ign over the sea and land, from the Nile and Euphrates to the Atlantic
Ocean, Augustus professed himself the servant of the state and the equal
of his fellow-citizens. The conqueror of Rome and her provinces assumed
a popular and legal form of a censor, a consul, and a tribune. His will
was the law of mankind, but in the declaration of his laws he borrowed
the voice of the senate and people; and from their decrees their
master accepted and renewed his temporary commission to administer the
republic. In his dress, his domestics, [155] his titles, in all the
offices of social life, Augustus maintained the character of a private
Roman; and his most artful flatterers respected the secret of his
absolute and perpetual monarchy.

[Footnote 155: Six thousand urns have been discovered of the slaves and
freedmen of Augustus and Livia. So minute was the division of office,
that one slave was appointed to weigh the wool which was spun by the
empress's maids, another for the care of her lap-dog, &c., (Camera
Sepolchrale, by Bianchini. Extract of his work in the Bibliotheque
Italique, tom. iv. p. 175. His Eloge, by Fontenelle, tom. vi. p. 356.)
But these servants were of the same rank, and possibly not more numerous
than those of Pollio or Lentulus. They only prove the general riches of
the city.]

Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants.--Part I.

Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants.--Birth,
Character, And Doctrine Of Mahomet.--He Preaches At Mecca.--
Flies To Medina.--Propagates His Religion By The Sword.--
Voluntary Or Reluctant Submission Of The Arabs.--His Death
And Successors.--The Claims And Fortunes Of All And His
Descendants.

After pursuing above six hundred years the fleeting Caesars of
Constantinople and Germany, I now descend, in the reign of Heraclius, on
the eastern borders of the Greek monarchy. While the state was exhausted
by the Persian war, and the church was distracted by the Nestorian and
Monophysite sects, Mahomet, with the sword in one hand and the Koran in
the other, erected his throne on the ruins of Christianity and of Rome.
The genius of the Arabian prophet, the manners of his nation, and the
spirit of his religion, involve the causes of the decline and fall of
the Eastern empire; and our eyes are curiously intent on one of the most
memorable revolutions, which have impressed a new and lasting character
on the nations of the globe. [1]

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