of ancient and modern history, and compare their past and present
situation. We shall not, perhaps, find such foundation for the
complaint of the present emptiness and depopulation of the world. Egypt
is represented by Maillet, to whom we owe the best account of it, as
extremely populous, though he esteems the number of its inhabitants
to be diminished. Syria, and the Lesser Asia, as well as the coast of
Barbary, I can really own to be very desert in comparison of their
ancient condition. The depopulation of Greece is also very obvious. But
whether the country now called Turkey in Europe may not, in general,
contain as many inhabitants as during the flourishing period of Greece
may be a little doubtful. The Thracians seem then to have lived like
the Tartars at present, by pillage and plunder; the Getes were still
more uncivilized, and the Illyrians were no better. These occupy
nine-tenths of that country, and though the government of the Turks be
not very favourable to industry and propagation, yet it preserves at
least peace and order among the inhabitants, and is preferable to that
barbarous, unsettled condition in which they anciently lived.
Poland and Muscovy in Europe are not populous, but are certainly much
more so than the ancient Sarmatia and Scythia, where no husbandry or
tillage was ever heard of, and pasturage was the sole art by which
the people were maintained. The like observation may be extended to
Denmark and Sweden. No one ought to esteem the immense swarms of
people which formerly came from the North, and overran all Europe, to
be any objection to this opinion. Where a whole nation, or even half
of it, remove their seat, it is easy to imagine what a prodigious
multitude they must form, with what desperate valour they must make
their attacks, and how the terror they strike into the invaded nations
will make these magnify, in their imagination, both the courage and
multitude of the invaders. Scotland is neither extensive nor populous,
but were the half of its inhabitants to seek new seats they
would form a colony as large as the Teutons and Cimbri, and would
shake all Europe, supposing it in no better condition for defence than
formerly.
Germany has surely at present twenty times more inhabitants than in
ancient times, when they cultivated no ground, and each tribe valued
itself on the extensive desolation which it spread around, as we
learn from Cæsar, and Tacitus, and Strabo. A proof that the division
into small republics will not alone render a nation populous, unless
attended with the spirit of peace, order, and industry.
The barbarous condition of Britain in former times is well known, and
the thinness of its inhabitants may easily be conjectured, both from
their barbarity and from a circumstance mentioned by Herodian, that all
Britain was marshy, even in Severus’s time, after the Romans had been
fully settled in it above a whole century.
It is not easily imagined that the Gauls were anciently much more
advanced in the arts of life than their northern neighbours, since they
travelled to this island for their education in the mysteries of the
religion and philosophy of the Druids.[94] I cannot therefore think
that Gaul was then near so populous as France is at present.
Were we to believe, indeed, and join together the testimony of Appian
and that of Diodorus Siculus, we must admit an incredible populousness
in Gaul. The former historian says that there were 400 nations in that
country; the latter affirms that the largest of the Gallic nations
consisted of 200,000 men, besides women and children, and the least
of 50,000. Calculating therefore at a medium, we must admit of near
200,000,000 of people in a country which we esteem populous at present,
though supposed to contain little more than twenty.[95] Such
calculations therefore by their extravagance lose all manner of
authority. We may observe that that equality of property, to which
the populousness of antiquity may be ascribed, had no place among the
Gauls. Their intestine wars also, before Cæsar’s time, were almost
perpetual. And Strabo observes that though all Gaul was cultivated,
yet it was not cultivated with any skill or care, the genius of the
inhabitants leading them less to arts than arms, till their slavery to
Rome produced peace among themselves.
Cæsar enumerates very particularly the great forces which were levied
at Belgium to oppose his conquests, and makes them amount to 208,000.
These were not the whole people able to bear arms in Belgium; for the
same historian tells us that the Bellovaci could have brought a hundred
thousand men into the field, though they engaged only for sixty. Taking
the whole, therefore, in this proportion of ten to six, the sum of
fighting men in all the states of Belgium was about 350,000; all the
inhabitants a million and a half. And Belgium being about the fourth of
Gaul, that country might contain six millions, which is not the third
of its present inhabitants.[96] We are informed by Cæsar that the
Gauls had no fixed property in land; but that the chieftains, when any
death happened in a family, made a new division of all the lands among
the several members of the family. This is the custom of Tanistry,
which so long prevailed in Ireland, and which retained that
country in a state of misery, barbarism, and desolation.
