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The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

E >> Edward Gibbon >> The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire




It is allowed as a salutary maxim, that the light and frivolous
suspicion of a contagious malady, is of sufficient weight to
excuse the visits of the most intimate friends; and even the
servants, who are despatched to make the decent inquiries, are
not suffered to return home, till they have undergone the
ceremony of a previous ablution. Yet this selfish and unmanly
delicacy occasionally yields to the more imperious passion of
avarice. The prospect of gain will urge a rich and gouty senator
as far as Spoleto; every sentiment of arrogance and dignity is
subdued by the hopes of an inheritance, or even of a legacy; and
a wealthy childless citizen is the most powerful of the Romans.
The art of obtaining the signature of a favorable testament, and
sometimes of hastening the moment of its execution, is perfectly
understood; and it has happened, that in the same house, though
in different apartments, a husband and a wife, with the laudable
design of overreaching each other, have summoned their respective
lawyers, to declare, at the same time, their mutual, but
contradictory, intentions. The distress which follows and
chastises extravagant luxury, often reduces the great to the use
of the most humiliating expedients. When they desire to borrow,
they employ the base and supplicating style of the slave in the
comedy; but when they are called upon to pay, they assume the
royal and tragic declamation of the grandsons of Hercules. If
the demand is repeated, they readily procure some trusty
sycophant, instructed to maintain a charge of poison, or magic,
against the insolent creditor; who is seldom released from
prison, till he has signed a discharge of the whole debt. These
vices, which degrade the moral character of the Romans, are mixed
with a puerile superstition, that disgraces their understanding.
They listen with confidence to the predictions of haruspices, who
pretend to read, in the entrails of victims, the signs of future
greatness and prosperity; and there are many who do not presume
either to bathe, or to dine, or to appear in public, till they
have diligently consulted, according to the rules of astrology,
the situation of Mercury, and the aspect of the moon. ^49 It is
singular enough, that this vain credulity may often be discovered
among the profane sceptics, who impiously doubt, or deny, the
existence of a celestial power."

[Footnote 35: Claudian, who seems to have read the history of
Ammianus, speaks of this great revolution in a much less courtly
style: -

Postquam jura ferox in se communia Caesar
Transtulit; et lapsi mores; desuetaque priscis
Artibus, in gremium pacis servile recessi.

De Be. Gildonico, p. 49.]

[Footnote 36: The minute diligence of antiquarians has not been
able to verify these extraordinary names. I am of opinion that
they were invented by the historian himself, who was afraid of
any personal satire or application. It is certain, however, that
the simple denominations of the Romans were gradually lengthened
to the number of four, five, or even seven, pompous surnames; as,
for instance, Marcus Maecius Maemmius Furius Balburius
Caecilianus Placidus. See Noris Cenotaph Piran Dissert. iv. p.
438.]
[Footnote 37: The or coaches of the romans, were often of solid
silver, curiously carved and engraved; and the trappings of the
mules, or horses, were embossed with gold. This magnificence
continued from the reign of Nero to that of Honorius; and the
Appian way was covered with the splendid equipages of the nobles,
who came out to meet St. Melania, when she returned to Rome, six
years before the Gothic siege, (Seneca, epist. lxxxvii. Plin.
Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 49. Paulin. Nolan. apud Baron. Annal.
Eccles. A.D. 397, No. 5.) Yet pomp is well exchange for
convenience; and a plain modern coach, that is hung upon springs,
is much preferable to the silver or gold carts of antiquity,
which rolled on the axle-tree, and were exposed, for the most
part, to the inclemency of the weather.]

[Footnote 38: In a homily of Asterius, bishop of Amasia, M. de
Valois has discovered (ad Ammian. xiv. 6) that this was a new
fashion; that bears, wolves lions, and tigers, woods,
hunting-matches, &c., were represented in embroidery: and that
the more pious coxcombs substituted the figure or legend of some
favorite saint.]

[Footnote 39: See Pliny's Epistles, i. 6. Three large wild boars
were allured and taken in the toils without interrupting the
studies of the philosophic sportsman.]

