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they ordered, that when he should arrive at Brundufium, their refolution fhould be intimated to him, to prevent his nearer approach.

"They in reality, from this time forward, though in the ftyle of allies, treated the Grecian republics as fubjects. "Such was the rank which the Romans affumed among nations; while their fatefinen ftill retained much of their primeval rufticity, and did not confider the diftinctions of fortune and equipage as the appurtenances of power or of high command. Cato, though a citizen of the highest rank, and vefted fucceffively with the dignities of conful and of cenfor, ufed to partake in the labour of his own flaves, and to feed with them from the fame difh at their meals*. When he commanded the armies of the republic, the daily allowance of his household was no more than three medimni, or about as many bufhels of wheat for his family, and half a medimnus, or half a bufhel of barley for his horfes. In furveying his province he ufually travelled on foot, attended by a fingle flave, who carried his baggaget.

"Thefe particulars are mentioned perhaps as peculiar to Cato; but fuch fingularities in the manners of a perfon placed fo high among the people carry fome general intimation of the fashion of the times.

"A fpirit of equality yet reigned among the members of the commonwealth, which rejected the diftinctions of fortune, and checked the admiration of private wealth. In all military do nations the Centurion had no more than double the allowance of a private foldier, and no military rank was indelible. The conful and commander in chief of one year ferved not only in the ranks, but even as a tribune or in ferior officer in the next; and the fame perfon who had difplayed the genius and ability of the general, ftill valued himfelf on the courage and addrefs of a legionary foldier.

"No one was raifed above the glory to be reaped from the exertion of mere rerfonal courage and bodily ftrength. Terfons of the highest condition sent or

accepted of a defiance to fight in fingle combat, in prefence of the armies to which they belonged. Marcus Servi hus, a perfon of confular rank, in order to enhance the authority with which he fpoke when he pleaded for the triumph of Paulus Emilius, informed the people that he himself, full three and twenty times, had fought fingly with fo many champions of the enemy, and that in each of these encounters he had flain and fripped his antagonist. A combat of the fame kind was afterwards fought by the younger Scipio, when ferving in Spain.

"The fumptuary laws of this age were fuited to the idea of citizens who were determined to contribute their utmoft to the grandeur of the flate; but to forego the means of luxury or perfonal diftinction. Roman ladies were reftrained, except in religious proceffions, from the ufe of carriages any where within the city, or at the dis ftance of less than a mile from its walls; and yet the space over which they were to preferve their communications extended to a circuit of fourteen miles, and began to be so much crowded with buildings or cottages, that, even before the reduction of Macedonia, it was become neceffary to refrain private perfens from encroaching on the ftreets, fquares, and other spaces reserved for public conveniency. In a place of this magnitude, and fo ftocked with inhabitants, the female fex was alfo forbid the ufe of variegated or party-coloured clothes, or of more than half an ounce of gold in the ornament of their per fons. This law being repealed, contrary to the fentiments of Cato, this citizen, when he came, in the capacity of cenfor, to take account of the equi pages, clothes, and jewels of the women, taxed each of them tenfold for whatever was found in her wardrobe exceeding the value of one thoufand five hundred denarii, or about fifty pounds fterling‡.

"The attention of the legislature was carried into the detail of entertainments or feafls. In one act the num ber of the guefts, and in a fubfequent one the expence of their meals, were

limited,

*Plutarch. in Vit. Catonis, p. 330. Ibid. p. 335 & 338. Liv. lib, xxxiv. c. 1-6.

Elimited. By the Lex Tribonia, enact10 ed about twenty years after the reduction of Macedonia, a citizen was allowed, on certain high festivals, to expend three hundred affes, or about twenty fhillings fterling; on other feftivals of lefs note, one hundred affes, or about fix fhillings and eight-pence; but during the remainder of the year, no more than ten affes, or about eight-pence; and was not allowed to ferve up more than one fowl, and this with a provifo that it should not be crammed or fatted*. "Superftition made a principal article in the character of the people. It fubjected them continually to be occupied or alarmed with prodigies and ominous appearances, of which they endeavoured to avert the effects by rites and expiations, as ftrange and irrational as the prefages on which they had grounded their fears. Great part of their time was accordingly taken up with proceffions and public fhews, and much of their fubftance, even to the whole annual produce of their herdst, was occafionally expended in facrifices, or in the performance of public vows. The first officers of ftate, in their functions of the priesthood, performed the part of the cook and the butcher; and, while the fenate was deliberating on queftions of great moment, examined the entrails of a victim, in order to know what the gods had determined. You muft defift (faid the Conful Cornelius, entering the fenate with a countenance pale and marked with aftonifh ment) I myself have vifited the boiler, and the head of the liver is confumed..'

