Such was the state of Europe under the Roman emperors. The provinces of Asia, without excepting the transient conquests Asia Minor. of Trajan, are all comprehended within the limits of the Turkish power. But, instead of following the arbitrary divisions of despotism and ignorance, it will be safer for us, as well as more agreeable, to observe the indelible characters of nature. The name of Asia Minor is attributed, with some propriety, to the peninsula which, confined between the Euxine and the Mediterranean, advances from the Euphrates towards Europe. The most extensive and flourishing district westward of mount Taurus and the river Halys was dignified by the Romans with the exclusive title of Asia. The jurisdiction of that province extended over the ancient monarchies of Troy, Lydia, and Phrygia, the maritime countries of the Pamphylians, Lycians, and Carians, and the Grecian colonies of Ionia, which equalled in arts, though not in arms, the glory of their parent. The kingdoms of Bithynia and Pontus possessed the northern side of the peninsula from Constantinople to Trebizond. On the opposite side the province of Cilicia was terminated by the mountains of Syria: the inland country, separated from the Roman Asia by the river Halys, and from Armenia by the Euphrates, had once formed the independent kingdom of Cappadocia. In this place we may observe that the northern shores of the Euxine, beyond Trebizond in Asia and beyond the Danube in Europe, acknowledged the sovereignty of the emperors, and received at their hands either tributary princes or Roman garrisons. Budzak, Crim Tartary, Circassia, and Mingrelia, are the modern appellations of those savage countries. 82 nicia, and Palestine. Under the successors of Alexander, Syria was the seat of the Syria, Pho Seleucida, who reigned over Upper Asia till the successful revolt of the Parthians confined their dominions between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean. When Syria became subject to the Romans, it formed the eastern frontier of their empire: nor did that province, in its utmost latitude, know any other bounds than the mountains of Cappadocia to the north, and, towards the south, the confines of Egypt and the Red Sea. Phoenicia and Palestine were sometimes annexed to, and sometimes separated from, the jurisdiction of Syria. The former of these was a narrow and rocky coast; the latter was a territory scarcely superior to Wales, either in fertility or extent." 82 See the Periplus of Arrian. He examined the coasts of the Euxine when he was governor of Cappadocia. а This comparison is exaggerated, with the intention, no doubt, of attacking the authority of the Bible, which boasts of the fertility of Palestine. But not only do many ancient writers extol the fertility of Palestine (Tac. Hist. v. 6; Amm. Marc. xiv. 8; Joseph. Hist. vi. 1 § 1), but even in the present day, the wars and misgovernment of ages have not exhausted the natural richness of the soil.-Abridged from G. & M. Yet Phoenicia and Palestine will for ever live in the memory of mankind; since America, as well as Europe, has received letters from the one, and religion from the other.83 A sandy desert, alike destitute of wood and water, skirts along the doubtful confine of Syria, from the Euphrates to the Red Sea. The wandering life of the Arabs was inseparably connected with their independence; and wherever, on some spots less barren than the rest, they ventured to form any settled habitations, they soon became subjects to the Roman empire."4 Egypt. The geographers of antiquity have frequently hesitated to what portion of the globe they should ascribe Egypt. By its situation that celebrated kingdom is included within the immense peninsula of Africa; but it is accessible only on the side of Asia, whose revolutions, in almost every period of history, Egypt has humbly obeyed. A Roman præfect was seated on the splendid throne of the Ptolemies; and the iron sceptre of the Mamalukes is now in the hands of a Turkish pasha. The Nile flows down the country above five hundred miles, from the tropic of Cancer to the Mediterranean, and marks on either side the extent of fertility by the measure of its inundations. Cyrene, situate towards the west and along the sea-coast, was first a Greek colony, afterwards a province of Egypt, and is now lost in the desert of Barca. From Cyrene to the ocean the coast of Africa extends above fifteen hundred miles; yet so closely is it pressed between the Africa. Mediterranean and the Sahara, or sandy desert, that its breadth seldom exceeds fourscore or an hundred miles. The eastern division was considered by the Romans as the more peculiar and proper province of Africa. Till the arrival of the Phoenician colonies that fertile country was inhabited by the Libyans, the most savage of mankind. Under the immediate jurisdiction of Carthage it became the centre of commerce and empire; but the republic of Carthage is 83 The progress of religion is well known. The use of letters was introduced among the savages of Europe about fifteen hundred years before Christ;" and the Europeans carried them to America about fifteen centuries after the Christian æra. But in a period of three thousand years the Phoenician alphabet received considerable alterations, as it passed through the hands of the Greeks and Romans. 84 Dion Cassius, lib. lxviii. [c. 14] p. 1131. 85 Ptolemy and Strabo, with the modern geographers, fix the Isthmus of Suez as the boundary of Asia and Africa. Dionysius, Mela, Pliny, Sallust, Hirtius, and Solinus, have preferred for that purpose the western branch of the Nile, or even the great Catabathmus, or descent, which last would assign to Asia, not only Egypt, but part of Libya. a The time at which the use of letters was introduced into Greece by the Phonicians is unknown, but certainly at a much later period than is specified by Gibbon. VOL. I. The earliest Greek inscriptions extant are not much more ancient than the 50th Olympiad, or B.C. 580.