The ancient Helvetia was 250 miles in length and 180 in breadth,
according to the same author, yet contained only 360,000 inhabitants.
The Canton of Berne alone has at present as many people.
After this computation of Appian and Diodorus Siculus, I know not
whether I dare affirm that the modern Dutch are more numerous than the
ancient Batavi.
Spain is decayed from what it was three centuries ago; but if we step
backward two thousand years and consider the restless, turbulent,
unsettled condition of its inhabitants, we may probably be inclined
to think that it is now much more populous. Many Spaniards killed
themselves when deprived of their arms by the Romans. It appears from
Plutarch that robbery and plunder were esteemed honourable among the
Spaniards. Hirtius represents in the same light the situation of that
country in Cæsar’s time, and he says that every man was obliged to
live in castles and walled towns for his security. It was not till its
final conquest under Augustus that these disorders were repressed.
The account which Strabo and Justin give of Spain corresponds exactly
with those above mentioned. How much therefore must it diminish from
our idea of the populousness of antiquity when we find that Cicero,
comparing Italy, Africa, Gaul, Greece, and Spain, mentions the great
number of inhabitants as the peculiar circumstance which rendered this
latter country formidable.[97]
Italy, it is probable however, has decayed; but how many great cities
does it still contain? Venice, Genoa, Pavia, Turin, Milan, Naples,
Florence, Leghorn, which either subsisted not in ancient times,
or were then very inconsiderable. If we reflect on this, we shall not
be apt to carry matters to so great an extreme as is usual with regard
to this subject.
When the Roman authors complain that Italy, which formerly exported
corn, became dependent on all the provinces for its daily bread, they
never ascribe this alteration to the increase of its inhabitants, but
to the neglect of tillage and agriculture. A natural effect of that
pernicious practice of importing corn in order to distribute it gratis
among the Roman citizens, and a very bad means of multiplying the
inhabitants of any country.[98] The sportula, so much talked of by
Martial and Juvenal, being presents regularly made by the great lords
to their smaller clients, must have had a like tendency to produce
idleness, debauchery, and a continual decay among the people. The
parish-rates have at present the same bad consequences in England.
Were I to assign a period when I imagine this part of the world might
possibly contain more inhabitants than at present, I should pitch
upon the age of Trajan and the Antonines, the great extent of the
Roman Empire being then civilized and cultivated, settled almost in a
profound peace both foreign and domestic, and living under the same
regular police and government.[99] But we are told that all
extensive governments, especially absolute monarchies, are destructive
to population, and contain a secret vice and poison, which destroy the
effect of all these promising appearances. To confirm this, there is a
passage cited from Plutarch, which being somewhat singular, we shall
here examine it.
That author, endeavouring to account for the silence of many of the
oracles, says that it may be ascribed to the present desolation of the
world, proceeding from former wars and factions, which common calamity,
he adds, has fallen heavier upon Greece than on any other country;
insomuch that the whole could scarce at present furnish three thousand
warriors, a number which, in the time of the Median War, were supplied
by the single city of Megara. The gods, therefore, who affect works
of dignity and importance, have suppressed many of their oracles, and
deign not to use so many interpreters of their will to so diminutive a
people.
I must confess that this passage contains so many difficulties that
I know not what to make of it. You may observe that Plutarch assigns
for a cause of the decay of mankind not the extensive dominion of the
Romans, but the former wars and factions of the several nations, all
which were quieted by the Roman arms. Plutarch’s reasoning, therefore,
is directly contrary to the inference which is drawn from the fact he
advances.
Polybius supposes that Greece had become more prosperous and
flourishing after the establishment of the Roman yoke;[100] and though
that historian wrote before these conquerors had degenerated
from being the patrons to be the plunderers of mankind, yet as we find
from Tacitus that the severity of the emperors afterwards checked the
licence of the governors, we have no reason to think that extensive
monarchy so destructive as it is so often represented.