"According to the opinions enter tained in those times, forcery was a principal expedient employed by thofe who had fecret defigns on the life of their neighbour. It was fuppofed to make a part in the ftatutory crime of poifoning; and the fame imagination which admitted the charge of forcery as credible, was, in particular inftances, when any perfon was accufed, cafily convinced of his guilt; infomuch, that fome thousands were at times convicted together of this imaginary crime §.

"The manners of the people of Italy were at times fubject to strange diforders, or the magiftrate gave credit to wild and improbable reports. The ftory of the Bacchanals, dated in the year of Rome 566, or about twenty years before the conqueft of Macedonia, may be confidered as an inftance of one or the other. A fociety, under the name of Bacchanals, had been inftituted, on the fuggeftion of a Greek pretender to divination. The defire of being admitted into this fociety prevailed throughout Italy, and the fect became extremely numerous. As they commonly met in the night, they were faid at certain hours to extinguish their lights, and to indulge themselves in every practice of horror, rape, incest, and murder; crimes under which no fect or fraternity could pefibly fabüit, but which, in being imputed to numbers in this credulous age, gave occafion to a fevere inquifition, and proved fatal to many perfons at Rome, and throughout Italy.

"The extreme fuperftition, however, of thofe times, in fome of its effects, vied with genuine religion; and, by the regard it infpired, more efpecially for the obligation of oaths, became a principle of public order and of public duty, and in many inftances fuperfeded the ufe of penal or compulfory laws.

"When the citizen fwore that he would obey the call of the magistrate to enlift in the legions; when the foldier fwore that he would not defert his colours, difobey his commander, or fly from his enemy; when a citizen, at the call of the cenfor, reported on oath the amount of his effects; the state, in all thofe inftances, with perfect confidence, relied on the good faith of her fubjects, and was not deceived.

"In the period to which these obfervations refer, that is, in the fixth century of the Roman ftate, the first dawning of literature began to appear. It has been mentioned that a custom prevailed among the primitive Romans, as among other rude nations, at their feafts to fing or rehearse heroic ballads, which

Plin. lib. x. c. 50. The Ver Sacrum was a general facrifice of all the young of their herds for a whole year. ‡ Liv. lib. xli. c. 15. § Liv. lib. xxxix. c. 41. || Ibid. c. 8. & fequen.

which recorded their own deeds or those of their ancestors*. This practice had been fome time difcontinued, and the compofitions themselves were loft. They were fucceeded by pretended monuments of history equally fallacious, the orations, which, having been pronounced at funerals, were, like titles of honour, preferved in the archives of every noble houfe, but which were rather calculated to flatter the vanity of families, than to record the truth t.

"The Romans owed the earliest compilations of their history to Greeks; and in their own first attempts to relate their 4tory employed the language of that people. Nevius and Ennius, who were the first that wrote in the Latin tongue, compofed their relations in verfe. Livius Andronicus, and afterwards Plautus and Terence, tranflated the Greek fable, and exhibited in the streets of Rome, not the Roman but Grecian manners. The two laft are faid to have been perfons of mean condition; the one to have fubfifted by turning a baker's mill, the other to have been a captive and a flave. Both of them had probably poffeffed the Greek tongue as a vulgar dialect, which was yet fpoken in many parts of Italy, and from this circumftance became acquainted with the elegant compofitions of Philemon and Menander. Their comedies were acted in the streets, without any feats or benches for the reception of an audience. But a nation fo little ftudious of ordinary conveniencies, and contented to borrow their literary models from neighbours, to whom, being mere imitators, they continued for ages inferior, were, how ever, in their political and military character, fuperior to all other nations whatever; and, at this date, had extended a dominion, which originally confifted of a poor village on the Tiber, to more empire and territory than is now enjoyed by any kingdom or itate of Europe."

