History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 1

Name: History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 1
Author: Gibbon, Edward

Gibbon, Edward

Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.

II. The narrow policy of preserving, without any foreign mixture,
      the pure blood of the ancient citizens, had checked the fortune,
      and hastened the ruin, of Athens and Sparta. The aspiring genius
      of Rome sacrificed vanity to ambition, and deemed it more
      prudent, as well as honorable, to adopt virtue and merit for her
      own wheresoever they were found, among slaves or strangers,
      enemies or barbarians. During the most flourishing æra of the
      Athenian commonwealth, the number of citizens gradually decreased
      from about thirty to twenty-one thousand. If, on the contrary, we
      study the growth of the Roman republic, we may discover, that,
      notwithstanding the incessant demands of wars and colonies, the
      citizens, who, in the first census of Servius Tullius, amounted
      to no more than eighty-three thousand, were multiplied, before
      the commencement of the social war, to the number of four hundred
      and sixty-three thousand men, able to bear arms in the service of
      their country. When the allies of Rome claimed an equal share of
      honors and privileges, the senate indeed preferred the chance of
      arms to an ignominious concession. The Samnites and the Lucanians
      paid the severe penalty of their rashness; but the rest of the
      Italian states, as they successively returned to their duty, were
      admitted into the bosom of the republic, and soon contributed to
      the ruin of public freedom. Under a democratical government, the
      citizens exercise the powers of sovereignty; and those powers
      will be first abused, and afterwards lost, if they are committed
      to an unwieldy multitude. But when the popular assemblies had
      been suppressed by the administration of the emperors, the
      conquerors were distinguished from the vanquished nations, only
      as the first and most honorable order of subjects; and their
      increase, however rapid, was no longer exposed to the same
      dangers. Yet the wisest princes, who adopted the maxims of
      Augustus, guarded with the strictest care the dignity of the
      Roman name, and diffused the freedom of the city with a prudent
      liberality.




      Chapter II: The Internal Prosperity In The Age Of The
      Antonines.—Part II.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 1Gibbon, Edward

History

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.

II. The narrow policy of preserving, without any foreign mixture,
      the pure blood of the ancient citizens, had checked the fortune,
      and hastened the ruin, of Athens and Sparta. The aspiring genius
      of Rome sacrificed vanity to ambition, and deemed it more
      prudent, as well as honorable, to adopt virtue and merit for her
      own wheresoever they were found, among slaves or strangers,
      enemies or barbarians. During the most flourishing æra of the
      Athenian commonwealth, the number of citizens gradually decreased
      from about thirty to twenty-one thousand. If, on the contrary, we
      study the growth of the Roman republic, we may discover, that,
      notwithstanding the incessant demands of wars and colonies, the
      citizens, who, in the first census of Servius Tullius, amounted
      to no more than eighty-three thousand, were multiplied, before
      the commencement of the social war, to the number of four hundred
      and sixty-three thousand men, able to bear arms in the service of
      their country. When the allies of Rome claimed an equal share of
      honors and privileges, the senate indeed preferred the chance of
      arms to an ignominious concession. The Samnites and the Lucanians
      paid the severe penalty of their rashness; but the rest of the
      Italian states, as they successively returned to their duty, were
      admitted into the bosom of the republic, and soon contributed to
      the ruin of public freedom. Under a democratical government, the
      citizens exercise the powers of sovereignty; and those powers
      will be first abused, and afterwards lost, if they are committed
      to an unwieldy multitude. But when the popular assemblies had
      been suppressed by the administration of the emperors, the
      conquerors were distinguished from the vanquished nations, only
      as the first and most honorable order of subjects; and their
      increase, however rapid, was no longer exposed to the same
      dangers. Yet the wisest princes, who adopted the maxims of
      Augustus, guarded with the strictest care the dignity of the
      Roman name, and diffused the freedom of the city with a prudent
      liberality.




      Chapter II: The Internal Prosperity In The Age Of The
      Antonines.—Part II.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 1

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 1

No reviews yet