N' VII.

Upon the TRIUMPHS of the ROMANS.

ROMULUS

ROME, 28th November 1764.

OMULUS was foon obliged to take arms against the little cities of the Sabines, whom the rape of their daughters had juftly provoked against his rifing state. Acron, king of the Cininians, was the first victim of Roman valor. He fell by the hand of Romulus; and his fubjects had the good fortune to be allowed to unite with the new colony. I he conqueror was eager to reap the first fruits of his glory. Driving before him herds and prifoners, and attended by the companions of his victory, he entered the city amidst public acclamation, and afcended the Capitoline hill, in order to depofit his trophies and his gratitude in the temple which he had dedicated to Jupited Feretrius. By this ceremony, military virtue was for ever affociated with religion in the imagination of the Romans. Such was the origin of the triumph, an inflitution which proved the principal cause of the greatness of Rome ". Three hundred and twenty triumphs" raised her to that exaltation, which she had attained under the reign of Vespasian. I venture to fubmit the following reflections on the right of triumph, the road through which it proceeded, and the show itself.

47

The right of triumph may be confidered under three afpects. 1. The authority by which it was conferred; 2. the perfons upon whom; and, 3 the reafons for which it was granted.

1. Under the royal government, Ifhould fuppofe

that the kings, whofe authority was as independent in military as it was limited in civil affairs, entered the city in triumph, whenever they thought themfelves entitled to that honor; and thus difpenfed in their own favor the benefits of an institution which had been established by their predeceffor. After the expulfion of Tarquin, the fenate, which had been the council of the prince, and was now that of the nation, naturally affumed the power of difpenfing military rewards". The fenate conferred on Valerius Publicola the honor of a triumph for having defeated the Tarquins in that battle in which Brutus was flain. From this æra, the triumph poffeffed a real value in the opinion of all acquainted with true glory. This ceremony was no longer a vain fhow, fitted merely to dazzle the populace; but a folemnity in which a meritorious conful found the best of all panegyrics; the praise of his equals and of his rivals. Some Senators had attained, many of them afpired to, the triumph; and as all of them felt an intereft in keeping untarnished an honor which was in fome measure their own, they judged the candidate with a feverity as falutary for the ftate as glorious for himself. The fenate confidered this right as its most precious prero. tive; preserved it in reality to the last days of the republic; and affected to preserve it to the latest times of the empire. It once had the pain to fee itself divested of this right, and to feel that it justly merited the punishment. In the year of Rome 305, Valerius and Horatius, the two confuls who had abolished the Decemvirate, gained two complete victories over the Volfci, the Equi, and the Sabines; but their

conduct too partial to the populace, and their eagernefs in profecuting the Decemvirs, drew on them the hatred of the leaders of the fenate, who pitied their unfortunate kinfmen, at the fame time that they detefted their crimes. The fenate refufed to thefe confuls the honor of a triumph "; affording therein an example highly pernicious in a free state, of being influenced in the diftribution of military favors by the party which the generals take in politics. In confequence of this injuftice, a tribune appealed to the people, who feized with pleasure the opportunity of at once rewarding their favorites, and of extending their own power. Valerius and Horatius triumphed without the confent of the fenate; to which, however, the people restored a prerogative, which they themselves had ufurped on this particular occafion. I am not ignorant that this politic council, which had ages of wisdom and only moments of paffion, endea voured, by the impartiality and prudence of its decrees, to confirm its precarious authority; and that the public at large profited by its fears. It could not indeed but fear the decifion of a delicate question respecting its own conftitution. Since the decrees of the people fuperfeded the best established rights of the fenate, in what other light could that fenate be regarded, but as a commiffion delegated by the people, for the purpose of exercisfing rights, which those who had conferred them might at pleasure refume? The patrician party were glad to have the fenate confidered as the reprefentatives of their own order, as the comitia tributa reprefented the plebeians. Agreeably to this principle, these two bodies united

compofed the commonwealth; but each of them apart enjoyed its facred and inviolable rights. The confent of the fenate opened the gates to the triumphal car; but the people were entitled to ftop its career. Upon entering the Ponorium, all military command ceased; and the confuls, who were generals abroad, became fimple magiftrates in Rome; which acknow. ledged no other authority than that of the laws. Yet the triumphant general returned at the head of his legions, and continued to appear in a military character. To reconcile refpect for the laws with the glory due to conquerors, the fenate always propofed continuing the general in his command during the day of his triumph. The people usually acceded to this propofal; which they were entitled, however, to reject; and which they had nearly rejected, in order to hinder the triumph of Paulus Emilius.

2. Those only could demand a triumph who had been invested with fupreme command. The difcipline of the Romans would never have allowed a tribune or a lieutenant, to apply to the fenate for the reward of his fervices. What reward could a fubaltern deserve, whofe only virtues were those of valor and obedience; virtues which it was the duty of his general to remunerate. The principle of military fubordination was carried fo far, that a commander in chief appropriated the glory of his most diftant lieutenants", who were confidered as indebted for their fuccefs merely to the orders which he had given to them". The emperors therefore, as fole heads of the army, were alone entitled to triumph for the victories which their genius had obtained, at

the fame time on the Rhine and the Euphrates. On this occafion, alfo, we may perceive the perpetual connexion, among the Romans, of religion and policy. The people, in conferring the fupreme command, conferred with it the right of taking the aufpices, and of interrogating the gods, concerning the fortune of the ftate. This facred prerogative established a peculiar connexion between the general and the gods of his country. He alone could interrogate them, and, folicit their favor by vows which the ftate was bound to perform. When his prayers were heard, it belonged, therefore, to him in particular, to demonftrate the public gratitude to the gods; and to lay at their feet hoftile fpoils and victorious trophies. To the martial fuperftition of the Romans, no offerings could appear more acceptable.

In the first ages of the republic, it was eafy for the confuls and prætors to unite with their civil functions the management of campaigns, which confifted only in marches of a few days, immediately followed by a battle. But when Rome was obliged to act,both offenfively, and defenfively in all the provinces of Italy; in Sicily, Spain, and Africa; it became neceffary to increase the number of generals, and to extend the military command of the confuls and prætors beyond the term affigned for their civil authority. Thefe proconfuls and proprætors finally became the only generals of the ftate; and in confequence of the weight of affairs which increased with the extent of the empire, although the fame perfons continued to exercise both civil and military functions, yet they