command all those who had been consuls, or censors, or dictators, gave the republic the immediate assistance of many brave and experienced generals. In the beginning of the war, the Roman people consisted of two hundred and fifty thousand citizens of an age to bear arms. Fifty thousand had already died in the defence of their country; and the twenty-three legions, which were employed in the different camps of Italy, Greece, Sardinia, Sicily, and Spain, required about one hundred thousand men. But there still remained an equal number in Rome, and the adjacent territory, who were animated by the same intrepid courage; and every citizen was trained, from his earliest youth, in the discipline and exercise of a soldier. Hannibal was astonished by the constancy of the senate, who, without raising the siege of Capua, or recalling their scattered forces, expected his approach. He encamped on the banks of the Anio, at the distance of three miles from the city: and he was soon informed, that the ground on which he had pitched his tent, was sold for an adequate price at a public auction; and that a body of troops was dismissed by an opposite road, to reinforce the legions of Spain. He led his Africans to the gates of Rome, where he found three armies in order of battle, prepared to receive him; but Hannibal dreaded the event of a combat, from which he could not hope to escape, unless he destroyed the last of his enemies; and his speedy retreat confessed the invincible courage of the Romans. k i In the three census which were made of the Roman people, about the time of the second Punic war, the numbers stand as follows, (See Livy, Epitom. lib. 20. Hist. lib. 27. 36. 29. 37.) 270,213, 137,108, 214,000. The fall of the second, and the rise of the third, appears so enormous, that several critics, notwithstanding the unanimity of the MSS. have suspected some corruption of the text of Livy. (See Drakenborch ad 27. 36. and Beaufort, Republique Romaine, tom. 1. p. 325.) They did not consider that the second census was taken only at Rome, and that the numbers were diminished, not only by the death, but likewise by the absence, of many soldiers. In the third census, Livy expressly affirms, that the legions were mustered by the care of particular commissaries. From the numbers on the list, we must always deduct one-twelfth above threescore, and incapable of bearing See Population de la France, p. 72. arms. * Livy considers these two incidents as the effects only of chance and courage. I suspect that they were both managed by the admirable policy of the senate. Genealogy of the From the time of the Punic war, the unintersenators. rupted succession of senators had preserved the name and image of the republic; and the degenerate subjects of Honorius ambitiously derived their descent from the heroes who had repulsed the arms of Hannibal, and subdued the nations of the earth. The temporal honours, which the devout Paula' inherited and despised, are carefully recapitulated by Jerome, the guide of her conscience, and the historian of her life. The genealogy of her father, Rogatus, which ascended as high as Agamemnon, might seem to betray a Grecian origin; but her mother, Blæsilla, numbered the Scipios, Æmilius Paulus, and the Gracchi, in the list of her ancestors; and Toxotius, the husband of Paula, deduced his royal lineage from Æneas, the father of the Julian line. The vanity of the rich, who desired to be noble, was gratified by these lofty pretensions. Encouraged by the applause of their parasites, they easily imposed on the credulity of the vulgar; and were countenanced, in some measure, by the custom of adopting the name of their patron, which had always prevailed among the freedmen and clients of illustrious families. Most of those families, however, attacked by so many causes of external violence or internal decay, were gradually extirpated; and it would be more reasonable to seek for a lineal descent of twenty generations, among the mountains of the Alps, or in the peaceful solitude of Apulia, than on the theatre of Rome, the seat of fortune or danger, and of perpetual revolutions. Under each successive reign, and from every province of the empire, a crowd of hardy adventurers, rising to eminence by their talents or their vices, usurped the wealth, the honours, and the palaces, of Rome; and oppressed, or protected, the poor and I See Jerome, tom. 1. p. 169, 170. ad Eutochium; he bestows on Paula the splendid titles of Gracchorum stirps, soboles Scipionum, Pauli hæres, cujus vocabulum trahit, Martiæ Papyriæ Matris Africani vera et germana propago. This particular description supposes a more solid title than the surname of Julius, which Toxotius shared with a thousand families of the western provinces. See the index of Tacitus, of Gruter's Inscriptions, &c. humble remains of consular families; who were ignorant, perhaps, of the glory of their ancestors." The Anician fa mily. In the time of Jerome and Claudian, the senators unanimously yielded the pre-eminence to the Anician line; and a slight view of their history will serve to appreciate the rank and antiquity of the noble families, which contended only for the second place." During the five first ages of the city, the name of the Anicians was unknown; they appear to have derived their origin from Præneste; and the ambition of those new citizens was long satisfied with the plebeian honours of tribunes of the people. One hundred and sixty-eight years before the Christian era, the family was ennobled by the prætorship of Anicius, who gloriously terminated the Illyrian war by the conquest of the nation, and the captivity of their king." From the triumph of that general, three consulships, in distant periods, mark the succession of the Anician name. From the reign of Diocletian to the final extinction of the western empire, that name shone with a lustre which was not eclipsed in the public estimation, by the majesty of the imperial purple.' The several branches, to whom it was Tacitus (Annal. 