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war; and he chose them young, that they might

easily be accustomed to any diet or manner of life, "and be inftructed in any business or labour, as men "teach any thing to young dogs or horses.—And efteem"ing love the chief fource of all diforders, he allowed "the male flaves to have a commerce with the female "in his family, upon paying a certain fum for this privilege: but he strictly forbade all intrigues out of his family."-Are there any symptoms in this narration of that care, which is fuppofed in the ancients, of the marriage and propagation of their flaves? If that was a common practice, founded on general interest, it would furely have been embraced by CATO, who was a great economist, and lived in times when the ancient frugality and fimplicity of manners were ftill in credit and reputation.

It is expressly remarked by the writers of the ROMAN law, that scarcely any ever purchase flaves with a view of breeding from them.

XENOPHON in his economics, where he gives directions for the management of a farm, recommends a strict

a «Non temere ancillæ ejus rei caufa comparantur ut pariant.”—Digest. lib. v. tit. 3. de hæred. petit, lex 27.

care

care and attention of laying the male and the female flaves at a diftance from each other.-He feems not to fuppofe that they are ever married.-The only flaves among the GREEKS that appear to have continued their own race, were the HELOTES, who had houfes apart, and were more the flaves of the public than of individuals".

VARRO as well as COLUMELLA, recommends it as requifite to give a wife to the overfeer, in order to attach him the more strongly to his master's fervice.-This was therefore a peculiar indulgence granted to a flave in whom fo great confidence was repofed.

HISTORY MENTIONS A ROMAN NOBLEMAN WHO HAD 400 SLAVES UNDER THE SAME ROOF WITH HIM: AND HAVING BEEN ASSASSINATED AT HOME BY THE FURIOUS REVENGE OF ONE OF THEM, THE LAW WAS EXECUTED WITH RIGOUR, AND ALL WITHOUT EXCEPTION WERE PUT TO DEATH.

Nothing fo common in trials, even of civil causes, as to call for the evidence of flaves; which was always extorted by the most exquifite torments.-DEMOSTHENES fays, that, where it was poffible to produce, for the

a STRABO, lib. viii. b Lib. i. c. 18. L1

In Oniterem orat. I.

fame

fame fact, either freemen or flaves as witneffes, the judges always preferred the torturing of flaves, as a more certain evidence".

a The fame practice was very common in ROME; but CICERO feems not to think this evidence so certain as the teftimony of free citizens.—Pro Cœlio.

The inhuman sports exhibited at ROME, may juftly be confidered as an effect of the people's contempt for their vanquished enemies, or flaves, and was also a great cause of the general inhumanity of their princes and rulers.— Who can read the accounts of the amphitheatrical entertainments without horror? Or who is furprised that the rulers fhould treat that people in the fame way the people treated their fellow creatures? One's humanity, on that occafion, is apt to renew the barbarous with of CALIGULA, that the people had but one neck: a man could almost be pleafed, by a fingle blow, to put an end to fuch a race of monflers.-HUMI,

SECT.

SECT. XXV. ·

OBSERVATIONS

GENERAL

ON

THE ANCIENT REPUBLICS.

WE may obferve, that the ancient republics were almost always in perpetual war, a natural effect of their martial fpirit, their love of liberty, their mutual emulation, and that hatred which generally prevails among nations that live in close neighbourhood.-Now, war in a small state is much more destructive than in a great one; both because all the inhabitants, in the former cafe, must serve in the armies; and because the whole ftate is frontier, and is all expofed to the inroads of the enemy.

The maxims of ancient war were much more deftructive than those of modern; chiefly by that diftribution of plunder, in which the foldiers were indulged.-The private men in our armies are fuch a low fet of people, that we find any abundance, beyond their fimple pay, breeds confufion and diforder, and a total diffolution of difcipline.

L12

difcipline. The very wretchedness and meanness of those who fill the modern armies, render them lefs deftructive to the countries which they invade: one inftance, among many, of the deceitfulness of first appearances in all political reafonings.

Ancient battles were much more bloody, by the very nature of the weapons employed in them.-The ancients drew up their men 16 or 20, fometimes 50 men deep, which made a narrow front; and it was not difficult to find a field in which both armies might be marshalled, and might engage with each other.-Even where any body of the troops was kept off by hedges, hillocks, woods, or hollow ways, the battle was not fo foon decided between the contending parties, but that the others had time to overcome the difficulties which opposed them, and take part in the engagement.—And as the whole army was thus engaged, and each man closely buckled to his antagonist, the battles were commonly very bloody, and great flaughter was made on both fides, especially on the vanquished.-The long thin lines required by fire-arms, and the quick decifion of the fray, render our modern engagements but partial rencounters, and enable the general, who is foiled in the beginning of the day,

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