The manuscript of this volume — aside from some revision and emendation recently made — was finislied in 1876. The subject, however, is one against which time runs but slowly — if at all.
It win be seen that the book is by no means a mere translation of Montesquieu's treatise; but that, beyond this, the Romans are used as a nexus for all antiquity, and the general movement of the world's civilization sought to be inferred.
There must be errors; but, in view of the nature and difficulties of the task undertaken, it seems ob- vious that criticism should be considerate and candid — no more is asked.
The Notes which have been contributed by my- self are duly indicated as such; those which are in- closed in 'brackets have been supplied by the French editors; aU others are Montesquieu's.
Belleville, Illinois, March IS, 1882.
GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE Idea of " the Grandeur and Decadence of the Romans " — from the French of La Harpe 15 Chap. I. — The Beginnings of Rome. — Her Wara.. 19 Note by the Translator 31 II. — Art of War among the Romans 48 Note by the Translator 51 III. — How the Romans were able to aggrandize themselves...61 Note by the Translator • 66 IV. — ^The Gauls. — Pyrrhus. — Comparison of Carthage and Rome. — ^War with Hannibal 76 Note by the Translator 91 V. — State of Greece, of Macedon, of Syria and Egypt, aft§r the abasement of Carthage 107 Note by the Translator 124 VI. — Policy adopted by the Romans for the conquest of all Nations 129 Note by the Translator 146 VII. — Mithridates. — How he was able to resist the Romans...165 Note by the Translator 160 VIII. — Of the Divisions which constantly existed in the City of Rome 163 Note by the Translator IH 8 GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE Chap. IX.— Two Causes of the Emu of Rome 180 Note by the Translator 188 X. — Corruption of the Romans 19T Note by the Translator 201 XL — Sylla. — Pompey and Csesar; 208 Note by the Translator 225 XIL— Condition of Borne after the Death of Csesar 245 Note by the Translator 254 XIIL— Augustus 288 Note by the Translator 270 XrV.— Tiberius 278 Note by the Translator 288 XV. — The Emperors from Caligula to Antoninus 293 Note by the Translator 308 XVL — State of the Empire from Antoninus to Probus 317 Note by the Translator. 334 XVIL — Change in the Government of the Empire 365 Note by the Translator. 367 XVm. — New Maxims adopted by the Romans 376 Note by the Translator 384 XIX. — Greatness of Attila. — Cause of the Establishment of the Barbarians. — Reasons why the Western Em- pire fell first 392 Note by the Translator 404 XX. — Conquests of Justinian. — His Government 413 Note by the Translator 427 XXI. — Disorders of the Eastern Empire 435 Note by the Translator 443 XXII. — Weakness of the Eastern Empire 445 Note by the Translator 4g2 XXIII. — Causes of the Duration of the Eastern Empire. — Its Destruction 417O Note by the Translator 482 TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION.
I. As to the motive which has prompted the prep- aration of this edition of Montesquieu's Considerations on the Causes of the Grandeur and Decadence of the Romans, I will only say, that it having occurred to me that the place occupied in American thought by this celebrated work was by no means proportionate to its merits, the idea thence presented itseK of bringing it forward in a new translation — associating the text with such Notes as might serve not only to place the original work in proper relation to the present status of critical history, but serve withal — in an incidental manner — to place the spirit of Eoman history, and of ancient history in general, in proper comparison with the spirit of modem times. The realization - of the first object would be the same — difference of time allowed for — as that which was so admirably accom- plished by the original work nearly a hundred and fifty years ago: it would be to present the general spirit of Eoman history — as now apprehended — with- in the narrowest limits of verbal expression. The realization of the second object would be not only to 10 GRANDEUR AND DECADENCE [bakee.
give an adequate idea of the relative quality and value of the Eoman civilization, but of the ancient civiliza- tions generally, when brought into comparison with the civilization of the modem world — and this, too, within a very limited compass of words. Both these objects are certainly very large and very important. How far they have been realized in the present vol- ume is not for me to say. A man may know his target better than his skill to hit it.
