General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West
The Greeks, after their country had been reduced into a province, imputed the triumphs of Rome, not to the merit, but to the
fortune, of the republic. The inconstant goddess, who so blindly distributes and resumes her favours, had
now consented (such was the language of envious flattery) to resign her wings, to descend from her globe, and to fix her firm and immutable throne on the banks of the Tiber.
[1] A wiser Greek, who has composed, with a philosophic spirit, the memorable history of his own times, deprived his countrymen of this vain and delusive comfort by opening to their view the deep foundations of the greatness of Rome.
[2] The fidelity of the citizens to each other, and to the state, was confirmed by the habits of education and the prejudices of religion. Honour, as well as virtue, was the principle of the republic; the ambitious citizens laboured to deserve the solemn glories of a triumph; and the ardour of the Roman youth was kindled into active emulation, as often as they beheld the domestic images of their ancestors.
[3] The temperate struggles of the patricians and plebeians had finally established the firm and equal balance of the constitution; which united the freedom of popular assemblies with the authority and wisdom of a senate and the executive powers of a regal magistrate. When the consul displayed the standard of the republic, each citizen bound himself, by the obligation of an oath, to draw his sword in the cause of his country, till he had discharged the sacred duty by a military service of ten years. This wise
in-
- ↑ Such are the figurative expressions of Plutarch (Opera, tom. ii. p. 318, edit.
Wechel), to whom, on the faith of his son Lamprias (Fabricius, Bibhot. Græc. tom.
iii. p. 341), I shall boldly impute the malicious declamation, περὶ τη̂ς Ῥωμαίων τύχης.
The same opinions had prevailed among the Greeks two hundred and fifty
years before Plutarch; and to confute them is the professed intention of Polybius
(Hist. l. i. p. 90, edit. Gronov. Amstel. 1670 [c. 63]).
- ↑ See the inestimable remains of the sixth book of Polybius, and many other parts of his general history, particularly a digression in the seventeenth [leg. eighteenth] book, in which he compares the phalanx and the legion [c. 12-15].
- ↑ Sallust, de Bell. Jugurthin. c. 4. Such were the generous professions of P. Scipio and Q. Maximus. The Latin historian had read, and most probably transcribes, Polybius, their contemporary and friend.