[Footnote 40: The change from the inauspicious word Avernus,
which stands in the text, is immaterial. The two lakes, Avernus
and Lucrinus, communicated with each other, and were fashioned by
the stupendous moles of Agrippa into the Julian port, which
opened, through a narrow entrance, into the Gulf of Puteoli.
Virgil, who resided on the spot, has described (Georgic ii. 161)
this work at the moment of its execution: and his commentators,
especially Catrou, have derived much light from Strabo,
Suetonius, and Dion. Earthquakes and volcanoes have changed the
face of the country, and turned the Lucrine Lake, since the year
1538, into the Monte Nuovo. See Camillo Pellegrino Discorsi
della Campania Felice, p. 239, 244, &c. Antonii Sanfelicii
Campania, p. 13, 88

Note: Compare Lyell's Geology, ii. 72. - M.]

[Footnote 41: The regna Cumana et Puteolana; loca caetiroqui
valde expe tenda, interpellantium autem multitudine paene
fugienda. Cicero ad Attic. xvi. 17.]
[Footnote 42: The proverbial expression of Cimmerian darkness was
originally borrowed from the description of Homer, (in the
eleventh book of the Odyssey,) which he applies to a remote and
fabulous country on the shores of the ocean. See Erasmi Adagia,
in his works, tom. ii. p. 593, the Leyden edition.]
[Footnote 43: We may learn from Seneca (epist. cxxiii.) three
curious circumstances relative to the journeys of the Romans. 1.
They were preceded by a troop of Numidian light horse, who
announced, by a cloud of dust, the approach of a great man. 2.
Their baggage mules transported not only the precious vases, but
even the fragile vessels of crystal and murra, which last is
almost proved, by the learned French translator of Seneca, (tom.
iii. p. 402 - 422,) to mean the porcelain of China and Japan. 3.
The beautiful faces of the young slaves were covered with a
medicated crust, or ointment, which secured them against the
effects of the sun and frost.]

[Footnote 44: Distributio solemnium sportularum. The sportuloe,
or sportelloe, were small baskets, supposed to contain a quantity
of hot provisions of the value of 100 quadrantes, or twelvepence
halfpenny, which were ranged in order in the hall, and
ostentatiously distributed to the hungry or servile crowd who
waited at the door. This indelicate custom is very frequently
mentioned in the epigrams of Martial, and the satires of Juvenal.
See likewise Suetonius, in Claud. c. 21, in Neron. c. 16, in
Domitian, c. 4, 7. These baskets of provisions were afterwards
converted into large pieces of gold and silver coin, or plate,
which were mutually given and accepted even by persons of the
highest rank, (see Symmach. epist. iv. 55, ix. 124, and Miscell.
p. 256,) on solemn occasions, of consulships, marriages, &c.]
[Footnote 45: The want of an English name obliges me to refer to
the common genus of squirrels, the Latin glis, the French loir; a
little animal, who inhabits the woods, and remains torpid in cold
weather, (see Plin. Hist. Natur. viii. 82. Buffon, Hist.
Naturelle, tom. viii. 153. Pennant's Synopsis of Quadrupeds, p.
289.) The art of rearing and fattening great numbers of glires
was practised in Roman villas as a profitable article of rural
economy, (Varro, de Re Rustica, iii. 15.) The excessive demand of
them for luxurious tables was increased by the foolish
prohibitions of the censors; and it is reported that they are
still esteemed in modern Rome, and are frequently sent as
presents by the Colonna princes, (see Brotier, the last editor of
Pliny tom. ii. p. 453. epud Barbou, 1779.)

Note: Is it not the dormouse? - M.]

[Footnote 46: This game, which might be translated by the more
familiar names of trictrac, or backgammon, was a favorite
amusement of the gravest Romans; and old Mucius Scaevola, the
lawyer, had the reputation of a very skilful player. It was
called ludus duodecim scriptorum, from the twelve scripta, or
lines, which equally divided the alvevolus or table. On these,
the two armies, the white and the black, each consisting of
fifteen men, or catculi, were regularly placed, and alternately
moved according to the laws of the game, and the chances of the
tesseroe, or dice. Dr. Hyde, who diligently traces the history
and varieties of the nerdiludium (a name of Persic etymology)
from Ireland to Japan, pours forth, on this trifling subject, a
copious torrent of classic and Oriental learning. See Syntagma
Dissertat. tom. ii. p. 217 - 405.]