II. As to the Author of the original treatise, it needs only to be said that he occupies a very eminent position among that small number of great modern thinkers who, measurably released from the limita- tions of their country and their age, have sought to discover the general reason which pervades the history and the institutions of mankind. In his devotion to this grand study his genius was remarkably self-cen- tered and unitary. His Persian Letters, his Consid- erations, and his Sjiirit of Laws, are of a piece. The same quest of the general in the particular pervades them all. Nor has any writer of modern times ac- quired a reputation more honorable, or met with a success more signal. His genius— akin to the great subjects upon which he employed it — has overstepped the boundaries of states and languages, and exercised a marked influence upon the thought, and even upon the legislation, of many nations.
And yet, since no man can emancipate himself completely from his age and his surroundings, and INTRODUCTION.] OF THE ROMANS. H since all objective thought — especially that which be- longs to rational history — is subject to a law of pro- gressive growth, Montesquieu, in common with all the great positive thinkers of the world, has been supple- mented by much which, although included within the range of his method, did not come within the scope of his conscious and definite recognition.
The most capital illustration of what has just been said is seen in connection with the idea that a pro- gressvoe movement pervades the history of the world. This conception — to which present thought is strong- ly lending — and which will probably mature into a generalization rigorously supported by all the facts of history proper, of archaeology, and of prehistoric re- search, had no just equivalent in the thought of the ancients. Their idea, as implied by Aristotle and ex- pressed by Thueydides,' that the civilized societies then existing had arisen out of an earlier and ruder social condition, does not nearly come up to the level of the present view, and can only be regarded as a rudiment of the more mature phase of thought. Machiavelli — who may be selected as an excellent representative of the rise of the modem rational spirit, and to whom Montesquieu is in some respects closely related — appears to have had no conception whatever that the world's history is the scene of an ascensive change. His opinion was, that the progres- sive and retrogressive changes which take place upon • Aristotle's Politics, Book I, oh. ii; Thucydides' Histort/, Book I, oh. i.
12 GRANDEUR AND DECADENCE [baker.
the plane of universal history so balance each other that the condition of the world, viewed as a whole, remains the same." And even in the writings of Mon- tesquieu himself, the idea that a progressive move- ment, however irregular and complicated, extends through the history of mankind, cannot be traced with any considerable degree of completeness.
This great conception, in which all the particulars and all the lesser generalizations of man's historic life meet, and which seems eminently likely to take its place as the Prime Law of History, is the most gen- eral outcome of the comparative study of that im- mense mass of exact observations bearing upon the existing and the past estate of man which have been made for the most part within the present century, and even within the last fifty years.
Quite in harmony with this great generalization, many of the Notes which I have added are designed to indicate the comparative value of the Roman civ- ilization, and, incidentally, the comparative value of the ancient civilizations in general, when estimated upon the scale of that progressive movement which is thus deemed to pervade the history of man. In the most comprehensive sense, all that we are in the habit of including in "ancient history" is regarded 2 E pensando io come queste cose procedino, giudico il mondo sempre easere stato ad un medesimo modo, ed in quello esser stato tanto di buono quanto di tristo; ma yariare questo tristo e questo buono di provincia la provincia: come si rede per quello si ha notizia di quelli regni antichi cho variavano dall' uno all' altro per la variazione de' costumi; ma il mondo restava quel medesimo. Viscorsi — Introduction to Book II.
INTRODUCTION.] OF THE ROMANS.
13 as a middle term, preceded by a lower, and followed by a higher stage of development.