We learn from Strabo that the Romans, from their regard to the Greeks,
maintained, to his time, most of the privileges and liberties of
that celebrated nation, and Nero afterwards rather increased them.
How therefore can we imagine that the Roman yoke was so burdensome
over that part of the world? The oppression of the proconsuls was
restrained, and the magistracies in Greece being all bestowed in the
several cities by the free votes of the people, there was no great
necessity for the competitors to attend the emperor’s court. If great
numbers went to seek their fortunes in Rome, and advance themselves by
learning or eloquence, the commodities of their native country, many
of them would return with the fortunes which they had acquired, and
thereby enrich the Grecian commonwealths.
But Plutarch says that the general depopulation had been more sensibly
felt in Greece than in any other country. How is this reconcilable to
its superior privileges and advantages?
Besides, this passage by proving too much really proves nothing. Only
three thousand men able to bear arms in all Greece! Who can admit so
strange a proposition, especially if we consider the great number
of Greek cities whose names still remain in history, and which are
mentioned by writers long after the age of Plutarch? There are there
surely ten times more people at present, when there scarce remains
a city in all the bounds of ancient Greece. That country is still
tolerably cultivated, and furnishes a sure supply of corn in case of
any scarcity in Spain, Italy, or the South of France.
We may observe that the ancient frugality of the Greeks, and their
equality of property, still subsisted during the age of Plutarch, as
appears from Lucian. Nor is there any ground to imagine that
that country was possessed by a few masters and a great number of
slaves.
It is probable, indeed, that military discipline, being entirely
useless, was extremely neglected in Greece after the establishment
of the Roman Empire; and if these commonwealths, formerly so warlike
and ambitious, maintained each of them a small city-guard to prevent
mobbish disorders, it is all they had occasion for; and these, perhaps,
did not amount to three thousand men throughout all Greece. I own that
if Plutarch had this fact in his eye, he is here guilty of a very gross
paralogism, and assigns causes nowise proportioned to the effects. But
is it so great a prodigy that an author should fall into a mistake of
this nature?[101]
But whatever force may remain in this passage of Plutarch, we shall
endeavour to counterbalance it by as remarkable a passage in Diodorus
Siculus, where the historian, after mentioning Ninus’s army of
1,700,000 foot and 200,000 horse, endeavours to support the credibility
of this account by some posterior facts; and adds that we must not
form a notion of the ancient populousness of mankind from the present
emptiness and depopulation which is spread over the world. Thus an
author, who lived at that very period of antiquity which is represented
as most populous,[102] complains of the desolation which then
prevailed, gives the preference to former times, and has recourse to
ancient fables as a foundation for his opinion. The humour of blaming
the present and admiring the past is strongly rooted in human nature,
and has an influence even on persons endued with the most profound
judgment and most extensive learning.
NOTES, OF THE POPULOUSNESS OF ANCIENT NATIONS.
[39] An ingenious writer has honoured this discourse with an answer
full of politeness, erudition, and good sense. So learned a refutation
would have made the author suspect that his reasonings were entirely
overthrown, had he not used the precaution from the beginning to keep
himself on the sceptical side; and having taken this advantage of the
ground, he was enabled, though with much inferior forces, to preserve
himself from a total defeat. That reverend gentleman will always find,
where his antagonist is so entrenched, that it will be difficult to
enforce him. Varro, in such a situation, could defend himself against
Hannibal, Pharnaces against Cæsar. The author, however, very willingly
acknowledges that his antagonist has detected many mistakes both in
his authorities and reasonings; and it was owing entirely to that
gentleman’s indulgence that many more errors were not remarked. In this
edition advantage has been taken of his learned animadversions, and the
essay has been rendered less imperfect than formerly.
[40] Columella says (lib. 3, cap. 8) that in Egypt and Africa the
bearing of twins was frequent and even customary; _gemini partus
familiares, ac pæne solennes sunt_. If this was true, there is a
physical difference both in countries and ages, for travellers make
no such remarks of these countries at present; on the contrary, we
are apt to suppose the northern nations more fertile. As those two
countries were provinces of the Roman Empire, it is difficult, though
not altogether absurd, to suppose that such a man as Columella might be
mistaken with regard to them.
