What an elevated idea must this give us of the Roman manners, whilst that haughty people retained their freedom! Nothing is more grand; nothing more striking. Shift but the scene, and view the manners of the Romans when enslaved. Nothing is so abjectly servile, nothing so despicable. We see the Roman senate deifying the worst of mankind; wretches, who had sunk even below humanity, and offering the adoration of incense to these idols of their own making, who were more contemptible than the very stone and wooden representatives of their deities. Instead of giving law to monarchs, and deciding the fate of nations, we see the august Roman senate run trembling like slaves at the summons of their master Domitian,[291] to debate in form about the important business of dressing a turbot!! The majesty of the Roman people, which received the tributary homage of the universe, expired together with their liberty. That people, who disposed of the highest offices in the government, the command of armies, provinces and kingdoms, were sunk into a herd of dispirited slaves. Their total insignificancy screened them from the fatal effects of the caprices of their tyrants. They dragged on a wretched being in a state of idleness and poverty in the midst of slavery, and the utmost extent of their wishes amounted to no more, than bread for their daily subsistence, and diversions for their amusement.[292] The emperors supplied the one by their frequent largesses of corn, and gratified the other by their numerous publick shows. Hence historians observe, that the most infamous of their tyrants were as fond of rareeshows, as the mob themselves, and as they were by much the most profuse of all their emperors, their deaths were always most regretted by the people. So striking is the contrast between a state when blessed with liberty, and the same state when reduced to slavery by the corruption of its people!