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,t and forms the most numerous society that has ever been united under the same system of govern. ment.+

According to Robertson, the number of slaves was double that of the free citizens.-GUIZOT.] + 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 l'Histoire Générale. Much has been written, during the last century, on the population of the ancient world, or portions of it, more especially the Roman empire. From Is. Vossius, who studied antiquity with an enthusiastic devotion, to Hume, Wallace, and their epitomizers, whatever has been said by these authors, requires to be considered with a coolly investigating spirit. The reader, who thus regards the subject, perceiving so many contradictory statements, with such a want of certain information and satisfactory data, will perhaps come to the conclusion, that little can be ascertained; or he may think it probable, that, since the world advanced beyond its infancy, its entire population, as well as that of its principal divisions, has remained the same; and that all the circumstances and relations, which are deemed to be for or against, either the ancient or modern world, have only served to maintain their equilibrium. It is well known, that in states, which, under any moderately good form of government, have been some time independent, the population falls off, when they become subject portions of a large empire. In the Roman provinces, therefore, the number of inhabitants must have decreased. Gibbon's estimate of the collective subjects of that empire, is probably more correct than many calculations that have been made; yet he seems to have rated them too high. But when he adds, that they were more numerous than the whole present (1779) population of Europe, he is undoubtedly wrong. Of the latter, the following view is taken from observations, more correct, and seemingly more to be relied on, than his. Germany, 24,000,000; France, 22,000,000; Hungary, Transylvania, Gallicia, 8,000,000; Italy and its Islands, 12,000,000; Spain, 10,000,000; Por tugal, 2,225,000; Great Britain and Ireland, 8,000,000; Russia, in Europe, 14,000,000; Poland, 6,000,000; Turkey, in Europe, 8,000,000; Sweden, 2,500,000; Denmark and Norway, 2,500,000, Prussia, 1,200,000; The United Netherlands, 2,125,000; Switzerland, 2,000,000. Total, 124,550,000.-WENCK.] [This note has no longer any interest, except as far as it exhibits the contrast between the past, and the changes which the last seventy years have produced. During that

58

ROMAN MONUMENTS.

[CH. II Domestic peace and union were the natural consequences of the moderate and comprehensive policy embraced by the Romans. If we turn our eyes towards the monarchies of Asia, we shall benold despotism in the centre, and weakness in the extremities; the collection 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 Tiber. The legions were destined to serve against the public enemy, and the civil magistrate seldom required the aid of a military force.* 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.

Among the innumerable monuments of architecture constructed by the Romans, how many have escaped the 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 is natural to suppose that the greatest number, as well as the most considerable of the Roman edifices, were raised

period, while the population of Europe has been doubled, that of our own islands has increased in a three-fold ratio.-ED.] * Joseph. de Bell. Judaico, 1. 2, c. 16. The oration of Agrippa, or rather of the historian, is a fine picture of the Roman empire.

by the emperors, who possessed so unbounded a command both of men and money. Augustus was accustomed to boast that he had found his capital of brick, and that he had left it of marble.* The strict economy of Vespasian was the source of his magnificence. The works of Trajan bear the stamp of his genius. The public monuments with which Hadrian adorned every province of the empire were executed not only by his orders, but under his immediate inspection. He was himself an artist; and he loved the arts, as they conduced to the glory of the monarch. They were encouraged by the Antonines, as they contributed to the happiness of the people. But if the emperors were the first, they were not the only architects of their dominions. Their example was universally imitated by their principal subjects, who were not afraid of declaring to the world that they had spirit to conceive, and wealth to accomplish, the noblest undertakings. Scarcely had the proud structure of the Coliseum been dedicated at Rome, before the edifices, of a smaller scale indeed, but of the same design and materials, were erected for the use, and at the expense, of the cities of Capua and Verona. The inscription of the stupendous bridge of Alcantara attests that it was thrown over the Tagus by the contribution of a few Lusitanian communities. When Pliny was intrusted with the government of Bithynia and Pontus, provinces by no means the richest or most considerable of the empire, he found the cities within his jurisdiction striving with each other in every useful and ornamental work, that might deserve the curiosity of strangers, or the gratitude of their citizens. It was the duty of the proconsul to supply their deficiencies, to direct their taste, and sometimes to moderate their emulation. The opulent

* Sueton. in August. c. 28. Augustus built in Rome the temple and forum of Mars the Avenger; the temple of Jupiter Tonans in the Capitol; that of Apollo Palatine, with public libraries; the portico and basilica of Caius and Lucius; the porticos of Livia and Octavia; and the theatre of Marcellus. The example of the sovereign was imitated by his ministers and generals; and his friend Agrippa left behind him the immortal monument of the Pantheon. + See Maffei, Verona Illustrata, 1. 4, p. 68. See the tenth book of Pliny's Epistles. He mentions the following works, carried on at the expense of the cities. At Nicomedia, a new forum, an aqueduct, and a canal, left unfinished by a king; at Nice, a gymnasium, and a theatre, which had already cost near 90,000l.; baths at Prusa and Claudiopolia; and an aqueduct of mixteen miles in length for the use of Sinope,

60

EXAMPLE OF HERODES ATTICUS.