-S. M now degenerated into the feeble and disorderly states of Tripoli and Tunis. The military government of Algiers oppresses the wide extent of Numidia, as it was once united under Massinissa and Jugurtha: but in the time of Augustus the limits of Numidia were contracted; and at least two-thirds of the country acquiesced in the name of Mauritania, with the epithet of Cæsariensis. The genuine Mauritania, or country of the Moors, which, from the ancient city of Tingi, or Tangier, was distinguished by the appellation of Tingitana, is represented by the modern kingdom of Fez. Salle, on the ocean, so infamous at present for its piratical depredations, was noticed by the Romans as the extreme object of their power, and almost of their geography. A city of their foundation may still be discovered near Mequinez, the residence of the barbarian whom we condescend to style the Emperor of Morocco; but it does not appear that his more southern dominions, Morocco itself and Segelmessa, were ever comprehended within the Roman province. The western parts of Africa are intersected by the branches of Mount Atlas, a name so idly celebrated by the fancy of poets;86 but which is now diffused over the immense ocean that rolls between the ancient and the new continent.8 87 a 86 The long range, moderate height, and gentle declivity of Mount Atlas (see Shaw's Travels, p. 5) are very unlike a solitary mountain which rears its head into the clouds, and seems to support the heavens. The peak of Teneriff, on the contrary, rises a league and a half above the surface of the sea, and, as it was frequently visited by the Phoenicians, might engage the notice of the Greek poets. See Buffon, Histoire Naturelle, tom. i. p. 312. Histoire des Voyages, tom. ii. 7 M. de Voltaire, tom. xiv. p. 297, unsupported by either fact or probability, has generously bestowed the Canary Islands on the Roman empire. a As Gibbon's enumeration of the Roman provinces is not complete, we subjoin a list of them, as they existed in the time of Hadrian. The date of the formation of each is added, when known. I. Sicilia, B.C. 241. II. Sardinia, including Corsica, B.C. 238. III. Hispania, originally divided into the two provinces of Citerior and Ulterior, B.C. 205; afterwards formed by Augustus into the three provinces of— 1. Tarraconensis; 2. Bætica; 3. Lusitania. IV. Gallia. The original province was Narbonensis, in the south-eastern part of the country, formed B.C. 118, frequently called simply Provincia. In B.C. 27 Augustus divided Gaul into four provinces 1. Narbonensis; 2. Aquitania; 3. Lugdunensis; 4. Belgica. To these were subsequently added -5. Germania superior, along the Upper Rhine as far as Mayence; 6. Germania inferior, along the Lower Rhine, the chief town being Colonia Agrippinensis (C-logne). Among the Gallic provinces may also be classed the three Alpine provinces - 7. Alpes Maritimæ (B.c. 14) received the Jus Latii from Nero; 8. Alpes Cottiæ, made a province by Nero; 9. Alpes Penninæ, mentioned as a province before the time of Aurelian. V. Britannia, A.D. 51. VI. Rhætia and Vindelicia, B.C. 15. XVI. Bithynia and Pontus. Bithynia, extending from the mouth of the Rhyndacus to the town Heraclea, was made a with its Having now finished the circuit of the Roman empire, we may observe that Africa is divided from Spain by a narrow The Medistrait of about twelve miles, through which the Atlantic terranean flows into the Mediterranean. The Columns of Hercules, islands. so famous among the ancients, were two mountains which seemed to have been torn asunder by some convulsion of the elements; and at the foot of the European mountain the fortress of Gibraltar is now seated. The whole extent of the Mediterranean Sea, its coasts, and its islands, were comprised within the Roman dominion. Of the larger islands, the two Baleares, which derive their names of Majorca and Minorca from their respective size, are subject at present, the former to Spain, the latter to Great Britain." It is easier to deplore the fate than to describe the actual condition of Corsica. Two Italian sovereigns assume a regal title from Sardinia and Sicily. Crete, or Candia, with Cyprus, and most of the smaller islands of Greece and Asia, have been subdued by the Turkish arms; whilst the little rock of Malta defies their power, and has emerged, under the government of its military Order, into fame and opulence. of the Roman This long enumeration of provinces, whose broken fragments have formed so many powerful kingdoms, might almost induce us General idea to forgive the vanity or ignorance of the ancients. Dazzled empire. with the extensive sway, the irresistible strength, and the real or affected moderation of the emperors, they permitted themselves to despise, and sometimes to forget, the outlying countries which had been left in the enjoyment of a barbarous independence; and they gradually XXVI. Cyrene and Creta; the former B.C. 74, the latter B.C. 67. XXVII. Africa, B.C. 146, containing the dominions of Carthage. XXVIII. Numidia, A.D. 39. XXIX. Mauritania, A.D. 42, divided into the two provinces of Tingitana and Cæsariensis. The best account of the Roman provinces is given by Marquardt in Becker's Handbuch der Römischen Alterthümer, vol. iii. pt. 1.-S. a Minorca was lost to Great Britain in 1782. Ann. Register for that year.-M. b The gallant struggles of the Corsicans for their independence under Paoli were brought to a close in the year 1769. This See volume was published in 1776. Botta, Storia d' Italia, vol. xiv.-M. Malta, it need scarcely be said, is now in the possession of the English. We have not, however, thought it necessary to notice every change in the political state of the world since the time of Gibbon.-M. 88 usurped the licence of confounding the Roman monarchy with the globe of the earth. But the temper, as well as knowledge, of a modern historian require a more sober and accurate language. He may impress a juster image of the greatness of Rome by observing that the empire was above two thousand miles in breadth, from the wall of Antoninus and the northern limits of Dacia to Mount Atlas and the tropic of Cancer; that it extended in length more than three thousand miles, from the Western Ocean to the Euphrates; that it was situated in the finest part of the Temperate Zone, between the twenty-fourth and fifty-sixth degrees of northern latitude; and that it was supposed to contain above sixteen hundred thousand square miles, for the most part of fertile and well-cultivated land. 89 88 Bergier, Hist. des Grands Chemins, 1. iii. c. 1, 2, 3, 4: a very useful collection. 89 See Templeman's Survey of the Globe: but I distrust both the Doctor's learning and his maps. |