st themselves, they
at least had none towards other nations. They, in the most wanton
manner, interfered in every quarrel between strangers; and, whenever
it suited their conveniency to make war, they begun without almost
being at the pains to search for a pretext. They set themselves up
above all opinion, while, at the same time, they required all nations to
submit to theirs.

In a city where all great offices were elective, the evil effects of the
introduction of riches were soon displayed. The first great changes
were, that the people became corrupted, dependent, and degraded;
fortunes became unequally divided; the provinces groaned under the
heavy contributions of generals and proconsuls; and, at last, the
country splitting into factions, the government was overturned.

The splendour of Rome augmented, as a fiery meteor shines most
bright before it falls; but the means by which it obtained the
ascendency over other nations had long been at an end.

The same laws that had been found excellent, when the state was
small and poor, did not answer now that it had become great and
splendid. The freedom of the city, and the title and privileges of a
Roman citizen had been very widely extended; they were therefore
become an illusion, and a very dangerous one for the public weal; they
served as a foundation for cabal and intrigue of every description.

Towards the latter days, after all those internal causes of decline,
which are common to other nations had rendered Rome feeble, several
[end of page #34] external ones began to act.

The provinces became exhausted, and those who ruled them gradually
retained more and more of the money. {34} Thus, while the
oppression of the provinces was augmenting, the resources of the state
were daily on the decline.

The first effect of conquests had been to free the people at home from
taxes; and when, in a state of poverty and simplicity, the effect was
advantageous and tended to preserve that spirit by which the Roman
empire aggrandized itself. After wealth flowed in from the destruction
of Carthage, donations and shews were in use. The Roman populace,
idle and degraded, clamoured for corn and public games. It is almost
as difficult to conceive the degree to which the character of the people
was degraded, as it is to give credit to the wealth and luxury of the
great, in the latter days of the empire.

Agriculture was neglected; and the masters of the world, who had
obtained ever