[41] This too is a good reason why the smallpox does not depopulate
countries so much as may at first sight be imagined. Where there
is room for more people they will always arise, even without the
assistance of naturalisation bills. It is remarked by Don Geronimo
de Ustariz that the provinces of Spain which send most people to the
Indies are most populous, which proceeds from their superior riches.
[42] The same practice was common in Rome, but Cicero seems not to
think this evidence so certain as the testimony of free citizens. (_Pro
Cælio_.)
[43] Epistle 122. The inhuman sports exhibited at Rome may justly be
considered too as an effect of the people’s contempt for slaves, 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 surprised that the emperors should treat
that people in the same way the people treated their inferiors?
One’s humanity on that occasion is apt to renew the barbarous wish
of Caligula, that the people had but one neck. A man could almost be
pleased by a single blow to put an end to such a race of monsters. “You
may thank God,” says the author above cited (Epistle 7), addressing
himself to the Roman people, “that you have a master (viz., the mild
and merciful Nero) who is incapable of learning cruelty from your
example.” This was spoken in the beginning of his reign; but he fitted
them very well afterwards, and no doubt was considerably improved by
the sight of the barbarous objects to which he had from his infancy
been accustomed.
[44] We may here observe that if domestic slavery really increased
populousness, it would be an exception to the general rule, that the
happiness of any society and its populousness are necessary attendants.
A master, from humour or interest, may make his slaves very unhappy,
and yet be careful, from interest, to increase their number. Their
marriage is not a matter of choice with them, no more than any other
action of their life.
[45] Ten thousand slaves in a day have been often sold for the use of
the Romans at Delus in Cilicia.—Strabo, lib. 14.
[46] As _servus_ was the name of the genus, and _verna_ of the
species, without any correlative, this forms a strong presumption
that the latter were by far the least numerous. It is a universal
observation which we may form upon language that where two related
parts of a whole bear any proportion to each other in numbers, rank,
or consideration, there are always correlative terms invented which
answer to both the parts, and express their mutual relation. If they
bear no proportion to each other, the term is only invented for the
less, and marks its distinction from the whole. Thus man and woman,
master and servant, father and son, prince and subject, stranger and
citizen are correlative terms; but the words—seaman, carpenter, smith,
tailor, etc., have no correspondent terms which express those who are
no seaman, no carpenter, etc. Languages differ very much with regard
to the particular words where this distinction obtains, and may thence
afford very strong inferences concerning the manners and customs of
different nations. The military government of the Roman emperors had
exalted the soldiery so high that they balanced all the other orders of
the state; hence _miles_ and _paganus_ became relative terms, a thing
till then unknown to ancient, and still so to modern languages. Modern
superstition has exalted the clergy so high that they overbalance
the whole state; hence clergy and laity are terms opposed in all
modern languages, and in these alone. And from the same principles I
infer that if the number of slaves bought by the Romans from foreign
countries had not extremely exceeded those bred at home, _verna_ would
have had a correlative which would have expressed the former species of
slaves; but these, it would seem, composed the main body of the ancient
slaves, and the latter were but a few exceptions.
[47] _Verna_ is used by the Roman writers as a word equivalent to
_scurra_, on account of the petulance and impudence of those slaves.
(Mart., lib. 1, ep. 42.) Horace also mentions the _vernæ procaces_; and
Petronius (cap. 24), _vernula urbanitas_. Seneca (_de provid._, cap.
1), _vernularum licentia_.
[48] It is computed in the West Indies that a stock of slaves grow
worse five per cent. every year unless new slaves be bought to recruit
them. They are not able to keep up their number even in those warm
countries where clothes and provisions are so easily got. How much more
must this happen in European countries, and in or near great cities?
[49] Corn. Nepos in _Vita Attici_. We may remark that Atticus’s estate
lay chiefly in Epirus, which being a remote, desolate place, would
render it profitable for him to rear slaves there.
[50] κλινοποι οι, makers of those beds which the ancients lay upon at
meals.
