h, and the most civilised
portion of mankind. On the death of Augustus, that emperor bequeathed,
as a valuable legacy to his successors, the advice of confining the
empire within those limits which nature seemed to have placed as its
permanent bulwarks and boundaries--on the west the Atlantic Ocean, the
Rhine and Danube on the north, the Euphrates on the east, and towards
the south the sandy deserts of Arabia and Africa. The subsequent
settlement of Great Britain and Dacia supplied the two exceptions to the
precepts of Augustus, if we omit the transient conquests of Trajan in
the east, which were renounced by Hadrian.

By maintaining the dignity of the empire, without attempting to enlarge
its limits, the early emperors caused the Roman name to be revered among
the most remote nations of the earth. The terror of their arms added
weight and dignity to their moderation. They preserved peace by a
constant preparation for war. The soldiers, though drawn from the
meanest, and very frequently from the most profligate, of mankind, and
no longer, as in the days of the ancient republic, recruited from Rome
herself, were preserved in their allegiance to the emperor, and their
invincibility before the enemy, by the influences of superstition,
inflexible discipline, and the hopes of reward. The peace establishment
of the Roman army numbered some 375,000 men, divided into thirty
legions, who were confined, not within the walls of fortified cities,
which the Romans considered as the refuge of pusillanimity, but upon the
confines of the empire; while 20,000 chosen soldiers, distinguished by
the titles of City Cohorts and Praetorian Guards, watched over the safety
of the monarch and the capitol.

"Wheresoever the Roman conquers he inhabits," was a very just
observation of Seneca. Colonies, composed for the most part of veteran
soldiers, were settled throughout the empire. Rich and prosperous
cities, adorned with magnificent temples and baths and other public
buildings, demonstrated at once the magnificence and majesty of the
Roman system. In Britain, York was the seat of government. London was
already enriched by commerce, and Bath was celebrated for the salutary
effects of its medicinal waters.

All the great cities were connected with each other, and with the
capital, by the public highway, which, issuing from the Forum of Rome,
traversed Italy, pervaded the provinces, and was terminated only by the
frontiers of the empire. This g