III. As to the ground-subject of the wort, it seems just to say, that in a truly rational sense, a supreme interest attaches to Eoman as distinguished from all other ancient history. This is chiefly if not wholly due to one main fact. More than any other, the his- tory of the Romans occupies a central ^position in uni- versal histmy. As regards the world's main stream of civilization, it may be said with substantial truth on the one hand, that all pre-Eoman history meets in the Roman Eepublic and Empire — as many tributa- ries in one grand trunk — and on the other, that upon the dissolution of this great body, the powerful influ- ence of its spirit, surviving the loss of its form, has penetrated to the limits of modern civilization. Thus, in the actual course which history has taken, the Eomans have performed, upon a gigantic scale, the double oflfice of receiving from the past and dispens- ing to the future; and this focal position, taken in connection with the very great influence thence exert- ed upon the world's civilization, must ever impart a leading interest to their history. Eminent writers have claimed for the history of France some such cen- tral position in reference to the development of mod- em Europe;" but the figure of the Eomans in this respect is altogether more colossal.
' Guizot'3 Histoire de la Civilisation en Europe, Paris, 1871, pp. 6, 1; Stephen's Leclures on the History of France, London, 1852, i, 6, 7.
IDEA OF "THE GRANDEUR AND DECADENCE OF THE ROMANS."
FEOM THE FRENCH OF LA HARPE.'
As M-e see in tlie Persian Letters the germ of tlie Spirit of Laws, we think we also see in the Consid- erations on the Grandeur and Decadence of the Ro- mans a detached part of that immense work which absorbed the life of Montesquieu. It is probable that he determined to make a separate treatise of these Considerations for the reason that, inasmuch as the Romans constitute a great subject in themselves, the author, who felt himself capable of the task, would not, on the one hand, rest either below his matter or below his talent, — whilst on the other, he feared that the Eomans alone might occupy too large a place in the Spirit of Laws, and thus mar the just pro- portions of the work.
It is to this that we owe this excellent treatise, of which we have no model in our language, and which will endure as long as the language itself. It ' These remarks of La Harpe appear as a note at the end of the Con- siderations, Paris edition of 1866 — the one I have used in making the present translation. — TnA.N:iLATOE.
15 GEANDEUR AND DECADENCE [la bakpe.
is a chef-d'ceuvre of reason and of style, far surpass- ing Machiavelli, Gordon, Saint-Eeal, Amelot de la Houssaie, and all the other political writers who have treated of the same subject. Never before were so many profound thoughts and luminous views brought together in so small a space. In view of the eleva- tion and the difficulty of his subject, the merit of conciseness in the expression of moral truths, as nat- uralized in our language by Eochefoucauld and Bru- yere, must yield to that of Montesquieu. They only circumscribed within a given measure, and in forms of remarkable expression, ideas of which the basis is in every mind capable of reflection, for the reason that every one has need of them: he adapted the same precision to grand objects of thought, beyond the reach and the usage of most men, and upon which he shed at the same time a new light.
By the manner in which he presents his thought, he causes us to see in the history of a people which has fixed the attention of the whole world that which no other had seen, and that which he alone seemed capable of seeing. He was able to perceive in the politics and the government of the Eomans that which none of their own historians had detected. The one among them all who was most akin to him and whom he appears to have taken as a model in his manner of writing-TacitQs— who was, like himself, a great thinker and a great painter, has left us a fine treatise on the manners of the Germans: but how far is the or THE ROMANS. I7 or THE ROMANS. I7 portrait of some semi-savage peoples, traced with, an art aad in colors wMch cause the eulogy of barbari- ans to be the satire of a corrupted civilization, sur- passed by that vast tableau of twenty centuries, ex- tending from the foundation of Eome to the capture of Constantinople, and condensed into a.picture in which, notwithstanding its diminutive size, the ob- jects lose nothing of their grandeur, but even become more salient and more striking! In this species of writing, what may be compared to so small a number of pages, in which, so to speak, we find fused and concentrated the whole spirit which sustained and animated the Colossus of the Roman power, and at the same time all the poisons which, after having long preyed upon it, caused it to fall in ruins beneath the strokes of the numerous nations which were united against it?
CONSIDERATIONS ON THE CAUSES OF THE GRANDEUR AND DECADENCE OF THE ROMANS; CHAPTEE T.
THE BEGINNINGS OF ROME. — HEE WAKS.