355.) affirms, that between the battle of Actium and the reign of Vespasian, the senate was gradually filled with new families from the Municipia and colonies of Italy. n Nec quisquam Procerum tentet (licet ære vetusto Floreat, et claro cingatur Roma senatú) Se jactare parem; sed primâ sede relictâ Claud. in Prob. et Olybrii Coss. 18. Such a compliment paid to the obscure name of the Auchenii has amazed the critics; but they all agree, that whatever may be the true reading, the sense of Claudian can be applied only to the Anician family. • The earliest date in the annals of Pighius, is that of M. Anicius Gallus. Trib. Pl. A. U. C.506. Another tribune, Q. Anicus, A. U. C. 508. is distinguished by the epithet of Prænestinus. Livy (45. 43.) places the Anicii below the great families of Rome. P Livy, 44. 30, 31. 45. 3. 26. 43. He fairly appreciates the merit of Anicius, and justly observes, that his fame was clouded by the superior lustre of the Macedonian, which preceded the Illyrian triumph. 4 The dates of the three consulships, are A. U. C. 593. 818. 967. the two last under the reigns of Nero and Caracalla. The second of these consuls distinguished himself only by his infamous flattery; (Tacit. Annal. 15.74.) but even the evidence of crimes, if they bear the stamp of greatness and antiquity, is admitted, without reluctance, to prove the genealogy of a noble house. In the sixth century, the nobility of the Anician name is mentioned (Cassiodor. Variar. lib. 10. Ep. 10. 12.) with singular respect, by the minister of a Gothic king of Italy. communicated, united, by marriage or inheritance, the wealth and titles of the Annian, the Petronian, and the Olybrian houses; and in each generation the number of consulships was multiplied by an hereditary claim.' The Anician family excelled in faith and riches: they were the first of the Roman senate who embraced Christianity; and it is probable that Anicius Julian, who was afterward consul and prefect of the city, atoned for his attachment to the party of Maxentius, by the readiness with which he accepted the religion of Constantine. Their ample patrimony was increased by the industry of Probus, the chief of the Anician family; who shared with Gratian the honours of the consulship, and exercised, four times, the high office of prætorian prefect." His immense estates were scattered over the wide extent of the Roman world: and though the public might suspect, or disapprove, the methods by which they had been acquired, the generosity and magnificence of that fortunate statesman deserved the gratitude of his clients, and the admiration of strangers. Such was the respect entertained for his memory, that the two sons of Probus, in their earliest youth, and at the request of the senate, were associated in the consular dig Fixus in omnes Cognatos procedit honos; quemcumque requiras X (Claudian in Prob. et Olyb. Consulat. 12, &c.) The Annii, whose name seems to have merged in the Anician, mark the Fasti with many consulships, from the time of Vespasian to the fourth century. The title of first Christian senator may be justified by the authority of Prudentius, (in Symmach. 1.553.) and the dislike of the Pagans to the Anician family. See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. 4. p. 183. 5. p. 44. Baron. Annal. A. Ď. 312. no. 78. A. D. 322. no. 2. "Probus...claritudine generis et potentiâ et opûm magnitudine, cognitus Orbi Romano, per quem universum pœne patrimonia sparsa possedit, juste an secus non judicioli est nostri. Ammian Marcellin. 27.11. His children and widow erected for him a magnificent tomb in the Vatican, which was demolished in the time of Pope Nicholas V. to make room for the new church of St. Peter. Baronius, who laments the ruin of this Christian monument, diligently preserved the inscriptions, and basso-relievos. See Annal. Eccles. A. D. 395. no. 5-17. *Two Persian satraps travelled to Milan and Rome, to hear St. Ambrose, and to see Probus. (Paulin. in Vit. Ambros.) Claudian (in Cons. Probin. et Olybr. 30-60.) seems at a loss how to express the glory of Probus. nity; a memorable distinction, without example in the annals of Rome." the Roman Wealth of The marbles of the Anician palace, were used nobles. as a proverbial expression of opulence and splendour; but the nobles and senators of Rome aspired, in due gradation, to imitate that illustrious family. The accurate description of the city, which was composed in the Theodosian age, enumerates one thousand seven hundred and eighty houses, the residence of wealthy and honourable citizens. Many of these stately mansions might almost excuse the exaggeration of the poet; that Rome contained a multitude of palaces, and that each palace was equal to a city; since it included within its own precincts, every thing which could be subservient either to use or luxury; markets, hippodromes, temples, fountains, baths, porticos, shady groves, and artificial aviaries. The historian Olympiodorus, who represents the state of Rome when it was besieged by the Goths, continues to observe, that several of the richest senators received from their estates an annual income of four thousand pounds of gold, above one hundred and sixty thousand pounds sterling; without computing the stated provision of corn and wine, which, had they been sold, might have equalled in value one third of the money. Compared to this immoderate wealth, an ordinary revenue of a thousand or fifteen hundred pounds of gold might be considered as no more than adequate to the dignity of the senatorial rank, which required many expenses of a public and ostentatious kind. Several ex See the poem which Claudian addressed to the two noble youths. 2 Secundinus, the Manichæan, ap. Baron. Annal. Eccles. A. D. 390. no. 34. Claud. Rutil. Numitian. Itinerar. ver. 111. The poet lived at the time of the Gothic invasion. A moderate palace would have covered Cincinnatus's farm of four acres. (Val. Max. 4. 4.) În laxitatem ruris excurrunt, says Seneca, epist. 114. See a judicious note of Mr. Hume, Essays, vol. 1. p. 562. last 8vo. edition. This curious account of Rome, in the reign of Honorius, is found in a fragment of the historian Olympiodorus, ap. Photium, p. 197. |