division of the Roman empire into Grecian and Latin states, was marked distinctly by difference of language, long before any of the emperors had meditated a formal partition. The empire of Rome had been acquired under the sanction and with the aid of the national religion; it was therefore greatly weakened when that religion was overthrown. The fall of Polytheism is a subject of too general an interest to be discussed here incidentally; we shall therefore examine its consequences in the next chapter. For the present, it will be sufficient to state, that as every political institution in Rome was more or less connected with religion, the stability of those institutions, which had been so great a source of acquiring and securing empire, shared in the decline of the national faith. But these institutions were directly assailed from other quarters. The forms of the republic were wisely preserved by the Cæsars and the Antonines, for they were useful in shielding the monarch from personal responsibility. Had there been no senate to share in the popular odium, the death of Sejanus would scarcely have saved Tiberius from the consequences of his crimes. Less enlightened emperors did not perceive this advantage; they trusted to the standing army, and thus made the soldiers masters of themselves and the empire. Dioclesian changed the despotism of the camp for that of the court, and deprived Rome of its political importance, by removing the court to other cities. This change was consummated by Constantine; and though the empire was still called Roman, Rome ceased to be its metropolis. But the changes in government, and the removal of the seat of power, were less fatal to the Romans and the Italian people, than the corruption and demoralization which pervaded every class of society. Among the most prominent causes of this corruption, we may reckon the gratuitous distributions of corn, the great extension of slavery, and the gladiatorial system. It is not easy to determine at what period of Roman history the custom of distributing corn to the poorer citizens was introduced, but we find that demagogues soon made the system subservient to their ambition, by proposing to increase the amount of the largesses; for it is a cheap mode of acquiring popularity, to be very generous at the expense of other people. They complained that the allowance was not greater than that made to a slave, and therefore accused the government of treating the people like slaves. They did not see that they were thus creating a helpless population, destitute of industry and prudence, ready to submit to any form of government which would provide subsistence and recreation.* The "sportula," or dole, given by the wealthy to their clients, may be reckoned among the mischievous forms of public and private generosity which tend to demoralize a people. Juvenal complains, that in his age, even the nobles submitted to receive these alms from wealthy patrons, and gives us a very amusing description of the begging impostors: "A wood Of litters thick besiege the donor's gate, And begging lords and teeming ladies wait The promised dole: nay, some have learn'd the trick Close mew'd in their sedans for fear of air; “This is my spouse, despatch her with her share : "No, sir, 'tis pity to disturb her sleep."+ * "Panem" and "Circenses."-—Juvenal. † Dryden's Juvenal, Satire i. Under the successors of Constantine, the monthly distributions of corn were converted into a daily allowance of bread. A vast number of ovens was constructed and maintained at the public expense, and, at the appointed hour, each citizen who was furnished with a ticket, ascended the flight of steps which had been appointed to his quarter or division, and received, either as a gift, or at a very low price, a loaf of bread, of the weight of three pounds, for the use of his family. Bacon, oil, and wine, were likewise distributed regularly, and on any great occasion, public feasts were added. No greater proof of the demoralizing effects of such a system, than the total disappearance of the small landed proprietors in Italy and the want of a middle class in Rome. Even in the age which preceded the fall of the republic, it was computed, that only two thousand citizens possessed an independent subsistence.* The employment of slaves in the works of the field, and in most branches of manufacture, was another cause of the great demoralization of Italy under the empire. The slaves originally were barbarian captives taken in war, and purchased by the slave-merchants at a very low price.t They were naturally eager to regain their freedom, and revenge the wrongs they had endured, and hence the most cruel regulations were made to retain them in bondage. When the extension of the empire rendered war less frequent, the interests of the masters coinciding with those of humanity, procured more lenient treatment for the slaves; their marriages were encouraged, greater care was taken of their health, and they were even allowed to possess property. Still these alleviations depended on the temper Cicero de Officiis, ii. 21. + Plutarch tells us, that in the camp of Lucullus, a slave could be purchased for four drachmæ, that is, about three shillings of our money. and circumstances of their owners, who had absolute authority even over their existence. Juvenal represents an imperious wife displaying her authority over her husband, by ordering a slave to be put to death without assigning any reason but her will: Go, drag that slave to death,"-Your reason, why And give no other reason but my will."* It does not appear that a census was ever taken of the slaves of Rome, but there is abundant evidence that they were much more numerous than the free population. It was justly apprehended that there would be great danger in making them acquainted with their own numbers, and on this account Seneca informs us that the proposal for discriminating them by a peculiar dress was at once rejected. Athenæus declares that he knew very many Romans who kept for ostentation rather than use, ten and even twenty thousand slaves. This may perhaps be an exaggeration ; but Tacitus informs us that on a very melancholy occasion, no less than four hundred slaves were found in a single palace in Rome. The anecdote is very remarkable, not merely because it proves the great amount of the slave population, but also because it shows what sanguinary precautions were required to shield the masters from their vengeance. According to the ancient laws of Rome, if a master was murdered by his slave, all the slaves that lived under the same roof were to be involved in the same penalty as * Dryden's Juvenal, Satire vi. the criminal. Pedanius Secundus, the governor of Rome under Nero, was murdered by one of his slaves, and as he maintained four hundred of these unhappy beings in his palace, the Roman citizens were revolted by the wholesale butchery which the law required. The matter was referred to the senate, and after a long debate it was resolved by the majority, that notwithstanding the age of some, the sex of others, and the undoubted innocence of most, the whole four hundred should be condemned to death and executed. It was not without difficulty that this atrocious sentence was fulfilled. Nero had to issue an edict to restrain the people, and to order out all the military force in Rome to guard the place of execution. The invasions of Alaric and Attila were greatly facilitated by the multitude of slaves in Italy. They easily recruited their armies from a population so justly disaffected; no less than forty thousand slaves once joined Alaric in a body, and they became the most desperate and sanguinary portion of his army. A slave-holding country must ever be at the mercy of invaders; it would be a fearful contemplation to speculate on the consequences of the Royal African corps, or a brigade of the West India regiments effecting a landing in the southern states of America. It is impossible to speak or think of the Gladiatorial system, that worst aggravation of the horrors of Roman slavery, without referring to Byron's noble description of the Dying Gladiator : I see before me the gladiator lie : He leans upon his hand-his manly brow Ere ceased the inhuman shout which hail'd the wretch who won. |