It remains therefore only to shew how just the conectures were which Polybius wisely formed, concernng the change which he foresaw would happen in the epublic, to give a particular account of the principal. auses which brought on that revolution, as we find hem either in contemporary authors, or in such as wrote soon after that great event. By this we shall learly see the surprising difference there was betwixt The first ages of the Roman republic, and those which receded its ruin, and have at the same time a more perfect idea of all the states through which it passed. RICHES, ATTENDED WITH LUXURY IN BUILDING, FURNITURE, DIET, &c. I shall not here repeat what I have already observed n the beginning of this volume, concerning the noble disinterestedness of the Romans, and their esteem of poverty, simplicity, frugality and modesty. Virtues at that time so common, and so generally practised," that they were less ascribed to the particular merit of some citizens, than to the genius of the nation, and' the happy character of those early ages; but, at the same time, virtues so sublime, and carried to so high? a point of perfection, that in the latter ages of the republic, they passed for fables and fictions, so re-` mote were they from the taste that then prevailed, and seemed so far superior to human weakness. [p] From the time that riches were had in honour, and became the only introduction to offices, power, and glory, virtue was no longer held in esteem. Poverty was looked upon as a reproach, and innocence Ep] Postquam divitiæ honori esse cœperunt, & eas gloria, imperium, potentia sequebatur; hebescere vir centía pro malevolentiâ duci cœpit. Igitur ex divitiis juventutem luxuria atque avaritia, cum superbià was at ne gratui отне стрис. [q] The first Scipio laid the sure foundation of their future greatness; the last by his conquests, opened the door to luxury. From the time that Carthage, which kept Rome in exercise by disputing the empire with it, was entirely destroyed, the declension of manners proceeded no longer by slow degrees, but was sudden and precipitate. Virtue immediately gave way to vice, the ancient discipline to looseness of manners, and the active laborious life, to idleness and pleasure. And whereas the ancient Romans strove rather to honour the gods by piety than magnificence, [r] colebantur religiones piè magis quàm magnificè, the immense riches, which were the fruits of their later conquests, were employed in raising lofty temples to the gods, and magnificent buildings for the decoration and embellishment of Rome. It is difficult, not to say impossible, but what is made the object of admiration, must sooner or later become the taste of private persons. Thus an historian observes, that from the time they began to use marble in the building of temples, and raised theatres and porticos, the luxury of private persons followed close at the heels of the public magnificence, [s] publicamque magnificentiam secuta pricata luxuria est. The madness for building was carried to a prodigious excess, and mere private men made it their diversion, and, at the same time, their glory, to lavish away vast sums of money in levelling mountains, and filling up seas. Their luxury was the same in every other particular, and it was the army that returned victorious out of Asia, which introduced it into Rome, or at least made it far more common there than it had been be[s] Vell. Paterc. lib. ii. n. 1. [9] Vell. Paterc. lib. ii. n. 1. ་་་་ le at a great expence, and with a large apparatus. ook, who was looked upon by the ancients as a vile e, was then held in esteem and honour, as an offinot to be dispensed with; and what before had n a low employment, became an art very much died and esteemed. And yet all this was nothing comparison of the excess they afterwards fell into. ] Cato the Censor took a deal of pains to lay bee the senate the fatal consequences of the luxury, ch in his time began to be introduced into the reblic. Seeing the great progress of their arms in ecce and Asia, provinces abounding with the danous baits and allurements of every kind of pleasure, that the Romans began to lay hands upon the asures of kings; "I fear, [r] said he, that we shall ecome the slaves of those riches, instead of their masters; and that the conquered nations will conquer us in their turn, by communicating their vices o us." His apprehensions were not imaginary, and that he had foretold, came afterwards to pass, TASTE FOR STATUES, PICTURES, &c. y] It was the conquest of Syracuse which produced s unhappy effect; though the statues and pictures, ich that great city was filled with, were spoils ly acquired by the right of war, and Marcellus s so cautious as to carry off but a small number of -] Lib. xxxix. n. 6. zas; eo plus horreo, ne illæ magis res nos ceperint, quàm nos ilias. [] Hostium quidem illa spolia, & parta belli jure : ceterùm inde primum mirandi græcarum artium opera, licentiæque hinc sacra profanaque omnia vulgò spoliandi, fac aumu unu ταιν VA those vain ornaments. [2] Fabius, by his generous contempt of them, after the conquest of Tarentum, shewed more prudence than Marcellus had done at Syracuse. For, when an officer asked Fabius what he would have done with a great number of statues which were found in the city, and were so many gods of a large stature, represented as fighting with each other, in a particular attitude, "Let us leave the Tarentines, says Fabius, their angry gods. The second Scipio, in the conquest of Carthage, behaved in a manner still more worthy of the old Roman greatness. [a] After he had severely prohibited his men from seizing, or even buying any thing of the spoils, he ordered the inhabitants of Sicily to come and claim the statues which the Carthaginians had formerly taken from them; [b] and restoring to the Agrigentines the famous bull of Phalaris, he told them, that this monument of the cruelty of their ancient kings, and the mildness of their present masters, should inform them which was the greatest advantage, to be under the yoke of the Sicilians, or under the government of the Roman people. Not, [c] says Cicero, that this great man, who had a mind so well improved, wanted either places for these curious works of art, or judgment to discern all their beauties. But, surpassing not only in disinterestedness, but in delicacy of taste, all our most refined connoisseurs, he judged that these works were wrought, not to satisfy the vain curiosity, much less, the luxury of mankind, but to serve as ornaments in temples and cities. And as an [d] historian judiciously observes, it were much, to be [z] Liv. lib. xxvii. n. 16. 98. [c] Ver. iv. n. 87. & Ver. vi. n. [d] Vell. Patere, lib. i. n. 13. wished, for the benefit and honour of the republic, that they had ever retained the noble contempt of Scipio, or even the ignorance and gross taste of Mummius. This last, in transporting the most valuable part of the spoils of Corinth to Rome, was so little acquainted with the value and excellence of performances of this sort, that he told the undertakers, who were employed to bring them over, that if any of them were lost, they should be obliged to make them good at their own expence. The republic would have been happy, if this pretended good taste had never bee introduced among them, as it opened a door to suc rapine and violence, as highly dishonoured the Ro man people among strangers. What Cicero relates of the horrible excesses int which this passion of collecting valuable vessels an pictures led Verres, during the time of his prætorsh in Sicily, is scarce credible. The generality of th other governors were not far behind hand with him this kind of robbery. [e] But how great a differen was there between such magistrates and the ancie Romans, who thought it a duty and an honour leave this kind of ornaments to their allies, and ev to the people tributary to them, that the one mig be sensible of the mildness of the Roman governme and the other have some consolation under th slavery? INSATIABLE AVARICE, INJUSTICE, RAPINE, I TREATMENT OF THE ALLIES AND CONQUER NATIONS. [f] It is a very just reflection in Tully, that oracle of Apollo, which declared that Sparta sh never be ruined but by avarice, gave a predic which concerned all other wealthy nations besides Lacedæmonians. This oraele was verified in the of the Ronan republic, more than in any other s All the historians who speak of its ruin, agree avarice was the cause of it, and that this avarice |