[Footnote 47: Marius Maximus, homo omnium verbosissimus, qui, et
mythistoricis se voluminibus implicavit. Vopiscus in Hist.
August. p. 242. He wrote the lives of the emperors, from Trajan
to Alexander Severus. See Gerard Vossius de Historicis Latin. l.
ii. c. 3, in his works, vol. iv. p. 47.]
[Footnote 48: This satire is probably exaggerated. The
Saturnalia of Macrobius, and the epistles of Jerom, afford
satisfactory proofs, that Christian theology and classic
literature were studiously cultivated by several Romans, of both
sexes, and of the highest rank.]

[Footnote 49: Macrobius, the friend of these Roman nobles,
considered the siara as the cause, or at least the signs, of
future events, (de Somn. Scipion l. i. c 19. p. 68.)]

Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of Territories By
Barbarians.

Part II.

In populous cities, which are the seat of commerce and
manufactures, the middle ranks of inhabitants, who derive their
subsistence from the dexterity or labor of their hands, are
commonly the most prolific, the most useful, and, in that sense,
the most respectable part of the community. But the plebeians of
Rome, who disdained such sedentary and servile arts, had been
oppressed from the earliest times by the weight of debt and
usury; and the husbandman, during the term of his military
service, was obliged to abandon the cultivation of his farm. ^50
The lands of Italy which had been originally divided among the
families of free and indigent proprietors, were insensibly
purchased or usurped by the avarice of the nobles; and in the age
which preceded the fall of the republic, it was computed that
only two thousand citizens were possessed of an independent
substance. ^51 Yet as long as the people bestowed, by their
suffrages, the honors of the state, the command of the legions,
and the administration of wealthy provinces, their conscious
pride alleviated in some measure, the hardships of poverty; and
their wants were seasonably supplied by the ambitious liberality
of the candidates, who aspired to secure a venal majority in the
thirty-five tribes, or the hundred and ninety-three centuries, of
Rome. But when the prodigal commons had not only imprudently
alienated the use, but the inheritance of power, they sunk, under
the reign of the Caesars, into a vile and wretched populace,
which must, in a few generations, have been totally extinguished,
if it had not been continually recruited by the manumission of
slaves, and the influx of strangers. As early as the time of
Hadrian, it was the just complaint of the ingenuous natives, that
the capital had attracted the vices of the universe, and the
manners of the most opposite nations. The intemperance of the
Gauls, the cunning and levity of the Greeks, the savage obstinacy
of the Egyptians and Jews, the servile temper of the Asiatics,
and the dissolute, effeminate prostitution of the Syrians, were
mingled in the various multitude, which, under the proud and
false denomination of Romans, presumed to despise their fellow-
subjects, and even their sovereigns, who dwelt beyond the
precincts of the Eternal City. ^52

[Footnote 50: The histories of Livy (see particularly vi. 36) are
full of the extortions of the rich, and the sufferings of the
poor debtors. The melancholy story of a brave old soldier
(Dionys. Hal. l. vi. c. 26, p. 347, edit. Hudson, and Livy, ii.
23) must have been frequently repeated in those primitive times,
which have been so undeservedly praised.]
[Footnote 51: Non esse in civitate duo millia hominum qui rem
habereni. Cicero. Offic. ii. 21, and Comment. Paul. Manut. in
edit. Graev. This vague computation was made A. U. C. 649, in a
speech of the tribune Philippus, and it was his object, as well
as that of the Gracchi, (see Plutarch,) to deplore, and perhaps
to exaggerate, the misery of the common people.]
[Footnote 52: See the third Satire (60 - 125) of Juvenal, who
indignantly complains,

Quamvis quota portio faecis Achaei!
Jampridem Syrus in Tiberem defluxit Orontes;
Et linguam et mores, &c.

