pre avarice of the nobles; and in the which age ceded the fall of the republic, it was computed, that only two thoufand citizens were poffeffed of any independent fubftance 5°. Yet as long as the people bestowed, by their fuffrages, the honours of the state, the command of the legions, and the administration of wealthy provinces, their conscious pride alleviated, in fome measure, the hardships of poverty; and their wants were feafonably supplied by the ambitious liberality of the candidates, who aspired to fecure a venal majority in the thirty-five tribes, or the hundred and ninety-three centuries, of Rome. But when the prodigal commons had imprudently alienated not only the use, but the inheritance, of power, they funk, under the reign of the Cæfars, into a vile and wretched populace, which muft, in a few generations, have been totally extinguished, if it had not been continually recruited by the manumiffion of flaves, and the influx of ftrangers. As early as the time of Hadrian, it was the just complaint of the ingenuous natives, that the capital had attracted the vices of the universe, and the manners of the most oppofite nations. The intemperance of the Gauls, the cunning and levity of the Greeks, the favage obftinacy of the Egyptians and Jews, the fervile temper of the Afiatics, 50 Non effe in civitate duo millia hominum qui rem haberent. Cicero. Offic. ii. 21. and Comment. Paul, Manut. in edit. Græv. This vague computation was made A. U. C. 649. in a fpeech of the tribune Philippus; and it was his object, as well as that of the Gracchi (fee Plutarch), to deplore, and perhaps to exaggerate, the mifery of the common people. СНАР. XXXI. CHAP and the diffolute, effeminate proftitution of the Syrians, were mingled in the various multitude; which, under the proud and falfe denomination of Romans, prefumed to defpife their fellowfubjects, and even their fovereigns, who dwelt beyond the precincts of the ETERNAL CITY " Public diftribution of bread, bacon, oil, wine, &c. Yet the name of that city was ftill pronounced with respect the frequent and capricious tumults of its inhabitants were indulged with impunity; and the fucceffors of Conftantine, inftead of crushing the last remains of the democracy, by the ftrong arm of military power, embraced the mild policy of Auguftus, and ftudied to relieve the poverty, and to amufe the idlenefs, of an innumerable people "2. I. For the convenience of the lazy plebeians, the monthly diftributions of corn 52 51 See the third Satire (60-125.) of Juvenal, who indignantly complains, Quamvis quota portio fæcis Achæi! Jampridem Syrus in Tiberim defluxit Orontes ; Et linguam et mores, &c. Seneca, when he propofes to comfort his mother (Confolat. ad Helv. c. 6.) by the reflection, that a great part of mankind were in a ftate of exile, reminds her how few of the inhabitants of Rome were born in the city. 52 Almoft all that is faid of the bread, bacon, oil, wine, &c. may be found in the fourteenth book of the Theodofian Code which expressly treats of the police of the great cities. See particularly, the titles iii. iv. xv. xvi, xvii. xxiv. The collateral teftimonies are produced in Godefroy's Commentary, and it is needless to transcribe them. According to a law of Theodofius, which appreciates in money the military allowance, a piece of gold (eleven fhillings) was equivalent to eighty pounds of bacon, or to eighty pounds of oil, or to twelve modii (or pecks) of falt (Cod. Theod. 1. viii. tit. iv. leg. 17.). This equation, compared with another, of feventy pounds of bacon for an amphora (Cod. Theod. 1. xiv. tit. iv. leg. 4), fixes the price of wine at about sixteen pence the gallon. were 1 53 were converted into a daily allowance of bread; a great number of ovens was conftructed and maintained at the public expence; and at the appointed hour, each citizen, who was furnished with a ticket, afcended the flight of steps, which had been affigned to his peculiar quarter or divifion, and received, either as a gift, or at a very low price, a loaf of bread of the weight of three pounds, for the ufe of his family. II. The forefts of Lucania, whofe acorns fattened large droves of wild hogs ", afforded, as a fpecies of tribute, a plentiful fupply of cheap and wholefome meat. During five months of the year, a