on the power of the nobles; demanding among the reft that the confulfhip, which hitherto had only been dif posed to the former, fhould now lie in common to the pretenfions of any Roman whatsoever. This, though it failed at prefent, yet afterwards obtained, and was a mighty step to the ruin of the commonwealth. What I have hitherto faid of Rome, has been chiefly collected out of that exact and diligent writer Dionyfius Halicarnaffeus, whose hiftory, through the injury of time, reaches no farther than to the beginning of the fourth century after the building of Roine. The reft I shall fupply from other authors; though I do not think it neceffary to deduce this matter any further fo very particularly, as I have hither to done. To point at what time the balance of power was most equally held between the Lords and Commons in Rome, would perhaps admit a controverfy. Polybius tells us*, that in the fecond Punic war the Carthaginians were declining, because the balance was got too much on the fide of the people; whereas the Romans were in their greatest vigour by the power remaining in the fenate: yet this was between two and three hundred years after the period Dionyfius ends with; in which time the commons had made several further acquifitions. This however must be granted, that (till about the middle of the fourth century), when the fenate appeared refolute at any time upon exerting their authority, and adhered clofely together, they did often carry their point. Befides, it is obferved by the best authors, that in all the quarrels and tumults at Rome, from the expulfion of the kings, though the people frequently proceeded to rude contumelious language, and fometimes fo far as to pull and hale one another about the forum, yet no blood was ever drawn in any popular commotions, till the time of the Gracchi: however, I am of opinion, that the ba lance had begun many years before to lean to the popular fide. But this default was corrected, partly by the 'principle just mentioned, of never drawing blood in a tumult; partly by the warlike genius of the people, which in thofe ages was almoft perpetually employed; and * Fragm. lib. 6.. + Dionyf. Halicar. Plutarch, &c. partly partly by their great commanders, who by the credit they had in their armies fell into the fcales as a further coun--terpoife to the growing power of the people. Befides, Polybius, who lived in the time of Scipio Africanus the younger, had the fame apprehenfions of the continual in-croachments made by the commons; and being a perfonTM of as great abilities, and as much fagacity, as any of his age, from obferving the corruptions, which, he fays, had already entered into the Roman conftitution, did very nearly foretel what would be the iffie of them. His words are very remarkable, and with little addition may be rendered to this purpose. That thofe abuses and corruptions, which in time defroy a government, are sown along with the very feeds of it, and both grow up together; and that as ruft eats away iron, and worms detour wood, and both are a fort of plagues born and bred along with the fubftance they deftroy; fo with every form and fcheme of government that man can invent, fome vice or corruption creeps in with the very inflitution, which grows up along with, and at last deftroys it*: The fame author, in another place t; ventures fo far as to guefs at the particular fate which would attend the Roman government. He fays, its ruin would arise from the popular tumults, which would introduce a dominatio plebis, or tyranny of the people; wherein it is certain he had reafon, and therefore might have adventured to pur fue his conjectures fo far, as to the confequences of a po pular tyranny, which, as perpetual experience teaches, never fails to be followed by the arbitrary government of a fingle perfon.. About the middle of the fourth century from the building of Rome, it was declared lawful for nobles and plebeians to intermarry; which cuftom, among many other ftates, has proved the most effectual means to ruin the former, and raise the latter. And now the greatest employments in the state were, one after another, by laws forcibly enacted by the commons, made free to the people, the confulfhip itself, the office of cenfor, that of the quæftors or commiffioners of the treasury, the office of prætor or chief justice,, • Lib. S. C. 3 + Fragm. lib. 6. the the priesthood, and even that of dictator: the fenate, after long oppofition, yielding merely for prefent quiet to the continual urging clamours of the commons, and of the tribunes their advocates. A law was likewise enacted, that the plebiscita, or a vote of the house of commons, fhould be of univerfal obligation; nay, in time the method of enacting laws was wholly inverted; for whereas the fenate ufed of old to confirm the plebifcita, the people did at laft, as they pleased, confirm or difannul the fenatufconfulta. Appius Claudius brought in a custom of admitting to the fenate the fons of freed men, or of fuch who hadonce been flaves; by which, and fucceeding alterations of the like nature, that great council degenerated into a moft corrupt and factious body of men, divided against itfelf; and its authority became despised. The century and half following, to the end of the third Punic war, by the destruction of Carthage, was a very bufy period at Rome; the intervals between every war being fo fhort, that the tribunes and people had hardly leifure or breath to engage in domeftic diffenfions: how ever, the little time they could fpare, was generally employed the fame way. So Terentius Leo, a tribune, is recorded to have bafely prostituted the privileges of a Roman citizen, in perfect fpite to the nobles. So the great African Scipio, and his brother, after all their mighty fervices, were impeached by an ungrateful commons. However, the warlike genius of the people, and continual employment they had for it, ferved to divert this humour from running into a head, till the age of the Gracchi. Thefe perfons entering the fcene in the time of a full peace, fell violently upon advancing the power of the people by reducing into practice all thofe incroachments, which they had been fo many years gaining. There were at that time certain conquered lands to be divided, befide a great private efiate left by a king these the tribunes, by procurement of the elder Gracchus, declared by their legislative authority, were not to be difpofed of by the nobles, but by the commons only. The young • Dionyf. lib. 2. er brother purfued the fame defign; and, befides, obtained a law, that all Italians fhould vote at elections, as well as the citizens of Rome: in fhort, the whole en deavours of them both perpetually turned upon retrench. ing the nobles authority in all things, but efpecially in the matter of judicature. And though they both loft their lives in thofe pursuits, yet they traced out fuch ways as were afterwards followed by Marius, Sylla, Pompey, and Cæfar, to the ruin of the Roman freedom and greatnefs. For in the time of Marius, Saturninus a tribune procured a law, that the fenate should be bound by oath to agree to whatever the people would enact: and Marius himfelf, while he was in that office of tribune, is recorded to have, with great industry, used all endeavours for depreffing the nobles, and railing the people, particularly for cramping the former in their power of judicature, which was their most ancient inherent right. Sylla by the fame measures became abfolute tyrant of Rome: he added three hundred commons to the fenate, which perplexed the power of the whole order, and rendered it ineffectual; then finging off the mafk, he abolifhed the office of tribune, as being only a fcaffold to tyranny, whereof he had no further use. As to Pompey and Cæfar, Plutarch tells us, that their union for pulling down the nobles (by their credit with the people) was the caufe of the civil war, which ended in the tyranny of the latter; both of them in their confulfhips having uled all endeavours and occafions for finking the authority of the patricians, and giving way to all incroachments of the people, wherein they expected best to find their own account. From this deduction of popular incroachments in Rome, the reader will eafily judge, how much the balance was fallen upon that fide. Indeed by this time the very foundation was removed, and it was a moral impoffibility, that the republie could fubfift any longer: for the commons having ufurped the offices of ftate, and trampled on the fenate, there was no government left but a domi natio plebis. Let us therefore examine how they proceeded in this conjuncture. t I think it is an univerfal truth, that the people are much much more dexterous at pulling down and fetting up, than at preferving what is fixed; and they are not fonder of feizing more than their own, than they are of delivering it up again to the worst bidder, with their own into the bargain. For although in their corrupt notions of divineworship, they are apt to multiply their gods; yet their earthly devotion is feldom paid to above one idol at a time, of their own creation, whofe oar they pull with less murmuring and much more skill, than when they share the leading, or even hold the helm. The feveral provinces of the Roman empire were now governed by the great men of their state; thofe upon the frontiers with powerful armies either for conquest or de-fence. Thele governors, upon any defigns of revenge or ambition, were fure to meet with a divided power at home, and therefore bent all their thoughts and applications to clofe in with the people, who were now by many degrees the ftronger party. Two of the greateft fpirits that Rome ever produced, happened to live at the fame time, and to be engaged in the fame purfuit; and this at a conjuncture the most dangerous for fuch a con-teft: these were Pompey and Cæfar, two ftars of fuch a magnitude, that their conjunction was as likely to be fa tal, as their oppofition. The tribunes and people, having now fubdued all competitors, began the last game of a prevalent populace, which is that of chufing themselves a mafter; while the nobles forefaw, and used all endeavours left them to prevent it. The people at first made Pompey their admiral with full power over all the Mediterranean, foon. after captain-general of all the Roman forces, and governor of Afia. Pompey, on the other fide, reftored the office of tribune, which Sylla had put down; and in his confulfhip procured a law for examining into the miscarria ges of men in office or command for twenty years past. Many other examples of Pompey's popularity are left us on record, who was a perfect favourite of the people, and defigned to be more; but his pretenfions grew ftale for want of a timely opportunity of introducing them upon the ftage, For Cæfar, with his legions in Gaul, was a perpetual check upon his designs; and in the arts of pleafing the people did foon after get many lengths beyond |