"We should not form the same idea of Eome in its beginnings as that which is given us by the cities of the present day; unless indeed we except those of the Crimea — built to enclose plunder, animals, and the fruits of the country. The ancient names of all the principal places in Eome bore relation to such usage.
The city was even without streets, unless we call by that name the continuation of the roads which led to it. The houses were distributed without order, and were very small; for the men, constantly at work or assembled in the public place, passed but httle of their time in houses.
' [This work->-generally regarded aa the clief-d'auvre of Montes- quieu— appeared in ]'734, The author was then in the forty-fifth year of his age.]
20 GEANDETJR AND DECADENCE [montesquieu.
But the grandeur of Eome appeared very soon in her public structures. The works which heretofore have given, and which yet give, the highest idea of her power, were constructed under the kings.' (a) The building of the eternal city was already commenced.
For the purpose of procuring citizens, wives or lands, Eomulus and his successors were almost inces- santly engaged in war with their neighbors. They returned home bringing with them the spoils of van- quished peoples— consisting of herds of cattle and sheaves of grain. These were occasions of great re- joicing in the city; and such was the origin of those Triumphs, which were in after times the principal cause of the grandeur of the Eomans.
The power of Eome was greatly increased by her tinion with the Sabines, a people as hardy and as war- like as the Lacedaemonians, from whom they were descended. Eomulus adopted their buckler, which was large, instead of the small Argive buckler which he had previously used.' And it should be noted, that the circumstance which contributed most to ren- der the Eomans masters of the world was, that hav- ing contended successively against all nations, they invariably renounced their own usages as soon as they found better.
° Witnesa the astonishment of Dionysius of Halicarnassus in con- nection with the sewers constructed by Tarquin. (Ant. Horn. Book III ) They exist yet, (a) Consult my Note at the end of this chapter. — Tkanslator, * Plutarch, Idfe of Emnulvs.
CHAP. I.] OP THE ROMANS. 21 Among tlie republics of Italy at that time, it was the opinion of men that the treaties which they had entered into with a king did not bind them as towards his successor; and this, for them, was a species of law of nations. Thus, all who had been subdued by one king of Eome claimed to be free under another, and wars sprang continually from wars.
The long and peaceful reign of l^uma was well calculated to arrest Home in her mediocrity; and, if at this time she had had a larger territory, and a greater measure of power, there is some appearance that her fortune would have been fixed for ever.
One of the causes of her prosperity was that her kings were all great men. We do not find elsewhere in history an uninterrupted succession of such states- men and such captains.'
In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of the state form the institutions; afterwards, the institutions form the chiefs of the state.
Tarquin took the crown without being elected, either by the senate or by the people." The kingly power became hereditary; he rendered it absolute; and these two revolutions were speedily followed by a third.
In the violation of Lucretia, Tarquin's son Sextus committed an act which has almost always caused ^ This is apparent from the whole course of the history of the Idngs.
5 The senate named a magistrate for the interregnum, who elected the kmg: this election had to be confirmed by the people. Dionys. Hal., lib. ii, iii, and iv.
22 GRANDEUR AND DECADENCE [montesquieu.
tyrants to be driyen from the cities whicli they have ruled; for the people — stttng by such an act into a keen sense of their servitude — are at once precipitated upon an extreme resolution. A people can easily en- dure the exaction of a new tribute; for they do not know but that some benefit may inure to themselves from the use which may be made of the money; but when they are subjected to insult, they feel nothing but their own misery, and they add thereto the idea of all the evils which are possible.
It is however true that the death of Lucretia was only the occasion of the revolution which followed;" for a people who are at once proud, enterprising, courageous, and enclosed within walls, must necessa- rily throw ofi their yoke, or experience a softening of their manners.
It was necessary that one of two things should take place; either that Eome should change her form of government, or that she should continue to be a small and a poor monarchy.'
