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legions; the cavalry covered the flanks, and the CHAP. military engines were placed in the rear.

I.

fition of the

legions.

Such were the arts of war, by which the Ro- Number man emperors defended their extenfive conquefts, and difpoand preferved a military fpirit, at a time when every other virtue was oppreffed by luxury and defpotifm. If, in the confideration of their armies, we pass from their discipline to their numbers, we shall not find it easy to define them with any tolerable accuracy. We may compute, however, that the legion, which was itself a body of fix thoufand eight hundred and thirty-one Romans, might, with its attendant auxiliaries, amount to about twelve thousand five hundred men. The peace establishment of Hadrian and his fucceffors was compofed of no less than thirty of these formidable brigades; and most probably formed a standing force of three hundred and feventy-five thousand men. Inftead of being confined within the walls of fortified cities, which the Romans confidered as the refuge of weakness or pufillanimity, the legions were encamped on the banks of the great rivers, and along the frontiers of the barbarians. As their ftations, for the moft part, remained fixed and permanent, we may venture to defcribe the diftribution of the troops. Three legions were fufficient for Britain. The principal strength lay upon the Rhine and Danube, and confifted of fixteen legions, in the following proportions; two in the Lower, and three in the Upper Germany; one in Rhætia, one in Noricum, four in Pannonia, three in Mæfia, and two in Dacia. The defence of the Euphrates

was

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CHAP. was entrusted to eight legions, fix of whom were planted in Syria, and the other two in Cappadocia. With regard to Egypt, Africa, and Spain, as they were far removed from any important scene of war, a fingle legion maintained the domestic tranquillity of each of thofe great provinces. Even Italy was not left deftitute of a military force. About twenty thoufand chofen foldiers, diftinguished by the titles of City Cohorts and Prætorian Guards, watched over the fafety of the monarch and the capital. As the authors of almoft every revolution that diftracted the empire, the Prætorians will, very foon, and very loudly, demand our attention; but in their arms and inftitutions we cannot find any circumftance which difcriminated them from the legions, unless it were a more fplendid appearance, and a lefs rigid difciplines.

Navy.

The navy maintained by the emperors might feem inadequate to their greatnefs; but it was fully fufficient for every ufeful purpose of government. The ambition of the Romans was confined to the land; nor was that warlike people ever actuated by the enterprising spirit which had prompted the navigators of Tyre, of Carthage, and even of Marfeilles, to enlarge the bounds of the world, and to explore the most remote coafts of the ocean. To the Romans the ocean remained an object of terror rather than

65 Tacitus (Annal. iv. 5.) has given us a state of the legions under Tiberius: and Dion Caffius (1. lv. p. 794.) under Alexander Severus. I have endeavoured to fix on the proper medium between these two periods. See likewise Lipfius de Magnitudine Romanâ, l. i. c. 4, 5.

of

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of curiofity; the whole extent of the Mediter- C H A P. ranean, after the deftruction of Carthage, and the extirpation of the pirates, was included within their provinces. The policy of the emperors was directed only to preferve the peaceful dominion of that fea, and to protect the commerce of their fubjects. With thefe moderate views, Augustus ftationed two permanent fleets in the most convenient ports of Italy, the one at Ravenna on the Adriatic, the other at Mifenum in the bay of Naples. Experience feems at length to have convinced the ancients, that as foon as their gallies exceeded two, or at the moft three ranks of oars, they were fuited rather for vain pomp than for real fervice. Auguftus himfelf, in the victory of Actium, had feen the fuperiority of his own light frigates (they were called Liburnians) over the lofty but unwieldy caftles of his rival. Of thefe Liburnians he compofed the two fleets of Ravenna and Mifenum, deftined to command, the one the eastern, the other the western divifion of the Mediterranean; and to each of the fquadrons he attached a body of feveral thoufand mariners. Befides thefe two ports, which may be confidered as the principal feats of the Roman navy, a very confiderable force was ftationed at Frejus, on the coaft of Provence, and the Euxine was

66 The Romans tried to disguise, by the pretence of religious awe, their ignorance and terror. See Tacit. Germania, c. 34.

67 Plutarch. in Marc. Anton. And yet, if we may credit Orofius, thefe monftrous caftles were no more than ten feet above the water,

vi. 19.

15

guarded

CHAP. guarded by forty fhips, and three thousand folI. diers.

To all these we add the fleet which preferved the communication between Gaul and Britain, and a great number of veffels conftantly maintained on the Rhine and Danube, to harass the country, or to intercept the paffage of the barbarians. If we review this general state of the Imperial forces; of the cavalry as well as infantry; of the legions, the auxiliaries, the guards, and the navy; the moft liberal computaAmount of tion will not allow us to fix the entire establishthe whole ment by fea and by land at more than four hundred and fifty thoufand men; a military power, which, however formidable it may feem, was equalled by a monarch of the last century, whofe kingdom was confined within a single province of the Roman empire".

establish

ment.

View of the

We have attempted to explain the spirit which provinces moderated, and the ftrength which supported, the power of Hadrian and the Antonines. We

of the Ro

man em

pire.

Spain.

shall now endeavour, with clearness and precifion, to describe the provinces once united under their fway, but at present divided into fo many independent and hoftile ftates.

Spain, the western extremity of the empire, of Europe, and of the ancient world, has, in every age, invariably preferved the fame natural limits; the Pyrenæan mountains, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic Ocean. That great peninfula, at prefent fo unequally divided be

68 See Lipfius, de Magnitud. Rom. 1. i. c. 5. The fixteen laft chapters of Vegetius relate to naval affairs.

69 Voltiare, Siecle de Louis XIV. c. 29. It muft, however, be remembered, that France ftill feels that extraordinary effort.

tween

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tween two fovereigns, was diftributed by Au- CHAP. guftus into three provinces, Lufitania, Bætica, and Tarraconenfis. The kingdom of Portugal now fills the place of the warlike country of the Lufitanians; and the lofs fuftained by the former, on the fide of the Eaft, is compenfated by an acceffion of territory towards the North. The confines of Grenada and Andalufia correfpond with thofe of ancient Bætica. The remainder of Spain, Gallicia and the Afturias, Biscay and Navarre, Leon and the two Caftilles, Murcia, Valencia, Catalonia and Arragon, all contributed to form the third and moft confiderable of the Roman governments, which, from the name of its capital, was ftyled the province of Tarragona 7. Of the native barbarians, the Celtiberians were the most powerful, as the Cantabrians and Afturians proved the most obstinate. Confident in the ftrength of their mountains, they were the last who fubmitted to the arms of Rome, and the first who threw off the yoke of the Arabs.

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Ancient Gaul, as it contained the whole coun- Gaul. try between the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Rhine, and the Ocean, was of greater extent than modern France. To the dominions of that powerful monarchy, with its recent acquifitions of Alface and Lorraine, we must add the duchy of

7 See Strabo. 1. ii. It is natural enough to fuppofe, that Arragon is derived from Tarraconenfis, and feveral moderns who have written in Latin, use those words as fynonymous. It is however certain, that the Arragon, a little stream which falls from the Pyrenees into the Ebro, firft gave its name to a country, and gradually to a kingdom. See d'Anville, Geographie du Moyen Age, p. 181.

Savoy,

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