II. herent traditions of antiquity; or, that he should adore CHAP. as gods, those imperfect beings whom he must have despised as men! Against such unworthy adversaries, Cicero condescended to employ the arms of reason and eloquence; but the satire of Lucian was a much more adequate, as well as more efficacious weapon. We We may be well assured, that a writer conversant with the world, would never have ventured to expose the gods of his country to public ridicule, had they not already been the objects of secret contempt among the polished and enlightened orders of society'. Notwithstanding the fashionable irreligion which prevailed in the age of the Antonines, both the interests of the priests and the credulity of the people were sufficiently respected. In their writings and conversation, the philosophers of antiquity asserted the independent dignity of reason; but they resigned their actions to the commands of law and of custom. Viewing, with a smile of pity and indulgence, the various errors of the vulgar, they diligently practised the ceremonies of their fathers, devoutly frequented the temples of the gods, and sometimes condescending to act a part on the theatre of superstition, they concealed the sentiments of an Atheist under the sacerdotal robes. Reasoners of such a temper were scarcely inclined to wrangle about their respective modes of faith, or of worship. It was indifferent to them what shape the folly of the multitude might choose to assume; and they approached, with the same inward contempt, and the same external reverence, the altars of the Lybian, the Olympian, or the Capitoline Jupiter. It is not easy to conceive from what motives a spirit of the ma of persecution could introduce itself into the Roman gistrate. councils. The magistrates could not be actuated by a blind, though honest bigotry, since the magistrates were themselves philosophers; and the schools of Athens had given laws to the senate. They could 7 I do not pretend to assert, that, in this irreligious age, the natural terrors of superstition, dreams, omens, apparitions, &c. had lost their efficacy. 8 Socrates, Epicurus, Cicero, and Plutarch, always inculcated a decent reverence for the religion of their own country, and of mankind. The devotion of Epicurus was assidious and exemplary, Diogen. Laert. x. 10. II. CHAP. not be impelled by ambition or avarice, as the temporal and ecclesiastical powers were united in the same hands. The pontiffs were chosen among the most illustrious of the senators; and the office of Supreme Pontiff was constantly exercised by the emperors themselves. They knew and valued the advantages of religion, as it is connected with civil government. They encouraged the public festivals which humanize the manners of the people. They managed the arts of divination, as a convenient instrument of policy; and they respected as the firmest bond of society, the useful persuasion, that, either in this or in a future life, the crime of perjury is most assuredly punished by the avenging gods. But whilst they acknowledged the general advantages of religion, they were convinced, that the various modes of worship contributed alike to the same salutary purposes; and that, in every country, the form of superstition, which had received the sanction of time and experience, was the best adapted In the to the climate, and to its inhabitants. Avarice and provinces. taste very frequently despoiled the vanquished nations at Rome. of the elegant statues of their gods, and the rich ornaments of their temples: but, in the exercise of the religion which they derived from their ancestors, they uniformly experienced the indulgence, and even protection of the Roman conquerors. The province of Gaul seems, and indeed only seems, an exception to this universal toleration. Under the specious pretext of abolishing human sacrifices, the emperors Tiberius and Claudius suppressed the dangerous power of the Druids" but the priests themselves their gods and their altars, subsisted in peaceful obscurity till the final destruction of Paganism1. Rome the capital of a great monarchy, was incessantly filled with subjects and strangers from every 9 Polybius, 1. vi. c.-53, 54. Juvenal, Sat. xiii. laments, that in his time this apprehension had lost much of its effect. 10 See the fate of Syracuse, Tarentum, Ambracia, Corinth, &c. the conduct of Verres, in Cicero (Actio ii. Orat. 4.), and the usual practice of governors, in the viiith Satire of Juvenal. 11 Sueton. in Claud.-Plin. Hist. Nat. xxx. 1. 12 Pelloutier Histoire des Celtes, tom. vi. p. 230.—252. II. part of the world13, who all introduced and enjoyed the CHAP. favourite superstitions of their native country. Every city in the empire was justified in maintaining the purity of its ancient ceremonies; and, the Roman senate using the common privilege, sometimes interposed, to check this inundation of foreign rites. The Egyptian superstition, of all the most contemptible and abject, was frequently prohibited; the temples of Serapis and Isis demolished, and their worshippers banished from Rome and Italy15. But the zeal of fanaticism prevailed over the cold and feeble efforts of policy. The exiles returned, the proselytes multiplied, the temples were restored with increasing splendor, and Isis and Serapis at length assumed their place among the Roman deities16. Nor was this indulgence a departure from the old maxims of government. In the purest ages of the commonwealth, Cybele and Esculapius had been invited by solemn embassies"; and it was customary to tempt the protectors of besieged cities, by the promise of more distinguished honours than they possessed in their native country18. Rome gradually became the common temple of her subjects; and the freedom of the city was bestowed on all the gods of mankind1o. II. The narrow policy of preserving, without any Freedom foreign mixture, the pure blood of the ancient citizens, of Rome. had checked the fortune, and hastened the ruin, of Athens and Sparta. The aspiring genius of Rome 13 Seneca Consolat, ad Helviam, p. 74. Edit. Lips. 14 Dionysius Halicarn. Antiquitat. Roman. 