhaps, of all the innumerable troops that make fo brilliant a figure in the armies of our modern princes, who would not, for want of property, have been driven out with disdain from a Roman cohort, when foldiers were the defenders of li berty.

In the laft clafs, however, there was a diftinction made between what they called Proletarii and thofe denominated Capite Censi. The former, not quite reduced to M

nothing,