168 CIVIL LEGISLATION OF AUGUSTUS.
and more formed Ofauxiliaandcohorts. More than nine-tenths
of the army certainly consisted of new citizens. The franchise,
however, was then of little value, exemption from taxes being
by no means always implied in it.
The civil legislation of Augustus, unlike that of Caesar,
aimed at improving the moral condition of the nation. Caesar
had intended to arrange the chaos of the Roman laws into one
code; an undertaking like the civil legislation of Sir Robert
Peel, which would have been Verypraiseworthy; for, however
sad and dangerous it is to make new law-books, it is quite a
different thing to bring existing laws into unity and harmony.
The lex Aelia Sentia deserves great praise ; but the legislation
of Augustus was, on the whole, quite arbitrary : he wished to
correct morals by fighting against the tendencies of the age.
There was at that time a general disinclination to enter into a
legal marriage, and Roman citizens lived to a very great extent
in concubinage with slaves, so that the children were and re-
mained slaves, or at the best became freedmen. The free
population had, in consequence, decreased enormously, and this
state of things was still extending. In the registers found at
Pompeii, containing the names of the members of the trade
corporations, among twenty persons, ten were freedmen, and only
one in twenty, at the utmost, was an ingenuus. Now Augustus
was quite right in trying to counteract such a system; but the
manner in which he endeavoured to bring about an improve-
ment, by the Lex Julia et Papia Poppaea, shews how impotent
legislation is, when it attempts to turn back the current of the
times. Its enactments about honour, thcjws trium liberorum, and
the like, were of no avail.8
LECTURE CXIJ
The later portion of the history of the republic, though deeply
disheartening, yet cannot but enlist our sympathies; it is the
8 This Lecture concludes the course of the winter, 1828—29, and was delivered
on the 1st of April, 1829.
' This and the following lecture contain some things which have been already
stated in the preceding lectures ; but the editor could not avoid the repetition
INTEREST OF THE HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE. 169
end of a life conducted on a certain deliberate plan, and the
unavoidable issue of the events which preceded it. In the
history which now follows, things are different ; for the history
of the empire is no longer the continuation of that which was
attractive and pleasing to us in the earlier history of Rome;
and the people, who formerly awakened our greatest interest,
now form a thoroughly corrupted mass. Force now decides
everything; and the history itself is confined to an individual,
ruling over upwards of a hundred millions of men, and to the
few who, next to him, are the first in the state. The western
parts of the Roman world preserved a feeble bond of unity in
the language which was spoken by all persons of education,
but which in the provinces degenerated into a jargon. In the
East, Greek nationality was again established.
The whole history of the Roman empire is interesting only
as a portion of the history of the world ; but as a national or
political history it is sad and discouraging in the highest de-
gree. We see that things had come tto a point at which no
earthly power could afford any help ; we now have the deve-
lopment of dead powers, instead of that of a vital energy.
During the period subsequent to the Hannibalian war, there
still existed in the republic, a vital power which could afford
relief in critical moments; but it afterwards disappeared, and
the constitution of the state seems to have become incapable of
rising to a crisis ; the soul had gradually withdrawn from the
body, and at last left it a lifeless mass.
But the history of the Roman empire is nevertheless worth
a careful study, and as far as practical application is concerned,
it is even of greater importance than the history of the repub-
lic; for the theologian and jurist must be familiar with it, in
order to understand their own respective departments and their
history. It cannot therefore be a matter of wonder with us,
that persons were formerly so much engaged in studying the
history of the Roman emperors. At present it is too much
neglected. I might have concluded these lectures with the
reign of Augustus, to which I hope to carry my History of
without materially altering the form of the lectures, which he did not think him-
self justified in doing. The cause of the repetition is, that the remaining lec-
tures, from the 11 Ith to the end, were delivered at a later period than the
preceding ones, viz. in the summer of 1829, and formed a distinct course by
themselves, to which only one hour in every week was devoted, which will ac-
count for the greater condensation in the manner of treating the subject.__See
he Preface.