" In a similar sense Machiavelli: " Tarquin was not therefore driven out because his son Sextus had violated Lucretia, but because he had broken the laws of the kingdom, and governed it tyrannically...And if the incident of Lucretia had not taken place, as soon as some other accident had happened, it would have led to the same result." (Discorsi lib. iii, cap. v.) It is one of the laws of historical causation that the really effective causes of great external changes very often accumulate in silence, until some occasional event performs the office of excitin"- them into open activity, and thus wins, in a superficial way of thinking the reputation of being the substantial cause of the change. Trans- lator.
' Here again Machiavelli expresses himself in a similar sense: " I am of opinion that it was necessary, cither that the kings should be set aside CHAP. I.] OF TEE ROMANS. 23 Modem history furnishes us an example of the same thing which then took place in Eome: and this is very noteworthy; for, since men have had the same passions in all ages, the occasions which produce great changes are different, but the causes are always the same. As Henry YII of England increased the power of the commons for the purpose of humbling the aristocracy, Servius TuUius before him had extended the privileges of the people in order to humble the senate." But the people — become at once more bold — overthrew the one and the other monarchy.
The portrait of Tarquin has not been flattered. His name has escaped none of the orators who have had occasion to speak against tyranny. But his con- duct before his misfortune — which one sees that he foresaw; his lenity towards conquered peoples; his liberality to soldiers; that art which he had, of so greatly interesting men in his conversation; his pub- lic works, his courage in war, his constancy in adver- sity, his continual resources; the war of twenty years duration, which, without kingdoms and without wealth, he made or caused to be made upon the or that Rome, in a very short time, should become weak and powerless; for, considering how corrupt the kings were become, if there had been a succession of two or three such reigns, until the corruption which the kings had contracted had begun to extend to the members, since the members also would have thus become corrupted, reformation would have been forever impossible. But, putting aside the head of the state while the body was yet sound, it was easy to establish regulated liberty." {Dis- corsi, lib. i, cap. xvii.) — Tbanslator.
* See Zonaras, and Dionys. Hal., lib. iv.
24 GKAXDEUE AND DECADENCE [montesquieit.
Boman people — enable us to see very clearly that lie was not a man to be despised.
The places assigned by posterity to men are sub- ject, like others, to the caprices of fortune. Woe to the reputation of a prince who is opposed by a party which becomes dominant, or who has attempted to destroy a prejudice which survives him!
Eome, having expelled the kiags, established annual consuls; and this was another of the causes which con- ducted her to such a height of power. Princes experi- ence periods of ambition in the course of their lives, after which other passions, and even sloth itseK, suc- ceed. But the Bepubhc having chiefs who were changed every year, and who sought to signalize their magistracy in order to obtain a renewal of it, there was not a moment to be lost to ambition. They engaged the senate to propose war to the people, and showed it new enemies every day."
The senate was already sufficiently inclined of itself to the policy of war; for, being incessantly harassed by the complaints and the demands of the people, it sought to divert them from their inquietudes by oc- cupying them abroad."
And war was almost always agreeable to the people themselves; for, by a wise distribution of its spoils a means had been found of rendering it profitable.
" For some strictures upon the consular system of the Eoma suit my Mote at the end of this chapter. — Tkanslator. ' '" Besides, the authority of the senate was less limited in affairs w'th out than within the city.
CHAP. I.] OF THE EOMANS. 25 Eome being a city witliout commerce, and almost without arts, pillage was the only means which pri- vate individuals had of enriching themselves.
The manner of pillaging was therefore regulated by discipline, and nearly the same order was observed as that which is at present practiced among the Tar- tar tribes.
The booty was first deposited in common," and then it was divided among the soldiers. Nothing was lost; for, before setting out, each one took an oath that he would appropriate nothing to his own use; and of all the peoples of the world the Homans were the most religious in the observance of the oath — a quahty which was at all times the very nerve of their military dis- cipline.
Pinally, the citizens who remained at home partici- pated also in the fruits of victory. A portion of the lands of the conquered people was confiscated and di- vided into two parts, one of which was sold for the benefit of the public, whilst the other was allotted to poor citizens, subject to a rent reserved in favor of the state.