The following is the account which he gives of the battle of Canna, and of the circumftances which preceded and followed that memorable event:

"Hannibal, after endeavouring in vain to bring the Roman dictator to a battle, perceived his defign to protract the war; and, confidering inaction as the principal evil he himself had to fear, frequently expofed his detachments, and even his whole army, in dangerous fituations. The advantages he gave by thefe acts of temerity were fometimes effectually feized by his wary antagonist, but more frequently recovered by his own fingular conduct and unfailing refources.

In this temporary ftagnation of Hannibal's fortune, and in the frequent opportunities which the Romans had, though in trifling encounters, to meafure their own ftrength with that of the enemy, their confidence began to revive. The public refumed the tranquility of its councils, and looked round with deliberation to collect its force. The people and the army recovered from their late confternation, and took advantage of the breathingtime they had gained, to cenfure the very conduct to which they owed the returns of their confidence and the renewal of their hopes. They forgot their former defeats, and began to imagine that the enemy kept his footing in Italy, by the permiffion, by the timidity, or by the exceffive caution of their leader.

"A flight advantage over Hannibal, who had too much expofed his foraging parties, gained by the general of the horfe in the abfence of the Dictator, confirmed the army and the people in this opinion, and greatly funk the reputation of Fabius. As he could not be fuperfeded before the ufual term of his office was expired, the fenate and people, though precluded by law from proceeding to an actual depofition, came to a refolution equally violent and unprecedented, and which they hoped might induce him to refign his power. They raifed the general of the horse to an equal command with the Dictator, and left them to adjust their pretenfions between them. Such affronts, under the notions of honour which in modern times are annexed to the military character, would have made it impoffible

for

Cic. de Claris Oratoribus, c. 19. Ibid. p. 394. Dion. Hal. lib. i. p. 5. The people of Cuma, about this time, applied for leave to have their public acts, for the time, expreffed in Latin.

for the Dictator to remain in his fta⚫tion. But in a commonwealth, where, to put any perfonal confideration in competition with the public would have appeared abfurd, feeming injuries dene by the State to the honour of a citizen only furnished him with a more fplendid occafion to difplay his virtue. The Roman Dictator continued to ferve -under this diminution of his rank and command, and overlooked with magnanimity the infults with which the people had requited the fervice he was rendering to his country.

"Minutius being now affociated with the Dictator, in order to be free from the restraints of a joint command, and from the wary counfels of his colleague, defired, as the propereft way of adjuft. ing their pretenfions, to divide the army between them. In this new fituation he foon after, by his rafhnefs, expofed himself and his divifion to be entirely cut off by the enemy. But being refcued by Fabius, he too gave proofs of a magnanimous fpirit, confeffed the favour he had received, and committing himself, with the whole army, to the conduct of his colleague, -he left this cautious officer, during the remaining period of their joint command, to purfue the plan he had formed for the war*.

"At this time, however, the people, and even the fenate, were not willing to wait for the effect of fuch feemingly languid and dilatory meafures as Fabius was inclined to purfue. They refolved to augment the army in Italy to eight legions, which, with an -equal number of the allies, amounted to eighty thoufand foot and feven thoufand two hundred horfe; and they intended, in the approaching election of -confuls, to choose men, not only of reputed ability, but of decifive and refolute counfels. As fuch they elected C. Terenties Varro, fuppofed to be of a bold and dauntlefs fpirit; and, in order to temper his ardour, joined with him in the command L. Emilius Paulas, an officer of approved experience, who had formerly obtained a triumph for his victories in Illyricum, and who was high in the confidence of the

LOND. MAG. July 1783.

fenate, as well as in that of the people.

"In the autumn, before the nomination of thefe officers to command the Roman army, Hannibal had furprised the fortrefs of Cannæ on the Aufidus, a place to which the Roman citizens of that quarter had retired with their effects, and at which they had collected confiderable magazines and stores. This, among other circumftances, determined the fenate to hazard a battle, and to furnish the new confuls with inftructions to this effect.

"Thefe officers, it appears, having opened the campaign on the banks of the Aufidus, advanced by mutual confent within fix miles of the Carthaginian camp, which covered the village of Canna. Here they differed in their opinions, and, by a strange defect in the Roman policy, which, in times of lefs virtue, must have been altogether. ruinous, and even in thefe times was ill fitted to produce a confiftent and well-fupported series of operations, had no rule by which to decide their precedency, and were obliged to take the command each a day in his turn.