[CH. II. senators of Rome and the provinces esteemed it an honour, and almost an obligation, to adorn the splendour of their age and country; and the influence of fashion very frequently supplied the want of taste or generosity. Among a crowd of these private benefactors we may select Herodes Atticus, an Athenian citizen, who lived in the age of the Antonines. Whatever might be the motive of his conduct, his magnificence would have been worthy of the greatest kings.

The family of Herod, at least after it had been favoured by fortune, was lineally descended from Cimon and Miltiades, Theseus and Cecrops, Eacus and Jupiter. But the posterity of so many gods and heroes was fallen into the most abject state. His grandfather had suffered by the hands of justice, and Julius Atticus, his father, must have ended his life in poverty and contempt, had he not discovered an immense treasure buried under an old house, the last remains of his patrimony. According to the rigour of the law, the emperor might have asserted his claim, and the prudent Atticus prevented, by a frank confession, the officiousness of informers. But the equitable Nerva, who then filled the throne, refused to accept any part of it, and commanded him to use, without scruple, the present of fortune. The cautious Athenian still insisted that the treasure was too considerable for a subject, and that he knew not how to use it. Abuse it, then, replied the monarch, with a good-natured peevishness; for it is your own.*

Many will be of opinion that Atticus literally obeyed the emperor's last instructions, since he expended the greatest part of his fortune, which was much increased by an advantageous marriage, in the service of the public. He had obtained for his son Herod the prefecture of the free cities of Asia; and the young magistrate, observing that the town. of Troas was indifferently supplied with water, obtained from the munificence of Hadrian three hundred myriads of drachms (about 100,0007.) for the construction of a new aqueduct. But in the execution of the work the charge amounted to more than double the estimate, and the officers of the revenue began to murmur, till the generous Atticus silenced their

* Hadrian afterwards made a very equitable regulation, which divided all treasure-trove between the right of property and that of discovery. Hist. August. p 9.

complaints, by requesting that he might be permitted to take upon himself the whole additional expense."

The ablest preceptors of Greece and Asia had been invited by liberal rewards to direct the education of young Herod. Their pupil soon became a celebrated orator, according to the useless rhetoric of that age, which, confining itself to the schools, disdained to visit either the forum or the senate. He was honoured with the consulship at Rome; but the greatest part of his life was spent in a philosophic retirement at Athens, and his adjacent villas, perpetually surrounded by sophists, who acknowledged, with out reluctance, the superiority of a rich and generous rival.† The monuments of his genius have perished; some considerable ruins still preserve the fame of his taste and munificence; modern travellers have measured the remains of the stadium which he constructed at Athens. It was six hundred feet in length, built entirely of white marble, capable of admitting the whole body of the people, and finished in four years, whilst Herod was president of the Athenian games, To the memory of his wife Regilla, he dedicated a theatre, scarcely to be paralleled in the empire: no wood except cedar, very curiously carved, was employed in any part of the building. The Ŏdeum, designed by Pericles for musical performances, and the rehearsal of new tragedies, had been a trophy of the victory of the arts over barbaric greatness, as the timbers employed in the construction consisted chiefly of the masts of the Persian vessels. Notwithstanding the repairs bestowed on that ancient edifice by a king of Cappadocia, it was again fallen to decay. Herod restored its ancient beauty and magnificence. Nor was the liberality of that illustrious citizen confined to the walls of Athens. The most splendid ornaments bestowed on the Temple of Neptune in the isthmus, a theatre at Corinth, a stadium at

* Philostrat. in Vit. Sophist. 1. 2, p. 548. + Aulus Gellius, in Noct. Attic. 1, 2. 9, 2. 18, 10. 19, 12. Philostrat. p. 564.

[New theatrical pieces, whether comedies or tragedies, were first heard at the Odeum. They were read or recited there, without music, scenery, or dresses, and until approved there by judges, appointed ad hoc, they could not be admitted for performance at the regular theatre. It was there, also, that poetical prizes were contended for. Ariobar zanes was the king of Cappadocia, who had repaired the Odeum, fter It was burnt by Sylla. See Martini's learned Dissertation on the Odeums of the ancients. Leipzig, 1767, p. 10—19.—WENCK.]