II. Slaves. It was by such institutions that the nations of the CHAP. 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 rigour of despotism. The perfect settlement of the Roman Their empire was preceded by ages of violence and rapine. treatment. The slaves consisted, for the most part, of barbarian captives, taken in thousands by the chance of war, purchased at a vile prices, accustomed to a life of independence, and impatient 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 destruction17, 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, 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. 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, &c. They are all most probably of the Imperial age. CHAP. the protection of the laws was extended to the most abII. ject 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 intole`rable treatment, the injured slave obtained either his deliverance,' or a less cruel master50. Enfran chisement. 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 those chosen freedmen obtained no more than the private rights of citizens, and were rigorously excluded from civil or military honours. 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 generation52. Without destroying the distinction of ranks, a distant prospect of freedom 50 See the Augustan History, and a Dissertation of M. de Burigny, in the xxxvth volume of the Academy of Inscriptions, upon the Roman slaves. 51 See another Dissertation of M. de Burigny in the xxxviith volume, on the Roman freedmen. 52 Spanheim, Orbis Roman, 1. i. c. 16, p. 124, &c. II. and honours was presented, even to those whom pride CHAP. and prejudice almost disdained to number among the human species. 57 It was once proposed to discriminate the slaves by Numbers. 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 strictness, the liberal appellations of legions and myriads; we may venture to pronounce, that the proportion of slaves, who were valued as property, was more considerable than that of servants, who can be computed only as an expenses. The youths of a promising genius were instructed in the arts and sciences, and their price was ascertained by the degree of their skill and talents". Almost every profession, either liberal or mechanical, might be found in the household of an opulent senator. The ministers of pomp and sensuality were multiplied beyond the conception of modern luxury. It was more for the interest of the merchant or manufacturer to purchase, than to hire his workmen; and in the country, slaves were employed as the cheapest and most laborious instruments of agriculture. To confirm the general observation, and to display the multitude of slaves, we might allege a variety of particular instances. It was discovered, on a very melancholy occasion, that four hundred slaves were maintained in a single palace of Rome. The same number of four hundred be 53 Seneca de Clementiâ, 1. i. c. 24. The original is much stronger, "Quantum periculum immineret si servi nostri numerare nos cœpissent." 54 See Pliny (Hist. Natur. 1. xxxiii.) and Athenæus (Deipnosophist. 1. vi. p. 272.) The latter boldly asserts, that he knew very many (aoo) Romans who possesed, not for use, but ostentation, ten and even twenty thousand slaves. 55 In Paris there are not more than 43,700 domestics of every sort, and not a twelfth part of the inhabitants. Messange Recherches sur la Population, p. 186. 56 A learned slave sold for many hundred pounds sterling; Atticus always bread and taught them himself. Cornel. Nepos in Vit. c. 13. 57 Many of the Roman physicians were slaves. See Dr. Middleton's Dissertation and Defence. 58 Their ranks and offices are very copiously enumerated by Pignorius de Servis. 59 Tacit. Annal. xiv. 43. They were all executed for not preventing their master's murder. ' CHAP. longed to an estate which an African widow, of a very 11. private condition, resigned to her son, whilst she reserved for herself a much larger share of her property60. A freedman, under the reign of Augustus, though his fortune had suffered great losses in the civil wars, left behind him three thousand six hundred yoke of oxen, two hundred and fifty thousand head of smaller cattle, and, what was almost included in the description of cattle, four thousand one hundred and sixteen slaves61 Populous Roman empire. The number of subjects who acknowledged the laws ness of the of Rome, of citizens, of provincials, and of slaves, cannot now be fixed with such a degree of accuracy, as the importance of the object would deserve. We are informed, that when the emperor Claudius exercised the office of Censor, he took an account of six million nine hundred and forty-five thousand Roman citizens, who with the proportion of women and children, must have amounted to about twenty millions of souls. The multitude of subjects of an inferior rank, was uncertain and fluctuating. But, after weighing with attention every circumstance which could influence the balance, it seems probable, that there existed, in the time of Claudius, about twice as many provincials as there were citizens, of either sex, and of every age; and that the slaves were at least equal in number to the free inhabitants of the Roman world. The total amount of this imperfect calculation would rise to about one hundred and twenty millions of persons: a degree of population which possibly exceeds that of modern Europe, and forms the most numerous society that has ever been united under the same system of government. Obedience and union. Domestic peace and union were the natural conse 60 Apuleius in Apolog, p. 548. Edit. Delphin. 61 Plin. Hist. Natur. 1. xxxiii. 47. 62 Compute twenty millions in France, twenty-two in Germany, four in Hungary, ten in Italy with its islands, eight in Great-Britain and Ireland, eight in Spain and Portugal, ten or twelve in the European Russia, six in Poland, six in Greece and Turkey, four in Sweden, three in Denmark and Norway, four in the Low Countries. The whole would amount to one hundred and five, or one hundred and seven millions. See Voltaire, de Histoire Generale. II. quences of the moderate and comprehensive policy em CHAP. braced by the Romans. If we turn our eyes towards the monarchies of Asia, we shall behold despotism in the centre, and weakness in the extremities; the collec tion of the revenue, or the administration of justice, enforced by the presence of an army; hostile barbarians established in the heart of the country, hereditary satraps usurping the dominion of the provinces, and subjects inclined to rebellion, though incapable of freedom. But the obedience of the Roman world was uniform, voluntary, and permanent. The vanquished nations, blended into one great people, resigned the hope, nay even the wish, of resuming their independence, and scarcely considered their own existence as distinct from the existence of Rome. The established authority of the emperors pervaded without an effort the wide extent of their dominions, and was exercised with the same facility on the banks of the Thames, or of the Nile, as on those of the Tyber. The legions were destined to serve against the public enemy, and the civil magistrate seldom required the aid of a military force63. In this state of general security, the leisure as well as opulence both of the prince and people, were devoted to improve and to adorn the Roman empire. ments. Among the innumerable monuments of architecture Roman constructed by the Romans, how many have escaped monuthe notice of history, how few have resisted the ravages of time and barbarism! And yet even the majestic ruins that are still scattered over Italy and the provinces, would be sufficient to prove, that those countries were once the seat of a polite and powerful empire. Their greatness alone, or their beauty, might deserve our attention; but they are rendered more interesting, by two important circumstances, which connect the agreeable history of the arts, with the more useful history of human manners. Many of those works were erected at private expense, and almost all were intended for public benefit. It it natural to suppose that the greatest number, as Many of well as the most considerable of the Roman edifices, them erected at 63 Joseph. de bell. Judaico, l. ii. c. 16. The oration of Agrippa, or ra-private exther of the historian, is a fine picture of the Roman empire. pense. VOL. I. H |