[51] “Non temere ancillæ ejus rei causa comparantur ut pariant”
(_Digest._ lib. 5, tit. 3, _de hæred. petit._ _lex_ 27). The following
texts are to the same purpose:—“Spadonem morbosum non esse, neque
vitiosum, verius mihi videtur; sed sanum esse, sicuti illum qui unum
testiculum habet, qui etiam generare potest” (_Digest._ lib. 2, tit.
1, _de ædilitio edicto_, _lex 6_, § 2). “Sin autem quis ita spado sit,
ut tam necessaria pars corporis penitus absit, morbosus est” (_Id._
_lex 7_). His impotence, it seems, was only regarded so far as his
health or life might be affected by it; in other respects he was full
as valuable. The same reasoning is employed with regard to female
slaves. “Quæritur de ea muliere quæ semper mortuos parit, an morbosa
sit? et ait Sabinus, si vulvæ vitio hoc contingit, morbosam esse”
(_Id._ _lex_ 14). It has even been doubted whether a woman pregnant
was morbid or vitiated, and it is determined that she is sound, not on
account of the value of her offspring, but because it is the natural
part or office of women to bear children. “Si mulier prægnans venerit,
inter omnes convenit sanam eam esse. Maximum enim ac præcipuum munus
fœminarum accipere ac tueri conceptum. Puerperam quoque sanam esse; si
modo nihil extrinsecus accedit, quod corpus ejus in aliquam valetudinem
immitteret. De sterili Cœlius distinguere Trebatium dicit, ut si natura
sterilis sit, sana sit; si vitio corporis, contra” (_Id._).
[52] The slaves in the great houses had little rooms assigned them,
called _cellæ_; whence the name of cell was transferred to the monk’s
room in a convent. See further on this head, Just. Lipsius, Saturn.
1, cap. 14. These form strong presumptions against the marriage and
propagation of the family slaves.
[53] Tacitus blames it—_De morib. Germ._
[54] _De fraterno amore._ Seneca also approves of the exposing of
sickly, infirm children (_De ira_, lib. i. cap. 15).
[55] The practice of leaving great sums of money to friends, though one
had near relations, was common in Greece as well as Rome, as we may
gather from Lucian. This practice prevails much less in modern times;
and Ben Jonson’s _Volpone_ is therefore almost entirely extracted from
ancient authors, and suits better the manners of those times.
It may justly be thought that the liberty of divorces in Rome was
another discouragement to marriage. Such a practice prevents not
quarrels from humour, but rather increases them; and occasions also
those from interest, which are much more dangerous and destructive.
Perhaps too the unnatural lusts of the ancients ought to be taken into
consideration as of some moment.
[56] Cæsar gave the centurions ten times the gratuity of the common
soldiers (_De bell. Gallico_, lib. viii.). In the Rhodian cartel,
mentioned afterwards, no distinction in the ransom was made on account
of ranks in the army.
[57] Plin. lib. 18, cap. 3. The same author, in cap. 6, says, “Verumque
fatentibus latifundia perdidere Italiam; jam vero et provincias. Sex
domo semissem Africæ possidebant, cum interfecit eos Nero princeps.” In
this view the barbarous butchery committed by the first Roman emperors
was not perhaps so destructive to the public as we may imagine. These
never ceased till they had extinguished all the illustrious families
which had enjoyed the plunder of the world during the latter ages
of the republic. The new nobles who rose in their place were less
splendid, as we learn from Tacit. _Ann._ lib. 3, cap. 55.
[58] The ancient soldiers, being free citizens above the lowest
rank, were all married. Our modern soldiers are either forced to
live unmarried, or their marriages turn to small account towards the
increase of mankind—a circumstance which ought, perhaps, to be taken
into consideration, as of some consequence in favour of the ancients.
[59] What is the advantage of the column after it has broken the
enemy’s line? Only that it then takes them in flank, and dissipates
whatever stands near it by a fire from all sides; but till it has
broken them, does it not present a flank to the enemy, and that exposed
to their musketry, and, what is much worse, to their cannon?
[60] Inst. lib. 2, cap. 6. It is true the same law seems to have
been continued till the time of Justinian, but abuses introduced by
barbarism are not always corrected by civility.