than the West to the voice of its victorious preceptors. This obvious difference marked the two portions of the empire with a distinction of colors, which, though it was in some degree concealed during the meridian splendor of prosperity, became gradually more visible as the shades of night descended upon the Roman world. The western countries were civilized by the same hands which subdued them. As soon as the barbarians were reconciled to obedience, their minds were opened to any new impressions of knowledge and politeness. The language of Virgil and Cicero, though with some inevitable mixture of corruption, was so universally adopted in Africa, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and Pannonia," that the faint traces of the Punic or Celtic idioms were preserved only in the mountains or among the peasants." Education and study insensibly inspired the natives of those countries with the sentiments of Romans, and Italy gave fashions, as well as laws, to her Latin provincials. They solicited with more ardor, and obtained with more facility, the freedom and honors of the State; supported the national dignity in letters and in arms; and at length, in the person of Trajan, produced an emperor whom the Scipios would not have disowned for their countryman. The situation of the Greeks was very different from that of the barbarians. The former had been long since civilized and corrupted. They had too much taste 40 38 Apuleius and Augustine will answer for Africa; Strabo for Spain and Gaul; Tacitus, in the Life of Agricola, for Britain; and Velleius Paterculus for Pannonia. To them we may add the language of the Inscriptions. 39 The Celtic was preserved in the mountains of Wales, Cornwall, and Armorica. We may observe that Apuleius reproaches an African youth, who lived among the populace, with the use of the Punic; whilst he had almost forgot Greek, and neither could nor would speak Latin (Apolog. p. 556). The greater part of St. Austin's congregations were strangers to the Punic. 40 Spain alone produced Columella, the Senecas, Lucan, Martial, and Quintilian a Mr. Hallam contests this assertion as regards Britain. "Nor did the Romans ever establish their language-I know not whether they wished to do so-in this island, as we perceive by that stubborn British tongue which has survived two conquests.' In his note Mr. Hallam examines the passage from Tacitus (Agric. xxi.) to which Gibbon refers. It merely asserts the progress of Latin studies among the higher orders.-Midd. Ages, iii. 276. Probably it was a kind of court language and that of public affairs, and prevailed in the Roman colonies.-M. to relinquish their language, and too much vanity to adopt any foreign institutions. Still preserving the prejudices, after they had lost the virtues, of their ancestors, they affected to despise the unpolished manners of the Roman conquerors, whilst they were compelled to respect their superior wisdom and power." Nor was the influence of the Grecian language and sentiments confined to the narrow limits of that once celebrated country. Their empire, by the progress of colonies and conquest, had been diffused from the Adriatic to the Euphrates and the Nile. Asia was covered with Greek cities, and the long reign of the Macedonian kings had introduced a silent revolution into Syria and Egypt. In their pompous courts those princes united the elegance of Athens with the luxury of the East, and the example of the court was imitated, at an humble distance, by the higher ranks of their subjects. Such was the general division of the Roman empire into the Latin and Greek languages. To these we may add a third distinction for the body of the natives in Syria, and especially in Egypt. The use of their ancient dialects, by secluding them from the commerce of mankind, checked the improvements of those barbarians." The slothful effeminacy of the former exposed them to the contempt, the sullen ferociousness of the latter excited the aversion, of the conquerors.* "Those nations had submitted to the Roman power, but they seldom desired or deserved the freedom of the city and it was remarked that more than two hundred and thirty years elapsed after the ruin of the Ptolemies before an Egyptian was admitted into the senate of Rome." It is a just though trite observation, that victorious Rome. was herself subdued by the arts of Greece. Those immortal 41 There is not, I believe, from Dionysius to Libanius, a single Greek critic who mentions Virgil or Horace. They seem ignorant that the Romans had any good writers. 42 The curious reader may see in Dupin (Bibliothèque Ecclésiastique, tom. xix. p. 1, ch. 8) how much the use of the Syriac and Egyptian languages was still preserved. 43 See Juvenal, Sat. iii. and xv. Ammian. Marcellin. xxii. 16. 44 Dion Cassius, 1. lxxvi. [5] p. 1275. The first instance happened under the reign of Septimius Severus. General use of both languages. writers who still command the admiration of modern Europe soon became the favorite object of study and imitation in Italy and the western provinces. But the elegant amusements of the Romans were not suffered to interfere with their sound maxims of policy. Whilst they acknowledged the charms of the Greek, they asserted the dignity of the Latin tongue, and the exclusive use of the latter was inflexibly maintained in the administration of civil as well as military government." The two languages exercised at the same time their separate jurisdiction throughout the empire: the former, as the natural idiom of science; the latter, as the legal dialect of public transactions. Those who united letters with business were equally conversant with both; and it was almost impossible, in any province, to find a Roman subject, of a liberal education, who was at once a stranger to the Greek and to the Latin language. Slaves. It was by such institutions that the nations of the empire insensibly melted away into the Roman name and people. But there still remained, in the centre of every province and of every family, an unhappy condition of men who endured the weight, without sharing the benefits, of society. In the free states of antiquity the domestic slaves were exposed to the wanton rigor of despotism. The perfect settlement of the Roman empire was preceded by ages of violence and rapine. The slaves consisted, for the most part, of barbarian captives, taken in thousands by the chance of war, purchased at a vile price," accustomed to a life of independence, and impatient Their treatment. 