provincials who were permitted to bear arms in the legions; 35 those who exercised any civil employment; all, in a word, who performed any public service, or displayed any personal talents, were rewarded with a present, whose value was continually diminished by the increasing liberality of the emperors. Yet even, in the age of the Antonines, when the freedom of the city had been bestowed on the greater number of their subjects, it was still accompanied with very solid advantages. The bulk of the people acquired, with that title, the benefit of the Roman laws, particularly in the interesting articles of marriage, testaments, and inheritances; and the road of fortune was open to those whose pretensions were seconded by favor or merit. The grandsons of the Gauls, who had besieged Julius Cæsar in Alesia, commanded legions, governed provinces, and were admitted into the senate of Rome. 36 Their ambition, instead of disturbing the tranquillity of the state, was intimately connected with its safety and greatness. 30 (return) [ Seneca in Consolat. ad Helviam, c. 6.] 31 (return) [ Memnon apud Photium, (c. 33,) [c. 224, p. 231, ed Bekker.] Valer. Maxim. ix. 2. Plutarch and Dion Cassius swell the massacre to 150,000 citizens; but I should esteem the smaller number to be more than sufficient.] 32 (return) [ Twenty-five colonies were settled in Spain, (see Plin. Hist. Nat. iii. 3, 4; iv. 35;) and nine in Britain, of which London, Colchester, Lincoln, Chester, Gloucester, and Bath still remain considerable cities. (See Richard of Cirencester, p. 36, and Whittaker’s History of Manchester, l. i. c. 3.)] 33 (return) [ Aul. Gel. Noctes Atticæ, xvi 13. The Emperor Hadrian expressed his surprise, that the cities of Utica, Gades, and Italica, which already enjoyed the rights of _Municipia_, should solicit the title of _colonies_. Their example, however, became fashionable, and the empire was filled with honorary colonies. See Spanheim, de Usu Numismatum Dissertat. xiii.] 331 (return) [ The right of Latium conferred an exemption from the government of the Roman præfect. Strabo states this distinctly, l. iv. p. 295, edit. Cæsar’s. See also Walther, p. 233.—M] 34 (return) [ Spanheim, Orbis Roman. c. 8, p. 62.] 35 (return) [ Aristid. in Romæ Encomio. tom. i. p. 218, edit. Jebb.] 36 (return) [ Tacit. Annal. xi. 23, 24. Hist. iv. 74.]