Seneca, when he proposes to comfort his mother (Consolat. ad
Helv. c. 6) by the reflection, that a great part of mankind were
in a state of exile, reminds her how few of the inhabitants of
Rome were born in the city.]
Yet the name of that city was still pronounced with respect:
the frequent and capricious tumults of its inhabitants were
indulged with impunity; and the successors of Constantine,
instead of crushing the last remains of the democracy by the
strong arm of military power, embraced the mild policy of
Augustus, and studied to relieve the poverty, and to amuse the
idleness, of an innumerable people. ^53 I. For the convenience
of the lazy plebeians, the monthly distributions of corn were
converted into a daily allowance of bread; a great number of
ovens were constructed and maintained at the public expense; and
at the appointed hour, each citizen, who was furnished with a
ticket, ascended the flight of steps, which had been assigned to
his peculiar quarter or division, and received, either as a gift,
or at a very low price, a loaf of bread of the weight of three
pounds, for the use of his family. II. The forest of Lucania,
whose acorns fattened large droves of wild hogs, ^54 afforded, as
a species of tribute, a plentiful supply of cheap and wholesome
meat. During five months of the year, a regular allowance of
bacon was distributed to the poorer citizens; and the annual
consumption of the capital, at a time when it was much declined
from its former lustre, was ascertained, by an edict from
Valentinian the Third, at three millions six hundred and
twenty-eight thousand pounds. ^55 III. In the manners of
antiquity, the use of oil was indispensable for the lamp, as well
as for the bath; and the annual tax, which was imposed on Africa
for the benefit of Rome, amounted to the weight of three millions
of pounds, to the measure, perhaps, of three hundred thousand
English gallons. IV. The anxiety of Augustus to provide the
metropolis with sufficient plenty of corn, was not extended
beyond that necessary article of human subsistence; and when the
popular clamor accused the dearness and scarcity of wine, a
proclamation was issued, by the grave reformer, to remind his
subjects that no man could reasonably complain of thirst, since
the aqueducts of Agrippa had introduced into the city so many
copious streams of pure and salubrious water. ^56 This rigid
sobriety was insensibly relaxed; and, although the generous
design of Aurelian ^57 does not appear to have been executed in
its full extent, the use of wine was allowed on very easy and
liberal terms. The administration of the public cellars was
delegated to a magistrate of honorable rank; and a considerable
part of the vintage of Campania was reserved for the fortunate
inhabitants of Rome.
[Footnote 53: Almost all that is said of the bread, bacon, oil,
wine, &c., may be found in the fourteenth book of the Theodosian
Code; which expressly treats of the police of the great cities.
See particularly the titles iii. iv. xv. xvi. xvii. xxiv. The
collateral testimonies are produced in Godefroy's Commentary, and
it is needless to transcribe them. According to a law of
Theodosius, which appreciates in money the military allowance, a
piece of gold (eleven shillings) was equivalent to eighty pounds
of bacon, or to eighty pounds of oil, or to twelve modii (or
pecks) of salt, (Cod. Theod. l. viii. tit. iv. leg. 17.) This
equation, compared with another of seventy pounds of bacon for an
amphora, (Cod. Theod. l. xiv. tit. iv. leg. 4,) fixes the price
of wine at about sixteenpence the gallon.]

[Footnote 54: The anonymous author of the Description of the
World (p. 14. in tom. iii. Geograph. Minor. Hudson) observes of
Lucania, in his barbarous Latin, Regio optima, et ipsa omnibus
habundans, et lardum multum foras. Proptor quod est in montibus,
cujus aescam animalium rariam, &c.]
[Footnote 55: See Novell. ad calcem Cod. Theod. D. Valent. l. i.
tit. xv. This law was published at Rome, June 29th, A.D. 452.]
[Footnote 56: Sueton. in August. c. 42. The utmost debauch of
the emperor himself, in his favorite wine of Rhaetia, never
exceeded a sextarius, (an English pint.) Id. c. 77. Torrentius
ad loc. and Arbuthnot's Tables, p. 86.]
[Footnote 57: His design was to plant vineyards along the
sea-coast of Hetruria, (Vopiscus, in Hist. August. p. 225;) the
dreary, unwholesome, uncultivated Maremme of modern Tuscany]
The stupendous aqueducts, so justly celebrated by the
praises of Augustus himself, replenished the Thermoe, or baths,
which had been constructed in every part of the city, with
Imperial magnificence. The baths of Antoninus Caracalla, which
were open, at stated hours, for the indiscriminate service of the
senators and the people, contained above sixteen hundred seats of
marble; and more than three thousand were reckoned in the baths
of Diocletian. ^58 The walls of the lofty apartments were covered
with curious mosaics, that imitated the art of the pencil in the
elegance of design, and the variety of colors. The Egyptian
granite was beautifully encrusted with the precious green marble
of Numidia; the perpetual stream of hot water was poured into the
capacious basins, through so many wide mouths of bright and massy
silver; and the meanest Roman could purchase, with a small copper
coin, the daily enjoyment of a scene of pomp and luxury, which
might excite the envy of the kings of Asia. ^59 From these
stately palaces issued a swarm of dirty and ragged plebeians,
without shoes and without a mantle; who loitered away whole days
in the street of Forum, to hear news and to hold disputes; who
dissipated in extravagant gaming, the miserable pittance of their
wives and children; and spent the hours of the night in the
obscure taverns, and brothels, in the indulgence of gross and
vulgar sensuality. ^60

[Footnote 58: Olympiodor. apud Phot. p. 197.]

