nera 294 THE DECLINE AND FALL wherever it may be practicable ; but, if the object should be removed by its distance or magnitude from the immediate eye of the master, they prefer the active care of an old hereditary tenant, attached to the soil and interested in the produce, to the mercenary administration of a negligent, perhaps an unfaithful, steward. ^^ Their man- The opulent nobles of an immense capital, who were never excited by the pursuit of military glory, and seldom engaged in the occupations of civil government, naturally resigned their leisure to the business and amusements of private life. At Rome, commerce Avas always held in contempt ; but the senators, from the first age of the republic, increased their patrimony, and multiplied their clients, by the lucrative practice of usury ; and the obsolete laws were eluded, or violated, by the mutual in- clinations and interest of both parties. 3- A considerable mass of treasure must always have existed at Rome, either in the current coin of the empire or in the form of gold and silver plate ; and there were many sideboards, in the time of Pliny, which contained more solid silver than had been transported by Scipio from vanquished Carthage.^^ The greater part of the nobles, who dissipated their fortunes in profuse luxur', found themselves poor in the midst of wealth, and idle in a constant round of dissipation. Their desires were continually gratified by the labour of a thousand hands ; of the numerous train of their domestic slaves, who were actuated by the fear of punishment ; and of the various professions of artificers and merchants, who were more powerfully impelled by the hopes of gain. The ancients were destitute of many of the conveniencies of life which have been invented or improved by the progress of industry ; and the plenty of glass and linen has diffused more I'eal comforts among the modern nations of Europe than the senators of Rome could derive from all the refinements of pompous or sensual luxury.^^ Their luxury and their manners 31 Volusius, a wealthy senator (Tacit. Annal. iii. 30), always preferred tenants born on the estate. Columella, who received this maxim from him, argues very judiciously on the subject. De Re Rustica, 1. i. c. 7, p. 408, edit. Gesner, Leipsig, I73S- ■'- Valesius (ad Ammian. xiv. 6) has proved from Chrysostom and Augustin that the senators were not allowed to lend money at usury. Yet it appears from the Theodosian Code (see Godefroy ad 1. ii. tit. xxxiii. torn. i. p. 230-239) that they were permitted to take six per cent, or one half of the legal interest ; and, what is more singular, this permission was granted to the young senators. ■^ Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 50. He states the silver at only 4380 pounds, which is increased by Livy (xxx. 45) to 100,023 : the former seems too little for an opulent city, the latter too much for any private sideboard. '^ The learned Arbuthnot (Tables of Ancient Coins, &c., p. 153) has observed with humour, and I believe with truth, that Augustus had neither glass to his