"Varro, contrary to the opinion of his colleague, propofed to give battle on the plain, and with this intention, as often as the command devolved upon him, ftill advanced on the enemy. In order that he might occupy the paffage and both fides of the Aufidus, he encamped in two feparate divifions on its oppofite banks, having his larger divifion on the right of the river, oppofed to Hannibal's camp. Still taking the opportunity of his turn to command the army, he paffed with a larger divition to a plain, fuppofed to be on the left of the Aufidus, and there, though the field was too narrow to receive the legions in their ufual form, he preffed them together, and gave the enemy, if he chofe it, an opportunity

to engage.

To accommodate his or

der to the extent of his ground, he contracted the head, and the intervals of his manipules or columns, making their depth greatly to exceed the front which they turned to the enemy. "He placed his cavalry on the flanks, K

* Plutarch. in vit. Fab. Max.

the

the Roman knights on his right towards the river, and the horsemen of the allies on the left.

"Hannibal no fooner faw this movement and difpofition of the enemy, than he haftened to meet them on the plain which they had chofen for the field of action. He likewife paffed the Aufidus, and, with his left to the river, and his front to the fouth, formed his army upon an equal line with that of the enemy.

"He placed the Gaulish and Spanifh cavalry on his left facing the Roman knights, and the Numidians on his right facing the allies.

"The flanks of his infantry, on the right and the left, were compofed of the African foot, armed in the Roman manner, with the pilum, the heavy buckler, and the ftabbing fword. His centre, though oppofed to the choice of the Roman legions, confifted of the Gaulish and the Spanish foot, variously armed, and intermixed together.

"Hitherto no advantage feemed to be taken on either fide. As the armies fronted fouth and north, even the fun, which rofe foon after they were formed, fhone upon the flanks, and was no difadvantage to either. The fuperiority of number was greatly on the fide of the Romans; but Hannibal refted his hopes of victory on two circumftances; firft, on a motion to be made by his cavalry, if they prevailed on either of the enemy's wings; next, on a pofition he was to take with his centre, in order to begin the action from thence, to bring the Roman legions into fome diforder, and expose them, under that difadvantage, to the attack which he was prepared to make with his veterans on both their flanks.

"The action accordingly began with a charge of the Gaulish and Spanifh horfe, who, being fuperior to the Roman knights, drove them from their ground, forced them into the river, and put the greater part of them to the fword. By this event the flank of the Roman army, which might have been joined to the Aufidus, was entirely uncovered.

Having performed this fervice, the victorious cavalry had orders to

wheel at full gallop round the rear of their own army, and to join the Numidian horfe on their right, who were ftill engaged with the Roman allies. By this unexpected junction, the left wing of the Roman army was likewife put to flight, and purfued by the African horfe; at the fame time the Spanish cavalry prepared to attack the Roman infantry, wherever they fhould be ordered, on the flank or the rear.

"While these important events took place on the wings, Hannibal amufed the Roman legions of the main body with a fingular movement that was made by the Gauls and Spaniards, and with which he proposed to begin the action. These came forward, not in a ftraight line a-breaft, but fwelling out to a curve in the centre, without disjoining their flanks from the African infantry, who remained firm on their ground.

"By this motion they formed a kind of crescent convex to the front. The Roman manipules of the right and the left, fearing, by this fingular difpofition, to have no fhare in the action, haftened to bend their line into a correfponding curve, and, in proportion as they came to clofe with the enemy, charged them with a confident and impetuous courage. The Gauls and Spaniards refifted this charge no longer than was neceffary to awaken the precipitant ardour with which victorious troops often blindly purfue a flying enemy. And the Roman line being bent, and fronting inwards to the centre of its concave, the legions purfued where the enemy led them. Hurrying from the flanks to share in the victory, they narrowed their space as they advanced, and the men who were accuftomed to have a square of fix feet clear for wielding their arms, being now preffed together fo as to prevent entirely the ufe of their fwords, found themfelves ftruggling against each other for fpace, in an inextricable and hopeless confufion.

"Hannibal, who had waited for this event, ordered a general charge of his cavalry on the rear of the Roman legions, and at the fame time an attack from his African infantry on both

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