History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 1Gibbon, Edward
HistoryWestern
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 1
Gibbon, Edward
Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.
58 (return) [ Their ranks and offices are very copiously
enumerated by Pignorius de Servis.]
59 (return) [ Tacit. Annal. xiv. 43. They were all executed for
not preventing their master’s murder. * Note: The remarkable
speech of Cassius shows the proud feelings of the Roman
aristocracy on this subject.—M]
60 (return) [ Apuleius in Apolog. p. 548. edit. Delphin]
61 (return) [ Plin. Hist. Natur. l. xxxiii. 47.]
The number of subjects who acknowledged the laws of Rome, of
citizens, of provincials, and of slaves, cannot now be fixed with
such a degree of accuracy, as the importance of the object would
deserve. We are informed, that when the Emperor Claudius
exercised the office of censor, he took an account of six
millions nine hundred and forty-five thousand Roman citizens,
who, with the proportion of women and children, must have
amounted to about twenty millions of souls. The multitude of
subjects of an inferior rank was uncertain and fluctuating. But,
after weighing with attention every circumstance which could
influence the balance, it seems probable that there existed, in
the time of Claudius, about twice as many provincials as there
were citizens, of either sex, and of every age; and that the
slaves were at least equal in number to the free inhabitants of
the Roman world.611 The total amount of this imperfect
calculation would rise to about one hundred and twenty millions
of persons; a degree of population which possibly exceeds that of
modern Europe, 62 and forms the most numerous society that has
ever been united under the same system of government.
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