Not being able to obtain the honors of a triumph except by the achievement of a conquest or a victory, the consuls made war with extreme impetuosity. They marched straight to the enemy, and force decided at once.
Kome was therefore engaged in ceaseless, and al- " See Polybius, lib. x. 2 2g GRANDEUR AND DECADENCE [montesquiext.
ways violent war. But, a nation wMcli was thua con stantly at war— and that too by the very principle of its organization— had necessarily to perish or to over- come all the others, which, sometimes at war and some- times in a state of peace, were never in such proper condition for attack, nor so well prepared for defence.
By this incessant prosecution of war, the Eomans acquired a profound knowledge of the military art. In the case of occasional wars, most of the examples are lost; peace brings in other ideas, and men forget their faults and even their virtues.
Another consequence of the principle of continual war was that the Eomans never made peace except as conquerors. Where, indeed, was the profit, in mak- ing a discreditable peace with one nation in order to proceed to the attack of another?
Under the influence of this idea, it was their habit to increase their pretensions in the measure of their reverses. They thus dismayed the victorious enemy, and imposed upon themselves the utmost necessity of conquering.
Always exposed to the most frightful vengeance, constancy and valor became necessary to them; nor could these virtues be distinguished in the Eoman mind from the love of self, of family, of country, and of all that is held dearest among men.
The peoples of Italy made no use of machines adapted to the prosecution of sieges;" and as, in ad- '^ Dionysius of Halicamaasus saya so formally, lib. ix; and it so ap- CHAP. I.] OF THE ROMANS. 2Y dition to this, the soldiers received no pay," it was not possible to hold them for a long time before any one place. Thus it was that few of their wars were decisive. They engaged in battle for the plunder of the camps or lands of their enemies; after which the victor and the vanquished withdrew, ekch into his own city. It is this that explains the resistance of the Italian peoples, and at the same time the obsti- nacy of the Komans in the work of subjugating them. It was this that gave to the latter victories which did not corrupt them, and which left them in all their poverty.
If they had rapidly conc[uered all the neighboring cities, they would.have been found in a state of de- cline at the arrival of Pyrrhus, of the Gauls, and of Hannibal; and, in conformity with the destiny of nearly aU the states of the world, they would have passed too quickly from poverty to wealth and from wealth to corruption.
But, always striving and always meeting obstacles, Eome caused her power to be felt without being able to extend it; and, within a circumference which pears from history. They did not know how to construct galleries to cover themselves from the besieged. They endeavored to capture cities by scaling the walla. Ephorus says that Artemon, the engineer, invented large machines for battering the strongest walls. Plutarch says that Pericles first used these at the siege of Samos. — lAfe of Ferides.
'5 The Roman infantry received no pay until the year of the City 349, nor the cavalry until the year 352, during the siege of Veii; thence- forward they were paid by the state. (Comp. Adam's, Bx>m. Ant., Phila., 18'72, p. 268, and Livy, Book IV, ch. 69, Book Y, ch. '7).— Tkahs- LATOR.
28 GRANDEUK AND DECADENCE [montesquieu.
was very small, she exercised those virtues which were to become so fatal to the world.
The peoples of Italy were not all equally warlike. The Etrurians were enervated by their wealth and by their luxury; the Tarentines, the Capuans, and nearly all the cities of Campania and Magna Grecia, lan- guished in indolence and in the pursuit of pleasure. But the Latins, the Hernicans, the Sabines, the ^qui- ans, and the Yolscians, loved war passionately. They were situated around Rome; they offered to her an inconceivable resistance, and were her equals in point of obstinacy.
The Latin cities were colonies from Alba, founded by Latinus Sylvanus." Besides ^ common origin with the Romans, they had also common rites; and Servius Tullius had engaged them to have a temple built in Eome, to serve as a bond of union for the two peoples." Having been beaten in a great battle near the lake Hegillus, they were reduced to an alli- ance and military association with the Romans. "