the titles of City Cohorts
and Praetorian Guards, watched over the safety of the monarch and the
capital. As the authors of almost every revolution that distracted the
empire, the Praetorians will, very soon, and very loudly, demand our
attention; but, in their arms and institutions, we cannot find any
circumstance which discriminated them from the legions, unless it were a
more splendid appearance, and a less rigid discipline.

The navy maintained by the emperors might seem inadequate to their
greatness; but it was fully sufficient for every useful purpose of
government. The ambition of the Romans was confined to the land; nor was
that warlike people ever actuated by the enterprising spirit which had
prompted the navigators of Tyre, of Carthage, and even of Marseilles, to
enlarge the bounds of the world, and to explore the most remote coasts
of the ocean. To the Romans the ocean remained an object of terror
rather than of curiosity; the whole extent of the Mediterranean, after
the destruction of Carthage, and the extirpation of the pirates, was
included within their provinces. The policy of the emperors was directed
only to preserve the peaceful dominion of that sea, and to protect
the commerce of their subjects. With these moderate views, Augustus
stationed two permanent fleets in the most convenient ports of Italy,
the one at Ravenna, on the Adriatic, the other at Misenum, in the Bay of
Naples. Experience seems at length to have convinced the ancients, that
as soon as their galleys exceeded two, or at the most three ranks of
oars, they were suited rather for vain pomp than for real service.
Augustus himself, in the victory of Actium, had seen the superiority of
his own light frigates (they were called Liburnians) over the lofty but
unwieldy castles of his rival. Of these Liburnians he composed the two
fleets of Ravenna and Misenum, destined to command, the one the eastern,
the other the western division of the Mediterranean; and to each of the
squadrons he attached a body of several thousand marines. Besides these
two ports, which may be considered as the principal seats of the Roman
navy, a very considerable force was stationed at Frejus, on the coast of
Provence, and the Euxine was guarded by forty ships, and three
thousand soldiers. To all these we add the fleet which preserved the
communication between Gaul and Britain, and a great number of vessels
constantly maintained on the Rhine and Danube, to harass the cou