1. ii. 15 In the year of Rome 701, the temple of Isis and Serapis was demolished by the order of the Senate (Dion Cassius, 1. xl. p. 252.) and even by the hands of the consul (Valerius Maximus, 1. 3.) After the death of Casar, it was restored at the public expense (Dion, 1. xlvii. p. 501.). When Augustus was in Egypt, he revered the majesty of Serapis (Dion, 1. ll. p. 647.); but in the Pomarium of Rome, and a mile round it, be prohibited the worship of the Egyptian gods (Dion, l. liii. p. 679. 1. liv. p. 735.) They remained, however, very fashionable under his reign (Ovid, de Art. Amand. 1. i.) and that of his successor, till the justice of Tiberius was provoked to some acts of severity. (See Tacit. annal. ii. 85. Joseph. Antiquit. I. xviii. c. 3.) 16 Tertullian in Apologetic. c. 6. p. 74. Edit. Havercamp. I am inclined to attribute their establishment to the devotion of the Flavian family. 17 See Livy, 1. xi. and xxix. 18 Macrob. Saturnalia, 1. iii. c. 9. He gives us a form of evocation. 19 Minutius Fælix in Octavio, p: 54. Arnobius, 1. vi. p. 115, II. CHAP. sacrificed vanity to ambition, and deemed it more prudent, as well as honourable, to adopt virtue and merit for her own wheresoever they were found, among slaves or strangers, enemies or barbarians20. During the most flourishing æra of the Athenian commonwealth, the number of citizens gradually decreased from about thirty" to twenty-one thousand. If, on the contrary, we study the growth of the Roman republic, we may discover, that, notwithstanding the incessant demands of wars and colonies, the citizens, who, in the first census of Servius Tullius, amounted to no more than eightythree thousand, were multiplied, before the commencement of the social war, to the number of four hundred and sixty-three thousand men, able to bear arms in the service of their country23. When the allies of Rome claimed an equal share of honours and privileges, the senate indeed preferred the chance of arms to an ignominious concession. The Samnites and the Lucanians paid the severe penalty of their rashness; but the rest of the Italian states, as they successively returned to their duty, were admitted into the bosom of the repub. lic24, and soon contributed to the ruin of public freedom. Under a democratical government, the citizens exercise the powers of sovereignty; and those powers will be first abused, and afterwards lost, if they are committed to an unwieldy multitude. But when the popular assemblies had been suppressed by the administration of the emperors, the conquerors were distinguished from the vanquished nations, only as the first and most honorable order of subjects; and their increase, however rapid, was no longer exposed to the same dangers. Yet the wisest princes, who adopted the maxims of Augustus, guarded with the strictest 20 Tacit. Annal. xi. 24. The Orbis Romanus of the learned Spanheim, is a complete history of the progressive admission of Latium, Italy, and the provinces, to the freedom of Rome. 21 Herodotus, v. 97. It should seem, however, that he followed a large and popular estimation. 22 Athenæus Deipnosophist, 1. vi. p. 272. Edit. Casaubon. Meursius de Fortunâ Atticâ, c. 4. 23 See a very accurate collection of the numbers of each Lustrum in M. de Beaufort, Republique Romaine, 1. iv. c. 4. 24 Appian. de Bell. Civil. 1. i. Velleius Paterculus, 1. ii. c. 15, 16, 17. care the dignity of the Roman name, and diffused the CHAP. freedom of the city with a prudent liberality25. II. Till the privileges of Romans had been progressively Italy. extended to all the inhabitants of the empire, an important distinction was preserved between Italy and the provinces. The former was esteemed the centre of public unity, and the firm basis of the constitution. Italy claimed the birth, or at least the residence, of the emperors and the senate 26. The estates of the Italians were exempt from taxes, their persons from the arbitrary jurisdiction of governors. Their municipal corporations, formed after the perfect model of the capital, were intrusted, under the immediate eye of the supreme power, with the execution of the laws. From the foot of the Alps to the extremity of Calabria, all the natives of Italy were born citizens of Rome. Their partial distinctions were obliterated, and they insensibly coalesced into one great nation, united by language, manners, and civil institutions, and equal to the weight of a powerful empire. The republic gloried in her generous policy, and was frequently rewarded by the merit and services of her adopted sons. Had she always confined the distinction of Romans to the ancient families within the walls of the city, that immortal name would have been deprived of some of its noblest ornaments. Virgil was a native of Mantua; Horace was inclined to doubt whether he should call himself an Apulian or a Lucanian: it was in Padua that an historian was found worthy to record the majestic series of Roman victories. The patriot family of the Catos emerged from Tusculum; and the little town of Arpinum claimed the double honour of producing Marius and Cicero, the former of whom deserved, after Romulus and Camillus, to be styled the third Founder of 25 Mæcenas had advised him to declare by one edict, all his subjects, citizens. But we may justly suspect that the historian Dion was the author of a counsel, so much adapted to the practice of his own age, and so little to that of Augustus. 26 The senators were obliged to have one-third of their own landed property in Italy. See Plin. 1. vi. ep. 19. The qualification was reduced by Marcus to one-fourth. Since the reign of Trajan, Italy had sunk nearer to the level of the provinces. |