"Wheresoever the Roman conquers, he inhabits," is a very just
observation of Seneca, confirmed by history and experience. The natives
of Italy, allured by pleasure or by interest, hastened to enjoy the
advantages of victory; and we may remark, that, about forty years after
the reduction of Asia, eighty thousand Romans were massacred in one day,
by the cruel orders of Mithridates. These voluntary exiles were engaged,
for the most part, in the occupations of commerce, agriculture, and the
farm of the revenue. But after the legions were rendered permanent by
the emperors, the provinces were peopled by a race of soldiers; and the
veterans, whether they received the reward of their service in land or
in money, usually settled with their families in the country, where
they had honorably spent their youth. Throughout the empire, but more
particularly in the western parts, the most fertile districts, and
the most convenient situations, were reserved for the establishment
of colonies; some of which were of a civil, and others of a military
nature. In their manners and internal policy, the colonies formed
a perfect representation of their great parent; and they were soon
endeared to the natives by the ties of friendship and alliance, they
effectually diffused a reverence for the Roman name, and a desire,
which was seldom disappointed, of sharing, in due time, its honors
and advantages. The municipal cities insensibly equalled the rank and
splendor of the colonies; and in the reign of Hadrian, it was disputed
which was the preferable condition, of those societies which had issued
from, or those which had been received into, the bosom of Rome. The
right of Latium, as it was called, * conferred on the cities to which
it had been granted, a more partial favor. The magistrates only, at the
expiration of their office, assumed the quality of Roman citizens; but
as those offices were annual, in a few years they circulated round the
principal families. Those of the provincials who were permitted to bear
arms in the legions; 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. Th