[Footnote 59: Seneca (epistol. lxxxvi.) compares the baths of
Scipio Africanus, at his villa of Liternum, with the magnificence
(which was continually increasing) of the public baths of Rome,
long before the stately Thermae of Antoninus and Diocletian were
erected. The quadrans paid for admission was the quarter of the
as, about one eighth of an English penny.]
[Footnote 60: Ammianus, (l. xiv. c. 6, and l. xxviii. c. 4,)
after describing the luxury and pride of the nobles of Rome,
exposes, with equal indignation, the vices and follies of the
common people.]

But the most lively and splendid amusement of the idle
multitude, depended on the frequent exhibition of public games
and spectacles. The piety of Christian princes had suppressed
the inhuman combats of gladiators; but the Roman people still
considered the Circus as their home, their temple, and the seat
of the republic. The impatient crowd rushed at the dawn of day
to secure their places, and there were many who passed a
sleepless and anxious night in the adjacent porticos. From the
morning to the evening, careless of the sun, or of the rain, the
spectators, who sometimes amounted to the number of four hundred
thousand, remained in eager attention; their eyes fixed on the
horses and charioteers, their minds agitated with hope and fear,
for the success of the colors which they espoused: and the
happiness of Rome appeared to hang on the event of a race. ^61
The same immoderate ardor inspired their clamors and their
applause, as often as they were entertained with the hunting of
wild beasts, and the various modes of theatrical representation.
These representations in modern capitals may deserve to be
considered as a pure and elegant school of taste, and perhaps of
virtue. But the Tragic and Comic Muse of the Romans, who seldom
aspired beyond the imitation of Attic genius, ^62 had been almost
totally silent since the fall of the republic; ^63 and their
place was unworthily occupied by licentious farce, effeminate
music, and splendid pageantry. The pantomimes, ^64 who
maintained their reputation from the age of Augustus to the sixth
century, expressed, without the use of words, the various fables
of the gods and heroes of antiquity; and the perfection of their
art, which sometimes disarmed the gravity of the philosopher,
always excited the applause and wonder of the people. The vast
and magnificent theatres of Rome were filled by three thousand
female dancers, and by three thousand singers, with the masters
of the respective choruses. Such was the popular favor which
they enjoyed, that, in a time of scarcity, when all strangers
were banished from the city, the merit of contributing to the
public pleasures exempted them from a law, which was strictly
executed against the professors of the liberal arts. ^65

[Footnote 61: Juvenal. Satir. xi. 191, &c. The expressions of
the historian Ammianus are not less strong and animated than
those of the satirist and both the one and the other painted from
the life. The numbers which the great Circus was capable of
receiving are taken from the original Notitioe of the city. The
differences between them prove that they did not transcribe each
other; but the same may appear incredible, though the country on
these occasions flocked to the city.]

[Footnote 62: Sometimes indeed they composed original pieces.

- Vestigia Graeca
Ausi deserere et celeb rare domestica facta.

Horat. Epistol. ad Pisones, 285, and the learned, though
perplexed note of Dacier, who might have allowed the name of
tragedies to the Brutus and the Decius of Pacuvius, or to the
Cato of Maternus. The Octavia, ascribed to one of the Senecas,
still remains a very unfavorable specimen of Roman tragedy.]
[Footnote 63: In the time of Quintilian and Pliny, a tragic poet
was reduced to the imperfect method of hiring a great room, and
reading his play to the company, whom he invited for that
purpose. (See Dialog. de Oratoribus, c. 9, 11, and Plin.
Epistol. vii. 17.)]

