L CHAP. years, the public administration was conducted by the virtue and abilities of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines. It is the defign of this, and of the two fucceeding chapters, to defcribe the profperous condition of their empire; and afterwards, from the death of Marcus Antoninus, to deduce the most important circumstances of its decline and fall; a revolution which will ever be remembered, and is ftill felt by the nations of the earth. Moderation The principal conquefts of the Romans were of Augustus. atchieved under the republic; and the emperors, for the most part, were fatisfied with preferving those dominions which had been acquired by the policy of the fenate, the active emulation of the confuls, and the martial enthusiasm of the people. The feven first centuries were filled with a rapid fucceffion of triumphs; but it was referved for Auguftus, to relinquish the ambitious defign of fubduing the whole earth, and to introduce a spirit of moderation into the public councils. Inclined to peace by his temper and fituation, it was eafy for him to discover, that Rome, in her prefent exalted fituation, had much less to hope than to fear from the chance of arms; and that, in the profecution of remote wars, the undertaking became every day more difficult, the event more doubtful, and the poffeffion more precarious, and lefs beneficial. The experience of Auguftus added weight to these falutary reflections, and effectually convinced him, that, by the prudent vigour of his counfels, it would be easy to fecure every conceffion, which the fafety or the dignity of Rome might require from the most formidable Barbarians. Instead of CHAP. expofing his perfon and his legions to the arrows of the Parthians, he obtained, by an honourable treaty, the restitution of the standards and prisoners which had been taken in the defeat of Craffus '. His generals, in the early part of his reign. attempted the reduction of Ethiopia and Arabia Felix. They marched near a thousand miles to the fouth of the tropic; but the heat of the climate foon repelled the invaders, and protected the unwarlike natives of those sequestered regions. The northern countries of Europe fcarcely deferved the expence and labour of conqueft. The forefts and moraffes of Germany were filled with a hardy race of barbarians, who despised life when it was separated from freedom; and though, on the first attack, they seemed to yield to the weight of the Roman power, they foon, by a fignal act of despair, regained their independence, and reminded Auguftus of the viciffitude of fortune'. On the death of that emperor, his teftament was publicly read in the fenate. He bequeathed, as a valuable legacy to his fucceffors, the advice of confining the empire within those limits, which Nature feemed to have placed as its permanent bulwarks and boundaries; on the weft the Atlantic ocean; the Rhine and Danube on the north; the Euphrates on the east; and towards the fouth, the fandy defarts of Arabia and Africa". MADR his fuccef Happily for the repose of mankind, the moderate Imitated by fyftem recommended by the wisdom of Auguftus, fors. was adopted by the fears and vices of his immediate I. CHAP. fucceffors. Engaged in the pursuit of pleasure, or in the exercise of tyranny, the first Cæfars feldom shewed themselves to the armies, or to the provinces; nor were they difpofed to fuffer, that those triumphs which their indolence neglected, should be ufurped by the conduct and valour of their lieutenants. The military fame of a subject was confidered as an infolent invafion of the imperial prerogative; and it became the duty, as well as intereft, of every Roman general, to guard the frontiers intrusted to his care, without afpiring to conquefts which might have proved no lefs fatal to himself than to the vanquished barbarians '. the first to it. Conquest of The only acceffion which the Roman empire Britain was received, during the first century of the Chriftian exception Era, was the province of Britain. In this single inftance the fucceffors of Cæfar and Auguftus were perfuaded to follow the example of the former rather than the precept of the latter. The proximity of its fituation to the coaft of Gaul feemed to invite their arms; the pleafing, though doubtful intelligence of a pearl fishery, attracted their avarice; and as Britain was viewed in the light of a diftinct and infulated world, the conqueft fcarcely formed any exception to the general fyftem of continental measures. After a war of about forty years, undertaken by the most stupid', maintained by the most diffolute, and terminated by the moft timid of all the emperors, the far greater part of the island fubmitted to the Roman yoke. The various tribes of Britons poffeffed valour without conduct, and the love of freedom without the spirit of union. They took up arms with favage fiercenefs; they laid them down, or turned them against each other with wild inconftancy; and while they fought fingly, they were fucceffively fubdued. Neither the fortitude of Caractacus, nor the defpair of Boadicea, nor the fanaticifm of the Druids, could avert the slavery of their country, or refift the steady progress of the Imperial generals, who maintained the national glory, when the throne was difgraced by the weakest, or the most vicious of mankind. At the very time when Domitian, confined to his palace, felt the terrors which he infpired; his legions, under the command of the virtuous Agricola, defeated the collected force of the Caledonians at the foot of the Grampian hills;, and his fleets, venturing to explore an unknown and dangerous navigation, difplayed the Roman arms round every part of the island. The conqueft of Britain was confidered as already atchieved; and it was the defign of Agricola to complete and enfure his fuccefs by the easy reduction of Ireland, for which, in his opinion, one legion and a few auxiliaries were fufficient The western isle might be improved into a valuable poffeffion, and the Britons would wear their chains with the lefs reluctance, if the profpect and example of freedom was on every fide removed from before their eyes. But the fuperior merit of Agricola foon occafioned his removal from the government of Britain; and for ever difappointed this rational, though extensive scheme of conqueft. Before his departure, CHAP. 1. CHAP. I. Conqueft of the prudent general had provided for fecurity as well as for dominion. He had obferved, that the island is almoft divided into two unequal parts by the oppofite gulfs, or, as they are now called, the Friths of Scotland. Across the narrow interval of about forty miles, he had drawn a line of military ftations, which was afterwards fortified in the reign of Antoninus Pius, by a turf rampart erected on foundations of stone ". This wall of Antoninus, at a small distance beyond the modern cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, was fixed as the limit of the Roman province. The native Caledonians preferved in the northern extremity of the island their wild independence, for which they were not lefs indebted to their poverty than to their valour. Their incurfions were frequently repelled and chastifed; but their country was never fubdued". The mafters of the fairest and moft wealthy climates of the globe, turned with contempt from gloomy hills affailed by the winter tempeft, from lakes concealed in a blue mist, and from cold and lonely heaths over which the deer of the forest were chafed by a troop of naked barbarians ". Such was the state of the Roman frontiers, and Dacia; the fuch the maxims of Imperial policy from the death exception. of Auguftus to the acceffion of Trajan. That fecond virtuous and active prince had received the education of a foldier, and poffeffed the talents of a general". The peaceful system of his predeceffors was interrupted by fcenes of war and conqueft; and the legions, after a long interval, beheld a military emperor at their head. The firft exploits |