regular allowance of bacon was diftributed to the poorer citizens; and the annual confumption of the capital, at a time when it was much declined from its former luftre, was afcertained, by an edict of Valentinian the Third, at three millions fix hundred and twenty-eight thousand pounds 54. III. In the manners of antiquity, the use of oil was indifpenfable for the lamp, as well as for the bath; and the annual tax, which was impofed on Africa for the benefit of Rome, amounted to the weight of three millions of pounds, to the meafure, perhaps, of three hundred thousand English gallons. IV. The anxiety of Augustus to provide 53 The anonymous author of the Description of the World (p. 14. in tom. iii. Geograph. Minor, Hudfon) obferves of Lucania, in his barbarous Latin, Regio obtima, et ipfa omnibus habundans, et lardum multum foras emittit, Propter quod eft in montibus, cujus æfcam animalium variam, &c. 54 See Novell. ad calcem Cod. Theod. D. Valent. 1. i. tit. xv. This law was published at Rome, June the 29th, A. D. 452. CHAP. XXXI. the XXXI. CHAP. the metropolis with fufficient plenty of corn, was not extended beyond that neceffary article of human fubfiftence; and when the popular clamour accused the dearness and fcarcity of wine, a proclamation was iffued, by the grave reformer, to remind his fubjects, that no man could reasonably complain of thirft, fince the aqueducts of Agrippa had introduced into the city fo many copious ftreams of pure and falubrious water ". This rigid fobriety was infenfibly relaxed; and, although the generous defign of Aurelian s6 does not appear to have been executed in its full extent, the use of wine was allowed on very easy and liberal terms. The adminiftration of the public cellars was delegated to a magistrate of honourable rank; and a confiderable part of the vintage of Campania was referved for the fortunate inhabitants of Rome. Ufe of the public baths. The stupendous aqueducts, so justly celebrated by the praises of Auguftus himself, replenished the Therma, or baths, which had been conftructed in every part of the city, with Imperial magnificence. The baths of Antoninus Caracalla, which were open, at ftated hours, for the indifcriminate fervice of the fenators and the people, contained above fixteen hundred feats of marble; and more 55 Sueton. in Auguft. c. 42. The utmost debauch of the emperor himself, in his favourite wine of Rhætia, never exceeded a fextarius (an English pint). Id. c. 77. Torrentius ad Loc. and Arbuthnot's Tables, p. 86. 56 His defign was to plant vineyards along the fea coast of Hetruria (Vopifcus, in Hift. Auguft. p. 225.); the dreary, unwholesome, uncultivated Maremme of modern Tuscany. 5 than XXXI. than three thoufand were reckoned in the baths CHAP. of Diocletian 5. The walls of the lofty apartments were covered with curious mofaics, that imitated the art of the pencil in the elegance of defign, and the variety of colours. The Egyptian granite was beautifully incrufted with the precious green marble of Numidia; the perpetual ftream of hot water was poured into the capacious bafons, through fo many wide mouths of bright and maffy filver; and the meanest Roman could purchase, with a fmall copper coin, the daily enjoyment of a fcene of pomp and luxury, which might excite the envy of the kings of Afia 53. From these stately palaces issued a swarm of dirty and ragged plebeians, without shoes, and without a mantle; who loitered away whole days in the street or Forum, to hear news, and to hold difputes; who diffipated, in extravagant gaming, the miferable pittance of their wives and children; and spent the hours of the night in obfcure taverns, and brothels, in the indulgence of grofs and vulgar fenfuality 9. 58 57 Olympiodor. apud Phot. p. 197. 58 Seneca (epistol. Ixxxvi.) compares the baths of Scipio Africanus, at his villa of Liternum, with the magnificence which was continually encre fing) of the public baths of Rome, long before the ftately Thermæ of Antoninus and Diocletian were erected. The quadrans paid for admiffion was the quarter of the as, about oneeighth of an English penny. 59 Ammianus (1. xiv. c. 6, and 1. xxviii. c. 4.), after describing the luxury and pride of the nobles of Rome, expofes, with equal indignation, the vices and follies of the common people. But |