[Footnote 64: See the dialogue of Lucian, entitled the
Saltatione, tom. ii. p. 265 - 317, edit. Reitz. The pantomimes
obtained the honorable name; and it was required, that they
should be conversant with almost every art and science. Burette
(in the Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. i. p. 127,
&c.) has given a short history of the art of pantomimes.]
[Footnote 65: Ammianus, l. xiv. c. 6. He complains, with decent
indignation that the streets of Rome were filled with crowds of
females, who might have given children to the state, but whose
only occupation was to curl and dress their hair, and jactari
volubilibus gyris, dum experimunt innumera simulacra, quae
finxere fabulae theatrales.]

It is said, that the foolish curiosity of Elagabalus
attempted to discover, from the quantity of spiders' webs, the
number of the inhabitants of Rome. A more rational method of
inquiry might not have been undeserving of the attention of the
wisest princes, who could easily have resolved a question so
important for the Roman government, and so interesting to
succeeding ages. The births and deaths of the citizens were duly
registered; and if any writer of antiquity had condescended to
mention the annual amount, or the common average, we might now
produce some satisfactory calculation, which would destroy the
extravagant assertions of critics, and perhaps confirm the modest
and probable conjectures of philosophers. ^66 The most diligent
researches have collected only the following circumstances;
which, slight and imperfect as they are, may tend, in some
degree, to illustrate the question of the populousness of ancient
Rome. I. When the capital of the empire was besieged by the
Goths, the circuit of the walls was accurately measured, by
Ammonius, the mathematician, who found it equal to twenty-one
miles. ^67 It should not be forgotten that the form of the city
was almost that of a circle; the geometrical figure which is
known to contain the largest space within any given
circumference. II. The architect Vitruvius, who flourished in
the Augustan age, and whose evidence, on this occasion, has
peculiar weight and authority, observes, that the innumerable
habitations of the Roman people would have spread themselves far
beyond the narrow limits of the city; and that the want of
ground, which was probably contracted on every side by gardens
and villas, suggested the common, though inconvenient, practice
of raising the houses to a considerable height in the air. ^68
But the loftiness of these buildings, which often consisted of
hasty work and insufficient materials, was the cause of frequent
and fatal accidents; and it was repeatedly enacted by Augustus,
as well as by Nero, that the height of private edifices within
the walls of Rome, should not exceed the measure of seventy feet
from the ground. ^69 III. Juvenal ^70 laments, as it should seem
from his own experience, the hardships of the poorer citizens, to
whom he addresses the salutary advice of emigrating, without
delay, from the smoke of Rome, since they might purchase, in the
little towns of Italy, a cheerful commodious dwelling, at the
same price which they annually paid for a dark and miserable
lodging. House-rent was therefore immoderately dear: the rich
acquired, at an enormous expense, the ground, which they covered
with palaces and gardens; but the body of the Roman people was
crowded into a narrow space; and the different floors, and
apartments, of the same house, were divided, as it is still the
custom of Paris, and other cities, among several families of
plebeians. IV. The total number of houses in the fourteen
regions of the city, is accurately stated in the description of
Rome, composed under the reign of Theodosius, and they amount to
forty-eight thousand three hundred and eighty-two. ^71 The two
classes of domus and of insuloe, into which they are divided,
include all the habitations of the capital, of every rank and
condition from the marble palace of the Anicii, with a numerous
establishment of freedmen and slaves, to the lofty and narrow
lodging-house, where the poet Codrus and his wife were permitted
to hire a wretched garret immediately under the files. If we
adopt the same average, which, under similar circumstances, has
been found applicable to Paris, ^72 and indifferently allow about
twenty-five persons for each house, of every degree, we may
fairly estimate the inhabitants of Rome at twelve hundred
thousand: a number which cannot be thought excessive for the
capital of a mighty empire, though it exceeds the populousness of
the greatest cities of modern Europe. ^73 ^*
[Footnote 66: Lipsius (tom. iii. p. 423, de Magnitud. Romana, l.
iii. c. 3) and Isaac Vossius (Observant. Var. p. 26 - 34) have
indulged strange dreams, of four, or eight, or fourteen, millions
in Rome. Mr. Hume, (Essays, vol. i. p. 450 - 457,) with
admirable good sense and scepticism betrays some secret
disposition to extenuate the populousness of ancient times.]
[Footnote 67: Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 197. See Fabricius, Bibl.
Graec. tom. ix. p. 400.]

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