credit, and found ready and sure supplies in the affection of the citizens. [p] The consul urged, that the magistrates ought to set the example to the senate, and the senate to the people, of assisting the republic in the extremity to which they were reduced; that the way to engage the lower people to contribute of their substance to the support of the state, was to begin with doing it themselves; that thus they ought all to bring their gold and silver into the public treasury. This was immediately done, and with so much zeal, that the receivers and notaries were scarce sufficient to answer the eagerness of the public, every one striving for the honour of subscribing first. The order of senators, and then the people, did the same, without requiring, for all this, any public edict. Eg Of the thirty colonies in Italy, eighteen sent deputies to Rome, to declare they were ready to furnish the troops required them, and even more, if it was judged necessary; that, thanks to the gods, they wanted neither means nor courage to do it. Ad id sibi neque opes deesse, animum etiam superesse. These deputies were received, both by the senate and people, with loud acclamations, and extraordinary marks of joy and honour. Livy has thought proper to preserve the names of these colonies in his history, [r] that they might not, says he, want the honour so many ages after, which is so justly their due. the other twelve colonies, who refused to raise the levies required, the senate thought it most suitable to the dignity of the Roman people, to punish them only by taking no notice of them Ea tacita castigatio magis ex dignitate populi Romani visa est. For They received at the same time letters from the two Scipios, who commanded in spain, by which, though they undertook to supply the soldiers pay of themselves, they required clothes and provisions to be [p] Liv. lib. xxvi. n. 36. cula sileantur, fraudentur ve laude suâ Liv. lib. xxvii. n. 12. sent possibility the state was in of supplying them, if it wanted credit as well as money. He exhorted those who, in times past, had increased their estates by farming the revenues of the Roman people, now to lend the republic a part of the substance they had gained by it, and to make advances for Spain, with a promise that these sums should be exactly repaid them as soon as the state should be in a condition to do it. Three powerful companies offered their assistance, and the armies in Spain were as plentifully supplied as in the times of the greatest opulence. [t] This noble disinterestedness and ardent zeal, reigned equally in all the orders and bodies of the state. [u] The fleet was in want of seamen and provisions. It was agreed to lay a general tax upon every member of the state, in proportion to the rank and revenue of every private man, and the thing was executed without delay or murmur. The public buildings were fallen into decay, for want of a proper fund for the repairing of them. The builders cheerfully went about it, without requiring any money for their work till the war should be ended. In this common emulation, and general disposition of the state, to aid and support the public treasury, they first brought in the orphans money, and then the widows: [x] those who had it in possession judging they could not deposit it in a more secure and sacred asylum, than in that of the public credit. [s] Itaque nisi fide staret respublica opibus non staturam Liv. lib. xxiii. n. 48. [] Hi mores eaque caritas patriæ per omnes ordines velut tenore [u] Lib. xxiv. n. 11. [x] Nusquam eas tutiùs sanctiusque deponere credentibus qui deferebant, quàm in publicâ fide. Ib. n. 18. 1 This generosity passed from the city into thecamp.” Every horseman, centurion and officer refused their pay, and whoever took it, was looked upon as a mer cenary wretch. The event shewed that they had reason: to rely upon the republic. Every debt, every sum of money advanced, with every obligation, was discharged with the utmost exactness. They would have even paid off some of them before the term agreed on; and, notwithstanding the scarcity of money, they offered the masters of the slaves that were restored to their liberty, to pay the full price for them; but all declared that they would not have it till the war was terminated. It is from such facts as these we must form a just idea of the Roman government. That single expression which I have quoted, and which might deserve to be engraven in letters of gold, that they found no asylum more secure or more sacred, wherein to deposit the money of orphans and widows, than that of the public faith this single expression, I say, is the highest encomium that can be imagined, of the Roman character. We learn from thence, that according to the constant maxim of all the great men of antiquity, the most famous legislators, and wisest politicians, the design and supreme, rule of government was the good of the public, and safety of the people. Salus [y] populi suprema lex esto; the affection of the people also, and their confidence in the justice and integrity of those who governed them, are the firmest support, and sometimes the safety and sole resource of states. 7. Respect for Religion. We need but open the historians, to be convinced that religion prevailed in every thing amongst the Romans. Were they to undertake a war, or engage. in a battle, they consulted the gods, implored their assistance, and employed all the proper means of ren [y] Cic. lib. de Leg. n. 8. LJ Africa, but they blamed themselves for their delay in returning thanks to the gods, for a benefit so long expected, and so little hoped for. [a] It was a prevailing principle among them, that piety towards the gods was the cause of all their good success, as the neglect of their worship brought upon them all their misfortunes. Hence it came to pass, says [b] Polybius, that the Romans, in any pressing necessity, so diligently applied themselves to gain the favour of gods and men, and that in all the ceremonies of religion, which such sort of conjunctures required, there was nothing mean or unworthy their grandeur to be found. [c] And in another place he observes, that what raised the Roman people to such a degree of superiority above all other nations, was their respect for religion and fear of the gods, though in other places it was often treated as the sign of a mean and narrow spirit. Among the Greeks, adds he, let them take what pains they please, to tie up the hands of those who' are entrusted with the public money, by a thousand precautions of signatures, witnesses, securities, and overseers; it is all insufficient to keep them honest; whereas, among the Romans, the religion of an oath only keeps their hands clean in the management of far more considerable sums; nothing being more rare at Rome, than to have a general or a governor convict ed of embezzling the public treasure. 8. The Love of Glory. I shall conclude with this article, because the disposition I am now speaking of, was the soul of all the [x] Liv. lib. xxx. n. 21. [a] Intuemini horum deinceps norum vel secundas res vel ad evenisse sequentibus deos, adversa actions of the Romans. [d] St. Augustin makes this reflection in several places, and observes that this passion, I mean the thirst of glory, extinguished in them every other passion; that all their most beautiful and glorious actions, which have gained them the admiration of all people and all ages, were entirely owing to this. The desire of being esteemed and commended as defenders and protectors of liberty, justice and laws, and as enemies of injustice, violence, and tyranny; this desire, I say, was a kind of curb, which restrained and moderated their ambition, and inspired them with those sentiments of goodness, clemency and generosity, with the simple relation of which we are still charmed after so many ages. Was ever any day more glorious to the Roman em pire, than when by her order liberty was restored t all the states of Greece, and the edict for it publishe amidst the joyful acclamations and applauses of so ma 7 ny people? How great an encomium was that the heard through all Greece, the sound of which soo after passed through the whole universe, [e] that ther was a nation upon earth, which scrupled not to tak upon itself the expences, fatigues and dangers of lon and laborious wars, to procure the liberty of nation remote from their country; and which crossed the se to prevent there being an unjust government or en pire in any part of the world, and to establish justic equity, and laws universally? 7 Upon these motives the Romans acted in the flo rishing ages of the republic. It was this spirit whi animated their consuls and their generals. [f] Th aspired to rule, but by the methods of honour a glory; and to this end they strictly observed justi and the laws; whereas, in after-ages, ambition bei no longer kept in, nor moderated by this restraint, [d] De civ. Dei, lib. v. c. 12. [e] Esse aliquam in terris gentem, quæ suâ impensâ, suo labore ac periculo, bella gerat pro libertate aliorum, nec hoc finitimis aut propinquæ vicinitatis hominibus. aut terris continenti junctis præst maria trajiciat, ne quid toto o terrarum injustum imperium sit ubique jus, fas, lex potentiss sint. Liv. lib. xxxiii. n. 33. [fl Sallust in Bello Catili. |