45 See Valerius Maximus, 1. ii. c. 2, n. 2. The Emperor Claudius disfranchised an eminent Grecian for not understanding Latin. He was probably in some public office. Suetonius in Claud, c. 16.a 46 In the camp of Lucullus an ox sold for a drachma, and a slave for four drachmæ, or about three shillings. Plutarch. in Lucull. p. 580 [c. 14]. Causes seem to have been pleaded, even in the senate, in both languages. Dion Cass. 1. lvii. c. 15.-M. b Above 100,000 prisoners were taken in the Jewish war. Milman, Hist. of Jews, iii. 71. According to a tradition preserved by S. Jerom, after the insurrection in the time of Hadrian they were sold as cheap as horses. Id. ibid. 124. Compare Blair on Roman Slavery, p. 19, and Dureau de la Malle, Economie Politique des Romains, l. i. ch. 15. But I cannot think that this writer has made out to break and to revenge their fetters. Against such internal enemies, whose desperate insurrections had more than once reduced the republic to the brink of destruction," the most severe regulations and the most cruel treatment seemed almost justified by the great law of self-preservation. But when the principal nations of Europe, Asia, and Africa were united under the laws of one sovereign, the source of foreign supplies flowed with much less abundance, and the Romans were reduced to the milder but more tedious method of propagation. In their numerous families, and particularly in their country estates, they encouraged the marriage of their slaves. The sentiments of nature, the habits of education, and the possession of a dependent species of property, contributed to alleviate the hardships of servitude." The existence of a slave became an object of greater value; and though his happiness still depended on the temper and circumstances of the master, the humanity of the latter, instead of being restrained by fear, was encouraged by the sense of his own interest. The progress of manners was accelerated by the virtue or policy of the emperors; and by the edicts of Hadrian and the Antonines the protection of the laws was extended to the most abject part of mankind. The jurisdiction of life. and death over the slaves, a power long exercised and often abused, was taken out of private hands, and reserved to the magistrates alone. The subterraneous prisons were abolished; and, upon a just complaint of intolerable treatment, the injured slave obtained either his deliverance or a less cruel master." 50 47 Diodorus Siculus, in Eclog. Hist. 1. xxxiv. and xxxvi. Florus, iii. 19, 20. 48 See a remarkable instance of severity in Cicero in Verrem, v. 3. 49 See in Gruter, and the other collectors, a great number of inscriptions addressed by slaves to their wives, children, fellow-servants, masters, etc. They are all, most probably, of the imperial age. 50 See the Augustan History [Spartian. Hadr. 18], and a Dissertation of M. de his case as to the common price of an agricultural slave being from 2000 to 2500 franes (£80 to £100). He has overlooked the passages which show the ordinary prices (e. g., Hor. Sat. ii. vii. 43), and argued from extraordinary and exceptional cases.-M. 1845. An active slave-trade, which was carried on in many quarters, particularly the Euxine, the eastern provinces, the coast of Africa, and Britain, must be taken into the account. Blair, 23-32.-M. Enfranchise ment. Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect condition, was not denied to the Roman slave; and if he had any opportunity of rendering himself either useful or agreeable, he might very naturally expect that the diligence and fidelity of a few years would be rewarded with the inestimable gift of freedom. The benevolence of the master was so frequently prompted by the meaner suggestions of vanity and avarice, that the laws found it more necessary to restrain than to encourage a profuse and undistinguishing liberality, which might degenerate into a very dangerous abuse." It was a maxim of ancient jurisprudence that a slave had not any country of his own; he acquired with his liberty an admission into the political society of which his patron was a member. The consequences of this maxim would have prostituted the privileges of the Roman city to a mean and promiscuous multitude. Some seasonable exceptions were therefore provided; and the honorable distinction was confined to such slaves only as, for just causes, and with the approbation of the magistrate, should receive a solemn and legal manumission. Even these chosen freedmen obtained no more than the private rights of citizens, and were rigorously excluded from civil or military honors. Whatever might be the merit or fortune of their sons, they likewise were esteemed unworthy of a seat in the senate; nor were the traces of a servile origin allowed to be completely obliterated till the third or fourth generation. Without destroying the distinction of ranks, a distant prospect of freedom and honors was presented, even to those whom pride and prejudice almost disdained to number among the human species. It was once proposed to discriminate the slaves by a peculiar habit; but it was justly apprehended that there might be some danger in acquainting them with their own numbers. Without interpreting in their utmost Numbers. 52 Burigny, in the thirty-fifth volume of the Academy of Inscriptions, upon the Roman slaves. 51 See another Dissertation of M. de Burigny, in the thirty-seventh volume, on the Roman freedmen. 52 Spanheim, Orbis Roman. 1. i. c. 16, p. 124, etc. 53 Seneca de Clementiâ, 1. i. c. 24. The original is much stronger: periculum immineret si servi nostri numerare nos cœpissent." Quantum |